Fit @ 50
“Age is just a number, not a state of mind or a reason for any type of particular behaviour.”
- Cecelia Ahern.
I woke up groggy, had to remember where I was, had had a good night's sleep after about a fortnight. Sharp pain in my lower back reminded me of where I was. I had undergone a microdiscectomy for my lower back the previous evening. In about 15 mins after I woke up and was testily trying to assess the present physical condition, my surgeon walked in for post-op rounds. He examined me and declared that the surgery had gone on well, and I would be allowed to go home in a couple of days. He seemed satisfied.
I asked him, “when do you think I will start running again.”
He said, “maybe years.”
I looked at him in disbelief, but I being an orthopedic surgeon myself, knew that there was a large element of truth in what he had just said.
It all started in July 2018. A bunch of my classmates from school had assembled in Sri Lanka for a reunion; 30 years had passed since we left high school. On the second day, we went on a trek into the Sinha Raja forest. I would call it a moderate climb. We came back exhausted. Over drinks that evening, one of my classmates mentioned that we had become unfit and had labored through the trek. She said; let us take a pledge that we will all be fit by 50 when we meet again in 2020. We had planned to celebrate all our 50th birthdays together in Thailand. Dates were already tentatively fixed for July 2020.
I had become sedentary once I had joined private practice, keeping a busy work schedule and irregular hours as an orthopedic surgeon. My weight had gradually reached 85kgs. Whenever discussions came up about advancing ages or lifestyles, the discussion was always about losing weight, and somehow, it did not stick with me. I had tried going to the gym and to lose some weight in the intervening 20 years since I had left medical college but was never successful in sustaining any form of physical activity for any meaningful period. Somehow the motivation was not from within.
Fit by 50 somehow got stuck in my mind. There was no discussion about weight loss or a target to be achieved. The discussion had ended with the consensus that anything else does not matter other than being fit. Fit@50 was filed at the back of my mind and was always playing out subconsciously. The lack of discussion about physical appearances and weight loss programs appealed to me. Despite that, it took me another couple of months to start the journey down the fitness road.
In September 2018, I started going to a gym and walking on the treadmill at home on alternate days. A couple of months into this, I planned to join my schoolmates to do the charitable walk in Goa in January, 2019. As part of that, I started walking about 5kms on alternate days. The idea was to do a 10km walk and raise funds for children with disabilities. By the time we reached Goa, 10 km had grown to an ambitious 20 km, and on the day of the walk, we decided to do one stage of it, and that was 32kms. When we completed the walk, we all felt proud; I also came back with the confidence to achieve my fitness goal by the time I was 50 years old.
Around mid-January 2019, seeing me walk 5 km in the park regularly, a cousin of mine invited me to join the running group he was part of, and I decided to give it a try. On day one, I was able to jog for about 100 meters before I gave up. Completely out of breath and unable to take another step!. Determined to continue, I excused myself from the group and started training by myself. The three-month goal was to do a 5k at a pace I was comfortable with. In about ten weeks, I had achieved that goal. The day I had done my first 5K, I was in the clouds, I had dead legs, and I could not feel them when I was walking out of the park.
Jogging got me hooked. I gave up going to the gym and started training for longer distances using a myriad of apps available. In May, I did my first 10k and qualified for the Hyderabad marathon. I participated in the half marathon in September 2019. I jogged, walked, and huffed and puffed my way through it, but I was elated that I could finish it. Having walked 32 km in Goa, the distance was not a mental block.
A few days later, an acquaintance of mine walked up to me as I was jogging in the park, and said “doc, I have been noticing you; over the last few months, you have achieved a great deal. In case you are planning to continue or take it further, why don't you join us? We have a running group, and it would be useful for you”. Little did I realize at that time that this was going to be a stepping stone for friendship and addiction.
The group had some accomplished marathoners, and I hoped to do one in 2020 as part of my fit@50 goal. We all registered for the Chicago marathon at the end of 2019, and I was lucky to gain an entry. October 11th, 2020, was the date, a couple of days after my 50th and ten months to train.
2020 had started on a good note; a few of my school mates and I trooped off to Goa again in the second week of January and this time we did the full 55kms. Confidence levels were high and I was raring to get to Chicago.
A couple of weeks later, doing mild weights in the gym, I felt a small niggle in my back. I did not care a great deal about it since I had been having recurrent back pains since I was 25 years old, and despite multiple visits to the doctors and investigations, there was nothing physically wrong with me. “As usual, this episode will also pass in a couple of weeks,” was the thought, and I had been very protective about my back for the last 24 years. As the days passed, it was getting worse this time, and I started to worry.
Everything came crashing down in February 2020.
Early in February, I got up after having lunch and noticed that my left foot was not functioning. I had developed a sudden onset foot drop. In medical terms, the muscles which bring the foot up had stopped working because of massive pressure on the nerves supplying them. This was a devastating turn of events. Immediately I got an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) done, and I was diagnosed with a massive disc prolapse compressing nerves in my lower back. At least this time, we found something physically wrong, but this was catastrophic news. Recovery of foot drop was unpredictable. This could reduce my ability to function as a surgeon.
The back surgery went well. I came home in a day for rest and recovery. I was feeling frustrated, being in bed. Incision, which should have healed in about ten days, broke down superficially on the 10th day and was decided to allow it to heal naturally rather than intervention. By the third week of March, it was yet to heal. I decided to go back to work, and I was still walking with my dropped foot, although I saw some signs of improvement. In a week's time since I started working, India went into a corona induced lockdown on March 22nd.
OPDs shut, all electives canceled, and even emergencies came down to a trickle, as people's movement was severely restricted. About two months after surgery, the limp was now in a state where I could comfortably walk. The incision healed just after that. I got back on to the treadmill and started training again. After about three months mark, I started jogging, by which time my foot had recovered by about 90%.
Mid-July, I had started to increase my time and distance, Covid restrictions were being gradually reduced, we were getting back to work. Things were looking up when another setback hit me. I came down with Covid, and even though lucky that it was mild, I had to be isolated and quarantined for two weeks and was advised not to exercise for three weeks.
I came out of this with greater determination to resume physical activity and rejoined my running addicted friends. Chicago Marathon, along with all the majors, cancelled this year's events. Intending to achieve my goal and encouragement from my “addict” friends, we started training for the New York virtual marathon planned for the end of October. Midway through this program, I developed Ilio tibial band syndrome in my left leg due to the muscle imbalance. My affected left thigh was still thinner by about 4cms. This put a spanner in my hopes of running a marathon. I watched and encouraged my friends, although feeling jealous, and ran along with them for a short while when they completed the virtual New York marathon on October 24th 2020.
Three weeks of rest and retraining later, a revised goal of half marathon was set. On November 29th, 2020, at 6 am, along with a couple of other friends supported by my running “addicts,” I set out to accomplish my goal. Hyderabad's chill weather, it had been raining on the previous two days; the early morning glint of light, cool breeze, were as ideal conditions as we would get. Encouraged and paced by my more accomplished friends, they ran along with me to keep my morale. They had organized sag support along the route. They went back and forth to supply water when I needed it. Kept me distracted with small talk, and 2 hours and 25 minutes later, as the App indicated that I had completed my Virtual Delhi Half marathon, I felt satisfied and happy. I was thankful to all my friends for encouraging me to start down this fitness road. Weight loss was incidental; from 85kgs, I had dropped to 72kgs, without dietary restrictions.
Gloating is frowned upon, but here I am, gloating, unashamedly, that I am fit@50. Even though the goal was reduced by half, I Live to fight another day.
Update 21.02.2023: 9th October, 2021, I finished Boston virtual marathon in just over 5 hours, an year later on the same day 2022, completed my first major world marathon in Chicago, this time in just over four and half hours. This is an addiction I am not planning to give up.