Musings of a grounded runner

Till about three weeks back, I could not imagine a day which did not start with a four hour and more of a run. A drunk (?) biker without headlights turned on intruded on my thoughts and more jarringly on the back of my calf muscles of my right leg just as I was steaming in to KM8. Only a size zero Moon and sleepy stars were present to witness this atrocity. I sat down in a daze, my hands breaking my fall. I sat on my haunches for a while and then got up on my feet gingerly testing my leg for damage. I was tempted to brazen it out, a few steps and I knew the run was off!

I crossed over to the opposite side of the road; the walk was not very painful. I flagged the first vehicle coming and it stopped, the driver (his name is Eranna) gave me a knowing smile, he said that he has seen me running every day. Together we cursed the delinquent driver and he offered to drop me at my colony gate. We stopped at the temple at KM7 for his morning prayers, I also got down to thank god for letting me off so cheaply and to curse the errant driver. My right leg was getting heavier and more painful to move on. I don’t know if it was my curse or the weight of his sins, the biker had fallen by the wayside at KM9. We were told this by an incoming driver when we were leaving the temple.

The unpleasant interview with the wife done with, I waited for the next set of advice from my Doctors. Thankfully, the X-ray showed no broken bones. I had the ignominy of riding a wheel chair to and from the X-ray room, Armed with a tone of medicines which I had no intention of taking and advice for complete bed rest, I returned back with my leg firmly taped in a crepe bandage. The swelling kept coming down steadily, but, the right leg was very painful and I found it exceedingly difficult to move around. I steeled myself to limp along for a morning walk with Biscuit (My four year old Labrador for those of you who have not been introduced) on the third day morning. He was very considerate in looking me up in between his foraging in the nooks and corners of the Golf course. What used to be usually a 15 minute affair took me all of 40 minutes on that day, and, Biscuit was not complaining.

A precautionary MRI after a week ruled out any muscle/ligament tear ,but, the progress was very slow. Climbing to my second floor office was an ordeal with staff looking on with concern. I remember how I used to run up every day two steps at a time like the old man in the ‘Kesari Jeevan’ Advert! Only since last few days, I have started to go to the swimming pool after my daughter returned from college for vacations. I wonder if I will return to my old running form!

Sunday the 5^th, an article by Anusha Narain in the center page of Hindu on the blood and tears behind the glass of milk made me give up on Milk and its derivatives. This was one act of Gandhi which I could not relate to, I found it too whimsical, anyway, the climbdown to goat’s milk could never convince me of his intention to go off cow’s milk. These last ten days have been tough, my having been heavily dependant on curds for every meal and curd with lots of brown sugar for sweet dish. I have had two slippages already, once when I was reminded of my vow after I had polished off a meal wholly of Morukozhambu ( a savoury dish of buttermilk, another favourite of mine!) and the yesterday after I had eaten Kesari (south Indian rava halwa made with ample proportions of ghee). I have been having some sores in the mouth, apart from this there are no other signs of having left milk. I have decided to visit doctor for a test to see if I have any Viamin (B12 or D) deficiency after a month before going for substitutes. I have increased proteins as in sprouts and Nutri nuggets to make up for the lost milk. I have the company of Srivatsan and Priya who also have gone Vegan around the same time. Read lots of articles on Vegan substitutes for Dairy products today on this Vegan athlete’s page on facebook. At least this keeps me from moping on my not being able to run. Will try to run a bit with my daughter in the evening, wish me luck!