26.2 miles... I still cant believe I did it!

So the pre-marathon procedure was the same as the half –marathon. The usual – color your hair, cover up the grays, paint ur nails and get pretty for the cameras. I did not want to write in before the marathon because I was so nervous; I would have freaked everyone out. So I restricted myself to freaking out only Coach with my "What the F*#k am I going to do?" and " I am going to DIE" etcetera, etcetera. But that's the price you pay to be my mentor, it's not my fault.

Since I have been the biggest cheater with my training since my trip to London a week after our Half Marathon, I knew for sure my marathon, if finished, would be the biggest fluke. And it was. [God bless himself for blessing me]

Six to 8 of us started for the start line from the Asha tent together. We reached the start line and decided to not go too far behind [where we really should have been according to our coral numbers, which are given to us according to our running speed]. So according to Jayshree and my speed we would have had to stand with the 90yr old people at the end of the crowd. And since we did not even want to waste our energy walking half a mile to the back of the crowd just to come back to the front, we stayed in the front…with the 3.40 groups… we were flexing and stretching just like them. There was no difference between them and us.

The gunshot goes off, Sheela my friend says, " Oh My god, I have to pee". I took her behind a parked truck next to where we were standing and told her to just go ahead and do it. I swear on my mother, just 5 mins ago I had seen [not in detail] another woman do the same thing… I for once thought – Yes! There is something the west emulates about the east. But Sheela just wouldn't listen to me… I wonder Y?

The first couple of miles J [Jayashree], Nidhi, Abhi and I stuck together. After 6-7 miles, Abhi and I had waved out to all the Asha Team as they zoomed right ahead of us. No problem, we knew that would happen. Till mile 10 it was all good. I saw Coach there…I had to stop for a big hug. I almost squished her breathless. Then I saw all my other Asha friends with atleast 25 posters to cheer us. U guys are the best. Running wise we were a bit faster than our normal pace. We were doing approx 13.3 min per mile.

Mile 10-11 Monica joins me and states "Vishnu just crossed mile 16". She had promised she would run half of the marathon with me. I have to say guys, she is the BEST-EST. I have no words to express how grateful I am to her. Monica, you should know that you are the only person in the whole wide world I would give my Favorite pair of shoes to if you asked for them. [That's the biggest sacrifice in my books ppl. U have to understand the intensity of these emotions. This is big pour moi!]

So 11mile onwards I was getting really tired. More frequent walk breaks. Almost one every 7-8 mins. I may be the only person in the history of mankind who has trained for a full 5 months [yeah yeah, I know I cheated a bit…but so what, u all did, LIARS!] for a marathon program and hit their "WALL" at mile 13. I know I should have waited atleast till mile 19 or 20, but just like puberty the wall hit me much sooner ;-) [it's a joke! …just fyi]. I was beat. I was exhausted and mentally had scared myself to death. I kept telling myself, " you should have run in London and U should have done ur second 20 mile and u shud have……!" I did not know till this point that scaring myself could ever happen to me. I have scared a LOT of people in my short life, but never myself, and I wasn't even looking at myself in the mirror!

And to my bad luck, Monica had disappeared into one of the museum looking buildings at that time to go pee. Now I know Peeing comes up too often in my marathon reports, but hello, what to do. Have you ever heard me talk about me wanting to GO-GO? ..No right? It's the people around me, I promise. At this point, I told Abhi, pls go ahead and I would catch up with him along the way. He refused. He knew from the look on my face that I would probably have given up and only walked the rest of the way. Damn it, I can never lie properly. And so he walked with me till Monica re-appeared.

As soon as Monica re-appeared I started running again. I don't really know why? I think I was just scared she would throw something at me [anything] if she saw me walking when she had given us strict instructions not to walk till after 13.5 mile. So I ran. At mile 16 a thought passes me by, " Vishnu must have finished his Marathon by now."

Our goal was to make it to the bridge [19m] before 4hr 45 mins. Or else we would not be allowed to complete our race according to the Marine Corps Marathon people. So all the way Monica kept Abhi and I on our toes. 5 min run 1or 2 min walk. We had to keep our 15 min per mile pace to make it in time to the bridge. So we did. It was tough but my bribe was, once I am on the bridge I can walk the rest of the way to the finish line. Monica promised.

Such a Liar! As soon as we got on to the bridge she lets me walk for like 5 mins and then started pointed out imaginary down hills. And very non imposingly she would tell me, " If you can, try to run the down hill atleast. Its really easy, you know that!" Can you believe how stupid I was to fall for it for almost 2-3 miles. Then it struck me that she was really just making it up.

Me: Monica, stop making up downhills. I have my own eyes you know. I see no downhill.
Monica: No, no. I am not lying I swear. See U can see the down hill. [She points almost half a mile into the distance and yes there was a very miniscule downward inclination of maybe 0.05 degrees]
Me: Ok I will run when we get there.
Monica: But we are already there. I CAN FEEL IT! [She meant under her foot…brilliant I tell you. Next time I am taking her along to one of my architectural sites to find out slopes of my construction site. Monico-meter, we shall call her]

She made me run on the flat land, FEELING it was downhill and then on the downhill, KNOWING it was really a downhill! Hey Bhagvan! [Translation: Oh God!]

Oh btw, u should know that by now I have an entire entourage of friends running with me. From mile 20 onwards, I had Siddhartha on one side of me, Sean on the other, Archana behind me, sometimes with Jitu, sometimes without Jitu and Monica, Amit and Abhi somewhere in the radius of one meter from me all the time. Every time I walked [that was most of the time in the last 6 miles] I would hold onto Sean and Siddartha and they would make me walk a little faster. By this time I was not worried at all. I was sure I would finish. I just wanted to finish it. And get my medal. Around mile 25 [6hr3omins] Mr. Vishnu enters my mind again. " The dude must be half way to NYC already. Damn it Vishnu!"

Mile 26 I see Coach again – I was sooo happyyyy to see her…awweeee. By now I had already seen J and Advait at mile 25, and Lok trying to buddy run with Nidhi at mile 24 [BTW just FYI, Lok a Last yr Asha marathoner, could not catch up with Nidhi at mile 24…that was soo funny coz he was trying to buddy run with her.] when we saw Nidhi at one of those loops we sent out one of our loud war-cries " Go Asha!" and then almost a whole min after that we see Lok running with all his might. We asked him, " what r u doing?" Lok, " Trying to buddy run with Nidhi, But I just cannot seem to keep up. Have you seen her? Is she too far ahead?". Poor thing.

Now at this point I see it. I see the light on the other side of the tunnel. I see the finish line. Abhi right next to me. He never left me even when he could have. He stuck by me…I love him… Thanks man I owe u big time.. I did my happy dance for the cameras; the same one u guys have seen me do everything at the tree after I finish my run. I think I used to practice my happy dance more than my runs…lol…. Anyway, It's done. I went and got my Marine.. uhh…I mean Medal…

I crossed the finish line, CELEBRATIONS! I love my life…Its done! I have a medal to prove it. We went back home, showered and then on our way back to NYC. I lay in my pjs in the back seat of Archana's car. Head in one of my friend's lap and feet stretched out against the backseat window/ Roof on the other side. People from other cars peep in wondering if I am in labor and need to have my feet in that position in the backseat of my car till I reach the Hospital. I give a damn… I was hurting…..but was all worth it … Good nite people… It was a Great day!

PS: I never saw Vishnu in the whole day.