Kuwait Times

Published Date: July 30, 2010
By Ben Garcia, Staff Writer

Running has become his passion. He runs three hours a day, seven days a week. Born in Kuwait, Abdullah Malik is a 21-year-old from Tampa, Florida, USA. Malik was earlier featured in the Friday Times regarding his successful Atkins diet story. At the age of 17, he used to weigh around 140 kilos but months after swore off carbohydrates, he shrank to 80 kg.

After three years, however, Malik's fight with the extra kilos has redirected him to a new hobby: daily running. This, as he says, is a new chapter in his life after he bid his wife a painful goodbye. Running has become a substitute for certain sadness in his life. Malik said his life has just begun and for him, both happy and sore memories will remain beautiful lessons in his life to cherish.

He re-invented, reshaped, and re-focused on himself once again. The chain of events that lead to his new transformation was his fateful meeting with the world's champion, Haile Gebrselassie from Ethiopia who competed in the Dubai Marathon. Malik was part of the event, too. He always dreamed of meeting "the fastest runner in the world.

After meeting him, Malik admits he couldn't stop running. He felt an enormous boost of renewed energy and an unstoppable enthusiasm which he felt transmitted to him right after he met his idol.

The interest for him has taken him to another challenge: Malik is set to embark on an ambitious 261 kilometers sprint from Kuwait to Saudi Arabia which he plans to complete in just 24 hours. He intends to attempt the challenge in October and if lucky enough, he could get an approval from the Guinness Book of World Records, and perhaps even a representative to supervise his attempt. This shot, he says, could break the current record of a man from Sri Lanka who ran 260 kilometers without stopping.

Training and preparations
As part of his rigid preparations, Malik would run seven days a week, three hours or even more daily. "That is part of my preparations which I carry out every day. For me, it's never tiring; actually it is an exhilarating and fulfilling task. My motto is 'even the word impossible says I'm possible.' So there is no impossible indeed; I can compete and I can break running records," he states.

When people in Kuwait are fast asleep, Malik would wake up at 4 am to start his daily routine. He would run from his local street down to Gulf Road, up to Doha area then return. "I like the early morning run because the weather is best in Kuwait at that time. Besides early in the morning, roads are not crowded, so it's easy to run even in the middle of the road," he says.

He admitted to having a habit of running in the middle of the road, facing the incoming traffic directly. When asked about the danger he could be facing and the wrong message he could be sending to children who see him running in the middle of the road, Malik explains, "By running in the middle of the road, I have a strong message that I want to share with humankind," he declares. "I want them to realize the importance of running. In the world, people will mind you if you are doing something different. It
is a general rule, (that) being different catches people's attention. It's not being crazy or insane but doing it differently so that we could send a strong message that can be used by people," he said.

A student aiming high
Malik is a student of Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in the US. He wants to become a businessman one day. But until that time comes, he wants to accomplish and gain something beautiful and best for humanity. "People like Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and even Nelson Mandela are ordinary people who never quit in their lives. They faced challenges. They continued struggling for something they believed in even though they faced dangerous situations; they left an indelible i
mprint that people are looking up till now and I want to become like them," he said humbly.

When he succeeds his running plan he wants to again embark on a much bigger attempt. He wants to become the only man to circle the world non-stop. "The next schedule will be to run from Kuwait to Dubai. It's more ambitious because I think the distance is approximately 1,700 kilometers away from Kuwait. I want to run without rest as well," he said.

Marathon-ing for a cause
When he attended Dubai Marathon, he never won. He was lagging far behind the world champion. But Malik's goal was not to win. "I wanted to see my name in the list of Dubai Marathon challengers who happened to challenge the fastest runner in the world. Just to be included in the race is an achievement by itself, but my greatest honor lay in meeting my idol in person," he reminisced.

My dream was to run and meet the fastest runner in the world. I achieved that and I happened to meet him casually," he said. He explained that during the marathon he could never get through to him. "He was literally busy, meeting several media persons in Dubai, but I was lucky to talk to him casually at the entrance of a hotel in Dubai." He spoke to me briefly, but I can never forget his smile, his poor but commanding English. "He said to me, 'If you have a dream, don't sleep on it, do a hard work and nev
er give up!' It's a challenge that I am currently holding up to now. Really I have a dream, and I would never give up fulfilling that dream," he said. Malik could be on his way indeed to achieving his next dream, but he acknowledges the media's role in this undertaking and the support of his friends and family, in addition to companies that could fund his endeavor.

For support or queries, Malik can be reached at: tavisoormandy@hotmail.com.