I am a Runner

Embed from Getty Images

I am a runner. I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, sister, career woman and a lot more. But of all these, the only role that sets me free, that reveals the real me, that makes me believe in my own immeasurable power, that takes me away from the various binds of this new age life, that makes me feel like a Rock star is that of a Runner. Over the years, that's one persona of mine that I have started identifying with more and more. My everyday routine is looked at with the "Running Lens" - each task, each win, each setback is seen with the eyes of a runner and everything in life is equated to my running life of training runs, races, PBs, missed runs etc. But above all I have this hunger to do more everywhere - as a mother, as a wife, as a corporate worker. Stretch, go on, push the boundaries is the running lingo that I have started applying to other areas of my life. There are days when I grimace, have self-doubts - typical to how I feel at the India Gate hexagon Km 16 of every ADHM - but I look past them to a new day brimming with hope - this is the turn onto Mathura Road Km 17.5 of ADHM.

So in that sense, there is my life before and after I became a runner. When I started running 5 years back I was coming out of a deep abyss of self-pity, some personal and professional failures and losses and was grabbing anything and everything that could help me feel like a persona grata from a persona non-grata. I tried dancing classes, joined a reading club, started accepting invites for events and parties just so that I could belong somewhere. They say this is what we do when we are trying to find our next milestone - the next big thing which can identify us. Humans go through this many a times during their life time and the trigger always is that urge to “do more” - to be able to identify ourselves with a higher meaningful purpose. And so I discovered my “identity” one spring morning when I laced my gym shoes (nowadays I get my special brand of 'Running Shoes' for different kind of runs shipped from US but back then it was anything colorful and “value for money” shoes bought on sale and for multi-purpose use including gym) and left my condominium gates to go run on the roads.

Just for disclaimers let me also mention that running was not new to me. I was an "accomplished" sprinter and high & long jumper in school and college (accomplishment measured by the gold and silver medals won :)). Not only that. I was on every school team - hockey, basketball, volleyball and was called on for javelin throws and shot-puts too if the teachers could not find anyone to complete the team. So a born athlete or an active child - whatever one may say.

But that morning when I ran on the city roads - what I later measured driving the car as a 5km distance – what I felt was different - it was liberating. It was exhilarating. It was different from the sprints I was used to running as a child. And that run was followed by another run a few days later, and another and another and I was hooked and on a path to become a better person, a changed person who had found a purpose and a new way of looking at things. Running has helped me change my perspective on many day to day issues we all deal with. Its given me friends for life who I have seen on the race tracks never giving up on themselves or on me and I know I can count on them for anything. And the best thing of it all is that I very proudly say “I am a runner” !!

Now what prompted me on that particular day to put my shoes on and go running is a topic of another post which will follow soon.

How to start running

Many people tell me that they too want to run but don’t know how to start. My answer is always the same. Tomorrow morning put your alarm for 45mins earlier than usual. Get up, put on your shoes, go out and run / walk around your complex or to the next block and that’s it. Do that for 2-3 more days. And you would be hooked as it becomes a habit. In being able to get up early, you have won half the battle and the rest is an easy job – put one foot in front of the other!!! For those few days, treat this as the most important task of your day, let your co-workers know - you will be late to work if you need some rest post your run or you will leave early if you need that 1 hr nap in the evening, let your spouse know you will need help in household chores in the morning – Seek help. Because if you can continue, the 1-2km run/walk for a few days, your journey has begun. And if you can find a runner friend, ask for help from him/her. We runners in that sense love our kind and will do anything to grow our tribe !!!!