The 4^th Running and living Gurgaon Full marathon 18-12-2011

It was chily Sunday morning of 18^th Dec  2011. At 6:30am  about a hundred crazy people assembled at outskirts of gurgaon near delhi, were rubbing their hands furiously , ready to see the the Dawn , the twilight and the sunrise all while running. As the countdown begin to start , I saw myself beside Solomon from Kenya.  “Starting line is the only place where you can get photographed with a Kenyan “ I told myself as the light flashed from one of the DSLR. I was just thinking that I will run with Solomon even if it is for few meters. Start was declared before my mind can come out of this thought. Solomon in just matter of seconds was 20 meters away from me. He looked back twice , as if my thought was already transceived to him. I was no more interested to run with him now. I couldn’t even if I wanted. I told myself I still have opportunity to do so because he will cross me again very soon in the 10.55K loop that we were to run 4 times.

I met Mohit in the first 100 meters , We both were able to match our frequency and run in unison. We struck conversation as sunlight scattering started to illuminate the roads.  We both had a good run together and targeted to finish the first half in 2 hours taking full advantage of cool weather so that second half can be completed comfortably. With experience of my sole marathon , I knew that word MATH is part of MAraTHon but it is anything but maths. At 5K I realized that I did not start my stopwatch at the start line. As I had a running mate I needed not to worry about time. Sun did make an appearance but only to increase the visibility. Sun probably was quite impressed by we the runners and decided to appear in dim mode for some time. Whenever I saw mohit slowing down I paced him and so did he.

After 13K I realized that if I continue to run like this I could be very close to my half marathon PB. Good sense prevailed soon , and I decided not to be overwhelmed by the exuberance and take it easy. I went for my first water break. Mohit cruised ahead and I was left with the option using some arithmetic to calculate elapsed time with my watch. Mark Templer , in Ultra tee, who was running ahead of me till this point became my new running mate for next few Kilometers. Soon I saw Mark struggling and he took a water break. That allowed me to again become a solo. Being solo gave me an opportunity of having good self talking , doing a number of things like concentrating on mid foot strike , running on the white painted lane markers , encouraging co-runners etc. At 28K the running machine from Kenya Solomon again crossed me and again I could only watch the speed king. I ran with a little girl of 12-13 who was probably pacing her father to complete his half marathon .She was running good but could continue only for 200 meters though.  At 32k took first walk break and did some stretching to check if my legs were still okay and asked myself to say ‘all is well’.

I also met Sandeep during the run and after the run. We met after 19 long years , though on FB we met a few months back. We both started our careers in the same company. Both left and could not connect with each other in these 19 years. Both took to running and here we are. See what running does. Apart from making new friends it finds and reunites old ones.

During the run I was taking almonds and resins a new experiment for me. I also utilized the water stations freely, there were actually plenty of them, whenever you felt like having water it was very near. Full marks to Rahul and team for nice arrangements. At 36.5 water station I had had some energy drink and water , thanked volunteers and announced to them that this is my last loop and I am not going to come back. One of the volunteer said that he’ll come with me. This unnamed volunteer accompanied me for next 2 kilometers. A person not having much running experience and knew me for barely 2-3 hours is running with me just to make sure I finish good. A gesture which humbled me totally and kept me moving to the finish line non-stop. A medal was waiting though for my efforts. The certificate which was given in next one minute said I finished in 4:25 minutes. I can’t believe it , I bettered my previous best by 42minutes. The pain gave way for the joy.

Marathon # 2 finish time 4:25 Rank 11 out of 70 who completed. Solomon 2:35 , Mohit 4:15 , Mark 4:28 Sandeep : 4:44