Vijay and I are very different….for me mathematics ends with the ten fingers on my hand (my toes act as reserve) while being a pure mathematician his maths doesn’t even have numbers. I am a believer while anything to do with God or prayer is alien for him. Vijay loves to watch movies which is intellectually stimulating with minimum dialog. I did rather watch movies that lets me sit back and not think, laugh, maybe cry and go "aww choo sweet". As he often quotes, “There are two types of people in this world, those who run and those who should”. Vijay belongs to the first category and my aching joints and back is testimony to my being in the second category.
Anyhow, I got lured into going with Vijay for the Mangalore half marathon…as a spectator of course. And as I stood by at half past six in the morning, among this huge crowd of amazingly fit people, I found reassurance among the organisers who gave me company in the ‘should run’ group. I tried my best to get the sleep out of my eyes and act excited for Vijay. I looked at him and it wasn’t excitement that I saw in his face but something close to the pious calm one sees in devotees as they enter a temple.
Before long the marathon started and the runners headed off leaving the rest of us to try and comprehend what makes people travel huge distance so that they can run in a strange land. I gave up trying to figure the puzzle when I realised that the only way to solve it would be to run. Instead, I took Ravi, my two and half year old, for a dip in the beach. Vijay had told me he expected to finish between one and half and two hours. About an hour later Ravi and I headed back to the start point (which was also the finish point) just in time to see the first of the runners crossing the finish line. Then on in a more or less constant stream the runners came back. Standing there watching them cross the finish line, I think I got the feel of what is meant by “The spirit of the marathon”.
Every runner was there to challenge himself and only himself. How the others ran didn’t matter….even when they are neck to neck at the finish (I am not talking about the world champions here). In fact, it should not matter. If you focus on others and in beating them, you are beaten. The competition was with yourself, on pushing yourself. You have a very personal goal to achieve. Unlike in a sprint where the most thrilling part is the finish, which comes all too soon, here it was the run. In the former it is more of physical strength, here it is the mental endurance. For a half marathon the average time would be something like two hours and for a full marathon, four hours. These are lengthy times and I can only imagine the fight between the urge to stop and the desire to go on that every runner may have had time and again.
Possibly as a marathoner reaches the finish line he is truly himself, no space for pretence. Everyone started off more or less similarly; the difference showed up at the finish. Some possibly ran the fasted towards the end having saved that last bout of energy for it, some found energy from others cheering and the sight of the huge timer and speeded up, others were shyly jubilant, still others obviously ecstatic, some surprised, a few could just about manage to walk across. As I watched Vijay head towards the finish, I felt this perceptive has truth. In his usual calm demeanour he steadily reached for the finish line, completely oblivious to us cheering him on, thoroughly enjoying each step. And the first words he said to me on the other side, “I was told they have arranged refreshments…where is it?”
https://picasaweb.google.com/108653502270997583759/Mangalore12Marathon?authkey=Gv1sRgCOiTn4X4puOaag
