Priti's blog

My first Half-Marathon!

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:44:00 -0700

It's amazing how things change, sometimes very fast. Not even last year had I imagined that I would participate in a marathon event. I was not a sports person until few years back. IISc (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) changed that. I happened to make some fitness-freak friends and started enjoying that side of life. Until then I was just a student who wanted to excel in academia. I ended up learning and enjoying Kung-Fu, Aerobics, Badminton and Swimming and this actually kept me sane from the ongoing drill of PhD life. But one thing I didn't enjoy, though my friends tried to motivate me, was running. I could barely keep up with them and didn't want to practice enough.

Fast forward to 2011. This year in March, I got to know about my boss's wife's half-marathon experience. She did it few years back when she was 40+. That got me into at least thinking about it. But the mere thought of running 13 miles was scary at that time. I couldn't run even 1 mi non-stop. But I decided to start my training. After a couple of weeks, I registered for Bay to Breakers (B2B) 2011 - an annual footrace which takes place in San Francisco on the third Sunday of May. This 12K (7.46 miles) race had started as a way to lift the city's spirits after the disastrous 1906 San Francisco earthquake. And this year was the centennial running. A bit more than half of half-marathon distance and 100th year seemed good enough reasons to participate in it and luckily I got into it. And as the training started getting better, in April I decided to register for a half-marathon as well. I had two options - SF half-marathon in July or Nike half-marathon in October. I wanted to run SF one as it was in summer and the course map included running on Golden Gate Bridge. But I knew I wouldn't be ready by that time. So instead I chose the Nike one in spite of the fear of rain and cold. Now, Nike runners are chosen by random drawing and as luck would have it I got selected. So, now I was on a 6-month long relationship with Nike never knowing how it would end :) B2B went alright, I took almost 2 hrs to finish it by running and walking. And then I went for this long 17 mile hike in Point Reyes in July with my hiking group. These two at least gave me the assurance that I would be able to finish the half-marathon, if not by running, at least by walking. Training continued off and on though now I wish I were a bit more sincere! I decided against joining Asha or Team-in-Training - my boss's wife trained herself and I could do it too. At first it seemed impossible to run more than 2 miles by myself but slowly and steadily it happened. Reading about the amazing women who did almost impossible things really helped. And one day there I was, running 5 miles non-stop. I was almost ready.

Now to the race day - yesterday. I was excited! I couldn't fall asleep early the previous night. Not a good thing to do. Resting well is very very important. Woke up at 4am to get ready and start for the city by 5am. We decided to go on our motorcycle for ease of parking and the fact that there would be traffic. Oh boy, was there traffic and road-blocks at 6am in the city! Joy was able to stop a couple of blocks away from Union Square, I removed the motorcycle gear and wore my running shoes. I was ready. It was 6:40am. I walked up to Union Square - there were thousands of people! I had to go to the bathroom before I joined the runners to start. The queue was so big, it took more than half an hour for my turn :) Meanwhile, the race had officially started at 7:00am, in time. Finally, at 7:25am I joined the runners and I was in it! I had officially crossed the start line.

First 5 miles seemed to go very well. It was same as my training runs of 5 miles, without much elevation gain. The real work started after mile 6 with more than 270 ft elevation gain. Like most of the runners, I walked up the hill. Between miles 7 and 8, it was easier running down the hill. Then walk up the hills again between miles 8 and 9.5, and run down until mile 10. Then I hit the wall! I will never forget miles 11 and 12! My legs were in so much pain with the cramps (this is where I thought maybe a bit more training would have helped). I thought of stopping by the next first-aid station if the pain continued as I didn't want the pain to increase and stop me from finishing. I almost walked those two miles, running once in a while in between. And to add to the pain, it was uphill, almost 100 ft climb. Slow and steady I told myself. The pain reduced a bit and I didn't stop by the first-aid station. I still continued to run and walk alternatively until I hit the downhill somewhere in mile 12. I slowly started running - I was getting closer. I crossed mile 12. I was feeling better, finish line was only 1 mile away AND it was all downhill. And then I spotted Joy as I was rounding the last corner to the finish line! I stopped for a coule of seconds, waved at him and started running to finish. If my memory serves me well, I actually did sprint a bit to the finish line :) I was happy to finish! The pain was still there, but who cared anymore!

I picked my Tiffany necklace and finisher's t-shirt, enjoyed the goodies in the finishers' village and attended the prize distribution ceremony. All the women out there did an amazing job in inspiring each other just by running and without actually saying any words to each other. I took inspiration from a younger girl running beside me for quite sometime. Her t-shirt said - 'Pain is temporary, Pride is forever'. And how could I forget about the amazing books I read during my training about the great achievements of the women! I thank Lynne Cox - her book 'Swimming to Antarctica' is something everyone must read. And I also thank Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen for sharing their amazing adventure of Antarctica. They became the first women to cross it on foot, in 2001! You all have inspired me to dream and live that dream!

My friend Vasanta from IISc has been another strong motivation for me. I have always admired her will and strength, and have taken some life lessons. You are my lady Pole star :) Keep inspiring everyone!

Here are the stats from my run and the elevation profile: http://nikerunning.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikeplus/en_US/mapping/#/events/NWM2011/...

And some photos my hubby took: http://www.flickr.com/photos/therider/sets/72157627911893434/

Priti's blog

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