Photo Courtesy: Vivek Iyer

Have you ever tried running? If you haven’t, then you should definitely give it a try now. You will be surprised to discover so many new things about yourself. I never ran in my life until, I decided to register for Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2013. This was my first half marathon and I was super excited for it, so excited that a day before the SCMM run I even dreamt about missing it. But luckily for me nothing like that happened and there I was at 5.15 a.m all ready for my run to start from Bandra Fire Station.

Finally, it was the moment I was waiting for, the moment I had been training for, the moment to make myself proud. After meeting my trainers and wishing my running group and other friends, I headed to be in my running section that is C. As, I headed towards my start line, there were two guys walking behind me, chit chatting, suddenly I felt one of the guys face brushing my shoulders. Though the guy said sorry, I thought to myself, “How some people can’t see and push you around? He must be one of those perverts and so on. Anyways, I cleared my thoughts and moved ahead to the start line. And, as I stood there with so many other runners, all I could see was “EQUALITY.” It was so wonderful to see everyone running together without any discrimination. There, no one was divided on the basis of money, religion, gender, hierarchy, caste, age etc at the race everyone was equal, everyone was a runner. 

Finally, the race started and 5 mins to the race, at Bandra Worli Sealink, I heard a guy loudly shouting “Excuse Me!” to the runner’s crowd, I turned around to see who it was and to my surprise, he was the same guy who brushed me near the start line and that’s when I realized the guy was partially blind and he was running with the help of the other guy. Both of them were running together at the same pace, holding the stick horizontally. That moment, I was so ashamed of myself for thinking so badly about the guys and realized how he was not disable, but we are, with our small thoughts. Though, we got eyes to see, still we would  miss the goodness and beautiful things around us. With this thought, I ran to them, told them how proud I am of them and how they are doing a brilliant job and moved on. 

I can’t recollect the time, when I finished the Bandra Worli Sealink as I was not bothered about timing, all I wanted to do was enjoy my run, soak in the energy of people and the environment. As we the runners came to the Worli Seaface stretch, we were greeted with so many cheers of every language all saying, “Run India Run”and trust me cheering does give you a boost. The city which never stops for anyone finally, stopped to cheer complete strangers. As I ran, I came across a Mumbai which had people of all ages kids, adults, oldies distributing water, biscuits, chocolates, sweets and fruits to the runners and this continued till we reached the Chowpatty patch.

Running at the Chowpatty Stretch is always fun, so I quite enjoyed it, giving us company was cheering people, the amazing sea, live music at different intervals and I must say music is another booster, it pumps you up. It’s here, it hit me like a blow of wind that I have finished 19 KMS, and was heading towards the finish line.YAYYYY!  I just wanted to scream out and say yes, I ran the entire 19 kms with ease and was going to finish the race and fulfill one of my dream that is running the Half Marathon. Now, running might not be a big deal for others, but for me it was, because I was an over weight kid in my school and college and was always teased and was told that I could never run. And, over the years, though I lost weight and have become thin, this thought still got stuck with me and even I believed that I would never run, but today here I was finishing 21 kms at a stretch, without any trouble. I was nearing the finish line with only 100 meters to go, with the beautiful CST Station welcoming me and guess what? I finished. I finished the race in 2 hours 48 mins and 46 secs. Frankly, I still can’t describe the joy of finishing my Half Marathon. The feeling that you get when you see yourself heading towards the finish line, conquering your dream is out of this world. At this moment, all I wanted to do was thank my trainers Nagesh, Mosen, Mahindra, Pravin from the running group STRIDERS who helped me, trained me to be a runner and experience the joy of running.

 Yes, I loved finishing my first Half Marathon, but what I didn’t like was people talking on their phones and surfing music during the run and blocking other runner’s way, throwing bottles on the road, chit chatting and walking in between the running path. If you are reading this, then this is my sincere request that next time when you plan to run, please remember not to do such things and be responsible and respect other runners, if you want to walk, walk at the sides, keep the bottles at the sides, give space to other runners and enjoy your run. You know, with my run, I have met some amazing, inspiring people and have learnt a lot about myself. I have learnt to respect myself, you should never underestimate yourself, believe in yourself and conquer your dreams. You, me, everyone can run so, next year, you too should RUN because its FUN and experience the joy of RUNNING. 

Lovely gift from my best friend

And guess what? Running also comes with its perks, just like I got one. My best friend gifted me this lovely note and a cheque on finishing my half marathon. Its one of the best gift I have received till date, it makes me happy to see that I was able to inspire someone.

Note: This article was entered into the SCMM Wow What A Contest on www.marathoninmarathon.com and was awarded fourth.