When you run with Shikha, you admire her stride, the consistent pacing, the quiet of the morning and enjoy the simple khat-khat, thak-thak of running in step with each other.
You think about the long run ahead of you. And then you pause in your mind. At least I do. Running with one of the greatest ultra runners – at least whom I know in person – Shikha who has done some astonishing 100k, 200k plus runs in Ladakh terrain, and even more so, her training leading up to those distances. The double 30s, 40s. The backpack running. Phew.
There is a serenity to her running style.
In that, during the last ten kilometres when I ran alone (she had started nearly an hour before me) I was counting down the kilometres with a touch of impatience but also thinking of her.
What does she think when is counting down kilometres in the mountains that can’t be measured as they are here in the plains? She probably doesn’t, reaching the same zen like zone that I see today, at long run Sunday at Nehru Park.
Writing about Running 