First half marathon - QCIM 2010

I had been looking forward to doing my first half marathon since Sept of this year. I registered the very day my friend told me about the Quezon City International Marathon to be held on Dec 5th. Since then I spent many sleepless nights thinking about it. I planned to go with two friends - Bles, whose goal was to finish her 42K within 5 hours and Jon - an ultra-runner, was to be her pacer.

The gun start for 21K was at 5am in Quezon City, Manila which is about a 1.5 hrs drive, south of Clark. I tried to sleep at 9:30 pm the previous night but could not sleep a wink. Just when I started feeling sleepy at 1 am, the alarm went off (at 1:15 am, grrrr)!! How I hated myself at that moment for signing up for it. The bed was too tempting but my friends were to pick me up at 1:45 am so I got going. We were among the first few to reach the venue at 3:30 am, which worked very well. It gave us enough time to look around, click pictures and relax.

Bles introduced me to a friend of hers - Mai, we decided to run together, after discussing our paces. The organizers made us do some stretching exercises but I was too overwhelmed to do any. We stood in line with "2 hours 30 mins" pacers as that's the target we had decided for ourselves. There were about 1,100 runners for the 21K category and about 10,000 runners overall (mostly for 5K and 10K category).

The first 4K was brilliant as we passed through some beautiful stretches in the University of Philippines, Diliman campus area. Within the first 1K, I saw the University's flagship Oblation statue. The breeze was cool with trees all around (at least 2,000 if not more), I was elated by the ambience and felt spirited to run well.

After the first 4K, I found myself on the North Edsa highway (too bad I had not bothered to see the race map before the race). One side of the highway was blocked for the marathon. The highway had its share of uphill and downhill which wasn't very pleasant. On most occasions in the past, we've simply zipped by this highway in our car, but now I had all the time to look around. Alas! all I saw was concrete and more concrete (come to think of it, trail runs are tougher than road runs but they are certainly more pleasing to the eyes!).

The turn around was at 10.5K and I was still feeling good. The first low point was that all the water stations had this sports drink - Powerade, which doesn't agree with my stomach, so had to settle for plain water only. The second low point was at around 11K when my iPod froze. I didn't feel great without music and the increasing temperature.

There was a big traffic jam on the other side of highway. Most people had some or the other expression on their face ranging from "wow, i wish i could run like that" to "crazy runners" to "damn you guys for causing the jam". At 15K my knees started hurting a bit, Mai and I decided to walk some distance. At around 17K, we entered the campus area once again which was the much needed change and I started running till I finished at 2 hours 51 minutes along with Mai. It was way off from the target I had set for myself but it didn't matter. I was too delighted to have crossed the finish line. I hydrated, stretched and let the feeling of having done it, sink in.

Bles achieved her target of sub 5 hours along with Jon by her side. The joy, elation and the sense of achievement that I saw on the faces of full marathon finishers was twice as much and understandably so. And I can't wait to start training for one!

Crazy World of Motherhood

"Nobody said it was easy. No one ever said it would be this hard." - Coldplay

I created this blog two years back when I was going crazy taking care of my new born, therefore I chose the name "Crazy World Of Motherhood". At that time, I was hoping to share my plight with other mothers through this blog, but I could never take time out of my crazy schedule in pursuit of becoming a Perfect Mother (does such a thing even exist?), to write anything.

But I guess it's never too late to share ones thoughts. Kabir was born in Nov. 2007. I was all set to take motherhood head-on and had finished reading "What to Expect in the First Year" much before he was born. You can ask me any detail pertaining to the first year of Kabir's life and I would be able to answer everything accurately, with footnotes and in 3 dimension; but ask me anything else from the time period between Nov 2007 till year end of 2008 - and you'll have me stumped there. Everything else happening in this world at that time is a brown blur. I don't know of any movies that released, don't know of any popular songs, don't even know of any news that made headlines (thank God that at least the 1st T20 World Cup happened in Sept. 2007!). My crazy days were filled with "what's he going to do next?" or "what's he going to eat/drink next?" or "wow, look at that new expression! where's the camera?", etc. etc.

The most bizarre thing I felt post few months of delivery was that most of my senses felt just a bit weaker. I know it sounds weird but really I think that a little bit of my sense of hearing, smell, taste and sight was taken away by my baby. And I continue to feel the same even now, though currently I'm at my healthiest and fittest best.

There were of course a lot of days when I was low, down and out largely owing to the fact that I was tied down. But it's difficult to be sad and wear a long face when your child is all smiles or laze around when your child is in need of something. So I had to pretend to be happy and active. And at that moment pretension became my reality! My moods were no longer MY moods. Isn't it funny how that little being is in complete control of your emotions?

I have not cried or been overwhelmed with so many emotions all at the same time in my entire life. He stretched his arms towards me for the first time. I cried. He had eyes only for me in a room full of people. I cried. Laughed out loud for the first time. I cried. Managed to crawl. This time I didn't cry but was overcome with joy. Said "mmm aa mmm aa" the first time. I cried again!! Totally crazy!

Then of course there were those days - having to administer medicines every few hours, cleaning the puke filled with the smell of those medicines, my own clothes constantly smelling of curdled milk, my craving for 4 hours of sleep at a stretch, feeding constantly (in my case it was bottle, nonetheless it was tiring). I think cleaning poop is easy and is most over rated of all chores!

Kabir recently turned 3. There have been some crazy times in his 2nd and 3rd year of his growing up as well but nothing compares to the first year. Having said that, I will still not exchange that period for any thing else in this world. It has been the craziest yet the happiest time of my life.