Run-walking

I've been noticing more of the runners on the street, now that running is on my mind. I ran three times a week a couple weeks ago before I hurt my knee and had to rest it back to health. My strides are long and high and I tend to get out of breath really easily, and I did notice that my steps are heavy and full footed. It isn't surprising that I get tired very easily and my (already shot) knees start hurting.

I was stopped at a stop sign the other day and saw an elderly gentleman running in the morning. He looked like he was about 70 and was running a good distance now, and he was fast. I noticed that he was taking very short strides that weren't very high. It was almost like walking - really fast, with a bit of a bounce. I tried that today and it felt so different and so good to be able to run 0.35 miles (yes - just a fraction of a mile; did I not already mention that I can't run a mile to save my life?!) without getting extremely out of breath. If I had done some research, I would've come across this useful video about running form, but alas I made some of the discoveries myself the hard way.

I ran-walked a total of 1.65 miles today, and it felt like an accomplishment! I was thinking about how my first GMAT practice test seemed like an accomplishment almost - just sitting through the test for four hours and attempting all the questions was a milestone. That was the beginning to my MBA adventure. What is the optimal GMAT score? It depends. (I love how there are no straight-forward answers to anything pertaining to business or business school - it always always "depends". ) In this case, it depends on the school (different schools have different cut-offs and different split requirements), your citizenship status (the cutoff is a lot higher for international students applying to the US because of sheer competition), and your accomplishments (if you have turned around a multi-million dollar company, every college will want you whether you got a 580 or a 780 on your GMAT). Remember, there is a low-end spectrum of GMAT scores of admitted students that sets the average acceptance score.

Bottom Line: Running gives you the illusion that every step you finish is a major accomplishment. It also makes you notice 70 year old men.

Why get an MBA?

The question I have been asked a million times - by friends, by family, by recruiters, by strangers. Now, I can give you many answers - the rehearsed ones, the nice ones, the blunt ones - but they all have one thread in common - I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone. I was getting too comfortable where I was and things felt stagnant. My mentor always told me that you know you have to get up and move when what you are doing becomes second nature for you.

Well, that is an expensive way to push your limits, one might say. It is true - I probably could've taken all of the classes online, for free, read up on it on my own. I could have, but would I have? Probably not. I have been fortunate enough to have arranged some means to fund my MBA, and that might not be true for everyone else. For me, I wanted to meet people, hear stories (and tell some too), get a classroom experience (which might be dwindling in this digital age), be a full time student again, and venture out on my own. Everyone's priorities and motivations are different, and this was mine.

I was aware (and you should be as well) that I was losing out on two year's salary, risking not having a (better) job at the end of it all, and sinking in debt. But these are two prime, tension-free, commitment-free years of my life that I was willing to bet on. I don't expect to come out of this a changed person with super-powers (unless incredibly high alcohol tolerance and ability to function on no sleep count), and neither should you. I do know that I can deal with change and with people a lot better now.

Bottom line: I'm getting my MBA to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Why running?

"I cannot run a mile to save my life!" I have said this over and over again for the past decade. Running isn't new to me - I HAVE ran before. I used to do the 100m, 200m dashes in middle school - barefoot, mind you - once a year on our annual sports day, mostly because my friends were competing, and my teachers expected me to participate. Other sports and activities took over afterwards, and once I started dancing, running was out of the picture. My second stint was in college, when I decided I wanted to run because I wanted to improve my stamina (and kill time in the summer). That ended with my right knee being injured since I ran downhill a lot.

This is my first serious attempt at running. I want to run to discover the rhythm of running, the strength of pushing my boundaries, and the joy of crossing a finish line. I also want to run to overcome this stigma in my mind that I cannot run. I want to prove to myself that this is a challenge that I can overcome, and not an obstacle.

Call it a (post) quarter-life crisis or a crazy attempt to inflict pain on myself (that is what I would've said five years ago), but this run will have a story to tell with all the likings of a Bollywood movie - drama, romance, pain, celebration - and is there a better way to tie it all together than an MBA journey?