Pushing through…

Come the third Sunday of January and you once again find yourself anxiously waiting on that familiar ground. You’ve done this 12 times before but you still feel that nervousness and that anxiety building in you.

So you get your warm up done with your fellow RBs, and of course with Coach and you slowly make you way to the start line, joining the crowds of runners as they are herded to their respective starting line up. You try and get some last minute advice from coach before you get into your line up.

You calmly walk while those around you run, knowing that in this walk you can actually find a way to settle the nervous anxiety that’s been bubbling under the surface. So you walk to the start line as the spotlights and fireworks light up your way, marvelling how gorgeous VT looks in its lit glory.

As you reach the start line you pause a moment to start all yours apps and watch. You sign yourself as your cross over the start line, knowing that your race has begun. 

You mutter a quiet “you’ve got this” to yourself as you run steadily at a comfortable and steady pace as you had planned, letting those around you go ahead, knowing somehow you will meet them again, if not on the route, then at the finish line.

You note the weather is humid, as expected, and you already broken into a sweat. As expected the weather changed and gotten a bit hot and humid. But despite this you have a quiet confidence. You know you’ve trained well and you already executed your plan with a good FM in November. So all you had to continue with the plan but stay safe and extra hydrated than you did at Ahemdabad.

As you reach Marine Line you feel this beautiful light breeze on your face, quite a welcoming sensation from the humidity that you felt at the holding area.

You make your way around the Air India building and loop and join your friend Jay, who along with some of his friend is a guiding a runner who’s running completely blind. 

You cheer them and wish them the best and continue on your run making your way around NCPA.

You get a huge shoutout from your friends at Asic/stride with GB cheer zone. You give your buddy Rupal a sweaty hug and you continue on your way down Marine Lines, running past the Navy Band who are regaling the runners as the pass by as well the Punjabi Dhol.

You take this all in, all part of the experience, all part of the joy of running the TMM.

So you make your way past Girgaum Chowpattty, past Wilson’s College, taking a turn onto Babulnath and on your way up Peddar Road. You decide to put on your earbuds and listen to some music as you continue on your way. 

You fumble and drop them but somehow manage to get them. You know you’ve spent some time in trying to do so but you don’t let it get to you. You just keep running.

From here it’s on to Haji Ali sea face. You cannot help but marvel at the fact how much things have changed here over the years you’ve run the Mumbai Marathon. You no longer can see the sea face. Instead you see the bridges of the coastal road, twisting and turning across the sea.

With this thought you smile and continue on your way happy knowing that you are holding a steady face.

By now you have the HM runners on the other side of the road. You give a shoutout to friends you see.

Finally you hit the sea link and it’s time to dodge runners who suddenly stop in the middle of the road so that they can capture themselves on the sea link. Not to forget the ones trying to run in front of photographers, giving some silly pose. 

You consciously run to one side, trying your best to avoid these morons. You realise that there are lesser water stations this time around on the sea link, especially when you need one.

You let out a sigh of relief as you finally complete the sea link. You’re happy that there’s no signs of cramps that you faced in the past when coming off the sea link.

You complete looping Reclamation and on to Mahim Causeway, reaching the starting point for the HM. You are well aware that soon you’ll be hitting the 25k mark, which as per your plan and coach’s direction, is when you start to push your pace.

As you make your way down Mahim Causeway you have these children cheering you with their outstretched arms waiting for a high five from the runners going by. You make way to the side and return every high five, return every smile with a smile of your own. The simple but precious joys and pleasures of running the Mumbai Marathon.

From here you reach the start line of the Half Marathon and you know it’s turn to shift to the next gear.

You steadily pick up pace but at the same time not going all out. You know you are running strong and everything seems to be going as planned. You try not to think about the weather and cramps and try to take it one step at a time, making up ground and time.

Just when you thought you would have a good race you start to feel the tightness in your calves. As you turn on to Worli Seaface cramps begin to set in forcing you to walk as you can no longer keep your pace. You desperately look out for salt or oranges and water, which was not there at the water station, instead you had Relaod, something that you didn’t want at the time.

After walking for a while you feel your calves loosen up and once again you begin a slow run. You know your pace has dropped but that’s something you would cope with. For now all you could think and hope that the cramps would not affect you more. You had to take it one step at a time.

As you make your way to Haji Ali sea face you desperately looking for water as you have to take your gels with it, but to your disappointment the water stations are stocked up with Fast and Up Relaod, which you didn’t need.

Finally, at Peddar Road, you find some good Samaritans distributing water. You take a bottle and thank them profusely and make your way up Peddar Road. This is one of the reason I’ve always felt that Peddar Road is one of the best part of the race and not the dreaded part cause the support here is amazing.

You decide to walk up Peddar Road rather than run it. So you slowly make your up. Despite the cramps and the frustration you make it a point to smile cause you have chose to not give up and continue and battle the elements and complete what you set out to do.

Reaching the top of Peddar Road you start to run once again, using the downhill to carry you on.

You finally make your way past Babulnath and on to Giragaum Chowpatty telling yourself there just few kms to cover.

By now your run is reduced to a walk-jog strategy as every time you try to run cramps set in. You try not be too disappointed and just continue on.

Finally at Wilson’s College you meet Charu, your savour, who’s got oranges and coke for you.

After a quick chat and some pics, you thank Charu for always being the rock star she is and continue on your way, eating the oranges and the sipping the coke.

You hobble most of the way trying to keep the cramps at bay but sadly they seem to love you and want to keep you company. So all you can do run-walk-jog and do the best you can.

Slowly and steadily you reach the water station manned by your friends from Stride with GB/Asics run club. Sadly, they don’t have the water you are looking for, what they do have is their warm cheer and smile and motivation. So after getting your legs sprayed  and clicking pics and you are once again off on your away, albeit you more hobbling instead of running.

With every step your muscles get cramped even more. You just close your eyes and try to push through it all, after all you didn’t come this far just to throw in towel. So you continue to push. And somehow you find that adrenaline rush that carries you through to the finish line.

As you near the finish line you see your friend Suni who cheers you on and tells you that you can still make it below 5 hours. So with that one final push you make it across that finish line as you raise your hands in triumph.

As you soon as you cross the finish line your legs feel like they would almost give way from under you but still cramped. You hobble about trying to make your way to the grounds. Each step you take shoot this agonising  pain, but you just close your eyes and continue walking, greeting and congratulating friends who have completed their run. You collect your towel and head to collect your medal and join your friends.

Though you smile, you have this feeling of disappointment, and hearing the timings of others doesn’t make it any easier. You try not to let it affect you but somehow it gets to you.

You needed this race to go well, with all the shit you’ve been through in the past couple of months, and when it didn’t go as planned and you didn’t get the outcome you trained for you are left feeling low, you feel you’ve let yourself down.

You needed this race to be shot in the arm, the boast you needed, the spark that would reignite the fire in you. You needed it to find that hope. But sadly it wasn’t meant to be.

You wonder what did you do wrong? Did you go too fast after running nice and steady for the first 25 km? Was it the finickiness of the Mumbai weather or was it lack of sufficient water station with water or even salt and orange that lead to the cramp?

In all these thoughts that keep plaguing your head you realised that there are positives which you can take from the race. You’ve been focusing so much on what you did wrong, the negatives, you’ve overlooked the positives of the run.

You proved to yourself that you have it in you to complete what you have started. And when the chips are down you can find it in you to push through. You didn’t give up when cramps plagued and threatened another DNF. You just closed your eyes and pushed through the agony and successfully completed your 10th Full Marathon, and that in itself was a great victory. 

You didn’t give up, you didn’t give in, you completed what you set out to do. This resilience in itself was the hope that you needed, the spark to light the flame, the proof that no matter how bad things may seem you had the strength and resilience to see things through.

So no matter the outcome you can hold your head up high and be filled with this sense of pride for what you have managed.

So with that you know it’s back to the drawing board and keep growing and improving and come back stronger in 2026.

Mumbai… Dubai… the city conundrum

I’m constantly asked this, why don’t you settle down in Dubai, after all your sisters are here and wouldn’t your mum want to be closer to her daughters? Don’t you like Dubai ? Obviously, isn’t Dubai way better than Mumbai? 

Well to an extent I know what they say is true. I know that my mum would love to have her children together rather than shuffling between two countries (let alone two cities), and no matter how much I deny it , Dubai is leaps and bounds ahead of Mumbai, but then the heart belongs to Mumbai. Trust me this is not a patriotic thing, it’s just a personal thing.

They say home is where the heart is, and the heart belongs to Mumbai, cause no matter where I go, Mumbai will always be home.

Yeah, Mumbai is no Dubai, but then the same can be said about Dubai too, Dubai is no Mumbai. Mumbai has a charm of its own, it has a beating heart, feels very much real. Dubai, for all its trappings and luxuries and amenities, somewhere feels very man-made, feels very plasticky, and no matter what they say, life in plastic ain’t fantastic.

Plus mumbai is where the friends are, people who are more like family. Mumbai is where the tribe resides, whether it’s running or dancing. People who make you feel most alive, people who make you feel the love, people who make you feel yourself.

This is something you don’t have in Dubai. So you can be with a bunch of people and still feel all alone.

You’ve gone through so much in Mumbai, loss, heartbreaks, heartaches, failures, resentment, hopelessness. But despite it all you know there’s resilience, there’s still hope, there’s still faith, there’s people who will rally around you to save you from yourself. Something you are afraid that you may not have if you move anywhere else let alone Dubai.

So in the end, after every trip, it feels a pang of sadness to leave Dubai, after all you’ve been here so many times, and people who are your blood resides here, but your heart will always be there with Mumbai.

For Auld Lang Syne… a New Year’s Eve Musing

And so once again we stand 

At the precipice of a brand new year

A brand new book 

With  365 blank pages waiting to be filled

But before we begin to filling these  pages 

Before we begin composing our stories 

Let’s give thanks to the year  gone by

Let’s write an afterword 

Showing our appreciation for all it gave us

Cause through the highs and lows

The ups and downs

The losses and gains

The tears and smile

The happiness and sorrows 

It has shaped us

It has forged us

It has made us

Stronger to face 

Whatever that may come our way 

It has given us opportunities 

It has filled us with experience 

To overcome whatever life may throw at us 

So while we welcome a brand new year

We thank you dear old friend

For being ever at our side 

For teaching us the lessons 

We needed to learn 

For which we will forever be grateful 

So here’s to the new year 

And to the year gone by

And to days of Aud lang syne

The Old and the New

In another few hours and we will be ushering in another new year, glad to put the old one behind us, looking forward to the new one that stands in front us, just eagerly waiting for this one be over and done with and looking forward to a fresh new start.

But while we eagerly and wholeheartedly welcome a brand new year let’s not forget the one that’s gone by.

Yes it’s been a tough one, but we’ve survived it and come out alive and stronger, even though there were times we thought we would not make it through. Even though there were times we thought putting an end to it. But here we are, at the end, well make that almost at the end, of another year, a little stronger, a little wiser (hopefully), a lot older and greyer, hoping not to repeat what we have done in the past.

We have made our mistakes, but we need to learn from it so as to never repeat it again, owning up to our actions, facing up to the consequences of it. But let’s not be afraid or runaway from it. Let’s face it and learn from it. We have fallen a couple of times but remember that with each fall we managed to dust ourselves off and get back on our feet and continue on. 

And let’s face it, not the entire year has been bad, there have been moments of happiness, moments of triumph, moments that will help us weather any bad day.

Yes the year has been tough, but which year isn’t. Every  new year we hope it will be better than the old one, and at the end of the year we say the same. 

So rather than hope make the year better. If you need to pivot, make the pivot. Do what you need to do to make each year better. But don’t never give up.

There’s nothing wrong with hoping but it’s always better when you do and make your life the one that you hoped for.

Every year is going to be tough. But tougher the years the tougher you are, cause through the tears and the sorrow and the pain and the loss you’ll grow. 

You were single at the start of the year and you’re still single at its end and there no telling how long you’ll be the same, but then that’s ok. You’ll always hope to find someone. But one thing for sure you’ll never loose faith in love finding it’s way to you.

So while we welcome another year, let’s give thanks to another year gone by for all the lessons it has taught us, all the experiences and opportunities and all the memories, cause through it all it has shaped us and will continue to shape us for all the days to come. So thanks to the year gone by, cause no matter what, we will be always grateful you.

Be kind.. to yourself!!

Be kind to yourself 

People will come and go

You is all you’ll have 

So if you can show kindness to others

The why not be kind to yourself!

Don’t be too heard on yourself 

Learn to forgive yourself 

For all the missteps and mistakes 

No one is perfect 

So if you can learn to forgive others

Why not forgive yourself!

Allow yourself to mourn 

Mourn the passing of a loved one

Mourn the difficult parting

Mourn heartbreaks and break ups

Mourn endings

And then let the healing begin

And move on

Be not afraid to cry

To find those teardrops in your eye

Cause not matter what the world says

There’s no shame in crying

Cause when you do 

You let your bottled emotions flow

So be not afraid to shed a tear or two!

Accept yourself for who you are 

Cause we are not always perfect 

Perfection may or may not be a myth

But remember we are all flawed

Perfectly imperfect the way we are

So embrace your flaws and imperfection 

So that’s what makes you!!!

Learn to love yourself 

Like the love to you give to others

Why not give some for yourself 

Cause it’s only when you love yourself 

That you can love anyone else 

So please give a lot of love to yourself!!!

So be kind to yourself 

Others may not always be kind to you 

Your kindness may not always be reciprocated 

So nor matter what don’t give up 

Don’t ever change 

But be kind to yourself 

Cause that’s the way you find 

the hope and strength to carry on!!!

Oops I did it again… I ran another marathon!!!

Every single time, before, during and after a marathon, you tell yourself “Never Again”, and every time you find yourself doing just that all over again. Cliche as it may sound, but it’s something a runner goes through every time.

So once again you find yourself at yet another star,t all set and ready to go (albeit a bit annoyed because the host was bit too loud and you don’t do Zumba as a warm up for a race). 

You have this quiet confidence in you that you’ve got though, trying not to think about the 42+ kms you need to run. You had a lot of positive learning from your run at Khadakwasla, the previous Sunday. Now it’s time to translate what you did there for the 25k, to the FM, just as coach Dan had instructed you.

For a change you are not anxious about cramping and all the aches and pains you will face during the run. These are distant thoughts in your head, for a change. The only thing that you are anxious about is if you would be able to keep up with Yogi and Ketak, running at their planned easy pace. But then Coach’s words come to mind that each one should run their own race according to the way they’ve trained, which meant that you would be behind and by yourself. You try hard not let these thoughts overwhelm you.

So there

you at yet another start line to yet another marathon, patiently waiting for the countdown to the start. The warm ups are done and the national anthem has been sung. Pictures have been clicked and the wishes have been wished. Now all that’s left to do is run.

Once the countdown is done there’s a flurry of fireworks lighting up the early morning sky. You start all your apps at the start line, quickly signing yourself, and off you go, trying to keep up with Yogi, Ketak and Manish.

You follow them for a kilometre or two before you decide that they a running at a pace faster than you could manage. Instinctively Coachs words come to mind that you need to run at a pace that’s comfortable to you, you need to run your own race at your own pace.

Slowly and steadily as you drop your pace they go ahead and disappear in the sea of  runners. You try not to get worked up as you by yourself even though there are others around you.

You let others pass you by as you continue to run steadily at a comfortable pace. You fight the urge to speed up and catch up with them. You just keep telling yourself “you’ve got this”. 

So there you are running mostly by yourself. There are a few runners around you but you are by yourself as you don’t know them and they keep to their run or their friends with them. It does feel lonely being all alone but that’s ok, that’s what running is about, it can be lonely when you don’t have friends around. At the same time it can be quite meditative cause it’s just you and the road. You have the river for company for most part of the route.

So you keep rolling by the river, up and over and under quite a lot of underpasses that are all colourfully lit and seem to have garba music on the speakers, to your amusement, making you wonder if you should run or start doing the garba, which actually puts a smile on your face. 

To your surprise you are actually not overthinking or getting all stressed out about any signs of the onset of cramps. You just smile and  continue to go up and down and over and under, by the river and then over it and onto the other side with your music and the river for company. 

For most part the route feels quite monotonous and kind of boring just a handful of people around to cheer you on, besides the volunteers. After running a challenging but amazingly beautiful route at Khadakwasla the week before this feels like a meh kind of route. Only shows that smaller event that managed by runners can always be better than the bigger ones.

You meet a few known faces along the way who enquire if you had a time you were looking to complete the marathon, to which you quip that you had no specific target time. The only thing you were targeting was to run the race without cramping.

So you continue to run steadily and in control, without giving in to the urge to speed up.

You cheer people you know as they pass you and you pass them making a runner ask you if you were local, to which you reply proudly with a smile  that you are a Mumbaikar.

By the time you reach the halfway mark the morning sun is out banishing the darkness of the early morning. It’s time to get out your pretty pink sunglasses that till now were on the top of your head. You glad that although the sun’s out the weather still had that coolness, what does get you annoyed that there’s no sign of the u-turn even though you have passed the halfway mark, and then a couple of kilometres. 

The route then takes a turn from the river and passes through fields and few houses. Finally at the 25th km you reach the u-turn. From here you decide to push your pace slowly and steadily as coach had instructed. Your legs feel good and strong and like you did the week before at Khadakwasla you can push yourself. 

So you run steady but quicker making up ground to the ones ahead of you, catching up to the ones who had overtaken you. 

You marvel at the fact that you are running swiftly and steadily and strongly tackling the underpasses with a sense of ease while others are huffing and puffing their way on the return. You are running with this smile on your face  and a quiet confidence in your heart, constantly telling yourself you’ve got this. 

You cheer your fellow runners as you pass them, applauding their effort, giving them a thumbs up as you pass them by. In your own way you try to boost their energy, giving some that you have.

By and by you reach the dreaded 32nd km, the one where many runners hit the fabled wall, the one you cramped really badly in Dubai and in all the marathons you have run (except for the one where you DNF or the one where you already cramped at the sea link). For change there’s no signs of any cramps. Your legs feel strong if not fresh and you are doing well and going strong.

You finally catch up to your buddy Manish who’s slowed due to cramps. You check on him before moving on with your run, going over and under every under pass you had previously passed. 

You run past traffic that has swelled thanks to one side of being cordoned off for the marathon runners. You dodge men on bikes trying to make their way to the grounds to join their friends for a  game of cricket. You even manage to catch the fag end of the half marathoners, something you’ve  never been able to do before.

As planned, at the 37th km take your final gel knowing you will need all the energy you can muster for this last few kms.

You pass Yogi and the 4:30 bus, cheering g them on as only you can do. In your head you know you are going to do better than what you did Dubai.

By now the sun is out and the weathers warmer than what it was. You feel yourself slowing down a bit as fatigue sets in, but thankfully there isn’t any signs of cramps or tightness. So you continue to push along, singing  to yourself your Dory song “Just keep running running, what do we do, we running running”, telling yourself “you’ve got this”.

By now you’ve caught up to a lot of the half marathoners, as well a the full ones. It’s time for that one final push. You take a sip of water and off you go. 

You no longer feel fresh and fatigue has set in. The sun’s out in all its glory making the weather warmer. You also encountering the end of the Half Marathoners which means you are dodging a through the crowd, weaving your way towards the finish line. Despite it all there’s no sign of fatigue and you running faster than when you started.

With one final push you make it across the finish line, finishing faster than when you started. You raise your hands triumphantly, pumping your fist as you let out a delighted scream. Although you didn’t manage to match your best time, but then that was never your goal, what you did do was run the best FM you had ever run. There was a lot of positive learnings from the race which you could carry forward in your prep and running TMM, giving you confidence that you could repeat what you did here again at TMM and try and do better. 

You stand patiently at the finish line waiting for Yogi to finish. You smile at runner runners finishing their runs, congratulating as they cross the finish line. Your burgers and fries calls you to see how you’ve done and you excitedly tell her all that you’ve done, like an excited golden retriever puppy.

You capture Yogis finish and you both proceed to join Ketak, who had finished ahead of you. You walk a while trying to loosen the tightened legs but then you are also socialising while doing so, clicking pics as you go. 

You collect your medal but decide to skip the breakfast and head back to the hotel and have good one there.

And just like that you’ve run your second marathon of the year, and your best ever marathon run. There’s a lot of positives but at the same time there’s a lot of lessons learnt on the importance of executing the race, something you know you’ll take with you to TMM. 

So you leave Ahemdabad with a happy heart and head held high and a feeling of confidence that marathon are not tough after all when you are well prepared for it.

Rolling down the river… I mean by the lake

When a runner chooses a race it’s either to get a podium or routes where you can achieve a PB (that’s Personal Best for my non-running friends). Since both don’t apply to you, you choose to do a race for the  experience.

Let’s face it, I don’t run that fast, so podium is obviously way out of the question, and then I am not that young to be chasing PBs achieved in earlier days (trying hard not to sound like a grandpa here). So when you run, you run more for the experience than anything else. And yes how much you can push yourself and see how well your training is coming along.

So when your burgers and fries suggests the Khadakwasla Ultra, you kind of jump at the chance, but with caution as you have a FM coming up in the immediate week. But when Coach says it ok to take it as a training run, then you go ahead and register for the 25k. And when coach too is joining you then it’s going an interesting road trip.

Races are always a good place to meet so many inspirations, especially race like these that are small and runners are well looked after and are  used by many as their training runs for their ultras. So you meet many runners using this as their last long run before their Border Ultra (one border you are sure going to keep away from).

So after a good night sleep (another first as this crazy soul is always needles and pins the night before), you wake up, dress up, lace up, and raring to go. But not before you do your warm up.

So you join your fellow runners who are doing the 25k (like you) or a 35k (like coach and your burgers and fries) in going through the motion. The 100k, 75k and 53k have already been flagged off (yes that’s what some of the runners were doing).

Once the warm up is done it’s time for the flag off with the 35k being flagged off first and then the 25k.  But runners will be runners  who are more bothered about the pre-race photo-ops than the actual instructions. So you had almost all the 25k runners starting off with the 35k runners. That leaves just you and few other runners (who like good bacchas paid heed to the instructions) who start off few minutes after the 35k runners have taken off.

So you start all your apps and you are off into the unknown, into the darkness, with just the moon for constant company, lighting your way.

You constantly fight the temptation of giving into the initial adrenaline rush and just speeding up, reminding yourself you need to take it easy and keep your pace below 7.

So you run by dark house with its occupants fast asleep, while dogs come barking to the gate. Then there are those who look up from their slumber to see who are these crazy people running at this ungodly hour, but then they are too sleepy do anything, so they return back to their slumber.

There’s a nip in the air, not too chilly that it would make you shiver, just right to have good run. Again you remind yourself that you need to control and take it easy.

The road for most part is good and you are glad you’re not dodging potholes which would have been difficult in the moonlight.

You steadily make your way past runners, letting the ones rushing pass you  go by. You slowly and steadily catch up with coach and your burger and fries, and glad to see them go steadily and surely.

So off you go on your own, along a few of your fellow runner, running by people all huddled up as they make their way to the temple of their morning prayers, while you run in your vest and your shortest shorts, flaunting your sexy legs (as Adi and Ritu call them). Surly you get those looks from people wondering if you don’t feel cold in what you are wearing. 

As you steadily run, trying to control your pace, you find yourself all alone with just a few runners here and there, and of course the moon and the road for company. Both there with you all the time. And you are grateful for their company as you follow them, or is it they following you. So when the road zigs, you zig, and when it zags you zag, while the moon goes from your left to the right and then to the left and back to the  right as the road zig-zags.

The air nice and crisp and the road is dotted with these beautiful orange wildflowers. Every now and then you get a smell of manure (it smell and not stench) as you pass houses with cattle shed.

Around the 8th km the lake finally comes insight, and there’s not much you can see in the darkness. You can make out the water and the dotted lights of the house in the distance.

You take this all in, after all you are here for the experience, and a bit of training. You try not to think too much or too ahead of yourself. You try to put a positive spin that every elevation will be a decline on your way back. You try not to bother about the elevation. After all a rolling route is way better than a flat one cause it keeps the run more interesting. Also for every incline, you can use the momentum to carry up the next one. So not much energy spent.

You try your best to smile for the shutterbugs on the route, after all you don’t want to look all frowny and grumpy in your pics, something you always end up doing.

By the time you reach the turnaround point for the 25k, dawn is gradually breaking with inky blackness slowly residing to a beautiful orange glow.

Now that the sun is up it’s time to put your pretty in pink neon glares on. Not that the sun is harsh, in fact the weather still has that coolness in the air, but then you want to make a style statement. So on comes the glares.

As you make your way back you pass a number of runners on their way. You cheer them on as only you can do cause every runners needs to be cheered on, and who knows your cheer can be the energy boost they need.

You see coach and your burgers and fries on the other side, so you stop to click them, as you said you would. After that it’s off on your way. 

By now you’ve found your rhythm, that comfortable pace that you have been steadily maintaining and building upon. You decide that your legs and body feel strong enough to push it gradually. Most importantly the rolling road doesn’t feel so daunting anymore (in fact it was never daunting). So you up your pace a bit, not trying to overdo it. 

You pass runners who were ahead of you, who are taking walk breaks on slopes. As you don’t feel the need to do the same as you have been handling the inclines pretty well, you continue to run, giving them a thumbs up and cheering them on.

By and by it’s just you and the road with the sun out to keep you company. Most of the runner doing 35k have passed you by in the other side and you have managed pass a fe runners who were ahead of you. You actually don’t mind being along in the road, cause somehow it feels quite soothing having yourself for company, and your music. So you continue to chug along at pretty neat pace with no signs of soreness and tightness or even muscle pain or fatigue or discomfort. So you are definitely doing something right, in line with what coach had instructed.

You even stop to click pics of the sun from the fields and while it lights up the road ahead.

 By now you’re quite comfortable at the pace you are running at. You even marvel st the fact that you manage to tackle the inclines, without getting overwhelmed by it. You pass runner who seem to be struggling with them while you, all fresh, steadily and comfortably handle those inclines (well not entirely comfortably as you feel a slight tightness in your quads). But on the whole you are running quite comfortably, running at a steady pace.

Finally you take the final right turn and you make your way up the gradual slope and to the finish line finishing quite strongly. 

As you cross that finish line, like all good runner me you first stop your watch and all the apps you had on  and then pose for pics at the finish line.

You make your way to the physio as you start to feel the strain on your right glute, for some much needed icing.

You then patiently wait for coach and burgers and fries to finish their run, hoping nothing untoward happened along the way, especially on the inclines and the rough patches. Hoping your burgers and fries didn’t get distracted with any of the kitties on the route.

You marvel at the fact that so many runners kept running beyond the finish line (often in circles) just to ensure they complete their mileage. Something only runners will do.

You are delighted to learn that your good friend Prabha secured a podium, and so happy and excited and proud for her.

By the time you you are all happy for Prabha, coach and burgers and fries make their way to the finish line and you like a happy holder retriever puppy (I’ve been told that I’m one) rush to cheer them and capture it. 

So you Hi Five coach and hug your burgers and fries checking if she is ok and then helping her to the recovery zone for her to ice her sore ankle and body.

After they collect their medals it’s picture time. But not before you refuel yourself with the breakfast. You congratulate all the podium finishers and then it’s actually picture time.

Once it’s time to make your way back to your room to make the trip back home. Surprisingly there’s no soreness whatsoever and so you are able to navigate the stairs easily cause that darn lift stopped working.

You are actually going to return back for a two hours Rueda class.

With that it’s another race in the bag but this one with a lot of good memories and most importantly lessons to take back and work on.  It’s a weekend well spent rolling down the river, I meant lake.