Ask anybody into their running era and he or she will most likely tell you how running has become their entire personality.

An exaggeration, of course, but there is really a pattern.

Pre-running, one’s social media feed might contain a variety of stuff like travel photos, activities with family, food porn, work-related stuff, and even political news and commentaries.

But once the person gets bitten by the running bug, his or her social media gets taken over by race photos, cross-training, (running) shoe porn, carbo-loading, and anything and everything running-related.

Thus, it is easy to get the impression that the person does nothing but run. Hence, whenever I meet clients or work colleagues, they invariably ask me, weren’t you just running somewhere over the weekend? And they’d be right.

There was one Friday that I left for Mesa, Arizona to run a marathon and got back to work the next Monday. A lot of traveling and jet lag for sure. But unless perhaps my mom tells me she has a secret Swiss bank account containing millions of dollars and was just waiting for the “right time” to tell me, I’ll be forever working class.

Some of you may know that I am a lawyer by profession.

I’ve done both private practice and government service. While I do mostly litigation, I have been lucky to get involved in all sorts of transactions and different kinds of legal matters in my roughly 30 years of practice.

Currently, I head the legal and compliance department of a respected conglomerate — a work that I thoroughly enjoy. I am elated to be part of an organization where I honestly look up to my superiors and colleagues given their competence and professionalism.

I am also a proud mother of two grown-up men.

The eldest hopes to be a chef, and the other, a future CFO. One is a super extrovert like his mom and, the other, an introvert. But both are socially well-adapted, into DJ-ing, and are navigating young adulthood probably even better than I did.

My mom, as readers of this column may know, is experiencing a serious health challenge, but is fighting on and continues to be in high spirits. Chemotherapy has really been testing her limits, but her fortitude is, thank God, holding up.

The demands of being a single parent have, fortunately, forced me not to let go of my career. As a result, I am still lucky to continue finding fulfillment in the work that I do and at the same time set an example for my children.

Although I am glad that our tiny family still lives under one roof that, by the grace of God, I was able to build, I am heartened to see how my two kids are living their lives very independently. Since they both have side hustles while studying, they’re largely financially independent too. This allows me to focus on the care of my ailing mom with the help and support of close relatives.

Then there are my friends. I am fortunate to have deep and meaningful social connections. This is an area where quality trumps quantity. I can count them in my fingers but these few really good friends are the type I’d take a bullet for.

Indeed, there is life outside of running, but that is usually the part one keeps private.