Run dahsiN Run !

In order to reduce my weight and also to keep myself fit, I go for jogging every day. I run around 3-4 kms daily. One day, one of my friend called me up and told that his company is organising a marathon this Saturday. The run was for 4 Kms and 10 Kms. I said, "Lets go for 10 Kms". Even he agreed.

Me at the Registration queue (blue shirt)

Before I start with the actual run, here is something which I request you all to read. These paragraphs are more important than the story of my 10 Km run.

If you are a software engineer, I recommend you to try and run continuously for at least 10 minutes. I've seen my friends saying its easy. And when they hit the road, they are flat in 5-6 minutes. I've also heard stories from friends saying, "I was the top football player of my school" or "I used to run 5 kms daily when in college" or "I cycled 10 Kms to the college and back every day". If you too think you have done all of this when in school, college, Think again. Try doing this today.
Getting up @ 7am, boarding a company bus at 8am coming back home at 6pm watching TV serials,movies having dinner and sleeping at 10 pm. If this is your daily routine, do you think you can still be the top football player of you company ? Do you think you can still cycle 20 kms daily ? do you think you can run 5 kms at a stretch ? You decide whether to say yes or no.
When I asked this question to myself, I got an answer -NO. I used to get tired in just 4 minutes of brisk jogging. My feet would start swelling and start giving pains. I could feel my tummy bounce when I started jogging. That's when I decided, something is not going right for my health. And this was my health condition even though I don't smoke or drink. So I decided to go out for jogging every day. This was decided in April 2007.
Today, its October 2007. 6 months have passed. As promised, I still go out for jogging everyday. Now I have the capacity of running for 10 kms without any break.
Quite a great achievement for me !
If you think 10 Kms is too less, Try this :
on an average, you can cover 1 Km in 5 minutes with a descent running speed. that makes 10 kms= 50 mins of non stop running. Go out on the road and start running. Don't stop till you get tired. when you are done, check for how many minutes you ran ? When I tried this on myself, I had run 4 mins. thats less than 1 Km !!! When you try this out for yourself, you will come to know how fit you are and 10 kms is a lot of distance. My friends and family members often called me fat, overweight, and a lot of things ! , My waist is 34, I weigh 78 Kgs, and I am 5-6 Kgs overweight than an average person with height 5-10. Now when they see me, they dont say I am fat. They say, I have become strong !

Thanks for reading that stuff. If you think the blog is too lengthy, you can skip the rest of the blog, because what's written next is all fun and I am a victim of it !

On 5th October, my friend Pritesh called me and said, the marathon run starts tomorrow at 7 am from his office gates. and his company has arranged for bus transport early in the morning to get to the office. the bus leaves at 5:30 in the morning. I said to myself, is it necessary to get up so early and go for the stupid run ? catching the bus at 5:30 meant, I had to get up at 4:30. Till 5th october night 11 pm, I was thinking whether to go for the event or not. Anyway, I set the alarm and went to sleep. I woke up before the alarm and was ready to run at 5 am. I went to the friend's house. He too was ready. (Just by looking at the enthusiasm in my friend for the marathon run, poured a lot of confidence in me.) He too was excited and we went to the bus stop.
We reached the office by 6 am. I collected my T-shirt and the registration number(which is supposed to be clipped to the T-shirt), plugged in my ipod and was ready to run. I was the 19th Registration for the 10 Km run. Pritesh was still confused whether to go for the 4 km run or the 10 Km. I met some of Pritesh's friends, some of my college friends who had turned up for the event. They were confident of running the 10 km race. So was I. I had attempted this 10 km run 1 month ago. During India-Pakistan 20-20 finals, I had a bet with my room mates, If India wins this match, I will run 10 kms the next day. And as decided, I ran the distance in 45 mins. Before the race, Pritesh was still thinking, running 10 kms is not a very good idea. he kept saying, stay with me till the end. If I fall down, there must be someone to pick me up :-)
The race was to run 5 km on the highway, take a U-turn and run 5 Kms again and finish the race inside the campus.

Me just before the start of the 10 km race. Right side corner.

The race started exactly at 7 am inside the campus. I started my stopwatch in my "Timex-Iron man" and began the run. By the time the mob exited the campus and hit the highway, I was all lost. I couldn't see Pritesh, his friends, no one ! All were dressed in the white shirts provided. There was a media van with cameramen sitting on the roof, there were photographers following us on their bikes - sitting backwards and taking snaps. people from the nearby houses had gathered in their compound/balcony to watch what's going on. There were people at regular intervals to supply water bottles. At first, I saw many people overtaking me. but withing 5 minutes, I noticed people slowing down, and puffing. I kept a constant pace. when i crossed the 1 km mark, I saw Pritesh running. Even he was slowing down. I overtook him and kept running with my pace. when I reached the 2 km mark, I saw at least 50 people ahead of me. and the current leader was at least 500 mts away from me. My aim was to complete the race without stopping. 3 kms done, I looked at my watch, i had run for 17 mins. still 7 to go. I thought this is impossible. I was tired already. But i knew, I could do it, and I had done it before. So I continued.
When I crossed the 4 Km mark, I could see the leader running back towards the office. This means, He had crossed the 5km mark and has already covered 1 km extra. which made him 2 Kms ahead of me. Man, he was an athlete. I saw many people following him. I thought, when will i get here ! I had not even completed 5 Kms. The road was made of tar and was full of ups and downs which made running even more difficult. By now some people had given up. Some people were walking on the track, and some were determined to finish the race.
I saw a group of people standing on the road. I knew this was the 5 Km mark. I hurried myself to there. One guy sprayed some liquid on me. I thought it was water, but later I noticed, My T-shirt had become Blue at he spray applied area. It was an indication that, I had completed half of the race. I was full exhausted, and as decided, I was not to drink a drop of water in the course of the run.
With my body sweating all over, I continued my drag towards the last 4 kms of the race. These 4 kms were the longest (wrt time as well as distance). By now the people ahead of me were not in a mood of quitting, and people behind me were all set to overtake me. Also the sun had started bombarding its morning sun light on my head. Now it was 3 Kms to finish, and people had started overtaking me. A female also overtook me. I was shocked ! She was determined, and was already speeding ahead. That brought some JOSH in me, and I too started running to keep pace with her. My hands were all numb, and I was unable to control my run. I could now see the company Main gate. That's where the race ends. I hurried towards the gate. During the course, I overtook the female. (And I was happy ). When I entered the gate, there was around 200 mts. of ground yet to cover. I could see the crowd cheering, the Media Van in front of me, and a few guys running along with me. I could hear the roar of people even with my ipod on. I thought I was far away from the winner, but in fact, I was one of the early finishers of the race. I just started looking at the chequered flag. even the 200 mts run was like another 10 km run.
After a long and hard time, I crossed the line, and stopped by Timex-Ironman stopwatch. It read 00:50:21. I completed the race in 50 Mins. I turned my head around, and people were clapping. It was for me ! (and others who made it till the end along with me) When I stopped, I started sweating more than when I was running. I grabbed a bottle of Pepsi-Aquafina, and went to the assembly area. People who had opted for the 4Kms race had already completed it and were down on the lawn like wounded soldiers. Even I felt like crashing down. Before that, I went to the rest room to pee. While washing my hands, I looked at myself in the mirror, and what I saw was horrible ! My face was all Black and blue ! First of all I am dark, but still i could see a blue shade on my face. I knew i had lost a lot of water from my body, and had to recover it as soon as possible. I gulped the whole aquafina bottle and joined the other wounded soldiers. By now even Pritesh had finished the race. We then did some warm up, and waited for the prize distribution ceremony.
The winner had clocked a time of 42 mins. and the next 10 to follow were in a gap of 4 mins. So for a time of 50 mins, I predicted, I was among the top 30 runners, and that's why there was all that cheering and clapping ! After all the practice for 6 months had paid off !
3700 rs Reebok shoes, 500 rs Reebok Track pant, 7000 rs ipod, 2000 rs Timex Iron man, so much money spent, all of it put for good use.