Unpublished Blog 2013

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 …….