My Running and Life Philosophy

The late-life running habit has taught me some of the greatest lessons of my life. I live a part of 'words of wisdom'.

Most mornings, before Kathmandu fully wakes, I step out to run. I don’t negotiate much with myself to get out of bed. I just go out. I do not agree with my excuses of being tired, the weather being bad, or having pain in my knees. As David Goggins says, "Life isn’t always about doing the things we like to do. It’s about doing things we have to do."

The first few kilometres are the hardest. Then it gets easier to the point that I start to enjoy it. The human body is way more adaptive than we believe. As I start to crush through the tightness of my legs and heavier chest, soon everything loosens up.

A very old and very simple idea sits at the centre of my running. The Stoics said it best, "Some things are within our control, and some are not." I can not control the weather, rain, cold, hot and many more, but I have definite control over my will to run.

There will always be a lots and lots of people who run faster and better than me. This should never prevent me from doing my part. They are an inspiration, and I do my part. I continue. I don’t run because I am a natural athlete. I run because it allows me to unleash myself.

I understand that persistence can bring me further. Small steps, repeated, cover any distance. The person who runs ten kilometres did not run ten kilometres. They ran one kilometre ten times. Running has started to rewire how I approach everything else. Work deadlines. Family tensions. Financial uncertainty. Creative blocks. All of them become more manageable when I stop looking at the whole mountain and just take the next step in front of me.

On those days, I learned about pain. I see pleasure comes along with the pain. Running is painful. But the award of that pain is so valuable that I embrace that pain with pleasure. They appear to be the two faces of the same coin.

After the run, when my body is tired and my mind is unusually clear, I read. There is a specific quality to the post-run mind. It is not empty, it is uncluttered. As I challenge myself to run longer and better, I have started to challenge myself in reading. I started some classic books that are considered difficult. I have become selective about what I read. And I avoid news, social media and self-help books (in general). Reading better books is not about productivity; it is about perspective. And perspective, I have learned, is the most practical thing I can own.

I learned to take a pause and think. These days, we are being constantly pushed for 'more' – more output, more progress, more noise, more optimisation, more equipment and more. I have learned that the relentless pursuit of “more” is a trap. It never ends. There is always one more task, one more improvement, one more thing to worry about. The finish line keeps moving. The pause, deliberately and enjoy coffee. The coffee is not just coffee. It is to say to myself, "slow down" and select what I need (not want).

Running has now become a habit. Habit requires no motivation. It is a part of me now. No desire to win, and I don't aim to be better than someone else. I just run, run alone and enjoy. No single session changes anything. No single run makes me resilient. It is now a work of more than two years of regular running. I have built my body to endure to become an ultra runner, step by step, day by day.

I have become a little more resilient, a little more patient and a little tougher. I run because it allows me to practice how I want to grow. It has helped me to persist when stopping is easier. It has made me move through discomfort and 'just do it' when I don’t feel like it. Not perfect. Not heroic. Not impressive by any external metric, but just do it, because it is the right thing to do.

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