Transition from a uniformed life to a re-attired life has exposed me to a variety of situations. Running has been consistent throughout, in fact has been a pillar of strength in all new places and situations. When I started running, I never knew the side effects of running, namely the friend circle and networking. Having spent more than two decades of my youth in the defence forces should have made my life rich with friends in the defence circle. However, my last four years of running in Mumbai, Pune and Goa have made more true friends than I have had in my two decades of service.
Runners have great minds and golden hearts and runners don't expect anything from anyone. We mingle very easily and all we need is to acknowledge and encourage each other in our daily runs and long runs. The journey of running in Mumbai , Pune and Goa saw me joining running groups, the first was in Mumbai where I initially used to run alone in marine drive and I noticed a couple of groups on marine drive. I was quite inhibited and was hesitant to approach them, but as time passed by, during one run, I was running with a lady and helped her to pace up the Peddar road climb and also shared my "gatorade" with her.Yeah, I used to run with a Gatorade bottle in my hand those days. Later, we got introduced and she introduced me to Savio DS'souza, who is a running coach. He incidentally was the national champion for consecutive four years from 1982-1985 and even now at an age of 60 plus, completes a half marathon short of 100 minutes.
As I became more regular with the group, I met a number of interesting people from different walks of life, some working, some doing their own business, students , old, young and all varieties. The only common thread was that all were running enthusiasts and it was an infectious feeling to share your experiences and listen to their experiences. That is the way runners bond, also after post run workouts, we used to chat and learn about each other and slowly the network of friends grew. Participation in events makes this bond stronger as each one of us trains with a target and then encourage each other to go for it and when we finish the event, there are those euphoric moments which are shared with each other, adding memories to our running life. One such event was the Goa river marathon of 2013, with a few of my friends from this wonderful group of runners trained by coach Savio D'souza.
After the run -->
In Sep 2014, I left the Navy and got a job in Goa so I shifted alone to Goa leaving my family at Pune. I just wanted to take a trial to see how a job outside the Navy would be and I landed up at Goa. I lived in a beautiful place called Benaulim in South Goa, just 1km from the beach. It was a lovely beach stretch of 25+ kms and I decided to make the most of this time in Goa. The very first weekend, I was running a long run on the beautiful roads of Goa with fields and framhouses and water bodies on both sides. I encountered hordes of ferocious dogs who came gnarling at me and I was petrified, but somehow managed to keep running with walking breaks whenever I encountered them. I happened to meet Dinesh Heda during this run who was running 65k that day as a practice run for the upcoming bangalore ultra 75k, where he eventually was a podium finisher. We exchanged numbers and soon I was part of the "Sussegado Runners" group of Vasco, Panjim and Margao. The energy of this group was great and I found that whenever any run used to be organised even at a place more than 30k away from where they stay, they would be there to run. Goa is a party place and many new runners did find it tough to sleep early and get up early to run long distances, but as soon as one got baptized to running long distances, the partying automatically reduces and good things start to happen.
Goa is well known mostly for its beaches but it is also resplendent in the abundance of beautiful trees,birds, fields and water bodies, even the beaches are lined with trees and water bodies.
My barefoot running on the beach was an amazing experience, and the minimum clothing allowed me to jump into the sea for a post run swim on most days. What more could you ask than this especially to see a beautiful sunrise when lapping around on the waves of the ocean, after a nice long run listening to the early morning birds and viewing some really spectacular sights and sounds while running. More fun gets added as you meet new friends on the beach who meet and greet you each morning as we are regulars and are always there at almost the same time. These photographs are credited to a good friend of the beach, Ms Sandra Dsouza, an avid photographer and a daily morning walker on the beach.
I learnt how to save snakes from her. It was a tremendously satisfying task to see the poor creatures wiggle off into the ocean after a long struggle on the sand where they were thrown mercilessly by the fishermen as they get stuck in the nets along with their daily haul of fish.
.
This snap is of a beautiful place at the end of the beach where river Sal meets the sea. An amazing place to be in the morning, where you get to see sun rise from behind the betul lighthouse. I also had a flock of sea gulls blessing me by hovering above me before settling down on the sea/ river bed.
Goa saw me running many events and some self created events and I also got my PB for HM i.e. GRM 2014 of 1:37:44 , thanks to a mentor Dr Purnendu Nath( Puru the Guru). I also made friends with another beach runner Appu Rajan, who is 64 years old and has been running long distance for the last 35 plus years. He is a silent runner who doesn't mingle much but embodies lots of principles in life. He has an iron willed mind and never gives up, looks half his age and keeps himself active and agile at all times. A great personality from whom I personally learnt a lot, he completes a half marathon in 2:04 to 2:08 and is striving hard to get this to below 2 hours. I am amazed at the energy level of this man at his age, he is always pushing himself towards improvement. I still remember the day we both ran 26k and he was dehydrated quite badly during the return leg and we were in an isolated section of the long beach, and I was worried so I ran back fast to manage water and by the time I started running towards him to give him water, I could see him running even in that state, he has a "never say die" spirit. Appu Rajan is a legend of a runner who has had no professional training, but runs very smoothly and in almost perfect form. It would be a pleasure to have him run with the FreeRunners group at Pune sometime.
I am back in Pune after the stint at Goa and have started running again with the FreeRunners group and have had the opportunity to start a subsidiary branch/ group near my residence along with a couple of veteran FreeRunners Parag Dongre and Muthukrishnan Jayaraman. The response has been quite good and people have started joining the group to join the fun. Running has been great and in spite of many small setbacks due to injuries, illness etc. which challenge you, it helps us to get to know our body better and become stonger runners as we become older. People like Appu Rajan, Durga Shil, Taru Mateti and many other seniors who run so well inspire us to keep it going and keep running freely because now it is hard not to run and each day without a run is actually miserable...
Runners have great minds and golden hearts and runners don't expect anything from anyone. We mingle very easily and all we need is to acknowledge and encourage each other in our daily runs and long runs. The journey of running in Mumbai , Pune and Goa saw me joining running groups, the first was in Mumbai where I initially used to run alone in marine drive and I noticed a couple of groups on marine drive. I was quite inhibited and was hesitant to approach them, but as time passed by, during one run, I was running with a lady and helped her to pace up the Peddar road climb and also shared my "gatorade" with her.Yeah, I used to run with a Gatorade bottle in my hand those days. Later, we got introduced and she introduced me to Savio DS'souza, who is a running coach. He incidentally was the national champion for consecutive four years from 1982-1985 and even now at an age of 60 plus, completes a half marathon short of 100 minutes.
As I became more regular with the group, I met a number of interesting people from different walks of life, some working, some doing their own business, students , old, young and all varieties. The only common thread was that all were running enthusiasts and it was an infectious feeling to share your experiences and listen to their experiences. That is the way runners bond, also after post run workouts, we used to chat and learn about each other and slowly the network of friends grew. Participation in events makes this bond stronger as each one of us trains with a target and then encourage each other to go for it and when we finish the event, there are those euphoric moments which are shared with each other, adding memories to our running life. One such event was the Goa river marathon of 2013, with a few of my friends from this wonderful group of runners trained by coach Savio D'souza.
In Mumbai, from 2011-2014, I participated in ADHM 2011, SCMM 2012, Zendurance Nashik Run 2012( 1st edition), SCMM 2013(My first FM), GRM 2013, and SCMM 2014( HM). Prior to Mumbai, I used to run in Delhi and had participated in 4 ADHMs in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. When I particiapted in SCMM 2012, I got my PB of 1hr 50 min and this was an improvement by about 5 minutes. I was shaving off five minutes each year and therefore I was feeling good that there was growth hapening in my running life. At this time, I was not taking any professional advice or coaching for running, just following a training calender from the internet( Hal-Higdon's trainign program for beginners). But in all my subsequent runs, I could not achieve any further improvement, I had plateued at the level of 1hr and 50 minutes, I felt. Also, as I was trying to increase pace, I was getting injured with the dreaded IT band problems, but I never let any injury reach a level and used to step back and cure it before I commenced again. But I was not getting answers to my plateau, even though my coach Savio used to give tips like "run tall", "keep your hips straight", "move your hands", "shoulders low" etc. and I used to try sincerely, but I could not understand where I was going wrong.
Then I decided to leave the Navy, and as a preparatory action shifted my family to Pune. I came to know about this group called FreeRunners at Pune run by "Jeetendran Nair" and this was a turning point in my running life. I used to visit Pune on weekends and run with the group. Again, I met amazing people in this group and we connected like crazy, it was much better than Mumbai. I was able to be myself and relate to all of them. They were a young group where many had just started their journey, but were full of life and energy levels were very high. Being a non-athletic person in my younger days, I never knew much about body mechanics and kinematics, and this is where the story with FreeRunners took its most beautiful turn. I was introduced to this concept of "form" and I really understood what mistake I was making. At this stage, I had already run a FM, so the path was going to be extremely tough. There was a huge amount of unlearning to be done. So on weekdays at Mumbai, I used to practice running slowly but in correct form and on weekends, run with the group and try to maintain correct form. Eventually, there was an improvement in form and in my very next race, I could see improvement as I was running much stronger and not getting tired easily even after large distances. The biggest surprise was when I received a call from Jeetendran Nair asking me to be mentally prepared to run a 50K at the end of that week. I was not sure whether I would be able to do it, but Jeetu has a way with his voice, and he was confident of me, that is what I call "leadership", when a leader can identify and motivate people to push beyond and believe in themselves and achieve more than beyond. This was a huge milestone for me and I ran my first ever ultra of 50K in Aug 2014. I ran many races in 2014 at Pune and my best timing was 1hr 41 min and I also managed a podium finish at the Happy Hearts marathon. I had broken the plateau, though I was informed later that the distance was about 600m shorter than a HM.
Before the Run...
After the run -->
In Sep 2014, I left the Navy and got a job in Goa so I shifted alone to Goa leaving my family at Pune. I just wanted to take a trial to see how a job outside the Navy would be and I landed up at Goa. I lived in a beautiful place called Benaulim in South Goa, just 1km from the beach. It was a lovely beach stretch of 25+ kms and I decided to make the most of this time in Goa. The very first weekend, I was running a long run on the beautiful roads of Goa with fields and framhouses and water bodies on both sides. I encountered hordes of ferocious dogs who came gnarling at me and I was petrified, but somehow managed to keep running with walking breaks whenever I encountered them. I happened to meet Dinesh Heda during this run who was running 65k that day as a practice run for the upcoming bangalore ultra 75k, where he eventually was a podium finisher. We exchanged numbers and soon I was part of the "Sussegado Runners" group of Vasco, Panjim and Margao. The energy of this group was great and I found that whenever any run used to be organised even at a place more than 30k away from where they stay, they would be there to run. Goa is a party place and many new runners did find it tough to sleep early and get up early to run long distances, but as soon as one got baptized to running long distances, the partying automatically reduces and good things start to happen.
Goa is well known mostly for its beaches but it is also resplendent in the abundance of beautiful trees,birds, fields and water bodies, even the beaches are lined with trees and water bodies.
I learnt how to save snakes from her. It was a tremendously satisfying task to see the poor creatures wiggle off into the ocean after a long struggle on the sand where they were thrown mercilessly by the fishermen as they get stuck in the nets along with their daily haul of fish.This snap is of a beautiful place at the end of the beach where river Sal meets the sea. An amazing place to be in the morning, where you get to see sun rise from behind the betul lighthouse. I also had a flock of sea gulls blessing me by hovering above me before settling down on the sea/ river bed.
Goa saw me running many events and some self created events and I also got my PB for HM i.e. GRM 2014 of 1:37:44 , thanks to a mentor Dr Purnendu Nath( Puru the Guru). I also made friends with another beach runner Appu Rajan, who is 64 years old and has been running long distance for the last 35 plus years. He is a silent runner who doesn't mingle much but embodies lots of principles in life. He has an iron willed mind and never gives up, looks half his age and keeps himself active and agile at all times. A great personality from whom I personally learnt a lot, he completes a half marathon in 2:04 to 2:08 and is striving hard to get this to below 2 hours. I am amazed at the energy level of this man at his age, he is always pushing himself towards improvement. I still remember the day we both ran 26k and he was dehydrated quite badly during the return leg and we were in an isolated section of the long beach, and I was worried so I ran back fast to manage water and by the time I started running towards him to give him water, I could see him running even in that state, he has a "never say die" spirit. Appu Rajan is a legend of a runner who has had no professional training, but runs very smoothly and in almost perfect form. It would be a pleasure to have him run with the FreeRunners group at Pune sometime.
I am back in Pune after the stint at Goa and have started running again with the FreeRunners group and have had the opportunity to start a subsidiary branch/ group near my residence along with a couple of veteran FreeRunners Parag Dongre and Muthukrishnan Jayaraman. The response has been quite good and people have started joining the group to join the fun. Running has been great and in spite of many small setbacks due to injuries, illness etc. which challenge you, it helps us to get to know our body better and become stonger runners as we become older. People like Appu Rajan, Durga Shil, Taru Mateti and many other seniors who run so well inspire us to keep it going and keep running freely because now it is hard not to run and each day without a run is actually miserable...
