The Pl(r)easures Of Running

It is a lazy Sunday morning. It's raining and the weather is quite cold - perfect for snuggling in right? Wrong. I am leaving for the gym, to do nothing less than a 1 hour run. I have no one else to blame but myself for this and this is how it happened...

My first run was the Mumbai Marathon in 2005. It was awesome to participate in. The crowd, the people, everyone running together... I went again in 2006 but couldn't complete because of leg pain. I kept the bib (running number) though and even took it with me when I left Mumbai for Chennai. No runs there although my boss was a member of a running club and it quite intrigued me. I just didn't have the energy or drive to get up really early on weekends and go running.

After coming to Bangalore, the first run I went for was the Sunfeast Marathon in 2008. I told everyone that I was going, practiced for two weeks and somehow managed to complete 5.7 kms in about 32 minutes. The satisfaction I got from a) running the whole distance and b) crossing the finish line was awesome. That's when I got serious about running. So I took my bibs out and put them up on my office board. In a way, it was inspirational and reminded that I just needed to focus and pull along and I could achieve things. I have since then added three more to it, the last one being the Nike 10k Human Race. I completed that in 62 minutes. Yup, very proud ;-)

The pressure part comes from the fact that I feel that I have to up the distance. So from 5 kms I went to 10 kms and now on Nov 15th, I am going to attempt 25 kms at the Bangalore Ultra 2009. Plus, timings do matter you know. Also, people in office keep coming up and saying things like - Wow you run, that's cool or Lets go for this event or that event. So now I really have to keep running. But I don't mind no sirree. It keeps me fit. Its brought down my paunch. And like I said, its great fun, addictive even. So I'm really looking forward to Sunday morning even if it means no partying on Saturday, getting up at 4am and driving out in the cold.