he Bupa great run Birmingham Half Marathon is an annual race event and I participated when it came up in October 2012. Although I am a very active person, I go to the gym a lot and play cricket so I did expected that running a half marathon would be walkover for me but it didn’t turn out to be so. I ran for Birmingham Children Hospital and was able to raise money for that run. At the beginning, I was running only couple of miles but I later joined a running club and received the encouragement I needed to participate and it took me about two to three months to prepare for the half marathon. On the day of the event, I ran alongside the slow group which was made of other runners who were not very competitive and were solely interested in finishing the run. After about an hour, I began to grow weary and started feeling the pains on my legs but I persevered and finally completed the run after about 3 hours. I managed the complete the run not just because I persevered but also as a result of the positive and encouraging atmosphere as there were people who were watching and cheering us up. This taught me how one’s immediate environment could directly affect their efforts. Also, it felt good to do something not for myself but for others who needed it.