DON'T MISS: 'How the Mumbai marathon changed my life'

Pravin C Venu shares with us this inspirational story -- his experience of running the Mumbai Marathon, how he overcame the hurdles and crossed the finishing line.

Writing is not exactly something that gives me a high. In fact it reminds of me of the 'I will not talk in class' impositions that I have written quite a few times till school and I parted ways. I vouched to take up a career that will not demand me to even type a single line... yes I have a very 'Illustrious' career as a digital artist.

So why do I write today? The reasons are three.

Reason # 1: Because I am a man who learns from his mistakes and tries not to repeat the same mistake. I did an extensive 6-day trek in 2007, a trek from where some friends and I were lucky to come back alive. I wanted to document every moment of those days, but I didn't. Today I don't remember some of the finer details! The mistake was not to document the event and the learning is that I am a case of 'short term memory loss'.

Reason # 2: I want to share my little story with the belief that there will be something in it for all of you; with the hope that I will be able to touch your lives in any little way. May be even getting you to participate in a Marathon!

Reason # 3: I need to release my pent up emotions after the 42-km gruelling marathon race and feel light-hearted again. Simple!

Have you had an experience that changed your life? Share with us your story! Write in to getahead@rediff.co.in (Subject: Experience that changed my life) and we will publish your story right here on Rediff.com.

I am a believer... I believe. I believe things happen only if you really want them to happen. A family friend from Kannur in Kerala, Dr Premkumar C K, is a regular at the Mumbai Marathon, this year being his fourth full Marathon (a full Marathon is a 42-km run). Two years back he had visited us after his race. He comes all the way from Kerala to participate and returns the next day by train. He happened to show me that medal he was awarded for completing the 42 km. When I held that medal in my hand I told myself: Wow! This is worth running for. At that time at the Mumbai Marathon medals were only awarded to participants who completed the full marathon run. I had made up my mind that I will one day run and earn one of these.

Running long distance is again not something that I liked in school. I chose cricket as my game and 100 mts sprints was sports to me; I was a Ben Johnson fan (even after he was stripped of gold medal in Seoul Olympics) and also because I couldn't run longer distances anyways. My father C V Venu was a three-time district champion and a national athlete who represented Kerala. But I was inclined more to drawing and painting than the track and field thanks to my mom's genes.

The need to run long distance was triggered by that medal and the need to impress my dad. I knew he would be very proud if I ever ran the marathon. So I made a practical decision: I will slowly but surely work towards improving my stamina, and at least attempt the half marathon. But, first day at the gym shattered my hopes completely. I ran for five minutes and I got the same familiar feeling that this is not for me; the same school-day feeling. The feeling was even stronger, as between then and now 20 years had passed.

But the desire to impress my dad was even stronger.

So I thought I will first prepare myself for the half marathon and some day do the full marathon and get the medal too. In this process I gradually built enough strength and stamina to run for 30 minutes on the treadmill at a go. The day that miracle happened I went back home and told my mom that I had run for 30 long minutes on the treadmill, non-stop!

My dad who overheard this told my mom "tell him to attempt the same on road, minus the air condition, and then we will see". My running inside an air-conditioned gym, on the treadmill didn't impress him at all. Sure, that wouldn't impress him. He had trained very hard to represent Kerala in the national meet at Jalandhar.

Last year when the entries for the marathon opened, I applied. But I was disappointed as they didn't accept my application. This, they informed me, was due to lottery system and the next few days were a proof to the fact that luck was not on my side. My father was admitted to the ICU with a major heart attack on September 1, 2010 and on September 9 he passed away. In a way I believe that the Almighty didn't want me to get enrolled for the marathon. He knew what was coming next.

Like I said, I am a believer. I believe. I believe that stuff would happen, if you really want them to happen.

Entries for the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2012 were open. And before my friend Reuben and I could even fill the online forms the entries were closed. But with great support and help from my colleagues Ivan, Patcy and Harish we got the entry!

Now let me tell you how the full marathon happened.

It was an impulsive and emotional decision that I made to run the full marathon if I got the entry. The plan was to impress my dad, and I thought: If I do the full marathon, I will get that special medal and my father will be very proud too. I wanted to dedicate the medal to my dad. I told Reuben, why do the regular stuff? Let's go for the big one!

Reuben believed that running the full marathon required at least six months' practice. But still he agreed reluctantly. Later he told me that he wanted to do the 42 at 42. Had it not been for my crazy persistence he would have still ended up enrolling for the 21km run.

I believe that every thing in life happens with a purpose. I know Reuben for a good six years now. We only exchanged the occasional "Hi, Hello", until we started trekking together last year. I had a plan to run the 42 for my own reasons and he had a plan to run 42 just a day after his 42nd Birthday on 14th Jan 2012. 42 at 42!

Reuben lives at Belapur, Navi Mumbai, and just a few Kms away from where I stay in Seawoods. In him I had a perfect running partner. Reuben had done a few half marathons and more than 100 treks, the kind of guy perfect to push me to perform.

When I decided to do the marathon this year, Rajesh Pawar our gym instructor, a very dear friend and trek buddy, told me that I should try the half marathon this year. (Rajesh is aware of my fitness level). I told him I wanted to attempt the full marathon, and asked him to prepare me for that. I asked Rajesh: Do you think it makes sense? Do you think I can get ready in three months? Can you get me ready for that?

Rajesh gave me a training plan, a very steep task. If I can keep up with that, I will make it, he said.

The plan was to run twice a week, to do moderate weight training on the other days, with Saturday the rest day, before the long runs on Sunday. The Sunday run was to be done on road, hard surface. The first road run and I knew what I have got myself in to. I struggled to complete an hour on road. I started wondering how I will ever be ready for a 6 to 7-hour run in just 10 to 12 weeks. I thought: let me take it one day at day at a time.

Luckily by the third week I had Reuben joining me for the runs. With him for company, running was not all that bad. Reuben is a better runner, experienced and much faster than I was. This helped, as I stopped focusing on the boring long run and instead kept my focus only on staying not more than 5 to 10 meters behind him. In the next few weeks I figured out how to run with Reuben. I had to keep chasing him for the initial 10 to 12 km. After that I only had to pray he got tired and slowed down, and made life easier for me. But six week later I realised it was getting easier for me to keep pace with Reuben and also it was helping our speed. According to Rajesh's steep plan we were to run at least 2 to 4 km more every passing week. So we started with the 10 km run and progressed to the 30 km mark in about two months.

Though this was officially my first marathon ever, we had done at least 5 to 6 half marathons on weekends before the D-Day.

We had our share of trouble with the body not coping up with our training. Reuben and I had run with hurting knees, aching calf muscles, lower back pain, ankle pain etc. We practiced mostly on the 6 km stretch on the Palm Beach road in Navi Mumbai, between Seawoods and Vashi. We did multiple laps of this patch. It was a good patch to run as the view was beautiful early in the morning and we could see groups of bikers on Harley Davidson and Ducati heading to weekend destinations. But we had to stop running on that road. After witnessing two accidents on consecutive weeks we decided to change the run route.

We marked some less interesting route for the last few weeks. It was a safer plan, with Xmas and the New Year around the corner. We didn't want to become victims of drunken driving accidents.

Reuben made his share of sacrifices by getting up on Xmas day early and running with me at 5:30 am in the chilly cold temperatures (I must tell you that Reuben is not as gifted with natural insulation as I am). The bigger sacrifice for us was to sleep early on December 31, while the world was partying and then run early morning on January 1, while the world was sleeping. What a way to bring in the New Year. I stayed away from a few family functions over the weekends. All that I have done in the last many weekends was to run, eat and sleep. I am not used to this discipline and it was getting on to me. It was like I have been forced in to a military camp and I had nobody to blame. Before I started the training I had told my wife and mother that if they were fine with my marathon plans, they will have to tolerate all my dramas too. But they were more than willing to help me. May be they knew that after the long runs it was impossible for me to be of any help to them and they didn't bother me with the routine shopping on weekends and any other mundane work.

My wife was kind enough to give me a good leg massage after the long runs and to wake up early on weekdays to provide me with my diet for the day. My mom and sister Priya did their bit and got all that I needed, to my hands. I didn't have to move from were I was sitting on weekends, and I neither could. Once we started running more than 20 km on Sundays, the rest of the day was only about eating sleeping and nursing the legs that were hurting. Janhavi and my mom would keep nutritious breakfast ready for Reuben and me on Sundays. The last few weeks Reuben found some or the other reasons to not come home with me after the run. May be he couldn't handle the force-feeding. For me that was all welcome food as I am anyways notorious in my circles as a calories loading machine! Still, I found it very tough to wake up early at 4 am and eat oatmeal, banana and drink 1 litre of water with Electral. The thing is that I never wake up so early and if I ever do, then I prefer saying good morning with a cup of tea in hand.

One advantage of having a partner like Reuben was that he was very helpful even when he was down with injury. One day when we were to run 30 km he gave company on bicycle and kept peddling for 30 boring kilometres at the snail speed that I was running at. I didn't feel the fatigue of those 5 hours as I was totally distracted by the constant chitchat we did. Those 5 hours were good enough to get a quick update on each other's lives, our struggles, families, school days and much more.

Closer to the event I was all nerves and very anxious. I was planning extensively how to face the day. What do I eat? How much do I train, run and how much of these is good etc. In Rajesh Pawar we had a great help who knows his business like nobody else. Rajesh had done a few marathons too, so that helped. I had regular conversations with him all of three months during training and he explained things in detail. I typically always had a 'why?' to all that he said and he patiently explained. Once I bought his explanations, I religiously followed. It worked.

Day before the race on Saturday I spent time sleeping and taking rest as much as I could. I ate enough quality food and kept sipping water to keep myself hydrated.

I left for office at 6 pm from home with my high carb tiffin. Reuben, Rajesh and I had a plan to leave from our Mahim office on Sunday as we didn't want to travel from our homes in Navi Mumbai very early the same morning. We may have had to leave very early to reach CST and would have lost some of the most needed sleeping hours. I had my dinner and tried to sleep as early as 8 pm. In an hour or so the others walked in. I was in bed till 2:30...awake and alert. I couldn't sleep. I wanted the race to start. That's it!

We finally left office with our great friends Raman, Salil, Sumi and Parth who travelled all the way from Thane to Mahim just to wish us luck. Meeting them was a big relief! I was sure I would run well, I was confident. By the way, the individual event turned out to be a team event. Reuben and I were running, but the others were waiting for us at every few kilometres with Electral and water relief. More importantly I felt I was not running alone. Their cheering gave be the positive frame of mind that I so much needed to run the gruelling last 20 kilometres in the sun. After the first 30-km I started feeling a little lonely, and then thoughts of my father kept me busy. The loneliness was also due to Reuben getting a bad cramp and having to slow down a bit. Like Rueben always says the last 20 kilometres were 'autopilot' run. At 32 km I started the countdown to keep me focused. When I crossed 39 km I was a happy man already.

I told my self: from here even if I had to crawl military style on my elbows I will still do it! When I saw the last 500 meters mark I could imagine my victory lap, my medal, my friends and family, my wife and yes my dad welcoming me with open hands! That's it! It was time for Pravinkumar to show that he had inherited the running genes from CV Venu, the national athlete.

I looked at a guy who was competing with me for the last two km one last time and burst in to a sprint! I turned with pride and looked back. My competition had given up and was walking to the finishing meters. Then my dream was closer to reality...I could actually see the finishing line and friends and family cheering for me! It was time for one shorter sprint.

Once a sprinter always a sprinter!

I sprinted and crossed the finishing line in style! I could see complete strangers cheering for me. My friends had also reached there to congratulate me. I could see the pride in my wife's eyes when I crossed the line. My mom was relieved and happy when I told her about the feat. My sister, cousin and my niece congratulated me on phone while my three-year-old son Eshan said something that sounded like 'contilation baba'.

When I finally collected the medal, I posed with the medal in one hand and my other hand pointing at the name Venu next to Pravinkumar on my bib number. That was the moment I had trained for! In a few minutes we all ran back to the finishing point and there comes Reuben Varghese looking very happy and relieved to find us all. Then we posed with our medals relieved and happy that the war was over and we have won it too with minor bruises!

This event is one of the most memorable events in my life. Just the positive atmosphere on the day will make you run. I had first time in life seen cops smiling at me and saying: kya baat hai Sir, keep going. The event was organised in a very professional manner.

For all of you who want to run and are first time runners like me, a few things I will want to recommend:

• Before taking up long-distance running as an activity do a medical check-up. Your doctor may recommend you do a complete heart check-up to rule out any pre-existing heart conditions (Stress test)
• Aim at building your strength and stamina gradually. The training will be more enjoyable if you spread it across 6 to 8 months
• If you have never run long distances, it will be good to start training on a treadmill initially as the air-conditioned gym environment will support you better than the hard surfaced roads in humid and hot conditions
• Do not ignore other exercises focusing only on your run. Train your legs to strengthen the muscles. Train the abs and back. Do light workout for the upper body
• Most of the time, avoid junk food. Eat well and eat good
• Drink plenty of water. If you are running more than 10 km it will be good to drink electral water, at it will help prevent salt loss. Loss of salts will lead to cramps and injuries
• Work out a good diet plan and follow it religiously in the last few months
• STOP SMOKING
• Drink only occasionally, and don't drink 15 days to the event. Drinking alcohol dehydrates you
• Set small goals for yourself and chart it down. This will help you focus and achieve one milestone at a time. Like say, you plan to run 6 km this weekend, the next weekend you should either run the same with a better timing or you may increase the distance a little. It is okay if you couldn't achieve any of these goals. Take it easy. Try again the next weekend. You will be in a more positive frame of mind and health. You will do better next week
• You don't need to run every day. Run once mid-week and then on the weekend. Run shorter distances in the weekdays. Weekend is when you should try increasing the distance
• Get good rest after and before the runs. Always stay hydrated
• Get yourself a running partner or listen to music while running
• If you are running early in the morning run safe and wear gear that's bright and visible to the drivers on road
• Get yourself a decent running pair of shoes and use them in training. Don't ever run in a new shoe on the race day or a few weeks before that
• Keep yourself updated about the next marathon, and enroll at the earliest when the entries open
• Stretch after all the runs

The above-mentioned, worked for me but if you can get a trainer, follow what he got to say.