Hyderabad Half marathon 2008

Hyderabad Half Marathon 2008.

You get courage after doing things. Today i feel better after doing the Hyderabad Half Marathon 2008 and i am looking forward to Mumbai Full Marathon 2009. I wanted to run this ever since i ran the Hyderabad 10K 2007 but as time goes by and other priorities take dominance you are unable to practice, not even mentally. you loose the determination and its difficult to run more than 3Kms Non stop without your determination. Delhi Half marathon was skipped due to ....... and the last practice that i have done was on nov 2nd above 50 rounds in Osmania grounds of which 36 i ran and 12 i walked and then dragged myself to another two rounds and since i did not favour me in the number of rounds i would have certainly done more. I had made up my mind to skip this as i did not practice nor there was anything motivating me to do it.But on Wednesday the 26th by a coincidence i happened to come across Ratnamala Rao my company Vice President who had earlier appreciated my successful completion of Mumbai full marathon. It happened that it was a eye to eye contact and i let out the fact that i am skipping the hyderabad 10k as i was not into practice. But she told me to collect the chip and run and i felt that i should and this influenced me to finally rush to people's plaza on necklace road to register for it to receive the Bib no :99 bought a track pant and found my friend robin's shoe arragements to reach necklace road was lathish's responsibility and it was a sleepless night when i was preparing myself to face the challenge.

I reached people's plaza by around 5:30 am and had my Bib on my T-shirt,but this year the crowd was lesser maybe because i was there earlier for the Half marathon and not 10k which starts late and has greater crowd. I did not get a chance to see the African stallions who are usually the heroes of such races, but army and police runners were there. After the initial address half marathon runners were asked to assemble before the Half marathon start line near the Gate 1 and there the line was done people just rushed in and Elite Athletes from army and police formed the front row which even had surender Bib no : 1 who had participated in Olympics and many other run machines were there at the line up along with a few who perhaps did not know how much a half marathon is there were two of them behind me with a bib of hyderabad 10k 2008but most were with the Red Bib with RFID tag of Hyderabad Half Marathon 2008.

Cameras were ready and retakes of presentators about start went again and again and occasionally the crowd of runners booed at them , and then finally the flag off happened and i took of in a few strides i was on the lead and then i kept the pace and i was leading and i kept the lead as i knew perfectly what i was doing, my intention was to burst and then keep pushing your endurance limits as there was no practice so do not bank upon stamina, and i suppose till the end of 1km i was on lead leading the run but now i said to myself 1 down 20 more to go , then a pack of athletes from army and rest went past by me and kept on as i ran through as time went by so called seasoned athletes ran past me but my intention was to run non stop kept track of the marking and at each i calculated the remaining the count went on but kept away from water it was around 6km mark i suppose when they offered orange and mosambi peels which i accepted and chew them and spat them when i spotted the 10km mark i paced a little to give myself a confidence of the 10km distance and thus it was 10 down and 11 more to go and kept myself non stop and that was the priority ran past around the charminar which was a desire after seeing a few photographs of elite athletes run around it from previous marathons. Continued to run but my leg spans were very small thus many ran past me but some i overtook as they started to walk occasionaly had water but by now i was exhausted i wanted something to eat and not drink
once i asked those serving water for anything to eat he showed me orange peels on other side of the road , but i continued to run i had a thousand monkeys trying to stop me from doing the non stop all throught and its felt more becuase there was no pratice earlier but out of sheer determination i kept my feet in motion and looked to see the next marking it went on until i saw the 2km more i ran past it and after sometime i walked for about 400 mts or so and then again i manged to get my feet in motion and by now i was along the necklace road and running past the lumbini park and on then again after the 1km more mark somewhere i had to walk for about 10mts and then again started to run until i saw the last 100 mts when i ran past many to cross the finish line when the volunteers rushed to cast their RFID bats on our Bib's but there was nothing to eat out there.

when you finish a half marathon first thing you wish to do is eat something. that is what i couldn't do as i did not have money with me and there was nothing on the part of organisers i asked a few people to buy me something to eat until finally i came across Mr Ravi who offered me a pack of chips and later some idly and bonda it was quite refreshing and he was my saviour.

I waited further there to see the prize distribution and hoping to collect the Timing certificate but i was told by people part of organisers that it would be updated later on website and as i was in fatigue i choose to sit in the stall along with some of them when i overheard one of them telling a person who inquired that the certificate would be send home, as the participant moved away this person was laughing along with others as though he has fooled someone.

In mumbai full marathon finishers within the stipulated time were given a Medal and a Timing certificate, and also fruits and biscuits but here there was nothing.It was very bad on the part of Organisers.

Thus Hyderabad Half Marathon 2008 was completed.