I took to the treadmill very late in my life as a basis of training. There is something about these treadmills that create a feeling of ‘suffocation’ while I am on it. And this feeling stayed on with me until very recently.

Eureka! It took some beating to accept that I do not prefer treadmills, and more importantly, I am not a massive lover of running. I like running – but I am not a big fan of it. I run when it is needed, I sprint when I least expect it, and I speed walk as a matter of habit.

The bottom line is – I don’t love running. Oh, this sounds very different from saying – ‘I hate running,’ which I don’t. Isn’t it?

Now that ‘particular ego’ has been conquered let me move on. It has been so far smooth sailing in the past few weeks when it comes to running. Mind, body, and my inner soul connects well whenever I wish to run. The only question I had to answer was – How much is too much?

I began expecting too much from college and ended up running 21 km and several 10 km runs. I had injuries to my ankle (not while running), which made me feel not to run for close to two years until the time I started to run again in Doha, Qatar.

After completing a few 10 km runs in the past year and a half (five), I realised one important thing – ‘I do not enjoy running for more than 30 minutes’.

Yes, it’s me! It took me time to understand this level of understanding after running more than an hour all these years. What a revelation, phew!

Now, I revel in my 5 km runs and not sure how long this will last. However, I must admit I never relished so much during these 20 to 30 minutes of the run than I ever had in my ten years of running life. I believe that’s where I learned a key message – “It doesn’t matter where and how you do it as long as you like the process of doing it in the overall scheme of things.” And another important message – ‘Run your race.’

This belief of ‘enjoyment in the process of running’ is my secret of sorts for constant motivation to turn up any given day and run. And while I am at it, one never knows if this expands my boundaries!

And who knows few years down the line, I will be enjoying running the entire duration of 60 minutes or more. For now, I let myself savour this new ‘discovery’ within me.

Like I said – ‘I don’t love running,’ but I am more comfortable with the idea and benefits of it whenever I run these days. And in fact, this discovery has only made me run more regularly and consistently than I ever did in my entire life. To top it, it doesn’t matter where and what I run on!