Sunday, January 16, 2011

My Experience at Mumbai Half Marathon 2011

Today 16th January 2011 was the 8th edition of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, and why was it special for me?

Cause I ran the HALF MARATHON (21.09KM) and COMPLETED it.

That's right, I completed it, I saw the timing as 2 Hours 57 Mins. Agreed the Ethiopia's Girima Assefa who won the 2011 edition of the Mumbai Marathon completed the 42 KM in 2 hours 9 mins, but he is a professorial runner while I won't even say I am a amateur runner. But still I completed it, the feelings so great.

I think everyone who knew I had signed up for the Half Marathon was telling me, "YOU!! You Savio are going to run?" and then mocking smile ask me if I am practicing.

Well guys, I did run, I did complete the race, and I was not the last one to complete the race. Wow!! It feels so good to prove you wrong. But I think I have to thank you also, I am not happy giving you credit, but your mocking faces were on my mind when I started the race, and something in me really wanted to prove you wrong.

Well how was the experience, I think my smiling face should just answer that (Bad luck you can't see it).

Got up at 4:30 A.M had an Double Omelet, and left. Caught a rickshaw to Bandra Reclamation. The start of the marathon was just  at the start of Bandra-Worli Sealink (Click here to view the Half Marathon route,). I am at the holding area at 5:45. Man the crowd was huge, real large crowd. (Papers say 11000 had registered for the Half Marathon). While waiting for 6:15 the official start time of the Half Marathon, it was announced that Anil Ambani was running with us and also the oldest runner is of 86 years old. I was like if a 86 year old man can run, so can I.

6:15  Flagged off, The 2011 Mumbai Marathon's Half Marathon had started, and surprise Savio (i.e I) was running in it. :)

It was 3 K.M from the holding area to the start of Sea-Link. I was tired and breathing pretty heavily, and was thinking to myself will I really be able to complete this. At that moment, I wish I knew your name, but Miss Beautiful legs running with a yellow top and Maroon shorts (real short shorts, wow!!) "Thank You!". I finished the entire Sea-Link run only by watching your ASS (sorry! Butt its true). Your great Ass helped me run the entire Sea-Link. (You got away when I stopped just before the end of the sea link, But guess what, I over took you at marine lines, guess your energy had run out by then)

As all Mumbaikars know, on a normal day we aren't allowed to stop on the Sea-Link, let alone "piss on the sea-link". 1 good attraction of this run for me was that I would be able to run/walk on the sea link. But I emptied my bladder on the sea-link also. (hey you people, who are wrinkling up their noses and rolling their eyes, I am still an Indian, and when seeing other people reliving them-self there, I though I might never get this chance again, so no regrets! But I add I am against reliving yourself at public place, please use the toilet). You guys might have guessed it, this is where I lost sight of Miss Great Ass. But believe me there were no dearth of great Asses there, Indian, foreigners name it. Sight for the eyes man!!! (am I a pervert, I wouldn't say that, I say I am just a male).

From the Sea-Link, worli sea face, Haji-Ali etc just kept going, I guess by then I started feeling I will be able to complete this half-marathon. I got to say I was not running full time, it was alteration between jogging and walking. I got to say thanks to all those people who kept passing water bottles, sports drinks, parle biscuits, chocolates or just cheering us, Thank You, Thank You a lot!!!!

I got to mention this old uncle, from the looks of him I guess he was anyway above 70, at Marine lines when I was in one of my walking phases he came up behind me and told me "No relaxing, come on keep running" Seriously Uncle I bow myself to your spirit. after so many KM, you still had energy left to cheer people up. Cause of you my next run from Marine Lines to Chruchgate was possible, Thankyou.

At Chruchgate again I was like dam tired, It was just 1 KM more to go and 15 Mins to the 3 hour mark (If I didn't mention, I wanted to complete the race within 3 hours, If not they were saying certificates wouldn't be issued) But guys this last KM, even though the cheering was the largest, was difficult, after the last run I was practically dragging my feet, I tried to run the last 500 meters, nope! no energy. But somehow I finished the race in  2 hours and 57 Mins. 

As soon as I crossed the finish line, I felt so good. All the pains disappeared at that moment, (It came back double in 5 mins but at that moment all I had in me was joy). The thing is that, it was not only others who said I wouldn't finish it, I, myself was not sure if I was going to do it. To prove myself wrong felt dam! dam! good!

I collected my participation medal, got on a train to Kurla and came back home. had food and tried to sleep. Guess what, I some how was unable to sleep. :) guess because I was too happy to sleep. Now got to do one more thing, I got to go to Office tomorrow and prove another of my friend wrong who said If I ran the race I wouldn't be able to come to office the next day ;)

Question: How was I, with almost no training able to finish the 21Km race? I guess, it proves what my mom always says, "Savio, you are dam stubborn, If you want to do something you will do it, But if you don't want to - Then even GOD won't be able to make you do it".  :)

Before I end I want to thank a couple of people here (I already thanked those buggers who said I wouldn't complete it). 1) To God, Thanks for helping me complete the race without any injury 2) Abhishek Mathur, You were the guy who put the idea of the marathon in my mind, I registered for the 21 cause of you. 3) To Motorolla Rocker E6 (My cellphone) for keeping me company on the race by playing FM 4) to 93.5 Red FM, for the music which kept me company 5) To all the beautiful girls in the race, for keeping my mind off the pain ;) 6) to Standard Chartered for organising the race and allowing me to run 7) To everyone who cheered me. Thank You!!! 


---Update
My official race timing is 2:52:23
(Don't belive me, check it out at http://www.timingindia.com/results_page.php My BIB no is 13892)

Not posing my photos as marathon-photos.com charge 19.90 pounds for 3 pics, can't imagine anyone paying that much for 3 pics. Still if you want check it out from here

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Savio, Awesome. Good work and u found exactly the right words to express. Perfect and inspirational description. (The guyz will find it a little more inspiring than the girls though.) :)

Twisha

Anonymous said...

Most important thing first. You could have at least noted down participant no. of the "Miss Beautiful Legs". We could have found out whole history, geography and geometry too if you wanted. :P
Well now that I read this blog I am sure if our Miss Beautiful legs were not around you, you would have even finished first.

It was great to know the punctuality of organizers. Really had not expected that.

After reading your spray painting experience on Sea Link, I know why the starting area was called Holding area.

About the (de)motivating comments of the buggers you mentioned, Negative Motivation always works well with stubborn people.
Jokes apart, I'm sure many of them said it out of worry for you. After all there were incidences of people fainting and getting heart attacks due to lack of training (read practice).

Mumbai spirit has always been so great which fascinates me. People who for their own reasons
couldn't run it were there to cheer, to help or to organize.

Finally, congrats for the run and the medal and more for the spirit of running it, completing it.

Kudos...

nadia T said...

nice blog.. while I skimmed past the initial part about the beautiful legs :D it was a fascinating read!

We mentioned your blog along with other marathon experiences on our blog, hope thats cool! :)
http://blog.soulcare.in/mumbai-marathon-a-melting-pot-of-touching-exp

R's Mom said...

Great reading..congrats..and I wasnt the beautiful legs...I was the fat girl in the pink shirt who was huffing and puffing her way through the crowd and stopping for breath every 2 minutes ;) hope you get the number of that beauty legged next time you run :)

Savio said...

@Twisha lol!! but i hope the girls are inspired a bit, as there were fewer girls than boys, ;)

@Gourav thankyou for being one of the wellwishers, I hope the (de)motivating buggers keep (de)motivating me for better things.

@Nadia thank you for including my blog on your site..It was fun(pain!) running, and felt good writing about it and being appreciated.

@R's Mom : you are an inspiration, being a mom u get time to run, more than that u get time to blog about it. tell me do you have a clock that has more than 24 hours in it in a day?

Post a Comment