The first phrase I uttered on the day of my first Half-marathon was: “Oh F***, We’re Late”.
We (Me & Atul) left for Puducherry on 7th evening at around 5 pm. After an arduous bus-journey, we reached our hotel (Ram-International) by 9.30 pm. The delay was due to infinite traffic in chennai, coupled with the fact that our bus was moving at snails pace.
We overloaded ourselves with 2 butter Na’ans & a Kulcha, a high-carbohydrate diet, in order to ensure none of us face hypoglycemia the next day. Done with dinner, we reached our rooms and crashed. I set 4-5 alarms just-in-case. But, all the efforts were in vain. We ended up waking up at 5:30 AM, missed the 5:15 AM free shuttle to Auroville from pondicherry. Our run was scheduled to flag-off at 6:15 AM and we estimated that we would reach the start-line only by 6:30 AM. But, luck wasn’t on our side. We started the run only by 6:45 AM.
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| 21.1 km Marathon – Bib |
The first 3 km were a cake-walk. That is when I started having a mild-knee ache. This was absurd, mainly because I’ve never had pain in the knee while running, be it 3km or 10km. Once I reached the second aid station, I used the volini spray to numb the pain. This helped me boost my speed for the covering the next 9 km. After a while, I saw the placard labelled 15km. The excitement was tremendous. Having completed 15km, I had to complete 6 more. Not a very difficult task after all, I felt. I continued running at the same pace. After crossing roughly 2 Aid-stations, refilling my system with electrolytes and glucose, I reached the 18km mark. On reaching the 18k Mark, I realized my knee ache was back again, with the only exception it was much worse. Thanks to another Aid-station, volini did the magic again! I was back on the track at a much lower pace, but strong enough to complete the run. There was tremendous joy when volunteers screamed that I was at the last 500 meters of my race. I sprinted from then on. After 2-3 minutes, I had 200 meters to go, could see the finish line and picked up my pace again. I ended my first 21.1km Half-marathon at 2hrs and 28 min, which translates to an average running speed of ~ 8.5km/hr.
A more experienced marathoner has expressed his excitement about the Auroville Marathon. Well, he run the Full Marathon and his blog post is just a delight to read. Please take a look at it. On reading the same, I notice the immaturity in my post – as a beginner marathoner and the maturity in his.
(http://soulfulgrowing.com/the-agony-and-ecstacy-at-auroville-marathon/)
Having spoken about some of the intricacies of my run, I would like to present some background of my “Athletic abilities” back in Dubai (over the first 15 years of my life) – A stark contrast of my current life.
My family (Dad, Mom, Sister and Me) has been excited about exercise in general, and walking to be specific. But, we never set high “Athletic” targets to meet. We were regular runners at 2 famous marathons in Dubai (namely, Standard Chartered and Samsung Marathon). We used to always go for the 3km fun-run. While in my 12th grade, I struggled to finish a 3km run – sprinting 0.5km and walking the rest. I never trained while at school and used to hate running.
I started jogging at IITM from my 2nd year, when a couple of friends (Balaji, Atul, Aritra) decided to start running with the sole objective of burning some fat. For me, losing weight was my initial goal. The mess at IITM helped me pull down ~6kg and the morning runs probably ~2kg.
More than the number 21.1, I’m excited about my improvement over the past 2-3 years at IIT-M.
From 1km (At Dubai[Grade 9-12])–> 4km (Mandak-Maingate-Mandak[2nd year]) –> 6km (Terry Fox Run[2nd & 3rd year]) to 10km (T+ Run at Anna University[4th year]) –> 16 km (GC-Maingate-GC (4 times) [4th year]) and finally to 21km (Auroville Marathon[4th year]).
It has been a fabulous journey, and I hope to scale up to the Full Marathon (42.2 km) and then the Ultra Marathon (50km) in next 2-3 years (probably at Graduate-school). I’m attempting my 2nd half-marathon next month (March 22nd).
Talking about Graduate school, I finally got my first admit from Cornell University. I hope the other admits follow 🙂
Journey 
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