Feet on Street!

Running was never my cup of tea, some of the running that I am used to was the one to bathroom early morning, scramble to the counter for movie tickets, run past defenders while playing football back in college and the most frantic running would be when a fight broke out in engineering college and I would inadvertently find myself in the epicentre of it and suddenly my legs would take shape of wings, pooof I would disappear. That was running to me till now, unscrupulous and disoriented.

After years of mindless eating and an unhealthy life style, I must say that I have developed a big pack on my abs, well not six or eight pack's but a ridiculous family pack a rotund tummy! I was aghast, all my pants and tees were slowly refusing to embrace my body. Actions stations!!! red alert, panic buttons all sort of screaming alarms constantly bogged me down all the while. It was high time that I did something, or I would reach that stage wherein it would be a point of no return.
Dieting, gym, weight loss programmes, yoga, aerobics etc etc all these were some of the suggestions that were being poured in from all directions. I was at crossroads at what to do?

All the above mentioned options might be effective, but would create a dent in your pocket as these programmes are expensive. Also with the economic crisis looming overhead I needed to find an alternative, and thats how I decided to take up running, an inexpensive and effective cardiovascular exercise.

I must say that its a very good way to stay fit and loose weight. Around half an hour of mild jogging combined with some control over our own gluttony would work wonders on our body. Initially I used to run only on the treadmill, but I was introduced to the marvel of running around on the street by a colleague at office.

That's how I started training for the first event of running on street, called feet on street which was a 5 KM run on an early Sunday morning in Cubbon Park. I was skeptical of whether I would be able to run that distance at a single stretch, I was not too keen to get myself in an embarrassing spot,where I would huff, puff and chug along when all the others would just zip past me to the finish line. All this concern was put to rest as Maitreyee a regular runner assured that there is no need to get concerned as we just need to finish it and it really doesn't matter if we waltzed or walked our way to the finish. Even after reassurances, I was not convinced so I started training, running on treadmill and I managed to run on it for 5 KM. Although I was not able to run continuously, but still I was able to manage the 5K distance with an average time of 38 minutes on the treadmill.

So the big day arrived and i reached the venue at around 6.45 am. It was not much of a surprise that Graham and Ambrose were also present for the event as they are avid runners themselves. I was pretty confident that I would finish the event without much issues as I had been running the same distance for the past week without any hassles and I was also sure that I would finish well before Graham. The event started at the stroke of seven and around 200 of us started with a brisk run ( it was an event that supported charity as the revenue generated from this would be handed over to an NGO), I had plugged my i-pod with my fave music playing and as expected I overtook Graham, Ambrose and Maitreyee and was going at a steady pace with a small grin playing around the corner of my face. After around 15 minutes I started to loose momentum and pace , I was puffing, breathing hard and then I saw that things were in slow motion for me, Graham went past and so did Ambrose and I saw the trail of dust that they left behind them, within a couple of minutes they were past my eyesight. I still chugged along and managed to reach the finish in 40 minutes since the start of the event. That was a real eye opener, after asking Graham the secret behind keeping the pace and momentum I decided that it was time to go back and start again from scratch. Well, I must say that I have manged to improve, I can now run continuously for 5 KM in just under 35 minutes also I have lost around 6 Kilos in just less than 2 months and I plan to keep it going and improve. Also I might beat Graham to the finish the next time. So if you are keen to join , dont wait, as the popular saying goes the biggest step is from your bed to the floor. Start running!