Roddie runs a Marathon

Well not exactly my first marathon, but yeah I will be running a marathon in the truest sense of the term. Let’s face it, you can’t call a 5 k a marathon, and neither is a 10k or a 21 k a Marathon. So please don’t call them one, especially to the poor souls who put so much effort to train for the Marathon, it’s more like an insult to them.

Returning to the topic, after deviating from it, I will be running my 6th Full Marathon, hoping to complete my 5th (after DNFing on my 4th, damn that’s confusing). Every year after the Mumbai Marathon you promise yourself never again, and come July/August/whenever registrations open, you find yourself registering for the next edition, and you are all excited to do it. From September once again you are back to pounding the pavements to get those serious mileage under your belt.

So once again you find yourself eating Dylan’s brains, or is it the other way round. At times causing him to just ignore the silly chit chat and arguments that Pankti and you tend to have, and we both can be loud with our talks that we have been shushed by other serious runners, not that we are not serious runners, just that we talk a lot when we run, helps take our minds off the climbs and slopes and rolling hills. We may crib and complain, but we get our training done, thanks to Dylan’s support and madness and each other’s company, and occasionally putting nazar on Dylan’s family pack and his ability to communicate with his brethren in the forest. Thus training in the park is fun, as much as it can be tough. The Cherry on the cake is deer sighting, and if you’re lucky enough (and survive to tell the tale) a leopard/panther sighting.

You run through out the year, irrespective of the weather. So come rain, sunshine, humidity, or cold, running you will do. You even run when it pours, and the park is flooded. People don’t really get why you run, and question your sanity of waking at ungodly hours just to take to the street (which are dark and deserted), to get that mileage under your feet. So while the world may wake at 11 or 12 on a weekend, you’re up at 3:30 and 4, after doing a long run it’s back to your days and household chores, and dance classes you have to attend, making the weekends more hectic than your weekdays.

Often this means no late nights, or get together and picnics, some of which you are glad to miss, and training serves a good excuse. Friends and colleagues may question your intentions and logic for putting yourself through the ringer, and you crib and grumble but pay the registration fees for just one metallic medal. But then what do they know about the Runners’s High, the burst of endorphins, the joy of crossing that finish line, irrespective of timing ABBA position, and then posing for all the photos, if not biting into your medal.

We go through the highs and lows of training, and then face the same thing on race day. Did I mention about the nerves that don’t let you sleep, so there goes the 8 hours of sleep you need before a race. But we go through it all cause we want to see how far we can push ourselves, how far can we go beyond our boundaries, beyond ourselves, trying to discover a new aspect of our abilities. All this makes the torture we put ourselves through quite rewarding, not to forget all the weight you manage to shred, and the excuse you get for carb loading, and carrying your running gear even on vacations. All makes it worth it.

And as you watch Brittany run a marathon, you so empathise with her, you feel her emotional roller coaster, cause you have been through it. So often it’s a thought of a loved one, a memory, people who inspire you with their courage, every time people poked fun at you and called you names, tried to pull you down (at times even succeeding in getting under your skin), misunderstanding you (not bothering to correct themselves) that propels you ahead. You feel her pain, her struggle, but you know her will power and her friends will help her get over that finish line. You know the jubilation that she feels by the mere act of crossing that finish line, cause you felt that too. Your timing and position doesn’t matter (or at least it doesn’t till you learn that of others), for those moments you feel like a winner. So you know how she feels, and you cheer her on, as if you were there with her (and I know I would if I was there).

So come the 19th of January 2020, I will be running my 6th Full Marathon, hoping to complete it strongly, and kick my own butt. To see my friends cheering me as I would others on the way, to just hug them at the finish line, and cry tears of joy, no matter what the outcome may be. So come the 19th and Roddie runs a Marathon (again)!