How to run a half marathon

I spoke to Karaire, a friend of a friend, whose shorts Ive worn long before I knew him. Sounds bizarre, but absolutely true - Karaire and I have a common friend. 15 years ago, I heard about Karaire a lot, but we had never met. To me he was like a mythical beast - rumoured to exist, but no confirmed sightings. Anyway, once I was stuck at the common's friend's place for the night, he offered me Karaire's shorts to wear as pjs. The very next morning, as if waiting for me to transgress normal social boundaries - what sort of person wears a stranger's shorts to sleep??? - Karaire landed up at his friends house bright and early, surprised himself and me, in his shorts, and proceeded to get acquainted..

Anyway apart from the fact that Karaire has an incredibly sweet wife and a yummy daughter, he runs. He has run plenty of half marathons, he mountain bikes, he rock climbs, he's a really really cool sporty guy.

So I called him up to confess that I had actually registered for the half marathon on Oct 15, and I was terrified. Any advice?

Drink lots of water, wear shoes that still have plenty of good cushioning in them, run 70 kms every week and you'll run the legs off everybody else, he said breezily.

Wow. Let me get this straight. If I run the equivalent of 3 and a half marathons every week, then I will be able to run a half marathon one Sunday, exactly one month from now?

Yes, exactly what Ive said, said Karaire.

I laughed hollowly. That's about the best advice I ever received. I could write an entire series of how to books based just on that one nugget.

How to climb Mount Everest. Climb it three and a half times every week, and climbing it is a breeze.

How to build a rocket launcher from bits of lego, play doh and knitting needles. Build three and half of them every week, and Bob's your Uncle.

Have you gone mad? I asked Karaire. How can you give me such terrible advice? I can barely run 11 kms as my long run and you're talking 70 kms. I'll never be able to finish the race. I wont even be able to start it now. Why did I ever register? Why did I even think I could dream of doing this?I hate this race. ....I began to wail.

Hey, relax. You'll do fine, Karaire said kindly. Remember, its only a half marathon.

Only a half marathon....?

Of course. Now it all makes sense.

running up that hill...

Yesterday I ran 11 kms. At Nehru Park in Chanakya Puri. Which is this gorgeous public park with a 2.75 km running loop. I ran 4 rounds of it.

Barely.

I always forget how killing those tiny little climbs can be. The Nehru Park trail has these three little hills. They are really quite little. Till you try running up them 5 kms into your run and then suddenly they seem like Mount Everest.

All around me Very Important People are walking. Since the Park is bang in the middle of the very high security diplomatic enclave of New Delhi, a high percentage of those who come here are Important Government and International Functionaries. With very important looking machine gun toting body guards. The less important ones have body guards who simply shuffle behind their fitness oriented wards without any visible guns. But the funniest are those that actually clutch madam's cellphone as she walks. How handy for madam, to not have to lug around her 25gm cellphone as she powerwalks her way to the body beautiful.

But back to the hills. Everytime I huff and puff past some Important Person and his Important Entourage, I always notice that the Important Person is far too busy managing the universe to even look anywhere except straight ahead. But sometimes, a member of the Entourage looks my way as I grunt past in the opposite direction and gives me a tiny hint of encouragement. Just a tiny sympathetic smile. Just a little twitch of go for it, its ok.

Which I absolutely adore. Because if there's one thing I dread more than the hillocks turned Mount Everests of Nehru Park, it is being twitched at by a machine gun toting security guard. Before I know it, my aching legs and bursting lungs have powered me past not just the range of machine gun fire but over the hills and far away.

Security does have its uses.

only a half marathon...?

I am 37 years old. I have been running practically my whole life. Not just from my ma's instructions and homilies and lately from my two kids tantrums and tears, but literally running.

By which I mean I ran when I was a kid, sprints and stuff, a 100 m, a 200m, and my favourite, the 100m hurdles.Then I started playing basketball, and it was much more fun to play basketball with a whole bunch of kids and be really good at it so that the boys thought you were cool, than it was to just run and shine all alone for a few minutes every year on Sports Day. So I took up basketball seriously for the next ten years of my life, and only ran as part of training. But every now and again, when it would rain, I would still put on my running shoes and run. Just anywhere.

And when I started working, I found it was the simplest thing to do, right after work and before I hit the bars, just to get out there and pound the streets for a bit. Just enough to build up a healthy thirst for one more beer! On holiday or in a new city, I would slip some cash into my socks, get out the front door and just start running. Anywhere, any twists and turns and lefts and rights, up little cobbled roads and down windy side paths. And when i was tired, I would hail a cab and tell them my address and arrive back home in style.

But though I have run for all my life, I have never ever run long distances. Call it a hangover from my sprinter past, but I mostly have stuck to 5-6 kms. A half hour run or so, that's it.

Last year I decided I wanted to run a half marathon. Uh uh. Terrible shin splints. Couldn't run for three whole months. Had to start again from scratch, and had to go to a gym to basically build up muscle strength and stuff.

This year, in one month and one week, i.e on Oct 15, I am planning to run my first half marathon. The Hutch Delhi Half Marathon, in New Delhi, India. I am totally scared. I have only been running about 9 kms or so still, four times a week, though I cross train and swim alongside. But there's a huge difference between running nine kms and twenty one. And swimming's not exactly running.

This week I have to do a long run of at least 11-12 kms so that the next week my long run can be 14 or so. Then 17. Then the last week I hope to just do the big one. 21.

am scared. Of everything. I am scared I will have to go to the loo midway and anyone who has ever used Indian public loos will know that that alone is enough to strike terror into the bravest of hearts.I am terrified I will get shin splints again. I am terrified I will not get shin splints but just give up mid way, hail a cab and come home, like I have so many times before, across three continents and over twenty years.

Well I dont know what's going to happen, but I'm sure tense about it. Relax, my husband who has never run anywhere, except to the golf course every weekend, told me. It's only a half marathon.

Only a half marathon....?

Watch this space.