The Mumbai Marathon

So, it was THE day. Not exactly though. The title of THE day should get the other day, hmmm may be I will be able to write about it too. For the time being read about the other THE day ...

Sunday, 18 January 2009

Mumbai

Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon

Yes, I was there. I was not sure of running here when I registered in August. But for the last one month I had increased my jog distances, I had reached 30KMs in Bangalore, last week. That was supposed to be enough before the actual Marathon (42.195KMs). As decided the earlier night, VT (he deserves a full blog, not just a post, more about him only after I get his permission) dropped me at the railway station. There was a long queue, at 0600 in the morning. Yes, Mumbai never sleeps. But yes, the people here are efficient, and so are the local trains. I was at the famed (infamous too) CST Station at 0700, well in time.

There was a huge crowd, crowd of onlookers, media, people cheering. The event had already begun. The Half Marathon had already started. I still had a chance to back out. But no, I wanted to see if I can do it. Why do i need to know that? I have no clue. I just wanted to know. Anyway deposited my bag, took a leak and went to theh holding area. Very few people. Not many run the full marathon. May be many started running along with theh half marathoners. Indians, foreignres, men, women, boys, girls and old men too. You have to salute the spirit. But where were the celebrities? Where were the Kenyans?

Oh, they were already there at the starting line. We all started together though. My first official run. Wow, this was quite something. People, media, participants. I needed to complete this sucessfully. Firts 14KMs was along the sea - Marine Drive, Haji Ali, Chowpati, I had travelled on these roads by car. And on that day, I was running. Running for myself. By the time I had run 15KMs the Kenyans had run more than 25KMs. Oh my, they run llike horses. Hats off to them. Anyway, my aim was to complte in time. So, kept running. Crossed the Siddhi Vinayak, took a U-Turn at Bandra Reclamation. By this time it was hot. Very hot and humid. And I was not prepared for this kind of weather. Bangalore is so cool.

Kept drinking water, lots of water. iPod was playing music, continuously. And i was running. I think I hallucinated too. That I was rotting from inside. That am dancing somewhere. But I was running. Siddhi Vinayak was back in sight. And with it came the announcement that the return vehicle was on its way. Runners may jump on to it. I let them go. It was getting tougher with each step. And to make thngs worse, the organisers started packing up. That meant no more water. Somehow managed to run the kast hour without a drop and reached the finist line just in time to qualify for a timing certificate. By my watch I ran fro around 5hours and 10minutes. Collected the documents & bag, informed home and took the train back to VT's place.

I had survived it. And i had sucessfully completed it. My official timing was 5H 11M 3S. Not bad, but I could surely have done better. May be next time.

Its a great feeling to achieve something that most people dont even dare to think about. Am not boasting, but its feels good.