Runversation: A runner’s resilience

Resilience is the ability to keep on moving despite the hits and the adversities. Adversity is a fully proven fact of life, there is no escaping it and it’s one of life’s greatest levellers. But how well you respond to adversity — how resilient you are and how quickly you can bounce back after a setback, a failure or a disappointment can determine your life’s “emotional expectancy” to a large extent.

Single mum Sayuri Dalvi is an avid marathon runner from Mumbai and a renowned name in the amateur running circuit with several podium finishes to her credit. “My life has been shaped by challenges and struggles. But in that furnace, I was shaped by strength, resilience and triumph. After an abusive marriage, an eventual divorce and my son’s autism diagnosis, I was looking for a sense of direction. Sometimes, life puts you in a situation where no matter how much we try to plan in advance, we can never prepare enough for the unexpected. To overcome this vortex, I hit the gym. I did my routine but never pushed myself and simply went through the motions with my workout seeming like an uninspired habit. I wanted to get back all that I had lost. wanted to be out in the world — as not just a mum but also a woman. That’s when running walked into my life,” says Sayuri.

She adds: “Running was never a passion. I just one day figured that I wanted more from my workout, from life. I didn’t want the status quo but instead, I wanted the best for myself and my son. I wanted genuine joy and so, I put on my sneakers, sun block, running gear, and queued the music. I was ready to face the world, the street dogs and the people running alongside me. I was alone but I wasn’t lonely. Running transformed pain into power.”

Running comes with its own set of good friends. The flow, the movement, the fresh morning breeze, the playlist — they become your friends and it doesn’t matter to them whether you’ve run a kilometre or three, whether you give up and start walking or whether you pound through sweat and fatigue. Running is that silent, steady, true companion. Certain circumstances provide a doorway to growth and learning and if we keep faith in a higher reason as to why things are happening, we’re able to let go of the fear of uncertainty.

Sayuri agrees. In fact, it’s this exact sort of positive outlook that keeps many sane and happy.

“It doesn’t really matter what is happening to you right now — at this very moment. It just could be the fact that success owed to you has been deferred to a later date. I needed to remind myself of who I was before my marriage and who I could be after the trials. Running was the way to several answers to life’s questions and all those kilometres helped calm my fears. Running was the one partner who told me without wavering — you are strong. Running was also the cheerleader I needed to get me through the situations I was faced with.”

The writer can be reached at gs.sudhakarrao@gmail.com