I registered for the event at a time when I hadn’t done my
first FM yet. The aura of the event attracted me.
After my Bangalore marathon debut, I was a lazy pig. I had
lost the enthusiasm to run for a while. As the time was nearing for SCMM,
motivation found me and the epic journey started.
I concentrated more on my long runs and had little time for
speeds, tempo or hill repeats. I regretted a bit for not getting back to
training at the right time.
Having said that, it’s better late than never. I was able to
do 30km+ four times in my training runs. This boosted the confidence to a large
extent.
1 week before the marathon, all was well and found it hard
to plan my target. It was whether to go for same target as my Bangalore
marathon (3:45 Hrs) or take a challenging target of 3:30 Hrs. It’s better to
have a strong finish at an easier pace than to lose the momentum at 32nd
km and end up around 4 Hrs.
I was very conscious about my target as Mumbai was untested
waters for me. The last time I was here, which was 2 years back and perspiring
at 6 in the morning! I set myself a target of 3:40 Hrs to finish.
3~4 days before the event, I could sense a light catch
behind right knee. The thought wouldn’t go no matter what. I wasn’t sure if it
was an injury or a minor niggle. This thought bothered
me till the night before the run and thankfully I forgot about it on the event
day.
2 days before the run, I met up with the guys joining me.
Karthik and Prasad, from whom I’ve gained a lot of knowledge and are ever ready
to help me. We had a short run and did some stretches.
1 day before the event we collected the bibs and took a taxi
to our hotel. The roads were crowded and we casually asked our driver how the
traffic would be managed during the event, will there be any issues. He was
surprised at our question; I’ll quote his exact words.
“Mumbai Marathon is a festival for us, how can anyone
disturb it”. We understood in detail how everyone supports for the run. I could
imagine the crowd support and the event in a very big scale.
The biggest disappointment came when we reached the hotel. A
few days back our hotel booking was canceled and we were allocated to a
different hotel. The attitude of the hotel guy and the cleanliness made us
sick. We requested for a 1~ 2 Hr extension the next day so that we could freshen
up and leave. He wouldn’t listen and asked us to vacate by 11:30am sharp. Even
if we are late by a minute, he would charge us for the whole day.
We realized it was pointless arguing with him and decided to
take one room extension for another day. To our utter dismay he said either
both the rooms would be extended or none of them. This was completely
ridiculous. This is not how I expected the city to treat me. We spent the next
4 hrs searching for hotels and making calls, nothing materialized.
We were
tired of the whole process and decided to take a walk outside. We went to
gateway of India and were at ease for a while.
We had mouth watering food at a
restaurant near CST and finally decided that whoever finishes soon will come
and check out of the hotel before 11:30am. For the 4 of us who chose to stay
here actually had the finish line 2 kms away from the finish line of SCMM!
We laughed over it and slept. I had a good sleep after a tired
week. We went to the start line and were overwhelmed by the huge mela of
runners.
Initially Me and Prasad had decided to run together as we
were targeting around the same target time. Within a few meters we lost each
other. It took me 1 km to get out of the crowd and another km to catch up my
pace, this is when Prasad caught up with me. The humidity made me take water at
the 2nd km and was drenched in sweat within a few minutes. He went
to take a leak and I continued running at my pace.
The music en route kept the tempo going and the cheers made
us instant celebrities. The crowd and the event exceeded my expectations by
infinity. Every time there was a cheer, my speed would shoot up, I had to
control hard.
Where on earth would people wake up early on a Sunday
morning and come to cheer up people running on streets! Definitely not in
Bangalore :P
I saw a lot of them
holding placards and motivating us to run. This killed the ego in me to a great
extent. They had no reason to do this; I am not even related to any of them.
Then I saw people supplying all kinds of fruits, water, juices and there was
this guy who went to the extent of running at my speed and gave water. How
could I say no, this brought tears of joy!
I instantly fell in love with this city. Trust me, as I
crossed the 12/13th km mark I wondered why time was moving so fast…. I
wanted to run longer, I didn’t want to miss these moments of joy.
As I entered the beautiful sea link, no matter what you hear
about it, you need to run here to experience it. On the left, you see the sky
kissing the sea and it’s a never ending bliss out there. What am I
doing here, am I here for sightseeing and meeting the most benevolent people or run a marathon, I was confused. I
saw my watch and was pacing it right (5:00 ~ 5:10min per km).
I completed 21km in 1:47 hrs. Even if I complete the rest of
the run in 1:50 Hrs, I would end up at 3:37 Hrs which is a good time.
I spoke to a runner who was ahead of me for most of the
time. He was Ashish from Delhi. We introduced ourselves and shared our running
experiences. It is difficult to run alone, a running companion makes the task
easier. We ran together for a while and then I moved ahead. I saw siddhi
Vinayak temple on the left and prayed :)
After 25th km, I found it a little hard and pace was dropping below
5:15 for a few km. This is when I saw Sameer who ran alongside me in the 3:45
Hr bus in Bangalore. He asked me to join him but as I was struggling I asked him
to carry on.
After 29th
km, I found the rhythm back and slowly increased my speed. At 31st
km, I saw Prasad and was happy to have him back. I finally had somebody to run
alongside till the finish line. However this was short lived.
At 32nd km, my watch showed 2:45 Hrs. If I run at
5 pace, I should be able to complete in 3:35 Hrs. This excited me to a large
extent. There was no way the energy of the crowd would subside and why
should mine. I felt fresh and some new found energy kept me pushing at 4:45
pace for the next 3km and I moved ahead of Prasad.
It was last 7km to go and suddenly the glorious pain welcomed me. I
got pain at the back of left thigh and slight pain in the right shin. Within a
km, Prasad went ahead of me and he was going strong. If I push, high chances of
a cramp and all the effort might go in vain. The plan was simple now, it was to
keep Prasad in sight and finally go for the kill in the last km.
I kept him in sight for a km or so, after that I lost him. I
was slowing down, drastically slowing down. Enduring the pain was difficult,
was yet to learn the art of running through pain. I just wished to finish soon,
it was getting tougher. Last 4km to go and I was running at 5:45 pace, the
crowd support was still great.
Then I decided to slowly increase the pace in the last 2km,
I was able to keep sub 5:30 pace now. I sprinted the last 500 meters and I was
home.
Before I came here to run, I had this line as closing statement in my
mind-
MUMBAI CONQUERED ME with its love and warmth.
I finished in 3:42:11 with zero regrets. I enjoyed 200%. I
wish to come here again next year and every year, run stronger and try hard to reciprocate the
joy.
We went back to hotel in time. Fortunately, there was
somebody else in the hotel and he agreed to extend our stay a little while more for us to
freshen up, finally some consolation. We went to Leopold, waited for 30min
outside and savored the best drink in town.
It was total relaxation and then we
took local train to Karthik’s relative home. They were no less than the crowd
who came to cheer us in the morning. They made us eat and when we said we were full, they
parceled us the food to take home!
I’m blessed to be
born in this country. I returned back with joy and a bundle of beautiful memories. Thanks to my running friends from the bottom of my heart for
introducing me to this beautiful life. I finally realized Marathon is neither
about time nor distance; it’s about experiencing and living life to its
fullest. It makes you humble and a better person than you were yesterday.
I finally thank Lord Krishna for letting me serve him this
way.
