First SCMM

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 32^nd 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 2^nd 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 12/13^th 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 25^th 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 29^th km, I found the rhythm back and slowly increased my speed. At 31^st 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 32^nd 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. I was wrong, 

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.

My Odyssey with Nature-1 (Trek to Kudremukh)

This was my first trek in the year 2013. I had been to many treks before but none of them lasted for more than a day. Of course even kudremukh is a one day trek but we had to camp at the base and then visit a nearby falls the next day. So, I would rather call this a 2 day trek.

 

Note to the people who are looking for directions for their trek: I am very sorry to disappoint you. You are at the wrong place. There are many travel bloggers who give you minutest details about the trek. I am here to share my experience during the trek and not to provide any guidance.

 

The name Kuduremukha literally means 'horse-face' (in the local language Kannada) and refers to a particular picturesque view of a side of the mountain that resembles a horse's face.

 

 

Well, moving ahead. The trek was started on 25/01/13 (Friday night) and ended on 27/01/13 (Sunday morning). I have never been to any treks with a private trekking club before. This was my first experience with an outside club and also first time I went without my friends. It was with a bunch of unknown people I had decided to go with. There were three vehicles to take us.
 

 Before I came to the pickup point, I had spoken to an old friend (Girl :-P) of mine. We were, of late, talking more often and I was scared to make the first move. After the disastrous experiences before, I was now not in a position to get into any kind of relationship. This was a perfect getaway to relax and decide my next move carefully.

  

I got into the bus and found people chit chatting in groups. It didn’t take much time to find out that these people were colleagues/friends. I decided to occupy a single seat; well that was the only one left. And someone called me from behind. I turned around to see a foreign guy. I soon found out he was just like me, feeling like a lone drop in an unknown ocean. He introduced himself and we started a conversation. He was from Czech Republic.

 We started discussing about each other’s countries and we decided to use Wikipedia to aid our conversation. He explained me about his country and I realized there were lot of similarities between our countries and most of the words sounded like Sanskrit, maybe there was some distant connection sometime in the history.

I woke up very frequently while travelling and couldn’t catch a decent sleep. We reached early morning and jeeps were waiting for us to be ferried to the base camp.

 

 It was very cold and I was wearing a sleeveless sweater. It took a toll on me and after this trek I ensured to cover myself completely in the following treks.

 

 

I just washed myself up and saw around 30 people there. Breakfast was being served; it didn’t look good but tasted fine.

 

 

There was a self introduction and most of them were working in MNC’s. There were just four girls, well I was at the wrong place but had no choice. We were divided into 2 groups; I was part of the first group. We were given instructions about the trek, 16km up and down and other safety measures to be followed.

 I met a guy who had left his work and become an Entrepreneur. He was really irritating me with some senseless questions related to work. I told him we use normal excel sheet to make production plans, which shocked him. He spoke at length about the software’s which he develops. I wasn’t keen on his offers. Why pay millions of rupees for software whose job can be done on a priceless excel. He saw a girl and walked towards her. I was happy for her to take the burden of me.

The sun had just risen and the weather was good.

 

 

In no time, it started burning us. There were many amateurs who took breaks very often. I was instructed not to move and just wait for everyone. In a while, everyone split and walked at their pace. Clearly, the instructions were violated. After a while, sun took a toll on me.

 

 I was left with little water and it got over in no time. After a while, I couldn’t bear the heat. I was lucky to find some water flowing down. It was very fresh and I almost had a bath in there. One group was already resting there, like forever. It made me wonder whether this point was the end point for them. I moved on.

 

 

Now, people were scattered everywhere. In another 20 minutes, I was hungry. I was lucky to have no one around me. I ate an apple. It felt like bliss, it made me realize the value of food and thanked god for everything.

 

  I was back on track. It almost felt like I was in the oven. I was going to a trek after nearly 2 years and my work life had taken a toll on my body. I felt to have lost stamina. This was more of a “where I stand” trek as I had planned to conquer Kumara Parvata (Third tallest peak in Karnataka) the following week with my colleagues. I could no longer withstand the cramps and had to rest.

 

 

 I had a tough task. In no time, I stood up and started walking. A few villagers were sitting and enjoying the fun. One of them shouted, “Are you tired, maybe you should go back?” and it was followed by laughter riot from others. I just smiled and continued my ordeal.

In some time, I reached the peak but found a guy still walking further without realizing it was the end. Of course it’s a mad world we live in. He returned after few minutes. Anyway, mission accomplished.
 

It took another thirty minutes for others to come over. Well, I wasn’t bad as I was just the second person to climb up. This made me happy. So my stamina is still good. I heard people couldn’t bear the sun and rested often and a group of people had returned as they couldn’t bear the heat.

 

 

All of us had lunch together. Most of them went to the shades and rested for a while. There was an old ruined church, I went there and explored for a while. I couldn’t find anything worth mentioning, just the picture below.

 

As the rules were being violated by everyone, I didn’t have to tell anyone to get down. Four of them joined me. The downward trek was in the evening and the weather was normal. We just rested once, at a place where water was flowing. We had a water massage (Term given by one of the fellow trekkers) for our legs.
 

 

 The return journey was almost eventless till we found two different paths.

 I analyzed for a while, I could see shoe marks in the opposite direction. So, it had to be the way. It was just common sense. Soon, my entrepreneur friend joined us and told he was very sure that the other path was the right path. Some of them joined him and started walking that way. The foreign guy and the girl (Who had earlier helped me from him) followed me. We reached in twenty minutes and had hot snacks which were awaiting us.

Soon, people started gathering but still there was no sign of the guy. I was too tempted to crack jokes on him but had to control myself. After exactly two hours, his group came. Well, he never spoke to me after this incident. There was a camp fire and a few people played games and some of them were narrating their previous trek experiences.

 

 

 We camped in there, had dinner before sleeping and woke up early morning. We had the same breakfast as the previous day.

 

We were informed that we would be taken to a nearby falls, after we which we would be taken back to our city.

This was the first time I ever entered into waters at a water fall (Well, I don’t know swimming). I was told the depth was not more than 4 feet. I thoroughly enjoyed the time there.

 

 

 After which, we returned back as was told.

 

This was probably the only trek I felt hostile. I don’t blame others but probably the organizers could have handled things better. I was charged probably four times higher than the actual cost. This is when I decided not to go with a private club. It is the journey that matters and not the end result. Overall, it was a nice experience. Well, the only trek I didn’t talk much.

                                                                                                                                                                                                            

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Moment of Truth (Part 1)

Does true love really exist?

This question wandered my mind since the time I entered adolescence. If it does exist, what is true love. I have had beautiful memories since my school days. I grew up watching people walking hand in hand, laughing together, sharing cool drinks, talking over phone for long hours and so many other trivial things but each of them had a lasting image on me.

Does doing these things mean people are in true love?

I befriended a girl in my class when I was in 8th grade. When I told my dad that I liked her, he laughed saying it was just attraction. I still argued it to be true love. Days passed, we spent more and more time together. I was one of the most notorious kids in the class. Whenever teachers punished me for my nasty acts, she used to cry.

After one of our tests, teacher asked me to collect the answer sheets from students and hand it over to her. I did as told and started walking towards her cabin. Curiosity took over and on the way I searched for her answer sheet and started looking into it. I corrected a small error which she had made.

After two weeks, the corrected answer sheets were supposed to be distributed in the class room. We had six subjects and six of us stood up to distribute. My friend went first and took math papers. I had stood up only to distribute them but was disappointed at not being able to do that.

I had to somehow take it from him or else all my heroics would go in vain. I asked him for them and as expected he didn’t give it to me. I demanded for the papers and offered some money. He wouldn’t budge. Finally, I had to trade my lucky pen with him for those papers.

The most awaited moment came. I started distributing the papers. I gave her and waited for a minute longer for her to respond. She was surprised and threw a questioning glance at me. I smiled :-) . I just love these memories.  

These incidents over time made each other very special to one another. Now, I told my dad that I was in love with her. He would ask me what is love. I told him these trivial events and tried convincing him, he would say it's just infatuation. I knew there was no point arguing with him and so shut myself.

We were two innocent kids enjoying each others company and not worried about what the world thought of us. Every moment was special with her.

And when I was in my final grade, I was told she would be leaving town. I just didn't know how to react. I met her and was confused if I had attraction/ infatuation/ love towards her. She was crying (Of course tears roll down at their will) and I really tried but not one drop fell from my eyes.

I told I would really miss her. She had no words to describe her plight. I had rather a longer walk than usual to my home without her company. I was upset. I told dad about the whole incident. He said something which didn't make much sense then but makes a lot of sense today.

"Its always good to end few things on a high note. Man proposes but God disposes. Both of you liked each other but had to depart at his will. It was a pure relationship, be proud of it. Cherish these memories forever. Maybe, the next time and every time you end your relationship henceforth won't be as sweet as this".

Well, he was right!