The Tata Mumbai Marathon 2020-My first full marathon

19 January 2020 was a very special day for the runner in me. After completing the race, I could finally answer the question from people which went like “Do you run marathons?”, with a one-word affirmative answer. I had completed the biggest marathon in India, the Tata Mumbai Marathon. I was officially a marathoner!!!

The training journey was amazing with over 1000km from September to January. I was consistently bettering my personal records for maximum mileage each month. You can read more about my journey here: https://kartikiyer747.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-journey-towards-marathon.html

Greeted by my photo from TMM2018 at the expo

Just a couple of days before race day, I did get a little nervous (read confused). Perhaps this was because I had not planned any pace or timing for the race. On Friday I got things cleared in my head after a meeting with super-coach TimTim Sharma and had a simple plan set out for Sunday. The Saturday before race day was routine with a marathon twist. I was busy planting my friends, family, etc. at the right places with the right bits of supplies and motivation. Everything had a plan A and a plan B. Spoiler alert: some of these were to be violations of the rule, “Never try anything new on race day”

I managed to get 4 hours of sleep(Yes I slept by focusing on rest instead of entertaining thoughts about the race route). I had a breakfast of peanut butter with bread (violation) and was set to leave. As I got into a rick to the station, I realized that the weather was good. I had always joked to friends that the third Sunday of January was always summer in Mumbai. However, it felt like it was a Mumbai winter morning. Though a few other friends were complaining in the train, I was mentally dancing with joy thanks to the weather. The late onset of winter had meant that most of the training was in warmer weather. Even my last 20-mile-long run in Pune was in weather which felt warmer. While heading to the holding area, I mentally recollected all the grueling hours of training. I said to myself that I was ready and that it was my day.

En route!!!

The walk from the holding area to the start line felt very different from the half marathon. There were many familiar faces, a lot of co-debutants, etc. The race was flagged off at 5:15am and I set off. I was searching for the 4:30 pacer who seemed to have a very solid strategy. This gentleman, Mr. Satish Gujaran is a legend in the Mumbai distance running community. I had seen his bus at VVMM and there it seemed like a multi-axle Volvo roaring amid some two-wheelers. I was convinced that he would do a good job. Till the third kilometer, the bus was nowhere to be seen. Near Pizza by the bay, a friend told me that he had seen the bus a little further behind. I decelerated and boarded the running bus at the 5km mark. The journey changed completely after this. I rolled down my sleeve over my watch and I went back to the plan of not looking at my watch and surrender completely to the pacer.

It was evident that Satish Gujaran had the ability to simplify things for others. His strategy included a 10 second hydration+walk break at the water station after every 4km. The pace was steady with good inputs from the veteran runner. It felt very different to get cheered on Marine drive and Peddar road while not running towards the finish line. I could hear some familiar voices from the various cheering volunteers. We encountered the fast half marathoners going in the opposite direction from almost Babulnath. Peddar Road was a beautiful stretch with some groups like Mumbai Harmonics playing live music for us runners. The crowd was growing exponentially on the opposite side as we neared Haji Ali. It was then a furious river of people going towards the finish line

Near about the 12^th kilometer, my thoughts started going through the entire journey of not just the marathon training but also the start of my running journey, where I ran my first 10k and slept through almost the entire afternoon. The first 10k, first SCMM half marathon and then voila! I was running the full marathon. The thoughts were overwhelming, and I felt the tears welling up. I said to myself, you can do this after the finish line, keep going now. I clearly had no idea what my condition would be like after another 30km

After my friend Gautam, the 2:30 pacer (also birthday boy that day) went past, I spotted my sister Sushma on the other side. I was delighted that she was going strongly at that stage. She too had come a long way from running her first 4k run with an asthma pump to running multiple half marathons. I felt my chest swell with pride and with deeper breaths of fresh moist air from the seas.

We then went past Worli Dairy(Half Marathon holding area/starting point). The first rays of dawn were just about painting the sky red. I met Parul (the veteran runner mentioned in my previous blog) just before we turned towards the sea link. She was running easy and it felt great to meet the person who had given a good sense of direction at the start of this journey

Cruising on the Bandra Worli Sea link

The initial part of the sea link felt surreal. I could see my feet which was never possible during the half marathon. No claustrophobia, no light headedness. Just a lovely headwind which made it feel cooler than it was. Pacer Satish explained the challenge posed by the sea link, the importance of drinking before feeling thirsty and nibbling something before feeling hungry. All of us passengers on the multi-axle bus happily complied with our respective gels, dates etc. We took a 30s stretch break after the main pier of the cable stayed section. After the reset, we motored on towards the toll gates. We had to go thru a single lane but since the crowd was now well distributed along the route, it was not too bad. As we ran towards Mahim causeway the sun appeared like a big orange orb over the short Mahim skyline. We went past the halfway mark in 2 hours and 9 minutes which was exactly as per the plan. It was time to run another half marathon and the body was feeling fresh and up for the task.

The road from the start of Cadel road to Hinduja Hospital was lined up with people out to cheer for us. Most of them were silent but their presence made us feel like celebrities. It was at the signal of Hinduja hospital that I was to collect my electrolyte replenishment and sunglasses which I had planted the previous evening. The exchange was quite funny, starting with Ankita and me taking time to recognize each other and then me taking my rations from her. I understood that I was ahead of Kushal and Benny(the Jai-Veeru combo from Mahim of the bRUNch club). The 4:30 bus had gone ahead by the time I donned my sunglasses. I then quite literally hopped on to the 4:15 bus which approached us at this point to follow the 4:30 bus. I felt like I was reenacting the scene from the movie Speed where Keanu Reeves chases the bus in a sports car only to jump into the bus later.

The stretch along Shivaji Park had excellent support. People were giving us fruits, salt, etc. It was a little more silent than what I had imagined. It still was very nice. We passed by Siddhivinayak. I said a little prayer in gratitude. We then went past the old passport office. I suddenly heard my name being screamed out. It was great to see my colleague Kim (I think she has no connection with the North Korean leader) and I was happy that I would be getting a photo/video of me running my first marathon. As we motored past the Doordarshan signal, I went past my friend Pratik who had given me company as we both shattered our respective personal best timings at VVMM’19. I tried to goad him a little, but he was finding it hard to push at that point. We had completed around 27km with the clock inching slowly towards 3 hours

A little after this point, I finally got hold of Mr. Chitendra “Kala Chashma” Shetty. A few words about this encounter. Chitendra who is known as Chitu is a veteran runner both in terms of age and experience. He was running a little ahead of the bus as though he was sitting on the front window seat. But whenever his watch buzzed on completion of a kilometer, he would slow down and announce “12km ho gaye”; “24km ho gaye”, etc. and the entire bus would start chanting Satish’s name. However, there was a little twist. The distance markers were coming progressively later than his announcement. I told him that the race will depend on the distance markers and not his Garmin and we both had a hearty laugh at the 28^th kilometer.

This was when things started getting a little tricky. I was doing just about everything right till that point. I was hydrating well like I had done on my training runs. I was having my dates on time. I was having a steady intake of electrolytes, salt etc. But then I realized that one aspect which I had not given the respect it deserved, came around to haunt me. I felt my hip flexors getting tight. I felt like I was getting forced to walk, do some leg swings etc. I cut down the pace a little and interspersed a few short walk breaks. I had done my fastest 30k+ run thus far. Then I started reminding myself of the points in training where I felt like I would not be able to complete a workout, the thoughts which would get me through the workout and the joy of finishing what was at hand. With those little positive reminders, I continued to run, though slower than what I would have liked. I went past another co-debutant friend Sanjay Salian at NSCI. It was clear that he was struggling. As always, I tried pushing him but then continued realizing that I had trained myself to be in better shape at that point

A few days before race day, my friend Christopher said this, “Treat it like a lunch buffet. You’ll get a lot of options, eat everything as you run.” Coach TimTim too told me to keep eating regularly and increase the intake of carbs post 30 km. I followed both these instructions. Though I didn’t stop for chai and biscuits, I did treat myself to fruits, dry fruits, salt etc. Smart move I must say. The best was yet to come. TimTim had suggested that I plant a bottle of Coke or some other aerated drink somewhere near Peddar Road. I was initially reluctant to try this as I had not consumed aerated drinks in donkeys’ years. But then I decided to follow the coach’s advice. The solitary 250ml bottle of Mirinda which had been languishing unopened in my fridge since quite a while got a fresh lease of life. My parents were waiting for me at Cadbury junction at the base of Peddar Road with Mirinda, Nimbu paani and my final 500ml bottle of Fast n Up. I had thought at the 12^th km that I might cry tears of joy on seeing my parents, but it was just pure joy when I saw them at the designated rendezvous point.

I gulped down the mini bottle of Mirinda, fully aware that I might be troubling fellow runners with regular burps. But none of that happened. I felt so charged up that I felt the leading media bus which was coming up on the other side of the road was my deer to chase down. I started running up Peddar road calling it a piece of cake (which it technically is compared to many of the slopes I had trained on) and then slowed down as the lead car came into view at the base of the hill. Then as it went past, the elites came and went, bunched together like a cohesive unit, running stride to stride, in sync with each other even after 34km. It was a sight to behold! A volunteer from the MRR cheer zone (which had a lot of running buddies cheering and supporting everyone), ran with me till the 36km distance marker. He told me to stay in the middle of the road as the photographer was just a short distance away from the distance marker. I thanked Umed for the company he gave and the stellar job he was doing, which were part of his hill training in disguise

After getting down Kemp’s corner flyover, I realized that the body was not in great shape. My hamstrings were feeling tight. Very tight! I stopped to stretch, do some leg swings etc. A few people who were standing there cheering for the crowd asked me if I was okay and offered me just about everything a runner may want. Salt, water, electrolyte, etc. It was heartwarming to see the way the people of Mumbai cheering and helping everyone from the heart.

I still had around 6 more km to traverse. I still had a realistic chance of making it within 4:30. Since this was my first marathon, I had kept a wide window from 4:30 to 5:00 hours for completion. As I continued running and kept feeling my hamstrings misbehaving every now and then, my watch alerted me about the 4 hours mark. The mind was feeling great but the body was not. I reached Wilson college which was where an amazing running buddy, Mr. Vineet R Ahuja was waiting patiently for all of us full marathon runner friends. He got a big sweaty hug and then we ran together for around 300 metres.

Every now and then, office colleagues have told me that running even a short distance would tire them out. My legs were in the exact same position. That was when I followed my suggestion to my colleagues. Break it down and keep it simple. I started setting short targets of easy running followed by a reward of a walk break for a short distance. And voila!!!!  I could see the left turn at Pizza by the Bay. I was consciously not looking at my watch. But the pace was decent considering the amount of walking I was doing

A few strides after Pizza by the Bay, I heard and then saw one of the pillars of my support system (read my better half) Samyuktha. She and Harsha were enthusiastically cheering me. I ran towards them, blew kisses and went ahead (I was running). In retrospect, the video they recorded of this scene was hilarious. I thought this would be the time when I would be overwhelmed with memories of the entire training journey. But I was concentrating more on how to avoid getting the hamstrings screaming in pain. The next walk interval after Churchgate station was greeted by the team from RunBurn at a water station. They gave me a few gaalis to get me to resume running. Then I saw something which made me kick myself into running. The board read 500m to go. Another kick came when the next board read “400m to go”. I said to myself, “Come on, this is the short intervals distance!!!” That worked. I ensured that I didn’t foolishly try to accelerate too much. That decision ensured that I didn’t put too much strain on my hamstrings because of the bad running mechanics I was demonstrating (post-race analysis made me realise this). The route then angled right towards the finish line. With a red-carpet welcome, with a canopy of sponsors’ banners and with crowds cheering us to the finish line. This deserves a different paragraph

200 metres to go. I heard a familiar voice call my name. “Kartik, BHAAG!!!” The “Bhaag” was very loud. It was the lady who had helped me with a training plan which made this run feel easy. The plan was to simulate, “Training in hell makes Earth feel like Heaven”. I dug deep to push a little harder. I was sure that I would be able to look good in the finish line pictures. Then with less than a 100m to go, I saw another friend from Reebok (Yash Yadav) clicking pics on his phone. I beamed a smile towards him, got captured by the photographer at the finish line and I crossed the finish line as a marathoner.

It is partially true that running a marathon is a life transforming experience. It is the training that does it. The marathon is just the icing on the cake!!