Run for it (and don't define the 'it')

So last Sunday I travelled to NTU for a 4-day company-sponsored course. True to its name, the course was intensive to the degree that we did not even have a reason to step out of the Nanyang Executive Centre where we stayed, studied, worked and slept for 4 days. On the third day or so, I started to feel it --- the 'conditioned air' in the air-conditioned building was getting to me. I needed some fresh air and decided to take a walk around my alma mater.

I hadn't taken my running shoes with me, so I wore my slippers and walked. I walked all the way to the running track in the Sports and Recreation Centre (SRC) and that's when memories of my third year in university came back to me. I was interning back then, and to shed a couple of extra kilos, I used to come back from office and run 6 rounds on the track every night before dinner. Some amazing results ensued, and that's when I got into the whole fitness thing.

However, that did not last long as my knee pain came back. In my first year at university, I had fractured my knee while jogging on the roads at 1 am (Don't ask. I was young and foolish back then. Now I am old and still foolish.) Of course, Viv likes to incorporate a hot Mauritian guy into the how-I-broke-my-knee-story. I assure you, the hot Mauritian guy was by no means fictional, and it is indeed true that he was so hot that when I first saw him, I skipped a step and sprained my ankle, but he had nothing to do with the fateful night I went jogging on the roads and ended up with a broken bone. In Viv's version, I apparently ran after the hot Mauritian guy on the roads at 1 am and ended up with a fracture. Many people prefer his version of the story. Sometimes I do too. It is more fun than mine.

Anyway, so when my knee pain came back, that was the end of my jogging. Undeterred, I found other means of staying fit, such as going to the gym, badminton, walking, walking a lot, walking very fast, and attempting to swim (believe me, I am still attempting). But the walking bit really helped me stay in shape.

So this evening, as I wore my shoes to walk to the beach, I decided to go for a run instead. It was unthinkable at first. I hadn't run in a very long time, and the last time I tried to run, I got rashes all over my legs, my knee hurt and the left side of my stomach started aching. It was like my body had developed an allergy towards running. But memories from 8 years ago, of the 6 rounds on the track at the SRC egged me on, and I wanted to see if I still had it in me.

I didn't.

I'd barely run about 15 minutes when the rashes came back and my stomach started hurting. So I stopped running and started walking very fast. After a while, I felt like I could run again. I ended up toggling between running and walking for about an hour or so, and even though I wasn't running very fast (let's just say I run at the pace of Roop Kumar Rathod's 'Tujh mein rab dikhta hai'), it felt great before the pain came back. Each time.

And I felt like I finally understood why people run. You've seen them at the beach, just running. Some are training for the Marathon, yes, and some are trying to get into shape, but a lot of them are just running. No reason. Just running.

I had not taken my watch or my mobile phone along with me, but I did have my ipod (hey, I can sacrifice the sense of time and connectivity, but not music) and it was great to run when Sunidhi went "Bounce baby bounce" and walk when Shaan crooned "Kuchh kam roshan hai roshni" (yes, the world has graduated to Delhi 6 and I am still hooked on the Dostana and Fashion music albums). I had time to observe things around me --- a dad encouraging his son to run faster, a lady with a pram full of dogs, a dad on a skateboard with a toddler balanced precariously in front of him, a grandma taking a walk with the aid of her domestic helper. And slowly, amongst the sweat, breathlessness and heat, a sense of calm prevailed. Usually, when I see cyclists riding at crazy speeds on the walking track, I feel like shoving a branch between the spokes of the wheels. But this time, I didn't feel that. Peaceful co-existence and all that.

And then a guy stopped me to ask me where the hawker centre was. I was amazed. In spite of the 'double-protection-do-not-disturb-me device' (running+ipod), he had stopped me. It was a beautiful welcome change. You don't see this kind of liberty-taking, interfering-in-your-life act, where a total stranger stops you as you're running, waits till you take your earphones off and asks you for directions. It just doesn't happen.

"You just walk down this path all the way." I said.

"Very far, ah?" He asked.

"Uhh... not really. About 5 minutes?"

He thanked me and went on his way, while I wondered, "Did I make it clear to him that I meant 5 minutes by walking, and not running?" And then I wondered if I wonder too much. Maybe it's true. Maybe we all wonder too much. And maybe that's why this physically exhausting activity of running helps. It does not give us time to wonder too much. And that's probably why so many people run. Without a cause.

In a world where we're either running after something or away from something, sometimes it's kind of nice to, you know, just run.