RUNNING AND LIFE

 

 Distance running was always an alien sport to me. After completing my schooling at Rashtriya Indian Military College, I went to the National Defence Academy in 1997. I  was expected to be a super-runner and get medals for my Squadron. Sadly after a few practice cross-country runs, my seniors saw my low potential and I was classified as an average to a weak runner.   I managed to pass through six cross-country competitions in the Academy with much pain after that, vowed to stay away from this painful sport.

Call it an attempt to reduce weight or a mid-life crisis, at the age of  37 years, I started running again, this time there was no pressure on me as to how slow or fast I ran, and slowly a 5-kilometre run became 10, and so on. Finally, after almost a year of practice,  I ran my first half marathon in the picturesque town of Mukteshwar with a timing that was not flattering. During the past few years, I have tried to maintain my running schedule to maintain my fitness. I do not think that I am qualified to advise on a sport that I consider myself average at best, but recently as I read the book “What I Talk When I Talk about Running “by Haruki Murakami and much of what he said resonated with my journey as someone pursuing running and growth in life.

The book is a collection of the author's running journey of two decades and a memoir that reflects his growth as a runner, a writer, and a Human being. As a young man, the author opened his own jazz bar, which was doing reasonably well when he decided to shut shop and become a full-time writer. Even though this decision to become a writer was questioned by his well-wishers, the author persisted with his decision. The author saw his weight go up as he put on pounds thanks to his new sedentary lifestyle, subsequently, he took to running to improve his physical fitness.

Candidly the author describes his limitations of not being gifted in sports. Running was something that came naturally to him. He increased his mileage slowly and started running with more seriousness. Some of the major lifestyle changes that were incorporated by the author such as sleeping on time, increasing in intake of vegetables, and giving up smoking. In his own words, he was leaving his past life behind to embrace a new future. In any endeavour, it is not only important what you do daily in pursuit of your goal, but also it is equally important what you are willing to give up for a bigger prize.  If you decide to be a runner then you are a runner 24 hours a day, everything you eat drink, etc has to cater to the next morning when you are going to hit the road. One hour of running and 23 hours of eating junk, smoking, and drinking will do you no good. If you look closely then running is just a metaphor for life. If you want to pursue and achieve excellence in anything, you must submit to the demands fully.

 

The author feels that some people are just meant to run some are not. I could not have agreed more. Anyone running long distances is no better than someone who doesn’t run at all. Running is just a lifestyle choice. As you progress in your journey the timing suddenly becomes a hot topic.  Amongst the runners, terms like personal best etc, suddenly become the yardstick to judge your success as a runner. By all means, if competing at the highest level, then these terms have great significance, if you are not in that bracket then your timing does not matter. Improving yourself in this journey is a long slow process and takes time. Trying to accelerate this process will lead to injury and burnout. During his daily runs the author himself does not push himself beyond a limit, in other words, keep some gas in your tank as you have to run again tomorrow. It is important to push yourself within your limits to see incremental progress, but the whole effort is wasted beyond those limits. The same is true in any field, whether running or life.

During his training, many young runners pass by the author, making him contemplate his own ageing process. The harsh truth is that every second we are growing old and no one escapes being cooked slowly in the cauldron of life. Your body will tell you, the recovery after a long run will become slow, metabolism will reduce. Something you could do easily a few years ago will start becoming difficult. You can change your lifestyle to some extent to mitigate the impact of these changes, that's all there is to it. This is the way the world works. The old gives way to the young. It is better to embrace the changes rather than fight them.

 

The various stages of the author’s training for the New York Marathon have been explained in detail, the process will be similar for anyone training for any long-distance event. You might love the sport and embrace the process, there will be days that you will feel that you are just not up to it. Everyone goes through this and has to find the means to overcome this feeling. The initial heaviness of legs and the absolute refusal of your body to take one more step that the author has describes so succinctly is something I feel that all runners have felt at some time or the other.

In his own words, the author is not happy with his final timing in the New York Marathon. It seems almost anti-climactic but such is life. Reality is the messenger that comes bearing the news at times that despite your best efforts you could not reach where you wanted to be. This is not one of the endings where the hero walks into the sunset, having defeated the bad guys; this is real life where sometimes you win and often the results are not what you expected. The book ends with our protagonist training and participating in Triathlon in Japan and reflecting on his running journey.

In the last eight years, I have completed around twenty-five half marathons. Running across the length and breadth of the country, not once I have been happy with my timing. I guess I may never achieve the sub-two-hour timing that I covet, having said that, I often ask myself that" Does it even matter?" The template in all my long-distance running events is the same I start strong and falter during the sixteen-to-seventeen-kilometre mark." There is always a next time "I tell myself after every race. Maybe I have been guilty of self-flagellation when I should be thankful to God for giving me the ability to at least run for as long as I have run.

Still, there is something magical about early morning runs in the darkness before dawn when the world sleeps, and one in every eight to ten runs comes along a great run. A run when you are not running but gliding, there is no pain in any part of your body and you know that today is a day that no distance is long enough and no speed is fast enough, it just feels almost like an out-of-body experience. If nothing else this feeling alone is worth all the effort.