Part 1: The easiest part of the job is done - signing up for a half marathon

Today, I want to start telling you the story of my first ever half marathon. I know it is a cliche to do so, but please allow me to start with a quote:

" If it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you. "

I never realized how true this quote by Fred DeVito is, till I signed up for the Biofreeze San Francisco Half Marathon 2019 as part of Team Asha to raise funds for Asha for Education which is an NGO that supports the education of underprivileged children back in India. The race is over, but my journey isn't complete yet. However, I think it is important to get the narrative started - if not for anything else, merely to just share my story with anybody who is willing to listen.

It was probably a hasty decision in the early days of the summer - one taken under the influence of people who had previously run for Team Asha. I always knew that I wanted to run at some point in life to raise funds for charity, but I wasn't mentally prepared to do it this year. But it so happened that I came across the Facebook event about the inaugural talk of the season for Team Asha around the same time that I was having conversations about running, back home with my uncle and aunt who are Team Asha alumni. While I was never the kid who liked or actively participated in sports, I had always been physically active as someone who was trained in Indian classical dance forms like Bharatanatyam and Kathak which required a lot of stamina and dedication. I knew that I had been out of touch with the dancer in me for quite a few years now, but I thought it will be an easy feat for me to spring back and run the distance. Riding high on the encouragement and motivation I received from people around me, and may I say a little overconfidence from within, I signed up as an official Team Asha runner for the first half of the SF Half Marathon 2019. It is here that my story begins.

I went for the first open run that Team Asha had, on a Monday evening after work at Cupid's Span in SF. It was the 29th of April, 2019. We were told that we'll be doing a light run of about 2-3 miles along the Embarcadero. (I am not ashamed to admit that I was blissfully ignorant about how long a mile is, but I told myself that it was surely going to be short since it was supposed to be a 'light run'. Seldom did I know what was in store for me!) I was excited and nervous as we started stretching before the run, to warm up our muscles that get cold and tight given our sedentary lifestyles. Then at the count of three, we started a slow run in the direction of the Ferry Building. I was happy to go at the pace of the group, while everyone talked about how their day went. Five minutes and about 400 ft. into the run, I started panting and in about a minute, I had to stop right there in the middle of the footwalk to catch my breath because it almost felt like somebody was trying to suffocate me to death. I saw my team members pause with concern in their eyes to check if I was fine, but what I also saw was the surprise on their faces. I mean, who gets breathless in the first 400 ft. when they had signed up to run 13.1 miles in less than 3 months? Naturally, I felt embarrassed and disappointed at what I considered my failure.

On reflecting back to the life I had growing up, I realize that I usually participated only in activities I knew I would excel at. While failure is not completely unknown to me, it certainly has never been publicly in the early stages of the challenges. It usually has been much later in the competition where after a tough fight only the best would win and I could go sulk in the comfort of my home. This was the first time I was away from home, signing up for something I thought was easy-breezy, and then I failed terribly on the first day in front of a whole bunch of people I just met for the first time in my life! It was that night while I lay on my bed twisting and turning because my mind wouldn't let me fall asleep, that I truly understood what a 'challenge' is. A challenge is not when you compete with others in things that fall within your comfort zone, it is when you compete with yourself to break free and step outside your comfort zone into a new world where some will push you down so that you fall while others will extend a helping hand to get you back up. Running (let alone running the half marathon) was now my challenge and this was just Day 1. I was so unprepared for what was to come, for the ways in which it would end up changing me.

[Take me to Part 2 of the blog series]

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