RIFLE RANGE BOY

Letters Home  >  Opinion  > Letters Published: Monday December 8, 2014 MYT 12:00:00 AM Updated: Monday December 8, 2014 MYT 7:57:26 AM ‘Trauma’ faced by some housemen in hospitals IN the last two years there were a couple of articles regarding the tyranny trainee doctors in our hospitals are subjected to and the unethical treatment they are accorded to by the senior medical officers (MOs) and sometimes the specialists, too. It is also a known secret that some trainee doctors have left the profession in disgust without completing the two-year compulsory internship. Unfortunately, up to this day nothing seems to have been done either by the Health Ministry, Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) or the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) to fix this problem. A houseman in any hospital in the peninsular is required to work for a minimum of 78 hours a week. I say minimum becaus...

Born To Run  Christopher McDougall (2009) ( A hidden tribe, super athletes and the greatest race the world has never seen ) Just finished reading a book (a non-fiction) about an elusive Indian tribe, a great foot race and a bunch of mad runners who do ultra marathons. I think that this is a book that any serious runner should read it to get a better perspective on running and also on life itself! The book starts with the author trying to track down a fabled and elusive gringo, Caballo Blanco, who had left his normal life in the US to live amongst a equally timidly elusive Tarahumara Indians in an isolated dry wasteland of canyons and desert-like terrain in Mexico in their simple way of life. The Tarahumaras are said to have been running all their life, first from the Spanish invaders and now from the drug dealers. These Indians have tremendous ability to run extremely long distances with minimal preparations and donning simple footwear - a piece of rubber sole draped by...

So, the marathon training plan is going on as per schedule. This time around we hit 34km. My running buddy had a bad hair day, only that he had crawl over the last stretch due to cramps (tummy and leg). He is questioning the necessity for him to run the marathon in the first place. I think he will get over it. It is the talk of a man in pain from the agony of pain. Come next week, he would be running at his usual rocket fuel infused pace. Later in the day, I met a guy who has a colleague, a 56 year old, who had completed the Marathon des Sables. He was narrating his colleague's escapades and difficulties of completing the grueling race against the forces of nature. He ended the conversation by saying that he respected and saluted his achievement but would not dream of being in shoes! (Sure he would have lots of blisters and cuts) It takes a kind of tenacious unwavering mental strength to stay strong and come out pretty at the end of the race! When the going gets tough, ...