How I engaged the physiological (stomach), the physical (my body), the mental (my brain) and the metaphysical (my soul) during these lonely times.
On March 21st, I waved my family a double
good-bye, with both hands, little did I know I would spend the longest time
away from them, ever – 72 days. Like Tom Hanks in Cast Away, I went into a
transformation, while he grew a beard, I grew a Mohawk!
As the goalpost of their return kept shifting from Lockdown
1.0, to 2.0 and so on, I took up multiple “projects” to keep myself engaged.
The Physiological – “that which is related to the physical upkeep”
For most of my basic requirement of food, I relied on my
mom, lunch was the only time when I would get to talk to them. I ate there and
brought home the sambar for my rice + egg burji dinner. But I did a few
experiments in the kitchen – including baking a banana cake for my 40th
birthday! The pic does no justice to how good some of these tasted!
The Mental – “that which is related to the brain”
The easiest project was to pick up a popular series such as
the “Family man” (talk about irony here) and binge watch. I admit, I got a
prime membership and watched 6 episodes, mostly out of curiosity. But dropped
it, when I saw how easy it was to get hooked to this.
I then tried to learn the Vishnusahastranama, got till about
mid-way. But I completed 2 certification programs for a data mining course. It
did come down to the wire during the 2.5 hours exams that I had to endure,
right down to the last question to decide if I would cross the line. In the
Dhoni style, I hit the last ball for a six! Binge learning, way better than
binge anything else!
The Physical – “that which is related to the body”
I took a long break from running after the Bengaluru
Ultra in Dec, nearly 10 weeks of ZERO mileage. Just when I was getting back
to running, COVID hit us.
Not the one to take “lockdown” as an excuse, I
continued to run responsibly – alone and in a 1 km stretch of a road that goes
nowhere, near home. I put in mindless runs of 5km, 10kms, 30 mins or 1 hour
runs just building an aerobic base. It was too early for me to take part in the
quarantine backyard ultra – a great concept in these times, details here.
But when NEB sports and Sunil C came up with the
Kanyakumari-Kargil relay run (#KanKar), I was ready. The plan was simple – each
member of the Indian team for the 24h and the 100k runs as much as she or he
can, each day from 21st of May. You log the mileage, the total team
mileage for the day is marked on the Indian map, from Kanyakumari, all the way
up to Kargil. The goal was to complete this 3815kms in 15days, to get the
sponsors to contribute to charity. Each day of early finish, will get more
money into the charity pot.
Of the 22 runners who began, the cyclone Amphan, the over 40
deg plus weather in Delhi and the seal down orders in Mumbai, meant no running
for a few of our athletes.
Namma Bengaluru had no such issues – the evening downpours
ensured that the mornings were cool till about 8AM or so. I was looking to log
some consistent mileage, my wife and I decided that 30k should be doable. From
day2 onwards, I stuck to a routine – wake up at 4:15AM, start the run at 5, run
for 2.5 hours or so, 25kms. Notably, all my runs were done
- In the 1 km long road, up and down 12 times each morning
- In about 2:27mins to 2:40 mins
- In the same set of singlet and shorts (washed immediately under the shower to rid of the Novel C19)
- On an empty stomach, only sipping from a 1 liter water bottle once every 4kms
- While passing a set of morning walkers and runners - with a nod, or a wave or a good morning!
The evening “recovery” run was almost always 6k, somedays I
ran a couple of kms more. En-route, I logged my best weekly mileage ever at 223kms.
As we approached Kargil, well before schedule, on the 10th and the
last day, I decided to take it up a notch, ran a 4:15 full marathon distance,
again on empty, same loop, same singlet, same “hi”s and “hello”s!
My mileage count for the 10 days
Leaderboard
|
May 21
|
May 22
|
May 23
|
May 24
|
May 25
|
May 26
|
May 27
|
May 28
|
May 29
|
May 30
|
||
Manoj
|
307
|
12
|
32
|
34
|
31
|
31
|
31
|
32
|
31
|
31
|
42
|
What was truly remarkable was the fact that my injuries did
not flare up, especially the high hamstring injury that has been irritating me
since the last 24hr run in Bangalore. My recovery was fantastic. I continued to
have early dinners, slept as early as I could, sometimes as early as 8:30PM,
this must have helped the rejuvenation. More importantly, I enjoyed every
single run, barring a few patches. I told my sister one day “there will be
difficult days. To do the right thing on a day when you are not totally up to
the task, is what endurance is all about.”
… and finally,
The Metaphysical – “that which is beyond the physical, of the soul”
The truth is – I missed my family. And there were days of a
weird sadness. But thanks to these “projects”, I pressed on, going from one
distraction to the next. But what gave me most joy, was this one. Inspired by
my friend, P, who drew a mural on her wall at her home in the bay area, I
decided to give a go to draw my kids portrait on their room wall. I tried a few
things, lots of innovative hacks, youtube vidoes, photo prints on
transparencies, but eventually drew this with charcoal. They haven’t seen this
yet.
After 72 days, they will be back tomorrow, the look on their
faces will touch my soul.
Hope this has touched yours too.
Stay strong, Stay safe. Remember, now you got to wash your
hands before you dig your nose! Cheers!
Update 12/06/2020:
