Running makes a better Doctor

  Posting to Delhi, happened to me more as a default after 25years of service rather than by influencing the powers that be to get there. Having been in my alma mater as a faculty for 5years, actively involved in teaching undergraduate and post graduate students, I had spent some wonderful moments in the college, enriching myself professionally, and inculcating healthy lifestyle amongst the young students and faculty. Starting the AFMC Marathoners’ club in the college and getting the kids bitten by the Running bug, I felt was an effective way to instill a sense of self-discipline and work-ethic amongst them in their formative years. Posting to the hospital in Delhi, which boasted of one of the largest patient loads, and a challenging mix of secondary and tertiary care medical practice, I knew that I had to change my mode of working to more of foot soldiering with patient care focusing both on general medicine and my own ...

My training With the initial postponement and later cancellation of the Boston marathon, registration for the virtual event scheduled for 13 Sep 2020 was done. Having been injured for most of 2019 and early 2020, I had been focusing on strength training, conditioning and diet through the lockdown. A lot of easy runs with increasing mileage were put in to build up aerobic base with adequate recovery. Despite the lockdown, and Covid duties in my hospital, I was fortunate to be able to run outdoors and focus on strength using bodyweight exercises and home-gym. To continue the process of recovery and build up endurance, I decided to run the virtual event, just focusing on the distance, with no pace targets. Not having had an injury free event for more than a year, I was more keen to be at the start line, pain free and confident of finishing strong. I shared this with Ash and a plan was accordingly put in place. Within the constraints of time and space (especially during the covid duties ...