In Your Face

Today’s run (12 km) reminded me of what happened before my first ultra marathon. A seasoned runner came up to me and said ‘you will never be able to finish the 100km. Stop at a little more than the 50 km if you are hurting’. Doc and Santosh looked at me at that point and Doc said ‘Screw it and just run it’. Those words have become an inspiration until today. Running long distance is not about how tough you are, its how much of beating you can take and cross that wall.

Almost the same thing happened today. As I was helping a ‘so called’ friend with getting a job, he kept pushing me down by almost telling me that the work I do is not something he would like to do. Sorry kid, remember, you are in Europe where Hindi is not your national language . As I worked when everyone partied and put in loads of hard work this year and probably sent out more than a 100 quality applications and the result was two full-time positions right before I graduated. Good enough for someone who does not speak a European language and does not have a work permit to live in Europe.

I want people to put me down. I only get more determined and it just helps me see through the end and visualize success better. It just helps me complete things that are considered impossible and to rise back and say ‘in your face’.

I define success using different parameters than people do here. A part of my successful life, is to keep running long distance and do better in it than the point I started running 6 years ago. Success to be is being in a long-term relationship and being happy in it. Success to me is to earn well but not let the money control your actions. Success according to my own parameters is extremely important to me and it is probably as important as the how breathing is to survive. Sleep can wait a bit longer.