Page 10 - aua traveller july 17

Athlete Friday, July 17 2015 - ARUBA TRAVELLER
Melvin Dabian
is in San Francisco
to participate in
his first 42 km
Marathon

MELVIN Dabian is an elite runner in Aruba that has mastered long distance

races over the past few years in his category which is the age 40-49 category.
He participated in 5K races, 10K races and 21K races.
He is currently in the top 15 runners of Aruba. He also participated in the Guard-
ianloop Marathon in Curacao and even one first place in his category.

Last year Melvin ran a 12 KM half marathon in Miami where he achieved a new
personal record of completing the race in 1 hour and 31 minutes. This year he
participated in the 21 KM half marathon in Aruba in 1 hour and 30 minutes thus
breaking his own record by reducing his time by 1 minute.
Melvin Dabian decided to participate in a more difficult challenge, because now
he is going to participate in a 42 KM Marathon.

Melvin tried to participate in that same Marathon in 2010 but couldn’t
because of an injury obtained a few months before the Marathon.
This same injury kept Melvin from running for a year and 6 months.

He returned to running in 2012 and began building his strength
up again and trying to improve his time. He changed his training
methods by gathering info and advice from experienced run-
ners and guidance from experienced coaches. Because of this
he feels ready for the challenge in front of him.
After many months of preparations and training almost every
day, sacrificing his sleep to wake up early to train and eating
healthy, the long awaited Marathon is finally here.

Tomorrow Melvin and his family will fly to San Francisco to
train there for a week, to be ready for the 42 KM Marathon
in San Francisco on July 26th. The climate in San Francisco
is favorable and is usually very cool in the morning when
the race starts.

Melvin Dabian thanks the lord for helping him get so far
and his entire family for their support, his coaches and the
I-run Aruba team.
Good luck Melvin.

10 LOCAL