5 K Run

The Date - September 21 2014.  The Place - Reading Town in the County of Berkshire. The Event - Spirit of Wipro Run 2014 covering a distance of 5 Kms. The seeds of participation for this event were sown on the Ramzan Id July 29 2014 when I was driving to Bangalore from Halaguru. Harsha my old buddy who was then in London on a project from Wipro, told me about participating in this event. I gave an instant nod and the registrations were made for 4 of us including 2 of my other friends, much before the actual date and even before I went to London.

Reading is over 80 Kms from London and it turned out that renting a car was a more viable option than the trains. On a sunny Sunday morning, after a 90 minute drive on the UK roads we were at the lush green Prospect Park which was the venue for the run.

I had never ran for a long distance in an official competition ever before barring my occasional morning jogs. My only brush with a marathon was the 2010 Sunfeast Marathon where my participation was in the role of a photographer more than a runner. My intention was the same this time around too. When I reached the venue I got inspired by the people around and decided to give it my best shot, even though there was no preparation whatsoever in terms of training for the event.

My reasoning was that 5 Kms would not be a daunting task for someone who is physically active and sporty. The five of us including another on the spot registered friend changed into the fancy event T-Shirts and pinned in the bib numbers. My number was 309. After some stretching to loosen up the muscles we were ready for the run to be flagged off.

The run had around 500 + participants. The run began and I had my iPod for company playing some hand picked songs compiled just for the event. I stuck to the basic mantra of not breathing through the mouth and not running too hard initially. I also made it a point to never open my mouth or swallow my spit. The secret is to run slow and steady with easy synchronized breathing patterns.

Pepped by the songs and maintaining a slow but steady pace I ran ahead many others and put the majority of the initial starters behind. All my friends except Harsha went out of sight and were lost behind me. It was getting tougher and exhaustive with every minute. I saw a board reading 4 Km complete and my joy knew no bounds. I invoked all my reserve energy to give it a best shot for the last Km so that I could put behind as many people as I could. In a minute I put Harsha (017) behind too who was a veteran of 5 Marathons including two 21 K and one 10 K runs. Thrilled that I could achieve this with virtually no preparation and priding myself on my capabilities I leaped ahead with renewed energy until I came across a sign saying 'Lap 1 complete'. The moment I saw this, all my excitement and energy took a beating and led to a sudden crash. My leaps started reducing to strides and then to steps. I witnessed around 5 runners including my buddy Harsha overtake me. I was almost on the verge of giving up, but something in me kept me going and I reached the checkpoint where we were handed the green band for completing lap 1 along with a bottle of water. I slowed down after this almost satisfied with the effort of completing half the run. I walked for about 20 steps pouring all of the water on my sweaty head and face. During this time my aching legs got a breather and my lost breath recovered and I was resurrected for the final lap. I slowly made up my mind that I am going to do this no matter what, for my little daughter, wife, nieces and parents. Aided with some wonderful English Pop and Bollywood numbers I reached the finish line in 30 minutes 30 seconds. More than the timing the satisfaction of not giving up and completing the run was the biggest reward. The winning time was around 23 minutes by an English Wipro employee. My friend completed in 29 + minutes.

Being able to complete the run successfully and among the top 40 finishers was thrilling. It was a remarkably satisfying day in the end and the sweet pain lingered along through the next few days.

It was a pleasure to meet this active couple who were winners in the Non Wipro Men and Women category. Their little son of almost 10 years too won recognition in one of the children events. Truly remaining physically active, sporty and outdoorsy is a blessing which creates an endorphin boost and leaves a feel good factor.