Story of my first Half Marathon.

Picture courtesy — Abigail Keenan

Some people are born to be Athletes. Well, I’m definitely not one of them.

In my childhood, I was always game for sports. All kind of sports. I played badminton, cricket, basketball etc. I always wanted to take part in sports but I was more of a jack of all rather than being a specialist. I never focused on one single sport, I was little there in each of the sport.

But as I came out of college and started working on my first job in Mumbai. I realized that I needed to get back into sports. I was now too skinny and a long way from fit. Then it started getting worse. I became underweight.

The picture below is from 2010 (5 years back). Yes, that’s me. Some of you might not even believe it (Even though its all smiles but still). You had to see me to believe it.

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Looking through the tiny keyhole

Picture Courtesy – ‘Music Smells Like Noise’ Blog

We all see the world through our own tiny keyhole.

Today we are living in a comparatively peaceful world then the last couple of centuries. We should be grateful for that. Days of literal war are a talk of the past. But everyone fights a different kind of war today. We fight it everyday. A beggar fights for a meal, a rich fight to stay rich, an artist fights the block, an athlete fights to reach their optimum performance.

It doesn’t matter how hard you fight, what matters the most is if you are consistently putting efforts. Its not about how furious you are its about how consistent you are.

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Treat your body well and it will treat you back amazingly.

Woke up at 5:30am, feeling afresh I was ready to rock the day!

Ran the daily errands and quickly got ready for daily run. I had planned my day in advance yesterday as it was not going to be a routine day as it was an offsite IT town hall of my office. So we had to go to Airport road. First time ever I was going to ride the Mumbai metro – Ghatkopar ~ Varasova. We had to reach the venue – ‘The Leela’ hotel which was just by the side of airport road metro station. Having every bit of this in my mind, last night only I thought. “Oh shit! How I’m gonna run tomorrow. I can’t miss any day as Mumbai Marathon is around the corner.” So I decided to sleep early and get up early morning and go get that run!

Had early dinner and then set my smart alarm to wake me up at around 5:30am. I fell asleep instantaneously. Woke up at 5:25 sharp before even the alarm buzzed. I must say body treats you well when you give it a good night sleep. However, I snoozed myself from getting outta bed for another 5 mins. But then eventually I got up. Afresh.

Then I stepped out of my apartment into the day before even the sunrise. Earliest morning for me this year. Street lights still on. Street dogs still asleep. I warmed up and started the running session on strava (my run track app) and started running. I completed my first kilometer under 7:30 minutes. I was wearing my hoody to avoid the morning cool. But after first kilometer only I started sweating. But I kept going. I was feeling more energetic then I usual do. Second kilometer didn’t go better than the first one, I reached 7:40 pace. But I was concentrating on completing my overall session under 22:50 minutes.

I did manage to do that. I was feeling so joyous. But I was still wondering on that guy from the other day about which I had talked about in my last post.  Never heard from him or saw him again on track.

Anyways earliest morning and the fastest run today. 7:01 minutes per km.

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Creation is the best way to self-contentment!

Creating something takes a lot of efforts. It’s something which takes thinking, it’s something which requires us to go that extra mile and when you do that, when you take that step, when you take that action which results in a creation. That’s when you feel complete in yourself. That’s when you feel ultimate contentment. That’s what gives you eternal joy. It releases those juices of happiness into your brains.

Most of the successful artisans create things very frequently. But in the process of making things they fail too, they fail on regular basis. They are the curious souls who always wonder how things work. As kids they take things apart to see inside, ‘what makes that thing tick?’. Then they put it back together as well.

A normal person who might not be an artisan but still if he creates something (creating something can be anything, writing, drawing, painting, joining parts with screws to make a machine, sculpturing, making strategies, developing buildings or may be codes for a software) it will eventually give him great eternal joy which will make him content with himself.

We should always keep creating things, like we did in our childhoods. We should always be curious, because this world is a never ending mystery. It will always keep us surprising. But if we keep exploring, keep making things, we will enjoy and cherish this life more than just fearing all the time with the uncertainties of this world and this life.

Creation is the base of evolution. When we create things, even if that thing is not pretty good, it facilitates a path of evolution, from there it can evolve, it can be better. So the basic rule is, something will only evolve if it exists. For example if a beginner painter starts painting, he can’t create his masterpiece just by fluke. Creating a masterpiece takes earth shattering efforts. First of all he should start painting, then in the process of the creation he’ll fail one time, two times, may be hundred times. Even though he’s failing but in the process he’s evolving as well. When he would have put more efforts then he actually was supposed to, then comes a moment of the perfection. Then comes the masterpiece.

Pablo Picasso the legendary Spanish painter was once was once passing by some local thrift shops. A lady comes praising and requests him to make a painting of her. Picasso who rarely carried his painting tools, fortunately was carrying them that day. He agreed and started making the painting, while talking to her, in 10 minutes he created a painting of her and handed it over to her saying ‘that will be 10,000 pesetas (España currency of that time)’. Lady was awestruck on seeing the masterpiece but was also astounded by the price and said, “It only took you ten minutes to make this painting, isn’t 10,000 pesetas a lot for 10 minutes work?”

“It took me 30 years to make that painting in 10 minutes, that’s why.” Picasso replied.
Some people are gifted artists but even they have to practice their artistry regularly. But when they create their masterpieces, is only when they find their extreme contentment.

Creating requires creativity, but it requires discipline more. Some people say, I am only creative at certain times. But this is far from truth. Most of the successful writers, painters, artisans created their masterpieces after years of practice and failure, they followed their routines religiously. Hence it’s safe to say that if you practice your creation on regular basis, it’s most probable that you’ll achieve it faster than just sitting back and waiting for that creative thought to occur. If you are a writer, write daily. If you are a painter, paint daily. If you are a coder, code daily. That’s the only thing which will make you better in your creation. Create things and then make them better. That’s how things evolve to get perfect.

So belt up, put your creative cap on and start putting your efforts towards creating something, anything which gives you joy and satisfaction. Make things and then make them better. I bet you’ll discover self-contentment which you have never ever discovered before.
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