Realizing my physical fitness- or lack of it- I started my planning five months ahead. First task was to identify a community to run with. It is always fun to run with partners. It not only provides you with a sense of discipline for adherence to schedule of mileage, pace, strength building but often provides motivation for the big event also. I was lucky to find ‘The Mumbai Striders’- a group that trains under two highly motivated trainers (Deepak and Praful) at the Mumbai race course. Suffering from a shin injury and unbearable pain towards the race day, I for one would have certainly given up participation but for the constant motivation of my running partners and trainers!!!Having gone through the injury and its physical and emotional aftermaths, I can also vouch how important it is to avoid one while training- the mantra is 'stay within your limits'-
500 kilometers of training, all leading up to 18th January 2009, I was finally running the race!!! The atmosphere at VT (the starting point) was electrifying with bands playing loud music and the bollywood and other celebrities in its full strength cheering the runners.Didn't I miss some cheerleaders straight out of a LA Lakers match at Staple Center? If Standard Chartered promise this for ext year( at regular interval,of course ),I may even attempt the full!!
I must admit the first two kilometers were rather frustrating. I'm not a fast runner, but the crowd I was running with was downright slow. Running in the no-time-objective zone, I felt cheated of my marathon moment. I was trained about the importance of starting slowly and building up speed during the race, but I also knew I wanted to express myself at a faster pace than this. Consequently, I did what I thought must do: I zigzagged around the other runners and tried to pull free of the slow crowd.
End of second kilometer as I reached Marine Drive turn, I saw the frightening mass of people that were ahead of me in the race. Wanted to prove to them that I was made of steely stuff too!! The deafening music from the ‘Radio Mirchi’ stand had its own aphrodisiac effect. To top it all, my wife was waiting at the halfway turn at Mela to cheer me up. How could I be a slowcoach in front of her?? That would have, in split seconds, floored my ‘husband ego’ laboriously built over past seventeen years!! With these heady mixes of emotions, I decided to defy what my trainers told, I started accelerating my pace and also managed to overtake a few (best thing that I did in the whole race)!!!!
All that accelerating, to pass and impress some random runners (and of course my wife) had taken its toll: by the time I reached Haji Ali (on return), I was already spent. I lifted my head only to see the grueling Pedder Road slope (why did I do that?)!! There was nothing left in me to do but relax and enjoy the run, which paradoxically was what I had set out to do initially!!! By the time I reached Chowpatty, my speed, already hovering at 'slow' at Pedder Road was gradually slipping into reverse gear. My posture slumped; my strides became stiff and irregular. At MD flyover, I hit the proverbial 'wall' and started to wonder whether I was even going to finish this race. The corporate manager in me already started looking for excuses!!! Heat, humidity?? Dehydration, cramps?? Finally, I zeroed in 'shin-split', which I thought was the most convincing as I was anyway suffering from it ‘once upon a time'!!!
I kept drinking and taking my energy drinks frequently, so finally the nutrients reached my legs (why did it take such long time on that day?? Did Newton momentarily tamper with the law of gravity? someone certainly owes me an explanation). At Churchgate, my strides evened out a bit and I started kicking again! what a wondrous sensation !!. I'd known about the sense of despair and fatigue that hit one upon reaching the 'wall', but strangely no one had mentioned the sense of elation, of physical emancipation, that comes when one passes the wall and really starts to run again.
At Hutatma Chowk I felt my feet pound the ground with rhythm, Even as I finally started to feel the excitement of finishing the half marathon, I felt really bad for a lady who overtook me at Churchgate but couldn’t go on. Forgiving her for hurting my male ego at Churchgate, I tried to egg her on to see her starting and overtaking me again ( oh! c'mon, not again!)!!!! but..... only to stop and join the now walking group a few meters ahead.
I lengthened my strides (as much as I could) and looked ahead to see the finish line!! Hurray, I‘ve done it for the second year!! I told myself and began to pat my back when I heard a dejected voice of Deepak- my coach- saying "you clocked ONLY a 2.09"!!! Gosh,it's 21+km, I wanted to tell Deepak, but......
What an emotional roller coaster!!! Better experienced than said!! Hey Deepak, sorry for disappointing you, but I shall....next year!! Friends, put on your running shoes and join me for Mumbai Marathon 2010.
You may contact the Mumbai Striders on -99202 72883
Labels: fitness
posted by Ramesh Panicker @ 10:40 PM
13 Comments:
I love it =]
It's written so well!
I'm proud of you dad!I wish I had your determintation!
This comment has been removed by the author.
Congratulations Ramesh. Wow! That must have been tough.
As Tanya said - well written.
Experience, thoughts, feelings, emotions coming straight from your heart. while reading i was visualizing you running with your head up like a king with all other thousands of Mumbaikars and having a feeling of ..... I can also do it and I did it and will do it again in 2010. Hearing the experience straight from the person who has been apart of this marathon certainly inspires one to take a step and put on the running shoes and be ready to be with you in 2010. i wish you all the best for the next marathon, u have set the ball rolling for yourself and for others too.
Really well written with good comic timing. Love the phrase - perfect example of socialism: equitable distribution of pain.
well run partner. and beautifully written too. since i dont know you doing anything in half measures, am sure you will do the full one next time. keep going.........
reshmi to be strategically positioned at the peddar road uphill area - that will really be a steep motivation and a fine way to celebrate your eighteenth as well.
balu
Hey author of this blog you have raced Zaved Aktar's pen in wrtting .You truly inspried me to run the 2010 marathon as your partner.with your honest comments you once again proved to be a worthy MAN !!
three cheers to Ramesh!!!!
very well written, didn't knew you could write so well. perhaps another JK Rowling in making :-) while reading through the blog i went in flash back. it reminded me of the half marathon in school days. age wise quite a gap but i guess the experience is similar. participated in the race for fun and to prove that I can complete the race! the time taken to complete was secondary. the cheer by the people along the route is quite encouraging and exhilrating. the fun part was that for next few days every inch of body part would be paining :-)). wish you best of luck for next marathon & meet the targeted time.
Hi, very good
I never blog and this is my first scribble on the net , and honestly , your writing prompted me .
Its difficult to put experience of running a marathon into words - mind does not get creative when phsically challenged but you seem to have proven otherwise -done it so wonderfully well !.Your efforrts - a la James Kwambai , seem to have changed my thoughts . I must admit that ,it fades the efforts of Pheidippide's run from Battle of Marathon to Athen with two perfect legs bcos you ran with an injured leg. Tell I reda your blog ,I never realsied running marathon could be such a charismatic event . Your narrative has everything. - from drama , competition, camaraderie ands heroism ( conferred on you ) - for fulfiling your dream finishing a marathon. I can sense in your words that your body did not want you to do this. but as you ran body tells you to stop but the mind and amind and the male ego says to stay strong. I am sure the opening lines from From Kayne West's song " ..that don't kill me can only make me stronger...", would have inspired you when you were struggling during the tough run. .
For some strange reason , I have never liked marathon. or for that matter runningon the streets .I always thought it's unnatural for people to run around the city streets unless they are thieves or victims. It used to make me nervous to see someone running on the street. For many like if we se someone running on the street their first instincts is let the dog go after him or run after him . The other thought with me is that running is often associated with memorable movie scenes, whether they show a character heading toward the arms of a true love, avoiding danger, or escaping a serial killer running or like in Holly wood movies , just escaping a powerful cyborg sent from the future to destroy mankind. Your experience changes things for me and this writing is defiitely the result my admiration for what you have written and also achieved .
Your wife's admiration to your resilence would have gone up a notch or two after marathon - our's definitely, Yes . Only we , the non-running friends know - the differences between feet that are neutral, over-pronating, and supinating !!
I dont think anyone at home will find you standing in front of the mirror trying to see if you have a leg length discrepancy - probably till another 11 months and its also time for you to get get rid of the laundry basket for your running clothes and your favorite ice pack. !! And for me, I have added a new word to my vocabulary , have learnt how to correctly pronounce plantar fasciitis. May be your next marathon would add more ..!!
Good job ! Keep it going both the marathon and the writing !!
I have seen you running, striding. sprinting and stretching. In injury people take all excuses to sit at home and rest, instead you took the pain and killed the rest.
Running at this age is a great achievement with this pace but there can not be any success in life without pain. so no pain no gain.
Shashi
emotions poured out pretty well!! keep writing
Very nice.good writer men Ramesh.visit www.mumbaistriders.com and let us know any suggestion.once again it was intresting while reading ur experience.
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