my Experiments with Dreams & Madness: Pace of a Runner's Mind

......How a 90kg Fat Guy ran 4,000 metres ......

This blog is about my First run .. the Spirit of Wipro Run .. 4k Run

The day started as usual until I reached Office and Opened my Wipro mailbox to find a community mailer stating about a run named as SPIRIT OF WIPRO RUN (SOW) ... like any other Wipro'ite I too was curious to find out what this Run was all about.I immediately inquired to my colleagues and they informed me about this annual Run that Wipro organizes for its employees , family and friends.

Leaving apart the formal details about the Run .. I happened to glance upon the shorter version of the Run .. which stated that the total run length would be 4,000 metres .. I just blinked my eyes twice just to be certain ....and it was beyond doubt that the run was indeed a 4k Run ....my Mind just immediately paced downhill wondering if I could ever even run 1k forget about 4k.I looked at the big flab of flesh that had formed around my stomach ...that was a sitting example of my years of hard labor and struggle ... all the thoughtless things I had consumed ... thanks to all the junk food .... ultimately treating my stomach and body as a Garbage .. to be precise even worse ....which is usually refereed to by my friends as TYRE / POT STOMACH .... what ever the name be .. i felt bad that i could not even dream about such a run.But a day or 2 later ... i thought why NOT? my mind paced uphill and i decided come what may .. it is my goal to complete the 4k Run.

The first few days since i decided to do the run was filled with complete doubt , fear , inhibitions and total lack of self confidence.Then i discussed this with my Gym instructor who advised me that it was indeed possible.Thanks to google it ultimately reaffirmed my faith when i read about a women who ran a marathon after training for it day & night by only eating McDonalds.For the first time I felt happy that eating junk fast food was not bad after all.

Leaving that apart , a training session was scheduled by Wipro with well known coaches brought in from the best training institutes in the city.... but I was too lazy to travel the 10km's from my home to the training spot.So i decided to take it up myself.First time a sense of responsibility to do and complete something I have not done in my whole life aroused in me.I practiced very hard on tread mill and on the near by grounds to get a feel of the D day.But alas the D day experience was totally different. The fact that I was a slow and steady runner meant more time was taken up in completing the run.I practiced to hit 2km in an average of 45 minutes.But still this was only half the distance of the run and I was sweating and gasping for breath every time I tried to hit 3k.My perseverance level was put to test and as obvious i was failing miserably.The D-day were getting closer and it just added to my woes.Finally I was forced to take up the "What the F*** attitude ??" .. and the day before the D day I had managed to run just 3.25km.As per my new found attitude I decided to take it cool and gave a middle finger to the Nishan who was scared and had loads of inhibitions about the run.

On the D day I woke up late .. just late enough to miss the counter closure time that distributed the orange Spirit of Wipro Run T-shirts.However I was able to convince a co ordinator that I was on time and she ultimately managed to give me the T at the end of the race as she had other duties to attend to now.But I was totally thrilled about the idea as the run was more important to me than the T shirt.

At the start of the Run .... Wipro 'iites in Action

The Run started with a nadaswaram team playing their usual tunes (Which obviously was very very weird Idea and may have been wipro's attempt at cost cutting !!!) .. Leaving apart the terrible sophomore before the start ... the roads were totally blocked with all armed policemen covering us from either sides .... as though we were a huge entourage of PM ... there were ambulance on stand by in case anyone screwed up ....the run started and I decided to maintain my normal course irrespective of the fact that most of the people along with me ran as though they were in a 100 meter dash.I decided to just let go of those people whom I found later.... panting and gasping for water.However I managed to finish the run in style.My fears and inhibitions had f***'d off by the time I reached the end and I easily managed to cover the 4k run .. thanks to the over enthusiastic crowd who made me feel the run was shorter than expected.

And finally I looked at myself with a sense of satisfaction...!

The whole experience was a beautiful memory !