Dream Run

Like every wanna-be celebrity, even I participated in the Mumbai Marathon. I like these “Marathon” events. There is the real marathon of 42.195 km that only the serious endurance runners do, then there is the half marathon for the guys who workout regularly, and then there is the 6km – kiddie run for the rest of us.

I am thinking of renaming the event to “Dream to run”. Cause its meant for only those people who dream to run. The kind who set their alarm to 5:30 AM in the morning to get up and go jogging, only to snooze away to glory for the next 2 hours while they are happily running on their bed in their dreams (that kind is me!). This time around I had decided that I will seriously prepare to run the entire 6km distance. I made a timetable a month in advance, and if I had followed it diligently I would have made it to 6km running in 1 month. I did get up 5:30 AM the first day and trust me I did “try” to run. But second day onwards it was too much effort to leave my cosy comfortable bed to get up, wear my shoes and go running. So for the next 29 days, I snoozed everyday promising to myself (in my sleep) that I would start running from the next day. On the 30th day, I did get up because it was the event itself.

The event venue was super crowded. I think half of Mumbai had signed up for the event. Getting to the venue itself involved riding super packed buses and trains and then walking like 3kms to get there. Then we all were put together in a packed ground where there was no place even to breathe. When the run was actually flagged off it was just too many people around me to even walk, forget running. So I (remorsefully) walked for a long time. After close to half the race was over, it kinda got clear enough to run. But by that time I had lost all my motivation to run and I ended up walking the entire distance (mind you – it has got nothing to do with my preparation).

Anyway, the dream run taught me that there are too many people who do it. And inconveniencing myself by snoozing the clock for 2 hours in the morning to prepare for such crowded runs is not motivating enough. I think sleeping is a better alternative. No more dream runs for me.