Bib No. 42420… excuse me please!!!

 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.

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.

You can’t hurry LOVE!!!

You can’t hurry LOVE, you just have to wait, LOVE don’t come easy!

It’s going to make you wait and wait till you can’t take the wait no more. And just when you want to give up on it, it will slowly creep up on you, like a burglar in the night (if this still happens in a very digital world), and steal your heart without you knowing.

It will make you work and work and work with no outcome! It will show you an oasis only for it to turn out to be a mirage! 

It will make you kiss a thousand of frogs (not that I am calling the ones who I’ve dated frogs, just using the analogy, and now I am greatly digressing form the topic) till you find the one! 

On the plus side you get to meet and kiss (and much more) a few, if not many, till you eventually get there, if you are open to meeting them all.

You can’t hurry love, it’s going to take its own sweet time to get to you (if you’re lucky enough for it to find its way to you).

And although you may wear your heart on your sleeves, you can’t make a heart to love, to see you as a potential mate. And let’s face it, if you have to make someone see you that way then that may not be worth it, cause you can’t really make someone love you, you can’t force someone to have those feelings for you, just as you can’t do the same for you. You can’t hope for someone to fall in love with you, to see you for who you are and what you could be, if they are not ready for you, if they don’t want to.

And if they say that they are not in the same place as you are, they need time, know that you are better off not waiting and hoping and pining. You are doing a disservice to yourself (and the same applies when you are the one saying this).

If it has to happen it will happen. Never keep your hopes up, or hold your breath, cause it could only lead to headaches and heartbreaks (lucky are the few who’s waiting are rewarded). 

There’s going to be false starts and dead-ends and paths that lead to nowhere, going around in circle, all adding to the anxiety and tension that racks us.

But then we are fools, even after knowing it all we will still be shameless and loose our mind and sleep and increase our anxiety and hope, when we need to patient (and not become a patient of our of our own doing). Love’s going to take its own sweet time.

We are going to react when Cupid strikes with his arrows behaving like a fool, when we should be rational.

So in short, you can’t hurry love. You’ve just have to wait. Love doesn’t come easy!!!!