Lessons through a Marathon

Recently I got an opportunity to participate in the 19.47 km Run in Gurgaon. Why this name? Because the cause here is to support the 1947 partition archive stories for the up-coming 73rd Independence day on 15th August 2019. It was almost equal to half-marathon as someone who can run 19.47 km in this humid weather could surely do 21 km. I was fortunate that my brief training paid-off and I completed the run in a respectable time. However, during the run, my mind ran through some amazing thoughts. Those ideas have always existed and have been heard a million times over, both in my personal as well as corporate life, but today I witnessed them with a new perspective. Here I will try to share four and hope that most of you will connect with them in some way. So here they are;

Number one; showing up. The importance of taking action goes as follows: "Five birds are sitting on a wire. Two decide to fly off. How many are left?" Answer: All Five. Initially, I was hesitant in reaching the venue as I had never run a marathon, I did not train for it well plus there were more than 1000+ registrations. However, only 300 people showed up in the morning. Without breaking a sweat I was in the top 30%. This is true in life. Most of the time we are not fully prepared and I believe we never will be until we take that plunge as there will always be some serious morale problems corrupting our ranks. So just show up no matter how you are feeling. It will be worth it.

Number two; separation. We all started together. However, after traveling about 7 km I looked around and didn't find a single runner. For once, I thought I had lost way but then the check-post reassured me that I was on the right track. Then after some distance, I was joined by a fellow runner. He stayed with me for a few km and then I didn't see him till the end, even in the presentation ceremony. The lesson I took from this is that we will meet people with transient stays on our way. We have to accept it, let go and keep moving on. We can't hope that someone stays with us until the end. 

Number three; racing against yourself. I'm sure most of us will agree that unless we are professional marathon runners we will never win it. So then why are we running so hard to test the pinnacle of our endurance on a Sunday morning? Who are we competing against? No one is looking, so we can easily give up any time. But most still complete it anyways. Because in the end, we are only racing against ourselves. There is no one to prove. We set standards for ourselves and if we don't meet them, then it is a guilt that only we have to live with. We may get second chances but regret has no cure. 

"I wanna stop." "We can't."

-Imagine Dragons, Believer.

This brings me to the last one or number four; no matter what, don't stop. Keep moving ahead. Speed doesn't matter. Forward is forward. We started with 300+ and in the end, only 177 completed. Most of them stopped. They started walking with complacency playing its part, compelling them to think they would catch-up later but they couldn't. I too wanted to give up but something inside me whispered, "keep jogging till the end, then rest". It's okay to slow down but not stop.

Most of us are familiar with the above but just to experience them tangibly exceeded my highest expectations. They made me realize how every small step helps us inch closer to our goal. Someday we'll look up in a silent thanks, and smile with satisfaction. And maybe, that moment of epiphany in our small measure of peace...