First Half Marathon

Physical activity is an important aspect of our life. As we age we give less and less importance to this aspect under the pretext of priorities. I decided to run a marathon to provide myself a reminder for the rest of my life. A reminder of being mentally and physically strong, a reason to start working out again whenever I lose touch. To do it at least once so that it will inspire me for a lifetime. My inspiration was my best friend who in spite of a knee injury and a one year rest to recover from subsequent surgery came out strong and ran his first half marathon.

Although I registered for the marathon, the work kept me busy. It was difficult finding time for training. I was working out after quite a long time and suffered few injuries in the course of training too. The real preparation from my side I can say, was only buying a pair of beautiful Adidas jogging shoes.

A day prior to marathon, I had to go to office due to an urgent requirement. After finishing my work I traveled from Pune to Mumbai. Reached Mumbai around 10:30pm for a stay at friend’s place. The other two of my buddies also arrived. We had a heavy dinner and we kept chatting until 1:00am in the morning. We were to report at the marathon venue at 5:30am in the morning, so even if we were to wake up at 4:30 in the morning we would have had only 3 and half hours of sleep. At this point I was getting bugged by the thought of not having taken adequate rest. By the morning I had my own doubts if I could even make it.

We reached in time to the venue. Had our luggage secured at the luggage desk. Then the marathon started without any delay. I had a only goal in mind to go as slow as possible and to complete the marathon. Even if I were to walk the entire distance which I could have done easily I could do it in 3 hours, so thought to myself, yes this is possible. As the running progressed, I found myself more comfortable and started to gradually increase my pace. As I started to overtake few of the fellow marathoners my confidence grew. There were people on the streets cheering, volunteers providing water and lemon juice. Feeling was special.

After a very long run, saw a board with a bold 9km on it. I had not run a marathon before, so the sign was free for my misinterpretation. I thought I was only left with 9kms now. 🙂 As I misread the signboard, I increased my pace again, I was under the impression it were only a matter of 9kms now, and I must have already completed 12kms. From then on after a long tiresome run with increased pace, saw a new signboard with bold 15km, and my hopes were dashed. Took me no time to realize that back then I had completed only 9kms. Now the pace dropped, It was brutal from this moment.

The last 6kms were absolutely excruciating. Although my mind was ready, my legs couldn’t support the stress. There were moments when I wondered at my pace and thought even a walker by will overtake me at this speed. More than 100 marathoners ran past me in this stretch. Few ran alongside me and cheered me to push a little and I did. I could have stopped midway, but the all-powerful mind kept persistent. I pushed myself to the limit. As I look at it now, it was quite naive. I was exposing myself to some serious injury. But that had never been a concern ever for me. Suffered cramps in last 1km and almost tripped at one point. All in all I was very glad to complete the run in 2hours 9 minutes.

One should have this experience at least once in life. The participants are special, the half marathon participants are mostly office going men and women who take time from their daily routine to take care of their physique too. They train themselves in spite of challenges put forth by their working lifestyles. It feels great to be among such inspired crowd. All special thanks to the organizing committee. To arrange such a huge event requires tremendous planning, infrastructure and volunteers. The whole experience inspires me to prepare for the next big run. There is an ecstasy of overcoming your limitations, pride of achievement. A stronger sense of self belief.

I should not forget to mention, training for such events is absolutely essential. Only mental preparedness is not enough. There was a fatality in the event I ran, and that should not happen to anybody. The participants should really work on the ground realities before signing up for such events. There is always a dream run of 8kms for the folks who do not wish to experience the strain put forth by half and full marathon. For 3 days post marathon it was difficult for me to even walk. I couldn’t climb or descend the stairs without the support of railings. I was lucky I didn’t suffer any lasting injury, but a lesson was learnt. Next time I will be more prepared both mentally and physically to meet the challenge.