Thursday, September 2, 2010

The Start is the Finish



Flashback to 2003 – The venue - the Joggers park in Lokhandwala, Mumbai. 
Yours sincerely, weighing in at 92 kilos, struggling to walk two rounds i.e. about 400 metres. I was in perfect shape, the shape was round. 

There seemed to be a thin person inside me struggling to get out but was easily sedated by one of Moushumi’s meals of meat loaf washed down by half a dozen Kingfishers. 
Life went on……… Life was good.

April 2004 –The venue - the gym at the Crowne Plaza, Jakarta. Yours sincerely, weighing in at a 96 kilos and with a stomach that could pass off as a waste-basket, struggled to walk 500 metres and was left breathless walking up the stairs to his room.

Every dietician will tell you that weight loss is not about perspiration but about inspiration. I found mine in a comment by Dr. Johnny (the Unilever Indonesia Doctor) who when examining my medical report said “you are fit enough to work for Unilever Indonesia but not fit for life”. I vowed to make him eat his words in my next medical exam due in 9 months.

The rest of 2004 was dedicated to the pursuit of that one goal which I successfully attained, dropping from 96 to 72 kilos in 6 months. I knew that if I tried to lose any more weight it would find me. I also realised that nothing tastes as good as being thin feels and so the challenge was to keep the kilos off while still enjoying a steady stream of cold beers. 


The weight loss had been achieved in no small part by living life in the fasting lane – it was not a fun lane to be in. 

Hence, I decided that my next challenge would be to run the Mumbai marathon in 2006. What was I thinking when I decided to run a marathon? Clearly I was not thinking because as a Winner of the Boston marathon once famously said “Marathoning is just another form of insanity”. 

Running a marathon is an experience that is difficult to put into words. 

As you start your warm up, the feeling can only be likened to waiting outside an exam centre, waiting for it to open and for the test paper to be distributed. As the starter's gun goes off, you feel the rush of adrenaline, the crowds cheer you on – having only watched football on TV I suddenly realised why an away goal is so much more precious than a goal in a home game. The crowd factor suddenly makes sense. 

Each marathon has a character of its own – it has action, camaraderie, heroism and it has characters. I have in the last 5 years of running marathons, encountered several characters that have inspired me and motivated me.

Mumbai 2006 – It was around 1300 hours, temperature at 36 degrees Celsius and humidity at close to 75%. We had just turned onto the Marine Drive on our way back. Here I was dressed in sweat absorbent Nike running gear, when I come across an elderly gentleman running in a shirt, simple shorts and the quintessential “Bata Keds”. I started chatting with him and learnt that he was a retired Railway ticket collector who took to running at the age of 62 when his wife passed away. He ran long distances because he had nothing else to do to keep himself occupied. He was running his third Mumbai marathon and informed me he was in a hurry because he had to catch the 3 PM train to Chennai!!!! I struggled to keep pace with him but I had found my inspiration for the remaining 6 odd kilometres.

Mumbai 2007 – We were at the Bandra Sea link about to turn back (around 25 KM mark) when I noticed a woman running bare feet. I caught up with her in a few minutes and immediately noticed she was wearing a “veterans bib”. I saluted her on her effort and started chatting with her. She was a clerk at the secretariat and her daughter was in an engineering college. After about 10 minutes of chatting she suddenly increased her pace. She had spotted her closest rival who was about a kilometre back. I did not think she was the “competitive types” so I queried about it and she informed me that she was running for the money. The prize money she won would enable to pay for her daughter’s college without incurring debts. She was, by her reckoning in the lead at that point and wanted to maintain her lead. I promised to be her pace maker and did so till CST when she increased her speed and I was no longer able to keep up. It was the only time I ever ran a full marathon in under 5 hours. (I am sure the fact that Moushumi and Rina were waiting at the finish line also helped shave off a few minutes).

Delhi Half Marathon 2007 – Around India gate, I noticed that Milind Soman had just crossed me. I really needed to keep pace with him – I found my inspiration for the next 8 kilometres!

Mumbai 2008 – I had just recovered from a bout of flu and was in no shape to run a marathon but I did. At the 27 Kilometre mark, my left calf muscles just froze – the cramps had arrived. I was in terrible pain and an elderly couple on the road, were kind enough to call the ambulance. Seeing the stretcher come out, I felt guilt pangs about not completing the race. So I requested the ambulance to follow me till the Hinduja hospital – and they obliged. Once I reached the Hinduja I felt I could continue and so waved the ambulance away. 

Between Haji Ali and Jaslok hospital, I thought I saw two Japanese men running with their hands tied to each other. I was dehydrated and was hurting from the cramps so badly that I suspected my mind was doing tricks. 

It was the first time, I had seen that sight so wanted to ask them why they were doing that. When I reached them I realised that one of them was blind. I had read about him in the Times of India the previous day, but never imagined watching him in action. I found my inspiration for the remaining 10 Kilometres. I completed the marathon in excruciating pain and blanked out after receiving my medal but I had completed the race - I had found a motivation to keep me going.

Mumbai 2009 – The first year that the full marathoners were allowed to start with the half marathoners at a decent 6:30 AM timing (instead of the awful 7:40 AM start – yes it was 7:40). As we turned onto the Queen’s necklace, I heard someone in the crowd calling out – “Go Gul Panang”. It took me about a minute to realise that the woman running next to me was indeed Gul Panang – her height, or rather the lack of it, threw me off. Here was someone to keep pace with till the half marathoners turned at Worli and we the idiots carried on.

Singapore SAFRA Half Marathon 2010 – We turned into East coast park when I noticed a guy with really slim legs or no, it was only one leg that was slim. It was only when I came closer did I realise that he had an artificial leg. I had my inspiration to complete my half marathon.

Having run 6 full marathons and 11 half marathons, I can tell you that running a marathon needs only two things – self determination and self discipline. Self discipline to wake up at odd hours of the morning on weekends and go for long runs while the rest of the world is asleep and self determination to not suffer the pain, which is inevitable when running distances the human body is not intended to. 

Hyderabad Half Marathon 2006 – We landed in Hyderabad on Saturday morning and the adventure began immediately as our baggage was sent to Chennai by SpiceJet and reached us only late afternoon. Saturday night, Sonu, Jojo, Hyacinth, Moushumi and I went out for a perfect Andhra dinner – Mutton Biryani, Chicken curry, spicy fried prawns and raita. 

The next morning, the race began nice and early at 6:30 AM. At about the 19 KM mark, I developed stomach cramps – read “an urge to go to the loo”. Clearly, the body had found parts of the Mutton biryani which were not digested overnight and managed to digest it over the 19 kilometres. What followed was a series of carefully planted steps, carefully planted to ensure that the roads of Hyderabad did not receive any unwanted manure. The last 2 kilometres took me almost 20 minutes to complete and when I reached the finish line, I realised that Jojo and Moushumi had had breakfast at an Iranian joint and had fallen asleep on the “joey loungers” in Hyacinth’s house while I was up running!!!!

Completing a marathon is not an athletic or physical achievement as much as a mental achievement. When you cross the start line on the way out, you are filled with anticipation and when you cross the same line on the way back, the feeling is almost as good as having an orgasm. 

“I am the alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” reads the Gospel during the holy week and no where is it truer than in marathons. 
The starting line is also the finishing line.