Lessons from running

I have been a diabetic for the last 14 years. Fortunately, I am yet to go on insulin injections. During a yearly health checkup my doctor mentioned that if I do not do something about the high blood sugar I would have to start insulin shots. The solution to avoiding the shots was to lower the blood sugar level and since my diet was already under control, she suggested walking for 30 minutes a day. 

What started as a 30 minute brisk walk slowly moved to running and eventually I ran the 2015 Standard Chartered Half Marathon and was a finisher with a 3 hour timing. Nothing great in the timing, my challenge was to be able to finish without any damage to my health. That month my sugar level were at the borderline level and the good doctor decreased my medicine dosage by 25%. The daily running became addictive. Clocking 60 Kms a week was normal and the days that I did not run, I got fidgety. 

Up until that time I had looked at people who spoke about running in tones that bordered on fanatic religious zeal.  Murakami was a Japanese guy who seemed to have made millions on the back of spewing tales of his experience in trying to run and then eventually running.

The first 3 kms and the next 2 and the next 5 and the next 10 and then the last 1 km became an obsession. When one runs, one forgets the world. It is just you and the pain and the thirst and the burning lungs. You have to learn to pace, to breathe and to sustain. You cannot rush into the distance unplanned. Every kilometer needs to be measured against time and fatigue and water intake. I have never run all of the 21 Kms in one go - it is tackled in smaller tasks and goals. My minimum viable is the first 3 kms. Then I slow down for the next 2 and let the legs adjust and rest and then I run 2 and jog 1 till I reach the first 10 kms. After that it is easy. every 2 kms have a water, have a date or a dry fig and keep tackling the distance. Always bearing in mind the time horizon within which you plan to complete the race or the task.

The one time I thought about the the distance I gave up mid ways, overwhelmed. The 21 seemed 2 hours away and I started asking myself whether it was really necessary for me to run and what was I going to get at the end of it. I still do not have answers to those questions.

For me running that 21 km distance is like running a company. Each task has to be broken down into small goals. It takes time and those around you will always seem to be in a rush. But that steady focus is needed. The final product launch, the marketing plan, the operations, keeping the spirits up, managing expectations and so on can seem like the distance that one needs to run in 3 hours. If we rush and try to run at the pace of a 110 m dash for all of 21 kms we are bound to fall down and die. There is a clear reason why the athletes who run the dash are structured differently from the marathon runners.

Running teaches you to be humble and to become aware of your limitations and to acknowledge that some of us can never win a race but most of us can complete a task, if we break it up into small aggregates.  Most of us running start ups and businesses forget this simple fact. We want to race into the goal post with scant respect for the distance and the time needed to get there all the while surviving the race.

Like the wise Japanese man says : Pain is evitable, suffering is optional. Maybe completing what you started is victory.