Road Running

Someone asked me at the NRC this morning: What is the difference between running on a treadmill and running in a community? I blurbed along the lines of this is more fun, yada yada. I might not have said what I wanted to express and hence this post.

A few weeks before the Sunfeast 10K, when coach Beedu used to ask how many of us would run the 10k, a few hands would come up reluctantly. After a little prodding, a few more would raise their hands. Interestingly at the Nike lounge after the run, a lot of people were congratulating each other on their successful completion and timings. Contrast that with today. After Nike announced the registrations for the Human race on Oct 24th, the conversation has been completely different. Everyone is talking about completing the 10K, bettering their time. Today, I met a couple of folks who completed the Chennai half marathon in approx 2 hours and discussing about their experience and providing tips. Both of them started running less than six months ago. You will not find this companionship when you run on a treadmill. You will not find some one patting on your back and pace you up and ask you to push a bit and cheer you.

Running on treadmill is helpful when you want to time your runs properly in a controlled environment. But it is not so much fun. Get out on the streets and you will enjoy every bit of it. If you want to run with some greenery around, go to either Cubbon park or Lalbagh. Cubbon park is the best thing that could have happened to runners in Bangalore.

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"There are clubs you can't belong to, neighborhoods you can't live in, schools you can't get into, but the roads are always open."
          -- Nike