These Mile Intervals

I woke up groggy and tired. Sleepy and unsure. I made a coffee, went through the morning routine and reached the track.

It filled up soon enough – the walkers, running groups, and the special track gang.

We warmed up for the mile intervals and although I felt better than I did when I woke up, I wasn’t sure how it would go.

It’s one of those things by now, running with reasonable regularity for many years, that I can tell how a run will pan out. I ask myself, especially during hard runs, if I can do it, if I can maintain the pace or better it, and I seem to talk to myself and nod or shake my head. I must certainly look like a fool.

And so I did. As the intervals flitted by, we became slightly faster till we were quite a bit faster and ended a strong last mile repetition.

At the second to last interval, Ashwini lay on the ground, saying he would miss this one. I shook my head and helped him up.

Kiya to kya kiya, I said, agar yeh nahin kiya. This is what will give you power, endurance, to be tired and power through it. I partly said it, partly thought it, and certainly say it to myself often. Perhaps an obvious metaphor for some of life.

Well, at the last, Ashwini and Monu became a dot down the track as they blasted a mile that surely seared tread marks on Lane One.

Now, that’s what I call running.