The travails of x-country running at NDA

Author : Salil Prashar

12/10/2017

I was my squadrons most dependable runner..... no one can maintain a x-country running graph as flat as I could

I think a prelude is in order before I let loose.

The physical training or PT that i had done in school was restricted to standing in vishram and stretching the arms up and down with the beat of the drums, aur uss se bhi kayee bar hath mein sprain padh jata tha. Running was restricted to the sprint (if you can call it that) to exit the school as soon as the school closing gong was sounded.
     

I once took part in Shot Put throw and managed to throw it 2 mtrs and explained to the PT teacher that I had mistaken Shot Put as Short Put. I still remember the force he Put in his Short on my cheeks and that was the end of my athletic career.


Now lets get back to the Academy.

I joined November Squadron which was the x-country champion. We 1st termers were introduced to running from day 1 and I realised from day 2 ki yeh apun kay bas ki baat nahi hai. Bahut practice karne ke baad main kissi tarah se novices x-country mein 4th enclosure mein land kar gaya.

Jaisa ki mere sath novices boxing mein hua tha, bus ekdum waisa hi yahan hua, x-country captain ko laga ki yeh mera starting point hai and from here i can only show improvement. He started expecting me in at least 3rd enclosure in the next terms event.

Abb next term bhi aa gaya. Practice jor shor se start huee.

NDA mein x-country practice bahut hi scientific dhang se hoti thi, end of term leave se report karte hi agle din ek choti si 10 km ki run hoti thi, jiss ke start se pehle bola jaata tha ki 'guys just relax and run, loosen up your muscles, thats all'.

Distance sun kar sab se pehle motions aur emotions dono loose ho jaate the..... Yar 1 month ki chutti ke agle din kaun sala 10 km bhag kar loosen up karta hai.... Lekin yeh scientific tha!, ya phir hoga? nahi bhi ho sakta hai!.... Mujhe kya pata main toh as it is 'can only improve ki category mein tha'......

Mujhe hamesha doubt raha hai ki shayad yeh x-country captain ke sath chutti mein ek PT ustad bhejte hain jo usse poorie chutti daudha daudha kar uska bhoot banata tha, issi liye chutti khatam hote hi woh same to same hamare sath karta tha.

Loosening up run ka *Go* hota tha, first 500 m mein nikalta tha paseena, next 1 km mein nikalta tha dinner, 5 km khatam hote hote stomach washout ho chuka hota tha. Iss beech kissi ek senior ko josh aata tha aur woh peeche se hum ko coax karta tha speed badane ke liye..... Dheere dheere yeh loosening up wali run full fledged run mein convert ho jaati thi.... Jin seniors ka khud ka tel nikal chuka hota tha woh mere jaise juniors ko motivate karne ka natak karte thay aur 'come on Ninjas' bol bol kar hum say bhi peeche ho jaate thay.

7-8 km kay baad CSM run rok deta tha, dil ko tassali hoti thi ki chalo aakhir koyee toh scientific hai..... Lekin yeh khushi short lived hoti thi, he would declare ki we all are now sufficiently loosened up, so we shall collectively sprint the last 3 kms.

Sprint? Main toh abhi tak apni taraf se sprint hi kar raha tha, so what ki meri speed 'jogging on the spot' se 500 mtrs/hr jyada thi, Bhai koyee lnhe samjhata kyon nahi tha ki 3 km sprint bhagne ke liye kitne hazar CC oxygen chahiye aur meri saansein as it is mere shareer se 100 kadam peeche chal rahi hain....
      

Lekin CSM ne keh diya toh keh diya, sprint chaloo hoti thi aur hamare senior hum par chaloo hote the, josh sadak mein har jagah gir raha hota tha..... Sab ek doosre ko push and pull kar rahe hote the..... camaraderie ka durust namuna, lekin asliyat mein sab dheere bhagne ka bahana dhoondte thay.

Finally run khatam hoti thi aur thodi si ek ghante ki stretching exercises ke baad fall in hota tha..... Tab tak as it is fall hone ki conditon ho chuki hoti thi. Then would come the grand declaration that we have to get the x-country trophy again this term so for that we will start practicing from the next day itself.... Gayee bhains pani mein.

That was not to be the end of the proceedings of the day. The x-coutry captain (XCC) would call us weak runners and would try and instill some josh in us.... Josh!..... Hosh would have been better.

Thus would start the quest for the trophy or the coveted glider.

Run after run i would land up in 4th/5th enclosure. After every practice run the CSM would call the over achievers like me in bajri order (wearing a back pack full of stones to increse the weight).... As the runs progressed so did the number of packs in our bajri order, till finally the packs started touching the ground and we could lean back and rest on them. But nothing worked..... Even this scientific method failed.

One of our expert runners once explained to us in enormous detail every nuance in every step of the route, how to breathe in and out, the way to place our foot, the swing of arms , the movement of shoulders, the clenching of fist etc. etc. What he forgot was ki mere lung in sabhi activities mein se sirf ek activity at a time hi support kar sakte they.

CSM ko laga ki iss scientific lecture ke baad hum sabhi at least ek enclosure improve karenge..... Bhai 1st enclosure wale kahan jayenge, unka bhi toh socho.
But no one can beat me in consistency, i have managed to maintain 4th enclosure throughout my academy life.... Na oopar na neeche (thus deserving the title of mr dependable) . The XCC finally decided ki iska kuch nahin ho sakta.

I was very prone to getting caught by the appointments and ended up having to run a huge amount of endurance runs (ET as they were called) as a punishment and i turned pro in it. One day my XCC also got a couple of punishments, poor chap was not used to the peculiarities of the ET route. At the end of the run to his horror he realised that he had failed while i was standing in the pass crowd. I was declared a shammer and my x-country status was immediately converted from 'iska kuch nahi ho sakta' to 'can only show improvement from here'

and thus continued my battle with running........ & It continues till date

(NB - i have finally hit upon the scientific reason for my continued bad performance in running. Actually due to slow speeds i was-re-breathing my own Carbon-dioxide and my oxygen supply was reduced....... That is all. Pehle pata hota toh x-country route par fans lagane ki demand karta..... Phir mera 3rd enclosure pakka tha..... )

P.S. - Who the hell invented run for fun..... I would love to meet that guy alone in an alley.