Coasted, Toasted, and a Tad Bit Disappointed

At the start of every marathon you have yourself questioning your actions as to why are you doing this to yourself!  Why do hate yourself so much that you are you putting yourself through the wringer ! Why are you torturing yourself! But not this time. This time it’s a bit different. This time you’ve already done three 50ks and one additional marathon, not to forget that you’ve already done around three 40+ kms in your training. All this fills with you a quiet confidence, but as you will learn a few hours later, it all comes with its own set of setback.

So there you find yourself in a sea of runners, a sardine in can of sardines, slowly making your way, make that crawling, to the start line. In fact, you heave this claustrophobic feeling as you slowly and gradually walk with your fellow runners making your way past the BMC headquarters and VT, that’s lit up in all its dazzling glory.

Once you reach the start line, you quickly sign yourself and start all your apps and watch and off you go, zigging and zagging between runners, try to steady your pace and not give into temptation of going out all guns blazing. 

As runners pass you try not to speed up but maintain your pace. They are running their race you are running yours!

You cheer friends and your fellow runners, humming to yourself…

“You can’t hurry love 

You just have to pace 

Marathons ain’t easy

It’s a game of holding your pace…”

Humming this you continue on your way past Flora fountain and the first ASIC water station, past Jazz by the Bay snd the loop near mantralaya and then NCPA.

You spot your friends from SWGB and run give them a big hug and hi fives as you pass them by.

Just when you thought you had everything under control nature calls you, well make that beckons you and you need to heed its call. Thankfully it’s for the short one and not the long one.

You stop at the first site of a restroom, but the person using it seemed to be taking their own sweet time, so you decide to skip it and try at the next stop. You are lucky to get a vacant one. So you quickly do your business trying hard not to gag on the fumes that clog your nostrils, and join the runners who have gone ahead of you.

When you finally hit the better side of Peddar Road you catch sight of the front pack of the half marathoners. As always you envy them as they are almost on the last few kms of their race while yours is still under 10k. And as usual you wish you were in their position. But you’ve signed up for an FM and so here you are. So you just keep running, running, running, what do you do, you running, running!

Slowly and steadily you complete Peddar Road and move past Mahalaxmi Temple and then Haji Ali. In a way you are getting a tour of diversity of the city, though you are not sure if the unity part of the adage holds true.

From here on it’s on to the brand new addition to the race, one that you weren’t too happy about but had to make your peace with. It’s up the helix you go and onto to coastal road. You walk up as there’s no point in consuming energy running it up, so you walk gingerly while others pass you.

And then something happens that sets off the panic bells in your head. You let out a yawn! Though it isn’t the first one, it sure gets the panic bells all jingling! The price you pay when you go out to meet a friend instead of resting at home and taking to bed.

You desperately try to wipe the sleep from your eyes and all the memories from your mind when sleep ran! You stop to pour water on your face at every chance you get, trying to wash and rub the sleep from your eyes and mind. But you just keep yawning and you run. You realise this has slowed you down. 

You hear someone call out your name to realise that it’s your project manager overtaking you.

“Oh no you don’t”, you tell yourself and that’s enough motivation to awaken you and spur you on.

So you continue to run on the coastal road, dodging morons who want to capture themselves, cause when would you get a chance like this again (other than running TMM in 2027, again). They play a game of spot the camera guy and when they do they run right in front hoping to get captured not realising that the only possible thing that’s getting captured is their nostril hair, rather then their face.

You keep to a side, away from these morons, not bothering about the shutterbugs, running steadily and surely.

On the Sea-link you catch up with Manu snd for a couple of kms you have company. 

The journey from the coastal road to the sea-link feels never ending and making your feet feel weary from covering the distance. But yet again you try to calm your mind to take it easy, take it as it comes and let things go by feel.

As you continue on your way you take a moment to admire the rising sun as it tries to break through the smog that’s has dulled out its rays and making it appear blurry in the distance. 

Exiting the sea-link you stop for a while to capture the sunrise as you have customarily done.

As you make your way from Reclamation and on to the Causeway you are glad you don’t have to loop on the Reclamation, as you have previously done, but at the same time you are aware that the distance covered is much lesser than what it was in previous editions. So you know there’s going to be a loop or two somewhere down the line.

You try to put this thought at the back your mind, not letting what hasn’t yet come to bother you.

From the Causeway you take a right from St Michael’s church, running onto Cadel and past Mahim Darga and then Shivaji Park and Siddhivinayak Temple, giving you a glimpse of the religious diversity of the city, though it may not always evident amongst its residents.

At Shivaji Park you are greeted by your friends volunteering at the first of the two MRR  water station.

You stop for while, sipping on water and indulging in some selfies with Sudha Ma’am and Raakesh and Anita, before you take off.

You cheer coach, as he returns your cheers with a few motivating words and a smile. You come up to Santa, tapping him on the opposite only to have turn on the side that you are, much to your disappointment. You tell him he’s doing awesome and give him a few colourful words (or did you!)

As you continue a few doubts begin to make their way in your head. You know you are running strongly but you begin to question yourself if you’re going fast enough? 

Though you do know the answer, you try not to panic and focus on building your pace rather than quickening it and then cramping like you did last year.

You try to put these doubts to rest but somewhere they keep nagging you.

You reach the second MRR water station where Charu hands you a bar of Snickers and gives you a small bottle of coke, which you take a sip and hand it back to her much to charging as she had kept the whole bottle for you., but then you had no intention of running with it. 

You take your customary pic with Charu, thanking for always being there for you and all runner, and you are off on your way, trying to catch up to the ones who have overtaken you.

You take a right and you make your way to Worli sea face. You feel this annoyance when you discover that you need to run to Worli Dairy and then take a u-turn running back to almost INS RATA, from where you take a ramp to the coastal road once again.

You put your head down and just keep plodding on knowing that getting annoyed isn’t going to help you. So you just keep running steadily making the most of the challenge as well as the opportunity of running on route where you wouldn’t get a chance to run anytime soon.

You marvel at the changing skyline, how much things have changed over the years, how much seem familiarly unfamiliar.

By this time the sun is up and shinning. There’s no place to hide or take shade so all you do is keep going steadily ensuring you stay hydrated. 

You are joined by a runner from Chennai who cheerfully tries indulge you in a conversation. You try to be polite and give him a few replies and a sweet smile. When he tells you that he’s doing this for his hero, his father, you wonder who are you doing this for? But before you can ponder on this  you  get your answer, “ass you are doing it for yourself”.

You smile at this thought. You tell this runner to go ahead as you’d be walking up the slope. So he goes ahead while you walk steadily.

Once again the coastal road feels endless and your feet feel weary.

When you finally see the exit off the coastal road, you feel this sense of relief. You actually don’t quite mind that you need to go backwards to move forward.

Once again coach has caught up and passed you. Once again, you have these lingering doubts plaguing your mind if you are running slower than you should. However, as you exit the coastal road, you are able to catch up and overtake him, cheering him on.

It’s time to switch things up and take it up a notch. You switch to Taylor Swift’s Opalite (yaya, I may not be a Swiftie, but Taylor is heart) and off you go, making good progress as you pass Haji Ali and Mahalaxmi Mandir (making you wonder if religious monuments can co-exist peacefully next to each other, why can’t we)!

You finally approach Peddar Road, a section that has invariably gotten a bad rap but is in fact the most well supported and fun part of the route.

As planned, you walk up Peddar Road, conserving your energy for the final push. You even tell your fellow BNP mate, Nidhi, to walk up instead of run or jog ( she would later thank you for making her do so).

As you  walk up Peddar Road you see something that makes you believe the sight travels faster than smell.

You see this firang runner in front of you whose pants and legs look like he had a spill or sat down in some mud. But as you approach him and you catch the smell you realise what all the brown thing on his pants and legs, truly is.

You go wider in order to avoid latching onto any smell as you try to continue on your way as if nothing was wrong.

Reaching Babulnath you decided to take your final gel even though you had taken the last one not more than 30 minutes ago, arguing you would need it to push through the last lap of the race.

Finally you find yourself back at Girgaum Chowpatty, knowing just a couple of kms more and you’ll be done. You marvel at the fact that you have come this far without any signs of the C word, hoping you haven’t thought about it too fast.

You take a glass from the Red Bull station, and instead of just taking sip, you drink the content of the glass (which is not much).

Just as you begin to cruise down Marine Line, the one that you are constantly worried about makes its presence felt.

You begin to feel cramps on your quads and hamstrings. You try your best to shake it off, walk for a while hoping it will pass. But after you run for a while once again you feel those pesky cramps.

You grit your teeth and try not to panic, but just then the 5 hours pacer passes you, setting all sorts of alarms in your head.

You try to pick the pace and catch up with him, but those pesky cramps don’t let you go  too far before slowing you down. Every step is now a challenge, every steps feels monumental as you try to fight back the pain.

You get this sinking feeling in your guts that you wouldn’t be able to complete within 5 hours, which is really bad for you knowing what you are capable of. You feel this dejection and disappointment and all sorts of negative feelings and thoughts and emotions, wondering where did you go wrong.

Just when you hit your lowest of low, you find that spark of hope you need. You tell yourself it isn’t over till it’s over. It isn’t over till the fat lady sings.

You muster all the strength you’ve got and hobble on, trying to keep a slow and steady pace.

As you take the turn at Ambassador Hotel you spot your friend Suni who enthusiastically cheers you on. Smile and wave at her as you continue past Brabourne stadium and then Churchgate station, and onto the last couple of meters.

You can see the 5 hours pacer who’s slowly walking towards the finish line knowing that he got there before time and now needs to wait before he crosses the line.

You muster every ounce of strength that you can hobble across the finish line with 4 minutes to spare. You raise your hands in elation and breathe a huge sigh of relief. You got it done, no matter what.

You limp to collect your Finishers medal and then your towel. You feel this joy to see your friend Shital and give her a tight hug. She then gives you a tighter hug and gives you one of the best chocolate chip cookie she has made. You hold on to it as continue to limp towards the baggage counter.

You meet the runner from Chennai who met you on route, who congratulates and thanks you and asks you to present him his medal, an honour that you reluctantly accept and awkwardly put it around his neck as he once again dedicates it to his hero, his father. You can’t help but smile and applaud this beautiful gesture.

You once again continue towards the baggage counter, but not before meeting congratulating your friends.

As you patiently wait for your bag you begin to feel this drowsiness, this strange feeling that you would blackout at any moment. You feel this strange sensation in your stomach as if it wanted to empty itself out.

You collect your bag, and walk groggily, afraid you would blackout at any moment. Lucky for you meet your friend Mitali who recognises that your BP has gone low and quickly helps you get down on the ground  and put your leg up to help regulate it. And you slowly begin to feel better.

So after your customary pictures with your medal and your friends you make your way home with Mitali for company, talking to your burgers and fries, telling her you are ok and have completed your race.

With that you close another chapter of your love for all things TMM. Yes you happy that managed to complete it within the time you needed (by the skin of your teeth) but you are also a tad bit disappointed the way the race went for you, knowing it didn’t go well. You feel that sense of dejection but in the end you know you will bounce back and come back more well prepared to tackle it all once again!

The Fogwala Run

Although you’ve said it a thousand times… ok maybe not a thousand  times, or even anything that close. But you have said it several times… you’ll never put yourself through it all again… and by that I mean running an Ultra. Yet here you are, standing at yet another start line after putting yourself through the wringer for the past two months (that too peak summer months), courtesy Coach Dan’s training plan!

You have never considered yourself an ultra runner (you still never will) but here you are getting to ready run your 4th ultra, the second one of the year. Yet you refuse to term yourself an ultra runner.

So there you are, at the start of yet another start line, doing what you trained for. 

You are way behind everyone cause your hydration belt refuses to stay on your waist and keeps riding down. You have this beautiful South Korean runner for company and a guy desperately trying to get his friend to capture his run for social media.

You try your best not let it get to you and keep pulling it up wondering if all this training made you loose your arse, or did it make an arse out of you. You try not to get flustered or hit the panic button and find a way to cope with the situation.

You desperately keep trying to pull your belt up, and doing so you keep pulling your already short shorts up almost up scandalising those behind you with a very cheeky view.

Somehow you manage to balance the gel and everything feels fine and less annoying. You manage to catch Vijay and Ketak and Natty and Adi, almost mooning poor Adi until Natty tells you that you need pull you pants and make an ass of yourself by exposing your arse.

So there you are running in the dark on a route that’s concealed by the fog. The rains didn’t want to grace us with its presence and sent the fog in its place.

The fog in a way was kind of blessing as it was an hindrance. It concealed so many things, along with the dark. But then what you couldn’t see had no chance of scaring you, so that way the fog was beneficial.

Finally you make it to the first turnaround point at the 5K mark. It’s pitch darkness all around and the fog makes it even more darker and errier. Your visibility is kind of hampered and all you can hear is the gurgling of a stream nearby, or maybe it was just water flowing through a gulley. But somehow this doesn’t bother you. You continue going on your way, trudging along slowly and steadily at a decent pace. You make it a point stopping at the water station, siping water and taking pinch of salt and then a cube of jaggery. 

You pass the start line, where you hear music blaring music with the 35k already flagged off and the runners are on their way.

You pass Cloud 9 and make your way to Tiger Point.

You trudge carefully trying not to place your feet wrongly. One wrong placement could mean the end of your race and could push you back by weeks, if not days.

So you run carefully but steadily, and as you have done during your training run keep warning Vijay and Ketak and Ani of any potential holes or cracks in the road, as they do the same for you.

You begin to see runners passing by on the other side of the road making you marvel at the speed they are running in (cause you assumed that they were 50k runners). But then you realise that these are the 35k runners.

You continue on your way with Vijay and Ketak and Ani for company, keeping you in check and ensuring you that you don’t doze off, as only yours truly can do.

So for most part you are having a good strong run. You know you are running comfortably as you are chit chatting like only you can do, trying to keep the morale up (as if it was needed) and in doing so you were doing the same for you.

By and by you reach the turnaround point for the full marathoner. It’s time to part ways with Ketak and Ani who are running their FM. So, you wish them the best and Vijay and you continue onward and forward towards your turnaround near the Airforce base.

As you near Tiger Point you find the road lined with cars, revellers out on a drive, out to have a good time, families with kids, youth leaning out of their cars, men in drunken stupor. You wonder what these morons could see in the pitch darkness? What thrill do they get from behaving like desperate, horny asses.

You make your way through the cars, trying not to get hit by the ones who decide it would be fun to speed and come close and frighten runners and even tease them. You worry for Natty and Adi cause these were type that were forever horny and hormonal and anything with two legs and a breast would excite them. You wished there were more security on the route, especially for female runners. Even reflectors would make quite a difference here.

You pass these spots, finally reaching the airforce base and your second turnaround point. From there it’s now on to Amby Valley.

As you make your way you spot Natty and  Adi. You are happy to see them running strongly and steadily. You cheer them and tell to be cautious of the route ahead, and you continue on your way.

You are glad that you have Vijay for company cause otherwise it would be lonely and scary and the possibility of you sleeping off on your feet. As you’ve trained together, you are totally in sync with each other keeping each other moving onwards and forward, walking up the slopes and running steadily otherwise. 

You once again pass by Cloud 9 as you make your way towards Amby Valley. You both have been running strongly and steadily, motivating each other, supporting each other with a pee break being the only time you pause, other than the brief moments you spend at the water station.

You kind of agree with Vijay when he says the route should have been lit, especially in the forest areas where the tree cover adds to the already darkened and kind of treacherous route, as it was done for TUM. Although you agree with this you still end up stating that TUM was a big ticket race and this wasn’t so you would give it the benefit of doubt even though you know that the route would be safer if it was lit up especially in these dark patches.

As you near Amby you meet the front pack of the 50k on their way back. You cheer as you spot your friends Urmi and Swapnil, who are blazing away making the route feel like a piece of cake. You spot Rashmi and Latish and Mehz and Payal and Dheval, all who are going strongly. You also have the 42k and 35k runners making their way. 

You chat with another runner friend Kunal, who’s running a 35k. You cheer Ketak and Ani  as they make their way back, even clicking them as they go by. You even give your friends a friendly finger salute as they pass you.

As you enter Amby Valley you quip that if you take another pee break here you would be in a way helping the bio diversity of the place, chuckling at your on silly RJ.

By the time you reach your third  turnaround point daylight has finally made its way through the gloomy, foggy weather. But there’s still no sign of rains, apart from some brief showers. Looks like no one was singing Showers of Blessings.

You spot Natty and Adi running strongly and surely with a spring in their step and joy in their heart that radiates into a smile. You wouldn’t be able to tell that they were running a 50k.

You cheer them loudly and capture their shenanigans. Their joy is infectious and it makes its way to you. But then you have this joy of your own that keeps you calm and chugging on.

As you exit Amby, you spot your fellow RBs Amogh, Amit, Rishi and Amit who are running the 21k. You begin to cross other Half Marathoners, who are making their way to Amby Valley. You are filled with Joy when you spot your dear friends Mitali, the ever smiling and youthful Bimalji, your very own Benjamin Button, Anil sir, Vandy ma’am, Rupal, Srini sir, Manisha, Vimol, Jogesh, Anand, as they pass by you. You cheer loudly your for friends from the BNP Green Runners, MRR, Stride with GB, along with your fellow RBs. In fact, you are cheering everyone on  the route, especially the ones who need it the most.

By now you are running comfortably. The  route doesn’t seem so daunting, and thanks to your familiarity with it. You are running much stronger and better than what you had done at TUM. 

A glance at your watch indicates that you just have a little over 11 km to go and one hour to have spent 6 hours on your feet. May be, just may be, if you push a little more you could go under 6 hours. No matter what you knew you would better the time you took to complete TUM.

Reaching the water station just before you take the road towards Mulshi, once again, you take your gel, sip water and try to pick your pace. You hand your cap and head lamp to Swapnil who has finished his run and is comfortably walking around as if he just went out for a short run and was done.

By now you begin to pass runners who are doing smaller distances. You spot Prerna and give her a cheer as she passes by. And then you see coach Girish and this sight fills you so much joy. You are so happy to see him running strongly and proudly, blazing the road the way only he’s capable of. Seeing him go is such an inspiring sight. You let out a loud cheer as you pass by him.

Now it’s your turn to push through to the final turnaround point and onwards to the finish line. Just when you thought you had everything under control you feel your calves tightening up. Damn, you ran 44 kms without any niggle and now when you are so close to the finish cramps decide to set in. Any chance of finishing within or around the 6 hour mark have now vanished just like the rains that didn’t happen. 

Fortunately they aren’t too bad but they do slow you down requiring you to walk every now and then. You fall behind but try not worry. As if the cramping were not enough your watch runs out of battery (something that you knew would happen).  But there’s no hitting the panic button. You keep chugging along.

The final loop, which was hidden in the dark and fog feels daunting as there a lot more inclines than you thought were there, and this slows you down as you have to walk up them and also because every time you try to speed up your calves begin to tighten and then you have to hobble up the slope.

Somehow the final turnaround feels like a distant memory that only feels farther than you thought it was. But you are determined and nothing gonna keep you down.

Finally you reach the turnaround point and you are just glad to get there. You wonder if this could be the finish line and you didn’t have to go any further!!! 

You meet this cute doggie with a dent in its head. You give it a couple pats before you take off to the finish line, chatting with other runners who are as troubled as you with this last part of the run.

You smirk and flex your muscles as you pass by a few photographers.

As you near the finish line you see Mitali who cheers you on and you are so glad for it. You give one final push that carries you across the finish line.

And just like that you’ve got another 50k in the bag (run and not money, if that confused you). You hobble to the holding area cause your legs are all sore. You are glad to have completed the race but then there’s this nagging, dull disappointment at the back of your head. But then you tell yourself that in ultras timing don’t matter, it’s the distance and the time on your feet (just as coach Dan said).

So with that you have another 50k under your belt and some good memories to cherish and lesson learned and things to implement. You collect your medal, pose for pics and go to the finish line just in time to cheer Rups and Srini Sir as they finish, as well cheering all the other runners. You patiently wait for Adi and Natty to finish who are still making the most of their 50k and having fun on the run.