What are you running for?” “World peace? The homeless? The environment?” The questions they asked Forrest Gump, they should have thrown at Gulveer Singh. Because, a decade ago, before living the life of an athlete, all Gulveer knew was running. Running to help his father on the farm, running errands for his family, running to get selected in the Indian Army, only to, in fact, run to a halt.Back in 2018, the boy from Sirsa village in Atrauli district, near Aligarh, didn’t know that running would define him a few years later.On Tuesday night, in the pouring rain of Glasgow, the Asian champion added a big medal to his tally by winning silver in the men’s 10000m at the Commonwealth Games. By clocking 27:49.78s, Gulveer became the first Indian to win a medal in the event, finishing behind Australia’s Ky Robinson (27:48.93s).Gulveer’s silver run completed another lap of sorts. He joined the late Milkha Singh and: Avinash Sablewho both won non-relay medals in the Commonwealth Games before him.Sable landed her steeplechase silver in Birmingham in 2022 while Milkha’s 440 yards gold at the 1958 Cardiff Games was the country’s first Commonwealth Games medal. In fact, all of them are athletes from the Indian Army.While the Indian relay teams won four medals (one gold, one silver and two bronze) between them, Harminder Singh (men’s 20km walk bronze, 2010) and Kavita Raut (women’s 10,000m bronze, 2010) were the other non-relay medalists for India.Even though he joined the Army to run away, running never stopped for Gulveer. “After I finished the Army, I was told about sports, and that I would get a promotion if I won medals. I started running and was transferred to the Army Sports Institute in Pune, where I started training for the competition,” the Naib Subedar told TOI.Call it muscle memory or uncanny talent, Gulveer adapted quickly and soon started winning inter-unit races in the army. By 2021, he was training for national and international tournaments and had won his first senior medal, a bronze at the 2022 Federation Cup.National Games medals, a bronze at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023 followed as he also began participating in the 5000m.Perhaps it is the nature of his chosen sport, that in running like life, Gulveer believes in keeping things simple. “I know it’s my job to run and I want to do my job well. All I thought about yesterday was how to win a medal. I didn’t think about anything during the whole race,” he said. “I’ve been training in the US on and off, for months now. It’s my responsibility to train hard and win medals,” he said.Asked what he would like to do when he wasn’t running, he gave an honest answer. “I eat and sleep.”Gulveer said that he owes a lot to his fellow Armyman and long-distance runner, Kartik Kumar. “What I know now, Kartik bhai taught me. He told me everything, right from what I should eat, how I should train and run. He was an inspiration,” Gulveer said of the Asian Games silver medalist.But underneath all the humility, there is a competitive streak. When asked if there is another athlete who inspires him, Gulveer offered, “I aim to become big enough to inspire others than aspiring to become like someone.”Gulveer has enough time to recover from the 10,000m setback to be in contention for the 5000m on Saturday.