Run, at your own risk

Runners as it is are prone to injuries. Hamstring, Achilles Tendinitis, Shinsplints, Plantar Fasciitis– the list is endless and the names fanciful – like Patello Femoral pain syndrome (PFPS), simply put “runner’s knee” - as you get more specialized. These injuries belong to the occupational hazards category, just like any other sport or occupation.

However, runners deal with more than occupational hazards, especially if you live in cites and more so in Indian cities. Cramped for space, most large dedicated running spaces are all but gone. Having lived in three Indian cities till date I can count only a handful of places to run to your hearts’ content without having to drive down to city outskirts. Within the city, running in solitude is as impossible as getting to see our prime minister speak. Many other vie for the same space that runners use.

Motorists are a big irritants, though I am sure they would consider me as much. I don’t blame them either. It is hard to find space to drive as it is and circumventing a runner lost in his own thoughts is not a pleasing encounter on a hurried morning. I hope my friends in cars and on bikes appreciate that my only refuge on the road – the pavement – is already choc-o-block with flea market, mobile breakfast vans and construction material. That is if the pavement exists at all. I have limited choices as far as running course goes, my friends I hope you can see.

Animals are another aberration for runners on Indian roads. Cows, of course, rodents – alive or pulped flat on the road, monkeys and dogs make for most of my daily sightings. They might be man’s best friends but dogs worry me the most.

Due to space constraints, I am forced to venture to city outskirts for long runs of 21K and beyond. But since that happens only on weekends, I haven’t had much luck making friends with dogs on some sections of that route. Invariably a pack of strays or some times even a brave heart loner gives me chase, testing my already tired legs. So far I have been able to ignore, avoid and at times outran them. I would like to keep it that way.

Life is a bit easier though during my daily runs. Typically, I take a 2km loop in a residential layout just outside my apartment complex. Clearly, repetitions around the loop on daily basis have helped. I have a   peaceful equation with the local canine community.  I do not pay much attention to them and till date they have reciprocated by ignoring my presence in their territory. If there exists a power map equivalent in the dog world I think they view me as a “neutral party”, with little to no decision-making influence regarding their habitat. 

So far, I have not been chased around. I am comfortable with my position on their power map.

Milkha 1 Papa 0

I started fitness regime very late in my life. During school days I remember playing hockey for a short while but perhaps that was only a passing phase. For most part I remember queuing up to ride a horse, yes they had horses back then in our school, during the P.T (physical training) period.

I recall our school organizing yearly sports meets. It was a BIG day and ‘Track and Field’ was a marquee event category. A number of my mates would participate in races which included 200M Hurdles and even a 1000M race. I was mostly happy not to show up in school on the sports day. I thought it crazy sitting through the pandemonium in searing heat, especially if one had no stake in the game. Ravi Sir, our P.T instructor, however ruled with an iron hand and made sure that everybody was in attendance and on the grounds, even if only cheering the participants. Forced to attend, I was content sitting on the sidelines, sometimes appreciating and at times jealous of all the adulation flowing to my friends from pretty girls. That for sure wasn’t enough to spur me into action. I finally took to field not until after I started my professional career.

Thinking of those years I personally missed I hoped that my 4 year old son, Garv, will turn out to be active in sports from early on. Not just to soak in adulation from girls, but to maintain a healthy body and a healthy mind. I, as an aspirational father, was hoping that one of these days Garv would try to emulate me and start following my footsteps. But Milkhaji, you have beaten me to the finish line.

Ever since he watched Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (BMB), Garv has been completely taken up by Milkha Singh. He insists on running every evening and emulates Flying Sikh's strenuous workout by running in a sand pit. The other day he got hold my skipping rope, tied it behind his shorts and started running – enacting the scene from BMB where Milkha drags a tire behind him through scenic Ladakh. Some other ancillary benefits have also accrued from the investment in BMB. Garv’s milk and veggies intake has gone up significantly and his Punjabi dancing genes have kicked in big time - Maston Ka Jhund is his current favorite. Most importantly, getting him to do something just needs a tiny nudge that he is junior Milkha who would do no wrong.

I am glad my son has found his hero in Milkha Singh though I wonder how long this would stay with him. But Milkhaji, I do have a question for Garv when he grows up and reads this post. Did he not see his dad ‘tirelessly’ pounding the streets, much before you showed up on the screens?

 

I'm Lovin' It!

“Let your home be your mast and not your anchor.”

- Khalil Gibran

 
I don’t have a firm running routine, except one - I must run some every day. It is particularly hard on the body to maintain this target. I do admit to faltering once or twice a week on the target for various reasons. Family and friend support is not one of them.

I am lucky to have a family that has overlooked my craze to punish my body on daily basis. My mum, forever with her CFO hat on, was not very happy initially. She once told me that it was nothing short of craziness to spend money flying across cities, and some even across the globe, to just run on the road. “What’s wrong with the road outside our house?” she once asked me. She has come to grip now and accepted that running fanatics have little value for such logic.

Straddling the routines of two young boys, one of them barely 7 months, is as good a test of endurance as they come. If it was not for my wife, who herself is a working professional, I would be changing diapers through the night and catching up on sleep in the morning. Since she manages the younger one through the night and leaves the easier task, though sometime hairsplitting, of getting elder one ready for school to me, I’ve been able to run regularly. Lately, and this worries me, she has gone a step ahead. She now regularly keeps a check on my food intake and has taken it upon herself to give me a diet worthy of professional long distance runner. I reckon I will need to increase my mileage in order to survive this extra love and care. I am loving it, though.

A word for my friends – my running mates - who have encouraged me. It takes a lot of character to keep pace with slower runners and I salute those who sacrificed their pace to push me along. I hope I pay some of it forward. Special thanks to my good friend Nafay Kumail for being my unflinching proxy at Airtel Pre-race Expo year on year to collect my running bib and goodie bag. All this for a very reasonable charge of a couple of hours of my time and a double shot of Americano.

P.S: Last weekend was yet another reminder that my Punjabi genes are losing their intensity. I dined at Punjabi by Nature with some office colleagues. Based on prior experience of the calorific food preparation at this restaurant I kept my servings extra extra small. However, to no avail. My stomach caved in, leaving me with 2 days of running down time.