The Mumbai Marathon 2011

The Race to the Start Line has Begun

When Mumbai ran this year on the 17th January for the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2010 and Every Mumbaikar ran not for himself but for some other Mumbaikar, you might have watched from your comfortable sofa sets as to how each participant contributed to the Nation. For those ignorant of facts and figures let me elaborate. The 7th Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon (SCMM) started at the crack of dawn with thousands out there in the streets of Mumbai : not just participants but also the men, women and children cheering and motivating all participants. This event representing each individual running for their cause is undoubtedly one of Asia's largest philanthropic event.

Though I have been entrusted of motivating maximum articles to join the Gokhale & Sathe Contingent for The SCMM 2011, I thought a mere mail on the group cannot encapsulate the myriad range of feelings that one encountered while at this carnival. Still I feel that, there were three defining moments in my entire half marathon: One, the energy and enthusiasm of the participants at the starting line gave our hearts quite a hike. Second: the shouts of fellow participants: "Bharat Mata ki Jai" on the stunning and mighty Bandra-Worli Sea Link gave me added energy and the view of the rising sun from the city landscape was so beautiful that Rahul Sir decided to 'just' walk the entire sea link as he wanted to spend a long time on that engineering beauty. Third: Approaching the finish line and crossing it is another experience.My legs were literally going away. My toes were starting to turn inwards, my calf starting to bend backwards and my thighs unable to sustain any more body weight. But the energy which people cheering you from the roadside gives you is unimaginable. With that I sprinted my way to the finish line and heaved a great sigh of relief to have completed my first Half Marathon.

It is really a big appreciative effort on part of the populace to turn up to attend events like this and make their august presence felt and make Mumbai known for what is famous the world over. – For its welcoming hands and open heart. At the end when I was sitting alongside my parents at the Azad Maidan, I thought over it, "This was my Marathon.. and I lived, loved and cherished each kilometer of it..."And I decided that I would come back again to participate next year...

BE a part of The SCMM 2011.. The race to be there at the Start Line has begun.. For more details visit the link http://www.procamru nning.in/ scmm/

In the end it went right!

I had planned it over the summer.. Set up a team of like minded friends and batch-mates.. We were pretty comfortable with the nature trail planned out a week ago..

But come tuesday before the trail on sunday we were in a fix. Students enrolling for the programme were increasing by the day. We dint close down the entry as we wanted all to learn and have fun. Come thursday, we were had to cancel our partnership with Trailblazers as there was some misunderstanding in the terms of agreement. So we were in a state where we had no fixed transport agent and nor any guide in the forest area.

Friday the picture was changed. We had guides and we had a transport company. Everything was in place and we were pretty healthy financially also. But then on Saturday, the rain had a field day. there was water logging everywhere. It rained the entire day and I had a tough time getting back home on Kavish Jain's bike. Though he did a marvellous job of riding through waterlogged streets.

It was drizzling at about 9pm when i started getting frantic calls from students and even our teacher.
"Are we going tomorrow?".. I gave a standard answer to alteast 50 callers : "its too early to call it off. if it continues to rain through the night i ll sms everyone that its cancelled."

I slept early after watching the Arg vs Ger match. Woke up by a call at 3:30am. somebody asking.. " hey dude are we going today ? " ...I was so mind fucked that i said yes and cut the call..

It was safe to go. No flooding along the course to karnala.. At 4:30am I called up the bus driver who was to reach Malad at 5. he said he was sleeping and he ll be coming only by 6.! i was like WTF! After arguing and calling his owner he made it by 5:15am.

Another shocker.. due to pressure inside the bus at night the side glass of our bus had broken and the 4 seats were drenched with rain water. And then again it started raining. More calls. Same Question but a different answer. "We are reaching college in 30 mins!". Once in college, slowly students started coming in and in the end we had 10 people losing out for reasons better known to them.. But as for the remaining it was great fun .. excellent pictures and full on dhamal.!