The struggle of running – is the journey between these two lines.

During the early running season, sometime in the end-summer months of May and June, my limits are the lower line below. Just when the distance starts to climb into 2 digits, my limbs, and more importantly, my mind tends to give up!

Come the cooler months of Oct-Dec, and combined with the intense, but sensible and scientific coaching, and running with the Road Burners buddies, this line tends to climb up…and reach closer to my potential.

Still, nearly always during the structured long runs, somewhere around the 34k mark, my mind would say I am reaching the limits of what I can do during this run…and nearly always I am wrong. A lot of this ‘limit’ is in the mind…and that is where the psychological training comes in. Visualizing the pain, the suffering, the self-talk, and proactively addressing these during the various training runs is the key to ensure you have a joyful, and closer to your potential, marathon execution!

More power to you all, for your key upcoming race, which is the Tata Mumbai Marathon 2025…for most of us!