This is good racing

I nearly did not take part in the Indian Navy Half. A Saturday text from my sister convinced me. It was a perfect half marathon. It was near perfect racing.

This time, unlike Bombay, I wanted to push hard and keep an eye on the clock. By the time I was on Mathura road on the way towards India Gate, I knew I was feeling good. Now it would be a matter of holding on and climbing through the inevitable slumps that come your way in a long race.

And so it did happen exactly in that manner. Around the fourteenth kilometre, I felt sluggish and my body wasn’t moving as well. It was time to forgive, push on, but keep it moving. I had to get past ten, maybe fifteen minutes, by then I would be on the home stretch back on Lodi road.

I squeezed in my last gel around the sixteenth kilometre. A runner, an older man raced past me. I caught up to his heels. I stuck with him until around the eighteenth. By that time he was further ahead. But I had found my stride again. As I write this, his face is a blur but I thank him. It was because of him that got my engine going again.

This is an individual sport but how uniquely communal it is too.

I ran the last three kilometres as my fastest block and the last one was the quickest in the race.