While the world ran!

They changed the name of the company and the sea changed its colour... it was all red now... welcome change from the shocking pink of the previous edition... the Pune marathon i.e. .....

Never mind the colour or the celebrities; it was the cause that took centre stage... the cause of spreading awareness against AIDS.

Run for the cause and for your own small cause was the message that was plastered all over Pune days before the marathon. A unique way of motivating Puneites to participate in large numbers..

For me it had started with a promise. Selfishly the thought of running for one’s own small cause kept me pre-occupied and even motivated me through the gym schedules that my body no longer agrees to it as easily.... perhaps it’s finally got a mind of its own... well that’s a story unto itself... back to the main story now...

To the big day now... 2nd December 2007... An early start to a Sunday and soon I was swarmed by the huge mass of humanity engulfed in bright red t-shirts at Deccan Chowk... Pune had responded and how....

I hadn’t the best preparation for the marathon... the motivating factor had gone away and somehow I couldn’t get myself to train the way I used to before. Overindulgence in Diwali and then an untimely illness and I was tempted to not participate at all. It’s too cold for an early morning run, I have work, It’s a Sunday, who cares If I run or not, I am not too well... I had a whole host of excuses.....my body and more importantly my mind was in no mood for this at all...

It was all to too easy to give away... but there was still a small part of me... the part that still clings on to the beautiful memories of the past with the hope that the future will be much the same... urging me on....

And so I ran...luckily my legs didn’t freeze or I didn’t faint out of exhaustion as I had half dreaded...in the end it was over before I realized... it may have just been 4.5 kms but the finish line seemed more monumental and significant than that at that instant.

And I as waited for my tears to mingle with the sweat, I felt more relief than happiness... while the world ran, I had kept my promise ...the motivation was back....