The First Step to Long Miles...

We all have dreams that we are eager to achieve, not the ones at work, the ones outside in our personal lives. Like starting a business, learning Music, getting a degree, achieving excellence in some field of art, qualifying for Olympics, making it to Indian cricket team etc., Or it could even be a habby based one... like finishing 1 book per week, finishing 100 blogs in 6 months, cooking 30 new recipes in a month and so on... In the beginning of this year I set one such goal - to run a 5K. Other than some occasional gym visits and running on the treadmill , I never got to practice much. But I did all the "Google" I can and even bought a book on it!. I did not think about this until 2 weeks back when I was casually browsing and stumbled upon a news on the 5K in my town. I was interested and passed on this message to others too. After all kinds of debates and NOs I finally decided I should try it just to see if I can make it.

After a few initial treadmill runs, with only 2 days to the race I was running down the actual trail for a test run. If you love nature this is one of the best places... the terrain was slightly hilly, with the first mile up hill into the woods and an almost flat second mile into more woods and around a reservoir and third was back to the main road through the woods gently sloping up and then down. I just walked/jogged 3 times around the reservoir totaling 3Km and was already huffing and puffing. That night I even lacked the confidence that I would be able to finish the race, nevertheless I registered online with 5 mins to the deadline. I said to myself - I will take it one step at a time and will finish it by 45 mins atelast.

On the race day, the sunshine was beautiful, perfect start of Spring, but my stomach was churning as if I am going to face an entrance exam. The atheletic crowd intimidated me so much - kids, young adults, even 55+ people were all geared and warming up for the race. I was praying that I should make it. The race started exactly @ 10 am, I slowly ran the first up hill mile into the woods, even walked sometimes to avoid tripping, It felt like forever, I was soon tired and people were moving farther away from me. The second was better, just seeing the reservoir with clean water and duck and geese happily swimming in it gave me a comfort feeling and I jogged fine. I hit the woods again in the third mile, a small kid came in the opposite direction and said "You are doing great!, Almost done just around the corner..." That was like a shot of glucose; Thanks to him, I picked up speed and saw the finish line.... I briskly crossed it.

My timing was not the best, It was not worse either, I did not win, but I was not the last too :). I was well within my own goal limits, Now I know where I stand and how much to practice. If you are one of those who is scared of trying just because you think you cannot handle the failure, just throw the fear away and do it, the first step is all that matters, even if you do not make it atleast you will know what is needed to make it! My next target is in next month to finish it < 30 mins!!!