Age is just a Number

Age is just a Number

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Disappointment for all the Marathon runners in India. This year, ?the Mumbai Marathon (TMM) did not take place for the 2nd consecutive year. It was no brainer, it was familiar culprit, Mr. Covid19 and his first and Second Cousin Delta and O micron variants.

For readers, The Mumbai Marathon erstwhile SCMM – Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon and now known as TMM Tata Mumbai Marathon, is an annual international marathon held in Mumbai, India, on the third Sunday of January every year. It is the largest marathon in Asia as well as the largest mass participation sporting event on the continent. It is the richest race in India.

Friends in the running group were very disappointed. All of us run 42Km on this day for last 16 years. This time of the year, the weather in Mumbai is at is ?best temperature is about 18 to 20 relatively low humidity.

Most of them, like me have been running since start of this Event way back in 2004 when first Marathon was organized ( or ill organized then there was hardly any water station for km and KM so you were parched dry and dehydrated most of the distance). Since then, it had become ritual for most of us. The sequence goes To Register in August, and then start the preparation started putting miles in the leg, keep increasing the distance every day every week to make the muscle memory go up, get into practice. And then comes the hardest part used to be in Mumbai during that time and run it as group.

The group sized changes and the profile changes every year, some newcomers sometime very young runners come in some time old one leave, but the core group remained very much same. The group has people from various walks of life, age ranges from 35 to 72 some are high ranking officials and some retired.

Holy Cow this year too no TMM, what should we do? . One of the group came up with idea in late December, let’s do half Marathon (21 Km) ?each Sunday until 23rd and then run 73 KM on 26th of January to celebrate 73 year of being a republic. And on 16th the third Sunday lets run 21km sub 1 hours 50 minutes, which would mean we are prepared to do 73 km on 26th Jan.

We looked at each other with disbelieve 21 Km each Sunday that is 6 Sundays and then 73 KM. on 26th. ?And to top it all non of us were in running condition leave alone running 21 Km each Sunday with our hectic travel schedule. The logic and counter logic remained, And then wisdom cam from the oldest member 69 year who been avid road runner. We will run and walk, and continued with with old adage “ Age is just a number, and it cannot dictate what you can and you cannot do.”

This is the best motivational line I had recently heard. We are all aging at 3600 Second per hour and do we take that as growing/ getting to maturity/ or aging, I would leave that to all of us to decide how they want to spend that 3600 second/ hours.

At least as of now, no one have been able to reverse aging, or slow aging, but surely lot of the people on the 3rd Rock have been able to enjoy the process of life. It good to keep interest alive, enjoy the journey, smell the roses, look at the waves in Sea and river, watch people rushing through their life as you keep going around the Sun.

In rush to achieve greater elusive things, in my journey I had let go of various interest, like doing puzzles, NYT/ TOI Cross words/ Sudoku, Jumbles: Once I was voracious reader, played Tennis, swimming till the arms ached, cycling till back hurts, trekking to remote places to discovering or travelling to place to learn about different culture etc.

In the madness of reaching goals in professional life, only thing that has kept me sane is because I did not ?let go off was running, my bag always has a running short and a sneaker. With shortest opportunity and depending on the time at hand, I am on the road to run some distance sometime as small as 2 km to as much as possible. Though in Covid times this became a rartity.

Proudly I can say, I have run all the SCMM/TMM travelled to various marathon mostly for running half marathon and I would add, it’s has been equivalenting to meditation to me running 42Km. You loose sense of surrounding after crossing 30 Km mark and you are only focussed on completing the even and each km upward while the body starts saying no the mind says go on there is pot of gold in form of elation of challenging yourself to the finish.

After completing I don’t know if I would be able to do 73 km on 26th but surely I did run today and will try my hand again next week. It’s a journey. It would be great to run at least 42km for sure, if I can.

And Again to close up…….Enjoy the ride till it last, enjoy journey try out new things be focussed though ?and do remember Age is just a number, and it cannot dictate what you can and you cannot do.”?.