I am 1 week away from flying to DC for MCM and I am already having goose bumps thinking about it. It has been an incredible last 1.5 years of my life and honestly I have never worked this hard for so long for any goal but then if you know me well I am a very stubborn character and I never and i mean never give up that easily..
I still remember that moment when my marathon dream was born. Last May, while going out for a lunch I saw a fit man running on the road and in that moment I declared to my friends that I am also going to run a marathon. My friends laughed at me. They had every right to do it. I was 240 pounds. I had only heard the term marathon. I had no idea about the distance or training or fitness required to do it. For them it was one of those random comments that someone makes without meaning it. But that moment was very powerful for me. I don't know if it was the laughter of my friends or the look of joy on that person's face who was running or just my deep burning desire to run but I was fired up and was very serious about it. Later back at home I started reading about marathons and training programs. Somewhere in my searches I came across TEAM ASHA and their marathon training program for non-runners. I was completely sold by the idea of raising money for an important cause of education of under privilege children in India and in return getting trained for marathon.
In all honesty, I did not respect the distance or the sport at first. I mean how hard running can be ?? I thought with few weeks of training I will be easily able to finish a marathon. I was reminded how demanding this sport is (and how unfit I had become over the last decade) during my first training run. It was not more than 1 mile but I could not even run 100 meters without completely getting out of breath. That moment my (over) confidence had completely changed into self doubts. Seeing my condition even some of the coaches had doubts that I would return for the next training run. After the run (once every one left) I asked one of the coaches if I should just drop off from the program and try to get fit for much smaller distance like 5k (or even less) before thinking about marathons (or half marathons).
With lot of self doubt I decided to stick with the program and started showing up for the training runs. I was incredibly lucky to have a very supportive group in ASHA where i was never judge by my size or how unfit I was (even being the youngest person in the group) and I was allowed to be myself all the time. As I started getting familiar with the people and program my confidence started growing. I was always dead last in all our training runs. Often times faster runners had to come back to fetch me or push me or cheer me to finish the distance and in all honesty I was always bit embarrassed about it. At 240 pounds running was incredibly demanding activity for me. There were days when I could not climb the stairs of my home because of the soreness and had to sleep on my sofa, days when I would walk really funny (literally limp around) in office but then none of that mattered to me. With every Saturday long training run completed I knew I was getting closer to my dream and that's what mattered to me.
Lot of people think that I started running because I wanted to loose weight. In fact it was complete opposite of that. I wanted to loose weight so that i could run better. For me being over weight was never an issue. I had been over weight for over a decade and I was perfectly normal with that. As I started understanding the minor details about training/racing/weight etc I instantly knew that to run better (and faster) I need to shed excess pounds. I read somewhere loosing 1 lb would translate into 3 secs faster per mile. That was catalyst for me to really look into my diet and over hauling my life style. Changing a certain lifestyle that you have been use to for such a long time is always a difficult process and surely it was. Be it trying to eat healthy, staying away from booze during training, getting up "really" early on weekends for training, forming the discipline to get all the weekday and weekend workouts done without making execuses, mustering enough courage to go to local gym for cross training on non running days and LOTS of other small small things. I started changing things slowly and with time everything started falling in place. I am blessed with amazing support circle of my close friends and family who always listened to my training crap patiently, who kept a tight check on me so that i always remained grounded, who were always there ready to offer me any help needed especially in the times when I faltered from my plan.
By July end I had developed enough endurance to walk/run (more walking/less running) 13.1 miles and I finished my first half marathon in 2 hours and 58 mins. This was by far one of the happiest days in my life but at the same I almost immediately wanted to improve upon my time in the next race because I knew that I will not be able to finish the full marathon (if I do one) on time with that pace. Lot of the people encouraged me to continue training for next 3 months and do a full marathon in Oct. Mentally, I was really not prepared to tackle the distance (yet) and without mental determination it is almost impossible to train for full marathon. I just could not see myself running 15,17,20 miles at a time. I decided against doing a full and focused on doing another half with faster time. Just as I started training for my second half I ended up fracturing my toe. I could not run for almost a month. That break made me even more determined to train harder and get fitter. By end of Oct I was able to reduce my walk breaks and in turn run a slightly faster half marathon.
With Asha season coming to end I knew I had still not achieved my dream. I continued running through the winter with the sole purpose of getting fitter and stronger for 2012. I planned my entire season around the marathon. This year I was mentally prepared to tackle the distance. Through out the year with every single road race I ran, with every long training week or hard training session completed I knew I was getting closer to my dream.
That day will finally arrive on 28th Oct. When I go out and stand with 12000 first timers (and several thousands of repeat marathoners) near the start line I know I would be nervous, excited and scared but I also know that everything I could possibly do, physically as well as mentally, for getting ready for that day I have done it. It has been one heck of a journey to get here and I am very proud of myself. One thing I have realized in the process is that dreams are powerful and it eventually boils down to how badly you want it. 26.2 miles is LOT of distance and anything can happen but one thing that is certainly going to happen is I will be giving my 100% running the race I have always dreamed of.
I still remember that moment when my marathon dream was born. Last May, while going out for a lunch I saw a fit man running on the road and in that moment I declared to my friends that I am also going to run a marathon. My friends laughed at me. They had every right to do it. I was 240 pounds. I had only heard the term marathon. I had no idea about the distance or training or fitness required to do it. For them it was one of those random comments that someone makes without meaning it. But that moment was very powerful for me. I don't know if it was the laughter of my friends or the look of joy on that person's face who was running or just my deep burning desire to run but I was fired up and was very serious about it. Later back at home I started reading about marathons and training programs. Somewhere in my searches I came across TEAM ASHA and their marathon training program for non-runners. I was completely sold by the idea of raising money for an important cause of education of under privilege children in India and in return getting trained for marathon.
In all honesty, I did not respect the distance or the sport at first. I mean how hard running can be ?? I thought with few weeks of training I will be easily able to finish a marathon. I was reminded how demanding this sport is (and how unfit I had become over the last decade) during my first training run. It was not more than 1 mile but I could not even run 100 meters without completely getting out of breath. That moment my (over) confidence had completely changed into self doubts. Seeing my condition even some of the coaches had doubts that I would return for the next training run. After the run (once every one left) I asked one of the coaches if I should just drop off from the program and try to get fit for much smaller distance like 5k (or even less) before thinking about marathons (or half marathons).
With lot of self doubt I decided to stick with the program and started showing up for the training runs. I was incredibly lucky to have a very supportive group in ASHA where i was never judge by my size or how unfit I was (even being the youngest person in the group) and I was allowed to be myself all the time. As I started getting familiar with the people and program my confidence started growing. I was always dead last in all our training runs. Often times faster runners had to come back to fetch me or push me or cheer me to finish the distance and in all honesty I was always bit embarrassed about it. At 240 pounds running was incredibly demanding activity for me. There were days when I could not climb the stairs of my home because of the soreness and had to sleep on my sofa, days when I would walk really funny (literally limp around) in office but then none of that mattered to me. With every Saturday long training run completed I knew I was getting closer to my dream and that's what mattered to me.
Lot of people think that I started running because I wanted to loose weight. In fact it was complete opposite of that. I wanted to loose weight so that i could run better. For me being over weight was never an issue. I had been over weight for over a decade and I was perfectly normal with that. As I started understanding the minor details about training/racing/weight etc I instantly knew that to run better (and faster) I need to shed excess pounds. I read somewhere loosing 1 lb would translate into 3 secs faster per mile. That was catalyst for me to really look into my diet and over hauling my life style. Changing a certain lifestyle that you have been use to for such a long time is always a difficult process and surely it was. Be it trying to eat healthy, staying away from booze during training, getting up "really" early on weekends for training, forming the discipline to get all the weekday and weekend workouts done without making execuses, mustering enough courage to go to local gym for cross training on non running days and LOTS of other small small things. I started changing things slowly and with time everything started falling in place. I am blessed with amazing support circle of my close friends and family who always listened to my training crap patiently, who kept a tight check on me so that i always remained grounded, who were always there ready to offer me any help needed especially in the times when I faltered from my plan.
By July end I had developed enough endurance to walk/run (more walking/less running) 13.1 miles and I finished my first half marathon in 2 hours and 58 mins. This was by far one of the happiest days in my life but at the same I almost immediately wanted to improve upon my time in the next race because I knew that I will not be able to finish the full marathon (if I do one) on time with that pace. Lot of the people encouraged me to continue training for next 3 months and do a full marathon in Oct. Mentally, I was really not prepared to tackle the distance (yet) and without mental determination it is almost impossible to train for full marathon. I just could not see myself running 15,17,20 miles at a time. I decided against doing a full and focused on doing another half with faster time. Just as I started training for my second half I ended up fracturing my toe. I could not run for almost a month. That break made me even more determined to train harder and get fitter. By end of Oct I was able to reduce my walk breaks and in turn run a slightly faster half marathon.
With Asha season coming to end I knew I had still not achieved my dream. I continued running through the winter with the sole purpose of getting fitter and stronger for 2012. I planned my entire season around the marathon. This year I was mentally prepared to tackle the distance. Through out the year with every single road race I ran, with every long training week or hard training session completed I knew I was getting closer to my dream.
That day will finally arrive on 28th Oct. When I go out and stand with 12000 first timers (and several thousands of repeat marathoners) near the start line I know I would be nervous, excited and scared but I also know that everything I could possibly do, physically as well as mentally, for getting ready for that day I have done it. It has been one heck of a journey to get here and I am very proud of myself. One thing I have realized in the process is that dreams are powerful and it eventually boils down to how badly you want it. 26.2 miles is LOT of distance and anything can happen but one thing that is certainly going to happen is I will be giving my 100% running the race I have always dreamed of.
No comments:
Post a Comment