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)!

.. and sometimes the Road wins

.. there are days when the road wins. Will this is the case most of the time rather than sometimes. But then that’s the way of a runner, conquer or be conquered, but keep that Josh high (so how’s the josh???) take each run as they come, trying to constantly remind yourself, baba this is off-season Training, so stop fucking grumbling about your pace, stop fretting about your sppppppeeeeeeeddddd!!!

So you drag your carcass out of bed, gulp down your coffee (black, no sugar), and pray to the weather gods, to the old gods and the new, the gods with many faces, the drowned gods, to show mercy, not make you bend your knee. But then they seem to be having none of it, and are hell bent to make your run tough. Any moment  you feel like you’re going to hear a loud cry “Dacarays”, and all the would be left of you would be a pile of ashes from dragon fire, aka poor Lord Varis (RIP). But then the sun and summer are doing such a banged up job, so there’s no need for Dragons and Dragon Queens. Damn looks like I have a bad case of GoT hangover and I still haven’t seen the last episode.

So you run in the heat, grumbling, grudgingly, trying your best to keep up with your buddy who seems to have awesome stamina (damn don’t tell her I said that, but shit she’ll read this). You two busy chatter away of runs and races, as the third stooge isn’t there to shush us, and grumble how much you two jabber.

So you run, and you run, and you continue to run, chattering away but then there’s a different story going on inside your head, inside you, where every part of body grumbles and complains, threatening to revolt, threatening mutiny, after all what did they do to deserve being tortured in the heat of summer. But still you continue to run, not wanting to bruise your ego (not just your toxic masculinity), not that it is bloated, just that you don’t want to be the one to give up. So you trudge on, till you finally have no other option but to walk. Till then you are drenched in your own sweat, looking like you’ve just stepped out of the shower with your runnings clothes on, or as if you just peed in your pants. But you are grateful you can walk even if you have to limp.

Now since our socially unfriendly Dyloooo started his run early, we make the most of his absence and just lighten up and be the social butterfly that we are. So in the end you have a good 18 under your belt, which you mar mar ke did. Today the road May have but not today, oops I mean not again, cause the Rodman remembers.

Running for the Women and Men in White

There’s always that marathon that’s close to your heart, that’s special to you, that no matter where it’s held or when it’s held you will always make it a point to run it. The WNC Navy Half Marathon is one such race. Let’s face it, for a seasoned runner (or any runner for that matter), BKC is the most boring place to run, it’s the most saturated place for race with so many races being held there, and to have more than 10k runners run on those narrow roads can be quite the task. That coupled with a route that has more twist and turns than a murder mystery, along with a Mumbai weather that can’t seem to make its mind, one time cool and then going a few notches up (and that’s nots because of the runners or the men in white, or maybe it could be).

Inspite of all this what keeps us coming back to do the Navy Half Marathon? Well for starters where else would you get the opportunity to run with and for the men in white? It’s your way of saying thank you for their service and sacrifice and how much you respect them and are grateful to them for keeping us safe. There’s a feeling of prestige, a sense of pride, an honour of running for the men and women in white, and that’s what keep us coming back for more, at least that’s applicable to me. Where else would you have the chance to enjoy the sweet tunes of the naval band. It is also a way of saying thank you to the navy for the gems you’ve gotten the opportunity to know and be inspired from, like the late Raviji, Bijay, Rajat, Nadar Sir and many more dear runner friends, not to forget your best friends of the merchant navy, Ryan, Croydon and Praveen.

Standing at the start line you get the chills when you seem the beams of the tricolour. All through the route you have cadets and officers part of managing the route and manning the water stations along with the volunteers. And then you receive your medals from the men and women in their uniform. You have people clamouring to have a picture taken with them, making them the most sort after people in the race. And that chills you get up your spine when the naval band plays the national anthem, it fills you with pride.

Because of these you are willing to look past the shortcomings of running quite a boring route that’s so twisty and turny, and in a way not too well managed, or the poor volunteers tried to their best ( but then who starts a 10k before the 21k when knowing the back end of the 10k is filled with non serious runners, if we can even call them that, and the front end of the 21 has to tackle them). 

So inspite of all this the navy is one of the run I have always done, though not always  enjoyed, but all the time filling me with a feeling of prestige and honour, brining me back for more.