Proud to be part of TATA and TCSers. “Finishing a marathon is a state of mind that says Anything is Possible!” It is that time of year again! The Tata Mumbai Marathon, India’s biggest and most high-profile running event happened today on 19 January 2020.

Who wakes up at 3 am on a Sunday Morning? On the third Sunday of January every year, the city wakes up to a riot of colours. Women and men, children and senior citizens, and even the disabled, leaning on crutches or being assisted in wheelchairs, all attired in colourful running gear, head to one destination – the Azad Maidan, and with one objective – To celebrate the freedom of running.

I’m one of those 55,000 runners whose foot were on Mumbai Street on Sunday morning and this has been made by TATA and every other individual, an organization who is associated with this Marathon.

When it comes to the Tata Mumbai Marathon, or the TMM as it is popularly called, there is no reason to run; only emotion to experience.
People run for a noble cause, run for fitness, run for cancer, people run for awareness, run for empowerment, run for education, run for family, friends and run also for their passion.
And I ran for Parkinson diseases.

Parkinson diseases is a disorder of the central nervous system that affects movement, often including tremors. Nerve cell damage in the brain causes dopamine levels to drop, leading to the symptoms of Parkinson’s. My father has had Parkinson for 10 years and every day he fights with it to get stronger. I want to dedicate this run to my father, and to people who are fighting with Parkinson’s disease.

It was amazing to see Mumbai local Railways providing special early morning trains for TMM 2020 and which are filled with the excited groups of runners participating in different categories.

The TMM is probably one of the few marathons in the country that attracts runners and running clubs from every corner of the country.

The route is amazing and this is short summary :
Start point Azad Maidan
First 8kms from VT through Chowpatty
9-11kms are from Peddar road through Haji Ali
12-15kms are from Racecourse through Sea Link
16-19kms is on Bandra Worli Sea Link
20, 21km End of Sea link to Half-way point
22-35kms Mahim to Haji Ali
36-38km Peddar Road and Chowpatty Beach
39-41km Marine Drive
Finish at Azad Maidan

I started with awesome pace and finished initial 21 km in just 2hrs 06 mins. After that, at 25km, I was going to stop for a water break and then there was one runner that came gushing on me and I fell. I got injured and the medical team provided assistance and asked me if I wanted to quit. I took 5 mins to think whether I should quit or not.

I remembered that I was running not only for myself but also for a cause, for Parkinson. These people suffer a lot of pain every single day. That encouraged me to wake up and resume my marathon. I admit it was too tough to finish the last 17 km with injuries and the pain in my leg but I finished a marathon in 5 hrs 19 mins. It was not the best finisher time, but completing the race for my cause was the best achievement.

As they said, “Pain is temporary, Always finish what you have started.”

At this moment I felt my marathon would never have been such a success without the crowd that cheered me up and kept the spirit of running alive. Would not deny the important role played by the organizing staff. They were constantly busy supplying water, energy drink, energy bars and so on.

Thanks to Manu Kapoor, Hemant Jain and Hemant Malshe for being my real motivators and tracking each other’s timings.

And once again I repeat the same “I really believe that anyone can run a half or even a full marathon. It just requires practice, practice and practice.  However, once you master this, you are unstoppable.”