Crowded last mile

Aren't you nervous? - asked the lady next to me. Hmm. a little bit I lied. I was not consciously nervous. (Subconscious nervousness may be the reason I was awake the night before) What the hell, I never met her in my life and I am reasonably sure I never will. That lady was among 4000+ marathoners who gathered to run California international Marathon. I would have laughed if someone mentioned 3 months back that I will be on a Marathon start line along with them on freezing Sunday morning in Sacramento. But here I was, thrilled, excited and dissolved in the moment.

There were people from every walk(?) of life waking their limbs up against its wishes for the uphill task ahead. Good morning! - said the 60+ women who I cannot stop comparing with my beloved patti. Teen dudes were joking among themselves. Pretty looking girls were getting ready and saying good byes to their hulk-y boyfriends. (which shortened the time I looked at them) I was trying to grasp every ounce of this newness. I too was parting with Mano – the coach, (title assigned to him by my FIL against all our protests) Meera - mental coach, and my Mamanar – manager (3Ms) who dared the morning freezing cold and sacrificed their sleep to drop me off.


Announcer grabbed everyone's attention with his loud singing voice. "Helloooo Maraaathonerrrs! California international Marathon is going to be started in Ten.. Nine.. three..two..one.. GO! I screamed along with 1000 others and started walking gently and then started jogging. My chip (which is tied to my shoes to track my timing) beeped as crossed the start line. It is official now, I am running a marathon!

I tagged myself behind the group whose pace matched with mine (slightly better than turtle! No! Not the one which beat the rabbit). I was concentrating on the heart-pumping rhythmic beat which was coming from the audio system in side walk. I realized I was running little too fast when the heart-pumping became too literal. My watch showed that I crossed 0.7 miles! Awesome I thought the first mile is always the toughest for me.

I managed to run normally for next 2 miles and managed to overhear some conversations for entertainment (When did that become a crime?). There were a husband and wife talking about their home mortgage, an old man explaining how he ran his previous marathon to his fellow runner, teen girls giggling and chatting and another young girl saying why it is not good to walk in a marathon. For me, the goal was clear. FINISH 26.2 miles even if I have to crawl. Book suggested if you have to walk, walk with your heads high and I decided to do just that.

By mile 3, normality started setting in. Initial excitement started fading off and runners started facing the reality of 23 miles in front of them. (Similarity to life and every project we take was uncanny!) I was comfortable but adjusting my run to tackle the slight ankle pain and waiting for my next short goal - 5 miles. Saw a water stop and volunteers holding the water and sports drink in their outstretched hands I plucked one and gulped. Yuck! It tasted horribly bad. It is a raspberry kind, not that any other kind is better.

43 minutes and 28 seconds called a volunteer at 4th mile (at every mile point, they give you the total time, pace and estimated finish time at that pace). It is still freezing cold but my body is getting warmed up nicely.

5th mile came and went. I recalibrated my brain for the next goal - 8 miles! The road was straight and I left my body on auto-pilot and let the brain wander a bit. Started thinking how bad Saumya felt for not being there during the start because of the usual suspect (Keeks - who else?) Of course I cannot blame Keeks, she was only preparing all night with the slogan “Up Up Appa” which she learnt from her voice coach/educators. (Saumya & my mother-in-law) I hit a pause button after seeing another water stop. More bad tasting sports drink, this time with diluted orange tasting one.

8th mile post was welcome relief. I reached my optimal performance by now. 3Ms met me around this time and M2 came running during the 8th mile and checked the status. I shed my gloves, cap and my long tracks. (Yes. I had my running shorts underneath it!) 9th and 10th were uneventful in comparison.

11th mile was showed the sign that weather is playing tricks with me. I was sweating mostly but my fingers were stiff and almost frozen. I tried and failed to open the energy gel which I was carrying with me. A spectator came to my rescue, I handed the gel and he was happy to tear it open for me. The zing of honey gel brought my senses back and carried me from 11th to 13th with ease. I even managed to beat the 4:45 minute pace group (They overtook me after my 14th mile)

13th mile, here I come I told myself. People started walking by 8th mile and I am running except for the brief walks to gulp water. Half marathon mark is a significant achievement, and I was not planning to let any minor or major achievement go unnoticed to keep my motivation up. 13.1 miles had a clock which was ticking 2:19:36. I decide to clock under 2:20:00 for half marathon and sprinted for a short stretch. Crossed my half marathon in 2:20:00
Phew! Just another 13 miles left I said to myself.

I strolled a bit after 13th mile sprint and immediately started feeling the tingling feeling on my toe. Something is not right. I only get this kind of pain during end of my 20 mile run and it used to be tough to run even 1 mile after this. I ignored the pain and ran another ½ mile. But it was getting worse. For the first time, I started wondering whether I could finish this marathon.

I went to the side walk and slowly examined my leg. (Ankles which seemed fine during the run where aching too much when I tried to sit) Thank god! It was just a blister on my small finger. I applied lot of Vaseline on it and continued my run.

15th to 18th miles were getting exponentially difficult. It is little blur when I met the 3M group, but I did and that carried me for another 0.2 miles. I slowed at every water stop gulped 2 or 3 orange sports drink. It is not that bad tasting after all.

18th mile post pumped some much needed motivation to my brain. Fatigue is slowly catching up and I have 8 more miles to run. I was using all the tactics possible to fool my brain (which incidentally is not very easy I found then) I know by 20th mile I will have my whole cheer squad with keeks as leader and they will motivate me for rest of the run. (Or so I made my brain believe)

20th mile, I got the much needed boost when Keeks & Saumya sprinted towards me and ran along with me. For that brief moment I was ready to take on another 26 miles. 3 M had become 4 Ms (with my mother-in-law) and mental coach was making sure I was doing all right. Coach/Photographer was busy capturing the moment. I ran through 20.2 miles the runner’s Wall. The point around which the body runs out of glycogen and converts fat directly into sugar which zaps your body and brain is called WALL

22nd mile, as rendezvous I was motivating my brain with was over I started hitting the runner’s wall mentioned above. The book mentioned that it manifests itself in different forms, for me, after every 3rd minute the brain was suggesting me to walk. And stomach was churning. It is already 4 hours and 15 minutes. At 22nd mile I heard it. It was very feeble at the beginning but getting louder and louder. It was Punjabi song mixed with some english lyrics. No I was not hallucinating. I even danced for that tune for few seconds which brought more cheers from spectators.

23rd and 24th were more grueling. But it is just 3 more miles just a short run. They book talks about visualization technique. (Imagining your best run playing on TV or Imagining yourself running with a group etc) I kept that for worst situation and it seemed appropriate to use it. Along with visualization there were 100s of spectators who were cheering every runner at this point. I gulped through more fluids and it was tasty. (what was I thinking before? :) )

My cheer squad returned at 25th mile and it instantly changed my stride. I was upright and running with brisk pace. I decide to give it all out during the last mile and started sprinting at what felt like a scorching pace (almost 7 miles per minute). I did manage to beat some competitors on my way.

I was kind of alone during the last mile but suddenly I realized it is more than me who is running in that last mile. Like visualization technique, I saw my daughter and wife running by the side, my parents and brother wishing me luck from world apart, my friends who in spite of their own problems took time to wish me luck from different locations, traveled long way with me to be the support group, the whole family who wanted me to finish it as much as I did and those faceless spectators who cheered for every runner irrespective of their race, religion and nationality. I may be alone but definitely not lonely.

With all the wishes, finish line seemed to come much sooner than I imagined. Clock ticked 5:04:30 as I crossed the line and was provided with a finisher's medal. That shiny metal gave an unmistakable wink at me and said "Welcome to Marathoner's club"







PS: Thanks to coach/photographer for awesome photos. (there are more good ones which I will post it in separate thread)