Day 19…To Be An Instrument (July 6, Utpal)
Sometime late this morning Nidhruvi will be the 9th of the 10 runners to pass the 1,000 mile mark. For most of us this would be an achievement of a lifetime but for Nidhruvi it is just one very early milestone on the way to achieving the ultimate goal of 3100 miles. As it is still only day 19, and with 33 more potential days to recover missing miles ahead. It is still way too early to say that the ultimate goal for her cannot be reached.
Something much more interesting is happening for Nidhruvi here than can be observed on lap sheets and score boards. She tells me that before she even came a Doctor in Austria did not have much hope that her knees would do her bidding. He recommended that she wear heavy knee supports. Ones that may have relieved stress but would have most certainly been uncomfortable and encumbered her running.
As she talks about different maladies that have made her acquaintance over the past 19 days she is not gloomy whatsoever. These crippling problems she has learned to somehow to not be a prisoner to them. Recognize that yes, they are there, but then let go. To remove the strangle hold of fear and doubt from the equation. Let the Supreme do his job in and through her, and on her part be an instrument.
I ask Nidhruvi if she is having problems today. “No not really. It is always up and down. There are always some challenges every day. So it is pretty normal.”
She has done many many multi day races and I ask her if there is anything that distinguishes one from the other. “In a way they are all similar. You know how the challenges are. But in a way they are very different and not different.”
