When
at 4:08 AM, I left for running a marathon on my now familiar route including
the Beach road, my mind was on my many running friends who must be preparing
for their 5:40 AM start at the Mumbai marathon. I had taken a decision after
the Auroville marathon at the beginning of this year not to participate in any
paid events.
It
was initially a knee jerk reaction to the boredom of having done each of the
major events three to four times and finding them no longer challenging. The
added problems of travel, stay and diet (Vegan to boot!) only made me more
resolute in my renunciation. I did miss the crowd cheer and the atmosphere.
Having moved to a city with a popular running culture, every day of my morning
run has been like a miniature version of one of the organized runs. Occasional
visit by runner friends from other cities have ensured that I don’t miss
company. I found the overheads for running for less than four hours to be too
much in most of the organized runs of today. I find the Expo and events
preparatory to the run too cloying with commercial overtones that the benefits
of being able to compare notes with runner friends too small a compensation.
The exorbitant price tag and travel have decided it for me now. All said and
done missing Mumbai marathon was heart wrenching and my thoughts during the run
on Sunday were with the runners in Mumbai.
I
was not expecting to see many runners in my run today, but, I found good
company of @Srikumar Rengarajan He met me just after the War memorial when I was on my
third four kilometer loop and on the way to the Napier bridge. I still had two
stretches from Lighthouse to Napier bridge and the run back home to complete my
quota of a full marathon. He immediately abandoned his run and joined me. He
was with me from Napier bridge to Light house and one more loop from Lighthouse
to Napier and back. We had interesting discussion on the Hindu Lit Fest and
religion.
I
finished the last loop where I met one regular who stopped me to find out the
route and distance I run each day. Neither of us got the others name, as they
say ‘Jaat Na Poocho Saadhu Ki’. On the way back I was feeling strong and
despite humidity opted to not take the water break at AVM choultry. I met @Jayendra
Soni near Valluvar Kottam near the finish. I finished the run at 8:24 AM and it
was a creditable 4:16 hour marathon.
Event or no event, your running is infectious and inspiring. Please do keep writing these blogs to provide us with a dose of inspiration and do not forget to update how "Biscuit" is doing once in a while too...
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