I had been running for few months in over the past year then, and I had lots of doubts on running.
I started to have some running injuries and that is when I started trying to know more about ‘right’ way of running. And trust me; it was tough to know the right way of running, despite information overload on the subject in cyberspace and despite me buying few specialized books on Marathon.
I was bit shocked, bit confused, and bit under confident when I started coming to know the apparent complexity in running. Heart rate, Thresh hold rate, Optimum heart rate, and suddenly the dreaded Professor Rao’s finance class in MBA was sort of looking easy for me, in retrospect.
Add the other aspects about which I had no clue of right and wrong: right shoe, right amount of water, Knee pain, shin pain, and the list is endless.
Running to me in my mind was a simple activity and here it was becoming only a bit less complex than the amino acid structure in a DNA. And being on the wrong side of 30 was not helping my fears.
But somehow, I was determined to Run and that is when I met Rajat in cyberspace and he gave me the ‘S.P’, pardon the hyperbole, the ‘Super Prescription’ for my running issues , ‘Santosh Padmanabhan’. And coincidentally I read about Santosh’s ‘Asha’ Run, which was counted in hours rather than Kilometer and I knew this guy is crazy enough to have all the answers and I decided to join his program at 'Runners High' (RH).
But, as usual, I had gone wrong again in life: I had no idea of the amount of craziness I am going to encounter in RH. Neither Rajat, not Santosh warned me about Preeti and Chandra.
Preeti’s decibel levels left you wondering whether the physio knows that injury can also happen to ear drums, not necessarily only to leg, knee and shin.
Chandra can put an Army Colonel to shame, when she reprimands me for coming late, in her trademark serious voice tone.
I knew from early in life that I had no grace in me, but the ‘Running Drills’ drilled that point in my head firmly and squarely. I finally realized why I was the whipping boy for my PT master in school. Some of the exercises left me wondering if I should consider Shiamak Davar’s classes.
As if lack of Grace was not enough, I had to do handle ‘Brace’, along with ‘Core’, ITB, Hamstring, Quad and few more funny sounding words.
I also discovered where did ‘Chipko’ movement of Baba Amte to save trees, originate from, he copied the ‘Runner’ exercise of Huggging the Tree.
Juann Mann of Free Hugs movement would be proud of the RH members, if not Human, we were giving ‘Free Hugs’ to Trees. May be , Santosh can also train people for ‘Hugathon’
Apart from Running, I think one thing which RH gives is lots of smile and laughter. Never mind the jokes from Santosh in his semi-serious tone, with half a smile. It is testimony to the kind of ethos RH has, RH is supportive and motivates people giving them confidence. Though RH does give all the expert advise on running, it is the way they conduct the program which makes it all the more enjoyable. May there be many more moments of ‘Runner’s High’.
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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.
