I am a new guy in the long run. I have just started running from last 2 months. Now running became a fun game for me and I started to enjoy it a lot. Although getting up early morning in this winter and practicing the running is not so enjoyable at all. But now it’s kind of ok for me. While running is also a very tough sport and its not easy to train yourself only. You need coach for it too and in this case I like to introduce my friend and my coach Sharad Chaturvedi. He is also a beginner runner and doing some good research on it and sharing all the knowledge with me. He help me to improve myself. Specially, it is very difficult to deal with the lazy person and I am very lazy myself hahahaha.

We are practicing at Sanjay Gandhi National Park at Borivali east Mumbai. We are running 5 Kms twice in the week and doing some short run of 1-2 kms sometime. While our timing was not very good but day by day we are improving. While on the start we were like 8 mins per km. But now we have improve a lot and now our timing was 6 mins per km, which was very good for beginners. It was time to test ourself and we were searching for some marathon where we can check our timing. But there are two problems because of it we can’t take part on the Marathons. The problems are, first we are still not sure about the half marathon which is 21 KM long. This will be very long distance for us. Another problem was, we can’t participate on any marathon without any timing Certificate. So, We are searching for the long distance marathon where we can earn our timing Certificate

Here, we found about the Mumbai Daud 2013. It was perfect run for us. Total distance was 10 Km and its a perfect marathon to test our self and they also providing the Timing Certificate too. Which will be the gate pass for long marathon like 21 kms or 42 Kms. Mumbai Daud is the Run for "Eye Donation Awareness" is planned on 25th Dec, 2013. Mumbai Daud is organized by Rotary Club of Borivli and Touch Lives charity NGO, who works for betterment of Society.

The Marathon was at Borivali west (Link Road) on 25th Dec 2013. It was the road run and we have not done any practice on the road. So, we found the route map and started analysing it. It was not very difficult track to race but there were little altitude difference on the road. Two days before the event we went to the place and did little practice in the proper track.

when we talk about the route we always want to know the proper guide line and any article related with it so we can mentally prepare our self. But in this case, the marathon was happening for the first time on this track so there was nothing on the net. So, our only hope was we have try our level best that’s all. But here i want to share some details about the track so, the upcoming runners can get the more information about it.

The Route Details:
Total Distance : 10 KM
Min. Altitude : -93m
Maz. Altitude : -39m
Total Ascent: 123m
Total Descent: 109

Actually there are three different type of run was there in the Mumbai Daud. 2km run for the Kids and old citizens, 5Km run and the final 10 km where i was going to run. But today here I am only going to talking about the 10km run.

Now finally the day was here. Yes, its a Christmas morning at 4:00 am i woke up and getting ready for the run. The race was going to start at the 6:30 at the morning. so i went to sharad’s home at 5am. Oh! i forgot to mention Sharad’s home was very near to the Marathon location. only 3km of a distance. We did some exercise there at home and start walking towards the main location. yeh we walk all the way, it was the winter morning and our body was not yet warmed up. So we decided to walk all the way to the marathon starting point. We reached the location. Clock was ticking and we were getting ready. We knew the marathon is not going to be easy but we just want to complete it in at least a good time.

Yes at 6:30 race started we were running like a practice only not pushing harder our self. This was the first time we were running so long and we are not expecting us to beat the record. we’re just enjoying running and only wanted to finish the race. Some people started walking on the way and Some guys just give up. But we are still in the field, because our main opponent was our self only. Just wanted to believe that we can do it and we’ll do it. After 7 km i had cramp in my stomach, but as i said i just wanted to run and finish the race so its not going to stop me. Actually, running 10km is not much distance but we just started running only 2 months before and we are taking part on 10 Km marathon.

After all pain and long run, now i was looking at the finishing line. It was only 200 meters away. I used my all energy to reach there and yes after 1 hour 9 seconds i have finished my first 10 kms marathon.

Yes, Right Guess ….!! This is me!! :)

Sharad and me after crossing the finishing line.

Its just a start and we’ll continue our training. See you guys in the another marathon. :)

Guys please click here to get the full information about our training and how we started running long distance. A very nice blog by Sharad.

Keep thinking…. Madvision.