I'm a geologist living in Bangalore, India. This blog is an attempt to document my
journey as a runner.
Like most, I discovered my passion for
running after a couple of years lounging around in a comfy office chair. That
wasn’t to say that I had never run before: the boarding school I attended
insisted that all students who were lousy at cricket, football, hockey, and
whatever else had to run cross country. Being more of an intellectual (I like
to tell myself that) I was forced to spend my evenings running around Ketti
Valley in the lovely Nilgiri Hills. What made me loathe running back then was
the fact that if you didn’t complete the course on time, you’d be ridiculed by
the Principal at assembly the next day and have points docked off your house championship
tally. Being an intellectual (refer above) I devised an elaborate strategy to run
the course in time. Did this comprise a strict training regimen supplemented
with nutritious food? Nope. I became an expert in taking shortcuts through tea
gardens, the staff quarters, underneath fences, and just about anywhere I could
to shave a few minutes off my running time.
Then came the fateful day of the inter
house championship. Staff were positioned strategically along the route to
ensure that intellectuals such as myself (refer above) did not use our little
grey cells for nefarious purposes. Even worse, we had to collect tickets every kilometre
or so to prove we had passed by fairly! Some people will stop at nothing I
tell you!
I completed the course three seconds late
and had fifty points deducted from my house and several loud words directed at
me (and a couple other poor sods) by my house captain. Life was hard.
After boarding school, I went to Bombay for
college and promptly forgot everything about running. Five years later and I
was in Bangalore, about to start my first ever job. A colleague was a runner
and we exchanged stories: his about a PR at the Chennai Marathon a year
earlier, and mine about the time I ate wild passion fruit that was growing along
one of my favourite shortcuts in Ooty.
He convinced me to dust off my shoes and I started running again, doing
5, 8 and 10 k runs for the next two years.
In January 2017, I ran the half-marathon at
the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon. My training regimen was less than
stellar, but having made the decision to crowdfund for a few animal welfare
NGOs as part of my run I was determined to complete the course. I managed to
finish without hurting myself, the NGOs got Rs. 22,000, but Life was still hard,
especially for the next few days.
I then made the monumentally irresponsible
decision to run the Ladakh Half-Marathon. I had always wanted to visit Ladakh,
and when I saw a booth advertising the Marathon at the SCMM Expo, I made up my
mind to do it. This time though, I decided to get help. A half-marathon in
Mumbai was bad enough. One at 11,000 feet? This was no joke.
That brought me to Mr. Murthy and his Excelbased training plans. Running in Ladakh was one of the most superb experiences
I’ve ever had thanks to the training, and I hesitated only a little to sign up
for my first full marathon: the reincarnated Mumbai Marathon, now being
sponsored by Tata. Ladakh was also rewarding for other reasons: I crowdfunded
for a cause once more, raising Rs. 81,850 for a wildlife conservation NGO I
worked with in my childhood.
Besides giving me the opportunity to write
(something I enjoy immensely but usually use some kind of excuse to avoid
doing), I hope this blog finds its way to the screens of other fledgling
runners like me and helps them understand that training for long distance
running is serious, but extremely rewarding, business. So without further ado,
welcome to my running journey!
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