Mumbai Half Marathon 2004

Originally posted as a mail to my college egroups in Feb...

bhailog,
This time my story is about how I completed the Mumbai half marathon.First of all thanx to onkhoo and maadu for being absolutely generous hosts inthe humid city. They literally made my trip and were superlatively cool (meaning they were just themselves).Now I planned to run the race 2 weeks ago when I actually read about it somewhere. When i finally found time to see the wesbite it was Feb 8th. The last date for registration was 7th Feb. I calledup the contact for international athletes, a nice surd from Delhi and requested him to help me. Like a typical Punjabi he said, "Aap venue pahuncho, main hoona!"Then came the turn of travel arrangements. I usually leave office at abt 9 pmand enter at 9 am. SO that leaves little scope for anything else. I called up an agent, who found an Air India ticket for my return trip and a Rajdhani ticket for my onward journey.Now the Rajdhani journey is another short story by itself where i met an engineer who works in the electrical design dept for Indian Navy Ships and submarines.Keeping this part of the story for another day, the last thing that happened was that my train reached Churchgate at the same time as the previous Rajdhani which had left Delhi an hour early!!!i got down at Churchgate and called maadu who met me at Santa Cruz later.But b4 that I had to go to the venue and register. I went and saw a few hundred ppl who had queued up to get free tshirts (yes i have another T in mycollection!) and all of them had registered on the web!I went to the info kiosk and told them that i had come all the way from delhi.then they said they were sorry but they were turning back even national athletes with reco letters!Then i remebered my surd's name and dropped it. One pretty female accompanied me and pointed him out to me.He just gave me my running no and took down my name and said " kal subah 5:30baje aa jaana. aur wahan se daudna shuru kar lena!"i said " what abt entry fee of Rs.50" He said" arre haan, dedo mujhe!"i paid him in front of some 300 ppl who were in the line in the sun at 11:30 inthe morn and it looked like i was paying him bakshish!anyways, i went and collected a Tshirt also and a timer chip which is entangled in ur laces to track you thru Radio Frequency.The same day maadu, onkhoo and me went to eat chaat and loads of other stuff from the streets of Mumbai. I plunged into the eating exercise with such fervour, eating bhel after pani, drinking coffee at barista, etc etc that byevening, my bowels decided to take a walk.hence i was already dehydrated by race day.but then aaj dhammo tera izzzat ka sawaal hai!chalo phir subha chaar baje, i was at santa cruz station. imagine my surprisewhen i saw 4 other ppl who were ready to go. i was clutching my abdomen and praying to God so that i didn't get embarassed in front of 20000 runners.as we talked in the train it became apparent that some junta in mumbai had been running for more than a month along the race route to practise. also some papers in mumbai had been printing running tips by the day for readers who lapped them up eagerly.all said and done, i got to the field and would you believe it. as i kept running across the field like a gleeful mutt with flies around it, trying to warm up, i saw stalls for fortune tellers, tattoo artists etc. saala subah subah kisko kismat dekhne ki zaroorat hai; pata nahin.there were so many beautiful women, cute kids, dogs all of whom had come to cheer up ppl.the race for junta began after the kenyans and some celebs like anil ambani had got a headstart. then i also began running what with cool plans and all for timing my run until the first 7 kms there was no hitch as we passed the lovely marine driveand reached peddar road where hajaar families had lined up to cheer runners. mumbai in general had turned up in lakhs to just cheer ppl like me. there were cheer leading girls in 2 places. boy, life me motivation ho to aise. and then there were hajaar pretty women all along the way who kept smiling enigmatically or just cheered you sportively while you passed them with a determined expression.mumbai's residents also displayed hajaar enthu. kingfisher who sponsored mineral water and electral had set up stalls every 2kms. i used this for the first time after 5 kms when i thot this was water.maine bottle uthaya daudte daudte, sar pe paani daala. thodi der baad jab sar chua pata chala saala electral tha. tab tak mere baal, "there's something abt mary " me jaise cameron diaz ke baal khade hote hain, aise the!then there were some residents who had brought plastic tumblers from home andwere offering fruit juices and water.then there were groups of girls who were giggling after cheering tired runners like me.i had to start walking on the way back after abt 15 kms as i could run no longer. i did this for abt 3-4 kms. then i was back on marine drive. then theresome aunties who were saying " hey 8955 ( that was my no), come on yaar run" and then literally blooming when i picked up.to aise daudte daudte, chalte chalte i was abt 1.5 kms off. then the dream run(7 kms) began. btw, there was a blind runner also who also lapped me! in fact he was literally dragging his guide who had a connecting rope!by the time i started sprinting for the finish, i realised that there were some 20 k runners in the shortest race incl. school kids who literally ran amok. you had to watch for your life and avoid the rush of runners.anyways i crossed the finish line and sat down to stop my watch , which i haven't reset to this day. i shall do so after i get my cert with my timing.after that i sat on the footpath eating some biscuits and drinking some electral and drinking from a souvenir water bottle that Standard Chartered Bank gave.after reflecting on life for abt an hr on the footpath i returned to santa cruz to the comfort of onkhoo's home and then we went shopping in mumbai.but then that's another story!
bas