My story on running is not inspirational, but I went thru some dejection/self doubt and there were times, where I found it difficult and may have quit running forever. But I tried (don’t know the reason) and today I can’t think of quitting running.
And I would be very happy, if my story can help somebody to discover the ‘joy of running’.
It is pure Joy, the ‘joy of running’ or ‘running for joy’.
Recently I jokingly told my friend over lunch, ‘I thought, I will never fall in Love again, but I have’, and he was waiting with anticipation to hear the name of the girl, and I said ‘I have fallen in love with Running’.
-----------
"I often wondered why runners could accomplish what they did. It's like analyzing love or passion. Why I had to run remains one of the mysteries of my life." John J. Kelley, one of America's greatest marathoners.
------------
I had been to gyms few times, but could never continue as I was not enjoying it.
But I wanted to get involved in some fitness activity. Few times, with no reason, a picture of one of my old colleague’s father’s photo flashed in my mind, he was a professional marathon runner and had run all over the world.
When all this was going on, one day, a friend of mine from US called and asked me to donate some money for building a school in India for Underprivileged children. She was running a marathon to raise this money. She was a working woman in US (full time job), managing a house without a maid, managing two children , teaching art in weekends and still managed to train for a marathon, and raising money for a cause. I found this incredible.
I was not sure if I will be able to run even 2 KM, leave apart a marathon. But I wanted to try. March 27, 2009 and I got out of my house in Pune at 6 am, and managed to run 1 Kilometer, with lot of stops and lot of try. And this went on for more than 2 weeks and now I was doing 4 kilometers. It was an effort to run, and lot of mental and physical push. And around the 5th week, I ran 10 kilometers and somewhere between 3-5th week, I started looking forward to the morning run. I was getting a sense of Joy out of running.
I saw an advertisement of Sunfeast Run in Bangalore and registered for it, came to Bangalore from Pune, only to run in Sunfeast and managed to finish it in 71 minutes. One poster held by one of the supporter, had the following quote: When you run, there is Pain. Pain is Temporary. When you finish the run, there is Pride. Pride is forever. I would replace the word ‘pride’ with ‘joy’.
Then post Sunfeast, I discovered I have Plantar fasciitis, a condition where in you get severe pain in your heal. I was dejected. I did not know what the cure is and was confused, and as luck would have had it I met somebody who had got Plantar fasciitis treated with customized soles in shoes. I went for the treatment, still unsure and got the customized soles made. I was impatient, wanted to run and it has already been two months that I did not run. Post the customized soles in place in my shoes, the pain started decreasing, and I was happy.
Waking up early was an issue. I wanted to Run as much but due to my work timing, where in I manage teams from UK and US shift, I used to reach home (even now) only by 12 midnight or even later. But I persisted, though irregular, I used to run at least 2 days in a week on an average. With this self training, I finished another 10Km (Nike) and finished a half Marathon (though with poor timing).
Then RH happened. In simple terms, RH firmed up my belief of ‘Running for Joy’. Apart from the expertise they have on Running, RH makes you smile and tells you to discover the ‘joy of running’.
I still have a long way to go in terms of long distance running. But I have discovered the 'Joy' . I have run few 10Km Runs in RH training in 56-58 minutes mark, with much ease, more confidence and more importantly lots of Joy. And I am reasonably confident, that I will do a marathon this year, more the Kilometers, more the Joy.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: RH is “Runners High” and details can be found at http://www.runnershigh.in. I have attended few of their programs. “Runners High” is an organization run by set of dedicated professional runners.
