Running In India

There are days when I’m out running, & feel so on top of the world & energised and oh-so-wonderfully alive, that I quietly regret only starting to run when I turned 60.

I catch myself thinking “Oh, if only I’d started running in my youth, or in my 20s/30s/40s/50s”…and then I imagine where I might be now, and what I might have achieved, and wonder how life might’ve been so very different…all those wasted years of running bliss 😛

I’m 65 now, and have debated this question back & forth over the 5 joyous years which took me from zero, as in z-e-r-o, to a full marathoner.  A slow full marathoner, admittedly, but a full marathoner, dammit!

But the fact of the matter is that I’ll obviously never know what it would’ve been like to run as a fit 25 year old, because I didn’t, so I must look at things differently.

As I get older, I find myself increasingly attracted to websites aimed at fellow senior citizens and you know what?  There are hundreds and hundreds of runners out there, my age and older, running amazingly fast and strong, or running slowly and happily, and all of us having an absolute blast as we do so.

There is one huge advantage to starting running so late in life – I have the “comfort” of not having to see a decline in achievements or speed or pace – because there’s nothing from my youth with which to compare myself 😛

But what is wonderful is that there are still so many role models of my own generation who I can look up to & hero-worship

I read with open-mouthed amazement of 70 year-old Jeannie Rice running the Chicago Marathon in 3:27:50 and fellow 70 year old Gene Dykes breaking the mens’ record in 2:54:23.  

Are these 2 super heroes or what?

One of the many things I’ve learned about myself since starting running is that I am competitive.

Never knew it before.

Seriously.

Having never been sporty or athletic-y, I never really had occasion to match myself physically against others.

But now with running…the problem is that I run with youngsters, many of them way younger than my children, and naturally I want to keep up with them, and feel as fit as them. So the advice in a very interesting article I read online makes sense (although I say this with great reluctance!):

“If you want to survive and keep running, you have to first accept that you’re not 35, 40 anymore…Your mind might want to run like that, but your running regimen has to be different.”

I accept the concept – your mind thinking it’s 35 years old – but I don’t want to aim lower than all the kids I run with 🙁

Deciding to aim as high as is possible in the marathon world, I checked the qualifying times for Boston, the gold standard in marathons.  I give you the qualifying times for 2019 :

And here’s 2020:

Hey! Guess what!  I can qualify in the 70-74 age bracket :P. 

Joking aside, it’s not too crazy ridiculous, is it, to think that were I to shave 20 minutes off my current PB I might j-u-s-t be able to qualify for Boston in a few years?!

Talk about SERIOUS old lady goals!

So, No Regrets Running it is for me!

I run.

I sometimes even win medals.

I have a great sports brand, ASICS, that backs me, which is super exciting.

I have tons of new friends.

No Regrets allowed here.

Who else is running a race tomorrow?

Who else is spending Saturday night busy checking their gear and their playlists and their stash of gels?

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be running a half marathon in New Delhi, India, where I live, and with a 5.00am reporting time, it behoves me to get my ducks in a row tonight.

So here we go.

My pre-HM checklist.  Shout if I’ve forgotten something, please!

Main items

Shoes, socks, sports bra, underwear, trousers, top, bib, Garmin.

Extras

Waist pouch for phone, snacks, gels, kleenex. Headphones,

Extra extras

Sweater for journey to venue, beanie for journey to venue, water for car, bananas for car.

Still undecided about…

Gloves, head torch (5.30 start in deepest, darkest winter)

Need to do tonight before I sleep

Pin on bib, check playlist for the umpteenth time, charge Garmin for nth time, carbo-load, hydrate, calm down, remember I’m doing this for fun AND paying good money to do so!

Wish me luck, folks 🙂

And if I’ve forgotten anything, PLEASE tell me now!

Or is it the other way round?

Which comes first, running or life?

Seriously, there are times when I marvel at just how complicated something as intrinsically uncomplicated as running can be.

It’s not the running itself that’s complicated.

Far from it.

Running is dead easy.

Lace up your shoes and head out.

End of story.

It’s the whole fitting your running into a busy schedule that includes so many moving parts. And other people.  And other people’s demands.  And work.  And everything else.

That’s the complicated part.

Let me state my own case, to get the ball rolling.

I have life pretty easy, I’m the first to admit.

I’m old, so don’t have young dependent children.

I work from home, so am more mistress of my time than many people.

And yet…

Getting the life-work-family-running balance sorted is not easy, and never more so than when I’m 6 weeks from a full marathon & totally under-trained.  Carving out blocks of 3 and 4 and 5 hours to run is not simple.

And, as I said, I have life very easy.

For those of you who don’t know me, I live in New Delhi, India, a city which is currently cursed with the reputation of being one of the most polluted cities on the planet.  It is therefore not a good idea to get up in the pre-dawn dark and try and get those miles in, because the early morning pollution levels are horrific.

One feels (whether it is true or not) that the sun “burns off” some of the pollution, so I tend to head out mid-morning to run in my local park.  That’s an advantage office-goers don’t have, I fully appreciate, and I do love my solo runs.

But…we have house guests.

As one does in India at this time of the year.

And so what am I supposed to do, as I must get my long runs in, other than abandon them for 4 1/2 hours, which is what I did yesterday?

Yes, I did abandon them and, for the record, felt mighty guilty about it.

Now what I’m about to tell you next is such a first world problem, but one of the hazards of trying to train hard in Delhi in the winters is that social life takes over.

Yeah, such a problem, right? 😛

Fellow Delhi runners will understand – actually I think all my fellow Indian runners will understand – but this is full-on wedding season.

For those of you unfamiliar with Indian weddings, they are not a half-day affair, like most western Christian weddings.  No sirree.

Your Big Fat Indian wedding lasts for days, has a cast of thousands, involves many different functions, is admittedly great fun, but is completely incompatible with pre-marathon early nights.

Totally impossible.

I have a dreadful reputation amongst my husband’s friends, whose children are all getting married and/or having babies (which involves equal amounts of partying).  I routinely skip functions, because I have a race the next day, and the all-round perception of me is (I’m sure) of someone who is totally wrapped up in her own interests over those of whoever is celebrating.

However lovely it is to be invited out, if there’s a race on the horizon, or a major training session, these have to be prioritised.

After 5 years of running, I still have NO idea how to manage my life-work-running balance.  Someone or something always seems to be offended.

I am bored witless by people telling me that I’m obsessive about my running.

Bored.  Witless.

Perhaps I am obsessed, but what of it?

Isn’t it better to be obsessed with trying to exercise and keep healthy in my dotage?

And since the “obsessive” monniker usually comes in the context of not wanting to party late/go out/have another drink, it’s always deeply ironic.

Yeah, perhaps I am obsessed, but at least it’s a healthy obsession, right?

Oh dear, I don’t want to sound grumpy, and I think that is how it sounds…

I run.  I love it.

But it’s unfortunate that for so many people in my immediate world, the need to run, and train, and train some more is perceived as being a selfish pursuit.

I see that I have shared similar thoughts on the Running vs Life debate twice before, and I’m clearly no closer to getting it sorted than I was 3 years ago when I first discussed it & in July this year…