If your answer to the question is yes — read on. If it is no, you probably know what I mean. However, before today even I felt like marathons are a complete waste of time — especially those which are being organized every weekend these days. Not that I didn’t appreciate the work that goes behind these events but because I like doing different kind of activities to keep myself fit. I used to look at those people running on the roads and used to smirk at them asking why do they do this? There are so many other activities to keep you active and keep moving — why this?
One of my office teammates asked me if I am interested to participate in a 5 KM run — and I thought let’s try this once. Just one day before the event, I felt like why I am doing this. I was not feeling physically up to it and thought I would make fun of myself if I am not able to finish it. ( I am sure that I can walk at least 10 KM without break for sure — but running all the time — and more over it was for the first time). One of my friends laughed at me when I announced this. The motivation was — you can’t even run 50 m without huffing or puffing — how on the earth you are going to do this? That’s it, I decided to not to go for it. The same friend then encouraged me to at least go and support my office team. That was enough to get myself energized once again.
So the day came and I picked up my team and went for the event. The morning atmosphere was pretty energetic. I was especially happy to see 3–4 years old kids with their parents participating in the run. We started the day with a warm up and were ready for flag off. I ran, I stopped, I walked and I carried on. I enjoyed the beautiful sunrise at the backdrop of Pune university. I went through the gullies(small alleys) which I have never seen before. I saw the hardworking class of the society getting themselves ready for the day ahead of them. They were probably smirking for a good reason — for them the work they do probably won’t require participation in events like these to keep themselves active and fit. The run and walk routine was not that difficult and I could finish in decent time. (Don’t want to add the exact time 😛 for you to get judgmental about it.)
Moral of the story is it was easy to ‘smirk’ at folks who are really getting their asses out of the bed early morning to do something than just sitting around on weekends and wasting one more day of their lives. Do it for your team if not for yourself. (no offense — and this is not applicable to those who are really doing some or the other thing — like hiking/ gymming / cycling etc. etc. :)) Especially, those who are sitting the whole day for work, it makes sense to participate in something like this to understand your limits. To challenge yourself to push harder. To set yourself a target and to achieve it. If you ask me, if I would do it again? Maybe I will — maybe I won’t. But I promise myself to stay fit so that next time another team mate ask if I am joining — I will do it without any hesitation.
Dipti Joshi 