For me the new year begins during the 3rd week of January.Why? That's because the Standard Charted Mumbai Marathon is held during this week,for the past 6 years,and this was going to be my 4th.I missed the 1st edition as I did not register and last year as I was not in Mumbai even though I had registered.
And apart from the 2nd edition wherein I ran the Dream Run,I have been running 21Km-The Half Marathon.This year was no different.The registrations had closed in August. 5 months to go and the mental preparations had already begun.Or were they?..Am I writing just for the heck of it????? Read on...
All things that one would never want to happen, happen on the 26th,do they? I guess so..be it the 26th July Floods or 26th November Mumbai Attacks or 26th December Tsunami,January 26th Gujrat Earthquake or 26th September Ahmedabad Attacks...and for me 26th December 2008..a stomach infection..and that too with just over 20 days left for the marathon...I was down,unable to walk even to the doctor who stayed in my building...Not tooo far Eh??
But slowly but surely things began to improve.By the 10th of Jan I was much much better.The new year was appproaching really quickly.But there was something that was continuously going on at the back of my mind.The Marathon was on the 18th and I had not practiced at all this time,something which I had been doing religiously for the previous editions, and if I did practice for a week, what if again something goes wrong,what if again I fall ill? And so I decided to take the plunge.This time I am going to run without any practice.
Finally it was 18th of January, the time had come.I reached the Chip Holders Area at Azad Mumbai at around 6 am.The race was scheduled to begin at 6.45am.I did a few stretching exercises with the hope of impressing a few South Mumbai gals.But it was not be..It's winter time buddy..and too dark . .
The race began as scheduled but as we were starting from the chip holders area, 5 minutes were gone before I reached the actual starting mark.And from there on the next 2hrs 40 min 00 sec just flew and I completed the race at 9.30 am
Well, I must say, I have to dedicate this succesfull completion of my race to 3 things.
- The Mumbai Local Trains, running after them to reach your office on time, keep the running muscles wide awake, especially if it is announced that your regular train is slated to come on another platform than the one you are on.There is a saying that you should never run after 3 things in life..Trains,Buses & Girls...I am sure that all the Mumbaikars will disagree.
- The Thane Rickshawwalas.When you ask them to come to my place, pat comes the reply 'NO' (chance on earth).
- The Thane TMT buses,which are never on time,and in any which ways you are much better off travelling in them, unless and until you want a painful back amongst other things.
The Thane Ricks and the buses made sure that I walked from Thane Station to my house everyday after work which is about 25 mins brisk walk ..and this was after I had already spent about 1hr 45 min in the crowded train travelling from Kandivli to Thane.
This is Mumbai.You are always on the run.Running the marathon, be it the Dream Run or the Half Marathon the Full Marathon,more than physical fitness,mental fitness is what is required.I was not doing anything new...it was as if I was running the 21km to catch a train to my office,taking a walk from my house to Thane Station and back and yes how can I forget...running behind the preety girls of Mumbai.
