The Marathon

L
ike most other colleges, our college too hosted the sports day every year. Of the four sports days that took place during my college life, only one - the one that took place during my third year - stands out. Of course not without reasons, for it was the sports day in which I ran - or rather - attempted to run a marathon!

Now this marathon is a race in which one had to cover a distance of 5000 m or 5 Kms (I am not sure which one sounds impressive). We had to run 8-9 rounds on the road around the main building of the college campus (mind you the main building was pretty massive) and then enter the college grounds and complete one whole round. Does it sound simple by any chance??
But we thought so!!

Now why did I say "we" instead of an "I"?

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me have the pleasure of introducing my companion for the evening, Mr. Ekambaram. For the convenience of my international readers (Ahem.. Ahem!) who would be having a tough time trying to figure out the pronunciation for that, let us call him Ekams.

Now, Ekams and myself were great body builders during our college days. Day in and day out we pumped iron in the gymnasium. The manner in which we emerged from the gym, drenched in bucket loads of sweat and grime, with our T-shirts battling to contain the ripping muscles, was a sight to behold. In fact girls used to line up on both sides of the road just to catch a glimpse of this spectacle. As the days went by, our muscle mass increased and so did the number of our female fans. They whistled, hooted and swooned as we walked past them.

To ensure that no hell broke loose and the girls don't go into a state of mass hysteria, coma and further complications, the college management was forced to dig out a subway connecting the gym directly to men's hostel for our usage.

Now, though I say both of us were body builders, there lay a subtle difference between Ekams and me, you see. The difference being that, while Ekams had a body, which he was building, my body looked more like a "beedi" which nevertheless I was building.
But whether it was a "body" or a "beedi" that we had doesn't matter as long as we were building it right? Yes, right.

So now that I have strongly implanted the fact that we were great body builders in your minds, let us now run the marathon.

Any event that tested the endurance limits and strength of a human body gets a true body builder excited and needless to say we both were thrilled when the registration for the marathon race was thrown open. We ran all the way from the third floor to the registration counter situated in the ground floor, got ourselves registered (and jogging on the spot even while filling out the form) and without loosing momentum continued to run to the college grounds.

After all practice makes man perfect.

So for 12 days after the registration we ran, we ran and we ran. We ran like we had never ran and we ran like we will never run. You get the drift? We never choose the circular track in the center of the ground but instead ran corner-to-corner in the square ground. This obviously made us cover more distance. We used to start running when the sun was high up in the skies and by the time we left the grounds, as you know, drenched in bucket loads of sweat and grime with shining muscles, girls hooting, swooning and all that, the sun would have left to illuminate the other half of the globe!

The first few days, we ran 5-6 rounds around the ground but as the D-day started approaching we increased the count.

Two days prior to the Sports day.

I was the zephyr. And I was blowing down the square track of the ground. Slowly the zephyr turned into a breeze, which turned into a wind, which turned into a gale and before I turned into a hurricane I started slowing down and within minutes I was the zephyr.

Yes, as swift as that I ran. Both Ekams and me felt the same way in the later part of our preparation days. We no longer felt the presence of the limbs beneath our waists. Our whole body used to feel totally weightless that we used to enjoy every moment of it. It was a feeling equivalent to that of experiencing zero gravity.

Those were the days when I had a strong belief that I was an Olympic champion in the making.

The Sports Day.

Crowds thronged on both sides of the roads 2 hours in advance. The atmosphere was electric with the guys and gals coming in hordes to support their favorite teams and favorite runners. Of course a lot of them had come only to see a duo from Jothirmayi team, especially to ogle at the lean and handsome one of the two. And if you still wondering who it is, holy cow, it is me.

The runners lined up for the race and there was Mr. O. J. Kumaresan, head of the physical education department standing near the line with his huge belly, right hand holding a pistol raised in the air. I looked to my sides and found a lot of my classmates who had not even registered for the marathon, standing amongst the runners! They weren’t wearing shorts or T-shirts but in their Jeans and shirts. ‘Poor fools’ I thought.
Attempting a marathon just like that as if it were a stroll in the Anna park.

BANG!

“Yeahhh…Yeahhh..Yeahh…” went my classmates of whom I was speaking about. They ran like a hurricane… the three or four of those guys. Within seconds they disappeared around the bend in the corner. “Holy Crap” here we come thought Ekams and me and we floored the pedal as we accelerated behind them. The girls shouted, the boys hooted, the dogs barked and the cats meowed. We chased them with all our might. We were puffing and panting when we took the bend and when we looked ahead, we saw those boys. But wait…they were jumping over the bushes lined on the corners of the road and heading towards the college canteen!!!

Mad pigs, they had done it for fun… the donkeys… just to attract attention…nonsense!

But we were serious contenders with days of practice behind us and more importantly we now had a steep road ahead of us. All these days in the college I had never realized that the road to the canteen had such an incline. Already exhausted with the chase that we gave initially, we were struggling up the inclined road when we were over took by a whole bunch of runners.

I looked at Ekams and he looked back at me. The sweat and grime, the hours of practice, the dreams of becoming an Olympic champion… everything flashed before our eyes. A patriotic song miraculously started ringing in our ears.

Yes, we floored the pedal again and within seconds we were way ahead of the bunch that overtook us, when I started seeing everything in double. My heart was banging against my rib cage and I started fearing that it would crash out and join me in the race! Wiping the sweat I continued to pant and puff my way on the road. We could no longer maintain the momentum and soon guys started overtaking us right and left.

“This is it” I thought. “I can’t do it…why on earth is running on the actual track, in the blazing sun, so different from running on the grounds in the evenings” I wondered as more guys over took me. I looked to the sides and saw the girls standing there cheering each runner who crossed them.

“I should do it at least for them” I resolved.“Jack ass don’t quit…at least do some stunt to show off and impress them!!!”.

I blasted ahead again when I spotted a guy standing on the roadside with a water bottle in hand. I grabbed it from him, opened the cap and poured the contents on my head. This was received with great applause from the crowds!!!

Yipee! Boosted in confidence I continued running. I had barely finished 3 rounds around the building when I felt I would die if I tried to run one more round. But I had a responsibility. I had to show off at least!! So spotting another guy standing with a glucose pack in hand, I grabbed it and stuffed myself as more cheers erupted from the sides.

But where was Ekams? He was nowhere to be seen…Had he blasted ahead of me? God! What an inspirational guy I had for a companion. I surged ahead with the aim of joining him.

Struggling on my fourth round I finally saw Ekams.

He was sitting in the lawn, next to the road, comfortably nibbling at a blade of grass, waving at me with one hand and driving away a fly with the other.

Great inspiration indeed.

I stared angrily at him when he continued to wave at me. It looked like he was calling me to accompany him in the lawn.

And the sad part is, that was what I exactly did.

I cut across the road and jumped into the lawn and went and sat next to my Ekams, with my breath coming in grasps. Ekams stared at me.

“What happened?” he asked.
“You called me to accompany you right?” I asked in between gasps.
“Idiot, I was encouraging you to carry on. I was waving at you to proceed. I couldn’t do it..I wanted at least you to finish it and you thought I was calling you for company??”

“Forget it Man! Lets go to the Canteen”

As the sun went down that day in the distant horizon, many runners were reaching for the final line of the marathon while a duo of body builders of the Jothirmayi team were busy sipping apple juice in the canteen. This time around there were no girls to hoot or shout, only a couple of crows cawed.

But who cares as long as the juice was tasty.