“Everything you ever wanted to learn about yourself, you can learn in 26.2 miles or longer”

Some Background – 

I have done decent in my professional career, rising through the ranks, taking one step at a time but success is all relative though. Like any other job that has stress, travel and most of all time commitments (other than all the good stuff too), my job is not too different. I have realized in my 17 years of career that you need to have some interests other than work to take your mind off work. Not necessarily running but lot of people love traveling, exploring new places, playing, DIY work, fly-fishing, hunting and so on. The one thing that is common for me in work and running is “Passion”.

Passion vs. Obligation –

I have started running in 2011 for health reasons and honestly I never liked it. I could run 2 miles with lots of huffing and puffing and I hated to persist through boredom and suffering. I still trained/under-trained and ran few races including marathon, then injured myself and called it off for good. There was no passion and I was trying to thrust myself into it, it didn’t work. I never thought I will run a marathon again.

Then my brother (who is an accomplished ultra-runner himself, very successful high ranking diplomat and who introduced me to running) visited Dallas and we ran 10K together, that made me think of starting running again. I had lost all my fitness by then and that 10K felt more than a marathon distance to me. I started running back again in the fall season of 2015 albeit this time with running groups than running alone and it did the trick. I made some wonderful running friends. As I said in my earlier posts in the blog, this was the “turning point” in my running life. I haven’t looked back since then. Now the big change was – I am super passionate about running now. Nothing can stop you when passion is the driving force, all other things would just follow (health reason was the obligation as was in the previous case).

The feeling that I am “TOO BUSY” to run –

Does Running take too much time off your schedule? Sure, running needs time commitments but not when it becomes your lifestyle and routine. You can throw 1 hour or 30 minutes run in the early morning or evening in your travel schedule or even much before you go to office. I did most of my runs with friends starting at 5 AM and am back home by 6:30/7 or I run late evening wherever I travel to or use these runs to explore some new places. I do most of my long runs on weekends with running friends visiting beautiful trails and landscapes. I have cut down my TV time and other unnecessary pastimes to almost zero and invested those times in sleeping, recovering and ready for morning runs. Now I have even more time for my family, work, running, reading and lot of other activities.

Ok so how has been running helping me in my professional self? I have run 11 marathons, 5 ultra-marathons, 6 half-marathons and many more 5Ks, 10Ks, 20M and 30K races and my longest race has been 100K so far, most of it in last 18 months or so. Some were training runs for my A races and I put in 1600+ miles in 2016 (training and race miles included). This is not to boast about myself and this is not “a lot” either as there are many crazier runners who have accomplished much insane feats in much shorter time. The point that I am trying to make is with these training runs and some of my long races, I have experienced and trained my mind with new skills that I could apply to my professional work.

• Nothing lasts forever but Adapt– First and foremost, you would sure experience pain every now and then, in marathon or longer race (or any other race). There are “low” and “high” moments and they will pass eventually. In my first 100K, I experienced lot of emotions where I felt that I could just go on with that pace forever and the next moment, I started feeling pain in my upper right back in much early part of the race. I pushed myself through that and after few miles, I felt completely relieved off that pain. Pain doesn’t last forever, good or bad, so is the situation in your work/life but be ready to adapt. You may face really hot weather while going through canyons or sheer cold while going through peaks, all in the same race or you may have GI problems or you may get worst blisters, you ADAPT and PERSIST through it with grace. Same things happen in work too, there are good and bad situations, none of them last forever. Adapt and face it with grace, we will do lot better than just succumbing to it under pressure.
• Running gives different perspectives – I often set myself out for a run whenever I am stressed and I feel myself quite different after an hour of running. It gives me different perspectives to look at a problem, helps to see through the clutter, veers your mind off of many things that are so trivial and not necessary to be mulled over. Many times, I have found a solution to the lingering issues during or after runs. This has to be experienced than just being told. Go for a run and see yourself!!
• Patience and Time Management – Before starting a race, I have to visualize myself through the finish line and see if I can run at the same pace at the finish or just before finish and then pace automatically evens out. Starting a marathon/ultra as if you are running a 10K and then ending up in death march at the end is not a wise strategy, you have to manage your time well to know when to push and when to just keep going. Patience plays a bigger part in race especially during the longer race and in work too. For ex. now I write my emails and even if they are ready to leave my inbox, I keep them in draft for some time. My views change after some time and those edits can be a life saver.
• Accountability, No-Excuses Attitude, Mental Toughness – Anything can go wrong in ultra-marathons but that doesn’t give you an excuse to “DNF”, that’s your choice to not continue. Whatever is your excuse, go and finish what you started. Fight your own demons, you deal with whatever problems you face but don’t just give up, you get up and run. There are no excuses for not to finish. There is so much of joy and bliss when you cross that finish line and there is no parallel to the “Runner’s High”. You are accountable for the choices that you make so own your failures/successes. When I look back, all these issues/problems look too trivial to me and my result far outweighs all my hard work during the race.
• Big Picture, Goal Setting– Ultra marathons are too long and we need to break our goals in smaller goals. You set your goals but have plan A, B, C as it may not go in an ideal way always. Your mind automatically tracks the actual progress against the baseline plan of your respective goals during the race. Don’t get intimidated by sheer volume of work but break it down to manageable chunks and plan/track smaller goals keeping big picture in mind.
• Harness your strengths and improve your weaknesses – You better analyze your strengths and weaknesses during training and racing. You know where you fare better and where you need to improve than just playing badass all the time. You adapt more easily and use these situations more wisely when you know where your strengths lie. I tend to work on my weaknesses in the training much ahead of my race and work on my strengths closer to race. You add hills training in your normal daily running routine and hills don’t look daunting to you anymore. Similarly, I started with reading just one technical article a day and it helps me keep up with technology development.
• Don’t judge others but respect them– You should better not judge any runners, however they look. Some fat asses can be really bad-asses so don’t go by the looks. Respect everyone in their endeavor and help them succeed. Runners share great camaraderie with other runners and even their close competitors. Do the same with your co-workers.
• Endurance and Health Benefits – Improved endurance has helped me a lot in my travel schedule. I feel even more fresh and confident in back to back tedious meetings. My thinking process has also improved and I can think more clearly, overlooking all the clutter around me. Diet is usually much improved and you tend to eat healthier with regular exercise. You don’t want to put extra body fat and then burn by slogging even more slow miles.

This is a constant learning and I am sure others must have had similar experiences or even better. I have seen many use running as a natural therapy to overcome whatever personal / professional challenges they have. Many have used it successfully against depression, many deceases or shaking up their life from mediocre living to something interesting or doing it just for the health benefits. Running has changed my life forever for good. Share your experiences and spread health and better life.