Finish times - Do they matter?

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The curtain on this year’s ADHM has come down. My own run was a personally satisfying one. The awful lot that I am travelling these days, just didn’t give me enough time for a good serious preparation. This is despite me announcing my target of 1.45 to my running group so that I could be kept on track by them – but nah it didn’t help. And so a sub 2 finish (though 9 minutes slower than my PB at ADHM) was happily accepted.

There were many beaming faces who managed their PBs and equal number of sad, frustrated faces who despite a good training just did not make it that day – or missed their target not by a few seconds but minutes. The one thing you could hear all around was everyone asking the other – “how was your run?” followed by “what time?”. Now we runners may say we run for fun, and most of us do that as well, but there is this one or two runs in a year when you really want to excel, you want to prove it yourself that you can do better, you secretly want to get closer to someone else’s time ;), you push yourself and get your mind to rule over your body to reach that state of exhilaration and lock in your achievement. And ADHM provides that opportunity to excel. According to me ADHM is like that easy paper a child knows he can crack with some decent preparation and can always brag about to others. I say this because I do that too. (Did you not notice the subtle mention of my 1:50 PB above !!!)

So the question is – does finish time matter? Ofcourse it does. For those who have trained for it and have diligently followed a plan – giving up on their social commitments, dietary indulgences, sleep etc – for them it matters a lot. For me, atleast, running was a way to prove to myself I can do more – that I am capable of doing much more than I can ever imagine - and that is the case for a lot of us. And the finish times are a measure of that “more”, of “success”. For us runners in NCR and even those who travel to Delhi for this event, this is their test, the day of reckoning, whether you have trained for it or not, its your barometer (or your speedometer!!) to know how far you have come as a runner - whether you have a good day or a bad day, you know exactly what went right and what needs a correction... And we all know that even though there are races every month (the running calendar needs more weekends in a year!!!!) this is the ultimate test. If you are racing it, it is with a purpose - this is not another training run, this is the real thing.

And so if you see a smiling, beaming face – go ask him / her “what time?” he / she wants to tell you and the world (the FB posts ensure that those who didn’t ask or know, will know it too and the accolades remain there forever !!!! – I hope you people did “Like” my Comrades post on FB !!!) Go cheer for their success, for their win. But be mindful of those who couldn’t make it. There are those with pragmatic wisdom, who move on – even if they cant put a reason behind their failure, they know it was “not their day”. Either the body failed them or the mind was just not upto it and got distracted. And so go wish them too –for a better training, for the next one. And so what do you do with the ones who do not move on – well I need to meet a runner like that and then will advise !!!! We runners are the resilient ones – one bad race does not break us – we start browsing the net for the next race, go look up the training plan again, modify it and are back in our beast modes for that next race. See you New Delhi Marathon in Feb 16 with a faster stronger me !!! and Good Luck to all of you too !!

Running for fun or with a goal 

There is no right or wrong on this one. Most of us start with a goal in mind – let me just run uptil that next block and that’s it, let me get my sub-2 and I am done (my friends still tease me for this statement of mine made in 2012 !!!), one full and nirvana – and we continue because setting those goals is fun too. Every run will not be fun – some of the runs will kick your @$ (literally - with a not to subside pain), some would leave you gasping for breath (a friend loves his intervals and I hate those) – but every run will only make you wiser and stronger that is if you listen to your body and that is what will also keep the fun in the run!!! My personal take – as long as the motivation to get out of the door is there – whether for having a fun run or with a goal in mind, its fine. And so keep running !!!