जिसे मेरी याद आए, जब चाहे चली आए
रूप महल, प्रेम गली, खोली number ४२०
Excuse me Please
Just my thoughts when I saw the bib number assigned me, and I couldn’t help but smile, chuckle a little.
Running a full at Hyderabad was never on my bucket list. Having run two halves (to think of it, two halves makes a full) you aren’t quite inclined to running the full. And knowing the challenge the route provided kind of kept you away from a full here.
However, in the past that would have deterred you but after running a few ultras on tougher routes, it didn’t seem too daunting. So, when your burgers and fries suggested running it as an easy training run , you jumped at the opportunity. Then you hadn’t seen your cousins in years, it would be a good reason to visit city where you had your roots. And more importantly you get to run with coach Dan joining you. Now that was the cherry on the cake.
So once again you wake up at an ungodly hour (to be honest, you never quite slept in the first place with your mind racing with the pre-race jitters). You give your burgers and fries a wake up call and head for a quick shower (as part of your ritual ) and get ready. You click the mandatory selfie and proceed to the reception to catch the cab and head to coach’s hotel which is closer to the start line.
So after meeting up with coach and Dinesh, it’s off to the start to the line we go along with Shabana, a dear friend and fellow runner (of course she would have to be a runner to be up at this ungodly hour).
In a sea of unfamiliar faces you are actually glad to see a few familiar ones from Mumbai. You try to wam up as you go through the motion along with your burgers and fries and coach.
You follow the runners as they make their way to the start line trying not to get too annoyed with the noise from the speaker which you feel is too loud.
As the race is finally flagged off you make your way to across the start line but not before trying to fumble your way to find the start on your watch and your various apps on your phone. By the time you get going you have quiet a bit of catching up to do. So you zig and zag your way through the sea of runners till you finally catch up to coach and your burgers and fries.
As you make your way around the Hussain Sagar you can’t help but be mesmerised with how beautiful and all lit up The Secretariat , building, standing there in all its glory. You take out your phone to capture it only to have it not open as your phone’s memory with all the pics you click. You desperately try to create space by deleting old pics, but it still doesn’t open which means that you need to restart your phone (oh the drama of it all, and you’ve only just started).
You worry that if you restart your phone you will loose the mileage that the app has covered which would mean that you’re getting inaccurate readings. But you can’t help but restart it and to your good luck nothing has been reset.
You’re doing all this while still trying to keep up with coach and burgers and fries, who have gone ahead of you. You increase your pace just to ensure you catch up with them.
Although coach tells us to carry on as he’s following a walk-run plan, you still stick with him and do the same as this meant to be an easy run, only to later to realise that even when coach is doing a run-walk approach, it’s not easy or simple keeping up with him (which is why he’s the coach).
You steadily make your way around the Hussain Sagar, something the full marathoners need to do before the half marathon is flagged off.
There’s something enchanting about the lake. It’s all inky blue with the Indian flag and its reflection at the far end. You stop and capture the site (breathing a sigh of relief that your phone allowed you to go that without flashing memory full!).
Running around the Hussain Sagar brings so many memories from your first visit to this place, along with your aunt and cousins. You smile as you reminisce on the memories.
As you continue make your way around the Husain Sagar you begin to hear strains of tunes that you are so familiar with, songs from your childhood, songs that take you by surprise as you are not used to hearing them. Being played out loud during a run. It’s a nice change to hear some Boney M instead of the usual Bhaag Milkha!
You look around to see from where the music is coming. You notice a gentleman carrying a Bluetooth speaker, who would so fit as one of the henchman in a 80s masala movie.
You can’t help but smile as you continue to run.
As you continue to loop around the Hussain Sagar, something happens that gets you all worked up. You begin to yawn, which gets you worried. After all, cramps se darr nahin lagta jitna run ke time pe neend ana!
You start to get flashbacks of TUM 2023, and more lately your 45km training run. You desperately try to stifle your yawn but it just won’t go, after all sleep has a yawn sambhan with you.
This means you have to keep splashing water on your face to keep the sleep away from your eyes.
To a good extent this helps. You manage to keep sleep at bay. But this also means that you are playing catch up with coach and your burgers and fries. You actually don’t mind cause it lets you scratch that itch of wanting to speed up.
So you make your way around the Hussain Sagar and once again pass the starting line to join the half marathoners which had already been flagged off.
From there you climb your first flyover, to the strains of the dhols that’s been played around the start line, and then it’s on to the next one and then next while you roll along the route.
The thing about running slow it lets you notice so many things that you really don’t notice when you concentrate on pace and timings and targets. Mind you, it’s not easy running slow, when every moment you get this itch of wanting to speed up, to catch up to the ones on the other side of the road. But you’ve got to control that urge.
The benefits, you are not stressed about your pace or timing or the fear of cramping. You get to take in the route, to marvel how much the place has grown and developed and how modern it has become in terms of its infrastructure. You also note the presence of the number of breweries in a once dry state. You chuckle at this thought.
You join your burgers and fries in admiring and complimenting runners on their running shoes, checking on other runners if they are doing ok, cheering them on.
You get to enjoy the music that the various bands are playing as they cheer you on. You give them a huge shoutout. You soak in all the people who have come out there to cheer you on, something that wasn’t there when you previously ran here.
You admire how much the race and the route has management has improved, and how much better the race has been organised and managed compared to the other races you have run.
You make it a point to thank all the volunteers at the water stations and on the route for their support without which any race or even a run would have been a nightmare.
Just when you are enjoying the run along with your burgers and fries, you have the 10k runners (walkers would be better term) join the race and with that you are running in a sea of so-called runners. You try to make your way through them at the same time trying hard to not let your family jewels not get damaged from the swinging hands which seemed to be everywhere.
You and your burgers and fries try to not loose each other in the crowd and at the same time trying not to loose sight of coach.
Though you had heard about how the route for the full marathoners deviated into a lonely stretch through the university campus, at that moment you really start hoping that you would come to that part of the race soon and move away from the crowd of Half Marathoners and 10k runners.
Finally, you come to that part where they move towards Gachibowli stadium and to their finish line while full marathoners have around 15+ kms to complete as you run through the university campus.
As you run through the campus you see your friend Neha on the other side of the road. You hear your burgers and fries call out to her “check out the cutie”. “Who Roddy?” She asks back. “No the doggie” your burgers and fries tells her, making a popat of you. You notice a doggy for comes to you whimpering as if complaining about being disturbed by all the runners. You give her a couple of rubs as you continue on.
This part of the route is lonely but thank god there are volunteers guiding you otherwise you would have definitely have gotten lost.
In the distance you can hear peacocks call, now that’s something new that you had never heard or experienced in any races before, there’s always first.
You continue running with your burgers and fries on a route that feels endless and going on and on, with so many twist and turn. Just when you think you are reaching the exit you get another turn.
After being on your feet for well over five hours you begin to feel the areas above your glutes tightening, so you try to release it by massaging the area, much to the charging of your burgers and fries as doing meant you were mooning the runners, giving them quite the eyeful.
You pick up a spray as your burger and fries is cramping. You try to nudge her and cheer her and encourage her to move on, you can see her struggle but at the same time showing the resilience to push through the cramps.
The going is slow as you can’t speed up. You are actually grateful to the well stocked water station something that’s very important for the slow runners who are struggling and need all the support to push through. You are glad for their presence and support and cheers and motivation.
Finally you exit the campus and realise you just have a last few kms to cover. You look at your burger and fries to see if she’s alright. You tell her to take it easy and you going to pick up your pace for the last few kms.
Just when you start quickening your pace, you get hit by a two-wheeler who decided to gatecrash and crash into you. Though you are annoyed snd pissed, you are pretty ok. So you continue speeding on your way as the motorist speeds on his (without any apologies).
As you enter the route to the stadium you have the finishers cheering you on, marvelling at the fact that you literally sprinting to the finish line.
As you enter the stadium, you feel that surge of adrenaline running through your veins propelling you forwards and onwards to the finish line.
You can feel the eyes are on you. You smile for the shutterbugs as you continue sprinting without any sign of discomfort.
As you finally cross that finish line you let out a squeal of delight, happy to get another marathon under your belt, albeit your slowest one, but you don’t mind that, this was supposed to be hours on feet rather than pace.
You congratulate coach who had finished well before you . You patiently wait for your burgers and fries who finishes strongly.
Then it’s time for pictures to commemorate the moment and for the mandatory insta posts.
Although you head to breakfast counter it feels bland. So you say good bye to coach and head yo your hotel with your burgers and fries as your mum waits for you.
With this you’ve completed yet another marathon. Though the idea was to run a slow one you realise that it’s not that easy to run slow. It takes a lot of control and patience to keep your need for speed at bay and stop yourself from wanting to speed up. In the end you had a good run and yet another one for the memories.
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