Mumbai Marathon! - The experience of running 21 km!

So…the D-Day came…and I planned to sleep early to make sure I give enough rest to my body. However, as it happened to all plans of training or practicing etc, which never got executed even for a single day ..this too went for a toss and I ended up talking to family ppl till late in the night :-)

Slept at around 1:30am..and got up at 4:30am! Took a bag with basic items needed and reached dadar. There I needed to change train and I found out that at 5:30am in the morning the queue for the ticket for tooooo long. I was supposed to reach by 6am and I would not have reached before 7am if I got to that line. I thought of using coupon counter..but that was closed at that hour. Then I thought of asking for some other using the coupon and pay them…but then I found out there was no chute with me :-) he he he…so I was stranded !! finally, got into train without ticket….thinking I would have to pay to the TT. But got to the ground safely and in time.

I was greeted there by my Lombard collegues. I deposited my bag and threw the mail having all instructions and ph no thinking it was not needed now. We were amazed by no of participants, including no of female participants. I didn’t expect so many girls/aunties running 21 km! Then I saw..in front of me in the line, Sujay Kamath (my batchmate from IIM Indore) was standing ! Wishing him belated happy b'day we started !

View from bandra-worli sea link was good….

I also saw a full sunrise first time in mumbai in 5 yr J he he..otherwise either u never wake up in time or u can only see high rises :-) and it was very soothing to see the beautiful sunrise!

(I am trying to upload some snaps from bandra worli sealine, of sunrise too..but unable to ..some error being shown here)

Last years experience had taught me to keep myself hydrated and energized…so chocolates which I carried were very helpful….and I kept taking few gulps of water at regular intervals! At approximately 14 kms of continuous running….my legs stopped cooperating! Not a single day practice …I was expecting lot of breathing problems etc…but not this. I managed possible breathing troubles by keeping my speed low..but legs?? What do I do…so came the phase of running and walking…last 3 km were very painful…I literally walked only.

Later on I realized that out of total 2 hr 37 min, I completed 18 km in approx 1 hr 50 min and last 3 km took me another 47 min!! my god..my timing could have been so much better!

Finally we finished…enjoying the whole atmosphere…as usual..mumbai junta was out to cheer us and help us which, to me, is the best part of this whole episode. Everyone was there to cheer, help, in any which way possible.

Once I reached Final destination…I saw some celebs…though I didn’t notice many others…! There, two of my colleagues had already arrived….I guess I was either 3^rd or 4^th in my company to finish ! not bad…given that I didn’t practice at all and still managed to improve on my last yr time by approx 30 min! So tired were we….that we simply sat and had our refreshments! We didn’t even check where the stall of our company was. After half an hr we thought of calling stall ppl…and then I realized I had thrown the paper with details before we started :-
) anyways we found that! Most were seen using pain relief spray, though I avoided it ! We enjoyed…..took snaps….chatted…congratulated each other..and then left. So tired was I that I didn’t even go to collect my baggage from baggage counter ! he he …:-)