Bubu's 3 W Mantra: Will. Way. Win

“Our doubts are traitors,

And make us lose the good we oft might win,

By fearing to attempt.” –william Shakespeare

Winners, leaders, masters-people with personal power-all understand that if you try something and do not get the outcome you want, it’s simply a feedback. You use that information to make finer distinctions about what you need to do to produce the results you desire.

This is a story of belief in one self and renewal. The other day sitting in one of the theme joints- Bubba Gumps, located in Curve at Petaling Jaya, which is based on the movie Forrest Gump, played by Tom Hanks, which states the unique characteristic of Forrest Gump’s passionate belief, that nothing was beyond man’s power and always aimed and reached triumphant results.

Bubu had an inspiration to challenge himself. After-all, man is what he believes. Since childhood he wanted to be a long distant marathon runner and for that had also represented India in the nationals in 1985 but due to circumstances was not able to live upto the dream of being a pro. But he always remembered Theodore Roosevelt saying- “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” And this opportunity he had by deciding to participate in KL Marathon-2011, the 10 KM Run. Organized by Standard chartered KL on 26^th of June 2011.

It was the union of the race, moment and milieu for him. Living in the comfort zone, for a middle aged common Joe, getting up itself at 4 in the morning was a challenge, then had to reach the running zone at JLN Parliament-KL by 6 am was the second hurdle. As for the safety rules in Marathon the authorities had blocked the routes for motor vehicles so had to take the shuttle from KLCC, convention centre to reach on time.

The disciplines were pretty rigorous for the 10 KM Marathon, 6.30 am, warm –up exercises, time codes punched on the shoe, to keep track of the path and time and then the 10.6 Km run started at 7 am on a 26^th June 2011, a Sunday.The arrangements were good; they had motivational music and the drums to beat the starting challenge in rhythm, few meters ahead they had water stops to refresh the dehydrated body and legs.

The KL marathon 2011, had 22,000 participants. As expected once again the Kenyan runners dominated and swept the top three spots. Inspite of this result, Bubu Pan finished the race at record time of less than 1 hour and won the Finishing medal for 10 kms KL Marathon 2011 at the iconic clock tower of the Sultan Abdul Samad Building at Merdeka Square early Sunday morning.

So I realized a musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself and an athlete should run, thus Bubu Ran....