We had a will, we found a way!

16^th February, 21 kilometres, 3 hours and 4 guys.

It is a story about something that they never did before, something people thought these guys won’t be able to do and that’s what inspired them to get out and prove themselves.

Just before a day of the first marathon of their life, when everyone else was fully prepared to run with months of training, these guys hadn’t even collected their BIB number, practice wasn’t even a question for them. At first, it was all about fun to go there and run as much as they could and just come back. As the time passed and the marathon was just a night away, they decided to run and when I say run, I mean the whole marathon… 21 Kilometres.

At first, when one of them just started this conversation while travelling, the other 3 just agreed with him on a point to finish the race of 21 kilometers. But not even a minute after we all agreed on this point, we all had a question in mind, will we be able to complete the Marathon without any practice? Its 21 kilometers and we all knew it wasn’t a film; it was a reality, a reality that was just few hours away. We parted our ways with this question on our mind and decided to meet at 5am as the marathon was suppose to start at 6.

My morning started at 4am and I had this belief that this day is going to be better than yesterday. All geared up for the longest run of my life, I left from home with a positive attitude. But as they say, things don’t always work as per your plans, it was the same in my case. At start, everything I did… just went wrong, from getting an auto rickshaw to the delay in train which made us reach late in the marathon where people had already crossed more than 2 kilometers. Though it wasn’t about winning but about running, and running like we have to win. And when I say win, for us victory wasn’t about being amongst the top three but about completing the marathon before the time ends.

As we reached the destination, we thought if we should start running, as we were already half an hour late and on that we were not able to connect with one of our friend who reached on time. That’s when we got a thought and despite all the wrong things happening it was a thought that said “We can do a lot more in life, if we stop thinking and start doing things.” So yes, we started our run.

The first 3 kilometers were a nightmare, we stopped every minute and there was this pessimist thought that took over our mind “Sometimes its okay to give up on something and convince yourself that you got to stop what you have been trying for.” But the very next moment we thought…. Wait…. Why are we here? Not just so we could start it and leave it in between but to finish what we have started. We kept running and every kilometre we passed was a motivation. It’s like we were counting the other way round… 4 Kms to go, 3, 2 and 1….

The last 100 meters of the track had that magic in it, people all around you cheering you to finish what you have started, and at the finish line, there was this man waiting to appreciate you with a medal. It felt good, it was an awesome feeling, we did it, and we nailed it. Something that seemed impossible wasn’t so hard after all.

What next? We celebrated our victory, we were not among the top runners but not even among the last. Our competition was with ourselves and the people who thought we won’t be able to do it… Yes, we did it and so we won and as I strongly believe “When you win, you celebrate, you express your victory, its fine if the people around you think of you as some crazy kids, you deserve a shout out for yourself, because it is you who made it till the end and not them.”

It was an amazing experience. Many things learned, an experience of a lifetime and a spirit to do something what people believe you can’t. It feels great to go against all the odds and come out with glory.

Here’s a message to all the beginners who are planning to run a marathon for the first time: It is not about how motivated you are or how much have you trained yourself for this long run, it is about a madness in you to prove yourself, a madness to do something you have never done before, yes, you surely need practice as practice makes you perfect but even without practice you can run. You can win, it is just the belief that you can. So leave things behind, move faster, live your life your way, set your rules because there’s a strong reason why you are gifted with a different life.

My special thanks to the Hiranandani Thane half marathon team for giving us this opportunity and to all the runners out there who inspired us to run, to win and to do something that seemed so impossible in the beginning.