Mumbai Marathon 2009

Its been so long... its been a year since i ran... the last that I had run was the 2008 marathon at Mumbai... This time it was gonna be tough... I was running for a cause and I had the marathon bug which pulls me every time to Mumbai to run the full-marathon (42.195 kms).
Had been doing some little push-ups, training my legs and doing some stretching, but it was not enough... Luckily my friend Subash had told me that there was this mid-night marathon in whitefield, b'lore on the 10th of jan 09. So without much preparation I went to run the half-marathon along with Subash.
Subash's parents had come along to cheer us up and the event had quite a lot of marathoners' for the odd-time that it was! We finished the tiring and tough track that it was with full of up-hill and down-hill to do... The weather though chilling wasn't good for people who were walking as the only way to keep ourselves warm was by running... while walking, the cold used to get in and make you stiff... Anyways after running 5 kms Subash got a bit tired and he started walking.. I guess he was alternating between long walks and short runs... I continued to run but at one place I made the mistake of taking glucose (powder) and that too without water. It made me very thirsty and kind of broke my run. So I started my walk and the pace of which is quite slow compared to others... I finished the 1st lap of the track in just an hour. But the 2nd track took quite a time and I think I finished the 22 kms in 2.5 hours. Finally got on to my bike and sped back home. It was 3 am and I was getting a head-ache. The body clock had started sending warning signs and so reached home in the chilling cold with my hands frozen as I hadn't got any gloves. Finally reached home near IIM-B in flat 25 mins and crashed into my bed!
Every year I do the half-marathon at b'lore as a practice for my full-marathon that I do at Mumbai. This one really helped as I burned some of the body fat accumilated over the year :) Anyways now it was time for the full-marathon and I was just recuperating from the body-ache that I had earned from the mid-night marathon. Luckily within a couple of days I was feeling better. I had booked a bus ticket for my journey to Mumbai and had booked a return flight back to b'lore.
I left b'luru on friday evening and reached mumbai the next day morning. Went to my aunt's place and had a nice nap! I refrained from the vada pavs' and all the tempting, mouth-watering oily food. Though I quenched my thirst with sugarcane juice that was present in each nook & corner and finally sunday morning arrived. My uncle who is a veteran marathoner, woke me up at 4:50 am and I got ready in a couple of mins.. He had trained himself in Talwarkars' and had a group of friends running the marathon. Uncle was running for the "end polio campaign" and he's my inspiration! I knew I would take around 6.5 hours to finish the marathon, while uncle was aiming at 4 hours.
So we caught the train to Azad Maidan. We were there at 6:15 am and there was a huge crowd and a queue. This time there was lot of security arrangement due to the Mumbai attacks and so it took us some time to enter the starting point of the run. Finally we started the run at 6:45 am along with the half-marathoners as the organizers wanted to give the slow runners extra time to finish the marathon.
I started the run quite slowly along with my uncle. Uncle was doing quite a lot to train for the marathon. He was doing a lot of running and then yoga, medidation and some gym...
Anyways my plan of just running with my uncle failed as my uncle kept a good steady pace even after 4 kms of continuous running. So I decided I would run at my own pace as I didn't want to hurt my legs and I need all my energy to finish the marathon!
So I was all alone but with the 30k runners! It was a very humid and hot weather that day. at around 8 am, came the International Professional runners, running like deers. I was lucky to get off them as unknowingly I came in the way of one of the runners, who pushed me gently to move me to the side. I was quite at the side of the road at chowpatty, but there were too many runners and they were almost taking the entire space of road... Anyways I just was angry with the guy who had pushed me, but then I thought it just happens and told myself to forget about it...
What excites me about Mumbai is the clean and wide roads and the crowds who support the marathoners all the way! The number of people who participate is overwhelming... Its absolutely amazing to run in the mumbai marathon... My heart beats like crazy everytime I approach the start line, I pray to God that things will be alright and he gives everyone the hope and courage to face the toughest of challenges. My eyes are filled with tears at the starting point... Some kind of emotional thoughts come and go and I get really motivated to do the marathon and then on hoping to do much more greater things for the greater good of everyone...
Anyways Haji Ali came up quickly and then I was done with 14 kms, the 1st of the 3 phases that I have divided the marathon into. Usually the first phase is the easiest and 2nd very tiring and the 3rd very painful :)
Mahalakshi temple and Haji Ali are 2 important places there. Then comes, Nehru centre, Worli Diary, Siddhi Vinayak temple and then Hinduja Hospital... Finally the toughest being Bandra Reclamation where the heat and odour is disgusting. This is the tiring part... And then I walked along to not hurt my legs... Then came the volunteers in the bus to pick up people who were finding it tough to finish the race... Then the police asked us (runners) to move to the side and use the foot path and the 4 hours time given for the marthon had ended. Many of us continued our journey to the finish. It was tough and agonizing. The mind tells you that it is enough. Don't trouble your limbs any more. The limbs I am alright, but I am not sure how far can I take you... After having a fight with my mind, I was at Haji Ali. Now it was an up-hill and very painful. The heat was unbearable. Very humid weather, it was taking a toll on all the marathoners. Thankfully finished Haji Ali by alternating my walks with some short runs... Finally I was at Chowpatty and the end was nearing. Slowly pulled myself and just a few kms before the finish I turned to a wrong road, which lead me right into Azad Maidan instead of the finish line. I had asked a pedestrian for the road to the marathon finish line and he directed me through another route. Anyways I reached Azad Maidan. That was the end of my 3rd Mumbai Marathon. Vowing to do it in less than 5 hours next year, I went back home to give my body a much needed break! I was not able to sleep as my body was kind of overheated though I was alright.
That evening spent some time with cousins and finally had a light dinner and went to sleep. Got up at 4:50 am for the second time to catch my flight back to b'lore. Unfortunately I hadn't thought about the goodies bag that I had been given by the organizers which had a lot of gel/oil tubes/bottles. The security didn't let me take one of the moisturiser inside the goodie bag :(
I don't understand the kind of security system we have these days... Anyways finally I was greeted by bengaluru international airport to a pleasant weather. It lasted for a few mins after which i was greeted by the bad b'luru traffic :)
I was limping for a couple of days of the run. But now I feel much stronger and ready to run! I ran with 2 things on my mind. Educating the poor kids and helping the wild life. Finishing off with the donations I am now looking to do some volunteering work.
Thats it from me. Hope to be back again with a bang!