Honolulu Marathon

This is the best way to start my blog by bragging about the 26.2 grueling miles that I ran last week at the honolulu marathon. It has been an amazing experience for me. The six month training program by SF AIDS Foundation has just been great, it is the most recommended training for beginner runners especially folks who shiver at the thought of running a few miles. The marathon itself is such an adrenaline rush. There were 28,635 runners in this year's Honolulu marathon, the journey began with taking a shuttle to the start line @ 3.45 am in the morning. The starting line was busy with runners stretching, the strong vaseline smell in the air, long lines in the portable toilets. The group that I trained with hustled to the back of the crowd (that's where us folks who planned to run for more than 6 hours need to asemble). The start at 5am was with loud fireworks which I am sure the entire honolulu city got to hear. The crowd moved pretty quickly and you could see the amazing set of people while you ran; like the japanese girl dressed as superwoman, an old man in thongs, military guys with 100 pounds backpack in their boots, small children.. The diamond head hill was just breath taking (the san francisco hills where we trained were much tougher), the toughest part was the freeway stretch. It was pretty open space with no shade and the temperature had risen to around 92 degrees. There was a rock band playing at around 18 miles and that got some of us flowing with the rhythm. The remaining 8 miles were pure mental, I cannot remember how and why i pulled myself to continue running and cross that finish line. A long time back my friend Aparna had asked a question in her blog "what motivates one to run a marathon" - I am still not sure whether I can honestly answer that question; maybe it is because of the sense of achievement one can feel or simply because some of us like the bragging rights. Whatever it is, the pure sense of joy of crossing the finish line is something to cherish.