You just cannot give up! How a senior citizen motivated me to finish the Tata Mumbai Marathon.
There were a million reasons to give up exercising during the lockdown…tiny confined space, extreme heat, lots of office and housework, or plain laziness (who is going to notice?).
Every time I feel like letting it slide, the mind goes back to January 19th, 2020. Going to bed early on my birthday to wake up at 3 am for the Tata Mumbai Marathon wasn’t a very happy prospect. But I did the hard yards…up and down the Bandra-Worli sea-link and the tricky slopes of Peddar Road.
I was near Wilson college – on my 18th km – when acute fatigue stopped me dead in my tracks. The 2-hour pacemaker who had been well-behind me until then, suddenly shot past as did at least a dozen others, glaring at me for blocking their path. I thought my race was over.
‘You cannot give up. CANNOT. Just 3 more kms to go,’ it was the determined but quavering voice of a gentleman at least 75 years old, who had emerged from the sidewalk. He offered me a couple of Parle-G biscuits.
Something clicked in me. I walked for half a km. Then slowly jogged for another half a km, approaching Pizza by The Bay. Then, without warning, the feet picked up the pace. I crossed Churchgate station and was now just 500 metres away from the destination, Azad Maidan.
Conquering the horror
The most horrific sight awaited me. Just as I was about to take the left, I spotted a young man with his head on the footpath, with the body still but mouth wide open. Not much I could do. The medics were on the job.
The fatigue returned as suddenly as it had gone. Good thing that I didn’t know at that stage that as many seven runners suffered heart attacks.
The only succour was that I could now count backwards, 500 metres…300…100…0. Heat radiated from my body as I tried to settle down after crossing the line.
The 2-hour pacemaker had surely overshot me, but not by much. I had clocked 2 hours and 6 minutes. Not my best time…but nothing to be ashamed of.
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