After taking almost 3 days of rest from the Mumbai Marathon, I want to thank my two main mentors who encouraged me on this journey. I am writing this message from the Arambol Goa beach
1. Harsh M Rajdeep (physiotherapist)
2. Shakti Singh Hada (My Coach)
These two people played a very important role in my running journey.
My running journey began in August 2022 (Trail Run Event: August 5th, 22). I had never heard of the marathon until the trail run event. After the Trail Run event, I started to run daily for 5 kilometers. (with the guidance of Shakti Singh Hada).
On August 13, I was injured with a slipped disk during a gym workout and was placed on complete bed rest. On August 15, I began physiotherapy with Dr. Harsh Rajdeep.
During my treatment, he shared information about the Mumbai Marathon and the Vedanta Marathon. He encouraged me to participate in these two marathons in the future.
These two are India’s best marathons, and after the experience of the Mumbai Marathon #TMM, I can say that #Mumbai is the #Kashi & #Kumb of the #India #marathons.
Dr. Harsh also shared his knowledge of the Indore marathon, and coincidentally, the date of the Indore half marathon event was very close (August 28). I wanted to have a real half-marathon experience before participating in the Delhi half and Mumbai full marathons.
I learned about the Indore marathon on August 22nd and decided to participate. I gave my best efforts in the recovery process and followed all the instructions given by Dr. Harsh for the recovery.
As my recovery was evident, I registered for the half-marathon event at the Indore Marathon on August 25. On August 27, I took the evening train to Indore and arrived late at night. I completed my first half marathon in Indore in 2 hours and 7 minutes on August 22, 2022.
Based on the Indore half marathon timing certificate, I registered for the #VDHM (Delhi-Half Marathon) and #TMM (Mumbai-Full Marathon).
I completed my second official half marathon in Delhi (Vedanta) with a time duration of 1 hour, 58 minutes.
From August 22 to December 22, I completed my five-half marathon. Three were for my self-practice.
With back-to-back marathons and intense running practice, I got injured in my left leg and was unable to run during the last days of the Mumbai marathon. Just one week before the Mumbai marathon date, I have been doing daily runs of 5 to 6 kilometers under the guidance of Shakti Singh Hada. He gave me all the best possible running tips. He motivated me to participate in the Mumbai Marathon and not to step back at this last moment. He suggested I focus on completing the full marathon, even if it is at a 9- to 10-minute pace. I went to see Dr. Harsh Rajdeep too on January 11 for suggestions and therapy. Dr. Harsh motivated me to participate and complete this full marathon at a slow and easy pace.
Luckily, Dr. Harsh Rajdeep was also going to participate in the Mumbai marathon, so we both booked the same hotel and shared a room in Mumbai. On the 14th of January, during our stay in Mumbai, I went for a 2-kilometer slow walk and experienced excruciating pain in the calf muscles of my left leg. I was not even able to walk for a few meters without pain. Slowly, the pain subsided, and it became bearable with walking. I decided not to run in the morning and dropped my plan while returning to my hotel.
After returning to the hotel, I shared my situation with Dr. Harsh Rajdeep. Instead, he motivated me further and suggested that I take proper rest at night and just go for a walk instead of running for 42 km during the marathon. And I took some pain medicine at night, and he helped me apply a pain patch to the affected area.
In the morning, I followed all the running tips given by Shakti Singh Hada and Dr. Harsh. With the blessings of God, my run started well, and I managed to run at a good pace. For 30 minutes, I was feeling strong pain in my injured area. But I decided not to pay attention to it and keep running with my consciousness and endurance. But after a few minutes, I felt my body get used to that pain in the injured area. Once I decided to ignore the pain, my power and endurance started to support my pace, my body became painless, and I started to enjoy my run.
I feel that running is like meditation. And during the 42 kilometers, I enjoyed every meter of it. I finished it in 4 hours and 34 minutes, which exceeded my expectations. The Mumbai run was one of the best running experiences of my life.
Once again, I thank Dr. Harsh Rajdeep and Shakti Singh Hada for their guidance and motivation.
What I found with the running hobby:
1. It helped me reverse my diabetes.
2. It helped me increase my endurance and self-determination.
3. It started to reverse my aging process
I attached here one of my old pictures.