When Pune beckons you

When Pune beckons, you go. When she calls you drop everything and just go. And when you pay heed to her call she plays hard ball, sometimes hot, sometimes cold, with cloudy, overcast skies, occasionally spraying you with light showers. 

As you stand there waiting to greet your friends you can’t help but admire the weather, the skies, the coolness all around. You greet your friends as they slowly stream in to collect their bibs, greeting them enthusiastically, making runners talk like what’s your target time, what’s your strategy, and discuss the race, all the time you are silently hoping the weather holds up till tomorrow, she doesn’t go through the mood swing like her sister city nMumbai does.

True enough she holds her end of the bargain, she’s showered the roads with some light drizzle, which you can tell from the smell of wet grass as it greets you the moment you enter the tracks, as the fastest marathoners pass you by. You can’t help but marvel and be grateful.

She’s set a route that will challenge you, knowing a good challenge is what you like.  She’s cool now, though she’s no longer showering you with those light drizzles. She’s set inclines that test you, continuous  inclines though not relentless. You accept her challenge, ready and rearing to tackle it. You do not want to rush or panic, not let her get into to your head, when runners overtake you. You know what you need to do and you run to the beat of your own tune, or the music playing in your ears.

The route is wet from her morning showers, so you zig-zag to avoid puddles, patches of water, or you just run through them, splashing away with a childlike glee. You steady yourself as you try and keep to the side of the road that’s gotten a bit slippery. So occasionally you try to keep your balance and not land flat on your ass. 

The route is peppered with enthusiastic volunteers who relentlessly cheer you on, supporting you, egging you on, trying to make a tough route breezy. So aided by their support, and light breeze, which she now blessed you with, you make it through the inclines, till the 11th km, and from then it’s downhill. It’s time for high fives and thank yous, as you go, and take in the run, take in beauty of Pune, and you know she’s smiling upon you, favouring you, favouring all the runners. 

So as you approach the finish line you embrace the race, the warmth, you embrace Pune, and she embraces you back. You’re grateful that she held up her end of the bargain through each of those kms you ran, and you in turn ran with your heart, ran from your heart (if not from your core). You are grateful to her, you embrace her, and she embraces you wholeheartedly. 

Now its time for the post run shenanigans. You greet and eat, you even shake a leg and even get to handover the cheque to the podium finishers. You click pics and selfie and pose for pics and enjoy a good hot breakfast. And then it’s time to say goodbye. But you know you will be back soon, cause Pune will always call you back, will always draw you back to it. So it’s one more race in the bag, your first in the city (not counting the dream Run ran in 2007), and definitely you’re going to  return and run it again.

P.S. Thank you so much and congratulations team NEB Sports, the Super Shettyz, Sangeeta ma’am, Sunil sir and Nagraj sir for another feather in your cap, the wonderful volunteers and sponsors, the wonderful city of Pune, and last, but definitely not the least, thank you to the students and staff of AFMC for your wonderful hospitality and support, hats off to you all and join my hands in gratitude to you all for a wonderful race. Thank you Pune, adios till we meet again.

P.P.S.: This turning out to be like the end credits of a Marvel movie. This weekend wouldn't have been possible and fun without these stalwarts. Ashok sir, an absolutely awesome runner, who managed to make it through all our madness (even when I was dossing off riding shotgun), with an awesome song collection (to my absolute glee) and some really great advice on running. Yogi, such a chilled out and awesome mate and fellow runner, who can match and exceed your level of craziness but hell of a runner. Lastly, Sandeep, our Page 3 celebrity, who kept us entertained and was fun company. What more could I ask for to make it one awesome weekend.