Suffering Is Guaranteed: A Conversation with Harsha Misra

A marathoner’s view of the value of adversity.

I hate to run. I did a lot of it when I was younger, but I hated every step. And I was never good at it, even though I look like I should be; I’m slow and plodding and just have no natural talent in that realm. (I like to swim.)

I’m with Neil Armstrong, who during the glory years of NASA, when asked by reporters what he did for exercise, replied, “Sir, I believe the Good Lord gave each of us a finite number of heartbeats, and I’m damned if I’m going to use mine up running up and down the street.” The story would seem to be as apocryphal as that of him saying ”Good luck, Mr. Gorsky” on the surface of the moon. (Neil was known for many things, but his wicked wit was not one of them. Sounds more like Alan Shepard.) But apparently it’s true.

Someone who is a good runner is my friend Harsha Misra, who recently completed his 14th marathon, and draws lessons from his running career that are applicable to life at large.

The son of an engineer who was the head of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, one of the most prominent scientific universities in that country, Harsha was plucked from his home in Delhi at the age of 16 and sent on scholarship to boarding school in England. From there he went to Cambridge where he…