Musings from First 10 K Run

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April 29^th  2018 has been a refreshing beginning in my running journey. Today has been momentous in that I completed my first competitive 10 K (6.2 miles) as part of All In for Autism fundraiser event. This event held annually in Bellevue, WA works to promote awareness on autism and partners with some of the top companies in the region (such as Microsoft, Starbucks etc.) as part of the drive. The day proved to be magical

with a combination of amazing participants (~400 runners), festive setting and a sunny weather- just the perfect recipe to get the inspiration going. The fact that I could complete the event with a record best personal performance (Distance- 10 K(6.2miles); Timing 1:09:30; Avg Pace: 11:12) felt really special.

Finisher Certificate

My tryst with running has been fairly recent- just over 9 months old. It started as a pretty casual affair wherein I wanted to try something different to improve the fitness levels. One of the biggest challenges that I’ve had was to wake up early in the morning. A bad start naturally reflected on the rest of the proceedings. I used to hurry through the breakfast, rush to catch the bus and land at office with a ton load of stuff to complete that almost always weighed down heavily by the end of the day. There was a sense of incompleteness in having to go through the motion without a sense of drive and determination. The realization that I am reacting to everything around me in a hurried manner rather than responding from a place of equanimity was point of inflection. The membership at the local fitness club was only acting as the placebo when the pang of guilt hit hard. Clearly, I was on a downward spiral in terms of the energy levels and overall approach to life in general.

It was back in June 2017 that I got started with morning walks. Incidentally, it was a set of senior citizens who proved to be the catalyst in the journey. An Indian couple along with their 6 months old infant had recently moved to an apartment in our building. As is the case with most of the Indians who have a child in US, the boy’s parents had come over to visit them. His father who was around 65 years of age, I suppose, was a very active personality. Although the man knew only Hindi (they were from Jharkhand), he quickly made a circle of friends all of whom were of similar age, visiting their kids from India. This elderly group of gentlemen started the ritual of morning walk wherein they used to cover everything from politics to society to life in general during that 1 hour. I started by keeping pace with them and exchanging the occasional pleasantries during the walk to the cross roads park which was just half a mile away from home. A couple of strolls around the park and back home, I would have covered close to 2 miles during the walk. This was still an irregular occurrence when I got started, possibly two times a week. A few weeks into walking, I slowly started jogging to see how my endurance was getting sustained. I jogged from home to park, did a couple of slow jogs around the park and walked back home. Slowly but steadily I started developing an interest in running. By the time neighbor’s parents went back to India for good, I could jog the full 2-mile distance without taking a break which was a pretty amazing milestone given the abysmal fitness levels I started with!!!

I took a hiatus from jogging during the 3-week trip to India in Sep 2017. On coming back from an energetic vacation, was looking forward to getting back into an active life style. On researching further, discovered that there is club called Eastside Runners(ESR) which has been around for many decades. The club has the flagship weekend program where in they run as a group every Saturdays at 8:30 am – rain or shine. Anyone could join them completely free of cost and can enroll into a nominal annual membership if interested. I decided to take a plunge that in retrospect proved life changing. ESR publishes the venue and the details of the weekend trail ahead of schedule. During my first run with them back in Nov 2017, found to my astonishment that there were around 40 runners who had assembled on a cold Saturday morning. I was possibly the youngest in the crown with majority of them in upwards of 60’s. That initial encouragement was very short-lived- to be precise only for the initial half a mile into the run. Although, we had started as a big pack, realized that people were getting ahead of me in no time. The members of ESR are seasoned folks who have made running a part of their life. During the initial 10 minutes wherein, I was running with the pack, learned that the gentleman with me had run the Boston Marathon a couple of times!!! After a mile, I was literally the ONLY person running with no human presence anywhere in the vicinity. This initial run was also a big revelation on the fitness levels, where in I was huffing and puffing in no time, struggling to keep pace with the breath. I took around a 1 hour 45 min to complete ~ 6 miles!!!

Goodies from Sterling

The biggest takeaway from this humbling experience was that my competition is ultimately only with myself. Started practicing more regularly and over the months dialed up my endurance to run 5K(3.2 miles) non-stop as part of the routine. Progressively as I began to get better, mixed this up with longer endurance runs with ESR group over the weekend notching close to 10K. Signing up for the first official run for Autism was a motivation to stay consistent with the practice. Did a couple of weekend 10K runs, leading up to the event to get some confidence instilled that I can complete the event. My good friend at office- Sterling Blackheart who is an endurance runner with many marathons under his belt was a big motivation factor. I used to swing by his desk to share my experience with running wherein he always offered helpful tips to stay focused and maintain pace. Sterling always checked in on the progress got me a few rapid energy gels, hemp pro chocolate powder and a bunch of other goodies to consume on the day of the run.For a newbie in me who was just learning the ropes, Sterling was a big source of encouragement .This run is undoubtedly dedicated to him.

On the eve of the run, I collected the T-shirt and bib with the timer from Escape outdoors in Bellevue. Runners are assigned with a number that has a timer embedded in it. Having this pinned on to the shirt helps them measure the performance. Woke up early in the morning, completed the yoga practice and had everything lined up for the run. It had rained the previous day(Saturday) and hence

T-Shirt

the weather was expected to be a bit of a spoil sport. Surprisingly the early morning signs were promising with a cold breeze and no signs of cloud. Drove to Bellevue down town park which was the starting point for the run. There were hoards of people who were lining up for the run. There were a number of stalls from the sponsors as well as beneficiaries of the run. Run started promptly at 8 am with a festive setting. There were a number of cheerleaders lined on either side of the start line waving pom-poms. The event was very well coordinated. The track most of which was along the main road, was nicely segregated with safety cones. There were policemen at all the key junctures to ensure that traffic stayed out of the way. The event also saw a number of volunteers who were cheering the runners and distributing water in regular intervals. The initial mile was uphill along the downtown after which we got to the flat track.

Post Run click

 I always used to slow down after running the initial 2.5 miles coz the fatigue used to kick in. This time around, I had the energy gel from Sterling that I quickly popped when I got to this juncture. Oh boy, it was magical indeed!!!  I could keep going and by the end of the run had enough stamina to run a few more miles. The inspiring moment for me in this run was the sight of a mom who was running with two infants in her stroller. She was staying ahead in pace and was navigating the uphill climb with ease. I am pretty sure she would have finished the run way ahead of me though I was catching up with her occasionally during the run!!! This is just an example of how fitness conscious people are and how they do not let the day to day aspects not come in the way of their run. The end of the run 265^th  among 360 finishers. At the conclusion of the run, there were a lot of goodies to be grabbed in the form of pens, T-shirt flying discs and candies not to mention the food and refreshments.

This is the beginning of journey that for a diligent pursuer has a lot to offer. Running for me has been a self-discovery process, something much beyond a physical exercise. There are two things that I’m beginning to discover:

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• All human imitations are self-imposed 

There are many times during a run where in your legs and body would be aching to stop and take a break. The willpower to keep going a bit more at these junctures could be self-revealing. The body can just keep going as long as the mind wants it to.

• Running is meditative 

A big difference that I noticed between by regular runs and the event today was in terms of the pace. Pace defines the time required to run a mile. Typically, I used to clock anywhere from 12.30 to 14:00 depending on how focused I am in the run. Many a times, there are a wide array of unrelated stuff that creeps into mind while running. This would eventually slow me down substantially since my focus is no longer on running but rather on the mental processing. Today’s run was a revelation in that from the word go, I just wasn’t thinking anything. I was just running, and this meant that my legs were tad a bit faster compared to the practice runs. Running has a big meditative effect to keep the mind as a blank slate. After all, having the ability to stay undistracted with a mind that is neither in the past nor in the future is what focus is all about, correct?

Signed up for the next 10K in May soon after getting back home. Looking forward to many more steps in this journey.