RUN YOUR OWN RACE.!

A lot of exchanges going on among the runners community anticipating the surat night marathon.

All are upbeat, sharing their thoughts, excitement displayed out of exuberance stirred up by the home town marathon, the prime rave for all Surti Runners....the Surat Night Marathon. It's first half marathon for me. Training was great but the nervous pull is greater.

Asking our coach in a group out of the urge of venting the nervous energy, masking it in innocent curiosity the desciples are discussing how to go about the run. Brotherhood coming out in a flare, comradery flowing all over, the experienced in the flock trying to ease out the beginners like me.

Nish, by big brother, my towing van, my Sargent in the troop for running asked what's the target for me, and should he be pacing me for some target and there was a long silence and the Colonel Ashish Kapadiya declared......

"Hey all of you...run your own race !."

RUN YOUR OWN RACE !

It was a strong command of four words ! The ears heard the words, and the mind interpreted as.."attention! " I felt like the loud command I used to listen to, that came out of a strong and penetrative voice of the March Past commander in the Preparation of the Republic Day Parade I was a part of when I was a Sargent and leading my 5 Guj Battalion NCC troop to the nationals.

The pause and the break in the discussion sat on like a heavy weight on the fluid flow of thoughts and exchanges jumping across the board. Things settled. All ears aligned. All in a rapt attention to fathom the depth of what the command meant.

And that's it. Only the four words. No explanations, no sugar coated lines of efforts to up ease, no beating around the bush. A thud of a gun fire that immediately makes way to the stunning silence which is the only event that the mind is able to register consciously, the effect of that bang so powerful that washes away the cacophony of the unnecessary voices and the haphazard flutters of the sound plane.

I did not even realise that I was not in command of my thoughts anymore. The state of mind was taken over.

The immediate picture that was projected by my mind on the full screen of my attention on the immediate following moment after the command, was the simple yet proud face of Lance Nayak Hanumantappa whom the nation had lost yesterday.

Immediately next was the strong and ever smiling face of my close friend Ajay, our captain of wildlife rescue whom we lost to the captain of all diseases last year and immediately next came the face of my Aunt, who is fighting her battle with the same disease.

It is totally impossible for the commoners like us to even attempt to imagine what a race it would have been for the lone wolf, the true son of the mother India, who lived to prove the lines of the famous Kargil martyr amarjawan Captain Manoj Kumar Pandey of the 1/11 Gorkha Rifles, the recipient of the Param veer Chakra - posthumous. ......."if death strikes before I prove my blood, I swear I will kill death."

The martyr Lance Nayak Hanumantappa had proved his blood in that icey grave where he was fighting a ton of snow over his head and the minus 30 temperature that was invading his senses every moment of those unimaginable long six days of being trapped under the cruel avalanche that took away our nine brothers.

What a way to kill death!! If someone who has beaten death, then here was the example. Even the destiny was crying when the brave boy's body could not stand with his indomitable soul that had nothing but the nation's freedom to look up to. !

Then the present sense took over and I felt myself. Goosebumps and sweaty palms. My hands trembled while I typed back the answer and I could not.

Can we all ever even attempt to imagine what a race it would have been for that brave man? Race for six days running only on mind where the body was frozen and just not available ? Who's race it was ? And for whom ? For whom did our Parent's run the whole life ? Who could have imagined the pain behind the smiling face of a cancer patient,..Weakened beyond imagination who used to be the main pillar of our strength in team Prayas, my friend Ajay to whom physical pain could not never bog down.?

In his gruelling travel to the immortality, he was running his own race as no one can feel his pain. Pain of the body which was loosing the battle and the pain of the soul which did not want to give up. We all just sat around him, trying to comfort someone who never needed any support, and always saying...I am running my own race.!

As the family try and comfort my Aunt, who is running her own race after running for whole life for the family, are we just bystanders ??

No we are not. We are fellow runners who are running our own race! On the road or in the life. !

All are running our own race, so it's a false thought that I was running for someone or something....before this word of command had struck, I was enjoying my false pride that I was dedicating my first race to my friend, or to my Aunt, or to some cause....the loud bang of these four words shot like a big cannon to wash out the thoughts....

We may be running together....but we all are running our own race !

Running is about being alone with oneself..! Like a small practice of that final run that we all have to run alone. ! So practice hard, and train for the race ....the race that we have to run alone. . . Race of life .....

Only thing the "coach" asks for is to finish in style...finish strong....

Finish like the brave hearts on the border, finish like how Ajay did,
Finish strong, finish smiling.....as this race is all about actually realising....that ...

We have to run our own race !

All the best runners!