Finally the day had come for the much-awaited Great Delhi Run, 15 of us reached the Pragathi Maidhan at Delhi from where we took the shuttle service to Nehru Stadium. The shuttle fully packed with aspiring youths reached the venue at 9 am. The Nehru stadium flooded with young guns raring to go wore a lively atmosphere; the run started at 9.15 am had few celebrities including Kapil Dev to cheer up the crowd. With lots of young faces around, the live media coverage, the helicopters overhead, and our own style of attracting the crowd, there was no lack of fun. I would say it was a fun run for our team, though we all lost in the crowd within the first 500 meters from of the start we managed to make it as a team at the end. The interesting part of the run was Sonu, our fella runner running away with the second runner up prize for best-dressed runner (read as funny dress) among the 20000 participants. It was fun run for a Noble cause at the end. The longest run ever in my life. Just for the records, I crossed the finish line in one-hour.

I wouldn’t have asked for a better gift on my Birthday!

Just about two hours ago I received a confirmation email from the Hutch Delhi Half-Marathon committee that my entry for “Great Delhi Run” on October 16 is confirmed. Though I wrote about Chennai Marathon race few months back, this is the first ever Marathon run I am taking part in my life, I am excited about it. It’s not just about excitement; more than excitement it’s about contributing for a noble cause. As of now we are a group of 9 people and we expect to have a bit of fun as well.

Another two weeks from now and I got to be prepared to run for 7 Km on the highways of Indian capital watched by thousands of people and viewers around the nation. So I decided to give it a trial run at our office gym, after a long wait for around 25 minutes I got a chance to step into the treadmill. It’s a modern treadmill; it even calculates your pulse rate/heartbeats per minutes. I kept on increasing the speed to 6 (not sure about the speed measurement unit), it started shouting at 6.4 that I shouldn’t go beyond this speed for my pulse rate. I turned off the pulse detector and went on till 12 speed without much problem, but soon after completing 2 kilometer I was completely down, I now needed the help of the handbar, I couldn’t stand on my own. Oh Man! Once I thought 7 Km is simple, but now 2 Km itself seems to be a tougher target. I now started questioning my stamina; I play football rarely, I workout at home often, still I am no way near the 7 Km target. Race is not just about fitness, it’s also about stamina and control.

This is just an initial assessment. Miles to go before 16th.
Cheers!