Blog Marathon Post 3 - Pinkathon 2016

31^st January 2016 will be forever marked as a golden day in my life. Pinkathon 2016 happened in Bangalore and I ran 5 km for the first time in my life, at the age of 36. I had never done it before and I hadn’t imagined myself running when I returned to India last year.

I came back to India on 1^st March 2015 after completing 2 years of deputation. I was happy that I am back to my own country and my people. I took a month or so to settle down and then in April, it was T’s third birthday. I celebrated his birthday in the clubhouse and called all his friends and had a good time. When I watched my own snaps from his birthday, did it hit me - T is now 3 years old and I am still carrying the baby weight plus little surplus. What is wrong with me? When will I get rid of it? All these thoughts intimidated me and on the spur of the moment I went and took membership of a gym which was nearby. The timing was at 8 pm but it would never start till 8:20 or so and the instructor was hardly paying attention to the new people. I couldn’t cope up with the speed and the lack of motivation to go and do Zumba made me give up in 3 weeks itself.

Then I happened to come across a group on Facebook called Dumbbell Divas. There I got introduced to Leslie Sansone and I religiously started walking, but in the confines of my home. And boy, it had a tremendous effect where I lost close to 9 kgs till the Pinkathon and also lot of inches. Of course backed with good nutritious home-made food in controlled portions and vitamin supplements. I can now fit into all clothes which I wore 5 years back. And the journey continues.

Pinkathon – I had always dreamt of participating in such an event, but never was sure of myself that I would ever do it. Milind Soman, the champion of Pinkathon was also one of the reason to participate in it. He is so damn sexy and he is aging so gracefully!! My god! Awesome! If not anything, I would at least get to see him! So on the insistence of my colleague and walking buddy, Mansi W, I registered for it, paid the money and waited for the announcement of the event. Due to some reasons, she couldn’t participate, but I got company in my own building and she took me to the event and brought me back. God sends his messengers to help, doesn’t he? Or else I would have had to book a cab at 5 am in the morning and go alone. Being alone in such events is so boring!

We reached there by 5:45 am and to my amusement, the main road to the venue was jam packed. I felt as if everybody in the city was heading to that event. There was a huge pandal and a huge ground where hundreds of ladies had already come and they had just started the warm-up. We both joined them and did warming up for about an hour. Then we got bored and waited for our turn to run. First the people running 10k were ushered in and then came our turn. We started at about 7:30 am and the girl who came with me vanished into the running crowd. She was a regular runner. I ran at my own pace. The atmosphere was so overwhelming that no matter you could run or not, everybody was just going with the flow. There were girls aging from 4 years to 70 years. There were people cheering you on the side of the road. There were people who were hired to play drums. So the whole thing had become festive. Girls were walking, running, fast walking, talking, sipping water, eating banana – it was a sight to watch. I had given myself 1 hour to complete 5 km, but I finished it in 50 minutes. That was an achievement for me! I patted myself on my back and told to myself that it is a good start!

Upon finishing the Run, we were asked to collect our goodies bag which had the medal of a “Finisher” in it which was the most important to me! There were also biscuit and juice packs. We had a small meal and headed back home. I felt accomplished and decided that I will run for myself, for my friends, my family. Nothing can stop me now. Glad to let you know that I will participate in the Contour Women’s Run on 6^th March and the TCS Run on 15^th May. 

Thank you all who made the Pinkathon 2015 happen in my life. 

My parents and my son who co-operated and sacrificed many things to give me my “work-out” time.

Mansi W for literally pushing me for the 5 km run.

Ketaki D and Jignesha G – You are my idols and motivators in Running.

Leslie Sansone and the founders of the FB group Dumbbell Divas.

Finally my neighbour who participated in the race and gave me a free pick-up and drop.

I promise that this is just the beginning. I will continue running with good health and form.