I just realized I have been running for a decade now. And over the years, admittedly, I have not fared better. That is most likely because I have never been a serious runner, as in someone to whom running is second nature and a part and parcel of every day life. Something that they can’t live without. I did run quite a lot and quite well too till a couple of years ago, but the last two years have not been great, and I haven’t done justice to it as much as I should have, given what running has done for me over the years! Hence an appropriate title to this post, decadent not because it was a moral/cultural decline (by definition) of myself, but a letdown to the true philosophical purpose of why I started running.

My ten years of running are essentially a two-part story, in roughly two five-year stretches. The first stretch, from 2016-mid 2020 (yes, the covid year!) was one of running away. I was a conflicted guy back then (a bit even now too but at a bearable level I hope!). I had miscalculated ambitions, misplaced dreams and misconstrued ideals that messed up 2014 in my own homeland, and the first 6 months of 2015 in a foreign land. I feel quite stupid looking back at those years and realizing that I didn’t have the courage to persist through the path of life I consciously chose in a foreign land, just because the people in the new place were jerks or the lifestyle was unhomely! I felt I just didn’t fit there. So I came back. Coming back home in the second half of 2015 and trying to adjust back to the society, people and things I had shun, shook me quite a bit. In essence, I squandered away two of my most prime years of life, at 29 & 30. I guess I can be forgiven to name it experience!

It is in those serious later months of 2015 I discovered that running was a solution to life’s problems. Nothing cleared the thoughts of the mind and the feelings of the heart like running did. Ironically, the most significant motivation for running came from a very challenging yet successful finish in the Oxfam France 100km walk in Avallon, France, when I was struggling to cope with the new life in the far away land. Coming back home, I drew inspiration from that one event, the likes of which I had never done before in my life! That could be said to be my true start to running, to push my body to new limits and see how it copes with and eventually crushes my problems. In a way, running was the source and means of my personal discovery that mind triumphs over the heart!

With that drive of burying my problems for good and enjoying a new means of connecting with a higher world, I stepped into 2016 ready to run the heck out of it. I did five half marathons that year, including a very special Auroville Half Marathon with a then-PB of 2:15, and a Dusk-to-dawn night marathon. And a handful of 10k’s and 5k’s.

Following another turbulent time from Dec’16 to May’17 (a.k.a ‘major life decisions’, ha ha! Hey, come on, it’s all more experience!), this time worse than 2014-2015, the rest of 2017 would go on to be my best year of more running away – five half marathons with a PB-to-this-day of 2:09 in The Wipro Chennai Half Marathon in January, a hundred days of running continuously, covering 511 kms between June to August, and my first Ultramarathon of 50 km in Bangalore in November. Running literally saved my life when no one was around, or rather when I deliberately did not want anyone around to share the burden of my mistakes. It’s incredible sometimes how you discover you truly are all alone at the end of the day. But running changed my days of loneliness to immeasurably enjoyable moments of solitude!

Managing the fallout of the turbulence consumed much of 2018 and I only managed to run three half-marathons. But there was light at the end of the 2018 tunnel. Freedom! It was during this time that I decided I wanted to move out of home again and find a second home, this time for good. Call it the learnings from immense introspections of the experiences thus far from 2014-2017! A kind of a fresh start if you can call it that.

And so, 2019 was a year of break and of minimal running, while working hard to make my way to a new home. But there was one memorable, celebratory half marathon in August in Satara Hills, Pune, with my running buddies. A run to discover that group runs can be super fun too. All hail the ThachiMum’ers!

In mid-2019, my now-homeland Canada opened its doors to me. While I was hunting for opportunities in my current org as an intra-company transferee with a Canadian PR through the second half of 2019, Covid struck in Dec. No need to talk about the next few months.

In June 2020 after a couple of initial hiccups, my motherland blessed me and saw me off to Canada in one of the most exciting journeys I have ever undertaken in my life. Something truly cinematic if you think of it as an individual event, but it was commonplace during Covid-19.

For a nature-loving-introvert like myself, the early-post-covid years of 2021-2022 in Toronto felt like the best whiff of fresh air! I experienced all four seasons for the first time in life and I fell in love with Toronto by running and discovering the place in 2021! How could I know till then that running outdoors even in winter would be fun?! Managing with local solo runs in the first half of a still-covid-stricken 2021 gave a good segue into 2022. So, that way, 2022 has been my overall best year to date with 1000 kms of running. 2022 is when I also ran the Toronto Half Marathon (21.1kms) for the first time.

Here starts the twist, or the decadence! Contentment is the enemy of progress! With a sense of somewhat having attained a peak and achieved some peace in life after many years, I took running a few notches down in 2023. But I still ran the Toronto Marathon (42.2kms) and Conquer the Canucks ultramarathon (50kms) in the mix, on back to back weekends. Two good self-satisfying runs in quick successions to make up for the guilt of a run-less rest of the year, with the exception of an interesting first time at Tough Mudder Toronto (15km course) in September. Still, these three put together could not bring the same comfort of 2022.

If you want an example of what a lethargic, sedentary lifestyle mixed with haphazard running with little-to-no strength training results, unsurprisingly, in painful, restricted mobility – look no further than my 2024! Suffice to say that I ended up with a prolonged sciatica from April onwards, from a long period of unstretched/unexercised lower-back-to-leg portion. That and a busy vacation season with a few international tours meant no proper running for 2024. But I did manage to sneak in the Tough Mudder Toronto (15km course) again for a consecutive run, and also went on a few day hikes within Ontario with a local hiking group I follow. That was literally all I did in 2024. Just one run and a few hikes.

I stretched the break from running into the early days of 2025 too, citing winter, the recovery from sciatica and continued chiropractic sessions. But sometime around March I felt that it was unusual, or even unfair, to not run in my home pitch – the Mississauga Half Marathon. Calling Mississauga home and simply having watched the previous two years’ marathons from the sidelines felt somewhat embarrassing. In fact, I didn’t even have to travel far in the early morning chilly spring to the event. The marathon happened right at my doorstep, literally. All I had to do was get up as usual, have a relaxed coffee and a breakfast, do my stretches and then head down at 730am and just start running. What more could one ask for? And so I signed up for Mississauga Half Marathon in the end of April. This time it was coincidentally made special by Amma’s presence. The moment after crossing the finish line we hugged and cheered like we did something very special. It was then I realized that Amma had never been around for any of my races in the last ten years! That would be one of the most unique and unforgettable moments of my life.

But continuing 2025 with the same haphazard-running-plus-restricted-mobility mode into Missi Half came with its own price. This time, the entire second half of the year went away in plantar fasciitis. That said, I still did my best to manage two international vacations, a few local hikes within Ontario and picked up on some proper weight training in the later part of the year. For want of running and proper exercising, a silver lining in all of this is a satisfying accomplishment of acing the physical fitness test for AuxPo. That reaffirmed my conviction to keep myself fit at all times. Overall, can’t complain how 2025 ended compared to how it looked in the middle of the year.

The sciatica and plantar fasciitis are painful reminders of what a sedentary lifestyle with no proper exercises could cause over a period of time. Truth be told, this year has opened my eyes to the reality that the body will not stay younger any longer, regardless of how much I train. Not to mention I’ve given up alcohol completely since Jun 2024 and that has added a lot more performance and stability to my physicality. Even then, here starts the phase of life when exercise becomes a maintenance issue and a glam thing about the body. The cost of not stretching properly for two days in a row is a definite cause of pain the third day, what with sitting in a chair/sofa for 10 out of the 16 waking hours!

Now, I’m starting 2026 with a hope that I can turn this two-year-decadence around and set my running right. Here’s to a new year! I have a running journal where I keep track of all the official runs I participate in since 2015. I hope 2026 will be good long list!

Cheers!