Very Long Half Marathon Report!

ATTENTION ATTENTION !

Miss. Prutha Raithatha just finished running her first ever race more than 5 kilometers… a full HALF MARATHON. I ran the Philadelphia Distance Run half marathon on Sept 16, 2007 in 2hr : 55 min: 57 secs ! [My personal best so far, time wise]. BRAVO! BRAVO!

So let me give you a little insight on my great strategies of how to cope with your first major race tension.

Two full days before my race, it dawned upon me that I had to go to Philly on Saturday [the day b4 my race] to pick up my bib and chip and do my registration etc. and ofcourse that's when my municipality bulb of a head switched on and I realized that I need to find a place to stay. Now I did have Sumit who had warned me on some run 3 weeks ago that all hotels were getting full and that I should act it soon. But 2 days in advance I thought was enough notice.Trust me. So I gathered my race info and the time I need to get there etc and I called the one person I can always count on to make everything right. My sister a.k.a Surrogate MOM! She is the best I tell you. So after yelling at me for 15 mins fo doing this to her again at the last min, she got into action. She called all the hotels possible in philly and yelled at a few of them for being full already and not having place for her Little Sister on her first race ever…yes as you may have already figured out by now, I am a bit spoilt… and I love it! But she found a place and booked it and everything was taken care of.

We got to philly on sat at I think about 2.00pm…again my sister, brother-in-law [BIL] and my 6 month old niece SAANJ [I call her "Sexy" © … pls do take the copyright seriously, I am very possessive about my nick names ;-)] drove me to Philly. Yeah right, like if I had a boy friend I would have given my Sister a break…but I don't…so till then she is my Surrogate Boy friend/ Mom/ Driver/ Chaperon/ Everything. We went straight to the Convention center and picked up all my race accessories. By the time I was out of the convention center my heart was throbbing already …and for the first time it wasn't becoz of a not-so-cute-fedex guy [yeah… I have a thing for fedex guys..not UPS.. Strictly Fedex… needless to say "don't ask y?"] .. But the excitement just inside the big hall was quite overwhelming. Everyone seemed soo relaxed and fit and ready to take on the world… and my knees were shaking so bad that I could have used them to massage someone's aching back… trust me they were really vibrating... I have always been scared with this one thought that when I run the race and I finally reach the finish line, there is nobody there.. the red cones have been picked up, the speakers have been moved, there is not even a finish line and no one even sees me finish. SCARY… I KNOW!!...

So by then I was a bundle of nerves. Btw, I do not get nervous that often, but when I do, the direct effect of it is felt on my stomach and the worst affected are the guys running next to me the next day. God bless their souls and noses.

I had to get ride of my nervousness right. so I decided it was time for some major psychological revamping. I had to relax. So I did it… 3 blocks away from the restaurant I found this really nice Nail Salon called " Colors Nail Salon" [how innovative, my god!… utter genius]. So I went in, took 15 mins to decide which color of nail polish would go with my Black running tights and my orange Team Asha T-shirt and got myself pampered to an awesome manicure…. And I finished the entire look by even getting my hair colored. I just thought I needed to look pretty in my pictures [Yeah I know…I still don't and its quite wishful thinking…but so what… I had to try! U never know what could work?... but apparently the Deep Burgundy brown does not work. Just FYI]….

The next day at 7.45am the race started. All was great so far. I had Abhishek and Jayshree with me at the start line. Jayshree is my running partner on most Asha Saturday long runs. So I was so glad to see her that I grabbed her hand in public and did not let go of it till we actually started running. I did not care if ppl around us thought we were gay and that she was too pretty for me and what the hell was she doing with someone like me and she deserved wayyy better! I was just happy to have her right next to me. Awweee honey…. will you marry me!

Ohhhhh I forgot to tell you about the highlight of my race. So since Jayashree and I in the past have averaged 17-18min per mile, which is slower than walking at a slow speed for a normal 2 legged –being, we knew we were slow…. But we needed to get over that insecurity and move on right? Like really feel great about actually being slow, right? So I had a brilliant idea on the Friday before the race. [yeah, my one eyebrow went up so high, it almost touched the back of my head ;-) ].. So the idea was that we should wear a picture of a tortoise on our t-shirts. We were the team Asha's "Slow and Steady, wins the race" TORTOISES, INC. It was cool. I even put a dialogue bubble next to my tortoise's face saying " SO WHAT!" it was an awesome idea… I swear… lots of ppl complimented on our turtles and we heard a lot of other comments just behind our backs… all in all a huge success.

Through out the race we had Abhishek entertain us. I mean, like we needed more entertainment? Helloo… you should know one secret that most of the times J [Jayashree] and I take soo long for our runs because we enjoy ourselves too much on our run. Yes we are a very happy couple ;-) .The last 18 mil run we did on saturday sept8, 2007, we actually took a little 1 min nap too…right in the middle of our 13 th mile… we were too tired and also we wanted to wait for a cute guy we saw at the reservoir to come by again J)))).. …

So back to Abhishek. This dude is the best. He has immense amount of energy. He spoke non-stop for 3 hrs. Just for the heck of it. We didn't have a chance to feel our aching jism (body), just cause our heads were full of his nonsensical non-stop commentary. The told me everything about himself. Things I did not want to know about him and the things I REALLY did not want to know about him. He started to tell us that he wanted to go pee at mile 2. and till 11m he did not go. Can you imagine what all we heard on our run? Ram Ram !!!! I was verbally polluted I tell you.

But on a very serious note, He is one of my closest friends I have here and I couldn't have done it without him. He could have run at a 8-9 min per mile speed but he didn't. Just to keep me company. I love you too abhi.. [J, I don't really mean it honey…don't worry..ur still my No. 1]

And then I had Jitu [Sunil Shetty look alike…OMG…Sumit that was the best man… God will bless you for feeding me something to tease him with for the rest of his life… its just too precious..]and monel. They came all the way to PHILLY TO CHEER ME!.. I have the best friends ever…seriously. They buddy ran with me for like 3 miles sporadically. And especially at the end when I need them the most. Plus they clicked like a zillion pics of us. Btw, every time you want Abhi to stop talking, you should show him a camera. He will stop running, stop talking and strategically place himself against the sun to get him a good picture… He's worst than me. I only colored my hair and nails, I didn't stop running during my race for a pic..hello! But Monel, Jitu and my family were pampering us like we were running a marathon or something ;-)…. WARNING! Corny line coming up…. I do not know what I would have done with out you guys. U are the best and I cannot thank you enough.

So my race was great. I ran at 11 – 12 mpm for the first 6 miles. Then I had a nasty cramp in my stomach and for the next 7.1 miles it did not leave me. So I ran the rest at 13-14 mpm. Don't know y that happened. I wish it hadn't coz I was running well and I could have kept that pace if it wasn't for that stitch in my stomach. Coach will email separately. After the race I was walking around like a Robo doing BREAK-DANCE [AAhh-UOO…Michael Jackson-style]. Every joint in my body was hurting and every movement was interrupted.

After the race we clicked more picture and went to shower at the hotel. Then we left for NJ. Met more asha gang there for dinner. Got home by 11.00pm.. did a whole patch-work of Benge on my legs. 4 patches per leg …and I got ready for bed, wore my medal around my neck again and went to sleep…Sweet Dreams!!!

Coach, your face flashed in front of my eyes all throughout the race… Wish you were there. Missed you and thank you for everything.

I told you it was a long email. Who asked you to read it hun!