On 3rd April, 2025, I ran continuously for an hour and seventeen minutes for my first 10k. Man was I happy!
It all started last year; I was not physically active at all. The only sport I played was table tennis and that too, irregularly. I am from Karachi, Pakistan, and like most Karachites, we’re not one for healthy eating. Add smoking as the cherry on top. Yearly visit to the doctor informed me of my high cholesterol levels. Careless eating and excessive smoking were doing their part. I needed to do better.
Around the same time, one of my colleagues was preparing for a marathon. He talked of his trainings schedules and the many kilometres he had to run. I was always impressed to learn how many kms one can run, given I had ran zero, ever.
That nudged me over. I wondered if I also should run to get in a better shape. It takes nothing to start, just some nice shoes and — yeah thats pretty much it.
and there started my running journey.
I like to think that I start new things off super motivated and go all out. I argue that it is the very nature of us humans; new things attract us, they occupy our minds for a certain amount of time; then they turn pale and yellow — or maybe it’s just me.
I wanted to test myself if I could commit to running; or whether it would turn pale as most things do. I forced myself to run a day; skip a day and then run again. I didn’t know how long must one run, or how fast, or how often. I just ran; presumably because it was my new thing.
During the runs — I could sense my heart rate jumping up very quickly. Pauses were quite often due to breathlessness, and seldom I would feel pain in my abdomen. I would come home short of breath and would sit for 10 minutes before I was able to do anything. I used to run at night; can’t think of a reason why — probably because I could sleep better if I got tired. I would wake up the next day with sore legs almost everyday. I guess I didn’t decide that I would skip a day, it was inevitable.
Even though all of this sounds awful, I started enjoying the process. I looked forward to the time I could go suffer. The oldest trick in the book to keep one motivated is to set goals. I, in December 2024, registered myself for the BMW Berlin 5k happening in September 2025.
I try to avoid being an impulse buyer, and I was avoiding buying a nice pair of shoes since I started running in September, only because I didn’t know if I would commit to it. I think I was over that phase now, I was enjoying running, I had a goal in front — It was about time that I buy myself a nice pair of shoes.
In the first few months, I ran as fast as I could, only to realise that it’s not the best approach. I learnt that I was supposed to run very slow, and run consistently. I think to run slowly, deliberately, when you can technically run faster — instills in you a kind of calmness. It delays gratification of you achieving the nice running numbers. It humbles you good. It prepares you to keep on running long instead of short and quick.
A month before winter was finally over, I did a 5k. I remember that I was a very happy breathless man walking back home. I achieved what I expected myself to achieve in September 2025. Some time in March, I ran 7.5k. This time around, I was yet again a happy man, but not as tired or breathless.
After 6 months of running, both fast and slow — on 3rd of April, I was able to run 10 kilo-meters for a whole hour without pausing.
These distances may be little to many who are intermediate or expert runners, or to my future self (hopefully) when I look back at this life event, but at that moment, I was very proud of this seemingly insignificant achievement.
Today, I registered myself for the Berlin Half Marathon in 2026 lottery. I hope I get in, finish it, and come back to this blog to appreciate and be grateful at how far I’ve come. A man can dream!
