Running for the love of it!

“We run not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves.The more restricted our society and work become,the more necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom.No one can say you must not run faster,or jump higher than that .The human spirit is indomitable”.Words of wisdom spoken by Sir Roger Bannister,the first runner to have run a sub 4 mins mile.He was born in 1929 and he set this record with minimum training while practicing as a junior doctor. His record lasted merely 46 days and though he pursued his running,he also went on to become a distinguished neurologist and Master of Pembroke College, Oxford before retiring in 1993. 

Why and how does running satiate that craving for freedom in our minds? Science says its all about the dopamines and serotonins and adrenaline. But being a sucker for things from the heart , I like to romanticise the whole idea of running!!

For me, running puts things so much more into perspective and so helps me experience the emotion of giving my all to myself! When you run hard and give it your all ,you can clearly see what you are made of and how, when given a chance ,you can work miracles!

Thanks to my own running ,the huge running community and how running has become like a fitness religion,I now have this huge number of facebook friends,our only common threads being humanity and running, I guess. I know few of them personally ,just a few!! But their stories keep coming up on my timeline and I see each one of them so deliriously happy about their running and running achievements . These are people very very well accomplished  in their professions, educated from the most premier of institutes, globetrotters-living the good life one would say! 

But it is obvious to see that the finishers’ medal ,the chip time and the fitness resulting from running are not the only things driving them to run. The feel good factor and the way it transcends positively into all other aspects of life play a major big role I’m sure. One just becomes more confident ,independent and disciplined. So many positive side effects!

When you are running a marathon or a half ,your worry shifts from ‘how to get out of this rat race?’ to ‘how can I finish this race in this much time?’ . From a life full of worries and long to do lists, here you have a chance to set yourself free from the unbearable formalities of society. Here you are learning the meaning of tough love and practicing tough self love!!!Fancy that! Enticing surely!!!

Running is such a big teacher.Its like personal development in action and who are you accountable to? Only yourself!! No one bossing over you ,yet you are pushing yourself out of your comfort zone to better yourself. And then the joy of true accomplishment, like quantum leap steps at a time.Can you imagine a better deal than that? I’m sure and I hope you are running those long distances for some of the same reasons as me.

If you are a reasonably fit person and go for your executive health check up  , no doctor is going to prescribe marathon running to you. They will only advise you 30 mins, 3-4 days a week of exercise(you could just walk that much !)and maintaining a healthy and balanced diet. But we run much more than that, don’t we ? Even though we are recreational and amateur runners? We want that PB ,we want to run more and more!!And then we want to win too-and why not? What’s wrong with aiming high?

Come to think of it, marathon running listed under your hobbies should impress any potential boss too I guess. Afterall,it’s the epitome of determination and endurance!!! For folks not getting any younger like me, apparently long distance running improves with age unlike 99.99% other sports merely because of increase of base mileage. I like that! So if you LOVE to run and it’s not something you are forcing yourself to do ,it’s all win win!!!

If some of us are running merely for bragging rights, to look fit or to lose weight, I hope and pray you fall in love with the sport someday, like I have. It’s a love for keeps! Running has set me free. A few miles on the run and I am free of all unhealthy emotions. It’s a no fail recipe for me!!

Pushpa's daughter

Pushpa's daughter

So, I am working in this Government Hospital in Delhi which leaves much to be desired. I have been working for the Delhi Government  for close to two decades now and for over a year and a half in this particular hospital.

I would like to just do patient work and not worry about setting up the clinic and fighting to get mundane things done. But here I am , after 20 years, back to square one. Starting afresh in a new place .Things move really slow-like really really slow in our set ups. There is too much paper work involved and too many channels to go through before you can get  anything done. I know I am looked down upon disdainfully for fighting to work when I can jolly well get the pay cheque home without doing anything at all. It’s sad but that’s how it is!  My tolerance levels are lower now than when I had started out 20 years back and plain and simple ,when you get used to working in somewhat comfortable conditions and then have to revert to a place where you have to handle teething problems, it’s not easy.

So I don’t like the room I sit in(it’s claustrophobic) ,there aren’t enough facilities for the patients, I have to refer patients to other places for small little things because I have no space, manpower and equipment. I am only able to do 25 percent of what I can do for the patients. I feel very helpless and frustrated and tell myself I should not give a damn and just find ways to pass time from 9am-4pm to get that pay cheque. Then I talk myself out it and tell myself I can’t give up. And so life goes on!!!

And, nothing keeps me more grounded than my rendezvous with my poor patients. I give myself the luxury to listen to their stories and get carried away sometimes. The lower middle class and poorer gentry of patients that come to me live a life which is quite unlike the lives we live. Each one of them would probably have a story of human endurance and most of them are so busy just trying to earn the three square meals a day and have a roof over their heads ,that they would find it preposterous that someone in my position should have anything to complain about at all!!!

But that’s how we are –never satisfied!!

I am sitting down this morning  to count my blessings again ,not to  complain. I am typing to stop myself from the downward spiral of thoughts. I am remembering Pushpa’s daughter and smiling!

Yeah that’s Pushpa’s daughter!

I just opened the door to call out for my nursing orderly yesterday and found one lone human being sitting in the patient waiting area. This little human being,sitting there eating a banana. It was such a wondrous sight. I was told she was Pushpa’s daughter( wuteva:)) and Pushpa was with the doctor in the next room. Well pushpa’s daughter is already super independent, taking care of her mom’s belongings, eating that banana and waiting for her mom just like she was asked to.No fuss!! Just look at her hiding her face when I tried taking these pictures.And then when her mom was back,you should have seen the resplendent smile on her face. I backed off thereafter !!

I am so so grateful for my patients and for my connect with them. All these people I don’t know ,all these people who make me feel more human every single day!

  I hope , one day , I can tell you about my state of the art clinic in this hospital ..... when I get there!!! Amen!