me versus ME

21^st Aug, 2020: It was ‘just another’ Friday evening. As I wrapped up the work commitments for the day, I wondered how I should spend the evening ahead. The usual choices I consider on other days were unfortunately not available that day. I couldn’t have picked up one of the usual choices – tempo, LSD, intervals, aerobic – as it was supposed to be the only rest day of the week. I blankly stared out of the window to feel the gentle gush of cool breeze. It felt terrible to be not running in that beautiful weather, terrible enough to deviate from the training plan..

At 7:03 pm, I was out there to kick-off an ‘unplanned’ run …unplanned, because it didn’t feature in the training schedule and there was no target pace or distance for that day. 

Around thirty minutes into the run, I felt that that there is something uniquely charming about unplanned actions. I thought about the way I had decided to pursue 100 Half-Marathons in 100 days about a year back. There wasn’t much thought put into the decision, but with the advantage of hindsight I know it helped me create a lifetime memory. At exactly that point in time, I considered doing something crazy that night - 100 km during the night – yes, that’s what it was going to be.

What followed was a series of arguments between the two entities that reside within me – the logical me (that has the ability to reason and is sensible) and the defiant ME (that loves new challenges and wants to do its ‘own’ thing).

me: Don’t be stupid. Just six km into a run, you cannot randomly decide to run 100 km through the night.

ME: Why not?

me: because, running 100 km through the night requires diligent planning!

ME: like?

me: like you will need proper hydration if you must run through the night.

ME: At around 25 km I can take a small break, go home, grab some energy drinks / water and place them in the car. It a cyclic loop anyway.

me: given the humidity, you will sweat like crazy. You will need at least 10 tees to run through the night.

ME: don’t worry, I will just take it off, so I don’t need it at all.

me: what about your shoes? Soon, your shoes / socks will be drenched with sweat and it’s a matter of time before you get blisters.

ME: I can change my shoes and socks after every 20-25 km.

me: since it was your rest day, you didn’t charge your GPS watch battery. It will die-down shortly. Then how will you measure distance?

That seemed like the only valid argument ‘me’ had offered so far.

After a bit of thought..

ME: so, here is the plan – every two hours or so I will take a break to hydrate, eat, change shoes. Before I do that, I will put the watch on charging. That would be good enough to last me for the next 2-3 hours. No more arguments please. Its final.

..and with that started the journey of that memorable night.

0 – 25 km: The first 25 km run seemed quite comfortable - the usual evening walkers, the young kids cycling around, an odd hand-wave or two to a few friends. It all looked familiar. By around 9:30 pm, I had completed the first 25 km run. I took a short break to refuel the body and slip into a fresh pair of socks / shoes.

25 – 50 km: In about an hour’s time, I started the next leg of the journey. At exactly 7.93 km mark, I noticed a technical glitch in the watch. For some reason, the distance stopped increasing. I randomly waved my wrist a few times as if ‘pleading’ my watch to catch the GPS signal, but it didn’t work. After running around for about ten minutes thereafter, I stopped the watch and returned home. It was disappointing to abort the run due to a technical glitch. Once at home, I sat on the floor reflecting upon the night I had imagined and what it turned out to be. The same ‘me’ vs ‘ME’ conversation started.

me: It was never going to be easy anyway, so it’s okay.

(no response)

me: You can try again next weekend with proper arrangements.

(after a brief pause..)

ME: The deal was to run 100 km through the night, not necessarily in four tranches of 25 km. Its worth going back – may be the watch will work fine this time!

At around 11:50 pm, I was back again to resume from the total 32.93 km I had finished so far. I was mighty pleased to see the watch working fine. By around 1:45 am I had completed a total of 50 km.

50 – 75 km: At exactly 2:58 am, I started the next leg of the journey. This seemed to be the most uncomfortable phase of the over-night journey. The odd late-night walkers had disappeared. There were no hand-waves or smiles to derive energy from. Even the dogs on the street had finally slipped into slumber to shape an eerie ambience. On top of it, there was still a good distance to go, so it was tough to distract the mind by playing the reverse count-down in the mind. I remembered one of the favorite running quotes I once read – “…Running is nothing more than a series of arguments between the part of your brain that wants to stop and the part that wants to keep going…”

For the next two hours, I randomly kept running around trying my best to not think too far ahead. At around 5:00 am, I noticed the darkness beginning to gradually fade away. The break of dawn was not far. In another 15-20 minutes, few early morning walkers started appearing on the road. Some of them who had seen me running the previous night wondered what was going on..

75 – 100 km: As I was returning home after completing 75 km, the body was badly fatigued, the lack of sleep was showing up and there was serious doubt if I was going to come back for the final 25 km. It’s the first time the voice of “me” appeared stronger than “ME”. I wondered what laid ahead..

I took a quick shower, gulped a few glasses of chocolate shake and put my feet in ice cold water. Before “me” could start posing logical questions, “ME” took over.

ME: I am not sure if I can complete another 25 km, but I am going back for sure. We will take it from there. Period.

The last leg of the journey was difficult for a different reason. Around 10 km into the run (i.e. at around 85^th km mark), the sun had assumed full effect and it became quite hot. But with just about 10-15 km to go, there was no way I was going to stop now!

By the time the over-night journey ended, there was sweat, soreness, exhaustion…

but what is more – there was another BEAUTIFUL LIFETIME MEMORY that I would cherish forever!

Sundeep Singh

+91 - 98181 19794
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About the Author: By background, Sundeep Singh is a Mechanical Engineer from IIT Delhi and an MBA from IIM Kozhikode. He is a Principal Director with Accenture's Sustainability practice in India. Given his flair for mechanics and passion for running, he loves to analyze and write about the finer nuances of running techniques / strategies. Sundeep’s fastest run till date is ADHM 2017, which he completed in 1:26:29.