My Running Story

This only happens to me during during races, a voice inside teases me, tortures me by asking “Want to give up now? no one needs to know why, you can pretend to be sick, wait! weren’t you feeling nauseous few meters back? that’s it, work-up that clue. Want to give-up?” .. The saner and grounded voice has to put things in perspective, reminding patiently that running this race is a labour of love and giving-up is not an option here. You see, before I took up to running, I was one of those people who take up a hobby with great pizzaz, announce to the world that I have found my calling and before I knew it, the passion dwindled, fad fizzled and what was left was mere evidence of my pursuits in family jokes. Earlier I used to think only weirdos ran for fun, I didn’t know nothing of distances in races, Half Marathon, Full Marathon, 10K, 5K were all the same. Today thankfully i know the difference and few times a year I even run couple of Half Marathons.

Out of the three plus years I have been running it was only in the last one year that I decided to invest in a scientifically backed running program with Running Potential. Earlier I believed that good runners simply surpassed any condition and still rise to the top to shine. And that frustrated me because, no matter how hard I tried, no matter how many long runs I put in, no matter how much I sacrificed, at a race I was never able to work around with conditions that were less than ideal for me. Yet all my other running friends were grabbing PBs and PRs with both hands. I was happy for them but internally suffering from being disappointed with myself. Needless to say I was wrong, again.

Luckily for me, I had already done a three month training with Running Potential and knew the coaches were a great bunch of people. By the end of this year I am confident that my choice has led me to change the way I view racing and targets, for the better. Training for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon and the Tata Mumbai Marathon led me to experiencing Eureka eye-opening moment. For every race my mentor Anand Takale gives me 3 target times and based on the feel of the race day, I get to choose the best suited number. That way there is hardly any error in missing a target time. Thus the mind-alterning realization, great runners are not the ones who do brilliantly under any circumstances, great runners are common people who can create an ideal plan for themselves under imperfect conditions in order to reach the finish line dazzlingly!

I am so glad that I have learnt because we all know that no matter how perfect the training, no matter how fast the Fartleks and the Tempos, race day conditions have a mind of their own and most likely things don’t go according to plan A. Having at hand a plan B and C reminds you to forgive yourself for not meeting A but still be able to chase the other two.

I am raising the glass today to overcoming every odd was stacked against me, silencing the teasing voice inside me and to reaching the finish line!

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