Hello
and welcome to my blog! You might ask, why “ash in a flash”? Firstly, my name
is Ashley Liew. Secondly, my cousin wrote this original slogan on a cardboard
while supporting me at the 2014 Chicago Marathon.
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The original "ash in a flash" crafted by my cousin at the 2014 Chicago Marathon. Photo credit: Samuel Tan. |
Thanks
to a brilliant suggestion by my father, a bulk order of t-shirts was made for
my would-be supporters at the 2015 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games Marathon
emblazoned with “ash in a flash” on the front. On that race day in my home
country of Singapore, I was touched by a sea of red supporters braving the rain
hoping to see something special.
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Pictured are several family members of my “ash in a flash” support crew at the 2015 SEA Games Marathon |
Although
I did not win a medal that day, something special unintentionally did happen.
My chiropractor Dr. Kelvin Ng, who had checked and adjusted my spine before and
after the race, “leaked” out a small gesture of sportsmanship on my part that
occurred during the race. The story in the media quickly went viral, inspiring
a nation and more. Even Singapore’s Prime Minister on numerous occasions has
publicly quoted my philosophy which is simply this: “it is not always about the
medals, but also about the things you do in between.” I strive to maintain that
philosophy in my journey towards qualifying for the 2020 Olympics, as well as
for when I start practicing as a Doctor of Chiropractic at Family Health Chiropractic
Clinic (Singapore) starting November 2016.
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Singapore’s Prime Minister recounting my SEA Games incident during the 2015 National Day Rally |
With
that, I am excited to share and inspire with my story. Hopefully, you will
understand my “why”.
Humble Beginnings
I
may be a national marathoner today but my story has an unconventional
beginning. I started running to lose weight. Up until Junior College, I was not
enrolled in any school sport. I took pride in the Boys’ Brigade and Chamber
Orchestra (the violin was my second instrument in addition to the piano) but I
felt it was time for a change. However, the competitive nature of school sports
meant that without a prior background it was near impossible to be on a team.
Thankfully, canoeing and dragonboat accepted me.
Jumping
into such rigorous training being a non-sportsman was a shock. In the midst of
it I came to enjoy running during the warm-up and cool-down. For the challenge,
some teammates and I signed up for the 2004 Singapore Marathon. I chugged to
the finish in 4h29m34s for that first marathon. It was such a difficult
challenge, but I felt like a winner just for completing it.
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Transcending 2004’s starting point to improve my marathon personal best by almost 2 hours in 2015 |
Although
I became hooked onto distance running, my weight continued spiralling out of
control. At my heaviest, I weighed 80kg [compared to 56kg since 2011]. When I
looked at my 2006 marathon finisher photograph [I ran 4h18m36s that year], I
was appalled. It made me reflect upon all the years of schoolmates teasing me
for being fat, to the point that I sucked in my stomach everywhere I went. My
friends even gave me the nickname “moobs” (short for “man boobs”)! Although my
running performance was gradually improving, I still was a “nobody” in the sports
scene. When I joined the Singapore army I was even rejected from the Officer
Cadet School reserve run team because I was too slow. My self-esteem continued
lowering. I was so desperate that I even bought a slimming belt, which did
nothing for the weight.
It
was then that I started realizing that my calorie consumption was in huge
excess of calorie expenditure. I had wrongly assumed that fairly regular
exercise gave me the right to eat whatever I wanted. Through improved quality
and reduced quantity of my diet, I finally started shedding pounds and gaining
back self-esteem. My running improvement curve also accelerated throughout
2007, which was satisfying.
Here
is an important takeaway: never let your starting point determine your final
destination. You have it within yourself to transcend perceived limits and
transform into the best version of you that you can be.
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Anything is possible: from overweight straggler in 2006 to American run magazine cover boy in 2016 |
Coaching the Turnaround
While
my first running improvement spike was from losing weight, the second and
more significant spike was from meeting Coach Rameshon (reigning
Singaporean marathon record holder with 2h24m22s). I clearly remember our first
encounter, when he told me, “This needs to go down some more,” while pointing
to my remnant of a belly! With training structure and reinforcement of
self-belief, something magical happened from 2008 to 2009: I went from 3h34m14s
(outside top 100 Singaporeans) to 2h51m22s (runner-up Singaporean) marathoner.
As I stood on the podium, I was immensely grateful. I also realized there was
more athletic potential left to be untapped. I am glad that I did not let
“conventional wisdom”, which ruled out any possibility of making such dramatic
improvements, cause self-doubt.
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The 2009 Singapore Marathon: a pivotal moment in my athletic career, thanks to Flexifitness Coach Rameshon |
Chiropractic and the
Vertebral Subluxation
I
did not find chiropractic; it found me. Embarrassingly, I had never heard of
the word “chiropractic” prior to 2010. That changed when Dr. Kelvin Ng gave his
health talk at a performance symposium organized by my bike shop sponsor [I had
taken up triathlon as well]. What he said was simple yet made sense: having a
fully functioning and balanced body free of nerve interference could not only
potentially improve performance, but more importantly increase vitality.
At
that point of his talk, my mother had recently passed away after bravely
fighting her stage IV colon cancer for years. I assumed she was “healthy”
before diagnosis, displaying neither overt signs nor symptoms. She also ate
well and exercised regularly. Her diagnosis made me realize my definition of
“health” needed fine tuning. What Dr. Ng said about health flowing from above
down inside out made me curious, so I started having my spine checked and
adjusted if necessary.
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My mother was my biggest fan, supporting me at the 2008 Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Florida |
Along
with the spinal adjustments came Dr. Ng’s patient education. I learned that
“feeling better” did not equate to “functioning better”; that higher state of
functioning was largely dependent on a healthy nervous system operating at
100%. The nervous system, consisting the brain, spinal cord, and spinal nerves,
serves as a communication superhighway to and from every cell, tissue, and
organ. Its role as a master coordinator of the body is akin to an orchestra
conductor ensuring harmony among the many different inputs. The miles of extensive nerve networks within
your body are responsible for firing your hamstrings while running, the reflex
when accidentally touching a hot stove, and keeping your heart beating while
asleep.
I
also learned about a new term that made chiropractic unique: "vertebral
subluxation". If you break up the Latin word “subluxation”, it means condition
(-ation) of less (sub) light (lux). Who would want less light? When you have a
subluxation, a spinal bone becomes misaligned, thereby narrowing the opening
for the spinal nerve, putting pressure on it, and ultimately interfering with
the flow of nerve impulses (abnormally increased or decreased). An analogy of
the subluxation is when an orchestra performs without a conductor, resulting in
noise rather than music. Subluxations can occur through physical, chemical, and
emotional stresses that the body cannot adapt to. This is where chiropractors
are unique because they locate, analyze, and correct these vertebral
subluxations through specific yet gentle chiropractic adjustments.
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Reunited with Dr. Ng who served as my Doctor of Chiropractic at the 2015 SEA Games. Photo credit: Family Health Chiropractic Clinic (Singapore). |
Citius - Altius -
Fortius
“Faster
- Higher - Stronger” is the Olympic motto. As athletes, and more importantly as
human beings, we all seek to maximize our optimal potential. This could mean
running a marathon 10 minutes faster, having more mental focus while studying,
or being able to play with your grandchildren. It makes sense that getting regularly
checked for vertebral subluxations and nervous system interference has
resulted in the following for me since 2010: continual performance improvements, not
suffering a single training injury (almost unheard of especially with the
athletic demands of marathon training), only falling sick once (bounced back
within three days without drugs), better school results (previously used to be
“average” on academics), and feeling more connected to my inner self. Thus, I
am grateful to my chiropractor and my coach for helping me release the God-given inner
potential that I have always been blessed with. 2012 ended on a high with me emerging local
marathon champion and by almost setting a national Ironman triathlon record
(10h3m29s).
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Setting 2012’s fastest Singaporean time for the Ironman while competing in Texas |
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From teenager with low self-esteem to marathon champion in 2012 |
Journey to Sherman
College of Chiropractic (Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA)
How
did someone completing a Bachelor of Social Sciences (Double Majors in
Political Science and Finance), as well as someone who had long envisioned
himself becoming a banker like both his parents, pursue an entirely different
career path in health care? I only started considering this possibility when
interning as a chiropractic assistant for Dr. Ng. Having the opportunity to see
so many patients’ lives transformed for the better, in addition to my own, made
me realize that being a Doctor of Chiropractic offered a meaningful avenue of
effectively helping people. Having seen how Sherman College shaped Dr. Ng’s
chiropractic philosophy, science and art, I knew that an adventure to South
Carolina was the next step.
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Giving a chiropractic health talk at a Greenville Track Club meeting in South Carolina |
I
had my first culture shock when taking that first drive in Spartanburg after
touching down on a frigid 2013 New Year’s Day. I asked myself, “Who turned off
all the lights?” I was so used to every corner of Singapore being lighted at
night that I took for granted it was the same elsewhere. While the general pace
of life here is slower than Singapore’s (which I have come to appreciate over
the past four years), the intensity of academic demands from school and
national boards was unlike anything I had ever experienced. It did not help
that I still had to train and compete at an elite level on top of it all.
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Silver medalist at the 2014 World Chiropractic Games in Florida while representing Sherman College |
The
daily sacrifices while studying were worth it as I came to fully appreciate the
vastness and wisdom of the human body. The major premise of chiropractic is
this: “There is a Universal Intelligence in all matter which continually gives
to it all its properties and actions, thus maintaining it in existence.”
Dissecting cadavers during anatomy laboratory sessions gave us a glimpse into
the coordinated complexity within each of us. However, a cadaver cannot self-heal
once cut. Contrast this with accidentally grazing your skin: you can put a
plaster over the wound but ultimately the body self-heals without you telling
it to. This self-healing in a living organism occurs because of an inner wisdom
which we call “Innate Intelligence”, one which is absent in a non-living cadaver.
Chiropractors merely work alongside with each person’s unique “Innate” life
force to optimize that person’s unique potential.
For
the past 20 months, I have been serving as a chiropractic intern at Sherman’s
Health Centre. It has been the most fulfilling experience witnessing my own
patients’ lives transformed. Seeing patients’ back or neck pain alleviate is
exciting, but other “happy side effects” like bed wetting resolution, numbness resolution, migraine resolution, and anxiety reduction are even more rewarding. It gives me joy to see patients being able to do more of the things they love to do, whether it is running or playing with grandchildren. All this
makes me really excited to serve my community in the near future upon
graduation.
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Being pinned as a chiropractic intern at the Sherman College Health Center, where I witnessed many life changing health transformation moments with my patients simply by correcting their vertebral subluxations. Photo credit: Sherman College of Chiropractic. |
It
will be bittersweet to finally graduate from Sherman this September 2016
because I will be leaving a place I have come to call home, as well as parting
with my Sherman family. An example of how tight knit we were was when I
ran the 2013 Boston Marathon: not only did my classmates successfully convince
an instructor to track my race online in the middle of class, but they also frantically checked in with me when they found out about the bombings. I had finished the
race hours before the incident, so I had no idea what had happened until I got
those texts. On a happier note, they also surprised me with a send-off party
before I departed for Kenya in preparation for the 2015 SEA Games.
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My father (Andrew Liew), in the blue suit, flew from Singapore to Spartanburg for my graduation ceremony. Photo credit: Sherman College of Chiropractic and David Choong. |
Kenyan Adventures
Speaking
of Kenya, I had the privilege of training and connecting with world-class
athletes in the high altitude town of Iten twice in 2015. To give you a
perspective of how steeped running is in that community, an estimated 3000 out
of 5000 of Iten’s population are professional runners! I had to see for myself
what made Kenyan runners tick. My takeaway was that their secret for success is
merely hard, consistent work. There is a saying that hard work trumps talent
when talent fails to work hard; I find this true in their culture. Competitive
running is their way of breaking their family’s poverty cycle. Thus, they make
untold sacrifices and commit laser-like focus into training, while holding onto
the self-belief that anything is possible one day.
While
soaking up the culture (and fighting against oxygen deprivation on the hills),
I walked away from that second training stint with two added victories.
Firstly, I made it a point to educate runners (locals and foreign elites) about
chiropractic’s focus on correcting vertebral subluxations, to allow for maximum
athletic and health potential. Secondly, I was so touched by the plight of
children growing up in the slums that several locals and I started crafting a
new Community Based Organization (CBO) called “Running for the Vulnerable
Families in Kenya”, in an effort to pool local and international resources
together for the benefit of selected beneficiaries. Our CBO soon became
certified and I was appointed as its Director. Thanks to the efforts of our
amazing committee members on the ground, we have had several success stories,
including moving an orphaned sister and brother out of the slums into a safer
environment.
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Kenya: from training at high altitude with the best runners to serving the vulnerable families |
Proudest Moment of Athletic Career
This
moment happened shortly after crossing the finish of the 2015 Rock ‘n’ Roll New
Orleans Marathon. When the organizers realized a Singaporean was about to
emerge overall runner-up, they somehow scrambled to find a Singapore flag (to
this day I am amazed how they did this) so I could drape it over myself during the prize
presentation. Here I was in a foreign country, running my fastest ever time of
2h32m12s (average 5m48s per mile pace for 26.2 miles) and placing second at a
major marathon, proudly representing the “little red dot” called Singapore. I
was emotional thinking about how far I had come since struggling in 4h29m34s at
my first marathon, which means it took me 10 plus years to run almost twice as
fast! I was also emotional because this effort was another one in remembrance
of my mother; in fact my mantra I repeated to myself that whole race was
“(mom’s) strength and (God’s) grace”. Having Coach Rameshon physically there to
witness this made the experience even more special.
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Feeling proud to be a Singaporean as overall marathon runner-up in the 2015 New Orleans Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, pictured with Coach Rameshon who finished the marathon too |
My “Why”
A
target of mine has been to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Marathon in Tokyo. This
journey will call for more sacrifices and consecutive weeks of 100+ miles running,
for which I am prepared for. However, targets to me are simply what we want to
achieve. We need something more than targets in life to give us direction. That
is why instead of just my target, I focus more on my goal: to fulfill all the
potential I have been blessed with.
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I am blessed to have been sponsored by ASICS since 2010. Their tagline of “sound mind, sound body” is aligned with my philosophy. |
To
help readers understand my goal, I need to explain my “why” in life. This “why”
drives each of my actions, from transcending the fatigue in a marathon to
serving a multitude of chiropractic patients. My “why” is my mother who
inspired the community with her resilience, optimism, and joy despite suffering
years of terminal cancer. Despite her challenges, she knew she still had to
maximize her life’s purpose. Since her passing, I have realized this: we all
have a God-given potential that needs to be fulfilled and the only way this can
happen is having a nervous system functioning at 100%. This is how I ended up
being a chiropractor, in addition to my athletic pursuits. I trust that each of
you discover your unique “why”; you will inspire others and be connected with
your “Innate” once you discover it.
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“Liew does it for late mum”. The New Paper (Singapore), 8th June 2015. |
The Next Step
My
story in the athletics scene is still being written as I continue to train for
regional and international marathons, as well as resume part-time coaching at
Flexifitness (Singapore). My story as a soon-to-be associate Doctor of
Chiropractic at Family Health Chiropractic Clinic (Singapore) will soon begin.
As a chiropractor, I look forward to giving, loving, and serving the community
out of my own abundance, without expectation of return.
Life
is a marathon, so enjoy the long run. It is too short and precious to let it
“flash” by. You and I have many purposes and much potential to be fulfilled.
Are you ready to fulfill them?
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Representing Singapore at the 2015 SEA Games Marathon. Photo credit: Sum Chee Ming. |