It's all in the mind !

Even tough I have had a very active childhood, I had never taken running seriously. I mean, I remember running a couple of rounds on our school ground during the PT period but probably that was it. Also I think it's reasonable to say that running for fitness isn't very popular in India. But after coming to Ann Arbor and seeing so many people around me doing it, I too decided to give it a shot. So one fine day I walked into NCRB ( North Campus Recreation Building ) with the thinnest idea of how much I could run. I started round the track and within 10 rounds ( ~ 1 mile ) I was out of breath. Every step after that seemed to be heavier than ever and I thought I had reached my limit. This happened not only on the first day but for quite some time after that. I was terribly disappointed with my stamina and gave up on running. I concluded that in order to run a marathon you needed an in-born talent.

After a long hiatus, I got a chance to get back to running early this year. A couple of my friends were training to run a marathon and I thought that if I could give them company for some smaller runs I could build on my stamina. So I started running. The only difference now was that I knew the distance that I had to complete before each run. I started off with distances between 2-3 miles and could manage them very easily. I was surprised with myself. I learnt that during running there are always these times ( i like calling them peaks ) when you just feel like giving up. But once you get over this peak your body will settle into a nice rhythm and you can just run on for ever. There will be several such peaks on the way but the first few are the strongest. So what started as a futile 1 mile attempt has culminated in a 15 mile run till date. And the feeling is just incredible. I hope to do a marathon sometime soon !

So the strategy is simple. Decide on a schedule you want to follow. Being mentally prepared helps like nothing else. Start off at an easy pace and try and maintain a constant pace throught your run. You should run at a pace so that you are not getting out of breath during or even at the end of a very long run. Press on during the peaks and I guarantee that you'll get to the end ! So you see it's all in the mind !