The Marathons
A few years ago, I was in Bahrain, 2010 in fact, and went out for one of my usual evening runs, as you do when you are on holiday, and there and then decided to stop smoking! The stopping part lasted only a couple of years and it still grips me in its clutches, but after I stopped then, I wanted to do something to celebrate. So, what to do, I know, run a marathon! Next was to decide which one, so chose New York and lo and behold, I received an entry ticket, probably because I was India based and this was to allow diversity from various countries in the run. Now, I had never run a marathon before, had finished some half marathons and so went for it! Treadmill training it was, 10 kilometres at a time and then booked the Whangarei half marathon as my training run. At this stage I had torn a muscle in my leg, had two hernias’, an inflamed gall bladder but lots of gumption! The Whangarei half was in the rain, over some hills and I finished the run without stopping, so well done! Off to New York, I had never been there before, had never run over 21 kilometres, knew nobody there, but why let this hold you back!
Now Marika had been looking at the route and saw Tiffanys on the route, so onto the phone and ringing up the store to book her engagement ring, and I could pick it up as I ran past the store! All arranged! Immigration at NY was a good moment as my passport check guy called out to another that I was a Marathon runner and stamped the passport! Good stuff! Next was a drop into Tiffany and resize of the ring then pasta and some red wine for dinner. The next day was the marathon and 46,500 people or so lined up at some ungodly hour, like 4.30 am from the hotel, all in different sections and I think I was G or H or something with the elites in A section.
A great atmosphere, the bands, the anthem played and with clear skies off we went! We crossed Staten Island bridge where before I got to the top I felt done for, so made the excuse and stopped for a couple of photos of the city, then on I went.
What a tremendous feeling and I was totally soaking up the atmosphere, with the bands along the route, all the people cheering, running through different suburbs of New York and I made the 21-kilometer mark before taking the first main stop, and then it was a case of walk, jog, walk, jog down 5th Ave and through Central Park. Even at that slow speed I was still passing slower joggers! A finishers medal and so sore muscles, but back to the Brooklyn hotel I was staying at and cold baths to try and loosen up! Such a great experience and all part of my Chef life, which is why I place the page here under Chef Willi, it is me, and it is what I do! The next day I cannot walk! But off to Tiffany’s on the subway to collect Marika’s ring and another great experience there. Now I only had a few thousand to spend on the ring, but Tiffany’s treated me as if I was spending a few hundreds of thousands, I had my champagne and all the courtesy. Time to leave and they did not like the idea of a brown paper bag to hold the Tiffany boxes, for if someone grabbed the boxes on the subway, there was no way I could run after them! Anyway, a taxi did the trick and once back in Chennai, the last box in the bottom of the bag was finally given to my darling Marika to celebrate our engagement! She really is a Tiffany girl and a lover of all things Audrey Hepburn! The rest of the runs here speak for themselves with the descriptions given, the Chennai and Auroville runs, across to Liverpool for a Rock n’ Roll run and the NZ half one, all half marathons for me. Let us see if there is yet another run left in me, I would like to think so!