My First Half Marathon

I think the most difficult part of completing my first half marathon was to be able to make the decision to do it. This wasn't easy; I could barely run a couple of 100 meters a year before. But somewhere towards the end of 2009  I decided I will run and complete the 21K. With the kind of travel my job involves I could never follow a routine. There is another thing that always bothers me, somewhere I have a feeling that I am very good at starting new things or projects but lose interest somewhere in middle and do not bring them to a logical conclusion. Finishing the half marathon was something I wanted to do to prove me wrong and break that feeling.

I had announced to all my family and many of my friends that I am participating in this and my kids also were looking forward to this event. My daughter sure had doubts believing that her lazy father could really do it. Many people helped me reach this goal, the first and foremost my family specially my wife. She believed more than I did that I will be able to do it. Second my friend Andy who is an avid runner. He has many marathons to his credit and no ultra is long enough for him. Last but not the least another friend of mine Ajay who gave me the final push when I almost decided not to run almost 45 days before the race as I was not able to practice because of the terrible business schedule I was following..

What went worse for me is that three days before the race my right foot developed some pain and it got bad as I used to walk. This was the worst nightmare I could have had and it was coming true. I decided to take it slow and be on complete rest so that I can recover. The pain did not go off though it did get suppressed with the pain relief medicine.

Finally the Day arrived. The longest I managed before the race was 2 hrs almost 15K thrice in last 3 months. The additional one hour or 6 KM sure was going to be tough and I knew the challenge at hand. I did do a lot of reading on the internet on what to do and what not to do. I reached the venue with Dharmendra (my bro) at 6:25 AM. The race was to start at 7:30 AM; the foot was better but far from fit. I did not want to miss the opportunity to run as then I would have had to wait for another one year for this opportunity. I met Andy and couple of guys at the ground. The weather was great and the arrangements looked good.

We queued at the gate and at 7:30 the gates opened, there were about 8000 runners. I reached the start line in less than 2 min and started running at my pace. I am not a fast runner at all and all the reading I had done suggested that I should just run at my pace and not look at how fast or slow others are running. I did just the same. Till about 5K I was having no issues the foot was hurting but just a little. I could ignore the pain. As I neared the 7K point the pain started coming back. Running at Raj Path was good. The sight was great running towards the President's house with the India Gate in the back drop. There were so many people around young and old. I was just amazed by the stamina that many of the old people were exhibiting. I did catch up water whenever I passed through a station also grabbed a energy drink once in a while. I completed 10K with not much difficulty other than the foot getting worse from bad. I knew if I slowed down or stopped the pain will take over me and it will be very difficult to run any further hence I continued. I decided at about 12K to stop at a medical station and use a pain relief spray, the station came at 13K but there was no spray -as luck would have it. Because I had slowed down to catch up on the medical station hence the pain just took over...then I decided to completely overlook it and started running. After two three minutes the pain settled down to the level it was before. At 16 Km there was a flyover to cross; the things started getting worse from thereon. One I had only done 15Km before that target was over, second the pain in the foot was catching up and third the sun was up and the fatigue was catching up. I decided that I was no way going to give it up now being close to the target. I ran at the slow pace and did not walk as I knew that after walking I will not be able to run again. As I entered the 19K I was totally drained out the last two Km were looking nothing less than the 21K. I kept on running. I could see many people coming in may way and I was crossing them pushing some of them aside keeping my pace on. Then I saw the 500m mark and felt that I was close, my body had almost given up specially my foot but then there was not looking back. I had to complete in less than 3 hrs that was the target set and timing certificates were to be given to all those who complete within this time. I did not want to lose to 3hr target, and then suddenly I saw the finish line and the clock on the top mentioning time lapsed as 2:50:39. At that time I stepped on the finish line.

Yes I did it..in less than 3 hrs. The feeling that I was able to keep the commitment to myself was great. A sense of achievement and fulfillment was all over me. I walked into the ground and met my family...my wife, kids, friends. I could barely walk but wanted to enjoy the moment with them than to let them know the pain. My wife clicked a couple of pictures of the glorious moment. I had some fruits and lots of water. Then I sat down, my foot was in bad shape and I could barely walk. I decided to call it a day and limped my way to the car parking.

Driving home as I looked back at the road that I ran on, it almost seemed like a dream....but then the journey like this always starts with a dream. Chase your dreams they may not be as far as you think!!