The day, Sunday... the occasion, the weekly long run. Been struggling all week, thanks to the weather, thanks to a stomach bug, so was determined to complete the target mileage I set myself. The weather, surprisingly humid and hot, considering there were thunder showers the previous night, did no favours.
I plodded through my run, my pant soaking wet, dripping, as if i had peed in them. Could feel the sweat trickle down my leg, drip from my cap. I knew I was struggling but I also knew I had to build confidence that I desperately needed before the merry-go-round, or as you may call it, the stadium run.
A friend at the other end of the road waved at me and joined me (we had already passed each other a couple of times). I am glad for her company, though I know my pace has slowed down, nonetheless, glad for it. I remove one of earphones so that I can hear what she says and continue to jog with her now.
As we chat, as we discuss, I say how so often that we are so involved in our trainings, so focused on our runs, our gadgets, that we forget to interact with our surroundings, we forget to relax and enjoy our run, we forget to cheer and raise the spirits of those around us, we forget to be human. As an example I smiled, a genuine smile (hopefully not a creepy one), a at-the-spur-of-the-moment one, at the lady who was running on the other side of the road, half expecting it to be returned. She smiled back at both of us, a genuine appreciative smile (thank god she didn’t think me a strange, creepy fool trying to smile or hit on her). As we continue our run we passed another runner who running strong and steady, we gave her a thumbs up and applauded her effort (she was running almost the same time as I had started).
After a while, almost at the two hours mark for me, and the 10th km for my friend, decided to call it a day for running, as the heat was taking its toll and yeah nature was calling. So a bit disappointed that couldn’t complete the mileage I set out to do, I stopped and rushed home to answer nature’s call.
Fast forward to today. I’ve been having one of those days where a cold gets you down, and your body hasn’t yet developed the antibodies to fight it, so it piles on the work stress and makes you irritable, susceptible to anything that annoys you. While checking my messages I get a ping on my messenger stating that someone trying to connect with me on it. I checked as it had just put up a volunteer post for the Bandra-NCPA run, so may be it was someone who wanted to volunteer or needed some information about it.
What I saw was a pleasant surprise, it was same lady from the Sunday run. She was grateful that I smiled at her cause when she smiled back she relaxed and was able to go an extra kilometre, thus realising the importance of smiling during running and helping others to smile and relax. For this she was grateful.
Reading this made me smile, taking me away from the stress and irritation I was feeling, eventually relaxing me. So now it was my turn to thank my fellow runner for the wonderful message, wonderful appreciation, cause by your words you were able to put a smile on my face and brighten up a dull day.
So it’s true, when you smile, the world definitely smiles with you, and that smile has a way of finding itself back to you, brightening up your day. So pay it forward.
No comments:
Post a Comment