Chennai Wipro Marathon: My First Half Marathon

I woke up at 3:30 am as the alarm went off. I was quite nervous. Months of  practice gonna be put to test today. Took a quick bath, had 2 bananas, a small glass of milk and drove straight to IIT Madras campus. I reached there well within time to avoid parking hassles at the last minute. As i began walking towards the stadium it looked like entire Chennai has converged at IIT. Surprisingly there was no chaos as everything was so well organized including the designated parking lots, refreshment stalls, restrooms. The scheduled start time for the run was

5:00 am for Full Marathon

5:15 am for Half Marathon

7:00 am for 10kms.

I was elated on seeing so many people gathered for the event.

Stretches drill’s started for the full marathon runners. One of the Assistant Commissioner’s of Police whose name I couldn’t remember flagged off the event. Was also quite surprised as usually it is only the celebrities who flag off such events.  3, 2, 1 and the full marathon runner’s bay were on their heels.

The half marathon runners were called upon. The stretches drill’s started for the half marathon runners as well. 3, 2, 1 and we all started running. The trail represented ghat roads before we ran out of the campus. The first loop was from the start point to MRC nagar (up & down) and then back inside IIT campus for 3 more loops.

All along the trail I witnessed lot of people cheering each other and boosting others mentally. I thought it will take more than 3 hours for me to complete the run but by god’s grace I completed the run in around 2 hours and 15 minutes. It was a satisfying experience.

The key to a successful half marathon is:

1. Sleep well before the race day.

2. Drink plenty of water.

3. Have atleast one banana before start of the race.

4. Not to eat any junk food atleast for a week before the race.

5. Stop practice and give rest to ur legs for atleast 3 days before the start of the race.

6. Don't believe people who say that they didn't prepare for the marathon. 

To sum up I give full credits to Mr. Fauja Singh, yes the Indian Centenarian runner who was my one & only inspiration to take up the marathon. If he can run at the age of 100 then why not we?

Regards,

Vijay Prasad