4 years back..this day…I ran my first Half Marathon
It was a Running and Living event. You might find a bit of your own in my very first….
- It was my first 21.097 and my first timed event
- On December 13, 2014, I had celebrated my first eve of being anti social. I walked out of a Christmas party within 30 minutes – because ..next morning I was to run my first half marathon
- I didn’t know a single run quote to fuel myself up with inspiration.
- I promised myself I wont walk. I’ll just jog. But not walk.
- No expectations. So then – I was free of disappointments.
- I didn’t know what a tempo was? LSD – what???? Love sex and Dhoka but definitely not Long slow distance!
- Hydration meant water
- Nutrition meant banana or Parle G Biscuit
- Run shoes? – I ran in my 2 year old Reebok shoe. I thought they were great! Ankush mendiratta ( The man behind Runbugs)– kept telling me they weren’t meant for running. Thanks Ankush. You were right 🙂
- No smart watch/ app.
- I was fast and slow whenever I wanted – depending upon how my body felt
- I wanted to finish 13.1 without stopping
- I didn’t care how I looked
- I didn’t care if they took a pic of me while running. And they didn’t. I asked for one after the run
- It was drizzling the first 5 kms. I felt euphoric
- It was the first and the last time my husband came to cheer me up at a race. After that race he realized I cared about the post-run selfies more. Truth be told.
- It was the last time my husband posted my achievement on social media. After that he figured I had turned in to a run-narcissist. Truth be written.
- I know you are still curious about my timing. I finished in 2 hours 16 minutes.
- I earned a medal that day after 18 years. It meant something. Even though I saw it was a mass possession!
- The one woman who left an indelible mark on me that day – well, at that time I didn’t know her name- Vaishali Kasture – She was dressed impeccably as a runner and was running with tiger focus. She made running look good.
- I didn’t know exactly when should I start feeling tired. I really knew nothing.
- Suchi Gupta very graciously drove me to the start point. I didn’t know her at all.
- My focus was my run. Nothing else.
- The only limit I tested was of finishing it without stopping. That was my only bar.
- I remember feeling really happy while running.
- After the run, I didn’t get a minute of rest that whole day. But I couldn’t stop smiling all day. After running my first 13.1, everything looked easy.
- It was an absolutely new experience for me.
- There were some people running with a flag with certain timings written on them. I didn’t know they were called pacers. In my mind I thought they were really arrogant runners pre-announcing their run timings. yes – you can roll your eyes to your brains and back!
- I knew I would do this again and I knew I had many things to learn.
- My son was 11 months old that time. I had regained my stamina. I was now getting physically strong. Mentally stronger.
- Runners high – what?
- The best part – I wasn’t feeling tired at all. Standing at the finish line…holding my 4 year old daughter. Showing her my first running medal. In a rush to go back to my 11-month old son. But inside – there was so much happiness, hunger and satisfaction.
3 years back I didn’t know that-
- the real joy is in training, pushing the limits, sometimes going back to the unfulfilled dream, sometimes setting new targets.
- I would turn into a self-acclaimed run blogger.
- I would be sharing my stories to motivate people to get active.
- the direction in which am going is more important than my goals. the goals keep changing, perhaps. The direction has more character!
- today, my ‘almost turning 5 year old’ son would know that – not only would he remember but also would be able to pronounce the names of his mom’s two current fav runners – Kilian n Paula Radcliffe.
But there it is, an incredible and incredibly rich journey. My body becomes restless thinking how far I’ve come and how much more I want to do, am yet to do a full marathon, yet to go on long trail runs…the goals will keep changing, but as long as I have the direction, I have nothing to lose – Do I?