The Unfounded Perceived Dangers of Running

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The Detailed 15-Point Guide to Live Long, Healthy

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Of all the points in the 15-point guide to live long, healthy, the single most important one is “physical activity”. These are the points in the guide.

• At least 30-45 minutes of moderate to brisk walking every day, 6 days a week. Anything more is better. If you are able to, then running works wonders.
• Add strength training.
• Add yoga or tai-chi or similar exercises to improve balance.
• Use stairs instead of lifts and add short bursts of brisk walking as part of your daily routine. 
• If you are already active, then improve your cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) to the appropriate level for your age by increasing the level / amount of your physical activity. You can measure your CRF using your tracking device (Apple Watch, etc) or with a treadmill stress test.
• Remember, every move counts and any activity is better than none. 

While walking 30-45 minutes a day is perhaps the simplest and easiest form of physical activity, running gives us the most bang for the buck. Running 30 minutes a day,  3-4 days a week or a couple of times on weekdays with a longer 60-90 minutes run on weekends will go a long way in keeping us healthy and preventing premature disease.

Yet, running is walking’s stepchild, especially in Mumbai and most of India. During sunrise or sunset in Mumbai and most other Indian cities and towns, walkers outnumber runners 10:1 or perhaps even more. A lot of this is due to perception; running is dangerous, walking is not, running needs special preparation, walking does not…who has the time to run for a marathon, etc.

Let’s break these objections down.

1. I don’t have the time to prepare for a marathon.

Preparation for a marathon does take up a lot of time…that is true. But as a I wrote way back in Jul 2021, in “Runnn…Not Race!!”, you don’t need to take part in races to run. 

While running in the Mumbai Marathon may be a good way to get started, the benefits of running have nothing to do with taking part in races. Even today, when the topic of running comes up, people will ask, “So which races have you run” and I politely tell them that I stopped taking part in races almost 15 years ago. 

I run because I love running, because it is the best way to keep fit and I can catch up on my music at the same time.

Here is my updated playlist for those interested.

2. I don’t have the time to travel to Marine Drive or Worli Sea Face or the Racecourse and I can’t find a good place to run.

I run local, i.e. in and around Matunga where I live, where there are ample roads to run on or gardens or grounds to run in, especially in the morning, just as first light strikes, with hardly any traffic to bother you. 

While evenings are a challenge, it is quite easy to run on the roads in almost every part of Mumbai just before dawn. You just need to do a little more research to figure out where to run in your locality.

3. Running injures the knees.

This is a common refrain and a bit of an urban myth. Most research now shows that recreational running (as compared to marathon running) actually protects the knees. Apart from references [1], I will point you to this online resource. You can download the pdf and go through the various infographics that explain the relationship between running and the knees.

In short, knee degeneration is less frequent in recreational runners than in sedentary people or elite runners.

4. People die while running.

A recent paper [2] looked at runners with cardiac arrest during marathons in the US. Between 2010 to 2023, 176 cardiac arrests were reported among 29 million race finishers with 59 deaths, which is an extremely low number. Compared to an earlier similar period, the number of cardiac arrests was the same, but the death rate had halved due to better facilities for managing cardiac arrests during races.

The Indian race organizers should also publish their numbers to allay these fears. Mumbai and the southern cities have other challenges, especially related to heat. Running in warm and humid weather is an issue we have to be cognizant about and can increase the number of people who may land up with cardiac or other issues, including heat-strokes. For e.g. yesterday when I ran a 5K, the temperature was 27 deg, with humidity of 87% and a wet-bulb of 25 deg - I shouldn’t have run - it left me completely drained at the end.

If you are going to run a marathon, you need to see your doctor and get a basic cardiac work-up done to make sure you do not have pre-existing issues such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, other electrical problems (atrial fibrillation) and/or coronary artery disease. If you are going to run recreationally, which is what most of us should do, then you don’t even need to see a doctor to start running.

5. I need special shoes and clothes and other tech gear.

You need running shoes but they don’t have to be special or fancy, especially when you are starting out. You can go to any Nike, Asics, Adidas store and pick one up for a reasonable price and they will last up to 2 years. You don’t need special attire, just regular T-shirts and shorts, though I prefer sleeveless T-shirts in Mumbai weather. 

I use my Apple Watch to track my running and to listen to music on my bluetooth AirPods, so that I no longer have to carry my phone or any other bulky equipment with me. While I find this useful, you don’t have to track your run or listen to music and/or invest in expensive tech or gear, especially initially.

A recent paper [3] on long-term follow-up of sub 4 min elite runners has shown that they live on an average 4.9 years longer than the general population. Now, we don’t have to be elite runners, or marathon runners…just regular running 2-3 times a week, 30-40 minutes per run, perhaps a longer 60-90 mins on a weekend will go a long way in our atmasvasth quest to live long, healthy.

Footnotes

1. Besomi M et al. An Online Evidence-Based Education Resource Is Useful and Can Change People's Perceptions About Running and Knee Health. JOSPT Open. 2024 Jul;2(3):246-255. doi: 10.2519/josptopen.2024.0149. 

2. Kim JH et al. Cardiac Arrest During Long-Distance Running Races. JAMA. 2025 Mar 30:e253026. doi: 10.1001/jama.2025.3026. Epub ahead of print. 

3. Foulkes S et al Outrunning the grim reaper: longevity of the first 200 sub-4 min mile male runners. Br J Sports Med. 2024 Jun 20;58(13):717-721. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2024-108386.