My first half marathon

Start point of the race was given as Ranganatittu bird sanctuary cross, Srinrangapatna. Three of my office colleagues accompanied me from Bangalore on that day morning to reach the start point. My colleague Alagarsamy picked me, Abhi and Aseem and we hit the road at 4.00AM in the morning. Though dawn was clear, my eyes had intermittent hazy vision due to the short stint of sleep the previous night of just about 3 hours. I took over the driving job post Kengeri since I was conversant with the route, which completely left me no room to rest my eyes.

We were on the start point on dot! Meaning, absolutely no leisure time to stretch or warm-upourselves. Speakers were blaring with announcement of the start of half marathon, that too ahead of schedule. Organizers were proud of it, though I was not. I badly needed a couple of minutes more to warm myself after 2 hours of AC ambiance! However the excitement of starting the race along with the pro-league has a charm and glamour of its own.

Runners of all kinds were present. Irrespective of being an avid runner to a beginner (like me), runners were sophisticatedly decked up with iPods, synced with Nike+ health monitors, wrist watches (each sized close to a Glucose biscuit) with all kinds of running info providers and knee & shin, elbow supporters; everything to suit individual running comfort. Sporty headbands and bandanas, flashy running outfits and a variety of water bottles and squeezers created an enchanting ambience of running splashing the spirit of sport in the air.

The running trail was off Ranaganatittu bird sanctuary road, starting ~50metres off the main road towards the bird sanctuary (and not essentially inside the sanctuary). The trail is typically dug by the bullock carts and tractors, which shuttle on a routine. The trail thus stamped was about five to six feet wide and 700 half-marathon runners had just begun their race. Few to win and be declared the best of the lot, and few simply to finish the marathon, time it for themselves and feel proud. The latter formed the major crowd

I heard that a total of about 900 runners participated. About 700 of them took part in the half (21.1kms), about 100 running the full (42.2kms) and the rest treading the 10K run. Numbers might not be accurate, rather only to define the proportion of participation. The full marathon had begun 15 minutes prior to that of half at 6.30AM and the 10K run was scheduled to begin at 8.00AM.

After a swift warmup, I started for the run. My timing chip fitted to my shoes transmitted a beep in the receiver that pronounced the start of my first half marathon. In the mood of a half-baked bread I turned-on my stopwatch sporting a professional act, in the wake of exceeding my personal expectations of that day. First five minutes I was busy adjusting my sun glasses over my forehead since the sun had not shown-up yet and tying-up the head phones chords across my running Tee connecting my heavy-duty mobile phone and selecting the playlist. A song from “Rock-on” played-on and I could sense the warmth of my body brimming out by then and I was feeling the pulse picking-up.

I reached the 5K-point comfortably, where a board read “Take U-turn for 10K”. I felt happy that I got myself graduated to the bigger game of 21.1K. I kept running observing my breath constantly. I wanted to maintain the breathing rhythm as far as possible, since I knew that, the moment I begin to gasp for breath, that’ll be the end of my run. The key here is (my personal experience), as long as my body is maintaining the oxygen saturation levels thru blood circulation, my respiratory system need not strain itself to gasp for more air, and hence not strain my muscles and drain myself inhaling harder and go puffing.

The trail was as expected a mix of well-set mud with loose and sintered gravel, along with a tiny patches of tarmac. This uneven, rough and off-road trail made the run harder for me avoiding any ankle twist or tripping on my face. A canal of Cauvery ran to the left of the trail for close to about 80% of the trail, and she was in her full might. To the right of the trail and beyond the canal was only green expanse of paddy fields in their varying stages of life cycle. Being a Sunday, farmers were busy ploughing, few chatting among themselves in between work and few taking pictures and recording videos of the runners in their mobiles, and few trying hard to console their oxen while the latter getting paranoid looking at this flashy human-stock stampeding their trails.

The trail felt like never-ending, running through various patches of the route. By then the great divide of the pro-runners, not-so-pro-runners and beginner runners had happened maintaining their natural pace. The pro ones had already taken the U-turn and running back to the finish line. That gave me some relief that the U-turn is approaching, but how far it is would depend upon the running league I belong to- pro, not-so-pro or beginner (this is hard to comment on). And at last I sighted the U-turn of the marathon at 10.5kms mark. Half-marathoners would loop this circuit once to finish their race; however the full-marathoners have to loop it twice. There was a water counter with biscuits, peeled oranges, bananas, cookie sized sandwiches, along with water and Lucozade sport drink. These quick-grabs of food would sprinkle some energy in the runners who have started race in an empty stomach.

I was already feeling triumphant for reaching the half point. Half of my run was complete! I took note of my stopwatch reading at the end of the loop, which read around 58 minutes. Another reason to make me happy, that my timing had improved from 61 minutes of 2010 Sunfeast 10K to the current run. I still had no idea till then how the return journey would be!

I was bumping into my running partner Abhi quite often post the U-turn, though he was maintaining a short distance of lead all thru. I could see him just better than limping some times. His foot had already gone from bad to worse due to the blisters that had popped-up beneath his foot. SPB, Chitra, Kunal and few others were still humming in my ears thru my headphones powered by my phone. I realized this in my previous run while climbing the Nandi hills that music did had an effect on my run. It helped me focus on the run and not let loose the mind to wander around and go complaining about the sport itself.

In a short while after the U-turn, may be about 12 or 13kms, the short playlist on my phone started repeating the songs. I felt I was not desperate for that music anymore and removed the plugs from my ears. I could not believe it; it was a new opening of the race for me. The sounds of the smooth rapids of the river, chirping of the birds, mixed with not-so-rhythmic gallop of the runners, all these added a different dimension to the run. I felt I had missed this for three-quarters of the race already!

This luxury did not last long anyways. The sun had really picked-up and was in full-throttle shedding his heat on the humble runners. Though my breathing was still in control, my limbs were giving-up on me. They had not expected such a prolonged strain soon after a luxury drive.
I was not finding any reason for my act of running that morning, that too for 21kms! I was fighting hard inside more than outside finding out why I was doing this to myself. Few interesting thoughts (at least for me) that came up:

• I’ve publicized about my run before a considerable crowd and I can not get back saying “I could not do it…”
• I had never had a “bad” timing in my previous runs, I cannot lose this one since it’s longer than the former ones
• I have boasted before my wife that I can comfortably finish the run. I’ll be a loser if I give-up half way
• My FIL thinks that I’m adventurous and keep taking such new challenges… what would he think of me if I come home without at least a decent story!
• I’ve come all the way 100kms from Bangalore for this run on a Sunday morning, and I better give it my best shot ….. and so on…

Whatever thoughts flew-by, I kept running, breaking for a while and brisk walking and again running. Finally made it to the last 5km mark. Added disappointments at times were when a couple of ladies whom I had overtaken earlier with heroism were running past me now. This was a definitely a slap on my ego! I had to gather all my spiritual and abstract concepts of philosophies within me to overcome this fatigue of failure. I consoled myself that this is still my first half marathon and with His grace I would have more opportunities for a payback

Runners were screaming with intermittent panting that the finish line is nearing... “…it’s 200mts.. 400mts… 250mts…” Such a simple number-game also annoyed me. I wanted someone to scream-out the exact number. How can someone say something just for the sake of motivation? I realized that these conversations in me were due to the cramps in my thigh, calf and muscle sticking on the shinbone that had lately sneaked in.

Every step was an effort; however the finish line is always magical. Irrespective of the body condition, one gets all the energy and zeal to touch it at the earliest and be done with the race. The same I guess happened with me and the anchor on the microphone shouted-out my name closing the finish line and the timing chip on my shoes again obediently transmitted another beep. My first half marathon was complete. Halted my over-exhausted stopwatch... it read 2hours 39mins. Abhi had finished it 5 minutes earlier than me. We exchanged a hi-fi and limped thru the crowd to warm down, drink some water and fuel ourselves with some carbohydrates. Though not enough energy was left in my oxygen starved body to celebrate the victory, the mind was in its full-high.

I was tired, I was blank & I was happy. Seldom could I experience all of these at once. May be I ran to experience this moment. Now I have a reason to run again, run better. I acknowledge my parents and my wife for motivating themselves to wonder more over my victories in disbelief, my running friends for constantly encouraging me during practice and the race to get better timing, RFL for creating opportunities to generate a sporting identity for ourselves. And not to forget Chiranjeevi, Sridevi, Farhan and other stars without connecting to whose songs I could not have stretched myself at the nick of the moment