I completed the full marathon i.e. 42 km on Sunday in the Bangalore International Marathon 2006.

Well, barely completed. After running the first 21 km in 2.5 hours, I was elated at my good timing, but then the worst thing (for a runner) happened - cramps. I just couldn’t run, it hurted. The irony was that in the past 6 months of heavy training, I never faced this issue, and it had to happen on the final D-day. I tried a little running and little walking for a while and managed to reach 28 km.

At the 28 km mark, I gave up. I grunted and cursed myself. Then, a fellow marathoner came along, cheered me up and pushed me to go on. Okay, I guess it was worth another try. So, I mustered all the energy left in me to get up and walk. A few more marathoners came along and encouraged me to simply walk if I can’t run. I winced and walked, but I was pleasantly surprised at the encouragement by the people around, and specially the traffic cops.

If there was ever a test of my will power, I guess this was it. I took 4 hours to walk the rest of the way back to the Kanteerava stadium.

In the end, I was disappointed that I couldn’t run the 42 km as I wanted to, and my goal of finishing in 5.5 hours went down the drain. But at least I completed.

A huge shout of thanks to Ajay, Niara, Vikram - my running partners and closest friends, without whom I would’ve never run the marathon, let alone work towards my dream of running the full marathon.

Is it a coincidence that the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42?

Today, I achieved 34 km.

Yeah, my stamina has improved.

Here’s some of the “running gyaan” I’ve collected over the past few months:

• Learn to listen to your body
  • Learn to distinguish between feeling tired or just feeling fatigue, feeling the need for water and the need to take rest.
  • I attribute a part of my development to doing things my way. I didn’t push myself to compete with the others, but I competed with myself.
• It takes patience to develop stamina. A year ago, I used to run one round in the track field and stop dead-tired. The track was just 400 metres long.
• Some people find company important for running. I need my iPod and the company.
• Running in the early morning is better - lesser pollution, lesser noise, lesser people, empty roads, etc.
• Breathe naturally.
• Do varying distances of running (The distances should look like a bell curve on a graph)
• Run 9 min. Walk 1 min. And the cycle continues.
• Gear is important
  • Nike Dri-Fit was very useful for me because it absorbed the sweat and helped me to stay warm.
  • I also carry the water-bottle-with-a-belt.
  • Good shoes are important
• Drink lots of water. 2 litres per day.
• Water + Electral = Yummy. And it restores the salts that your body loses.
• Nothing teaches you determination like running. Because the temptation to stop is immense and you can easily stop.
• I still have a lot to learn.

The Bangalore Marathon has been postponed from May 14 to September, 2006.

This is so disappointing.

I had not participated in last year’s marathon because I wasn’t fit for it, but I had made up my mind to participate this year. So, I’ve been training with a couple of friends. Our plan was to prepare for the half marathon.

Today morning, I ran 21 km in 2.5 hours, the second time in the past month, and it felt great. Too bad, I have to wait till September to run in the actual marathon.