What I will talk about when I will talk about running
Book notes on "The Day I Became A Runner" by Sohini Chattopadhyay
I often find myself telling everyone that Bir is an island of misfits.
In all these years of visiting the village (It’s not really that anymore), I have often met people from different walks of life who have decided to dedicate a good enough chunk of their life to stay in the village. Amongst these people, some have become good friends and what brings all of us together is running.
I must make it very clear now that these friends do the running while I sit on my chair and scroll my Instagram to heart react and comment a high five emoji when they post about what they learnt from a race that they participated in. I am often in awe of the sheer grit and discipline these people have.
In 2022 Solang Sky Ultra which takes place in Manali, My friend Anuja finished first on the 30km race with the timing of 5:59:21hrs. Pacing her, was her partner Pratyush who is also a long distance runner and had also coached her. Anuja improved her timing by a whopping 22 minutes from her previous attempt.
In 2023, Sannat represented India in the 2023 World Mountain & Trail Championship which took place in Innsbruck, Austria. The same year he also won the 30k Malnad Ultra with the timing of 2:38:25hrs. But If you ask me he is the real champion in giving the best bear hugs whenever he meets me.
I met Sannat and Pratyush on one humid weekday morning near Bir Chowk. This was in 2021 and Sannat was attempting his FKT from Bir to Billing on his birthday. I did not know what FKT meant so I naturally googled on my way and it said - “A Fastest Known Time (FKT) is the speed record for a running, hiking or cycling route. Unlike most endurance sports competitions such as marathon world records, FKTs are self-organized and done alone or in small groups.”
I was just there to help my friend shoot the attempt and did not expect it to be such a thrilling experience. We wanted to capture the landscape and him appearing and disappearing. So while he was cruising through the Billing trail, we were setting up a shot up top and then quickly wrapping it up and then his brother Sanand would drive us up to the next spot where we would again do the same. He finished the FKT attempt at 45minutes and 55seconds breaking his earlier record of 53min 21sec.
These people continue to inspire me a lot. (not for running yet for me but more for practicing a disciplined life). So naturally when one fine Instagram story scrolling morning I saw Sannat reading What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. I wanted to read it too. I have been on this journey of trying to know more about what makes an author write? or a painter, paint or a runner, run so when I wanted to know what the novelist Murakami thinks when he is talking about running. The book, as most Murakami books are, was a breeze to go through. The language was simple and I enjoyed my way through it like I was running a downhill trail (am I even allowed to say that? as someone who has not run a km since 2017).
The Murakami book was good but for the most part I felt I knew what he was saying by the virtue of seeing my friends that I mentioned above train and then set out to achieve their own goals and then repeat the process every year.
But I was quite oblivious to the fact that what is commonly known as the easiest sport to get started with - running is actually far from easy for many women athletes in the country.
I found a Goodreads review page of the book The Day I Became A Runner by Sohini Chattopadhyay and felt the immediate need to get a copy. I was confused between the audible or the kindle version of it. I had previously used my free monthly credit for Audible to get Dune Messiah and now finally after a month long wait, I had one more of those. I picked up the audible version. It was 13 hours and 27 mins. Piece of cake for me now because of my 2x listening speed (I will talk more about it someday).
What lie ahead was a journey I would not forget anytime soon in my life. This way of learning about the history of women running in India which was documented brilliantly by Sohini with her sharp writing took me through all the emotions that are there in a scale. At one point I was shocked to hear about the PT Usha’s stance on the CAA protests that were happening in 2019 to unable to hold back tears while listening to the most heartbreaking story of Santhi Soundarajan. This book also gave me an insight on how big of a deal it is to be on the Olympic stage to represent your nation and how much your life and your village’s life change after that. These were just some of the many TIL moments that I had during the 13 hours I spent with the book. It made me angry, sad, hopeless at times but also excited, optimistic and humble.
Very rarely a book comes into your lives and manages to shape your worldview in a way that its never the same again. This book and the stories of all these women and what they went through to get where they are did it for me.
I highly recommend you to pick up a copy.
A song recommendation for this running post -
till next time,
love,
tijbed.