Milind Soman running in the Pinkathon

October 5th, 2015 by Abhijit Chakraborty

Fellow runner Prasun Choudhary narrates his experience of running from Guwahati to Shillong as part of Pinkathon 2015.

A hectic day was coming to an end. I was on a whirlwind travel schedule and after covering 5 cities in the north-east, I was in Guwahati wrapping my day to leave for Shillong.

A friend of mine was planning to participate in PINKATHON – an all women run. I was lost in my own thoughts till I heard that  – Milind Soman the brand ambassador of Pinkathon was running from Guwahati to Shillong to raise awareness for “Women health”. A run from Guwahati to Shillong (80-90Kms approx.) – there was a sudden rush of adrenalin, a childish joy, a happy surprise to be explored.

Though I was totally out of practice but still decided to give it a shot. Two of my friends, Niraj and Sneha, also agreed to join. An early morning start on the outskirts of Guwahati, nice cool breeze, few runners, one poster of Pinkathon, one tagline “Women Health” and a brief photo shoot, and we were on our way.

 

Queuing up to register
Queuing up to register

 

Running is not a science nor an art, it’s pure joy, it’s spiritual. After some time you stop talking to people, you just hear them and a smile is the only response.  The mind slowly settles down. It’s like a child, slowly cuddling and sleeping in his bed after moving around randomly in the house from one room to another. Our mind is like that kid; it wants to go in random directions. Let it go, it will get tired after some time and then come back to its home. A long distance running takes you to that situation. You start thinking about everything in the world when you start running.  What will be my time, when will I finish, how long will it take, will I be able to do it, will I get hurt, will I use the knee cap, why even I am doing this, what will I do after finishing the run, why I didn’t practice better, look at other runners how comfortable they are? And lot many worldly thoughts. Every thing settles down after 15-20 Km. You no more think of the time to finish, you accept pain as an inevitable part of the process, you don’t worry too much about the finish line, you let others run pass you as you are no more in competition. I think this is the point you start enjoying it.

 

Running the race
A fellow runner enjoying the run.

I reached this state somewhere on NH-40 between Guwahati and Nongpoh. I was running all alone. Few ahead of me and few behind me, but that didn’t matter. I call this a state of disguised meditation. A state where your body is active but your mind is disconnected from it. You don’t remember that you are running as your mind would have chosen one topic and went deep into it.

I have run multiple marathons, but this was the first run where I was running for a purpose – To raise awareness for women health. Women health, it’s true, it’s such an ignored topic. I started thinking about my mom. How much time did she really give to her health?  All I could remember was that she never took care of her health, putting the entire family and everyone else ahead in the priority list. It’s only recently that I see her going for morning walks that too after the doctor has advised her to do so. I think this needs to change. A women’s health should not take a back seat. The change should begin at home.

I decided to call my mom and sister after the run to educate them on basic exercises, which can be easily done at home, in case they are pressed for time. Probably every other home I visualized was fighting some women health issue which had developed over a period of time as these caring ladies never cared for their own health. Suddenly, Pinkathon was making more sense to me. But it should not just be a one-day event, I think the purpose, the idea should be internalized in the daily life of every family. Probably that’s what Pinkathon was trying to do. Create ”Awareness for women health in the mind of everyone”.

“We are approaching Nongpoh, close to the half way mark.” My chain of thoughts was broken and I was brought back to the real world by Niraj’s shout from behind. The temperature had soared and it was scorching hot. It didn’t make sense to continue the run. Even Milind and his team decided to take a long break. We decided to go to Shillong and complete our meetings.

 

Milind Soman running in the Pinkathon
Milind Soman and I running in the Pinkathon 

 

6.30 PM – We had just completed our day in Shillong  and I had the option to rest in one of the OYOs in Shillong, when I called Radhika (from the Pinkathon team). Milind and his team had run another 20-30 Km and were still 12-15 Km behind Shillong. I could still be a part of the finish and contribute to the purpose. So I drove back and joined the team. These last few miles were certainly for a purpose.  I could have easily decided to just sleep in my hotel room after that 7 hr run in the morning and a tiring second half., but I was driven by my desire to contribute to the cause. Finally, we managed to reach our destination. “Welcome to Shillong “ a big billboard at the entrance of the city greeted us. The run was over – but not the purpose. Hopefully,  I will take it forward – in my own ways, maybe by running in more events like this.