Saturday, January 22, 2011

Run out!

Thats right; I've been run out - I mean literally. I have spent the entire year in shoring up flagging spirits of runners, advising them, posting articles on motivation and training, answering queries on injuries, organizing group runs,drawing up programs on training and making race plans for many. All of this obviously involves a substantial investment of my time. But then I do this as a passion and as a running evangelist. Everyone has been having a fine time on RFL.

A bright idea was proposed; that we hand out awards to BEST RUNNER OF THE YEAR MALE & FEMALE at a "Runners' bash". I was of the opinion that if we do this, we ought to draw up criteria for such an award, so that people are guided to vote for their choice. The idea was to encourage newbies with such an award. Such a suggestion did not find merit and maybe there were "foregone conclusions" on the winners and I was perhaps blissfully unaware of it all. The choice was announced and guess what, I just about made it to that list! Or did you Dan? - not that I wanted to or expected it. Some consolation that! I am to share third place! What is worse is that even my close friends didn't seem to think I was handed a raw deal - which is too bad. It doesn't feel nice to be hit below the belt.

Look at the bright side. I have several runners that genuinely come up to me and thank me for having touched their lives. Then there is their recent success in tackling the race at SCMM and the effusive gratitude for my help, posted by many on our page. There is the National Park group that bought me a Gym bag as a token of their gratitude for taking their running level to new heights; and most recently, there is dear Francis, who could not run even 500m a while back, and at age 61, has creamed the half marathon at SCMM. Francis handed me a beautiful hand crafted bag filled with some of the most delicious home-made chocolates. I do remember him telling me his sister made the bag and the chocolates. My eyes welled up as I accepted this beautiful "award". What more can I ask for?

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