Setting the pace

 

Two summers ago, I had enough willpower to run about 30km a week. I had never ran that much in a week before, deliberately. It makes me wonder, what the source of inspiration was, that kept me going to the park, to run six days a week. It probably might have been a comment about my weight, or a montage video about the health benefits of running. Either way, the start was not as significant as the lessons I learnt as I went on the journey. 

Perhaps the word journey is not fitting, because I was running in circles and seemed to remain in the same place. Each time I set out to run around the circuit, when I thought about completing the six thousand metres,  the task seemed herculean. Doubts about it being possible would easily come to mind, as it is not the shortest of distances for one to run. Some advice that would come in handy from a veteran runner and a friend, was to rather focus on the next step and the next one after that. 

This simplified matters, all I had to do is just put effort into the next stride. Far too often we have goals, amazing ones at that, so amazing that they leave confounded as to how we can achieve them. You just have to take it stride at a time, you just have to break down the path into fragments that you can repeat easily. Then gradually before you know it, all else being equal, you can get to your destination with a bit of perseverance. 

A pro tip that I learnt while running is that, you should run at a pace that allows you to talk if there was a person next to you. In my attempt to adjust to this rule, I slowed down quite a bit. This was a bit of a dampener, however, I did notice that the runs were not leaving my body as sore as it was before. For the sake of longevity one has to know their limits, as much as I would like to run at the Olympic pace of Mo Farah. I know that after the first kilometre I would pull a muscle. Analogously this can be seen elsewhere in life too. When we give full wind to a pursuit without accounting for our carrying capacity at the time, we find ourselves at the end of the day burnt out and quitting. When all we needed to do is downscale to a sustainable speed, which may take longer but it leads us to where we want to be. 

Some mornings what would happen was that a group of boys would have basketball practice, round about the time I was nearing the end of my run. The coach would then tell the boys to follow me as they did their warm up laps. The thought of these adolescents outrunning me brought up a sense of tenacity within. It would result in me being determined to make sure that I stayed ahead of them and set the pace for them. My fastest kilometres came from this stubbornness, that lead me to intently push myself in order to keep my pride in tact. 

This translates in such a manner, off the track. Doing things for a purpose gives a spring to your step. In this case setting the pace for the youth behind me, looks like making a contribution to society that goes beyond time and will carve a way for future generations. To put into words, the satisfaction that comes with knowing that a goal I'm pursuing, is bigger than myself and isn't just for me to benefit for, is something I don't have adequate vocabulary for. Just the thought that I could be impacting even just a single person, makes the discomfort and the struggles along the way that much more bearable. For these young men I had to provide for them a figure to chase after, and I had to make sure they wouldn't go home hungry after eating my dust.

 

Would it be too much of me to ask you my dear readers, to get some running shoes and go out for a run. I'd like to hear your running stories too, plus think about all the health benefits and how your body will thank you for it. It doesn't even have to be that far a distance, I promise you the feeling afterwards is worthwhile.