Running & Living- Analogies to delve on: Food for thought...

                                                       

IS RUNNING HARD WORK?

Is Running hard work? Let us compare running with life and try and see the analogy and learn how running teaches us to live our lives:-

Starting to Run:-  Yes, when you started running, did you enjoy waking up and wearing your running shoes and getting out, when the rest of the people in the house were busy dreaming and snoring in their sleep? It does take a lot of will power to get up and get out of the house early in the morning, isn't it? Then as we start running, every muscle in the body screams initially to stop, till the body warms up. After about 10 minutes of warming up, it starts to feel alright as the running rhythm takes on. Very soon, after some considerable distance of running, the mind starts playing games, and fatigue/tiredness takes over and you start wondering why the heck are you running at all, what for, why is it necessary etc....  Once again, mental strength plays its role, where you make up your resolve and don't give up and continue to run to complete the distance you had decided to run when you started off. The greatest feeling is when you complete what you set to achieve and then the entire day goes off well till the next day begins and again the same story repeats itself. Isn't this a great lesson in life?

Anything we start off doing in life, the same mental evolution happens. All of us have our own choice to make, either we remain in our comfort zones and continue to dream and slumber or we make up our minds and get out of our "bed", put on our "running shoes" and take up new challenges. The start is always unnerving and difficult as there would be many forces acting against us in our minds and it takes great mental strength and perseverance to overcome these thoughts, and soon as we continue and see a little progress, the rhythm takes over and we reach our new comfort zone. Very soon, fatigue and tiredness literally takes over as you start wondering whether these efforts are fruitful and why are you even putting in so much of hard work? The lesson from running is to be applied here and if we continue to "keep running" and persist in our efforts, very soon, the end would be visible and we would be able to achieve our set goals.

Training schedule and setting goals:- Caution! Whether running or life, goals that we set have to be practical and achievable. In 'running' , if we set a very hard goal as compared to our physical and mental capacity, we might be able to achieve it, but not without hurting ourselves and injuries would force us to stop running to allow recovery and once again we have to start from the scratch to train ourselves. Again this has its analogy in life, if we set a very hard goal beyond our physical and mental capacity, the chances of failure are imminent and is likely to set us back ( recovery period) and it would lower our confidence, so it is always better to go for " low hanging fruits" and as we gain confidence, slowly reach for higher targets. That is why when we train for running, we always start with low hanging fruits i.e 5k run and as we gain confidence, we slowly and steadily increase distance. In running, pace is generally used to measure performance, but it is important to remember that pace is only a by-product of   running and training consistently.

"We worship Form":- Perfection of form has always been the mantra in running, no matter what distance we run, at what pace we run, it is important to run in perfect form. This holds good for anything we do in life. I keep telling my children that if you are doing anything, do it well. Don't just try and finish something, you must try to achieve perfection in any action that you perform, whether it is making the bed, brushing teeth or any activity that you do, so that this becomes a habit. As you sow, so shall you reap. Only if we cultivate these habits, will we be able to transform ourselves into a strong personality and character. The analogy of "form" during running to "perfection" in actions in anything we do in our life is thus another important lesson.

Variation in Training:- In running, a consistent training schedule including strength training and cross training is critical to keep the body free from injuries and make the body and mind stronger. Similarly, in life, we must learn to do things differently to keep moving out of our newly acquired comfort zones as well as to keep our brains ticking to find new solutions or "think out of the box". For eg. take a new route to work, or  try to write with the other hand, or anything that challenges us mentally as well as physically. We must learn to face our fears and overcome them, and as this becomes a habit, we are moving on a successful path and living a better and fuller life. 

Running and Hard work: We always have a choice to not run and continue a comfort filled life sitting and watching television or listening to music or doing any activity that doesn't tire us physically or mentally. Life in today's  modern technology-filled world is spoiled for choices: X-box, video games, android apps, blogging the way I am doing right now are all activities that are done in the comfort of our homes in sitting position or lying position or any position that is lazy and comfortable. Why am I sounding as if I am against something which seems very normal? Because as we evolve in our running life, we get to learn more and more about our body and mind and get closer to nature. What I have realized is that hard work and improvement/ growth both physically as well as mentally are critical components in life and the moment we stop hard work, we stop growing. ( Caution: Growth is not measured only monetarily because money and power both can be earned without hard work, however, monetary achievement can be a measurement parameter the way running pace is a parameter to measure improvement in running). I believe that if we are consistent and persevere in whatever we do in a perfect manner, then we are sure to achieve success both monetarily as well as in our personal growth and the story continues and growth keeps on happening irrespective of age and time. Even today, if we look at the lives of villagers who have an active life of farming, it is highly probable that they have much better and healthier lives as compared to most of their urban over-stressed contemporaries. Discipline and commitment are extremely important virtues that need cultivation and running long distance enables us to cultivate these two virtues to the maximum. 

Human beings are designed to run/ walk/ stand. Sitting cross-legged on the floor with spine erect ( "sukhasana" in Yoga) seems to be a natural and correct position for all the biological functions of the body. However, for the last few decades or maybe more than that, most urban dwellers have got used to sitting on chairs, sofas etc. In all our daily sitting positions, our core gets disengaged as the spine loses its erect  form. The debilitating effects on all the important joints of our body mainly the hip and knees are quite visible in the elder population. I don't remember hearing about any sage/ seer suffering from arthritis even though they sit for hours together in "sukhasana" doing meditation. I also hardly remember seeing any sage/ seer being depicted having a paunch or being fat. There must be something really good about "sukhasana" then. Running long distances for longer durations and doing stretching exercises coupled with cross training and strength training, compensates for the "lazy sitting" injuries that we daily inject into our joints while at office and home relaxing in front of the idiot box or the computer. Indian toilets were a good exercise for the hip flexors, adductors and abductors, but alas, most of us have changed to the "comfortable" western commodes. The western world has had a huge influence in making us very comfortable, but destroying our ability to live naturally and keep our bodies and mind stronger.  So running not only makes us physically stronger but also mentally alert and makes us aware of our body and it's requirements to maintain strength and flexibility while increasing it's endurance/ stamina.

This is therefore a food for thought for all runners and non runners to ponder as to how we can make our lives more interesting and get closer to nature and keep improving and growing from strength to strength and achieve much higher milestones as we continue moving ahead both in life as well as running. I would like to end by saying:-

  

Dehi- Mumbai-Pune-Goa- A tremendous running journey

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.

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.

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.

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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... 

Goa Marathon -Panjim to Old Goa and Back- 01 Mar 2015

       This is my third consecutive week of running event participation after the Dr Ramani Marathon in Ponda and the Goa Triathlon Team event in Bambolim. When I woke up today at 0330 hrs, I was greeted by loud sounds of thunder and lightning. Electricity went off and it was eerily dark everywhere.  I am used to running in the rain and in fact love it, so that was not an issue for me, but reaching  the race venue could become an issue as Goa has narrow roads and a lot of tree cover and in such thunderstorms, the chances of roads getting blocked by fallen trees is quite high.  So we were to go in a car pool and I messaged my friends to start a bit early to cater for this risk. I managed to be ready by 0420 hrs and stepped out of the house only to find heavy downpour. My scooter was washed nicely by the rain and I wore a wind-cheater cum raincoat and got onto the scooter and started driving towards my friend’s place who was chauffeuring us to the race venue. It was very difficult to see anything as the rain was lashing at an angle and hitting my eyes. There were no streetlights also and somehow, I managed to drive slowly and reached my friend’s place by 0430 hrs. He was up and ready and there I learnt that two of our car pool members had backed out because of the rain. I was surprised and I immediately messaged on our group Whatsapp about the benefits of running in the rain. Trainers’ also advice to increase mileage during monsoons as the body is cooled down naturally and we can push ourselves more. Rain and Runners are always friends. But the Flu had gotten the better of Runners and the fear of Swine Flu was also active in the minds of most people here. So many runners from my place were not ready to venture in the rain as they were just recovering from an attack of Flu and were scared of a relapse. I did not want to take the responsibility of being blamed for a relapse, if it occurred, so I let it be and we proceeded towards the venue. As luck would have it, two runners who were planning to bike it to the venue, asked for a lift and we had to wait for them quite a bit, and we were getting impatient and anxious that we would be late as our race was to begin at 0600 hrs. However, because of inclement weather, the race organisers fortunately decided to start the race a bit late. So we reached the venue well before the start of the race. Everyone was very skeptical about the race as I was told that in the previous edition last year, the roads were not blocked and the traffic was very unruly to the extent that runners could have been fatally injured, also water was not sufficient and the starting was not well organised etc. etc. With all this skepticism as we entered the grounds, we could hear announcements on the system, but it was dark, there were no lights in the ground.  Because of the rains, the ground had also become slushy, and it seemed as if this year also would be a repeat of the previous year’s woes.

     The race began at about 0615/0620 hrs. I do not wear a watch during my runs, also no gadgets. Actually, I have been thinking of buying one to record my timing at various points during the run, but now after this run, I have realized that at least for a half marathon, I don’t need a watch. Because that allows me to be in touch with my mind and body and decide my pace according to my comfort level. I am able to realize when I am slowing down and take corrective action, what matters is to finish the race strong and not land up in any injury. Sometimes, when we look at time elapsed, we could push ourselves to a target beyond our capacity and while we may achieve it in that race, injury is bound to happen and the learning of that race is also affected. Every time we run a race, our learning about our own capacity is enhanced and we understand the body better. If I am able to complete a race strong and then introspect on how I ran each split of the race, I can then focus on improving my pace in shorter runs till I again reach a comfort level at this higher pace. Well, this is something that I will have to write about separately in my next blog:

 “ Transition from ‘HM finisher’ à ‘Sub 2hr HMer’ à ‘1:50 -1:55 HMer’ à ‘1:40-1:45 HMer’ and hopefully soon a ‘1:35-1:40 HMer’ ”.

I had decided to run a few HMs to find out my consistent race pace for a HM. While I had achieved a PB of 1:37:44 in the GRM held in Dec 2014, I cannot call it my consistent pace for a HM, because I knew that I had pushed myself in the race and though I was able to achieve it, I still needed to become comfortable at that pace. When I ran the SCMM, I ran the first half as if I was running a HM (a serious error in pacing) and I reached half way in 1:41, then I ran the Ponda marathon which was 1:43:14, then I did a Goa Triathlon 10k where my timing was 0:46:33, and now I wanted to run this marathon to see if I could get my consistent race pace for a HM. So as I started, I decided to first move fast out of the crowd and then stabilise my pace, this has worked well during GRM and I have started following this in all races. So I slithered my way from the sides and moved ahead of the bantering crowd and soon I was running with a lot of Army guys in sleeveless vests and a few of them were really fast. I controlled myself and focussed on my cadence and form and breathing and tried my level best not to race with any of them. But the mind is a devil and every other moment, I found myself racing with someone or the other. It was a tough game to stop racing and count my own steps. So I engaged my brain and mind in counting steps and checking my form constantly-> “collar bone erect and behind till I feel the load on my core and abdomen”, “hips ahead of legs”, “hands moving straight and not cross”, and “breathing from the diaphragm and audible breathing”. These four factors, one after the other, I kept on checking on myself and soon I had forgotten about the other racers. I find this very useful as it becomes a habit to run erect and the legs just roll below the hips, as it is much easier to run this way. Credit of this knowledge has to be given to my running mentor “Jeetendran Nair” of the FreeRunners group at Pune who was the first to teach me these basic fundamentals of running.  As I moved ahead, I realized that I was overtaking many people and one person was tagging along behind me, and I could hear his breathing rather panting, and I thought that he would give up soon and lag behind, but one strong hombre, he was always there and when I turned around at 10.5K, he was right behind me. The scenery was awesome as usual as we were running along the river Mandovi, and I could also generate a conversation with this gentleman, who told me his name and he seemed to be a middle aged guy. I respected his efforts and complimented him.  As I started my return leg,  it was much easier as I could see a number of familiar faces and I made it a point to cheer and encourage many, there were runners who were just going to start walking and I would shout out to them to continue running and they would immediately start scampering into a trot/ run. It was fun to see how people respond to encouragement. I had this young army jawan running with me who was complaining that he did not get time to practice, but I noticed that he was running pretty fast and could do better as he was a young guy. I just asked him in a commandeering tone to start overtaking people one by one by making them targets and the way the youngster took off was to be seen. Yes, I did tell him that I am a retired defence officer and used my power of command a little bit, but it worked wonders with this guy.

       I realised during this run that if you are able to keep checking your form once in a while, it works stupendously. I was cruising along and  I had no clue of any time or pace. My body was working at its optimum level, I could have pushed it harder, but that would not be its optimum pace. As usual I sprinted the last 100 m and finished, there was no timing at the finish, but later I asked the organiser and he checked my bib number and the timing was 1:40:13. I was a bit unhappy that I missed 100 min by 14 seconds but soon, I told myself that the aim of this race had been achieved and now I can call myself a consistent 1:40-1:45 runner. The next target should be to become a consistent 1:35-1:40 runner and this could be the target for 2015. Who knows how the body reacts but what is important is to be in touch with the body and mind and understand it thoroughly and running is helping in this exercise.  I will give it a try, after all, it is the efforts which count and efforts always pay dividends, is what I have learnt in my running life as well as my personal and professional life.

     In contrast to the previous edition of this race, the roads were blocked for traffic, water was available at many points, and return leg water stations also served oranges, bananas and salt water / enerzal. The organisation was meticulous throughout without any problems what had been faced at the previous edition. Another lesson learnt: Do not judge anything or anybody on one performance, there is always scope for improvement and things change, so learn to have an open mind and necessarily give feedback both positive as well as negative. This is what can be done to make a difference in our own little way. Overall, it was an excellently organised race which was supplemented by an equally awesome weather and route.

My results of the race:-

http://results.chronotrack.com/event/results/event/event-13143?lc=en

Feeling happy that I was able to maintain a constant pace of 4:45 min/km through the race with a tolerance of  2 seconds without any Garmin/ watch/ gadget and using my mind and freerunning. A Big Thank you to "FreeRunner" group!

Looking forward to more running days and more writing of my running experiences... 

A Run in the Dark and a spiritual conversation....

           Running in Goa has been an evolution as it has been testing my inner strengths and weaknesses, particularly because the runs have been more or less alone. One such run is what I describe here. I got up in the morning and got ready to run by 0530 hrs. I finished my warming up dynamic stretches and was ready to go by 0545 hrs. I had decided to do an 8-10 K run at a fast pace (tempo run). As I got ready to start, I noticed the darkness as the lights suddenly went out and it was pitch dark and I could hear some dogs barking in the background. The first involuntary reaction was fear with all kinds of scary thoughts in the mind. I observed those thoughts and smiled at my mind, and started my run. Soon I was on the beach which is about 1.25 km away from my house.

                 On the beach, it was pitch black darkness and the sound of the waves with the white froth of the wave break visible was giving solace to the mind that there was something discernible in the darkness. As I decided to turn right on the beach towards Colva, I heard ferocious barking of many dogs and immediately turned left which was relatively silent and started running towards Varca. As I started running, I could see a distant light and soon, as that was getting obscured by fog; it was me and darkness on the beach with the vast sea on my right. I felt as if I was running towards eternity and this would be the way I would end by just vanishing into the darkness as I run into it. What a thought!  What a way to die, it would be any runner’s dream, I guess! This thought was disturbed suddenly by the barking of a dog. It was quite distant, but my mind was obsessed and I was scared of these dogs coming charging at me. And being all alone on the beach is also another vulnerability which these excited guys can take advantage of, which normally should never happen, but fear is always there in the mind. I was desperately trying to overcome these fears and get out of it, and that is why I always try and get out in the dark to face these fears and overcome them. Incidentally, when I speak to my lady friends, I realise that they are tormented by an additional fear more realistic than mine, of dangerous human beings of the other sex, and that keeps them away from coming out alone in the dark. Really sad state of affairs, dogs and animals are much better than human beings, they only attack when feel threatened, human beings attack for sadistic reasons. I wonder why a woman has to be scared of another human being, when all of us have always been told by all our near and dear to spread love, peace and harmony. Why is there so much strife and hatred filled in our minds? Is it because of the inputs we keep receiving in terms of media, newspapers etc.?  How many times do we appreciate all that we are blessed with, have gratitude for everything and enjoy the present moment?  “Compassion for all” should be the key mantra in our minds whenever we are faced with adversity, isn’t it?  I try to tune my mind for the dogs that bark at me and I fail many times especially when they come charging at me ferociously, I wonder what must be going through a woman’s mind when she is alone and a man charges at her. A dog is smaller in size and can be easily overpowered by any human, but for a woman being stalked by a man, it is the opposite, as if I were to face a lion on the beach or an animal much more powerful than me and with absolutely injurious intentions. This is really tough for anyone to face. All these thoughts and more were playing in my mind during the run. I was all alone on the beach for the entire run duration and it was as if I was in a different world.

As I continued my journey unfettered by the barking noise of the dog, it stopped and again I was in the throes of nature and enjoyed the solitude for about half an hour and was unable to see where I had reached, when I was again disturbed by loud ferocious barking of many dogs ahead. I decided to stay away from trouble and immediately turned back and started my return leg. As I proceeded ahead, I had my first chase of three dogs that came barking and charged at me. I ran faster and faster and tried to ignore them, but my mind was stuck with fear that I was going to get bitten by them. Soon, I realised that they were no longer behind me. I presume that they were guarding their territory from strangers and a running stranger must be a serious threat for them.  As I moved ahead, again there were two small dogs, just outgrown puppies I guess,  who were not barking but started pacing with me. Instinctively, I slowed down and started walking and they just went away resuming their play together. I started running again and soon I reached my starting point and the light was just beginning to show up and I saw an old man who comes daily for walking on the beach. I asked him the time and it was 0640 hrs and it was time for my “morning smiling friend” to show up at a nearby beach entrance. So I started jogging towards that direction to meet her and continue a long walk with her where we discuss varied topics on photography, which is her passion, books, yoga, meditation, philosophy of life etc. I love to have such conversations early in the morning as the mind is fresh and the thoughts are pure and unpolluted by the events of the day. There were a number of starfish on the beach and she clicked some close-up snaps of them. It was a lovely morning on the beach with the tide being low and heavy fog all over. 

                We discussed about life and she said that the most important part of life is to live “attentively” as in if we pay attention every moment to everything within us and around us, we actually live in the present, and life is all about living in the present. I had just read about Hatha Yoga in a book and re-stated the facts given about the eight steps in yoga namely Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi.  I find it similar to Vippasana where there are three steps viz. Sheel, Samadhi and Pragnya.  Sheel and Yama are same, Samadhi in Vippasana is equivalent to the next seven steps of Yoga where the mind is controlled and a person becomes the master of the mind, and Samadhi of yoga is the stage of Pragnya in Vippasana where a person gains wisdom by self-realization/ experience. Basically all these arts of meditation and exercise teach us to live life attentively in the present and overcome the fears and worries of the past or the future.  We also spoke about this child prodigy who expired this January at a young age of 16 years and had written a book which was published on the day she died , and that too in the Jaipur Litfest called “The Little Epiphanies”. She had written about all the glorious moments of her life and her dreams before she died. She knew that she was dying and I believe had asked to live a little longer from God as she wanted to do so much more. Sad but real , but  children are so pure and un-polluted by the ways of the world, so in a way, they are much closer to God. There is so much to learn from children, yes, it is the adults who have to learn from children and not vice-versa. 

                   Running in the dark and discovering your own mind and overcoming the “shadows of demons” is also a moment of epiphany especially when you get to see the marvels of nature unfold as the day begins each morning. After a long walk of discussion on all these points, time had really flown and it was already 08:10 Am and I was really late as I normally leave for office by this time. So I bade goodbye and ran back to my house and had a quick bath, breakfast and managed to reach office at sharp 0900 hrs. The day had begun beautifully with a lot of activity both physically as well as intellectually. I had achieved a tempo run (albeit with some unwanted breaks) as well as a stimulating conversation to mull over  and evolve in life. 

Dr Ramani marathon at Ponda- An awesome experience..

After a not so successful FM at SCMM 2015 with a weak finish and a timing of 4hr 28 min, this is the first event I decided to participate and it was very convenient as there was a group registration and the Bibs were also collected by a representative. So the only trouble I had to take was to reach there for the Marathon, which also was taken care by a co-resident staying close by and we had a car pool of five people going together for the race. So the day began early at 0400 wake up time and I left home at 0450 to a nearby friend’s place from where we were being picked up at 0510 hrs.  We were picked up on time and there was too much fog on the way, which is why the race was commencing at 0615 hrs. There were no direction boards, very few volunteers and we were searching the place for quite some time but soon enough we heard loud music and there we were in front of the Sports centre and we could see a number of cars parked there. We joined the gang of “Sussegado Runners” who were easy to identify as we were all wearing the recently acquired T-shirts/ singlets. After customary greetings and meetings, all started doing their warm up sessions and soon enough we were in the start line waiting for the count-down. I had decided to run at a pace which is befitting a race pace as per my capability and I wanted to assess my capability without stretching the body too much. In GRM , I had tried to keep pace with a fast runner and I succeeded and achieved my PB of 1hr 37.44 min but I realised that I had overstretched myself as I had jammed quads after the race for two days( DOMS). Now, I wanted to observe my race pace without overstretching myself, and I have been practicing shorter distances at a faster pace than my earlier 5:30 min/km pace. I have been doing a pace of 5:00 min/km for about 10-15 km in my practice runs and I found myself comfortable in maintaining this pace without overstretching myself. So with this pace for a HM, my timing should be 1hr 45 min. Of course during a race, adrenaline levels are high and the brain takes you faster than training pace so I estimated a time somewhere under 1:45 as my finish timing. Coincidentally my BIB number was 4545. Secrets of the universe, I was being told that 1hr 45 min is my timing target for this race. Anyways, shod of a Garmin or a watch (being a FreeRunner, I have not used gadgets for long now), I tried to evaluate my pace while running. The route was through the city for a while and soon enough we were into the interiors, plenty of uphills and downhills and through water bodies on both sides, quaint villages, bridges, temples, the scene was breathtaking and naturesque. I couldn't have asked for a better route as I love to run in such surroundings and Goa has been quite generous in giving me many such opportunities. I would rate Goa better than Pune with respect to the amount of greenery and natural surroundings here, especially as we enter into the interiors of villages, the untouched rustic landscape is awesome and something that I love.

As I surged ahead of the initial running crowd,  I soon found myself running alone with no one behind or ahead of me for a long distance and after about an hour of running, I overtook a young girl who seemed to be a local sports person. The running route was through quaint villages and water bodies and then old temples and the scenery on the way was breath taking. I was so mesmerized with the scenery and the environment, I never realized all the hills that I was crossing. I was enjoying watching the rustic scenes of village folk performing their morning functions, the cultural activities are very rich here, people were busy plucking flowers for the morning prayers and many had come out of their houses to look at us funnily dressed people running and drenched with sweat early in the morning. I wished and greeted many of them and got return replies from some of them. Later I overtook a runner who looked at me very surprised and told me that I have come the wrong way. I was angry first, then calmed down and told him that I have come as I have been guided by the volunteers and I don’t know any other way, as I am new to this part of Goa. He was surprised that there was no one behind him for long, so where did I suddenly appear from; I think he was concerned about me overtaking him. I just disregarded his remark and quietly went ahead and continued my run focusing on my form and pace. I learnt later that he is a 52 year old runner who always manages a podium finish. He had recently come first in the Tower Run held at Panjim and is a nice person whom I befriended easily after the finish of the race. I told myself to focus on my run and soon I was climbing a difficult hill and I managed to continue running at a constant pace. Again I was all alone and I was not aware of how much of distance is left, and soon enough I saw some volunteers who shouted that only 3 Km are left. So I decided to start pacing for a strong finish and moved ahead, but the last part of the race also had a up-slope and then had to cross a busy bus-stand and then go back to the sports complex and since I did not know the place very well, I missed my 200-300 m sprint here as there was a blind turn and I was into the road leading to the sports complex just 50-100 m away. I just sprinted the last 50-100 m and finished the race strong. I was satisfied but there was no one telling the timing. I asked the time from someone and it was about 0805. If the race had started at 0615, then I was below my mark of 1hr 45 min and I was very disappointed. However, after a few minutes, a running friend of mine finished and congratulated me and he said that his timing was 1 hr 45 min. So I knew that I had to be under that. As I went to the timing counter, I realised that my name was written there on their merit sheet. I had stood Third in the open category of men, and I was awarded a cash prize of 5000/=. This is the first time I have ever won a cash prize in a sports event. Last time I had a podium finish was in Pune Happy Hearts Marathon where the prize was a free membership in a gymnasium which was 28 Km away from my house.  Anyways, my Sunday had started very well with an awesome experience of a run in naturesque surroundings and the icing on top of the cake was my podium finish with a cash prize.   The biggest advantage of this run was my renewed energy and target for pace for the next HM where I would try and maintain a pace to get a finish time of 1 hr 40 min or lower. This is to ensure that I am out of my comfort zone soon enough which is essential to keep the “flow” on... My timing in this race was 1:43:09, almost close to 1:45. 

Just a small write up on "Why do I run?"

Running is My Oxygen

Why do I run?  Running was never related to winning a race for me, I have never been an athlete in my childhood or even later. Then what is the reason for this mad addiction to get up each morning and get out for a run with a target in mind.  I ask this question to myself and sometimes don’t get a clear answer.

But why is an answer required? There are many things in life which are intangible and inexpressible in words. The feeling that I get every day after a run is great as if I have achieved something, and this feeling eggs me to run more, set higher targets and the story continues. There are ups and downs each day, some days are lost due to travel/ social commitments etc. and for a runner, each day lost means going back in training especially if the break in running is more than a couple of days. Consistency and commitment to training schedule is extremely important to avoid injuries.  The human body is a marvellous piece of machinery which adapts and conditions itself to whatever you decide to do with it. So is that it? Am I trying to discover the capability of this human body by running longer distances and trying to see how the adaptation process occurs? The mind plays games every day, some pain here, some niggle there, but once you start running, all this disappears and appears only afterwards in the day, especially if I am idle. On a busy day, there are no pains or niggles. Amazing thing, isn’t it? It is how our minds have been conditioned by us and how the body reacts to it. When I run long, I focus on my form and keep checking my breathing pattern. That way the mind is busy and stays away from idleness and pain. So is idleness and pain related? Maybe, is it why as humans age conventionally, they develop pains in joints, muscles etc.. Is ageing due to idleness? We may argue that ageing happens therefore we become incapable of doing things and so idleness is because of incapability. But how is it that a person who has never run in his life takes up running and is able to run a full marathon comfortably even at an age of 60?  This is the absolute reality and fact on ground, and not a mere imagination or exception of one odd individual. Take anyone who is reasonably healthy and not already suffering from some disease, and start training him/ her, I am sure that the person will be able to run and put aside ageing for a long time to come.. So is this why I run, am I trying to put aside ageing and become immortal?

Running is next to nature; I don’t run inside a gymnasium on a treadmill, I love to run outside on roads, beaches, and parks and so on. Why? Because I love nature, when I run generally in the mornings, there is solitude and peace of mind. I can harmonize with the trees, birds, the darkness of the very early mornings slowly opening out to the first rays of the sun and if I turn lucky to hear the roaring of the sea and playing with the tide on the beach as you run along the water line. It is really beautiful to be out in the early hours of the day and become one with nature. It is said that the mind is most fresh in the early hours and maximum creativity flows during these hours.  Let us analyse and see what happens inside this mind:-

When I wake up in the morning, a thought arises,

Mind:  Am I OK to run or should I give it a rest today?

This happens usually in the mid-week time when you have run at least two or three consecutive days. There is bound to be a niggle here or there and the mind identifies it and this becomes a reason to not go for the run.  

Self: You cannot skip, have to go, just put on your shoes and WPJ and out you go.

Mind: Even the running coach says, if not feeling up to it, give it a break, if you overdo, you will injure yourself.

Self: Shut up and get out of the house, everything will be alright.

This play goes on for a while and then finally the steely resolution and the thought of the beautiful sounds and scenes outside seduce me to step out of the house. Then it is pleasure and paradise on earth... So guys.. Just kick yourself out of the house and see the magic after that....

Happy waking up and early morning running.......

All the best for SCMM 2015... all those participating...

 

Big occasions and races which have been eagerly anticipated almost to the point of dread, are where great deeds can be accomplished. – Jack Lovelock

Goa River Marathon 2014

Goa River Marathon 2014

Well, How do I begin... It is definitely a milestone to have achieved a first sub-100 HM at this event. I personally had not even set this target and was just planning to run and treat it as a training run for the upcoming SCMM. But things happen, and when you are least expecting it to happen. My friend Purnendu Nath, whom I met recently just a few months ago at Pune, and we ran together, then we again met up in Goa when he was holidaying and again we ran together on the beautiful beaches of Goa together, we ran twice, once a normal 10K on the beach and the second time we did 8 speed runs of 1K on the beach and the road leading to the beach from my residence, four each.  It was an amazing experience to train with Puru the Guru( That’s what he is known as), he is also the famous six pack guy who always runs bare chested and is therefore the cynosure of the eyes of many damsels ( they may not be in distress though...). He trains specifically for this event at Goa and is very serious about his performance and has a garmin which is pre-fed with a lot of information and warning limits as he has to track his performance with respect to cadence, average height lift off from the ground, pace etc. etc.. . I am not used to running with gadgets and therefore am quite illiterate and ignorant about it, but when someone with a gadget is running alongside, I do get tempted to know my pace and performance, because it a sure-shot feedback and you can plan to improve. So Puru came home for dinner, and me being a lousy host, made him cook along with me and we prepared a funny concoction of rice, pulses, and mashed potatoes and mixed it with fried tomatoes and onions. It was like “sludge”, yes that was the word he used to describe the result of our effort. Hopefully it was a nutritious pre-marathon night meal with sufficient carbohydrates. He just mentioned that I should be targeting a sub-100 as he has run with me earlier and he felt that it was do-able by me. I was not so sure about it because the best I have done so far was a 1hr 41 min at Pune which was a bit of a cheating as the distance was about 800 m short of 21K, and the last year, my GRM timing was 1hr and 52 minutes. GRM has two hills both on the going as well as the return route and the weather gods have not been particularly happy this time in Goa, being quite warm for a mid December morning.  So I was not at all sure if it was even possible. Anyways, I made up my mind in the night that I would target a sub-100 and started making strategies and also asked Puru for his strategy, so he immediately did a calculation and brought out a figure of 4.43 min/Km average pace for the race.  I am used to “5. Something min/Km” and so this average value kind of intimidated me a bit, but then I said I need to pull up my socks and try and achieve a PB this time. The thought started playing in my mind and I started to imagine how I will start off strong and try and continue strong by focussing on my form and try not to lose the form in the return leg, too.   

             I woke up at 0330 am, and left for my friend Appu Rajan’s house who I had planned to go along with for the race as he lives close-by and knows the roads well (another friend whom I recently met at Benaulim Goa, while running on the beach). Appu Rajan is also an amazing runner, about 64 years of age, he has been running long distance for the last approx 30 years or so, he is a Tamilian guy living in Goa for the last 40 years. He finished in 2hrs and 10 min. Running the mock race in Goa about 2 weeks earlier definitely helped as I had identified a public toilet near the airport and I generally get the urge to visit the washroom twice in the morning especially during the race day, and it is always better to identify a place close by but not with the crowd of runners to save time.

        It was amazing to meet up with the entire Savio’s gang after a long time and this is something that I really want to write about. All my work life of about 21 years in the Navy, I have not made so many friends as in these last 2-3 years because of running. In my running network, if I may so call it, I have about 50-60 runner friends in Mumbai, about 25-30 in Pune and now about 30-40 in Goa with whom I can really interact any time as we all have a common interest and life is suddenly looking very interesting. I have been travelling places in the Navy, but my running life in three places viz. Mumbai, Pune and Goa have given me so many friends. What more can a person ask for, I am so thankful to God that I am able to run and I would like to keep running forever, because I just love to make more friends and meet new people and enjoy these running moments. This is almost like meditation and I even love to write about these experiences, because I believe that when you put down on paper what is in your mind, the feelings and thoughts get cemented and stronger beliefs and values are set.  Secondly running helps you to break your own mental barriers and become a stronger person. Each day is different and there are highs and lows but running goes on and targets are always there looking up to your resolve and training to get there and achieve them. The flow of life is fully fresh and happening in such a situation wherein you are always preparing to achieve a set target, it has been a long journey of starting to run with a timing of “2hrs and 07 min” for a HM in 2009 to today’s PB of “1hr and 38 min” approximately (I still do not know my official timing..). What I have come to realise is that there is nothing impossible to achieve if we set our mind to it and put in our full hearted efforts to achieve the target. It is important to keep pushing ourselves out of our own comfort zone, whatever it may be, whether in job or in running as only then, there is a flow happening in life, else there is stagnation and life becomes uninteresting and dry.

        Let me get my thoughts back to this wonderful memorable event GRM 2014. So I met quite a lot of interesting people, thanks to the celebrity Puru who was with me. A podium finisher in most races, Andrea Stadler, an amazing spirited runner, who is practicing for the SCMM 2015 FM, said that she planned to do an additional 10K if she felt well after the race. I don’t know from where it came, but I immediately volunteered and said that I too was interested in running an additional 10K and would love to run with her. She was very happy that she would have some company after the race. But I was scared as she is a 1hr 40min runner and I was not yet sure that I would be able to keep up that pace, anyways, the game was on and we started warming up and moving towards the start point. We all were together: Puru, Andrea, self, Ajit, Azeez, Vikas and Sohini (who had come with Puru from Mumbai) when the race started. We strategised to move from the sides and get out of the crowd as soon as the race started and we followed the plan brilliantly and Puru , Ajit and self just took off from the sides and overtook most of the people much before even 1-1.5 k. The race was on, I had to keep up the pace with Puru and Ajit, who were about 10-15 m ahead of me. But I was felling scared that my pace may be too much to maintain throughout the 21k. I focused on my breathing and form and kept these two guys in sight all the time and ensured that the gap did not increase. I purposely did not want to catch up with them because I wanted to set my rythm correctly to match with my breathing and form. I maintained the form till we reached the hill and there I could see the gap closing as they were a bit slow, I kind of run uphill faster as I enjoy it and sub-consciously put in effort to increase my pace while running uphill, it has something to do with my mind telling me to face challenges with more power.  I maintained a lag of about 5-7 m continuously after that and finally we reached the turnaround point. This was the first time I saw the elite runners cross in the return path at about 9K point, normally I am used to seeing them at 6.5-7.0 K point. I knew that I was doing good time, Aziz too was running with me and his garmin was giving the pace at each Km and I heard 4.31 and 4.32 at 8k and 9K, so I was feeling good about being able to maintain a good pace.   After the turn around, it was good as I could see people ( Savio Sir and Roshan running together), and I felt good that I was ahead of Savio. I decided that I had to maintain my pace and not let anyone overtake, I saw Andrea who was just about 100m behind after I turned around. On the return leg, I could feel that Puru had slowed down a bit as I was constantly catching up with him and running with him for some time and then he would again go ahead. Every uphill, I would overtake him and in the downhill, he would just take off like a rocket past me and increase the gap by about 20 m. It was scary but the last hill I overtook both Puru and Ajit and for quite some time they did not catch up and then finally they overtook me and I too decided to increase my pace and stay just behind Puru to maintain a rhythm, I was confident that Puru would help me achieve my PB today, whatever it was.  So I faithfully followed Puru and Ajit and I was feeling good about everything, my pace was good and I was not feeling tired and I was mentally strategising about the last 200m sprint to make up time and boy, was I glad to see the 500m board, and then the turning and before I knew it I was sprinting towards the end point and I knew that I had left both Puru and Ajit behind, but I  was only looking at the finish board and I sprinted across the mat and turned around to see both Ajit and Puru about 50-60 m behind the finsh point. Puru came to me and showed me his garmin time of 1hr 38min and told me that I would be 1hr 37 min, and I was feeling elated as this was a tough run and I still achieved my PB of 1hr 37 min and joined the “100 min” gang of HM runners.  Incidentally, this was Ajit’s first sub-100 HM too and we hugged each other with joy and I thanked Puru from the bottom of my heart for having given me the thought of sub-100 yesterday night. This thought only led me to break the mental barrier and achieve a higher goal.  Most of us are capable of doing much better and we don’t realise our own potential and therefore need to keep pushing ourselves to achieve higher targets and one of the ways is to identify a mentor or running buddy who is better and then try and match up to his/ her pace. This strategy has worked wonders with me; first it was Dr. Muthukrishnan Jayaraman at Pune, and now Dr. Purnendu Nath( Puru the Guru) at Goa. I have still a long way to go before I can catch up to the pace of these two amazing runners as they are both way better than me, and I hope they will allow me to run with them so that I can better my own timings as they better theirs. This way, the flow of improvement continues and the challenge is always on.

        Andrea soon followed at 1hr 42 min and she again was a podium finisher here. We took two glasses of electral/ enerzal and started our 10K sojourn back on the same route. She is a very strong runner and I again just wanted to keep up with her pace and I managed to be with her till the 5K turning point after which my laces had come off and I had to stop for a while and we had two uphills to do in this 10K run, and I just could not continue the pace on the return leg, as my legs were feeling tired and I slowed down considerably and at about 29K, I stopped and walked for a bit till I reached a water aid station and emptied two cold water cups on my head. I felt rejuvenated instantly and started jogging immediately after that and I completed my 10K in a little over an hour. I could see Andrea waiting and stretching at the finish point and I thanked her for the great run. So finally I had a PB and a 31K run this Sunday which will be etched in my memory forever because it is my first sub 100 and also because I met some really amazing people and intend to be friends forever with them...

   The event was very well organized with sufficient water aid stations and on the return leg, there were oranges and bananas, which ere thoughtfully peeled. There were biscuits too, on the whole, a well organised event with a lovely crowd cheering us when we ran. I hope the saps would come soon so that I can add them to this blog which would cement these memories for a long time to come.

        Adios and looking forward to the Mecca of Marathons in India..the SCMM 2015.... Hope to meet up with a lot of friends there...