For Auld Lang Syne… a New Year’s Eve Musing

And so once again we stand 

At the precipice of a brand new year

A brand new book 

With  365 blank pages waiting to be filled

But before we begin to filling these  pages 

Before we begin composing our stories 

Let’s give thanks to the year  gone by

Let’s write an afterword 

Showing our appreciation for all it gave us

Cause through the highs and lows

The ups and downs

The losses and gains

The tears and smile

The happiness and sorrows 

It has shaped us

It has forged us

It has made us

Stronger to face 

Whatever that may come our way 

It has given us opportunities 

It has filled us with experience 

To overcome whatever life may throw at us 

So while we welcome a brand new year

We thank you dear old friend

For being ever at our side 

For teaching us the lessons 

We needed to learn 

For which we will forever be grateful 

So here’s to the new year 

And to the year gone by

And to days of Aud lang syne

The Old and the New

In another few hours and we will be ushering in another new year, glad to put the old one behind us, looking forward to the new one that stands in front us, just eagerly waiting for this one be over and done with and looking forward to a fresh new start.

But while we eagerly and wholeheartedly welcome a brand new year let’s not forget the one that’s gone by.

Yes it’s been a tough one, but we’ve survived it and come out alive and stronger, even though there were times we thought we would not make it through. Even though there were times we thought putting an end to it. But here we are, at the end, well make that almost at the end, of another year, a little stronger, a little wiser (hopefully), a lot older and greyer, hoping not to repeat what we have done in the past.

We have made our mistakes, but we need to learn from it so as to never repeat it again, owning up to our actions, facing up to the consequences of it. But let’s not be afraid or runaway from it. Let’s face it and learn from it. We have fallen a couple of times but remember that with each fall we managed to dust ourselves off and get back on our feet and continue on. 

And let’s face it, not the entire year has been bad, there have been moments of happiness, moments of triumph, moments that will help us weather any bad day.

Yes the year has been tough, but which year isn’t. Every  new year we hope it will be better than the old one, and at the end of the year we say the same. 

So rather than hope make the year better. If you need to pivot, make the pivot. Do what you need to do to make each year better. But don’t never give up.

There’s nothing wrong with hoping but it’s always better when you do and make your life the one that you hoped for.

Every year is going to be tough. But tougher the years the tougher you are, cause through the tears and the sorrow and the pain and the loss you’ll grow. 

You were single at the start of the year and you’re still single at its end and there no telling how long you’ll be the same, but then that’s ok. You’ll always hope to find someone. But one thing for sure you’ll never loose faith in love finding it’s way to you.

So while we welcome another year, let’s give thanks to another year gone by for all the lessons it has taught us, all the experiences and opportunities and all the memories, cause through it all it has shaped us and will continue to shape us for all the days to come. So thanks to the year gone by, cause no matter what, we will be always grateful you.

Be kind.. to yourself!!

Be kind to yourself 

People will come and go

You is all you’ll have 

So if you can show kindness to others

The why not be kind to yourself!

Don’t be too heard on yourself 

Learn to forgive yourself 

For all the missteps and mistakes 

No one is perfect 

So if you can learn to forgive others

Why not forgive yourself!

Allow yourself to mourn 

Mourn the passing of a loved one

Mourn the difficult parting

Mourn heartbreaks and break ups

Mourn endings

And then let the healing begin

And move on

Be not afraid to cry

To find those teardrops in your eye

Cause not matter what the world says

There’s no shame in crying

Cause when you do 

You let your bottled emotions flow

So be not afraid to shed a tear or two!

Accept yourself for who you are 

Cause we are not always perfect 

Perfection may or may not be a myth

But remember we are all flawed

Perfectly imperfect the way we are

So embrace your flaws and imperfection 

So that’s what makes you!!!

Learn to love yourself 

Like the love to you give to others

Why not give some for yourself 

Cause it’s only when you love yourself 

That you can love anyone else 

So please give a lot of love to yourself!!!

So be kind to yourself 

Others may not always be kind to you 

Your kindness may not always be reciprocated 

So nor matter what don’t give up 

Don’t ever change 

But be kind to yourself 

Cause that’s the way you find 

the hope and strength to carry on!!!

Oops I did it again… I ran another marathon!!!

Every single time, before, during and after a marathon, you tell yourself “Never Again”, and every time you find yourself doing just that all over again. Cliche as it may sound, but it’s something a runner goes through every time.

So once again you find yourself at yet another star,t all set and ready to go (albeit a bit annoyed because the host was bit too loud and you don’t do Zumba as a warm up for a race). 

You have this quiet confidence in you that you’ve got though, trying not to think about the 42+ kms you need to run. You had a lot of positive learning from your run at Khadakwasla, the previous Sunday. Now it’s time to translate what you did there for the 25k, to the FM, just as coach Dan had instructed you.

For a change you are not anxious about cramping and all the aches and pains you will face during the run. These are distant thoughts in your head, for a change. The only thing that you are anxious about is if you would be able to keep up with Yogi and Ketak, running at their planned easy pace. But then Coach’s words come to mind that each one should run their own race according to the way they’ve trained, which meant that you would be behind and by yourself. You try hard not let these thoughts overwhelm you.

So there

you at yet another start line to yet another marathon, patiently waiting for the countdown to the start. The warm ups are done and the national anthem has been sung. Pictures have been clicked and the wishes have been wished. Now all that’s left to do is run.

Once the countdown is done there’s a flurry of fireworks lighting up the early morning sky. You start all your apps at the start line, quickly signing yourself, and off you go, trying to keep up with Yogi, Ketak and Manish.

You follow them for a kilometre or two before you decide that they a running at a pace faster than you could manage. Instinctively Coachs words come to mind that you need to run at a pace that’s comfortable to you, you need to run your own race at your own pace.

Slowly and steadily as you drop your pace they go ahead and disappear in the sea of  runners. You try not to get worked up as you by yourself even though there are others around you.

You let others pass you by as you continue to run steadily at a comfortable pace. You fight the urge to speed up and catch up with them. You just keep telling yourself “you’ve got this”. 

So there you are running mostly by yourself. There are a few runners around you but you are by yourself as you don’t know them and they keep to their run or their friends with them. It does feel lonely being all alone but that’s ok, that’s what running is about, it can be lonely when you don’t have friends around. At the same time it can be quite meditative cause it’s just you and the road. You have the river for company for most part of the route.

So you keep rolling by the river, up and over and under quite a lot of underpasses that are all colourfully lit and seem to have garba music on the speakers, to your amusement, making you wonder if you should run or start doing the garba, which actually puts a smile on your face. 

To your surprise you are actually not overthinking or getting all stressed out about any signs of the onset of cramps. You just smile and  continue to go up and down and over and under, by the river and then over it and onto the other side with your music and the river for company. 

For most part the route feels quite monotonous and kind of boring just a handful of people around to cheer you on, besides the volunteers. After running a challenging but amazingly beautiful route at Khadakwasla the week before this feels like a meh kind of route. Only shows that smaller event that managed by runners can always be better than the bigger ones.

You meet a few known faces along the way who enquire if you had a time you were looking to complete the marathon, to which you quip that you had no specific target time. The only thing you were targeting was to run the race without cramping.

So you continue to run steadily and in control, without giving in to the urge to speed up.

You cheer people you know as they pass you and you pass them making a runner ask you if you were local, to which you reply proudly with a smile  that you are a Mumbaikar.

By the time you reach the halfway mark the morning sun is out banishing the darkness of the early morning. It’s time to get out your pretty pink sunglasses that till now were on the top of your head. You glad that although the sun’s out the weather still had that coolness, what does get you annoyed that there’s no sign of the u-turn even though you have passed the halfway mark, and then a couple of kilometres. 

The route then takes a turn from the river and passes through fields and few houses. Finally at the 25th km you reach the u-turn. From here you decide to push your pace slowly and steadily as coach had instructed. Your legs feel good and strong and like you did the week before at Khadakwasla you can push yourself. 

So you run steady but quicker making up ground to the ones ahead of you, catching up to the ones who had overtaken you. 

You marvel at the fact that you are running swiftly and steadily and strongly tackling the underpasses with a sense of ease while others are huffing and puffing their way on the return. You are running with this smile on your face  and a quiet confidence in your heart, constantly telling yourself you’ve got this. 

You cheer your fellow runners as you pass them, applauding their effort, giving them a thumbs up as you pass them by. In your own way you try to boost their energy, giving some that you have.

By and by you reach the dreaded 32nd km, the one where many runners hit the fabled wall, the one you cramped really badly in Dubai and in all the marathons you have run (except for the one where you DNF or the one where you already cramped at the sea link). For change there’s no signs of any cramps. Your legs feel strong if not fresh and you are doing well and going strong.

You finally catch up to your buddy Manish who’s slowed due to cramps. You check on him before moving on with your run, going over and under every under pass you had previously passed. 

You run past traffic that has swelled thanks to one side of being cordoned off for the marathon runners. You dodge men on bikes trying to make their way to the grounds to join their friends for a  game of cricket. You even manage to catch the fag end of the half marathoners, something you’ve  never been able to do before.

As planned, at the 37th km take your final gel knowing you will need all the energy you can muster for this last few kms.

You pass Yogi and the 4:30 bus, cheering g them on as only you can do. In your head you know you are going to do better than what you did Dubai.

By now the sun is out and the weathers warmer than what it was. You feel yourself slowing down a bit as fatigue sets in, but thankfully there isn’t any signs of cramps or tightness. So you continue to push along, singing  to yourself your Dory song “Just keep running running, what do we do, we running running”, telling yourself “you’ve got this”.

By now you’ve caught up to a lot of the half marathoners, as well a the full ones. It’s time for that one final push. You take a sip of water and off you go. 

You no longer feel fresh and fatigue has set in. The sun’s out in all its glory making the weather warmer. You also encountering the end of the Half Marathoners which means you are dodging a through the crowd, weaving your way towards the finish line. Despite it all there’s no sign of fatigue and you running faster than when you started.

With one final push you make it across the finish line, finishing faster than when you started. You raise your hands triumphantly, pumping your fist as you let out a delighted scream. Although you didn’t manage to match your best time, but then that was never your goal, what you did do was run the best FM you had ever run. There was a lot of positive learnings from the race which you could carry forward in your prep and running TMM, giving you confidence that you could repeat what you did here again at TMM and try and do better. 

You stand patiently at the finish line waiting for Yogi to finish. You smile at runner runners finishing their runs, congratulating as they cross the finish line. Your burgers and fries calls you to see how you’ve done and you excitedly tell her all that you’ve done, like an excited golden retriever puppy.

You capture Yogis finish and you both proceed to join Ketak, who had finished ahead of you. You walk a while trying to loosen the tightened legs but then you are also socialising while doing so, clicking pics as you go. 

You collect your medal but decide to skip the breakfast and head back to the hotel and have good one there.

And just like that you’ve run your second marathon of the year, and your best ever marathon run. There’s a lot of positives but at the same time there’s a lot of lessons learnt on the importance of executing the race, something you know you’ll take with you to TMM. 

So you leave Ahemdabad with a happy heart and head held high and a feeling of confidence that marathon are not tough after all when you are well prepared for it.