“You got this one, right Rajib”.

“Yep”.

“You remember the strategy, right?”

“Yep. Start slow”.

“And then?”

“Errrr…. then taper off???” 🙂

As far as the eyes go, runners and runners… And these are just the guys who will start before me!!

Talking to as many runners as I can. Asking them where they are from and how they got started running. I also told them that this is my first marathon. And that if they recognize me laying down on the side of the road, could they please hit the Pause button on my Garmin watch and THEN call for medical help? A heftily build German guy asked me if they could just drag me to the finish line.

I let him know it would work better that way 🙂

btw, I am yet to meet an Indian…

The place where the Greeks beat the Persians! Where Pheidippides fateful run began!! We are still a couple of hours away from starting. Right now, I am shivering in the cold and talking to all the runners here. Meeting people from all corners of the world – must have talked to people from at least fifteen different countries.

But in my own mind, I am a Kenyan right now!!

Got up early – it is 5 am here – 10 pm back home. Time to size up my competition for today. And that is him!! It is going to be my mind versus his body. Let the best man win!!

You know I named many of my runner friends for continuously encouraging me to try my first marathon. But I forgot two guys who were actually the biggest contributors. Did I mention I am going to hit 50 soon? Age induced forgetfulness is my only excuse 🙂

It was actually Greg Jones and Dan Parzych from my previous job that kept pushing me to try a marathon. Every time I ran into them in the running trails, the first question – especially from Greg – used to be “So, when are you signing up?”. He even sent me a four month training calendar that he wrote up in an Excel spreadsheet!!

I am not saying I left my previous job because of them, but certainly, I used to get worried every time I saw two guys without any shirt on coming like the wind from the other end of the trail. Eventually, they wore off on me. And that is how I landed up signing for the Original Marathon.

Regardless of whether I bust out or finish it, now I can legitimately tell them I gave it a shot! (my first shot, if I bust out – because I am so going back there next year to finish it if I can’t this year)