Sunday 15 November 2009

A few learnings for life post a 75km run


I just ran a 75km run today in Bnagalore and am listing out a few, simple, home truths that came up to the fore ever so sharply, all over again today.
To Run long – you must train long
I had not run long distance in training and paid the price today, being humbled and forced to walk far more, than what I had planned to.
Cheering is key – when you cheer others, others start cheering you.
I cheered each runner as we passed each other and after some time, I heard and saw many more cheers for me which helped keep me going. When we were too tired closer to the finish, a thumbs up or a smile would do it. Smiling helps de stress – its such a simple tool we have been blessed with but don’t use it adequately. We think the world will collapse if we aren’t abs serious!!
No problem is so large that it is insurmountable
I never thought I could ever in my wildest dreams do a 75km run. Don’t knw what got me to think about it. I had not trained appropriately and 5 days prior to the run, had banged my left knee badly on the banister at home. Till this morning, I was constantly in 2 minds about whether I should run or not. And then I decided to get to the start line and see how it goes – km after km. Well at the end of 75km the pain in my left knee has disappeared. My knee has been praying to god that it would get transferred to another body!!!!
So I have to add – that if you have a knee problem – just run!!
Cheers to that!

3 comments:

Baba said...

Only the best can survive such a long run. As I had earlier said, I just dream of running a half and will try my best this year on 6th Dec but to achieve this, I have people like you who have been always inspiring.

I think you're doing a great job for the community and hope some day your dream of making 200 million people run will come true!!!

Wishing you all the best for your every run :)

Cheers!

Anand

Rahul Verghese said...

Thanks Anand.
It is words like these can keep me going
:-)

Vijay said...

Well done Rahul. Great job! Keep running. I agree with you that running is very good pain reliever especially for the knees. Catch up with you one day on the road.