La Vita Bella

I don’t remember the name but some famous athelete once said..

“If you want to win something, run a 100 meter and if you want to experience something run a marathon.”

Hyderabad Half Marathon 2006 was just that, a beautiful experience. The reason marathon is unique from any other sport is that even if you run the race alone, you have a great chance of losing. You don’t have compete with others but with yourself.

It was my first marathon, infact first competitive run of any kind. I was more excited than any other experienced runner. I was a little nervous though. I was not running for the past one month or so, first due to the knee injury and then due to the hectic work schedule.

However I was very sure that I would finish it. The only issue was how should I pace my race. I haven’t practiced enough to get an idea of my stamina. The race started somewhere arround 6:20 AM. Weather was absolutely wonderful (so were the chics out there).. I never knew Hyderabad women are so cute. My mistake!! I never looked beyond the office boundaries.

I started with my office collegues. We started slow. So slow that kids, girls, uncles, aunties…and almost everybody was zooming past us. I never knew that Hyderbad had such a wondeful running spirit.

Anyways I didn’t do any thing extravagant, and continued the way I was running. Slow but steady. At 1Km mark I joined a foreigner couple. They were running with an ok pace. On asking what made them run the Hyderabad Half Marathon, they said they are leaving for US on Monday so they are running this marathon to experiece the city of Hyderabad..The lady asked me…

“By the way.. why are you running???”

“Me..Aaaa..mmmm….I don’t know… I just wana RUN”…. (A typical functor reply)

I was with them for another 3 KM and then first droplet of sweat came out of my forehead. It was an indication that I was in my grove now. I bid goodbye to the couple and moved forward.

Its a little strange that I have been in Hyderabad for a year now , but haven’t been to the historic “Charminar”. Neither have I ever seen the old Hyderabad. But now I was going there on foot!!!

Generally marathon runners prefer running on known tracks but for me its exciting to venture into unkown territories. The beauty of running on new tracks is that you are so engaged in observing the surroundings that you don’t realize you are getting tired. Same thing happened to me. I never knew when I reached “Charminar”.

I thought of taking some water there but poor voluntiers only had Oranges and Glucose. They said they can arrange it. I was not sure if I would get water after this point, so decided to wait. I lost about a minute here, but anyways I was not running for time. My collegues were not vissible now. I grabbed three pouches of water, one for myself and two for them and increased my pace a bit.

Soon, I again got hold of my friends. Gave them some water. I asked the volunteer there, how many KM are over. He had no idea. I checked my stopwatch. I was running for about 62 mins. I guess I was somewhere near the half way mark. It was here I could feel my friends getting a little tired. May be it was my turn to lead and encourage the group. I pushed them a little hard. By this time we were crossing people. Many were just walking and strolling..This was the patch when the race looked a little unenergetic. I gave pat on several backs. Many strolling bodies again started running. Soon I found myself leading a group of about 15.

After a while I could see lot of army cadets. Some were running good and but surprizingly many were tiredly strolling like any civillian. When I encouraged them to run, they were very prompt in replying “OK Saabji” ..But again took to walking after 100 meters or so. With many such small 100m races, with different cadets, soon I joined the much famaliar Tank Band/Necklace Road..From here it was all familiar route for me.. Finally a KM marking was there. It said 7 KM to go..

There was a big group of school boys playing wonderful adrenalin puming band to encourage the runners.. It was so encouraging that I increased my pace and then never felt like slowing down. I checked time.. If I try a little hard I was well within the reach of having  a sub 2:00 hr finish.

By this time the 10KM runners started passing me. Which was another good thing to happen. Many of them were running bare foot, but with atleast 1.5 times my speed. My knees were doing ok. I made full attempt to catch up with them, but failed.

When I looked behind, there was no one. All through the race I felt my friends, and the people I encouraged are running just behind me. But I had no idea where were they gone now. No one was running in my close vicinity. I could only see one girl running a few meters ahead of me. She was the only encouragement till the finish line. But I was really surprised to see a girl running with such a pace.

Whenever I run, the last mile is always the most difficult one. Whether I run 5K, 10KM or 21K, I always see the finish line but the problem is that it never seem to come closer. But I must thank that girl for making the last mile a little less stressful.

Finally we reached the 21 KM mark. She, with a timing of 1 :52:53 and I with a timing of 1:53:02.(As per my stopwatch). Though I was not running for timing, I felt good that I had a sub 2 hr finish in my first Half Marathon.

When I went to collect my certificate, I came to know that the girl with whom I was running actually won a prize. She came 10th in the women’s category. She was an Indian Railways athelete. I congratulated her and more importantly thanked her for pushing me hard.

In between I saw Gopi Chand (The All England Badminton Champion).. I asked him for an autograph.. He smiled and said.. look at your certificate man..Ya there were his signature as “The Chief Technical Officer”.

Between a TV crew came to me, asking me to share my experience with them. It was “Gemini TV”, the famous South Indian channel. It is different thing that I never stay on this channel for more than 3 millisecond. They started asking me questions in Telugu. But I knew only one world of Telugu –”Chipandi”..They guessed my sorry state and shifted to English. Later some telugu friends told me that this interview was telecasted along with their evening news.Though I never had a chance to see myself.

Between my friends also finished the race. Some of my friends who were not running also took pictures of Akshay Kumar and Sameera Reddy and were more excited about that. All and all everybody who was there was Happy.

None of us were running for any prizes..Most of us were only “I don’t know… I just wanna RUN” kinda guys.But we all did better than what were capable of, or rather what we “thought” we were capable of. I guess thats what winning is all about.

Beating your mind.

There are also some pictures here