They say “in a marathon, the first 32 km is a warm up.  The real marathon is the last 10km”.

I stopped, walked and then began running for the 33rd kilometer.  By the 30th kilometer, I had already crossed the Gachibowli stadium, thanking the gods for the downhill into the Hyderabad Central University campus.  Then came an elevation and that was when it hit me.  I couldn’t run anymore.  But I didn’t want to stop either.  I didn't want to give up.  No, that was not going to be my proverbial “wall”.  Not during my debut.  Not after having trained for 5 months.

So I walked a few steps.  A couple of them went past me. I started running again.

The start line

The marathon for the open category started at 4:35am.  Raghu, who was running HM, despite having his start time at 5:30am, accompanied me in the morning.  After wishing each other the best of luck, I entered my corral.

Standing there among 1000 or more runners, I felt immense gratitude towards everyone who helped, supported me in this.  I felt privileged for being able to dream of something that not many would like to endure.  I felt privileged that I could even attempt it, that I had the physical ability to stand there among those runners.

The plan

It was simple:  Run 9km which is one full round about the Hussain Sagar lake in the first 55 minutes and reach near the starting point and join Raghu who was running his first official half marathon.  His start time was 5:30am. From then on, we were to run the next 21km together till Gachibowli stadium at which point he would take the diversion into the Gachibowli stadium towards the finish line and I were to continue fighting my demons for 12 more kilometers.

Only when I completed the 9th km did I realize that we made an error in our calculation.  It was this:  He was in corral D.  Given that HM had around 6000 participants, it took about 10 minutes for him to reach the flag off point.  By then, I had already crossed the Khairatabad flyover and was approaching Raj Bhavan Road.

I called him on his phone and told him to find the 4h 45m Marathon bus or 2h 30m HM bus which were comfortably tagging along at that time.

The next half marathon

From People’s Plaza till the Stadium was a familiar route to me.  I had run my first HM on that very route in 2024 and could visualize every flyover, every uphill and every turn.  Weather was perfect. Breezy at times.  Roads were wide and clean.  I made use of every aid station by drinking half a cup of electrolyte and eating a piece of watermelon or banana.  Felt immense gratitude towards every volunteer who was handing over water and electrolytes, cutting watermelons and collecting paper cups thrown by mindless runners.

Like the previous year, there were crowds along the way singing, dancing, giving high-fives to cheer the runners.  Every time someone gave a high-five, it felt electric, as though a new wave energy was pumped in.  I kid you not, when someone comes out there, not for anything but just to cheer people like you, it feels special, it feels, just very nice.

That last 11K

After the first 31 crowded kilometers with half marathoners and 10k runners, the last 11 kilometers inside the HCU felt deserted.  There was a runner here and there.  At times, It was just myself and the sound of my feet against the asphalt road - tap... tap... tap... tap... combined with deep inhales and exhales.  There was no loud music nor any crowd cheering us anymore.  A couple of aid stations and a few tired volunteers trying to still cheer us were all that were there.

All that noise had suddenly died down.  It felt calm. It felt surreal, It felt lonely...

That is when it hit me - no matter whether I trained with friends or groups, whether someone came to cheer me or not, here, this last 10km was all about just me.  No one would take me from here to the finish line.  It all came down to "how much I wanted  it... what am I made of... am I going to give up now, after all these days' of training...or, am I going to just endure this pain and carry on..."

At some point,  I stopped, walked, stretched and carried on.  I stopped again, stretched again and moved on.  Slowly.  But kept moving.

As I entered the Stadium gates, I realized that it was now within my grasps.  The first 42km medal was just a few hundred meters away.  I had done it.

When I saw the finish line, I was all tears.  What I could not even imagine a year and a half ago, I had done today.  Ramya was there at the finish line to capture that moment. I just remember hugging her and crying for a full minute or so.  I had not felt so happy in a while.

And what it took to be standing there with that medal was discipline.  Yes, I faltered in my training some times.  Yes, I did not have a strict diet plan.  Yes, it was not a perfect journey.  Yes, I did not break any world record nor did I win the race.  But, at a personal level, I had opened a door that day which was hitherto closed.  I had broken a barrier. I had a better finish time than I had hoped for.

It was my own personal "mission accomplished".

I am writing this about one and half months after this.  New training has started for VDHM, TSW25 Kolkata and then TMM in January 2026.  This means more grinding.  And it is "business as usual" now.