Wednesday, December 29, 2010

When I ran 10K...!


“Should I or should I not? Actually, why should I or for that matter, why shouldn’t I? I don’t even know why do people actually do it?” So many thoughts came rushing to my mind in a jiffy, sitting in that meeting discussing usual business, while the voice on the other side waited patiently after having tried its best to convince me to participate in the Hyderabad 10K… and the reasoning given was neither social nor health banter. But, the one which, to my own surprise, worked well in that split second - “We are all going, you also come…it’ll be fun…” I bet all of us would have succumbed to this atleast once in our lifetime, if not several times..!

Thinking that I still have some days left to decide to actually go or not and that this way, I’ll have the option open, if I decide to go… or probably, it was simply the desire sitting inside me for several months to break free of the routine… Whatever, I said okay… no, I think I said okees :) Yes, the meeting went on well too!

After having the never lasting, but interesting, discussion with colleagues around my cubicle about the goodies received in the running kit, having decided the meeting time and place with my curious colleagues, who had pushed me into this (curious, as I feel they were equally lost about the reason of us doing this as I was :)) (I did do some office work too, by the way!!!), here I was, lying in my bed the night before, setting a really early morning alarm in my mobile… and thinking constantly – “why am I doing this?... that too on a precious Sunday!”

After initial usual logistics hicupps, by the grace of God, I, along with couple of team members, reached the venue, near Eat Street at Necklace Road, at around 7.30am (Yes, 7.30am on a Sunday!). During the first half an hour, I was sure that this will not last more than 2-3 kms… probably, we’ll enjoy a early morning tea somewhere and go back home, and thus, I may still get to catch up to my dear sleep….!

But, then suddenly, we found many more office colleagues, not far, till now hidden in the sea of about 10,000 people who had gathered there. Soon, all of us, with a surprisingly natural smile on our faces, warmly greeted each other, got ourselves clicked (read - got our attendance registered!). Kritika & Santu, my fellow colleagues, had already started planning to put these pics on facebook (in the order of occurrence!), as soon as they reach back home!

And then we all started, around 15-20 of us, and soon disappeared amongst thousands of such groups from various companies (Well… we were in the Corporate Run timing)…. I was still imagining 2-3 kms of fun and I later came to know many of us were thinking the same at that time!!! Apart from the usual run and walk routine (okay… walkkkkkkkkkkkkk – run – walkkkkkkkkkkkkkk routine), scenic beauty around Hussain Sagar lake & the cool breeze, I still can’t forget, those visibly not so distinct moments – to keep running beyond our running capacity just to run along the friend ahead of us or to gasp for breath while showing that we are waiting for the fellow colleagues, undying desire to capture everything in our cams, discussing, nope - criticizing the use of plastic bottles and numerous others. And suddenly, I was surprised, when I saw people clicking pics beside the 5 km mark…! For the first time, I felt that I might run entire 10km…!

And then it just happened… we actually did finish 10km in just about 2 hrs of time…to meet Mr. Sudhakar, who was waiting anxiously for us near the finishing line. And trust me, all of us were on the top of the world at that moment… and it makes sense too, as one might need wings more than legs to be up there… you know! (well, even after continuous walking, the legs do pain!)

When I look back today, the first thoughts which come to my mind are, of the smiling faces around, the small jokes shared on the way, a sumptuous nice breakfast at Vaishnav’s, a small restaurant nearby, after the run… and most importantly, how, during this run I started talking to so many of new colleagues and got new friends!... I now know why I’ll run another 10K too..!!!

Actually, I should have said, when we ran 10k…!!!”

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