Half Marathon Run...

What a medley of emotions... what a heady mix of everything... what a ride...
I completed the Vodaphone Half Marathon on Sunday October 28th in Delhi clocking 3:02:47. This is by far my best timing at this distance category.

Let's start at the beginning. I landed at Palam airport on Friday night and the car was waiting there to whisk me to Gurgaon. I reached my friend's (VM)home at 9:30 PM. We stayed up till 1:00 AM drinking his lovely cocktails ( he has diploma in bar-tending) and catching up. On Saturday VM and his family drove me to Ansal Plaza so I could pick up my bib and timing chip. We had a late lunch in a lovely Chinese restaurant and he then headed off to drop me to my overnight destination in RK Puram.

I stayed with another friend (AP) in RK Puram near Sangam theatre and DPS RK Puram. That night at dinner, I had only rotis and potatoes (carbo loading Indian style) and a tiny bit of a lovely chicken curry that AP's wife SP had made.
Next morning I woke up at 5:00 AM and started my preparations. No grown toenails, gobs of Vaseline, strapped the pressure bandage on my right foot, filled the water bottle with Electral and Glucon-C, got my cap and I was ready. I had a calorie bar before starting out. AP drove me to meet his friend (SG) who was running and my ride to Nehru Park. We drove Bhikaiji Cama Place, parked and got onto DTC/BlueLine buses that took us to Nehru Park.

I got about 20 minutes to warm up in the Chip holders area and off we went, flagged by film, cricket (one) and political celebrities (many). I started off aggressively running faster than my normal pace, consuming the first click in no time. I had to slow myself down back to my usual pace. At around 2K or so, SG passed me :-(.

I clocked sub 1 hour at the 8 KM mark, very much on pace. My target was to come back to the 16 KM mark in 2 hours. I ran down the verdant tree canopied roads, going past some people, most people going past me up to Rajpath.

Photo Credit: The Blog of Gord) Rajpath is completely barren and has no trees at all. I ran that stretch feeling the heat each inch of the way, not even taking the grand view of the Sansad Bhavan. On my way back, I took in the view of the Amar Jawan Jyoti framed by India Gate at the far end of Rajpath, mentally dreading that I would have to run all that way.

The course turns back off Rajpath to cooler shadier roads gratefully. At around the 14KM mark, a traffic cop stopped all the runners (grrrr) to let piled up vehicular traffic through.
Picked up running again and passed the 15KM mark at 2 hours on the nose. I felt good about where I was and I knew I was tracking to my long run. I plotted the next 6 KM mentally convincing myself that even if I ran a 8 min kilometer, I would make it under 3 hours. KM 16 passed by at 2:08, 17K at 2:16-2:17, 18K at 2:25.

Past the 18K marker, I got overtaken by Dr. Ashis Roy. That was a temporary morale booster. Dr. Ashis Roy is 75 years old, competes in the Sr. Veterans category. I remember someone commenting "Look, it means Dr. Roy is faster than us". I felt awed.

Somewhere between 18 and 19, my legs cramped up badly and I felt like I would collapse. I stopped running and for a moment, felt woozy. I drank my Electral/Glucon C loaded water, had my calorie bars and walked till the 19K marker.

By this time, the Great Delhi Run folks were out in full glory with their costumes, banners and slow walking :-(. I ducked and weaved through them, walking some, running some more till I saw a clear path. Came into the last 500 metres and I accelerated not wanting at all to walk to the end.

As I passed the finish line, the overhead clock indicated 3:04:25 - the time since the race had begun. As I stopped my watch, the readout indicated 3:02:56. My official certificate says 3:02:47 ... the nine seconds gone between the time I started timing and I passed the official start line. (this is my PB)

Overwhelming emotion rippled through me as I stumbled to a stop, and slowly found my way to a water station. Elation at having completed, unvarnished joy at finishing almost 40 minutes better than my last outing, a twinge of disappointment and regret at not completing sub three. I lined up at the certificate counter (badly managed logistical setup leading to long queues) and over bottles of water swapped stories with people ahead and behind me, met Dr. Ashis Roy again, and just hung out till I got my certificate.

I got a medal for completing which sent me over the moon and still does every time I look at it or show it to someone. This will have a place of pride in my heart...my first ever running medal...wow.

I met up SG and the rest of the guys. Their timings were much much better than mine - 2 hours 3 mins, 2 hours 18 mins, 2 hours 43 mins. We were all tired as we waited for SG's wife to come by and pick us up. They dropped me back to AP's place where I peeled off my clothes, socks, stepped into a hot shower for a long while working out the aches and pains.

Lunch was at Punjabi by Nature at Basant Lok shopping complex and I had a celebratory glass of red wine.