Saturday, February 7, 2015

What I Write About When I Write About Running

What I Write About When I Write About Running

I know the question that is lurking in your mind. It is the most common question that runners get - “why do you run?” Jim Ryun (silver medallist 1968 Olympics) was able to answer it most honestly – “I learned, one, you shouldn’t ever quit. And I learned, two, you’ll never be able to explain it to anybody.” That pretty much settles it.

Mumbai is not an easy city to live in. Apart from the problems we are already aware of, like excessive traffic, insufficient infrastructure, overcrowding due to immigrants from other states (like me!), there is one major health issue – the air quality is pathetic. It is often mentioned that “breathing the air in Mumbai for one day is equivalent to 2.5 packets of cigarettes (50 cigarettes) a day.” Brighter side is that where taxes on cigarettes are so high, these are tax free. But on a serious note, it is imperative that each one of us adopt healthy lifestyles to counter this problem. That involves physical activities to keep the body fit- Running is one of them.

Health benefits of running are all over the internet. It involves least amount of special equipments and no special infrastructure as well. If the roads are not good, you can simply call it off-road running, instead of not running. No membership required in big clubs. So you can say it is a zero-investment hobby. Can’t get better than that. Just take care not to injure yourself though.

Mumbai tries its best to take care of its runners. The biggest help that this city gives is in form of organizing the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon every year in January. You can choose the distance – 42km, 21km or 7km. There are various running groups like Striders, Running & Living, Puma Running etc who offer weekly runs to get you in a habit, from where you can take it forward.

To get started, do not aim for a distance, but aim for time. So start with a goal of running 15 mins or 30 mins on the trot, without worrying about the speed. Once the legs get used to running, rest will follow. Then once comfortable, start with 5km races and 10km races that happen on many Sundays throughout the year in all parts of Mumbai. You can choose your races here http://indiarunning.com/marathon-calendar-2015.html.

A very good training tool for running is the Runner’s World magazine. All the articles are available on their website and they post regular updates on their twitter handle as well @runnersworld.

Some good books for running which I found useful –
1. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
2. Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

As John Bingham said, “If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today is your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run.” So pull up your socks and get running!