When: 9th August. Saturday. Meet at 5 AM and start at 5.15 AM Where: Opposite Reebok Showroom on Besant Nagar Beach Road How much: It will be the regular LSD run tomorrow. There will be groups doing 10K all the way to a half marathon. Find your space and conquer the distance. Us and Them: Running a race is always a fun and an exhilarating thing to do. The chance of you getting your next Facebook profile picture, or the quintessential medal biting ceremony, or the feeling that you are going to earn a guilt free pass to eat donuts at that new Krispy Kreme place that people are raving about, adds to the experience of the race. But let’s face it. More than these inanimate things, we derive our source of entertainment from seeing the people who according to a non-runner “Was dumb enough to sign up for such a long distance”. Though I could keep waxing on about the plethora of runners that we see on the road, in the interest of time and attention, I am limiting myself to broadly classifying them into 5 types: The Endhiran: Before you start getting judgmental, I’m referring to the runners who decide to use every electronic device known to man while running the race. The typical “Endhiran” does not begin any run until he/she is equipped with gadgets such as an MP3 player, Mobile phone, GPS watch, Heart Rate monitors, Altimeter, Barometer, Light sabers, to name a few. A source from the inside says that firms like Reliance Digital and Mercy Electronics are tumbling head over heels to rope in such people to be their brand ambassador. You will typically find this sect of people cribbing about the battery life or how Runkeeper incorrectly calculated the distance as 10.2 KM in a 10 KM race. The Talker: We’ve all definitely encountered this species before, on and off the race track. The incessant talker/runner is a common species who is believed to have evolved after being exposed to retired Iyer mamas who happen to walk on the beach. Scientists believe that the powerful radiation emitted from the walkers might have mutated a few genes of the runner as they overtook the former. Be careful with this group! The talkers have, over time, built the stamina to talk about a wide spectrum of topics while maintaining a fast, and steady pace. An inexperienced person might drain out within the first 3 kilometers while running with this group. The author of this post received information from his Master of whisperers, that he is considered by his fellow runners to be a part of this cohort. The Serious Contender: Bring on the Rocky theme music and the superhero costume. We have amidst us the one everybody looks up with hope and anticipation in their eyes. The serious contenders could be spotted a mile away during the races, pun intended. Carrying themselves with an aura of focus and suave, these people are celebrities in the running circle for their agility and superhuman speed. How do we spot these guys? It’s easy. Whenever they move around, you will find a sudden huddle formed out of thin air while the person’s name can be heard in hushed tones all over the place. The hope for every runner is that someday we will reach the levels of these formidable Homo sapiens. The Virgin: This group forms close to 75% of a race’s population. Running their first ever race, this group is also the most enthusiastic and loudest of them all. Responding to every question the Emcee throws to pep the crowd, the first timers can be seen queuing up to stand in front of the finishers podium to come up with their next high-likes profile picture, or any of the laugh worthy poses that one can typically see after the race is over. Another stereotype by which this segment can be identified is by the fact that they run wearing the event tee shirt, which in runner’s lingo is a ‘Rookie Mistake’. The Seasoned Runner: Most of the people whom the author knows fall under this category. These are typically runners who have been training for a good period of time such that they can dole out advice in freestyle to newbies or rookies, but not so trained that they can be serious contenders. Out with a mindset to have fun and also run a good distance, the seasoned runners are usually people who train with some group in the city. Known a lot for their helping tendency, this group provides the most in terms of motivation to make sure that novices move onto the next level. At the same time, we are also the group that loosely lets our statistics on cadence and foot strike that we read on the latest edition of Runner’s World or Active Running. If apart from the above, you see someone wearing black and white striped clothes and running in an inhibited fashion because of the chains around the legs, then step aside and call 100. That’s not a runner, that’s an escaped convict! Disclaimer: This is purely a work of fiction and is not intended to offend anybody, runners or otherwise. In case you are offended and would like to have a word with the author in typical ‘Mafia Style’, you can find him on Saturday at 5 AM on the Besant Nagar beach getting ready for his long run. Cheers!
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 07:25:17 +0000
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