A close friend said “ab toh saale
maje hain” when I told him I was off to
Bangkok for work for 3 days . Perception of any one about Bangkok is about
sleaze , night life and massages , but the Bangkok I saw was very different …..
the land of Buddhist temples , the
canals , the traffic, one of the few uncolonised countries , still ruled by
Kings . Yet , the adventure side , I did
venture out and see the night life …. (yes a Midnight Marathon) , you know insanity
creeps in when you are in to running ….. wherever I travel , I just check out
if et al there is a Run happening in any close neighbourhood of that town . And
that’s why I could run in Italy ,Srilanka, UAE, Bulgaria, Singapore , Bangkok ,
London ,China etc . But Bangkok International Half Marathon was my first
official 21kms event .
Two days of hectic work including
late night sittings for the completion of task took a toll and when Saturday
happened , inspite of venturing out , my only look out was to get in to bed at
the earliest so as to catch on some sleep as I was to report at 0300 for a run
which was to be started at 0400 . My good friend and brother in law arranged a
taxi for me , since there was a protest going on in Bangkok for last fewdays
most of the taxi guys were reluctant to ply . But luck favored and I was at the
starting point near “ Wat Pro Krew- the temple of Emerald Buddha” and the intersection of “Grand Palace” . internet is a great help ,
prior to the event I had got in touch with the Bangkok Runners and they were glad to host me on the race day
morning . I was missing my colleagues
and the Indian runners , since I was the only one wearing the India marked
Tshirt (Let me tell you , I am not officially representing India, but wearing a
tricolor was a great feeling and we were only ten Indians in a crowd of 5 to 7
thousand runners) I was proud to be at starting line wearing a tri color band ,
many runners who were at start line asked me about India . But being from Armed
Forces ….. we have been taught to take pride for whatever we do for our nation
. The atmosphere there was super duper , there was only one language , one
religion , the language of sports , the religion of running . The race was
piped at sharp 0400 by a famous Thai sports person and zoom we went past . I
had determined to run hard and to try to achieve my PB (personal best ) . Too my surprise, 1km in to the race , the
Flyover started and the course started having incline , here evaporated the
dream of a PB ( A friend had told me the route was flat , but I was sure that I
would myself be flat any time soon ) . I train with proper hydration and energy
drinks like Gatorade or energal or gel , to my surprise there were no energy
drink station and the water stations were 3 kms apart , the weather was hot and
humid and the course was only flyovers (18 kms) . Murphys law strikes 1hr my garmin (GPS Watch) read 9.8 kms and I knew that I had ran faster
in pursuit of a Personal Best , but in the excitement had deviated from my
practise timings and I knew it was going to be tough to keep the pace and at 13
kms close to 1.26 , the ever dependable Garmin 305 konked off (and I was like
handicapped, to me Garmin is my best training partner ) . Here on the race was
on purely tagging along with other runners and asking for the timings and
distance after every few yards . I was tired as the water stations were
drifting a part. People were cheering us even at 0545 hrs (but nothing to beat
Mumbai and Vasai Virar in terms of cheering ) . Distance markers kept on moving
and realized that it was almost 20kms done and I was around 2.10 , but the last
1 kms was tough , never in my 30 previous races and innumerable previous
training runs had I had to undergo
medication on the running field , here I was draining and puked , managed to
cross the finish line and the clock read 2.19 .21 ) . I went to medical camp
took some rest and came back for the customary photos and medal session . Met
lot of people , made friends across . The best thing I discovered was that the
Thai govt had declared November as the month of running . Was proud of the
beautiful crafted medal and the tricolor and then I could catch up with other
few fellow Indian runners .
I deserved a well treated Leg
Massage after my first official
international event …… thanks to my Friend and brother in law shailesh for
registering me for this run and all the support he gave me . I believe - love your passion and keep running , I know
some day I wont be able to Run or Walk , but yes today is not that day …….
