The thing about running is that it's an activity I do, where the gender that I am is just completely irrelevant. It’s nice to have that, because a lot of the time it is very relevant, and not really necessarily in a fun way.

When I'm out running, in the hills or trails, who I am and who I like, is just not even something that's even marginally relevant to me having a great time.

I don't want to say it's an escape, because it makes it sound like I have sort of a terrible time with my space, which I don't -- I have in the past, but I don't anymore. But it's nice to have a little pocket of something where none of that really matters.

When I entered my first race, what brought me so much joy about it was the achievement – not so much of doing the race and the distance. It was about more about how I started the training, and how I saw it through to the end by doing the race.

At the time, I wasn't seeing much stuff through to the end. I'm a neurodiverse person, and I didn't really know that at the time. So I would start a lot of things and not finish them. Or I would start things and not have the support to be able to finish them.

But with running and training, it's very simple. You show up, you do the run, and you just keep doing that over and over again. Then you do the race. It's a very simple thing that I was able to start to finish. That process of starting and finishing, gave me a lot of joy.

I don't enter many races, mostly because I actually don't like races that much. I find them quite stressful. Instead, I like to go out running on my own, or with my friends and people for very long periods of time. It’s very joyous to run in very beautiful places with some wonderful people. I love it.

[As told to @Ragi Gupta — continued]