Running a steeplechase on Indian roads

Running on the roads in our country is as good as running a steeplechase. Since the lockdown I have a fixed circuit starting from my house and looping back.

My usual circuit

Initially it was peaceful but suddenly the authorities in their wisdom decided to cement-concrete a perfectly good road. So half of the road was closed to traffic.

I started running on the functioning half of the road but it was too nerve wracking with a narrow carriageway, to and fro traffic honking and narrowly missing me. So I started running on the closed side.

Initially I had to negotiate a mound of gravel placed to block off the road and then enter a dug up road. Once the cementing started, I was running on the sidewalk across encroached entrances of shops, narrowly missing customers.

Then they dug up the sidewalk and yesterday I was jumping between the freshly cemented road and the sidewalk. Then suddenly my left foot hit an object and the momentum brought my centre of gravity way forwards and trajectory towards the ground.

I took a couple of frenzied steps attempting to bring back my centre of gravity over my legs but gravity one and I was sprawled over the gravel. I my hands elbows and knees bore the brunt but thankfully besides my pride there was no serious damages.

My run cut short by falling on my face.

The skid marks on my tee shirt!

My grazed knee!

My elbow with gravel and abrasions!

Aging a choice!

Aging a choice!
We sometimes don’t appreciate the importance of fitness until we lose it with age.

Losing is a very gradual process almost imperceptible. Initially it maybe just walking a little slower. Acceptable for advancing age but acceptable only if you accept it! Then preference for using a lift rather than the stairs.

I have never been athletic in my youth but once I finished my MBBS, I looked around me and saw life style ailments in my patients. I also saw my own father who had prematurely aged.
He discovered he was hypertensive only when he developed a nose bleed.

He had only one of his original teeth left. He was born in a time where dental care was in a nascent stage in India, so the treatment for dental caries was extraction. My mother jokingly commented that getting his teeth extracted has become a hobby with him. She also recounted an incident where the dentist mistakenly extracted a healthy tooth.
In those days in Uttar Pradesh you had itinerant dentist, invariably of Chinese origin, who set up a roadside stall with a barbers chair for a dental chair. The diseased tooth was identified by tapping and eliciting pain. The extraction would be sans anesthetics. People of that era were more stoic and had a high threshold to pain.

There is a classical description of a tooth extraction in Mark Twain’s ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The boy would complain of toothache and the mother would identity the tooth and tie a string around it. Then she would tie the string to the foot end of the bed and take an embering log from the fire place and bring it near his face. Defensively he would move back and out would pop the tooth.

As a result of not having teeth his cheeks and lips caved in because the lack of support from the teeth. He used a full denture which he removed in the night.

Towards his last days he was never satisfied with his denture despite having it refitted numerous times. He felt it poked his gums or palate. His past time was to file the denture with a nail file to smoothen the protuberances.

He was also unable to sit astride as a pillion on my scooter and had to sit side saddle.
All this made me firm in my resolve to remain active and at least slow down aging if not arrest it.

First in my actions was to give up smoking and it’s been 36 years since I’ve touched a cigarette.

There was a fitness wave abroad and the media promoted at least half an hour of aerobic activity for cardiovascular health. I started with running followed by skipping, then swimming and finally gyming and running.

I may have had cardiovascular benefits from running, swimming and skipping but gyming and weight training made me realize the benefits of muscle training and flexibility.

We visited Manas National Park in Assam and went for an elephant safari. Unlike in other places where they balance a ‘hathi howdah’ on an elephant’s back and you can sit comfortably. They were more humane here and we had to sit astride on the elephant’s back. The elephant is extremely broad in the mid section and this meant doing almost a complete split! I realized how stiff I had become. The mahout was comfortably perched on the elephant’s shoulder and neck and did not have to perform such contortions. I recollected the difficulty my father had sitting astride on my scooter.

One of my classmates who visited the Great Wall of China, sent a photograph to the class group with a comment we should visit these places when we can. Implying physical disabilities later would impede us.
I have run two half marathons in Ladakh, hiked upto Tiger’s nest monastery in Bhutan. In Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh we went to the Bum La pass on the China border at an elevation of 15200 feet. Many from the group experienced altitude sickness. I guess I had got accustomed to altitudes.
Age is only a number and you are only as old as you feel. If I compare myself with my father I’m definitely in better shape. I recollect that how old my parents seemed to me when they were the same age as I am now. I go with the attitude that nothing is impossible if I set my mind to it.

Thoughts after completing the Ladakh Marathon in 2017

In 2017 on this very day I finished the Ladakh Marathon. I am reminiscing my feelings.

Facing early morning sun and running uphill in the ‘cold dessert’ terrain of Ladakh.

“After finishing 21 kms at an altitude of 11500 ft above sea level, it is but natural that there will be soreness and stiffness. One begins to wonder whether it’s worth propelling a 56 year old body or whether it is doing me any harm. I guess it is not accepting any limitations and believing you are only as old as you feel.

During these marathons you come across amputees, polio afflicted, blind and other differently abled people who are not willing to let their disabilities drag them down. In my case I had bad knees and was told 17 years ago I would require knee replacement in 5 years.

Every orthopedic surgeon worth his salt advised me to choose exercises which would not stress my knees. Initially I tried those exercises like swimming and water aerobics. But didn’t find any improvement in my knees. Then I took the decision 8 years ago that if knee replacement is inevitable then I might as well go out with a bang!

I joined a gym kept a personal trainer and never told him about the pain I was experiencing on doing exercises like squats because I knew then he would not make me do it. I also started running on the treadmill something which I never had done earlier. I discovered because of the pain we experience the movement at the knee joints get limited and along with it movement at other joints like hips. We are no longer able to sit cross legged or use an Indian style toilet. The muscles also undergo disuse atrophy. As the saying goes “if you don’t use it you lose it.”

Physiotherapy involves improving range of movement and strengthening muscles. I was ultimately doing physiotherapy on my knees albeit in an extreme form. I’ll warn anyone who plans to tread my path that things became worse before they improved. My knees would get swollen up, a synovial bursa ruptured, the shin would be extremely tender and the muscles especially the calves would be stiff and painful. Rather than having an athletic gait I had more of a gait of aged person.

Any consultation with an orthopedic surgeon and I would be given advice on how to go easy on the knees, use a lift instead of stairs and plan my work in such a way that I would not have to go up and down the stairs often. What I never told them is actually how much stress I was subjecting my knees to. It was kind of a stubbornness and a belief that I was doing the right thing.

Very slowly things began to fall into place. The range of movement on my knees improved and I could sit cross legged or in a squatting position. Then I decided to add a further stress to my knees, start running on the road and for distances. This must have been 3 years ago when I used to run a 1 km stretch and another discovery I made, along with the stiffness of the knees we also develop stiffness in the small joints of the foot. You tend to run flat footed with the entire foot slapping on the ground.

Gradually after working on my form I managed to achieve the desired forefoot then heel strike. Nothing comes easy and no pain no gain but the most important thing is to be consistent.
Now touch wood! My knees feel like new and recently got them checked up. The orthopedic surgeon was surprised when he reviewed the x-rays that how healthy my knees looked.

I discovered amongst the runners circle that there are many other people with similar stories like mine. Even scientific evidence also shows that running with the correct form improves the knees.”