Shesh at the Phili Marathon

It all happened finally on Nov 18th. I had been looking forward to this day from long time.

Just 2 weeks before the marathon my friend Monna also decided to run a half marathon at Phili. So me and Chendur hopped on to his car and drove down to Philadelphia. As all marathon runners we had a pasta dinner the previous night. We were with the Lend A Hand for India team for the dinner.

2 weeks back the weather prediction for Philadelphia was pretty bad. The highest temperature was supposed to be 1 Degree Centigrade and there was supposed to be ice and rain. Thankfully the weather finally turned out to be slightly better. But it was still close to 0 Degree Centigrade, it was drizzling & was windy. But it was not enough to stop us
We got up early and reached the marathon start location. We could see a huge crowd of over 10,000 people. Apart from the runners there were so many people all around to cheer the runners. There was lots of excitement all around.

Finally the run started. I and my friend Karthik were planning to run the full course together. But even before completing the 1st mile both of us decided to use the restroom. There was a huge line in front of the restroom and guess what we both lost each other there! So I was running all alone for most of the time. I lost some 10 minutes due to the rest room. Due to this and also due to the fact that I started my run at the end of the crowd, it took almost 10 miles for me to cross the people who had come to walk half marathon. All along I was wondering where the runners are?
I ran at a relaxed pace as it was my first marathon. I did not want to risk getting an injury. I crossed the half stage after 2 hrs 50 mins & guess what the winner Timothy Psitet had completed the run well before I could even complete half. His timing was 2:25:01. He said he it took more time for him due to the rain and windy conditions!
Anyway I was not running to win the Gold and neither the silver
The track was such that by the time I finish half my run I can see the ones finishing the full run at the other side of the road. I could see lots of people finishing full run. Most of them had amazing body and I watched them with awe! I could see quite a lot of people of age over 50 finishing the run at around 3 hours time!
Maybe someday I can also try finishing in less than 4 hours at least (well I guess I am not going to aim to finish at less than 3 hours, that’s a bit too much!).

I took some inspiration from these amazing runners and continued my run. I saw lot of interesting runners along the way. There was a lady who was completely dressed like a panther. There was a guy juggling 4 balls while he was running! He was doing it all along. First I thought he was doing the half marathon, but later I saw him at around 20 mile mark & was quite amazed that he was still juggling the 4 balls and was on his way to complete the full marathon!!
For some distance before I completed the half marathon I was running with a lady who was probably 70 year old! I later came across a mother and son running together. The young son was cheering his mom all along saying ‘Common mom’ & the mom was saying all along ‘Coming son’!
At around 14 mile mark I came across a guy who I am sure was at least 75 year old! I came across a group of around 6 people with a lady holding a balloon and a board saying that they will complete the run in 5:30 hrs. They were doing the run at different pace, the lady would instruct everyone to run faster they will all increase speed, then she will tell everyone to decrease speed they will all reduce their speed. I thought I could do much better and I overtook them and went further. After crossing mile 15 I was quite tired and my pace started varying. I was running quite slowly also at several distance & later the group of 5:30 overtook me. The 75 year old guy had also joined them. I decided to join this group & later I realized that running with a group was really very helpful! I came to know that the lady leading the group was a professional pacer!

Philadelphia is a very beautiful city. It is an old city with lots of history. It has lots of colonial style buildings with marvelous architecture. That made the run more memorable.
There were lots of volunteers at multiple points along the track offering water, Gatorade and energy gel. Not to mention there were people all along the 42.2 KM track cheering the runners. ‘Go runner go’! At some of the places there were people playing live music along the track. And at many places where the track passes through residential areas people has put loud speakers on their window and were playing music loud for the runners! One more interesting encounter was to see a group of people who were offering beer to the runners! What a spirit the Phili people have got!
After finishing mile 20 I was so damn hungry. Few volunteers were offering cut pieces of Oranges. I could only grab one piece of it because I was wearing leather gloves. Man! That was the best piece of orange I have ever tasted! I wished I should have grabbed more. After running for half more mile I even thought of running back to grab more oranges! But that would have been a real silly thing to do!

And guess what, at mile 24 I met Karhik with whom I was planning to run the full marathon. He joined my 5:30 group which had grown to a sizable number by now. He had developed severe knee pain as he had expected before. We ran the last 2 miles and finished the run together. My chip time was 5:27:55 which is nothing great to talk about. I think I really need to better this record by running one more marathon!

I should thank Lend A Hand for India for all their support. Charu took my photo on the way. I met Raj at mile 8 and 20 and even he took my running photo and video! I will post them on my blog once I collect it from him.

We collected the medal and went to the food tent to have some food. It was only after I stopped running that I realized how cold it was outside. Few minutes after I stopped running I started shivering. I had to wait in the cold for 2 more hours for all our friends to finish running and complete all the formalities of the marathon. Those 2 hours were actually much tougher for me than the marathon run itself. I thought for sure that I am going to fall sick due to the cold. But thankfully nothing happened and went to sleep that night with a great sense of achievement!

Finally, thanks for all those who supported my cause by contributing to the fund that I am raising for Lend A Hand for India. There has been a good collection in my fund and I will soon post the details on my blog.