Yes..!!! You read it right ... I am a Marathoner Now with My First Marathon completed at Mumbai
and dedicated to "CHENNAI RUNNERS" - Yes... you read it once again right...!!! because without
your support it wasn't possible
FYI my first Marathon should have been the Singapore on 6th Dec 2009 but could not go due to personal reason and the next registered was the SCMM 2010.
The Training Phase:
Totally I had logged 1200kms in the last 10 months before this Mumbai Marathon. The training for the Mumbai Marathon was good and to be frank I did not stick to any particular schedule for my training runs and I was just running the weekly runs and adding more miles to my legs. I could manage to do only two 30+ runs ( One at ECR # 11 on 8th Nov and other 35k run on 27th Dec). Though I had tried to do four 30+ runs before the Marathon as advised by some of the experienced runners. One 30k on 29th Nov along with KK was foiled because of the previous day's 800m selection race and I could manage to run only about 15k and gave up after that. One 30k planned inside the Anna University along with Arun and Shahid was also not achievable due to some reason which I could not figure out even today.
The Tapering Phase:
On 8th Jan when I was running with the group I got a severe cramp on my back due to misplacing of my left foot and that made me stop running and made me walk all the way back to start point and did some stretching and the relief was minimal and this event made me think whether I would be fine for the SCMM 2010. Even during the tapering period I could not follow any particular schedule due to the travelling but I had managed to have healthy food (of course more of carbohydrates) , lot of stretching for the back and hydrated myself well by drinking lot of water.
I had to run the 800m race on the 11th Jan at Surat and was very cautious and decided to participate only if my back is normal. On the 10th Jan (Sunday) I just ran a 2.5km easy run to check the status of my back and it was normal and took part in the 800 m race the next day and was not able get any of the first three places but I was happy with my timing of 3m:16sec for a 800m run. But the last three days (13th, 14th and 15th Jan) were horrible for me with very minimal sleep due to Golden Jubilee Celebrations of our Samaj. I had gone to bed at 1:30 am on 16th Jan with alarms (Yes one alarm on my Garmin and Two alarms on my two mobiles) kept at 4:00 am to board the 5:40 am flight to Mumbai. In spite of all these alarms (which I never heard), I slept graciously till 8:45 am and suddenly got up to realise that I have missed the flight. (FYI this is the first and wish last time in my life, I had ever missed flight/train/bus). I checked the next immediate available flight to Mumbai and it was at 12:00 noon Jet Konnect. I booked and landed at Mumbai and headed straight to Expo to collect BIB, where Puru was waiting for me.
Day before the Race:
Puru was kind enough to wait for longer duration and I met Shumit at the Expo. I collected my BIB and the goody bag.
Then Puru and Me did the foot size check offered free of cost by Asics and Puru bought Asics 2150 and I bought the Asics Running Cap. We then headed to the Veg Restaurant The SAMRAT and had delicious and healthy, though it was very delayed Lunch at around 16:30 hrs. It was good carbo-loading with SAMRAT Briyani and Jeera Rice with Yellow Dhaal and Curd.
Puru dropped me at my Hotel just near the Start Point. I took out the running gears to be worn for the Marathon and fixed the BIB and checked the contents of the Goody Bag. I then went to Metro BIG Cinema and saw an horror movie "Case 39". After the movie I bought three Veg Sandwich and ate one. I drank lot of water before going to bed at 22:00 hrs. I had kept alarm at 4:40 am and had a sound sleep.
THE BIG DAY and THE RACE:
I got up at 4:40 am, had bath and got dressed in running gear, had one sandwich and reached the Holding Area (Azad Maidan) which was just 300 metres from the Hotel. I entered through the Gate 3 and went around the whole ground to see the arrangements and then I decided to hang around the Baggage Counter. I met Ram first, then Shiva, Rajamanickam, Ramani, Balaji, Abhijit. Then came the ETV Marathi crew and wanted to take the interview. There were more than 1000+ runners and I still wonder why/how they zeroed in to Chennai Runners group??? (We, Chennai Runners are always lucky... NDTV during the Chennai IDEA Marathon and now ETV at Mumbai). Shiva spoke fluent Marathi and surprised us all including the anchor. Ram declared that this was his 12th Marathon and first in Mumbai and was happy about the arrangements so far. Then Rajamanickam and then during my turn I declared that this was my First Marathon and I am excited and thanked Chennai Runners for the support.
Also met Tanvir Kazmi from Delhi. Now it was time to enter the Holding area through three gates (A, B and C). Ram and Ramani were pulled into Gate B being Veteran Runners and all others were led into Gate A and Gate C was for the Senior Veterans.
The race started exactly at 6:45 am and it was still dark. I crossed the start line just 45 secs after the Gun. Just few minutes after the start most of the Chennai Runners had a life time privilege to run with Dr.Ashish Roy, who was doing his 100th Marathon with a BIB 100 and back of his T-shirt read "Born in 1932".
We were with him for few minutes... encouraging him and in return he wished all of us good luck. I told him about the coincidence of being my first Marathon to run with a seasoned Marathoner like him who is about to hit Century Marathons. {My opinion no comments please... If the same Century was achieved by a cricketer in one innings would make a breaking news in all the News Channels for the whole day and an young man at his 78th age finishes 100th Marathon and not much coverage about him is really painful... :-( }.
Ramani, Rajamanickam, Balaji, Siva and myself were running together for another couple of minutes together and then everyone started to take off with their pace and I was at my pace and taking photographs of the Mumbai streets, buildings along the route. Was running with Rajeev Surana for few minutes.
Suddenly there was a timing vehicle from the opposite direction and realised that was the Half Marathon lead pack started at the same time we started but from Worli running towards the CST. And then after about fifteen minutes caught Puru running down to CST. And then came a huge crowd all half marathon runners. Among the crowd suddenly emerged a familiar voice uttering "Machaan!! There are no water points on the Sea Link. Carry enough water for that stretch." to Ramesh from Bangalore, who was running with me at that point.
When I had completed around 13.5k there was siren from behind to clear the way for the 7:30am starters of Full Marathon and the lead pack was 100% dominated by the Africans. This meant they have covered the 13.5km in about 34 mins approximately and the same distance I have been running for the last 1h:37m. Then came the women lead pack.
Running ahead seeing all these I had done my Half Distance in about 2h:40mins. Never realised so much time has gone by, may be because I was much involved in sightseeing and capturing the same in my camera. I was happy so far. And totally forgot the warning of Rajesh Vetcha and took one bottle of water just before the start of sea link. By the time I reached the toll gate for the sea link, I could feel the humidity and I had gulped half of the water bottle by then. Still there was 4km left to reach the next available water point and almost everyone were walking on this stretch. I too had decided to walk as I had finished the remaining water and was feeling thirsty. At the 3/4th distance of Sea Link there was a Police Jeep and I went to them and asked for water and they were kind enough to pass on the bottle they had for them and I gulped some water and thanked them and started walking. Thought would get water just after the sea link but was disappointed as there was no water point at the end of Sea Link and had to walk another 400m (Split 29.7km) to get hold of water and drank one full bottle straight away and poured one full bottle on the head and took one more as reserve and started running and saw the 30k mark and had done in about 4h:05mins and was happy that I could run the final 12kms as I had walked for the past almost one hour.
But I was not able to run continuously due to the heat and was doing walk/run combo and slowly moving ahead and I had completed 37k in about 5h:9mins and was happy that only 5k to be done. The heat intensified and there was no shade and I was drinking lot of water and at hence at one point my bladder was full and could not find a place to let it out and Balaji was asking me to pee on the side of the road to which I was first reluctant and had to do the same after I failed to convince a security to let me in, to use the toilet.
Now I was relieved, once again took over Balaji and Siva and met Puru at 40k point waiting with energy drink and banana. I took half banana and some energy drink and continued running but the traffic was let open and was difficult to run now and had to run on the foot path which was also crowded and saw already the 41k mark board was being removed and final 1k to finish and time was running out as the official website said only up to 5h:55mins the chip timing would be recorded and there was hardly few minutes left but the problem was traffic and managed to wade through the traffic and finished in 5h:56mins:11 secs. Ramani was the first person to congratulate me at the finish point and then I waited for Balaji and Siva to finish. They came in another few minutes along with Puru and we all headed to the Azad Maidan for collecting the medal and refreshments.
MEDAL CEREMONY:
Just after collecting my medal and refreshment, I was looking for a place to sit, I saw Shahid, sitting with a sad face and he asked my finish time and I saw my Garmin and said around 5h:58mins and he said his timing was around 5h:40mins and he had walked for the whole second half. He was not happy with his timing and just to bring the smile on his face I took the camera out and clicked his photo, and he smiled.
Then there was Medal Ceremony. I was lucky to be medaled by one of the Founders of Chennai Runners, Ram Viswanathan. And I was honoured when I was given chance to medal Mr. Ramani. Then Puru medaled Siva and Manish.
We all had taken a group photo and then had the refreshments and special refreshment was given by Rajamanickam to me and Ram and then one by one we dispersed.
P.S: Here is the link to the full photo album.
DEDICATION TO CHENNAI RUNNERS :
I have dedicated my First Marathon to Chennai Runners because without whose support and motivation, I could not have completed this. It was my dream come true and whenever I had doubts about running, you were the one who had cleared all my doubts and motivated me.
Thanks Chennai Runners....
I am a Marathoner....I am proud of Myself and Chennai Runners.
