Six pack Sundari: My first 'official' half marathon

Please read my earlier posts related - Dus! & 21... finally!

A year ago if someone had suggested I take part in a half marathon, they would've probably got a cold stare. The closest I have ever come to half marathons was helping my colleagues arrange our company's branded T-shirts in carton boxes, to distribute to all those participating in the Mumbai marathon. This was on the eve of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon days, year after year.

Now that I've been running for more than 10 months, thought it was time for a half marathon run. The announcement for Mumbai Running and Living half marathon on 16th December could not have come at a better time. Had subscribed to their mailers with very little clue on what they did. And honestly most of their mails used to go unread. Less than a month ago the announcement of the first half marathon in Mumbai caught my eye. Decided to go for the half though there were 5 and a 10k runs as well.

The practice runs had been fairly decent. The last long run was on 30th November. Did a few 10 and 5 km runs post that.

Was tense three days prior to the run only because I wasn't tense or sensing "butterflies in my stomach". The "tenjun" started only mid-Sunday post the recce of the running route when we went to collect the bib. The route looked fairly hilly and the entire Sunday went wondering if I'd be able to complete it at all.

On the marathon day (16th December), the husband who dropped me at the venue was quite thrilled to see all the enthusiasm around (fellow runners, volunteers , walkers) . He, more than I seemed confident I'd complete it. A dear friend sent a text at 5.30 am wishing good luck with a famous tamizh dialogue from Parasakthi, Sivaji Ganesan's debut (yes yes adhe, "Odinaal odinaal .."only).

Did one final check 5 mins prior to the start of the run on the music playlist and realized my latest favourite song was missing. Not just that. Some other crappy stuff which were deleted had made a reappearance. Ah, so much for spending a good two hours the previous night putting all songs together. Thankfully downloaded fav song in a jiffy and was all set.

The run involved doing two loops of the route. The first one was fairly easy except for the 2 kms that involved a lot of ups ups and ups only. The very thought of doing the same thing the second time around made it difficult during the second leg. And adding to this was when Humpty Dumpty me had a great fall in one of the several pot holes . damn! and this was at the 6th km. No .. no way i was going to stop despite the huge wound.

This husband of mine is one awesome guy. He walked the entire 21 km route (and had never planned to earlier) and cheered me . Since he had missed quite a few of the turns in the running route and hence ended up taking the parallel roads, it was great fun meeting him at different cross roads saying a big hello, hi-five etc. Mentioned to him at the end of my run that my only goal was to finish ahead of him 'coz it would've been mighty embarrassing reaching the finish line after someone who had walked the entire route.

The route was quite picturesque filled with trees. The weather was quite pleasant too. Except for the last 3 kms that killed me, managed to do a decent run.

And time and again looked behind to see if there were people running / walking behind . Let me tell you there was a huge sense of relief ( and cheap thrills) looking at at least 15 people behind me especially after looking at Hirotaka Ishihara the guy who came first doing his post marathon stretching just when I had finished 11 kms.

Just when I wondered where on earth the finishing line was, saw a group of people cheering at the turn and ran to collect my medal. Felt a huge sense of achievement completing this half marathon. Also feeling confident of running more, in the coming months.