I clocked the half marathon in 2hrs 13mins in Boriveli National Park (BNP) on 22^nd Aug, 2010, which is my best performance for half marathon, so far. This run was very special for me because I had dedicated it to my law collage friend Bhopali.

Coach had given me the target of 2hrs 9mins and I knew it was a tough target. I was expecting for at least 2hrs 10mins but I did it in 2hrs 13mins. Anyway, I had saved 5mins from my SCMM (hm) of Jan 2010 and came 3^rd among women. I am more than happy.

21^st Aug, 2010, being Saturday, I was home for the whole day. I followed my carbo-loading and hydration program properly. Friday night, I had good sleep of 9hrs but the night before the marathon, I could not get proper sleep. I hardly slept for 3hrs. More than marathon’s tension, it was some very bad emotion which was bothering me.

As usual, I got a wake up call from Madhu at 4am. Took bath and had my breakfast of pasta. I was ready by 5am. From IIT main gate Madhu and I got ride from Amit Joshi in his car. On reaching IIT main gate, I realised that I had forgotten to put my digital watch, which I bought two days ago only for this event, since my old watch had stopped working. I had no time to go back home to get it.

We reached BNP at 5.30am. As soon as Giles saw me, he said, ‘Roshni, this time you are going to get tough competition”. I told him, “I’ve my own target and I’ll be happy, if I meet my target and I don’t bother about competition”. We collected our bib nos and from the beginning only, we could make out that the race was very well organised.

When I met Sundar, I told him that I had forgotten to put my digital watch. Without any hesitation he took out his digital watch and gave it me. He told me that he does not bother about his pace because he would be keeping pace with me. Both of us had got similar bib nos. My bib no was 123 and Sundar’s no was 345.

We met Veera, Kavin, Genieva, Supriya, Apurva, Kiingsukh, Sripad, Allen, Bhaskar and all our regular runner friends and many new runner friends for the first time like Sanober, Suneela and many more. I met the Comrades couple Mr. Amit Sheth and his wife Neepa also. This marathon was like a family picnic for me because most of the people who were running or doing volunteer were known to me.

Giles and Bharat bhai gave some instructions to the runners and the marathon started exactly at 6.30am. I started at my comfortable pace. There were KM marking in every Km and I was dot in my target pace till 2.5km. More or less till 5km I was in target pace. When I reached 8km mark, I realised that I was late by 2mins. When I told Sundar, who was running along with me that I was short by 2mins, he told me to try to cover it afterwards but not to increase the speed then only.

From 7km onwards, Sundar and I were looking for Madhu but we could not see her. Both of us were worried for her. We had to run two loops of BNP for 21km (one complete loop was 10.5km). From every turning point we had to collect a rubber band, so that runners would not cheat by not covering the full distance. I collected my rubber band at 10.5km and started running second loop and after covering almost 200mtrs I realised that I had forgotten to ask about Madhu to anybody.

In second loop nothing much happened. While running first loop, I was calling out everybody’s name whomever I was crossing. But in second loop I was very tired to call out anybody. Even if some body was calling out my name, I was just waving at them.

I tried to cover up my two mins but I could not increase my pace, rather I lost two mins more in second loop. Humidity was very high and it was not raining at all. At 20km, Sundar told me that he had got a cramp and he suggested me not to slow down and to keep running on my own pace. I saw Rohit running little ahead of me. When I reached 20.5km, my mind was telling me to sprint but body was not listening. I was getting very scared to sprint. To sprint, I was feeling like as though somebody was asking me to jump from a height. When it was 200mtrs only to finish, without thinking anything I started sprinting and I saw Rohit also sprinting with me and both of us touched the finish line together in 2hrs 13mins.

It was really a superb marathon. I came third among women. At finish there were bananas, biscuits, water, lucozade and so many things for runners. Hats off to the organisers of BNP half marathon. Looking forward for many more marathons like this in future.

After finishing my run I came to know from Ashoke that Madhu got a very bad cramp at the beginning itself and she withdrew from the race. I really felt very bad for her because both of us were very excited for this marathon. I left BNP with Amit in his car. After getting fresh and having food, I went to Madhu’s place. She has pulled her deep muscle. I hope she gets recover soon for our Nirvana Run in Amby Valley. I came back home from Madhu’s place at 1pm and slept for sometime. Sundar had given me two free tickets of LAFANGEY PARINDEY, 5.45pm show in Fun Cinema (Andheri). I went to watch the same with my room mate Sangita. I really had a wonderful and a memorable Sunday.