56岁的他，打破了26岁时的马拉松纪录 | 戈14倒计时
导读：
外号“帅大叔”，英文名Tony，复旦大学EMBA2018级春5班的符家宇，过去10个月的经历不仅让他自己刻骨铭心，也惊讶了众人。在决心放弃竞技赛跑之后，偶遇复旦戈友会，怀着“随便跑跑”的心态加入，他却在集训3个月后，便打破了自己30年前的个人最好马拉松记录。从他的故事中，你看到了人生中的种种不可能成为可能，同时看到了团队的力量。
帅大叔是新加坡人，习惯写英文，为了便于大家理解，小编翻译了一下，但真正的感情，要从帅大叔原汁原味的英文中来get哟！
来源 | “茫茫戈壁有我复旦”公众号
文 | 符家宇
56岁的他，打破了26岁时的
马拉松纪录
退役的空军初遇复旦戈
在部队的日子
“去玩玩吧，你会爱上这个体验。”刚开始训练时，欢队有次对我说，我当时回答说：“唉，我只是随便跑跑”。
自从我1989年离开服役了8年的部队后，就没再像以前那么刻苦训练。早期比较活跃的时候，我会进行锻炼，并且参加橄榄球和越野等多项运动，在这些运动中，我蝉联空军的冠军多年。
之后很多年，我的重心转向了家庭，也开始打拼事业。这期间，我继续保持了跑步的习惯，但比较休闲。如果时间允许，我也会去参加马拉松，跑完全程的时间保持3.45-4小时之间。
2015年我因为急性阑尾炎住院并接受了手术。身体康复后再去跑步，第一次时间打破了4小时，掉到了4.2小时。
那时我已经53岁了，许多朋友劝我慢下来，注意身体，别那么拼。我也慢慢接受了这一事实：不应该再为难自己，我也下定决心，不再为了挑战自己而跑步，而是轻松跑。
2018年6月的一次课间休息后，我看到大厅里在办展览，复旦的各个俱乐部和协会正在募集新会员。
出于好奇，我下楼去了，想看看有没有适合我参加的跑步社团，可以周末一起跑步。那是我第一次知道“戈友会”这个组织，然后他们告诉我他们就是周末跑步。
复旦大学课堂照片
“Go have some fun, you will enjoy the experience!”欢队 said to me some time ago in one of my early trainings. I told him then that I was only there for leisure runs.
Since I left the Military in 1989 after 8 years of professional Service, I have not trained as hard as before. In my active days, I used to be fit and was involved in several sports including rugby and X-Country, in which I was the champion in the AirForce for a few years.
Over the years, I shifted my focus to my family and building my career. During this time, I continued to run leisurely. I continued participating in Marathons when time permitted and my timings always fell between 3.45 to 4 hours.
However in 2015, I was hospitalised and undertwent an operation for acute appendicitis. After recovering, I went for a run and for the first time in a long time, I saw my timing break the 4 hour mark and drop to 4.20 hours.
I was already 53 years old then and many friends advised me to slow down and take care of my health. I slowly accepted the fact that I should and could no longer overexert myself and decided to no longer run and train for Personal Best (PB), but only run leisurely.
Some time back in June 2018, after my class break, I looked down at the foyer below and saw some exhibitions by the different sporting clubs and societies for us newcomers in Fudan.
Out of curiosity, I went down to check if there was a running club for me to maybe join for my weekend runs. That’s when I saw this Gobi team and was told that they do have weekend runs.
时隔30年打破个人纪录
上海马拉松
我还记得报名后我参加的在浦东世纪公园的第一次跑步。那次非常轻松，我当时还以为接下来应该都差不多。
然而我太天真了，因为工作太忙，我中间停了一段时间，两个月后当我归队第一次参加太仓集训时，我发现我错了。那两天真是让我大开眼界，我几乎是拼着命在跑，同时我意识到其他人的跑步成绩提高了很多。
看到其他队员在这么短的时间内进步了这么多，我想，为什么不试着去参加戈壁挑战赛呢？我可以证明自己，即便作为一个在中国复旦读EMBA的外国人，我仍然可以为学校做点什么。
当我归队后，复旦“老戈”们的热情和奉献精神给我留下了深刻印象，他们一直陪我们一起训练，鼓励我们。跟他们越来越熟悉后，他们在戈壁中的经历、经验都不断地激励着我继续前行。我下定决心全力以赴，和队员们一起训练。很快，我就看到了跟随教练有计划地训练的好处。
3个月后，在上海马拉松，我用少于3.3个小时完成了全程，打破了我在1986年新加坡马拉松创造的个人最好成绩。我简直不敢相信，在时隔30年后，在我56岁时，我可以打破自己在二十多岁时的最好记录。
太仓训练
After signing up, I remember joining my very first run at the Century Garden in Pudong. It was a free and easy run and I thought the subsequent runs would be similar.
Boy was I wrong. As I was distracted by work, I could only return to the team two months later in August. That was during the very first centralised training in Taichang.
Those two days were an eye opener! I was struggling and I realised that the rest has improved significantly.
Seeing the rest of the team improve so much in such a short time, I thought, why not try out for this Gobi Challenge? I could do something for the School and prove to myself that I could still do it even as a Foreigner taking an eMBA in Fudan,China.
After returning to the team, the enthusiasm and devotion of the senior Gobi members 老戈 impressed me. They were always around during trainings, running with us, pacing us and encouraging us.
Getting to understand them better, their experiences, development and eventually their quest in Gobi really helped to motivate me further. I decided to go for it and train together with the team. Very soon, I saw the benefits of the structured training laid out by the team coach.
After 3 months of training during the Shanghai Marathon, I completed the run below 3.30hours! Beating my PB in the 1986 Singapore Marathon! I still cannot believe that after more than 30 years and at 56 years old, I managed to break a record that I had set in my twenties!
训练促进个人建立自律
随着训练的继续，我的每月跑量从200公里增加到300公里、400公里，我甚至在2019年2月的农历新年也达到了400k/mth。这是团队让我建立起来的一种自律。
里程的增加伴随着一些牺牲和努力，它意味着我要更早睡觉，才能更早起床跑步，这样才能有更多时间留给家庭和工作，这也意味着要风雨无阻、寒暑无阻。
记得2019年3月30日那天，我在新加坡打卡25公里。当我跑到6公里时，炎热潮湿的天气突然变成了暴雨！但我全然不顾这一切，继续完成了当天的跑量。跑完回家，继续和家人在一起的一天。如果是过去，我肯定会立刻停下来找个地方躲雨。但是经过几个月的训练，我现在已经习惯风雨无阻地跑步了。
经过10个月的培训，包括2次集训和3次选拔测试，我们的团队成长为一个组织。我们在一起变得更强大，也在这些高强度的训练中，默默地建立起一种默契。我们是复旦戈友会的兄弟姐妹。当我们成为复旦戈14的成员时，我被大家亲切地称为帅大叔，我们也有了自己的队长。
训练变得越来越严格，我们也在相互鼓励和促进中不断地挑战自己。过程很难，但我可以自信地说，我们在这条路上越来越快乐，越来越亲密。
As the training continued, my mileage went from 200k/mth to 300k/mth and from Dec 2018, to 400k/mth. I even achieved 400k/mth during the Lunar New Year month of February 2019. That’s the kind of discipline we built up as a team.
The increased mileage comes with some sacrifice and disipline and effort. It meant sleeping and waking up much earlier to run so that I do not need to sacrifice family time and work. It also meant running in the rain, the cold and sweltering heat.
I remembered in 30 Mar 2019, I was in Singapore and had to clock 25km. I was into my 6th km, when the usually hot and humid weather suddenly turned into heavy rain and storm! Without thinking, I continued my run and completed my mileage goal for the day! After the run, I went back home and continued my day with my family.
In the past, I would have stopped right away and find shelter. But after training with the team over the months we are now so used to running regardless of the weather, rain or shine!
As we went through 10 months of training, including 2 centralised trainings and 3 selection tests, our team grew to become a Tribe. We became stronger together and our Bonds were forged over these intense trainings. We are Brothers and Sisters of the Fudan Management School Gobi Challenge Tribe!
As we graduate to become Gobi 14 core team, I became known as 帅大叔 and we had our own 队长.
Training became tougher as we all pushed and motivated each other to achieve PB after PB. It was tough but I can confidently say that we became happier and closer along the way.
戈壁选拔赛的失误
3月14日，我们终于达到了戈壁沙漠——敦煌。我下定决心要做最好的自己，挑战自己。第一天的介绍让我更惊讶自然环境的恶劣。复杂的地形和沙漠，再加上恶劣的环境，都需要我们发自内心地去尊重。
虽然我年轻时在军队经历过很多在恶劣环境中的训练，但是我从来没有在沙漠里训练过，更不用说一个人在沙漠里跑步了!
我记得第一天的最后一公里，我的眼睛几乎要被灰尘和汗水弄瞎，根本睁不开眼睛。我不得不放慢速度来完成跑步。第二天，我们的队友临时做了一个面具，以保护我们的眼睛免受灰尘之苦。
最后一天，路线很漂亮，我们穿过平原跑进山谷，穿过雪地和小溪。但这天我也犯了一个致命的错误！在最后3公里处，我做了一个错误的决定——在小溪的一个岔口左转。当时我在左岸看到了红色的记号，便转身继续跑。
后来我意识到我可能在某个地方拐错了弯时，便拿出GPS查看。哎呀，没电了，几次尝试通过步话机将我的困境告知队友都失败后，我别无选择，只能原路返回到小溪边右拐，才跑完全程。
当我到达终点，等在那里的队友为我欢呼时，我非常感动。相较比赛成绩，他们更担心我的安全。他们非常开心，我安全返回。
不过，我也在这里提醒大家，运动前一定要仔细检查自己的设备。
When we finally arrived at the Gobi Desert 敦煌 on 14 Mar, I was determined to do my best and challenge myself. The orientation on the first day left me in awe with the amazing but incredibly hostile environment. The terrain and the vastness of the Desert combined with the harsh environment demands respect from mere mortals like us.
Whilst I have trained in many challenging environments in my younger days in the military, I have never trained in a desert, let alone run in one!
I remember on the first day, for the last km, my eyes were almost blinded by the dust and probably the perspiration, I had to slow down to complete my run. On the second day, our teammate improvised a mask to protect our eyes from the dust.
On the last day, the route was beautiful, we ran through the plains into the Valleys, cutting across snow and streams! But I also made a single but fatal mistake! In the last 3 km, I make a bad decision and took a left turn at a fork along the stream. I thought I saw a red marker amongst some machinery beside the shore on the left, following that, I turned and continued running.
Later when I realised I may have made a wrong turn somewhere, I took out my GPS to check. Alas, the battery was flat! After a few failed attempts of calling over the walkie-talkie to inform the team controllers of my predicament, I decided that I had no choice but to retrace my steps and head back. I found my way back to the fork and managed to make the right turn to finally complete my run!
Although I came in last, I was touched to find the team waiting and cheering me on. They were more worried for my safety than the race and they were happy to see me safe.
This is an important reminder for me and everyone to always check their gear before they start.
错失A队也无憾，戈壁精神永在
在这次选拔赛中，我的几个队友受伤了，不得不退出。其他完成比赛的前十名成为了复旦戈14的A队成员。很遗憾，我没能成为他们中的一员，虽然我完成了全赛，但是是第11个到达终点的，我成为一名后备队员。我没有对结果失望，因为我和其他人一样尽了自己最大的努力。相反，我为我们的团队开心，因为我知道我们选出了最棒的队员代表我们去参加这次挑战。
作为复旦戈的一员，我记得我们一起训练，强健我们的体魄，提升我们的思想和心灵。随着我们身心的成长，我们之间的友情和纽带也变得更加牢固。
我们将继续为了复旦戈的骄傲努力，为复旦和戈壁带来荣耀。
我们教练的奉献和承诺，老戈和复旦戈组委会的成员让我非常感动。这一传统将与我们同在，你们给予的奉献将在随后的戈壁中回响！
在整个复旦戈的旅程中，我见证了自己的成长。现在，我向大家分享我踏上复旦戈14（玄奘之路）的心得，以便能更好地激励大家、推动自己！我相信这段旅程一定会带给我们自己的启迪！
A few others got injured and had to drop out. The rest completed the race and the TOP 10 were selected for the Gobi Challenge 14.
Unfortunately, I did not make the team. ALthough I finished the race, I came in 11th and was put up as a reserve. I was not disappointed at the result as I had tried my best and so did the rest of our tribe.
Instead, I am happy for the tribe as I know we have chosen the best to represent us in this challenge!
As members of this tribe, we remember our trainings together, how it strengthened our bodies, our minds and our hearts. And as we grew stronger physically and mentally, so did our camaraderie and bonds.
We will continue to do the tribe proud and bring glory to Fudan and Gobi Tribe!
The dedication and commitment of our coach, the senior Gobi members (老戈) and the training assistants truly impressed us (Gobi14). This tradition will stay with us and continue on with the subsequent Gobi!
I have seen the transformation in myself throughout this journey, I now wish to share my personal experience in my quest to Gobi 14 or the pilgrimage journey of XuanZang, so that it can inspire others to continue challenging and to push themselves. As the journey will certainly bring us our very own enlightenment!
敬启 帅大叔
Yours truly, 帅大叔
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