Saturday, June 14, 2014

Why I run

All my life, I had been zero in sports or anything remotely related to fitness for that matter. I was a total bookworm almost until the end of college days. So, before entering the corporate life, I had decided to change for good. I resolved to devote some time to fitness on a regular basis. So, I joined a gym and I was so determined to get fit that barring a few initial hiccups, I went to the gym regularly for a couple of years (needless to mention the enormous amount of mental and physical agony that went into it). After all this hard work and determination, I developed a decent physique for the first in my life. But after a while, gymming started feeling monotonous, but I still  kept going on, because I knew that if quit, I will go back to my original physique very fast. Eventually, I got kind of hooked to working out first thing in the morning. Whenever I was out of station, I started missing workouts. As gym was not always available when I was out of station, I started jogging/running in addition to some body workouts just not to break the workout regime. I noticed that I had built a decent stamina to run 20-30 mins continuously. Then one fine day, two of my best friends pushed me into a 10k marathon. Although I was against marathons and used to often joke about people paying to run when they can run for free, my friends forced me into registering it. Without much practice, I finished the marathon in a decent time. I felt really good throughout my run and even better after completing it. But still I was so much against marathons that I did not think of continuing it and thought of it as a one-time activity. But then after a few months, to my own surprise, I was totally engulfed into running and wish to continue running forever; here is why:

1. I came to know that diabetes and heart diseases are hereditary and I don't carry all the right genes. And then I came across this quote somewhere: "It's not that diabetes, heart disease and obesity runs into your family. It's that no one runs in your family." Therefore, I run.

2. Since childhood, I had been getting sore throat on a regular basis, especially during cold weather. And the strange part was that with regular gym, I was able to avoid all other common ailments, but sore throat. I consulted many specialists, but without any luck. Then I myself discovered that I generally don't get it when I'm running regularly. In fact, whenever the sore throat starts sneaking in or I feel feverish, if I go for a run, I get rid of it automatically more often than not. Same is the case with upset stomach. This is probably the best fitness gift that running has given to me and I'm indebted to running for that. Therefore, I run.

3. And the last but not the least. I'm a foodie. Running gives me that extra leverage to go overboard with yummie (sometimes unhealthy) food once in a while. At the same time, running also make me conscious about the food that I eat, so I tend to avoid unhealthy stuff anyways. Therefore, I run.

Miles to run before I sleep...