When running is your passion and you wonder how you ever got started in the first place. You realize it all started with one step. That was the most important step that one never forgets. That step was when someone said “lets go for a run” or when someone said “lets register for a marathon” or when you simply saw a post on social media of your runner friend and decided to start running.
For me those moments were a few initially, when I ran in March 2015 very casually with friends who would ask me to join them once in awhile at the Lakes in southern avenue and I had no idea how much I was running. But that was it. I did not take it so seriously nor did I wake up early with a vengeance to run every morning. In-fact I missed a fun marathon in February because I was busy having fun at a friend’s post wedding cocktail dinner.
The real moment for me was in August the same year when I won a competition in my gym and a runner named Vernon Morais asked me to come join them the following Sunday for a run at Red road area and I did. Little did that I know that I would be running 10km on my first day and I loved it. The aches and pains were many for which a paracetamol worked perfectly well. There was no stopping me from then on.
Me and my friend Harsha Pandey Banthia were running together on that Sunday when we spotted a 65 year old gentleman named Arun Singh running in the opposite direction outside Eden Gardens stadium and he waved out at us. He was running faster than us and smiling that too. I was amazed at his energy and thought perhaps he was in the Army or has been running since his school days.
When I met him post the run at Victoria Memorial and asked him about his running history, he said he had started running 10 years ago at the age of 55. He was my inspiration. I said if he can do it, so can I. till date, Arun Sir as we call him remains as humble and as passionate about running and has won many medals at National and International medals in the hurdles meet in his age category. Later I also got to know he was once a smoker and had to take voluntary retirement from work due to his deteriorating health…And look at him today. Wow!
Why am I narrating my story of where my journey started? Because I encourage you to find that moment, that person who inspires you and to take that one step in the direction that makes you want to run for miles like Forrest Gump in the movie after he discovered his leg impediment would not stop him. Why let anything stop you? Why let age stop you? Why let gender stop you? Why let excuses stop you?
Find your excuse to start your journey of a 1000 miles and that journey begins with a single step.
The Author can be reached at LinkedIn.com