{"id":130,"date":"2024-05-18T13:58:09","date_gmt":"2024-05-18T08:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renuraman.in\/selfdev\/?p=130"},"modified":"2024-05-18T13:58:09","modified_gmt":"2024-05-18T08:28:09","slug":"resilience-tenacity-and-perseverance-lessons-from-the-uru-night-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renuraman.in\/selfdev\/2024\/05\/18\/resilience-tenacity-and-perseverance-lessons-from-the-uru-night-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Resilience, Tenacity and Perseverance: Lessons from the URU night Run"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Having recorded my personal best in 10k (click here<\/a>) for the inaugural run for the Wipro marathon, I was determined to set another personal record in 21k a week later in the URU night run, organized by Mountain Festival Adventures\u00a0 in Brigade Orchards, Devanahalli, \u00a0on 11th<\/sup> May 2024. \u00a0But not every time is a moment of personal victory. In fact, successes and personal records are the tip of the iceberg, a tip on top of a lot of mandatory failures and setbacks. Here is another story: a marathon run that taught me to be tenacious and resilient and not to give up despite being showered by adversities and troublesome circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was scorching hot in Bengaluru till the afternoon of 9th<\/sup> May 2024, the day I was supposed to collect BIB and T-shirt for the run. The daytime temperatures exceeded 45 degrees Celsius, and nights were dry and hot. Despite the fact that IISc was cooler than the rest of Bengaluru, all I was praying for was a heavy downpour of rain. As the sun set, clouds started to smear the orange sky around 7 pm in the evening; I started to walk towards the Sandal Soap Factory metro station. While I was halfway near the Orion Mall, a few hundred meters away from the metro station, I felt the first drop of rain, which made me increase my pace of walk. By the time I reached the MG Road metro station, from which the BIB collection center was just  1.6 km away, it was half past 7, and I had to hurry up to reach the center before 8 pm. The clouds might have been slower than the metro trains, as it was not raining there on MG Road. I paced up and collected the BIB T-shirt, and as I set foot on the corridor outside the center, I noticed heavy winds, intermittent thunder, lightning, and a light drizzle. I was as happy as I was because of the opportunity to feel the rain for the first time in almost a year. It was already pouring before I reached the metro, and I was almost half-wet with my hair drenched. As much as I enjoyed getting wet in the rain, a few intermittent sneezes after I got down from the metro made me a bit concerned. I was afraid I would catch a cold \u2013 the last thing I want before a marathon. As soon as I reached my hostel room, I changed clothes, had a sumptuous dinner, and fell asleep quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 11th<\/sup> May, I was quite determined when I set out toward the Cubbon Park metro station and boarded the bus at Kanteerava stadium that took us to the marathon venue. Within an hour, we were there at Brigade Orchards. I warmed up and was ready to pace along the marathon track with my GPS watch on, the Strava app opened, and relaxing music playing when I reached my runners-high stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As the run started, I was relaxed, increasing my pace with a slow acceleration to reach the equilibrium speed, just like my usual practice sessions. My plan was to maintain a constant speed, a bit more than 10kmph, all throughout the run, which would easily make me finish the run in 2hrs, and a new personal record for me. There was an initial phase of exhaustion, which is usual in every run, for the body to reach its homeostasis equilibrium \u2013 a phase that lasts for 2- 3km max, after which the run becomes more enjoyable and pleasant. However, this time, I felt that this phase was not getting over, and I was starting to feel heavier and heavier with every step. My feet started getting heated up, this time a bit unusually higher. While everything was pleasant, the weather, the evening temperature, and I maintained a good pace for almost three and a half km; I felt a sudden cramp on the right side of my abdomen. I paused the run for a few seconds, stretched backward, and resumed my run quickly. With a determination to endure it throughout, I continued and completed the first loop, which was a bit more than 5km in length, but to my surprise, I was overridden by exhaustion and fatigue that was penetrating my bones. I slowed my running pace down and tried keeping up with a few fellow runners for some lengths before I had to slow down further for a fast-paced walk. I realized that this was due to the mild fever \u2013 a consequence of my getting drenched in rain two days earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Whatever is done is done, and whatever happened has happened \u2013 no backing out now.\u00a0 I had to complete the entire length of 21k \u2013 irrespective of what happens. Reminding myself of what David Goggins said \u2013 \u201cStop when you are done, not when you are tired.\u201d\u00a0 I quickly strategized a new plan \u2013 intermittent running. Run for a km and walk for 100m \u2013 that, I thought, would allow me to finish the race before 2 hrs 15 min at max. While I resumed my run, the rush of adrenaline helped me ignore the pain and exhaustion, and other runners on the track were pacing up with enthusiasm. I got motivated and maintained the constant pace for a bit longer, but this time, the exhaustion set it faster than before. My intermittent strategy now had longer lengths of walk than the lengths of run. By the time I was less than 5km away from the finish line, even walking a step felt like lifting a heavy log of wood. By this time, I just wished I could complete the race before 2 hr 30 min, and I tried to increase my walking pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I had failed \u2013 the target of completing the race in less than 2hrs was way out of the league. Although  I was walking steadily in the last km of run towards the finish line, enduring the pain, fatigue, and exhaustion, I gathered all the energy left to sprint the last 100m before giving the run a glorious finish. With the satisfaction of completing the run, I requested one of the other finishers to click a photo of me. This makes me laugh now, to recall how my phone fell on the ground while giving it to him, all thanks to my dizziness after the short finishing sprint. As I collected the 21km finisher medal under the night sky with a pleasant breeze, I was happy that I could pull myself through the entire length of 21km.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike other runs that I have posted about, it\u2019s not a run of achievement. My timing was quite poor than I expected. On the other hand, as I can clearly think about it as I write this, I was quite tenacious and resilient that day, not just giving up despite all the adverse situations. My focus was on the finish line the whole time, which made me keep going despite all adversities. I guess, in life as well, the only thing that really matters is the goal and a firm resolve to go through the journey or the process towards it. The companions in this journey are tenacity, resilience, and endurance, which make you sturdy and keep going, and the vision that gives you the direction is the goal \u2013 the finish line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having recorded my personal best in 10k (click here) for the inaugural run for the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/renuraman.in\/selfdev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/URU_after_Run1.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renuraman.in\/selfdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renuraman.in\/selfdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renuraman.in\/selfdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renuraman.in\/selfdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renuraman.in\/selfdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/renuraman.in\/selfdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145,"href":"https:\/\/renuraman.in\/selfdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions\/145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renuraman.in\/selfdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renuraman.in\/selfdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renuraman.in\/selfdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renuraman.in\/selfdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}