I am no natural athlete and running for that matter was something quite mundane. I had always preferred my little excursions on my bicycle over other outdoor activities. The sound of the whirring wheels always fascinated me over the clip clop of the soles burning the tarmac.
However,around the beginning of this year, I started getting worried about the red "OVERWEIGHT" flashing on the BMI calculators. Initially, the classic escapist that was me, avoided the calculators altogether for a couple of months, then in a sudden surge of high impulse I joined a Gym (Fitness One Jayanagar(Fitness One) ). In the past, I had enrolled for gym memberships, all of them ending up expired and unused. However, this time it was a little different, for one the gym was compact, which suited me. It was not congested and people stuck to their own business of staying fit.
I started doing the treadmills, target 10km/hr for half an hour. Over time, I ramped it up to around 14.5 km/ hr. I pushed up the time limit to one hour on weekends and found that I was moderately fresh after the workout. Of course, the running was accompanied by some music, mostly racy tunes bordering on trance or club.
This when I decided to run the much famed TCS 10 K Bangalore edition 2013(Tcs 10K). It so happened that some of the people at Software AG (my employer) decided to setup a runner's club and the first target was TCS 10 K. Thus, the treadmill runs became more frequent. However, there was no tarmac running which is not recommended for anyone trying to run their marathons.
I was in Category C (the default group) and on race day (19-MAY-2013), I was there with my club members at the Kanteerva stadium by 7'o clock in the morning. The weather report indicated overcast conditions and it was going to be humid. The spirits were high aided by the peppy music, it was a festival and the crowd was huge. The elite 10k run was almost over as we started our run, (I guess around 07:22 AM). Initially, it was more like a traffic jam and progress was very slow. Immediately, I realized that there was a considerable difference between running on a conveyor belt and running on tarmac, the latter proved harder and it was a struggle for the first few kilometers.Traversing through the mob was more zig zag with high probability of tripping on somebody's boots. When I looked at my watch it was already 8'clock and around 4 km remained, so a final dash was made without much success. I sprinted that last 100 metres to find the clock displaying 59:00 and as I crossed the finish line a wave of gloom descended on my face. I know that people talk about enjoying the race and all that, but you still expect something out of yourself. At the treadmill runs I was able to finish 10 K in around 47 minutes but this was poor, plain , simple and blunt. I wanted to leave for home immediately but somehow I dragged myself to the "Finisher" counter to collect the medal (which is given to anybody who completes the race).
Around me, people were celebrating but I was still brooding under a shroud of gloom.Thus concluded my first ever run, on a note of pessimism .....
However, there was something inside me that told me that I was killing the fun of running, and had actually misinterpreted the philosophy of running and that running was something more than just race to beat a clock. By evening my mood had improved and I wanted to get back to running the following morning. Over the course of the next few days, I realized that I had been obsessed with the outcome and had not enjoyed my run, plus I did not interleave my treadmill runs with some tarmac running. Therefore, an improved running plan evolved , which made me happier .....
The 10 K results were published on their website and as a nice surprise I found that my net finish time was around 51:59 minutes (the 59:00 that I had seen was actually the gross time) as a double bonanza I found myself in the list of top 850 finishers and hence eligible for the Nike Finisher T Shirt. It was a sweet something that made me smile and something echoed inside me, I think it sounded like "Run" .....
The first run is always special ..... :)
Hell yeah !!! :)
However,around the beginning of this year, I started getting worried about the red "OVERWEIGHT" flashing on the BMI calculators. Initially, the classic escapist that was me, avoided the calculators altogether for a couple of months, then in a sudden surge of high impulse I joined a Gym (Fitness One Jayanagar(Fitness One) ). In the past, I had enrolled for gym memberships, all of them ending up expired and unused. However, this time it was a little different, for one the gym was compact, which suited me. It was not congested and people stuck to their own business of staying fit.
I started doing the treadmills, target 10km/hr for half an hour. Over time, I ramped it up to around 14.5 km/ hr. I pushed up the time limit to one hour on weekends and found that I was moderately fresh after the workout. Of course, the running was accompanied by some music, mostly racy tunes bordering on trance or club.
This when I decided to run the much famed TCS 10 K Bangalore edition 2013(Tcs 10K). It so happened that some of the people at Software AG (my employer) decided to setup a runner's club and the first target was TCS 10 K. Thus, the treadmill runs became more frequent. However, there was no tarmac running which is not recommended for anyone trying to run their marathons.
I was in Category C (the default group) and on race day (19-MAY-2013), I was there with my club members at the Kanteerva stadium by 7'o clock in the morning. The weather report indicated overcast conditions and it was going to be humid. The spirits were high aided by the peppy music, it was a festival and the crowd was huge. The elite 10k run was almost over as we started our run, (I guess around 07:22 AM). Initially, it was more like a traffic jam and progress was very slow. Immediately, I realized that there was a considerable difference between running on a conveyor belt and running on tarmac, the latter proved harder and it was a struggle for the first few kilometers.Traversing through the mob was more zig zag with high probability of tripping on somebody's boots. When I looked at my watch it was already 8'clock and around 4 km remained, so a final dash was made without much success. I sprinted that last 100 metres to find the clock displaying 59:00 and as I crossed the finish line a wave of gloom descended on my face. I know that people talk about enjoying the race and all that, but you still expect something out of yourself. At the treadmill runs I was able to finish 10 K in around 47 minutes but this was poor, plain , simple and blunt. I wanted to leave for home immediately but somehow I dragged myself to the "Finisher" counter to collect the medal (which is given to anybody who completes the race).
Around me, people were celebrating but I was still brooding under a shroud of gloom.Thus concluded my first ever run, on a note of pessimism .....
However, there was something inside me that told me that I was killing the fun of running, and had actually misinterpreted the philosophy of running and that running was something more than just race to beat a clock. By evening my mood had improved and I wanted to get back to running the following morning. Over the course of the next few days, I realized that I had been obsessed with the outcome and had not enjoyed my run, plus I did not interleave my treadmill runs with some tarmac running. Therefore, an improved running plan evolved , which made me happier .....
The 10 K results were published on their website and as a nice surprise I found that my net finish time was around 51:59 minutes (the 59:00 that I had seen was actually the gross time) as a double bonanza I found myself in the list of top 850 finishers and hence eligible for the Nike Finisher T Shirt. It was a sweet something that made me smile and something echoed inside me, I think it sounded like "Run" .....
The first run is always special ..... :)
Hell yeah !!! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment