R Suriyanarayanan ,Finance professional, Fitness enthusiast, 2nd Dan BLACK BELT-Taekwondo
1. There is no short cut. Work hard to play hard. There is only one person responsible if you do not show up on a run day, and it’s you. And guess who gets the medal when you finish? You know the answer!
2. Running is a non-competitive sport. It’s you against you, every time you run.
3. If you start, then finish. After the first five finishers in a race, everyone who finishes is a winner.
4. The strength of the chain is its weakest link. Injury-free, long-term running requires the strengthening of each muscle, small or big. Strength training, a balanced diet, and food supplements to fill the nutritional gaps are all integral to running. It’s the whole system that runs, not just legs.
5. Strengthening your mind is as important as strengthening your body. In most of the ‘I did not finish’ races, it is the mind that quits first.
6. They say that it’s about the journey and not the destination. The fact is – the journey is the destination. Keep running.
7. Each run is a solo pursuit. But if a running community motivates you to continue, do find one. Such a community also triggers the abundant secretion of happy hormones like dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins.
Sir Edmund Hillary should be right when he said, ‘It’s not the mountain that we conquer, but ourselves’. The more you run, the more you unravel yourself. Keep running.
