Aaah… December in Madras! Lots to look forward to, isn’t there? An annual dip in temperatures, new fragrant brews of coffees, the Margazhi festival bringing with it flowers, kolam and rustling silks; and you breasting the finish line of the annual running festival – The Wipro Chennai Marathon, celebrating your own transformation from a couch potato into a runner! Wait… what?
Yes, on December 13 at The Wipro Chennai Marathon 2015, you can, and must, experience at least a 10k run. You will feel the energy of thousands of fellow runners. How much you panted, how slow you were, how much you weigh, how many walk breaks you took during your run won’t matter…. what matters is that you would have finished the run. More importantly, this also means that you would have overcome the struggles from the time you decided to start running to the time you showed up at the start line, and the struggles from the start line to the finish line.
You would have become a fitter and happier person on the road to fitness and happiness.
If you are a person with average fitness and no major health concerns, you have enough time to train for a 10k run. Make a decision and a commitment to yourself today; register for the run and make it happen! Search for a beginners’ 10k training plan online, put on your running shoes and join any one of the local running groups in your neighbourhood.
For, once you’ve experienced the happy magic that they shower on you under the finish arch, once you’ve wrung a tee full of your own sweet perspiration and once you’ve felt the rush of post-run happy endorphins, I guarantee you will be hooked to running for life. Running is life-transforming and addictive… just ask any runner!
Visit www.thewiprochennaimarathon.com and register for The Wipro Chennai Marathon, powered by The Hindu . Run, Chennai. Experience Madras.
(The writer is an architect and runner, who runs with the Chennai Runners’ Marina Minnals chapter)
