On a cold
windy morning of the 25th of Dec, 2013, when I randomly decided to
go for a short run, little did I realise that it would change my life, for
good. Five years hence, multiple 10kms, few Half Marathons and two Full Marathons
later, I can proudly say I’m a “RUNNER FOR LIFE!”
I started
running primarily to lose weight that I had put on post the birth of my son. My
workout and gym routine became irregular and I ended up piling on the kilos.
Once things settled down, I wanted to do something different and decided to
give running a try. Though the first few days were torturous where I
unsuccessfully tried my hand at running, I’m proud of the fact that I didn’t
give up. I have slowly and steadily progressed from doing 5kms to Full
Marathons, something that I never even dreamt of when I started.
I finished
my first Full Marathon on the 15th of Jan, 2017, in Mumbai. Post
that I didn’t have any running targets, took things easy and just meandered
along (didn’t give up running though). That’s when I realised the need for a
more focussed and methodical approach to running, one that would help me
achieve my targets. That’s when I decided to join PaceMakers with a few running
buddies of mine and rest, as they say, is history!
It took me
time to get used to Pani sir’s approach to running, his training schedule and
was fretting about the targets that he set for me. However gradually the result
of all the gruelling training sessions started showing up in the events that I
participated in. More than the personal best timings that I constantly clocked,
the training has helped me become a strong runner and made me aware of my
capabilities, which I didn’t know existed until I joined the group. Running
with a group always makes a difference and I realised that when I started
training with the other members of the group. Their motivation, zeal,
enthusiasm and constant drive to excel rubs off automatically and you end up
giving your best all the time. It has been a fabulous 6 months with the PaceMakers
group so far and I hope to go long & strong with them!
What started
off as an activity to lose weight has become a passion, something that I hope
to continue for the rest of my life. It provides a ‘ME’ time, wherein I interact,
introspect and put things in perspective. There’s a famous quote that I can
think of now – “If you don’t get solutions to your problems during your long
run, you never will!” and I absolutely believe that. They say runners are crazy
and I’m more than happy to be one!
