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Today, we are happy to spotlight Ipsit Vahia, MD, who is running for the McLean Hospital Mental Health Matters team.
Ipsit Vahia, MD is the Chief of Geriatric Psychiatry at McLean Hospital and oversees the division’s clinical services, research programs and education and training activities. He is also the Director and Principal Investigator of the McLean Technology and Aging Lab, where their work focuses on how digital tools and artificial intelligence can be leveraged to enhance the care of older adults with dementia and mental illness.
Q: What inspired you to start running marathons?
Interestingly, the first time I ever contemplated running a marathon was when I attended the Boston Marathon as a spectator, shortly after moving to Massachusetts in 2016.
Something about that experience—the effort of the runners, the support of the crowds, the positive energy in the air—left an impression.
I was not much of a runner at that time, but I started running more seriously during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when there were limited ways to exercise during the lockdown.
Q: How do you balance your research/work with marathon training?
It has taken some planning and the support of my family and colleagues has been crucial.
I work with a coach who helped set my goals and devised a plan to meet them. Establishing a clear training routine and then organizing my research and work around it has been the key.
Early in the training schedule, I designated certain fixed training windows. For instance, every Saturday morning is “long training run” time.
I also organized and planned work travel to cause as little disruption to training as possible.
Q: What lessons from marathon training apply to your work in research?
For one, balancing training with work for over five months has made me more efficient at work. Second, prolonged runs mean time to really contemplate ideas and organize my thoughts. We rarely get that kind of uninterrupted time to contemplate research questions.
Also, in research, as in marathon training, being methodical pays dividends.
Finally, as a researcher on geriatrics, I appreciate the many parallels between the aging process and running a marathon. The distance is long, and each mile has unique characteristics that impact how one does in the miles that follow.
