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Feeling accomplished! I had started running exactly one year ago on 26th February 2017 at Marina Runnerz Marathon-2017 and today completed one year at the same run [Marina Runnerz Marathon 2018]. I wanted to take photographs of marathons but realized that I needed to experience running as a marathoner to really understand and explore this world through my lens. That is when the idea of running marathons for one year started. Through this year, I ran in the sun and rain, with pain and injury, in the morning, evening and even at midnight, over hills and through paddy fields, through marshlands and wetlands and villages, in jungles and on city roads, along off-roads, in the dark and the toughest course [in Hyderabad], in the most anti-running environments with high humidity [in Chennai] and in the largest marathon of Asia [in Mumbai], sometimes without sleep after a whole night of work, with known people and with unknown runners from all age groups, in six cities and on almost all roads in Chennai. Also learnt many things like real meaning of phrases like “Don’t quit”, “Push yourself” or “Keep going” but real happiness of running marathon is when strangers cheer for you or offer snacks and drinks.
In these 365 days, I ran 15 Half Marathons [21KM], 6 Full Marathons [42KM] in 6 states and 3 Challenges other than hundreds of practice runs . The first challenge was running 200 KM in a month where I finished the challenge in 14 Days. The next one was to run 50 Days of Fitness Challenge where I had to run a minimum of 35 days for 50 minutes each day and can take maximum 2days of rest only after/before running 5days continuously where I ran for 40 days. The last one was covering a minimum of 5 KM a day for atleast 20 days in February 2018. In this last challenge, I already ran 25 days and planning to run next three days, so I can mark all the days of February as I ran to get the “Mustang of the Month” title award. What a year!
Thank you Mohan for your company through out the year.
Excited now to begin the next chapter... that is capturing marathons through my lens.
[FB: goo.gl/jxWDLN & goo.gl/tLtC4y] |
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All full marathon finishers of Tata Mumbai Marathon earn two medals. One for them to keep called a finisher medal & another one for them to give to the person who inspires them. This person can be anyone, mother, wife, teacher, kid, friend, anyone. This medal is known as an Inspiration Medal.
Getting an Inspiration medal from a runner is indeed a great honor and this year [2019] I got three of them from three incredible athletes. I feel really honored.
The first one is from Hari Raju. He is an epic cyclist from Chennai who has already completed his BRM series including 1000KM & 1200KM cycling series! Now he is quite close to a national record (and probably international too) of cycling 365days, clocking each day with a minimum of 50KMs. It needs a huge amount self motivation & dedication towards the sport to do this massive 365x50 cycling challenge. Getting his marathon inspiration medal that he earned in his maiden 42KM full marathon is really a high honor for me.
The 2nd medal came from Mohan, my cycling & running partner! My first friend from Chennai & now my best friend. We always run & cycle together. We have become the talk of the town in this cycling world for our partnership in all those tough cycling events!!! We always push & motivate each other when one is down or lacks energy and finish each event together (actually in most occasions it is he who motivates me).
3rd one is from Dr Srikant Prabakar from Chennai, a renowned dentist, avid runner and cyclist who actually brought me into cycling world!
I know the true value of this medal. Nothing can be bigger than this medal. Only a runner knows how much pain & sweat it needs to earn this medal & getting these medals from all of you is a rare honour. Thank you Hariji, Dr & Mohan.
By the way, now I have FOUR inspiration medals in my collection. The 1st one I got last year from Shivendra Rai of Varanasi who was my running partner i 2018. |
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