Chandigarh Marathon-2013

Two weekends back, I ran my first ever 21 kms Chandigarh marathon. Though I took three hours and five minutes to complete it; perhaps no way near the international standards; but the whole experience and the feeling and most importantly the lessons learnt are most valuable for me.


Every marathoner has their first marathon story. If they've run a lot, they might forget the details of other races, but the first marathon lives in their mind - each and every kilometer. And most find that marathoning is like eating a bag of potato chips - it's nearly impossible to stop after just one.

Around same time last year, while traveling to Oslo, I watched a documentary on Boston marathon, where there was a story on how participants prepared, practiced and executed. The effort and planning went in to it and most importantly the sheer feeling of completion made me think, why can’t I run one?

It was a great motivating and I kept on practicing long walks and some efforts of building stamina through biking and hiking etc. I will be honest; all these efforts were not keeping the marathon in mind, but wanted to stretch myself.

I never thought, I will finish 21 kilometers. I had my self doubt on my stamina.

The first 7 kms very simple, it felt like I am doing my normal walk. I kept mixing walking and jogging; to conserve my energy and more ever I don’t think I am good in running. The environment and encouragement from my daughter kept me on second stretch. While I completed 14 kms, it was pretty evident that I will complete the last stretch as well. The sugar cubes or may be the energy building music or the just enthusiasm of finishing the race kept me going. By this time all the professional runners completed their run.

The last 3-4 kms were very tough; with pain in my ankle and knee. It was fantastic feeling to complete the race, it was a great test of my stamina and I enjoyed every step of that distance.

In reflection:

• I felt, this is more of psychological than physical: After a while, I felt the body strain gets out, it’s more psychological, what all it needs thereafter is mental toughness. It’s a great learning for me, for all these years I thought it needs physical strength.

• What it needs is to start, it ends by itself. The very process of running marathon takes care of finishing it. I really mean it. The energy you get in after initial 10 kms takes care of pushing you through the rest of the race, unless you want to quit.

• The feeling of completion: this is fantastic feeling. You feel light, you feel like full o energy and off course lots of pain.

I know I am crazy; but I am looking forward for my next race! Preparing to build my stamina and determined to complete the distance in less time.