It was four clock in morning when my alarm woke me up. I was actually waiting for it to wake me up. And every time when I wait for alarm to wake me, I know how passionately, I am waiting for my run. Twenty Kms was all I wanted to run this morning. I had never run that distance till now. I was certainly excited about it. I knew I can do it. And what could have been better choice than running in RFL (Runners For Life) long run at Bellandur It is always exciting and encouraging to run with group of highly motivated runners. And RFL long runs always have that.
Oh my god, I could hear the rain beating outside the windows. It wasn’t that heavy. But certainly enough to kill my plans to travel to running destination. I was not ready to give up. I got into my running gears. At five o clock, I walked outside apartment to see if I can ride my avenger in the rain. And then I gave up. I meant I gave up on traveling to Sarjapur road. Definitely, didn’t give up today’s run. At 6:30, after rain stopped, I decided to start my run. Run like I will never get to run again. Rain discouraged, clouds were demotivating. Sun came out of clouds for small time when I was totally dipped in sweat. GPS fell apart as it does often in cloudy weather. I ended running 18.85 KM, little less than what I planned. Thanks to Saurabh Kumar to give company at the end of run. When I ended I was filled with satisfaction – Runner’s satisfaction. Those endrophins produced must be responsible for part of that satisfaction. There was another reason too. I completed my 500 Kms of recorded running today. And I am proud that I did it.
I started running this January. My growing tummy was major reason. Another reason was dream to run a marathon. And I thought that it will be a dream forever. I was never in sports. In school, I could hardly run. I remember I used to finish my 100 meters in 19-20 seconds. And even failed in P.E. Exam. I always used my flat foot as excuse for that. At under-graduation level, I tried running, but that was far too rare than often. In spite of it, I was never overweight except once before this. (I will thanks my beautiful genes for this.) Being overweight at this time was very scary for me. I couldn’t have imagined myself with that fat binded body. I decided to take on running.
My pursuit of running in January didn’t last very long. Just few runs on consecutive days, including a six KM RFL run (which I called long run at that time) and totaling less than 22 KMs, were enough to cause knee injury. I wasn’t discouraged with that. Certainly, there must be some mistake. Well, if millions of people can run across the world, why can’t I. I was not ready to use my old excuse this time. It took me almost month and half to recover from injury and I spent time to read more and more about running. Thanks that I am born in this age of free information.Runnersworld.com and Coolrunning.com were awesome resource. And discussions in Runnersforlife.com forum were informational and inspiring. I knew that these people in RFL forum are real people around me in Bangalore. And I have to be like them.
I restarted my running journey in March end. I had all rules set this time. I am going to run not more than four days a week. I will listen to my body. I will give enough time for recovery when required. I will try different running workouts like interval training, easy run, long run, speed work and not just keep pushing me to run more every run. And certainly, I will do good stretching after run. And this time, I was able to keep running injury free.
I was liking running. I was enjoying running. But I needed more people to run with me. Certainly, It is not boring for me to run alone as it gives me enough time with myself. But I believed, it might be more encouraging to run with a group of runners. Also, I wanted to be bombarded with advices from experienced runners. I had known about Nike Run Club from RFL website. They organize running and stretching exercises every Saturday in Kanteerava Stadium. I had doubts about going approximately 10 Kms to seek runners. Only when I attended session once, I realize that this was what I needed. In fact, club has what every beginner requires – Star coach and Supportive runners.
I was soon able to run longer, better and definitely injury free. I finished my first 10 K run in May. And now I am preparing for my first half marathon run – Kaveri Trail Marathon in September. Today, I finished running my first 500 Kilometers, spread mainly over last fifteen weeks. I will like to thanks few of those who helped me in reaching milestone. Firstly, I will like to thank my companion on all runs – Runkeeper.com, an iphone / android based on application, which helps me in keeping track of all my runs. They have been doing awesome work in making app better and improving user experience. I will like to thank Runners for life for conducting those nice runs and hosting the website and forum which helped me in my learning about running. I will thank Nike Run Club for organizing training session. Recommended for both beginners and experienced. And I will like to thank all my friends on facebook.com, dailymile.com, runkeeper.com and in non digital world for all their encouragements.
