10 years

It has been 10 years now.

The mental flux I discussed last year, hasn't let up much.

Ill-health did hit family too with a couple of scares. 

We now have two sons :) And life has bigger spikes in both directions most days now.

I continue to run without a plan and ran a forgettable marathon earlier this year thanks to a GI malfunction. 

For the first time, my consulting income exceeded my coaching income in a calendar year. I am still consulting on running. I finally got my own website, thanks to my pal, Athreya.

I also continue to work with my amazing friends at ChooseToThinq. 

My newsletter at dschool.substack.com completed one year and I continue to post each week. I wrote about the Tokyo Olympics for SportsKeeda. That was a lot of fun and learning. 

Reading has been good this year but still less than I would like, but hey I am getting paid to read and write! Wait for my annual post on the books I read. This year, I have gone back to paper copies and my audiobook consumption has dipped, partly because I can't listen for too long and I try and avoid my phone as much as I can, with two young kids.

I stay in touch with Spanish by using Duolingo everyday and crossed a year of using it, about 3 months ago.

I continue to be grateful for so many good things in my life. I only wish the same and more for myself and for you, my dear reader. And an extra serving of good health to everyone.

If you are anyone (incl. an NIT Trichy or IIM Lucknow alumnus and) wondering whether to work for yourself and whether you'd be happy and comfortable, I can tell you I am working for myself and I am ok so far, after ten years. That's not too bad, eh?

If you noticed, I could reuse a lot of last year's content because the more things change, the more they remain the same.

And as with the last few years, now that you are here, say hello, write in and let me know how you have been and anything else you have been perhaps meaning to say :)

9 Years

It has been 9 years now.

And there's a modest chance I may go back to a job in this 10th year.

Other than the time between June 2012 and Oct 2013, when I had the most heartbreak while chasing my Boston qualification, I have not come close to the amount of mental flux I have had in the 12 months (esp the last 6, which must be common with everyone in the world right now!). 

Ill-health and misfortune has been a scourge in the lives of several people dear to me. That has hurt my head quite a bit. 

Partly as a result of that churn in my head and a lot of disrupted sleep, I gained ~2 kg after the first month of the lockdown (when I had actually dropped 0.5 kg, although I ran only on the terrace of my house). I am still trying to shake off 1 of those 2 kgs.

My son continues to drive a lot of my life's decisions. What I underestimated is the amount of time raising a kid, especially in the early years, takes. And that became very pronounced for a 15 day period when we didn't have a nanny, a little while ago. As a stopgap measure, I began using a spin bike 2 months ago, to stay fit while not leaving the house. I like it enough to continue doing it, although there are no restrictions on stepping outside now, where I live.

I continue to run without a plan although I had a memorable race at Mumbai in Jan where I ran my 2nd fastest marathon in India. I am grateful to just stay in shape and manage to run.

Coaching remains my primary source of income although the start of the calendar year had a couple of surprises. I did a motivation talk at a company's offsite (my first and only day-trip to Goa, till date!) and then consulted for another company on running, for a bit. I also got an opportunity to work with two people I love, over the past 3 months or so. That has been quite a nice experience. I also started a blog for sharing interesting content that comes by way, for the people I coach. That was born out of weekly calls we started doing, in the absence of our weekly face-to-face meetings, where we began discussing interesting content we had consumed in the week gone by dschool.substack.com That among others has also resulted in my beginning to write a bit every week.

Reading has been better than the previous year but very start-stop. Wait for my annual post on the books I read. Again, audiobooks and podcasts have been helpful.

I learnt a little bit of Spanish and among other fun items it ushered into my life was this delightful South American cartoon called Mafalda. Look it up if you haven't heard of it already.

I continue to be grateful for so many good things in my life. I only wish the same and more for myself and for you, my dear reader. And an extra serving of good health to everyone.

And as with the last few years, now that you are here, say hello, write in and let me know how you have been and anything else you have been perhaps meaning to say :)

8 Years

It has been 8 years now.

The further I get away from 2011, the more I am impressed by the fact that I took the plunge than by the fact that I have survived for so long without going back to a job.

The last year has been a surprise but in ways I didn't expect. I had mentioned becoming a parent in last year's post. Now our son is over a year old and walks around and pretty much occupies the top of any list I make.

The reversion to the mean has come pretty close to happening although the themes for this year have been parenting and other items.

Parenting is harder than anything I have done before. I heard Scott Jurek say on a podcast that compared to parenting, running ultras like he did, was easy (or something to that effect). But it is incredibly fulfilling. You could say that on most days my oxytocin levels should be greater than my endorphin levels. I don't think I would have survived this without my superhuman wife. All mothers are superhuman, by default!

Running continues to be a constant although I mostly run without a plan. I am grateful to just stay in shape and manage to run as much as I can.

I stopped working with The Fuller Life in mid-May to focus on finding some opportunity for myself that offers more bucks. I was already getting enough excitement. Thanks to that, coaching has stayed my primary source of income. And that is just one surprise. I am now coaching almost the same number of people as I was at peak with trainees continuing for almost 4 years or more now.

Reading has suffered a bit but I have read some wonderful books this year. Range by David Epstein, Loonshots by Safi Bahcall and Good to Go by Christie Aschwanden are 3 picks if you can't wait for my annual post on other good books I read. Audiobooks and Podcasts have bailed out quite a bit of my reading.

I continue to be grateful for so many good things in my life. I only wish the same and more for myself and for you, my dear reader. As with every year since I began coaching, I have met a few wonderful and generous people who have tried to make my life better in the last year too.

And as with the last few years, now that you are here, say hello, write in and let me know how you have been and anything else you have been perhaps meaning to say :)

The Seven Year Itch

It has been 7 years since I quit my job. 

It has been an interesting year to say the least. 2018 has been so good that I sometimes worry about reversion to the mean:)

The themes for this series has been running, reading, freelancing, writing, gratitude in general, etc.

When I wrote last year's post, I had alluded to my attempt at the Malnad Ultra 80K. That was a great experience at running my longest distance in one event. The running part was off to a rollicking start in Jan of this year when I won a half marathon, for the first time in my life, contributing to my most popular tweet till date. A little after that, I had a rather forgettable outing at the Mumbai Marathon. I turned 40 this year and that was made super-sweet by my setting a 5K PB, sharing the podium with people around half my age and some celebrity overdose as well, just the day before my 40th birthday.

My coaching is on its way to not being the major contributor to my income for this financial year (if current trends continue). I've increased the time I spend at The Fuller Life as a consultant and we have made some modest progress in the time I have been there. The pool of people I coach, have showered such affection on me that I sometimes consider doing it for free, but that bank balance alert every Sun morning takes care of such thoughts ;)

It has been really far more fulfilling than I had expected to be a coach and I am infinitely grateful for that.

I have tried at least 2 big bets and they have bombed quite embarrassingly and am surprisingly pleased about that. At least one of them was thanks to my work.

I have read more fiction in this year but more on that in my year end post. But hey, if you need a recco - try Factfulness by Hans Rosling. To say it will change your life (if you are like most people and not some yogi) will be an understatement.

And I finally managed to write again this year after quite a hiatus, with a review of a book by one of my favourite writers on running, no less! Don't you love Canadians?!

Perhaps the one sad note to the year was the passing away of a dear uncle :( All the equanimity in the world can't help alleviate the grief at least at that moment. It was a big blow to my mother (and hence to me) and a lot of my family.

And one more thing - the new theme for this year (and as one of my friends and trainees wagged - perhaps for the next 15 years!) is parenting! We became parents to a lovely boy a few months ago. That has overridden everything else in my life (quizzing among those). It was one decision that was taken after quite some deliberation and one, perhaps one can only assess reasonably only in the long term. Amongst others, if you didn't already respect the role of women in your life in general and mothers in particular, parenting is an eye-opener to that path.

While writing this post, I discovered that the title of this post comes from a persistent skin disease and not the Marilyn Monroe movie (based on a play)! Who knew?

And no, I am not going to back to the rat-race any time soon although some addition to my bank balance is more than welcome. 

I continue to be grateful for so many good things in my life. I only wish the same and more for myself and for you, my dear reader.

And as with the last few years, now that you are here, say hello, write in and let me know how you have been and anything else you have been perhaps meaning to say :)

6 years

Aha! That time of the year when I look back at another year post quitting my job.

I cheat a bit since I do a bit of looking back in my annual post on my my year of reading too. Anyways, back to topic.

I have finally gotten to a point when the longest I have worked for anyone is myself. That has taken quite some holding on to my resolve.

The year gone by has been better than the prev one.

Coaching continues to be my primary source of income. I have however begun spending a little more time consulting for the nice folks at The Fuller Life, something I began doing about 2 years ago. That means less time spent chilling out in general. For the last month or so, I am no longer napping in the day like I used to. That is likely to continue till Mar 2018, when I shall take a call on what I will do about my work when I turn 40. It is possible that coaching may no longer account for a bulk of my income like it has till date, from Apr 2018 but as of now, I have no clue what will. While financial goals serve as a counterweight to my enthusiasm, the year gone by, has also yielded opportunities to change the health and hence lives of at least 3 people. And there are some more in the works. I can't be more delighted with what I do. Thanks to all those people for the opportunity to do so. Fulfilment has never been lacking. The other, continuous source of pleasure from what I do is the number of interesting people I end up meeting.

Reading has been much better this year - partly why I feel better about the year. I still do crosswords daily, much less quizzing though :(

My own running has been quite fun too - thanks in large part to miles accumulated on trails in this year. I ran my fastest 10K race in India in May and also qualified for Boston at a race in the US in June. I guess the one big change in my thought on my running is that I am at a stage where I can pass the opportunity to actually run in Boston, when I have one in hand. It has been a nice journey from setting everything else in my life aside to do precisely that over 6 years ago, to getting to a stage where I can let it pass. Incidentally I spent the last 2 days not running due to a swollen ankle and I didn't agonize for a moment about not running at all. In the last 10 days, I have been in bed voluntarily till 8 am or so, twice! No complaints. I still want to run Comrades. I am running the Malnad 80K in about a month. So I do have running goals but they aren't the only ones in my life. 

I still have no major life goals - the same state I have been in, ever since May 2014 when I managed to run a time which would get me an entry into Boston. And I am ok about that. 

As in the prev year, many thanks to my dear wife and various other people who try and make my life such a joy.

The one sad note of the year is to see some trees in Lalbagh in particular and Basavanagudi in general, incl some closer home (those I have seen for almost 3 decades) go down, due to the stormy rains in Bangalore this year :(

See you next year.

Regardless of how you got here, now that you are here, say hello, write in and let me know how you have been and anything else you have been perhaps meaning to say :)

5 years

It has been about 2 weeks since I completed 5 years of working on my own. I started a series of annual posts, trying to recount what the year has been like with this post.

As I was telling some friends this morning, in the first three years, I was often told that by people that they admired my decision to quit a comfortable job, etc and that they wish they could do it sometime. In the last two years, this has changed. Now, most people who discuss my decision to quit my job are surprised that it is possible to make a living out of doing what I do. I suppose this is partly due to the number of people with similar backgrounds who are now working for themselves. I am still not aware of anyone who is an engineer and a management graduate, who quit a consulting job to coach people to run.

Another sobering realization is that I am now less inclined to work for myself than I was in Sep 2011 or for that matter 2012 or 2013. This is perhaps due to the fact one of the main goals of quitting my job then was to have a lifestyle that supported training hard, etc. Since I qualified for Boston and got a place to run in the race in 2015, I don't have any major life goals that are consuming passions like Boston was. I do want to run Comrades sometime but I am in no hurry. I don't think it helps that I am 5 years older now. I was also unmarried till 2013. So the variables have all moved.

I have now set myself a certain financial target to be hit by Apr 2018 (when I turn 40), failing which I may go back to sucking up and working for money. Besides one line of reasoning I gave myself when I quit in 2011 was that I could always try to get back to working for money even when I was 40, but I couldn't perhaps have as much fun as I did in the last 5 years.

One of the reasons this post is a little late is that I was sort of race director for a running event in Chikmagalur over the last weekend. I have already renamed myself D-factotum to commemorate that occasion. This was something new to me and quite a demanding assignment and one that I am happy to report went without incident with a lot of happy people.

So I continue to mark each year with something new and I am learning something new. There are a lot of fundamental items in my life that I am examining with fresh perspective, that would shock some of my friends from over 2 decades if they only knew what I was thinking today.

A big part of the gratitude for the interestingness goes to my dear wife, who has been a great source of support for my passion. While she labours away in her cubicle, I am usually taking one of my morning naps!

I have read much less than I have in the previous years, but I will discuss that in my annual post on books. I resumed solving the ET cryptic crossword and have done so for every day of 2016 and intend to keep it up till end of the year. My running stays ok. I started swimming this year and it has been a source of much pleasure. Quizzing has been worse than even 2015 but I am not that bothered by it as I am by the diminished reading. I have also written much less as the no of posts on my blog shows. I don't tweet as much or post on FB than I have in previous years, either but I have been more "social" in the real world and I am happy about it. About 3 months ago, I was knocked back by dengue for about 2 weeks. That was a scary time although it is less scary now than it was to get dengue 5 years ago or so. It also served to highlight how lucky we can be and how it doesn't take much to upset our lives. But then again, it also helped underscore that being mostly healthy is quite nice too and almost nothing can take its place.

It has been an interesting journey so far and I hope it stays so. Thanks as always to a lot of people who have made this possible.

As in the previous years, if you got here, say hello, write in and let me know how you have been.

4 years

This is my annual post on striking out on my own since Sep 2011. This time, unlike the last 2 years, I got working on it, well in advance.

The year since Sep 2014 has been very interesting. For one, I did add a footnote to one chapter of my life - the chasing the Boston Marathon one, which had gotten ticked off at around this time last year. I had enormous fun running the Boston 2 Big Sur Challenge, running the Big Sur Marathon, 6 days after the Boston Marathon.

Since then, I have embarked on yet another adventure of starting my own company, Drava along with my friend and fellow runner, A. We hope that it will make us both happier. My coaching gig continues to teach me more than I expected to learn as a coach. And some relationships built thru my coaching have just been incredibly fun and rewarding. They're the primary reason I continue to do what I do, now that my own goal is out of the way.

I have begun a couple of other assignments beyond my coaching, all of which allow me to make a living in the running universe. My writing however has diminished from the 2011 level. I am trying to make a comeback on the reading front and this year has been promising although the next 4 months will tell how that will end up, as I have over half a dozen books, read in part. Quizzing has almost vanished from my life this year, partly due to some overlap of running events on the dates of major quizzes, but also due to my teammate being out of country. And starting my own company has resulted in some petty tasks, once in a while, which results in schedule conflicts.

I was bringing this post to a close y'day and all I had to talk about was about running, a little about being married and some reading. However, the sudden news of the death of a cheery spirit I knew reasonably well from the world of running, a fellow bibliophile and someone who travelled enough to make the rest of us envious about her beautiful journeys, has made this moment rather sombre. While I wish her spirit more cheerful wanderings beyond this life, it has more than served to remind me that all of us have but one precious life. We might as well enjoy every day as much we can.

I am thankful to various generous spirits who have made mine wonderful.

If you got reading this far, let me know what's up with you...

3 years

I delayed this post by a few days since I was waiting for an email from the BAA that arrived this morning.

My entry to the 2015 edition of the Boston Marathon has been confirmed. That adds another line to the story of my life since Sep 2011, while ticking off the one item that spurred me to quit my job, 3 years ago.

My running is quite fine, although I wish I were lighter but if you ate 4 kadubus before breakfast, you can hardly expect your weight to watch itself! I know what I will be doing on the running front for the next 6 months at least. The weight should drop by a bit as I head towards the end of the year. Coaching has been a mixed bag as several of my trainees have hit personal bests while some others have been dogged by injuries. My own left shin, the cause of much heartburn last year is now mended.

In addition to my BQ, I also managed to get certified as a personal trainer this year. So that has lent some much needed perspective to my health & fitness in general, not to mention opening fresh avenues in my professional life. I am hoping it aids my quest to remedy the bank balance anxiety, which is surprisingly a frequent item in my thought process.

Reading recovered mildly in Apr-May, since I spent 6 weeks in the US, during which I read a book every week but has withered since. My bank balance is rather precarious but life in general, is quite wonderful.

And I managed to revive my podcast, Runalyze This, which had become dormant for almost a year. Keeping it going will be quite some work, though.

I managed a trip to Jog Falls, last month, after having wanted to go there for almost two decades! That trip was amazing too, as my wife and I, got away on a trip for more than a day, for the first time since our Europe trip last year, which was kickstarted by my appearance in the Berlin Marathon. The trip to Jog Falls also helped restore some balance to my married life :)

As I alluded to in this post, my life continues to be enriched by the generosity of numerous friends. Am really looking forward to the next 18 months or so, during which many things are planned - not all of them running-related, some of which I shall share on this blog from time to time.

So how have you been?

Another year of living dangerously

Last year, I wrote this, in case you are wondering about the title of this post.

Unlike the last year which began ominously this year I have been healthier. I also got married a few months ago, but more on that later in this post.

At the time of writing this post, I still haven't qualified for the Boston Marathon for my 2nd time. The 1st time I did, I didn't get in. So I wrote this for MINT which was published almost 2 weeks ago, about what I am doing about it.

I joined a gym this year and have kept up the running. I am fitter than last year though slightly heavier than I was in Dec 2012 when I ran CIM. But I am more muscular and am hoping the extra muscle will help.

One of the things I discussed in last year's post was how my parents were concerned about my being unmarried. That is now history as I am married to a good woman. She is still settling in, getting used to my waking & sleeping hours, which are very different from hers, which is just one of the aspects that has changed in my life. I am also, settling in, being unused to another person in my life. Actually being rather selfish I have carried on mostly as I was living earlier, with a few checks, while she is still adjusting.

Am attempting to make up for time not spent with her by taking a trip of Europe right after my race on Sep 29th. So that should be fun.

I now live within 15-20 min of running from Lalbagh, in a house different from that of my parents who I lived with, till a few weeks of getting married, which gives me great joy and I make use of it, every week. I have cut down my motor vehicle use thanks to this shift in my residence and run to and from Lalbagh at least once and sometimes twice a week.

One pain from last year remains. Due to training and coaching, I have managed to read even fewer books than I did last year although I will use the remaining 15 weeks of the year to catch up. But I managed to write for the MINT twice in the last year (this was the other piece I wrote), which was great for my writing ambitions.

I have had a running related injury in my left shin which has dogged me for almost 2 months now. I even took a break of almost 2 weeks (my longest involuntary break in a while) due to another reason which was a big health scare, which vanished just as quickly, although it gave me occasional reminders till about 2 weeks ago.

My bank balance is better than last year since my coaching gig has grown from last year although I keep it under check since I need more time to train.

One interesting upside from running included a trip to Coimbatore on a running related note.

I continue to learn a lot from my coaching gig and now the learning has a new dimension since I coach 4 non Indians in addition to the several Indians I coach around the world. About 20% of my trainees are women. So that's a useful source of learning. When I look back, this one year, due to circumstances, I have stayed away from both my running and writing coaches. So a lot of my learning has been from my own experience, unlike the previous year. And some sad events in the life of at least one of them have served to remind me how ephemeral this existence of ours is, and how we should make the most of our time in this world.

As Graeme Obree, who remains an inspiration for an ordinary human such as myself, puts it rather bluntly (in the context of the quest for beating the landspeed record for a human powered vehicle (HPV)), "The fear isn't not reaching 100mph, the fear is being 90, in a chair in an old folks’ home, saying ‘I should have gone for that.'"That fear of a life which was ordinary, continues to drive me.

Sep 29th will help me take a few big decisions, not least of which is the question of what I will do next, if I do qualify for Boston again. In 3 weeks I will know better. Regardless of that outcome, I am happier and healthier than ever before. Being married has added another dimension to my life. So that's fun too.

So I will continue to coach at least till Apr-May 2014, after which we will see.

As in the last year, I owe thanks to a bunch of people, too numerous to be named. I am grateful to be alive, healthy and happy, pretty much in that order.

A year of living dangerously

Last year on Sep 9*, I quit my salaried job with a consulting firm, which then, was my longest job ever.

I chose to do this coaching business mostly out of wanting to do something that was close to my interests, about something I wouldn't whine about frequently (I was sick of myself doing that!). All I had to ride on was a few friends who trusted me more than they should have, given my complete inexperience at the job I was taking on.

I have run far from what I used to do then. Quite literally I have run around 1800 miles in the last 365 days. I suspect it would have been a little more had I not been laid low for 6 weeks due to jaundice, which brings me to what the year has been like.

The year of living dangerously began quite awfully with my diagnosis of jaundice within days of my resignation. So I went from making a comfortable living to having no job, no idea on what I'd do next since I couldn't coach being sick and since I was sick, not much of an outlook for the next few months. In fact the only positive was that I lost so much weight, I realized how much fat I had to lose (not much actually, about 3 kg), if I worked out like De Niro did in Cape Fear (He is supposed to have had 3% body fat!). But I digress.

Actually before I started full-time, my plan had been to fly to Bangalore every weekend for a few weeks and learn to coach with my pal, Santhosh, who basically gave me free access to his coaching gig. I was planning to do this part-time. I did that for a few weeks till I fell sick. Then the Boston Qualifiers got announced and I just quit my job in a flash. I decided Tue night (when the qualifiers were announced), spoke to my parents and resigned the next morning.

The year I must say has been more than rewarding. The one thing which has worked out to plan is staying happy. I have never been happier for any other part of my life. Actually, for the few weeks after my sub 3:10 last year, I was happier than I have ever been in life (and that was before I quit my job), but I am talking about a general sense of happiness, not a specific event. So while maximum daily happiness may have been higher during those few weeks/months, the average for the last 365 days is higher.

There have been quite a few surprises - not all of them pleasant. I no longer have a continuous source of paid writing. I only work for myself. When I started my year, after the initial hiccup, at one point, I had multiple writing assignments and a coaching gig in addition to my own. Life was really smooth for about 3 months. Then things nose-dived. Every source of income literally died. Now, all I do is coach people to run.

I haven't read as many books as I would have wanted, despite having more time to myself than I did earlier.

I have learnt a lot - mostly about other humans, as well as myself. In fact, I am planning to write my 2nd book (never mind that the first one is still unpublished!) on what I have learnt while coaching.

I sleep really well. Especially due to the mileage as above, I rarely sleep less than 8 hours a day and almost 9-11 hours when I am training, as I am now.

My customers are more happy on an average even if I say so myself. I would think if I had more unhappy ones, I wouldn't have many by now.

I am fitter than I have ever been in life. I have metrics for this (however questionable the measuring system may be, the trend is still positive). I have managed to enhance my body weight while reducing the fat, which means I added muscle mass.

The one thing that hasn't changed is my parents' concern (and that of some other people, at least a few of them well-wishers) that I should be married, to lead a fulfilling life. I can't say I agree with that assumption. So it is one unaddressed demand. But I never even set out to remedy that in the last 12 months.

My bank balance has only been damaged by my trips to the US to run races but my savings haven't been affected otherwise although obviously, I haven't added much to them in the last 12 months. I hope to change that in the next 12 months.

When I decided to quit my job, I had given myself 6 months to decide whether to continue and then another 6 months to ensure I could live off the work I was doing. I had banked a year's worth of expenses so that I could just eat out my savings while things settled in. Since I didn't tap into that in the last year, I am giving myself another year at least at doing what I really enjoy.

I owe thanks to a bunch of people, too numerous to be named. I am grateful to be alive, healthy and happy, pretty much in that order.


* For those of you, especially in the US, I swear I didn't choose the date for any reason other than wanting to quit on a Fri