ING NYC MARATHON 2009 .. 6hrs and 15 mins .. my ultra long run report..reading in intervals of 5 mins each recommended

DISCLAIMER: the first paragraph is a little bit of a downer hence can totally be ignored!!

REPORT:
So like everyone knows already, I wasn’t feeling very well before the race. A week before the race I was soo excited. I ran with Sheila on Sunday in the park [10 miles] and it was great. Sunday night however, I caught the flu. Monday went to the doc and rested tues, wed..thrusday went to work and then relaxed.. Friday went and picked up my bib in the evening with chandree, by then i was feeling better [or at least i told my body that feeling sick was not an option anymore]...my friend nikhil called me during the day and i told him about the flu and me feeling super weak and he said, " u know this always happens to us. We never get anything easily, we always have to struggle for it...u and I will never be handed anything without a fight... and ALL the things that can possibly go wrong, before our the day, WILL!! So be prepared for more shit and stay strong, and u know u will still get thru it all, coz giving up is not an option!!" and I agreed. And that’s exactly what happened!! Sat was a mess... fever relapse with some more emotional personal drama... I was kinda physically and emotionally exhausted at this point...wasn’t even thinking about the marathon anymore. Was just pissed off... my sister and my friend sonal g. [sonal gor] came to my apt's rescue and made sure I didn’t break everything in it... they spent the night with me and abhi [abhishek rathi] came over later in the night too. He and I planned on running together just like 2007 mcm marathon. I was much better by 9pm just coz I was around all my besties...

Sat night was of course every runner’s nightmare night...couldn’t sleep. I was to run a full marathon tomorrow morning ...yikes!!

Sunday 5am abhi wakes me up, "lets go, we r gonna be late"... me "its day light savings' day, we get one more hr. its only 5am not 6am...go back to bed"... he didn’t believe me, so he woke up, went and brushed his teeth, got fresh and then came back to bed and went to sleep...i toooold him..it just took him 15 mins to believe me...what can I do?

6am, we reawake... I head to the bathroom to do my business and abhi got dressed in the mean while.. my sis and sonal were woken up just coz we were all in the same room...I got ready too... my tights with a full sleeve dry fit nyc marathon tee, an asha singlet over it, then another full sleeve random CP race tee [to be thrown away later] and then my thin running jacket for additional protection, a loose [so that I don’t get a head ache] winter hat with big holes in it to allow for evaporation, running gloves on and this little fanny pack thing I got at the expo to put all my stuff in... I am afraid to show pics of me with the fannypack to the world... not in a million yrs did I think I would stoop to that level of fashion compromise. I am officially on my own fashion "D" list...but what to do, I had a lot of stuff I needed.. Cloves [to keep me from coughing], Advil, gu's , cliff blocks, small pack of tissues for runny nose, dates for natural nourishment, etc... ohh did I tell u that the cell phone and money and keys were not included in the fanny-pack...I had another arm band for it. Yes I thought it to be very imp to run with my whole house on me!!

I quickly toasted my bagel while abhi packed his breakfast and we both said our goodbyes to my sis and sonal g. I wasn't nervous at this point, coz I knew I was gonna do it. There was no 2 ways about it... I mean it was just a little weakness...it’s the same as a hangover right? And I did have practice of running with a little hangover on quite a few of my long runs, so it shouldn’t be a problem I told myself...

abhi and I headed to the spring st 6 train stop. Waiting for the train, I had half a banana and abhi had his first hagan das choco ice-cream bar. [Second one he had on the ferry..yes he did]..Yup, that’s my boy!! We finally got to the south st ferry and met up with Monica, sheena, amit, ketul, sumit on the ferry... was great to see them...all of them made fun of me for being over dressed.. Just to have it come bit them in their behinds later!! hehahahaha [evil laugh]...suckers!!. once we got to Staten island and had to wait for an hr b4 going to the start lines, everyone was cold... I even lent amit my 3rd [but extra] full sleeve tee I had carried with me JIC [just incase]...and I put on another sweatshirt I had in my bag...yup, by now I was wearing 5 layers [4 of which were full sleeves] and I was just about a-ok...seriously!! ..I don’t care if all u guys think I’m a freak, but it was required man. I promise!!... We picnicked under a tree for a while. Stretching, eating, potter-potting, etc..sonal r. [sonal rashmi] joined us at that tree after some time..yup we had our own asha tree moment in SI... soo sweet!!

10.20 am was our start. By now all had dispersed to their respective corals... abhi and i had the same corals and infact our bib numbers were like 6 digits apart... sonal r. joined us to the start. We started together...

Mile 1: was UH [uphill]..I have a strict rule about uphills that I guess u all already know...never run them! It’s a great rule IMHO ... sonal r. said goodbye to us. She didn’t like my rule..abhi and I walked up verezano br... The view was just beautiful ... once on the br, we started running and then I started feeling good, because?... because we were going DH [down hilllllll] ... yeahiee...now I was feeling better...buy the time we finished the bridge abhi had almost embarrassed 6 uncles who were peeing on the bridge sidelines by saying things like "one more, tsk tsk, all in the open, its soo cold!!, how can they do it?, should I go too? etc, etc" loudly enough for all of them to hear it... again that’s my boy!!

Mile 1- 13 was just amazingggg...brooklyn is the bomb!! Every block had music, every block that tonssss of ppl cheering, sooo many many children high-5ing... abhi went mad. Seriously... ppl who don’t know him, should know that if there is anyone in this entire world who is the living equivalent of an energizer bunny, it is him!! He, I am sure, "maybe" missed only about 5% of the kids who were out there. He high-5-ed all the others!! I maybe got 40% of them, coz yeah its an effort to do so continously..and I like pets better than kids...j/k [my gawd u women!! stop giving me those looks..]

We went thru an entirely Hispanic area with the cutest kids and salsa music, and then an entirely Jewish area [looked super conservative and I felt like I wasn’t even in nyc anymore...very weird...but cool] and ofcourse a lot of other mixes of areas...was great!! Y haven’t I lived in brklyn yet? Seriously!! I love that area... the best part of the entire brklyn was this one gospel band which was playing outside some church and had the whole community out there, the biggest crowd ever, all clapping and singing at the top of their lungs, "in the name of the lord"-types...was soooooo coool!! Amazing!! Amazing!! Amazing!!

Oh and in brklyn at mile 5 we had met up with monel, janki and sonal ra. [sonal rathi, abhi's beloved wife]... yup our entire marathon yesterday was filled with "sonal"-es..hehehe.she was our 3rd... monel and nitin joined us again later at like mile 9 or something and buddy ran with us for a couple of miles... we also met Paul at mile 8 and then the asha gang!!! With the posters and all the loveeee...hugs and sweat collided!! Sweet stuff!!

abhi in all this time has made an entourage of friends around us...an older gentleman named "DON", some old ladies, the juggler.. everyone in a 0.2 miles radius, we know... a group of 2 middle aged and 1 older Italian men was his favorite...they taught him some Italian song, they were singing as a cheer while running and abhi taught them "Go Asha!!!" ... till we reached the end of the race, they kept at it. One of the Italian men was like 69 yrs old and was one amongst the first 3 Italian men to run the nyc marathon in 1979... He didn’t speak English…but abhi still spoke to him for a long time. [Not kidding]

At around mile 10, my head was hot...I took off my hat and asked monel, "is my hair flat?”
Monel: yeah, but its ok..who cares, ur running a marathon, noone's gonna care how u look!
me: hell no, I’m still single and determined to find me a cute boy along the way...and I put my hat back on...
Abhi: u want to get hitched, ill find u someone, not to worry...
abhi to the 3 Italian men whom we by now know pretty well,
Abhi: my friend here is single and looking to get married...u know anyone around who's available?" ...
IM1[Italian Man -1] : yes, this guy is. (Pointing to IM2). he's divorced, hence single. IM 3 and I are unfortunately married ...
Me to IM2 : will u marry me? (wink wink) ...
IM2 to me: *blush*...
Me to IM2: I can sing, sew and cook!! [I know, I lied about all 3.. I’m a bad person.]...

IM2 at this point is only smiling and laughing alternately... finally the other 2 Italian men and the rest of us decided for IM2 and me that it’s a done deal!! aweeee.... soo sweet!! U r all invited to my wedding as soon as I track IM 2 down..

Every time the crowd was dull abhi yelled "go asha!!" or "yeahHHHH", and the dull crowds would join in and start cheering..hahaha...this guy I’m telling u... he didn’t let anyone on the way sit in peace. They had to cheer weather they liked it or not... "HE" was running and they needed to acknowledge that..hehe.. we also sang cheesy hindi songs at the top of our lungs along the way…like “hum he rahi pyaar ke” and “bum chica chica bum”… I know, we r a full package of cheeseballs..we r like that only!!

At some mile we saw a large group of Japanese ppl cheering with huge flags and banners... abhi got sooo excited seeing them and almost yelled at me, “look!! Japanese ppl...arre, they make my clothes!!" ...he ran towards them and started screaming "AAyyeee, Uniqlo, Uniqlo !!" ..I picked up my feet and my jaw that was hitting the ground at this point, and ran in the opposite direction of abhi as fast as I could. I did not know this man I said. The Japanese kids stunned, but still in the spirit of the marathon cheered him "GO AB, GO AB!!” .phew!!.. we survived... I’m still recovering form this amusing horror... FYI, for those who don’t know, "UNIQLO" is a Japanese brand of clothes with a store in soho that our friend abhi luurvvvs..

Queensboro br. was a lot of walking coz it was UH…then we started running DH for the second half. And into the arms of Manhattan!! My CITY!! Met geeta and divya along the way. Them my sister, archi, archi’s mom, chand, sonal g. and sonal ra. under the bridge. My sister I can see is almost on the brink of tears. I know she’s proud of me right now. I wish mom-dad and my other sis were there too. Tons of hugs and a thought, “f@*k the world, im doing this for my family!! Coz I love them to death and they love me unconditionally!!!”

The rest of the run was great too... A lot of ppl we know in the crowds. Karthik and someone, somewhere on the way. I think I waved to karthik atleast 8 times b4 finally moving on. Then the sheela, Vishnu, shiks, pawan, ravi, shanka gang again… in the mean while, chand, vasu, sonal ra., archi, lok, monel and nitin take turns to buddy run with us at different points.

Didn’t like 1st ave at all!! …all UH…arrghhh…but we kept running slowly… abhi’s had a meal by now… bananas, dates, gu’s, my brains, etc… I stuck to dates. I like natural stuff much better for some reason. Bronx was barely there. Met Sheila and srini in the Bronx. Stopped to talk to them for a bit, gave our love to shiela, srini said he’ll stay with her…and we moved on…. back into nyc .. Harlem was pretttyyyy…

Now u have to know one thing that’s going thru my head all this while and im telling u my secret mantra to running a marathon…I kept telling myself, “ONE MILE AT A TIME” …so I wasn’t counting the miles at all…only concentrating on reaching A mile marker… no T-8 and all… only one more to go all the time…when I would cross a mile marker I would tell myself “just one more to go”. When the goal is just one mile, it’s not that daunting. Worked like a charm for me!!

We finally entered the park…priyanka and someone else [I forget] on the way…then remya and ritika as soon as we entered the park…they joined in…FYI, ritika poor thing ran with us in her knee high black patent leather catwoman boots!! ..that was SOOOOO FUNNY!! She poor thing did not intend to run but did and got a lot of comments from the sidelines which ofcourse she fashionably ignored for the sake of running with us…Team ASHA!!…very cute I tell u..u should have been there to see it... thanks hun

CATS HILL…yeahiee…we flung are arms up in the air and let ourselves run wild like horses..eeeeh hoo!! … DH on catshill is the best ever… I love it…I think it was the fastest mile we ran!!..nitin , with his “GO TEAM ASHA” sign hung around his neck like a homeless guy tells me “I cant believe ur running this fast at mile 24!!” … I look at him, smile and think to myself, “for the past 3 yrs I have run this same god damn path 4 times a week...I owe it to the park”..abhi and I race..he wins ofcourse!!

The rest of the way was HISTORY … we ran the last 1.2 miles alone..just abhi and I…sis and others again appears just b4 the finish line..we hear our names in loud cheer…we finish the last mile in 12 mins or so…. We cross the finish line together.... holding hands!!

6hr and 15 mins from the time we started … 14.20 mpm pace… about 1.5 mins faster than our avg. pace for our 20 mile run 4 weeks ago… 25mins faster than our first marathon 2 yrs ago..we get our PR!!

We hug each other… we did it. It was the FUNNEST race ever!! We got our medals. Posed for more pics.. Picked up our bags and I stole an apple from the lady who gave us our bags. It was a GREAT DAY!!

Thank you all for everything…coach Courtney, coach uli, JSS, the entire team from 2007, 2008 and 2009, my mentees, my friends [all of u], my donors, Asha, the kids, the bag watchers, my family and my poor feet. I genuinely love you all!!