New Delhi Marathon (NDM) 26th February 2023 Story
Hosh
sambhalte hi apni janm patri mein padha – ‘Baalak ka rajyog hai’....... ‘Balak
udar vikaar se peedit rahega’... ye baat aisi ghar kar gaii ki ye maan liya
gaya at least physically I will not be even at par. Any kind of physical
activity would always be challenging. SSC ke through Sarkari Naukri prapt hui
to bataya gaya shayad isi ko rajyog kahte hain. Regarding the second bhawishyavaani,
I went along the dictat for long and was never disheartened with not having any
notable fitness due to week metabolism and frequent stomach ailments. Then one
fine day at the age of about 46 in 2016, for no specific reason, just for the
heck of it, I started walking in the park. It was not just tough it was very
tough. It started with an easy leisurely walk and very soon graduated to brisk
walk of 5k in 50 mins. On hindsight I was encouraged by Bhai (@frozenmusik) to
start / get into some kind of physical activity. Bhai walk kiya karte thay
main bhi unko match karne laga. I remember the increase in pace from @10
min per km to abt 8 min per km. Shin bone used to cry a lot and I knew I will
leave it in some days. Gradually during the walk, I noticed that slight jog
appears to be soothing on shin bone. I ran my first kilometer. and again, back
to walk for rest of 4k. Once during weekend, with time on my side I decided to
go long and must have completed 9k, all brisk walk @ about 9 min per km with no
shin pain. Later that day I realised I had a swollen ankle. No pain but
substantial swelling again killed my enthusiasm for further experiment. I took
rest for a week and again resumed routine 5k. During this phase I realised
walking 5k everyday in the morning is never a big deal. There was a sense of
empowerment. I enjoyed the phase till the moment I started getting bored of
walking those 40-45 min with no inclination to listening to music on the phone.
This was the time I started jogging. My walking park had a track of 500 mtrs
and I remember the day I completed running 4 rounds to measure upto 2km. It was
miracle as I knew I must have failed a dozen of times to complete even a single
round of 500 mtrs panting for breath in between. Rightfully I gave the credit
to the regular walking routine that must be instrumental in this turnaround.
This went on for about a month running 2, 3, 3.5 or sometimes 4 km. One fine
weekend I decided to do a 5k. No point in elaborating the journey because I
completed it in no time. nothing more than about 35 mins. From the beginning, I
never liked to run slow. Whenever I set out to run, I tried my best whatever it
was. I'm saying this to stress upon the fact that easy runs to build endurance
was never in my mind. Completed that maiden 5k sometime in 2016 and felt great,
I remember next day in office boasting about the same in front of colleagues 10-15
year younger to me. It was tiring. I had cramps in calf muscles and a tight
hamstring. Today I can say calf muscles, because I felt uneasy at the calves
which had no muscle. I must say I had no concept of warm up or cool down, thats
because I used to think my total energy is consumed 100% in 5k, if I do any
warm up routine, it will take some amount of energy and I will be left
stranded. Gradually, this 5k run was a weekly feature and I slowly started to
enjoy the stiffness in muscles that come along with every such run without
proper warm up and absolutely no cool down. Next target that crossed my mind
was a 5k run on a week day with office routine to tackle. Khair, I did that too
and felt really lousy the whole day. It was actually too much for me to handle
with no background of any physical activity. Gradually this too becomes once a
week affair and I was glad to take it in my stride. From there I wished for two
consecutive run days with office and later sometime in 2017, it becomes an
everyday affair of running 5k and attending to office. The 5k I was doing at
that stage was at the pace of about 6 min per km. After about 2-3 months,
unknowingly I started to increase the distance from 5 to 6 km, with the office
routine waiting to not allow me to rest. By the winters in 2017, I completed
10k in about 74-75 min. That was the real point when I googled about Marathon
and learned about a race distance 21.095 km that is known by 'half marathon'
and 42.195km is ‘MARATHON’. I was determined to take the next step, i.e., the
half marathon. Googled about it on how to train for half marathon. I was
already in a zone of my own running 10k or more 12k or 15k on weekends all
alone in the traffic enjoying the pain. Even for such longer runs of 10k or
more I barely started a warm up from nothing on some days to about a min of
stretching on other days. Skipping the tougher sections and enjoying the
running part in the training which was in fact more about increasing the
distance to 15k and 18k in training. One
fine day in 2017, I planned to do a half marathon on the road. Mainly because
in the park everybody knows everybody and, on the road, hardly anybody knows you
so there is no shame in not completing or walking the distance if need be. I
was doing this whole running in a fairly used Sketcher shoes meant for walking.
I cannot recollect now how I felt during the run, all I cared about was to
complete the run. I did that emphatically completing the first HM in about 2:40
hrs and felt out of this world. It was not just tiring rather extremely tiring
and it took more than a week to even go for a walk afterwards. Even after this
HM I did no cool down exercises. I guess probably that is the reason for my
severe cramping. However, in hindsight if I recollect, I finished the run about
2 kms from home and came back walking. Probably that walk acted as a cool down
act to save me from any major muscle issues. Another stupidity I admit is that
I had no idea of hydration during such runs. I knew runners carry a bottle of
water but I believed I do not need water for runs up to 10-15 km. I did not feel thirsty and was very
particular of my hand movements during running so I did not like to carry a
water bottle and hamper hand movement. Long runs continued afterwards generally
on weekends. Gradually I started a pre-decided coconut water breaks during long
runs. Mind you at that time anything more than 10k was a long run and I had
zeroed down a coconut vendor at the gate of Leisure valley garden for
hydration.
During
this phase I was injured several times. I had swollen ankle, pain in the knees,
soreness in hamstring which refused to die down. Every time with a rest of week
or ten days I was back on track. All this while I had no idea of heart rate
thing or cardio vascular fitness which is the most essential part of running.
By the
end of 2021, I had run 10 half marathons and 89 10k’s or more. In fact, my
timings for half marathon improved to 1:56 hrs. I had developed a basic warm up
routine which has taken me this far without any major injuries. Though the
concept of cool down was still alien to me. And I was running almost all my
runs at my best pace at that time. I had a routine of alternate day running of
10k or more for about 6-7 months upto Feb 2022. During that time, I dreamt of trying
to run a full marathon that is 42.195 km on my own around the park just to test
my endurance. I remember in preparation for that maiden marathon gradually
raising the distance from 21k to 25k to 27k. One day I ran a 30k in about
03:01:00 hrs. That day I decided to go for the kill in another week or so. By
that time, I had my Asics Marathon shoes Nimbus 22 after retiring two Nike
running shoes. Before the big day I was apprehensive of going the distance in
my old shoes and invite some unknown injury so in extreme urgency I went for
Nike Pegasus 38 costing me a good 11k in sale. I was already familiar with the
energy gels that I used in the few half marathons registered by that time. So,
in all preparedness, on 12th of March 2022, I went to my usual track
of about 4.5k around the Leisure Valley Garden. The run was in fact without any
further planning of pre run hydration, diet or running plan for the distance.
However, I must say the run goes well without any hiccup. The anxiety at the
start line was transformed to hidden excitement of easily completing the run
and being a marathoner. Just like my first half marathon, even here I was dead
tired at the end. Last 5-7k were the most difficult kilometres I have ever run.
I had no idea of how to finish strong or to walk a few minutes to control heart
rate. I did it in 4:40 hrs. I called my friend to the park to take me back. I sat
in the car without any cooling off and by the time we reached home in 15
minutes, I had severe cramps and was almost crying with shooting pain in
hamstring. That day I did the basic stretches for cool down.
Accepting
the laurels of being a marathoner in my mind, I was now confident of going for
a registered full marathon. At that time, the relevance of registering for a
run was simply to announce in my running circle that now I am a marathoner too
and so and so event organiser is vouching for that. Come September 2022 and I
was coaxed by an ultra-marathoner next door neighbour to register for New Delhi
Marathon 2023 on 26.02.2023. I was convinced that though mentally I am ready to
run the distance, four to five months are sufficient to fine tune whatever is
required for the run and I can have a good debut, NDM being an easy circuit.
Fallen for the bait, I was charged up to prepare for the day. As usual I was
going full steam almost every day. I must admit even at that time in October
November 2022, I was rarely doing any strength training. I clocked my best
mileage in the month of November 2022, that’s 240k for the month and was fairly
exhausted to keep it going for another couple of months. In a few days I
realised I can’t do it alone. Not sure how much to run and rest, I was confused
whether I am doing it right or not. After few consultations with my fellow
runners, I joined a running group named #Pacemakers at Bangalore. The format of
training was 3 days running and 3 days strength training. I was assured of
completing the marathon based on my running track record, I forwarded to them
before joining. With 3 days of running in the training, my monthly mileage came
down because earlier I was running everyday was almost on the verge of
exhaustion. Now with half the running days, I was relatively fresh for
alternate day strength training of 1:30 hrs. It was initially tough. When I
joined the training, I had completed a 25k run as weekly long runs. So, I took
off from a weekly long run of 25k onwards in the training now with 3 days of
strength training in a week. As I had no background of exercising and I tried
my best I ended with an upset stomach after strenuous planks, side planks and
their variations. I did a few long runs 27k and 30k with upset stomach to the
satisfaction of my coach. Those runs built the confidence in me to at least
finish the run. In about a months’ time I was comfortably doing my long runs of
30k and 35k. I especially enjoyed the weekly interval sessions of varying
distance as I had never done that before and I was always fascinated with pace.
My esteemed mentors always guided me and answered all my silly queries from
hydration to nutrition to use of gels and planning for my race pace.
Unlike
a true-blue introvert, on the cusp of my first Marathon, I did not want a
hesitant first step. I wanted to just express myself and make the most of the
time. On the race day, I started pretty fast at the pace of about 6:05 for the
first 10-12 kms. The course was crowded and I was feeling edgy and restless. I
had the belief to finish the run but had no idea of how fast I can carry. This
pace was about 10 seconds faster than the targeted pace. The course was 2 loops
of 21k each. I finished the first loop in about 2:10 hrs and was expecting to
better my target of 4:30 hrs set by the coach for 42.2k. I was thinking of
running comfortably in the second loop of 21k in about 2:20 hrs and it appeared
to be achievable. Though, at about 25k, I find it tough to augment the pace any
further. It occurs to me at that point that the task in hand is tougher than my
expectations and my dream target pace of 6:00 min per km is a foregone
conclusion. I carried on at the same pace of about 6:10 - 6:14 for another
5-6km. At about 32k, for the last 10k, I knew I had no strength to even keep
the current pace. With every kilometre, I was dropping pace by a second or two.
I was trying every possible way to increase the pace with a burst of 100m and
easy for the rest of 900m. I completed the toughest 5k from 33k to 37k with
extreme show of grit, unknown to me before that day with the average pace of
6:17. By that time I was pretty much slower than my second target of 6:10 and
by no means I could improve on my pace for the last 5k. In fact, I had to hang
on with dwindling pace so as not to go slower than 6:24. I was looking at my
legs and was dreading a cramp or a breakdown from the pain. That pain forced me
to take it easy and instead of increasing the pace I was more inclined to just
keep running and finish the run at whatever pace. Any attempt to increase the
pace with a burst of energy can prove to be counter-productive with unknown
injury before the finish line. Mentally I reached the stage of my first and
foremost target to just complete the distance. At 40k mark, I knew I am going
to finish the run and at the pace of 6:22 I still had 2 seconds of average pace
to come within the target set by coach. I did it with elan without any
breakdown with the pace of 6:23 in 4:29:31 hrs, 29 seconds within the target.
It was a miracle; I knew it was. For everybody else it was a usual marathon
completed in intended target. For me, it was more than a miracle. I was dead
tired. Just after the finish line all the massage stations were full to the
capacity and people waiting in queue for their turn. I turned to a corner and
went about my basic cooldown routine. Those guys in the queue have finished the
distance much faster and deserve to get a priority in getting a massage. While
coming out of the arena I noticed that I am walking in an auto mode with no control
on my steps as Kaleem Aajiz Sahab has
rightly put it in the couplet:
रखना है कहीं पाँव तो
रक्खो हो कहीं पाँव
चलना ज़रा आया है तो
इतराये चलो हो
-कलीम आजिज़
I felt
a sudden surge of self-belief that I am no less. Soaked in the emotion, I found
myself all alone in the extremely crowded arena with lot of noise, I could not
relate myself to. I had stayed at my home, a good 30k from the stadium and was
up at 2:00 in the night before to reach the stadium in a cab. Happy with the
result, while coming back I was thinking of cutting down a good 15 minutes if I
run all alone in a park. Surprisingly, I got no motivation or kick from the
fellow runners to run faster. From the beginning till end, it was all about me,
whether I am overtaking or somebody else is overtaking me I was in a zone not
affected by other performances. I promised myself never to register again for
an event and to run at least one 42.195k every year in the park in complete
silence, in and outside the body.
Though
I have not achieved much in the field of running but the biggest take home from
the entire journey so far is that nothing is impossible. If I can perform such
a physically demanding feat at the age of 52, sky is the limit. I want to try
bigger runs and bigger challenges now. This was the gist of my unbelievable journey
from sudoku marathoner to a real marathoner. I conclude it off with a couplet
from Shariq Qaifi which perfectly explains my predicament of biting more than I
can chew.
बहुत हिम्मत का है ये
काम ‘शारिक़’
कि शर्माते नहीं डरते
हुए हम
-शारिक़ कैफ़ी
