Running to escape

I am from a very small village known as 'Pedong', which is in the district of Darjeeling, West Bengal. I am from a hill station, that's why I am fit and active since childhood but I was never into sports when I was in school. When I was in college, I realized that I needed to shed some weight, so I started doing free hand exercises and yoga on my own.  

I started running from the year 2003 but without any guidance. I used to run randomly. I wanted to run away from everything. Actually, my boyfriend had to marry a girl chosen by his parents and I was very hurt at that time. When my boyfriend told me that he was getting married, I started finding it very difficult to sleep, eat and to do anything but I was determined not to do anything negative for which I would be regretting in future.  

I was having sleeping disorder. I had not slept so many nights and I have spent many nights just crying. During that period only, one day very early in the morning, at around 4am, I just left my bed because I was not getting sleep and decided to go for running. I don't remember for how long I ran that day but after I came back home, I was really feeling good. After that day, every morning, I started to go for long runs. The more I used to miss my boyfriend, the more I used to run and I think that was the positive way of running away from everything at that point of time. But believe me, running really helped me to come out of all the heartaches.  

In 2004, I came to Mumbai for further studies. After coming to Mumbai, I could not continue to run. Initial two years of coming to Mumbai, I had to struggle a lot. I was doing my masters as well as I was doing a part time job.  

Somewhere in 2006, I just happened to discuss about the Mumbai marathon 2007 with my roommates in Villa Teresa (working women hostel) and we decided to participate in it. We started practicing on our own. We started our practice from November 2006 only and I really enjoyed our practice for the half marathon. But unfortunately, when running the half marathon, I injured myself. After covering 15km, I started getting slight pain in my right knee but I did not stop. After 17km I found it very difficult to even walk. Luckily my roommate (Shruti) met me when I had covered 19km and holding Shruti's hand I walked last 2km. When I completed 21km, I could not even lift my leg. I got medical aid at the finishing point and by ambulance I had to go to hostel with my roommates. After that I was in complete bed rest for one week. Though my knee was hurting a lot, I was feeling great for completing 21km, which I cannot explain in words.  

This year in January, again I wanted to participate in the half marathon but I was not practicing and after the knee injury last time, I did not get courage to go for it. So I went for the dream run, which is a 6km event. I was doing the dream run as time-pass. But at least I participated in the Mumbai Marathon 2008.  

Some day back, when I came to know that my colleague Madhu was practicing for long runs under the guidance of Mr. Daniel Vaz (our coach), I too decided to join her. So from last two weeks I am practicing long run sunder the proper guidance, which I am thoroughly enjoying. After I joined Madhu, I came to know about RFL and RGI. I used to think that only mad people like me go for early morning long runs but after coming across RFL and RGI, I came to know that there are many people, who consider running as their hobby. I am so grateful to Madhu for introducing me to such a wonderful online community.  

At present I am running on treadmill for 40-45 mins at the speed of 7-7.5km/hr on Tuesday and Thursday. Saturday, we go for long run in Hiranandani Gardens. Remaining other days we do weight training and yoga, which is very important. Running has really helped me a lot. After joining RFL and RGI, I realized that there are so many things which I need to learn about running but I hope with the passing time I will learn them well and I will be able to experience a lot of good things in life. So far I have not met my coach and have not gone for actual group running because of Mumbai monsoon. I know there are so many exciting things waiting for me. Now I have decided to make running a part of my life.  

Cheers and happy running.

Roshni Rai.

11^th July, 2008.