Mumbai Marathon 2011 - End of My Mediocre Running

Mumbai Marathon has been very special and close to my heart for multiple reasons. This is the place where I started running a few years back. My first distance run was a 7 KM dream run in 2006. I remember keeping my legs in a bucket with salty hot water for an hour for relief, after finishing the run :). Even after experiencing the fun at The Mecca of Running (Athens) and San Francisco, I couldn't help looking forward to 3rd Sunday of January, when entire south Bombay takes a few hours off to give way for runners, and to cheer them in every possible way. And, this year was no different.

As usual, before reaching Mumbai, I spent a day in Pune and met a few friends and had a great time. One has got an infant son, and another one has a 2 year old , and yet another is expecting one in a month. Now-a-days, the gifts I carry for my friends are mostly books like What to Expect When You Are Expecting, teethers, soft-toys, infant gift-sets etc., :) So, I aptly landed in Pune with my backpack full of them.

The day spent in Pune had been great. Lunch with Anjali, a student-turned-friend, after meeting her adorable infant son Anay, Dinner with Nihar and a couple of others preceded by an elaborate session with some delicious de-hydrants (if you know what I mean), and post-dinner late-night mischief in apartment complex etc., allowed us to get to sleep only in the wee hours of the following day.

Marathon day started innocuously, as usual. Woke up at 3 AM to catch the first train from Kharghar at 4:10. Train has already a few people with Marathon bibs and we started our usual chat about our previous timings, temperature prediction for the day, heat on the new Bandra-Worli Sea-Link, our target time etc., I mentioned that my aim would be a 5:20 finish. The first half of the run (till 21 KM) was not much different from last year, both in terms of my speed and temperature. At around 22 KM, we reached Mahim Causeway and were about to enter Bandra Reclamation and the new Sea-Link. That's where I started feeling the heat and felt that, it was just going to be a repetition of last year, and will lead to a 6 hour finish. But, once we entered the bridge proper, we were welcomed with Lucozade energy drinks (unlike last year, where we had this 8 KM stretch of the Sea-Link with out water and energy drinks). That revived the spirits and I took to running at my pace and never stopped after that, except for the preplanned walk breaks around water stations. Last 5-6 KM were memorable, as I could run at the same pace as I ran the first 5-6 KM, which I could never manage to do in the earlier runs. And, those little kids offering Parle biscuits, chocolate candies, water bottles shouting 'uncle...! run', whenever I thought of a walk break, really helped. At around 4 KM from finish line, a 3-4 year old beautiful little girl (yes, I know that's redundant. How can a 3-4 year old girl be not beautiful) saw me running towards her and opened the wrapper of an orange candy she was holding and held it up for me, right when I was crossing her (Just imagine !). Oh ! My ! How can I not go to Mumbai Marathon again ? At least for that little candy after a 38 KM run :) Emotion really did hit me for a moment and I thought, I should get married at least to have someone like that little angel at home. Of course, it didn't last long :)

I touched the finish line at 5:13:25, well with in my budget. And I bid a heartfelt good-bye to the mediocre runner in me. Running the whole distance (21KM in Half or 42 KM in full-marathon) at a stable pace is what makes one a distance runner(of course, I mean recreational runners, not to confuse with those deadly Kenyans). And, I am finally there. Now, will work on improving the pace.

Split times at various timing-chip readers:

Distance (KM)	15.1	24.2	29.9	42.195
Time (Hr:Min)	1:48	2:53	3:36	5:13

The evening too was well spent. A bunch of ex-colleagues from CDAC met at one of our favorite restaurants in New Bombay, Bhagat Tara Chand, Sanpada. I regained all those lost calories with Ghee Chapatis, followed by generous helpings of sinfully sweet Moongdal Sheera, a specialty dessert at that restaurant.