Full marathon-Mumbai

And finally I crossed the finish line ... with a smile beaming across my face, with a pain shooting from right hip to toe, with a toe nail hurting on my left foot. It was a smile that was impossible 10 min before that moment, It was a pain that did not stop my legs and it was a black toe nail that eventually fell off. The euphoria though was uncontainable n I wanted to cry but my body had no more salt to produce tears! The course was etched in my mind from the awesome video and the pep talk Amod gave me the previous night was fresh... Gently jog the first 4 k till u get onto Marine drive n then go steady... I started tracking pace after the 5th k n had only the next km on my mind. The early morning breeze I was looking for at the sea front was not there but the eclectic atmosphere of family n friends screaming life into the runners' legs was. In my practice runs, I ran alone with only my thoughts for company and at around the 3rd km, on most days, I seemed to run involuntarily as if on cruise control. Here though, I kept loosing focus... could not contain smiling at the energy of the crowd, looking at the side attractions on the course etc till the 8th Km . From the 9th to the 28th km running with L or with her in a visible distance helped. The Bandra-Worli sea link bridge was such an amazing stretch to run on..the point where the bridge hangs from, with all the cables moving up in artistic geometry was worth marveling at.Both from engineering a bridge over the sea to just simply how beautiful it looked. It was also very inspiring to see ppl from different places, ages and abilities all pushing and encouraging one another to achieve this herculean feat. I dont normally go beyond the hi there, good job or keep at it or a random passing comment about the scenery around when running at organized runs in NZ. But not on this course. Everyone seemed excited to share a piece of their training story/life..particularly remember chatting to a father-son duo from Surat who were so upbeat about the training they did and how its their first FM together etc. I took off after a couple of kms of social banter matching my rhythm to the bhangra beats down the bridge. The children from the slums that were super excited to hi-5 all the runners :) these small things that make u smile when its hot n humid n burning u inside out! The plan was to meet Prash at 32 km. I was feeling really good and was on track to do so in less than than 4 hours, slightly ahead of my target time. Running on the marine drive, seeing Haaji Ali majestically engulfed in sea mist was a beautiful sight. My right hip started feeling uncomfortable at that point and the pain that got worse with each step took over my thoughts and concentration. The only hope that got me going was that Prash will be there at 32 ..and somehow in my mind he was to lead from there as if I would just pass the baton onto him and do nothing else. When I crossed the 32 mark and dint see Prash, the angst was inexpiable. I was about to cry when I saw the aid station at 32.3 km and that is where he was. I stopped for the first time and told him my right hip was going to give n I cannot run anymore. Given his sports medicine experience and first aid course and just general do it or die attitude, he sprayed  what-felt-like a can of volini and stuffed an ice pack over my right hip n poured a bottle of water over my head and said 'come lets do this. U r nearly there, just another 10k.' I had to take a moment to talk to myself..remind myself of all the physical and mental effort that not just I but Prash and K had put in in the months leading upto the D-day and pat my back to have come this far and pray trust my body to get me across the finish line. After that I lost a lot of time and momentum stopping every Km to stretch my right leg, readjust posture and re-start.Peddar road uphill was such fun! thanks to training on the uphill/downhill roads in the valley around my home, uphills were my strength. So I ran up the incline and started feeling confident again. The crowd! boy oh boy... every apartment had a bunch of ppl holding out trays of oranges dipped in salt, salt biscuits, spraying volini and cheering their lungs out. Awesome really. The atmosphere in Mumbai, take a bow. The last couple of kms were soo crowded and random ppl shouting out 'come on Deepa u got this' , the blaring sound from the music bands to distract u from the pain/exhaustion were helpful. I always aim to finish my runs strong. Smiling as I feel the joy of having come to the finish line of something I started. This was no exception. The last 500 m, I sprinted (well relatively ) and crashed onto Prash, Dil and Laksh. That moment of overwhelming emotion.. it was unbelievable and surreal..I felt joy, I felt pain, I felt proud, I felt invincible and I felt incredibly happy. A full effing marathon! 5:48 was not great timing but we'll worry about that another time, for I know how different the weather, the course and everything else in my training was. I know how blocked my nose was, how stuffed my throat was, how my plan to acclimatize had not worked out in the last 2 weeks before the run. Basically I had every excuse to not run that day but only one excuse to not give up..it was my dream ... a dream that woke me up every single morning since Sept come rain or shine to train. A dream it was no more :) It was not easy but it was an awesome experience. An exercise for the body and mind to overcome the limitations, these notional barriers of what one can and cant do.... and a sense of breaking free truly. Now I know what they talk about when they talk about running a full marathon.:)
Post run and rejoicing and stretching and cooling, we headed to The Bar Stock exchange for much needed beer hydration. Such a cool take on BSE: a super concept. The more a brew is in demand the more the crowd pays per pint... Was much fun to watch the price of beer change by the second like stock prices...The food was tasty too.

Catching up with family is soo underrated. Eating the much touted Mumbai fast/street food was worth the walk limp with uncle and his wife that night. Pav Bhaji, Aloo paratha, Kulfi.. bring on the carbs to refuel! :) The next day was sight seeing and one in which I was to do the recovery walk. My whole body was still warm n flushed red from the run. It took nearly 24 hours to not feel like my palms were 5 degrees warmer than usual. Boat ride from Gateway of India (shouldn't it be Gateway To?) was touristy. The boat went far out into the Arabian sea. Feeling the pleasant breeze over sea water we watched the birds come fearlessly close to the boats in amusement. At first I assumed it was the food the visitors on the boat threw at the birds but then realized the fish that got exposed to the surface because of the moving boat could be the reason they flocked around the boats. To add mileage to my recovery walk, we decided to walk down to Colaba and have a meal at the famous Cafe Mondegar. The beer, noodles, fusion-rice and paneer dint disappoint us. The quirky caricature-y art on the walls and unique menu-on-the-table added to the vibrant retro ambiance of the place. We walked around on Colaba causeway through the bargain-as-much-as-u-can streets. Prash was stupefied when I made an offer of 400 Re for a pair of culottes and a top...one that the seller quoted 900 Re for. What was more was the seller agreed without a counter ! now it was my turn to think even 400 was too much! The pain of bargain buys.. I decided I can never be satisfied with the price I pay here no matter how less/more and passed up on shopping after buying a customary pair of ethnic footwear. We were so full from the lunch that we had to give having a dessert/coffee at Cafe Leopold a miss. Walking on Colaba causeway and across Cafe Leopold reminded me soo much of Shantaram. A part of us wished to walk along Kamathipura roads that were so close to the place we stayed at and take the Mumbai local from CST but we were short on time, low on physical prowess needed to plough one's way through the crowd and just generally a bit intolerant toward heat and dirt. So we decided to go see Haji Ali atleast. That one had made it to my list from the previous day's run. The driver was surprised and did his best to discourage us, but hey! whats on my list is on my list. So off we went navigating through the hawkers  that tried to sell us turbans, topis and towels so my womb may become fertile, so we may have all the riches etc etc these belief-based-hope-sellers I tell u. We walked bravely past the first gory beggars set. Next we exchanged hmm-how-u-feeling-about-this looks and by the end of 100 m on that pier we gave up. Humanity have some courtesy! It was heart tugging.. the women, children, the paraplegic... begging, singing, chanting. The carcass of a what-i-reckon a dolphin and what-prash-thought a baby orca... anyhoo a delphinid carcass was what it took to put us off totally from going any further. Should have listened to the driver and  let it be a beautiful-from-a-distance-dargah. Isnt that true for many things in life? the seducing green grass on the other side... best left as that! We walked back n sat on the parapet wall along the marine drive staring at the tetrapod rocks trying to digest everything we experienced so far. On the other side of the Marine drive were the most expensive residences and beautiful looking art deco type buildings. whattey contrast! Along the shore for about 3 or 4 Km from Colaba to Chowpatty is this wall on which sat dreamy eyed.. hand holding.. college going adolescents... So full of hope. The sunset: a blazing red ball dunking into the sea at the horizon, coloring the sky pink was charming. We then drove all the 42 km of the course and it felt surreal... the vibe so different today and the distance mind-boggling. Still in disbelief that I actually managed to run it all. We drove back in traffic passing through the suburbs whose names I knew from the movies/books. The highways interconnecting ends of the city were impressive. Dinner at the tastefully done cafe at the uncle's workplace campus was satisfying. We left Mumbai thoroughly enchanted by its character. City of contrasts, of hopes and a true representation of India.

Training:
Where: on roads around home, browns bay, mission bay, Takapuna from Oct to Dec. Cubbon park n kanteerava stadium(Bangalore) a couple of weeks. Weekly group weight classes at the gym, hot yoga once in 2/3 weeks.
Guidance: Radstrong coaching for weekly tempo, split, steady long run plans.
Nutrition: being a vegetarian, I was worried of under-fueling/ over using muscles etc n after much reading about, had my own eat n fuel plan that worked for me. On the course : well organized hydration n aid stations+ ingested 4 gel packets.
Support/ encouragement: logging training on a couple of group chats- It's encouraging to be in a group that is doing crazy things like u r at times:)
Complete involvement n commitment from immediate family- This is essential for the days when 'is this possible?', ' y am I doing this?' type of soul searching questions. The answers though help peel the proverbial onion to understating what one is. 


Recovery:
After a night's sleep/ complete rest, was able to do the recovery walk. Took nearly 24 hours to feel normal in the body i.e stop feeling existence of random joints, get over adrenaline rush, feel normal body temp etc. After 2 days was completely OK n could have run 5k. I dint n life took over washing the run with something else to occupy us is another story.

Wowza moment on the course : Watching the elite African running pack.... This was around the time when we slow- guys were busy hi-5ing slum kids. The elites whizzed past us. Like gazelles really. Do they even touch the feet to the ground? It looked like they just flew over the road. Such lean human- machines. Was a touching n beautiful sight that!