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Vol. XXV No. 19, January 16-31, 2016

Confessions of a walkaholic

by R. Doraisamy

-A marathon experience

Run you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up – Dean Karnazes.
It all started on a day which continues to be sacred for me since the time I can remember – October 2nd, the date of birth of my idol.

To be precise, I started a regimen on October 2, 1999, which helped me to keep in shape and to enjoy and relish life to the fullest. I was in my early forties then, quite late in life, but not too late (Read the story of Fauja Singh, which follows).

I started four major daily habits on that day, and am glad to say that I have managed to sustain them.
Even earlier, I had tried to inculcate these four habits, but was successful only in bits and pieces. But this time, I was determined to make it different and, thank God, I have managed to do so.

r-doraisamyR. Doraisamy.

The four daily habits are walking/jogging, writing a personal journal recording the key events and activities in my life, reading and memorising passages from great books in English and Tamil, and completely changing my dietary habits, including at least five or more servings of different vegetables, fruits and greens, making them form 50 per cent of my total diet intake. Believe me friends, life has never been the same for me since then.

Any story on marathon running will be incomplete without mentioning Fauja Singh, all of 103 years old.
“101 year-old Fauja Singh runs the London Marathon.” This was a story on YouTube in August 2012. Singh ran his first marathon when he was 89.

He successfully ran the London marathon on October 16, 2011 in 6 hours 2 minutes, and became the first centenarian to complete a full marathon. He was a vegetarian, and his staple diet was roti, dal, rice and vegetables.
Back to my experience as a walker and runner: I have logged a distance of roughly 60,000 km in walking and jogging in my lifetime, including about 35,000 km recorded in my journal. In my younger days, I participated in several cross-country walks of more than 500 km each.

During the past 15 years, I have been alternating between walking and jogging. Wherever I am, at home or elsewhere. Even during my short trips, the first 90 minutes of the day after I wake up are reserved for my walks. On several days, I continue in the evenings. I never go on any trip, even if it is for a day, without my walking shoes. When I travel to Sanmar’s salt pans at Vedaranyam, I jog from office to Kodiakkarai and back on many occasions.

But, all along, I had only been walking and sprinting on my own for several years without entering into events or competitions. My sons found my walking and jogging regimen impressive and suggested that I join them and start running half marathons. In fact, without waiting for my response they registered me for the half marathon in the Coimbatore marathon held on October 5, 2014. I was a bit sceptical, though I was a confident of finishing. In that maiden half marathon, I finished approximately 900th out of 1100 participants, which I felt was not that bad for someone who is in his late fifties! It took all of 3 hours and 54 minutes.

A couple of months later, I was once again registered for the Chennai marathon, which was on December 7, 2014. This time I felt much better improving my time to 3 hours 28 ­minutes, less than ten minutes a km, and managing to jog ­continuously for about 17 km, before slowing down.

I look forward to running in more marathon events and improving my timings. – (Courtesy: Matrix, the house journal of the Sanmar Group.)

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