First Race ....

I just ran the Vibha 10K race this morning and crossing the finish line felt awesome. Now I must admit that I've never been a very active sportsman and its been ages that I've been involved in any athletic activity. After returning from India about three months ago, I was at a social low with all my Fall 2005 friends having graduated and me having moved to a new place. Work was not going very great either and I just felt that I needed to meet new people and create a new social circle to get over the loneliness. As luck would have it Asha a volunteer organisation in Austin held its first information session around the same time and I went to it just out of curiosity. Asha works for social causes in India and one of the ways in which it raises funds is by asking people to run for them and raise money for every mile they run. I thought this was a great idea and a wonderful way to do the little I could for a great cause.
Asha has collaborated with a marathon training academy named Rogue to train us for this marathon. And so began this biweekly ritual of attending the training with Rogue. What was most comforting was that there were many novices like me who had no experience of running until this time. For two months we've been working on increasing our stamina and endurance through a scientific training programme that deals with fitness, nutrition and primarily the actual run-training itself.
Today was the first race that we did and it was awesome to see so many other fellow runners doing either the 5K or the 10K. The first part of the run was a little hard but after about 3 miles I got into a good rhythm and after that it was nearly effortless. Having said that, somewhere close to the finish line (or when I thought it was about to finish) we were told that the 10Kers had to make another loop of about 1 mile before we got to that point. I must say that this was my psychological lowest during the race. However, I kept going up the slope, now with the sun glaring right into my face thinking of the finish line. 5 minutes later I was at it with people cheering me as I made it through the finish archway. It was a good feeling and the food that followed even better. Don't ask me about my timing and stuff, I am just happy that I made it thorough it. I'll be writing about this stuff again so may be I'll keep you updated on all that info and the progress of this venture at that time. Until then I'll ..... just keep running.. just keep running ....