Dreams Do Come True

Diwali time - time for another flight to Mumbai and time for another airport post too. 3rd November 2018 - Saturday - Flight is at 6:10 am. I came a bit early to catch up with my office colleague and so I have a bit extra time to write. It was a very sleepless yesterday and no sleep at night too. I took a shot of Black coffee to help me be awake. I have been thinking about this post for a very long time and finally I write it and hopefully I'll finish and publish it too.

What was once a Dream - this is about the things and/or events which were once upon a time a dream (wish) for me and which materialised.

- - PASSPORT - -

As a kid I used to say I'll just stay in India and won't go abroad at all. There used to be pressure sometimes that I should keep my passport ready since one never knows when the chance to go abroad comes up. Anyway, I dodged and delayed making a passport. I used to say that if a company wants to send me abroad then let the company make my passport, I won't do it myself. I kept saying this till I finished engineering. Finally I went through the process of making my passport in IIT, since the process to get one was made easy now. So where is my dream getting fulfilled here.

The company might not have helped me get a passport but it surely helped me in getting my first Visa and sponsored my trip too. A big thanks to Kartik - because of whom we won the Mahindra Auto-Quotient Quiz competition. The prize was a paid trip to Malaysia to witness Mahindra and other teams participate in Moto GP Race. So that's it - Company played a crucial role in my first foreign trip.

- - FLIGHT TRAVEL - -

As a child most of my long trips used to be to Gujarat and occasionally to Jammu and Kashmir. I used to travel to these places in train. I still travel to Gujarat in train - it is more convenient. I never used to dream about travelling to Gujarat or Jammu in train but I used to wish to travel in flight. I saw all the episodes of Air-Craft investigation on Discovery and that fueled my desire to fly high.

My First Flight and Airport Visit (Mumbai) - April/May 2015

My first flight experience was from Bombay to Kolkata for MTech admission interview. I had to book the ticket at very last moment since the shortlist for interview came late. I traveled with dad and it was a good amount of money that went into the ticket. I created self pressure to make sure I qualify so the the investment didn't go waste. Luckily I cleared the interview but didn't go there. Instead I went to IIT Bombay for Masters. Now a days I travel by plane whenever I want to go to Bombay. I pay a visit to home minimum 5 times a year. I have been privilege to make some abroad trips too. Now it's very very normal feeling for me whenever I travel by Air. Time to board ;)

- - RUNNING - -

I was never an athlete in childhood. I used to struggle in street cricket too. I could never play games that involved running fast or long. I used to catch cold and cough quite easily. It was only in engineering when I was around 21 yrs old that I had some sort of Asthma. Suddenly everything fell in place. I got the answer for my poor performance in sports.

After the First Full Marathon -  Jan 2016 - 5:15 hours

Marathons mostly take place on Sunday. Once I randomly stumbled upon a live stream of Mumbai marathon and I saw the happy and tired faces of runners. The sense of accomplishment of those who finished can be easily seen on their faces. 42 kms hahaha - running 42 metres used to be an impossible task for me. I always had a special respect for people involved in any sport, irrespective of the level that they played at.

So the turning point came when I realised I'll had to take Asthma pump for my entire life. Hell no, I was not at all ready for that. Slow and steady I started. I never had a clear picture that I'll be finishing the marathon in this lifetime. I can write a book about how I managed to dump the Asthma pump forever and do a sub 5 hour marathon, bit it is out of scope of this post. Long story short - I can proudly say I am a marathon runner. Ran first in 5:15 hours, next in sub 5 hours and third did not finish. It took time to get over physical and emotional damage that unfinished marathon did to me. At the end of the day, I have become a marathon runner.

- - CYCLE - -

Again going back to childhood days, may be when I was in 4th - 5th standard, I used to dream about getting a gear cycle. Those days there very few gear cycles available and damn costly. I lived in a flat terrain and so gear cycle was not actually required. Anyway, i had a very good cycle in school days and then I went to college. In college I hardly used cycle. Fast forward and then there is MTech in IITB. Having a cycle in IITB is very normal and I bought one as soon as I got into IITB. That was my first gear cycle. 18 speed. IITB has many ups and downs and so having a geared cycle made sense.

My First Road Bike - Fuji Sportif 2.3

After IITB I moved to Chennai for job and sold my old cycle. Here in Chennai and office is less than 4kms from my apartment and so I bought a basic cycle for commute. After year I started planning for Triathlon and started searching for good road bikes. It took another 6 months and so key turning points in my course of life and I finally bought one Road Bike. Almost 40% lighter than old cycle, 8 Speed, with Drop bars and so many things. I made many 80 km cycle rides using it and it doesn't feel a big deal now to own such a road bike.

- - INTERVAL - -

I wrote the above blocks on 3rd November from Airport but didn't publish the post. It is 24th November and i am adding few blocks which I feel is applicable here.

- - CAR - -

Again - another book can be written on it. To know more about my Car adventures you can go through - car-drives-so-far. Owning a car has always been a dream. Some of the details are in the last post and I am skipping that. Post that I hired a car with my friends and went to Pondicherry - road-trip-to-pondicherry. Then I drove in Mumbai - inch-by-inch. Then came a big break and I went to Euro and UK trip. There I hired and Drove Volkswagen Golf - One of the costliest car that I drove till date and also the first 6 speed manual car. In a nutshell - I drove many cars owned by my friends. I actually learnt on many of those cars - and my friends were patient enough to teach me good driving.

First Car - Alto 800 - Chennai

In the past para I told that I used to go to office on cycle and at times I dream of having a car and go to office in that. Cars used to go past by me and I used to be on cycle. I used to wonder when will I get a car and when will I enter the office in that. Finally it happened yesterday I bought my first car and took it to office too. Again there was a big role played by my office colleagues in various stages of my car purchase. A Dream Come True.

- - END - -

I'll end my post here. I assure you that there many more dreams of mine that came true and there was no particular reason to not include them. It is just that I these items are on top of mind and have been very close to my heart. What I expect now is you to click on the comment box and write few lines on your Dream Coming True. Lets get this post going on. Thanks for Reading and Stay tune for many more posts.

Race of my Life ?

Had started writing a post for new year and my running updates but somehow it remained unfinished. Here is a new one mainly focused on my upcoming marathon race on 17th Jan. It is a flashback post as I look back into past one year post my half marathon run. There are few things that make this post more special. First of all I am writing it at airport. Secondly it is a new phone being used by me which was a gift from a Special SomeOne, my Bestie :)

Flights are delayed due to poor visibility and I am waiting right in front of plane docking area. I see flights landing about 200 m away from me and other flights picking up passengers n going towards runway. I'll finish the blog midair and publish it as I land. Checking in for now.

Seat belts warning off n electronic devices on. Now getting back to blog title - Is this really going to be a race of my life ? This is certainly my first but not the last marathon. After this I can officially call myself a marathon runner and/or long distance runner. Till I run next marathon I will be under the category - 'Also Ran'. Generally used for one time runners.

I never imagined that any of my close ones will ever run such a long distance and then I find myself in that shoe. In the process I discovered that there are few cousins of mine who do long distance running. One of the few memories that plays in my mind is of a Sunday morning, 10  12 years ago. I accidentally stumbled on live telecast of some marathon (mostly Mumbai). I so very admired those guys, I had just woke up lazying around on Sunday and these guys had already finished 42 km run. Looking back it now, it feels that you can easily achieve what you want. Some might say you need to have a dream and passion and what not. Frankly I never dreamt of being an athlete at any level, nor was I passionate. Just that 2 years ago I decided to go for it to stay fit and achieve something out of my comfort zone. Discipline is also a very essential ingredient to achieve something phenomenal, I wasn't disciplined either. I believe that make your plan and it is more than enough if you follow 80% of it.

Haven't done long distance running practice after Diwali but still let me share another wondering memory that flashes in my mind. I think back of December 2013 and January 2014, the time I started running and building my stamina. I used to be dead in 2.4kms, my friends use to cross the line a minute before me and still fresh. Things have come a long way since then. My SPEED has almost been the same all these years. The feeling of comparing myself with my old myself is breathtaking. You see yourself and things around you very differently.

I read few blog post by marathon runners and one thing all agree is that - no matter what your speed and stamina is, you start respecting everyone running or taking up any other similar activity. You admire runners faster than you, you know what it takes to reach there. You respect slow runners, since they are trying and making a beginning. Don't be afraid of moving slow, be afraid of not moving at all (bhaag milkha bhaag).

Flashback of a year, after not achieving my half marathon timing target, I decided to go for full marathon within 3 hours - a very not unrealistic but a challenging target. First thing I did after half marathon was to chill and in the process lost all my stamina. Then I started working on my technique, changing foot strike pattern in particular. My shoes wear off in couple of months and sole wear pattern is a good indicator of my foot strike pattern. I now land on ball of my foot, outer side first and then inner side and the the front of foot and then push. I also changed my attire, moving to synthetic from cotton. Really short shorts and regular dry fit T-shirt. Last month I moved to sleeveless, feels so  relaxed.

Around may June I started following some diet regime too, salads and fruits. Beetroot is my  favourite since it helps a lot in building more RBCs which means more oxygen can be absorbed and so more energy and faster I can go. I also decreased the percentage of runs I did in evening, mostly morning runs only. All was well in Mumbai, since it was home sweet home and mom took care of all my diet demands and made sure I followed my running routine. Dad motivated me specially after my long runs. Then came Chennai and each and everything changed. I eat chocolates and sweets as much as I want. No control on rice intake and no fruits at all. There was no running at all, finally my roomies Kartik and Rohith directly/indirectly helped me out. Kartik and I started off with 3 4 kms slow run and then gyming started in which I used to do trademill runs and some skipping too. Kartik has played football amd cricket at a very competitive level and it was good to restart my running with him. Since last 3 weeks Rohith has been a long distance running Buddy of mine. Running 7 8 kms almost 5 days a week. Rohith hasn't been into long distance running, but see him pre and post runs and you know he can make it big.

Had ran lot many 10 miles (16 kms) back in Mumbai and one 24kms too. There was good variation in running too, fast 2.4kms, medium and slow 8kms. Gruelling 16 kms. Then hill repeats and hill sprints. I exercised more and included skipping and cycling too. But all this was in Mumbai.

Plane is about to land, 10 15mins more. Now, again coming back to blog title. Why this race is so important. I practice a lot for half marathon except last month before race. I carried through somehow and finished it. This time I lost all that was gained till November end. I am fit for half, full I doubt. I am confident I will run slow and finish but at the same time I can't forget the troubles I had when I ran 24km when I was in good form. It is going to be a complete mental game for me. I have to turn deaf ear to my body. About the timing, if I go by my half martagon pace then it should be 4 hours 30 mins and I will be a happy finisher if I can do that. This is the personal cut off time I am keeping for myself. Wish me Luck :)

Hello Mumbai !!!