What do you do when all odds are against you? Here's 6 lessons.

You believe in yourself, focus, block out the noise, make the right choices, trust your gut, and above all, you do what you do best……. You give it a go! 

That’s exactly what I ended up doing in completing the 2019 New York marathon on the 3rd of November, when all odds were against me starting the marathon, let alone completing it.

The 2019 New York marathon was a special race for me from many aspects. It was marathon #10 of my running journey after my first marathon in 2015 in Canberra, Australia. It was also marathon #7 for the “Run for Life 500km” project and achieved the 499km milestone, while raising awareness and funding to build Sri Lanka's first palliative care hospital through Shanthi Foundation.

I was in NY a week earlier, settling in and getting ready for what was an amazing experience running the largest marathon in the world! They expected 55,000 runners and over a million spectators to line the streets!

With all this excitement, a week before the race, I discovered a tear in my left calf muscle! Now what do I do? Pack up and go home? That never even crossed my mind. The question was what's the best chance I can give myself to complete the marathon! There was no backing down and no room for a plan B. The New York marathon marked the 499km milestone of my 500km running challenge. I didn’t want to let down those who had supported me through this journey nor the people who will end up using the first palliative care hospital in Sri Lanka that I’m raising funds for. The cause was bigger than me or this marathon, and allowed me to keep things in perspective and focus on the 'why' I'm doing this.

After many treatment options, I was down to one last resort: A heavy dose of anti-inflammatory together with some pain medication before the race, bite my lips and hope for the best. I guess that is what they mean by 'no pain, no gain'. That is exactly what I ended up doing. I knew the downsides of taking anti-inflammatory before an endurance race. Side effects can include bad stomach reactions and possible kidney damage if I get too dehydrated, which I had to manage carefully. This was less of an issue as the weather was on our side as the forecast was for cool crisp weather.

I knew this was not going to be an easy race. So, I decided the best chance I had was to be 100% focused on how I handled the race and it was going to more mental strength vs physical strength. I know from experience in running, if your mind is not in it, the race is won or lost before you even start. It’s all based on how your sub-conscious works. I had to come up with a way to keep my focus on the 'why'.

My strategy was to break the marathon in to 3 segments and create even a bigger compelling 'why' to keep me focused.

I called it the 16:16:10 plan.

• For the first 16km I decided to focus and think about the victims of 911 and what the NY community would have gone through. This was a way for me to think and connect with the NY community of amazing people along the course.
• The next 16km I decided to dedicate to the victims of recent Easter bombing in Sri Lanka and to think of the victims and hardships the families would have gone through.
• The final 10km was my time to focus on the Run for Life Project and why I’m doing this final run to bring the total closer to 500km to build Sri Lanka’s first palliative care hospital.

I knew I had to have a clear strategy to keep the focus away from the pain in my calf to something else with a clear purpose and meaning. These three focus areas created the bigger 'why' and my calf was insignificant in the spectrum. Yes I had found a way to trick my mind and to keep me focused and it worked!

While I had my 16:16:10 strategy together, the real deal was the selfless act of my dear Harvard GMP buddy Ken Sharpless. Both Ken and I were on Wave 3 start but different corrals. Ken’s corral started 15 mins prior to mine. About 3km into the race, I got a text from Ken with his location and looks like he was 10 blocks ahead of me in the race. Ken’s family was also lining up to cheer him around the 7km mark. Ken decided to wait for me there so he could run with me to support me. He knew I was in pain and I am ever so grateful for his act of kindness to be there to support me.

Having him run alongside during the race gave me a huge boost as we reflected on our training runs in cold wintertime during our Harvard program in Boston. Ken was with me all the way till the last few kilometres before entering central park. He knew by that time I was able to cross the finish line. He turned to me and said, “you are doing fine! I will see what’s left in my tank, see you at the finish line”. I said, go for it! See you at the finish and thank you!

Ken was running to raise awareness and funds for Type 1 Diabetes with the JDRF team. Ken, thank you for what you did, and I will remember this forever!

I signed up for the NY marathon thanks to my HBS buddy Federico Vartorelli and I am thankful for Fede for getting me into the marathon as well joining me and running for the Run for Life project as a champ. It was a great feeling knowing three of us who met as strangers earlier in the year at Harvard for the GMP course were now running the NY marathon together to help great causes!

Below is the link to the full story (Against all odds - 2019 New York Marathon) of how it all unfolded on the day and what I had to do to keep going. Below are the six take away lessons from this marathon. Ideally you should read the full story, so you understand the context of the lessons. But if you don't have the time, here are the 6 lessons:

Six lessons from the 2019 New York Marathon

1. It's always mind over matter - Take control of your mind before it controls you and direct the body to follow and it will. Endurance running yet again proved that it’s always mind-over matter. For this to work, you have to be 100% focused and there can only be one objective in mind. You cannot leave room for any doubts what so ever. In my case, the focus was on completing the marathon, at no point in the race it even crossed my mind how I would bail out of the race. The moment you think that, the game is over. That's what happened to me in the NZ Christchurch 100km ultra-marathon when I bailed out at 42km, because I was not strong enough to control the mind at that time with an ITB injury, once the focus goes in to your pain that's all you will see and feel. So, learn to build your mental strength and focus.

2. Have a Clear Purpose - Running for a cause will help overcome many barriers vs. just running for yourself. In this race breaking the race in to three segments 16:16:10 forcing me to think about 3 different communities helped me keep things in perspective and let my heart guide me. Having a clear purpose, mission and a vision is so powerful in any environment. If you read about how Microsoft has done a complete transformation, it's all about having a clear purpose and a mission. So, what ever you do think about your purpose and make sure everyone around you also understands the purpose. It's the purpose that will help you carry yourself, when everything else looks gloomy. 

3. Connect with people - Connect with the crowd and the people around you. The energy and the Oxycontin this generates should not be under estimated. Make it a point to hi-five the kids and people who are cheering for you along the way. Give them an experience to remember. You can only do this, if you bring your focus away from yourself to your surroundings and the people around you. So, in anything you do, take the time to connect and recognise those around you who are there to support you always.

4. Trust your training and trust yourself. On the day it was easy to focus on the calf muscle issue and think about the pain. But time to time, I stepped out of the immediate pain and looked at my overall condition and I was able to comfort me thinking that I had done all the hard work and the mileage leading up to this. I knew the body was ready (apart from this issue with the torn calf). At times when you face issues, it's always good to step outside and look at the broader perspective. Don't under estimate the work you have done leading up to the event. Once you are fully prepared and ready, trust yourself to push through 'little stuff'.

5. It’s always teamwork. While it was me just running on the day, it would not have been even remotely possible without a massive team behind to support me all the way. My trainer Anna, Physio Narellle, my two buddy doctors Aruna and Kanchana, Ken for running side by side with me, Fede for floating the idea to run the NY marathon in the first place, Suharsha, Neelia and the Shanthi Foundation team for giving me an opportunity to support a great cause, the New York support crew who came to cheer, my good friend Asra for flying all the way from Sydney and all her friends, Kali, Viran and Yanik for being there through all the dramas as well as my Run for Life Champs from across the world. While marathon running can often be thought of as an individual sport, for me it has never been that. I’m so grateful for the army of people who support me to make it possible.

6. Leave a lasting message - While I enjoy running and helping a cause through the process, there is another reason behind what drives me. In a small scale it's the same reason what Eluid Kipchoge says #NoHumanIsLimited. The fact that I was no runner in 2015 and being able to train myself to push beyond the limits I thought were there has taught me these are all self imposed limits we put on ourselves. I hope my running and being able to push through any challenges is a small message that my two boys Viran and Yanik will pick up as a life lesson for them.

If you wish to support me, here's where you can donate to the cause.