The Mumbai Marathon – what kept me going?

I found a lot of things help when running the Half Marathon @ Mumbai – there was real peppy music at different places and that helped (esp the punjabi beats and drums), when the elite runners passed by u want to run faster (at least run if u r walking), then arbit people giving away stuff like biscuits and bananas, I took water from one lady (which was not bottled for a change! :)), had a chat with this 66 year old gentleman who has done many marathons, another 68 year old completed in 2 hrs 50 mins with a heart condition, inspiration all around!!! I hope to be able to run when I am their age if I am still around! 🙂

But what got me going was this one boy with Cerebral Palsy (I think) who was struggling to do 5 meters on the other side of the road, his mom helping him – ‘everybody’ around was cheering him – gave me goose pimples – I was almost walking with my knee hurting badly – immediatley started sprinting and probably the fastest bit in the day – ran all of the remaining 500 meters – the toughest! Such was the influence of that boy – I am glad I went all the way to Mumbai for this run! 🙂

I tried running with these slip ons from adiddas with not a very thick sole (qualifies as barefoot running I think) and my feet are really sore. My right knee was completely worn out. I need to fix my technique. Hoping to improve in future. Managed to complete the run in 2h 34m 5s around (by timing chip). If I do another HM decently this year will run FM next year! 🙂