Until a few years ago, Sports was an extracurricular activity in our Society except Cricket. It is known as a religion in India as its aspirants, participants, and supporters outnumber all other sports. And we as country, known as game-loving, not game-playing country. But recently things have changed with individual achievements at national and international Big Events. And we are more aware about sports like Badminton, Shooting, Kabaddi, Athletics etc. than before. Like others, I was active mostly in cricket from school to college days due to resources & exposure constraints in other sports. Like I had a perception that running competitions are all about 100m, 200, 400m and max 1Km. With time, I moved to Bangalore for work after graduation and did participate in Annual Sports day once in a year. So regular sports activity was almost out of my daily routine syllabus for quite a bit of time.

In 2017, I joined the third company of my Professional career and met Satish & Devender (who joined after me in one month). During Office gossip over Tea/coffee break in the canteen, I came to know that both Devender & Sathish are runners & participated in many Running events in the past. Satish used to focus on distance as he participated in marathons while Devender’s focus was on timing for 10Km. As Humans follow & imitate others in the tribe, I too started joining them in the office gym for practice after office hours. To be honest, I never tried the treadmill before this. So I was excited & a bit nervous about using the treadmill. I started with just 1Km with speed 10/hr which was basically walking, whereas both Devender and Satish were far ahead with respect to both distance & speed. I never bothered about it. Instead, I tried to do two things 1) Not to break the chain of going to the gym and 2) Cover some distance and follow Goldilocks rule.

Gym was located in the same office building, which increased chances of being regular. Also , the treadmills are placed close to the glass wall of the building from where you can see scenic greenery of campus. With progress, slowly started covering more than 1Km and reached upto 3Km. Many times during this initial phase, I thought of not doing any activity & going back home after hectic office hours. Then I thought of doing just 1Km and reached the gym. But while coming out of the gym, I completed more than 1Km and sometimes more than 3Km also. Meanwhile, I have a few more friends in the gym after daily interactions and some of our other team members have also joined us. We used to have some discussions about individual strategy and get tips from Devender & Satish about post running warmups. Some benefits to practice with pro runners.

Then came my first Running Event, i.e. Free 10Km near Whitefield Inorbit Mall and it was time to test my wings. I was not fully convinced that I could complete it. But you will feel energy and motivation when you are surrounded by energetic runners & start with them. The event started with more than 100 participants and I completed my first 10Km in ~75 mins by hook & crook. Sense of achievement that I completed the 10Km run for the first time in my life. This experience helped me mentally to realize that I can do it and that it is not too late to start running. Also, I saw some runners finishing after me. After reaching home, I had to use lukewarm water to dip my legs & do an oil massage as my legs were paining like hell. I was unable to walk for the next couple of days. But there was an inner satisfaction of doing something which I doubted in the first place. Then after a few days, I again started the Office gym with my pro-mates. With incremental additions to both distance & speed, I started running around 5Km in 35mins in just 3–4months, which was not a bad start. Practicing together during the Initial phase kept me motivated to keep doing it & start participating in running events. I never thought in my wildest imagination that one day I would be participating in a running event six months back.

Gradually, I participated in running events organized by NEB Sports with my fellow runners in Jayanagar & Budigere, Bangalore, then proper professional running events like Bangalore 10Km in the same calendar year. It is known as the tougher 10Km because of its track. It was a great experience to run with different types of runners like athletes from SAI, Senior citizens, young aspirants, amateur runners & many more. You can’t feel the essence unless you are present in that place.

Meanwhile, Satish moved on to a new company and eventually, I also joined the new company. I gained a lot personally from this habit apart from professional experience. And thanks to Devender, Sathish & other runners mate. As we moved to different companies in Bangalore, it was difficult to meet & track daily practices. So we followed each other in running app Strava. On weekends, we used to meet in Agara Lake Park, Bangalore, trained with the sketchers group for pre & post warm ups and ran together. In the meantime I participated in TCS10K@18 (with 55:26), Bangalore10K@18, TCS10K@19, Bangalore10K@19 and NEB Sports Events with running mates.

With the entry of covid, meetups in Agara Lake Park have also become obsolete. Also we moved to different cities & countries with time & situation. These unavoidable situations added more friction to running together but taught us to explore new plans, new possible tracks and connect to new Runners. I met a new professional ultra-marathon runner Amar in a new city and was amazed by his discipline and track records. And completed my first half marathon (i.e. 21KM) in October 2020 with new fellow mates. Tracking in Strava app helps me to run regularly with greater motivation. When you see your progress report at the end of each day, each month & each year, there is some inner satisfaction that you did something better for yourself Healthwise, which we usually ignore until we realize it.

Life is much like going for a run. The most painful part is deciding (to tie up shoe lace as many things drag you down, like waking up early, weather conditions, friends, etc.). Once you get past that (and run on track), it is easy. Story is same for all runners, who never gave up running. Be a Finisher. Be a Runner.

Connect & share your experience. Strava.

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