The story of running my third full marathon
At this point in my life, having run three full marathons, running is not a whimsical hobby that I have chased for a few years; it has now become an integral part of my life. I want to run at least a full marathon every year for the rest of my life till my body lets me do so. The Tata Mumbai Marathon (TMM) would certainly be the one marathon I would try to run every year, primarily because all three of my full marathons have been in TMM, and it holds a special place in my heart, while also being a leading marathon in India and a world major.
This year’s TMM, for me, was about trying to rebuild my full marathon running confidence. In some ways, the preparation for this year’s marathon was even more challenging than the first one. In my first marathon - TMM 2024, while I was inexperienced, my body was younger, and I hadn’t encountered any injuries till then. I was able to complete the marathon at an overall very good pace, which remains my fastest marathon yet.
Post the first marathon, I was not consistent with my training. During the year post-TMM2024, I had gained a bit of weight due to an inconsistent diet and multiple life events that occupied my time more than running, and this led to many injuries during the year of preparation. To try to mitigate knee pain and risk of injury, I tried to incorporate barefoot running in my training, which felt better for short distances. But the mistake I made going into TMM2025 was that I thought I could run the full marathon with the barefoot shoes, without having spent enough time training in this new way of running. And that turned out to be a big mistake and one of the most painful events of my life. While I was feeling well till the first half of the marathon in TMM 2025, in the second half, I started feeling pain in my right knee, and every step felt challenging. But I couldn’t convince myself to stop and not finish the marathon; I just kept walking and barely running till the finish line. After living through that experience and managing to finish the marathon amid so much pain, I felt proud about my mental strength, but that marathon also made me realise my physical limitations.
After the TMM2025 experience, I knew I had to train consistently, and more importantly, with the right mix of strength training, mobility training, and endurance training to be able to run the next marathon as well or better than the first one. I started reading and understanding the technical aspects of running, learning about different muscle groups that need to be strengthened to manage the load during running, and reduce the risk of injuries. I realised that the major cause of my injuries in the prior year was the improper or insufficient amount of strength and mobility training, and an inconsistent diet.
Strength and mobility training took prominence in the first half of the period post TMM2025, as without rebuilding the muscle and increasing mobility, I knew I wouldn’t be able to run at the same level as before. Along with that, the right diet choices made the key difference, as with a proper micro and macro nutrient-rich diet, I could recover from the training better, maintain consistency in training and improve performance. With the balanced training and consistency, I continued to improve on strength, mobility, and endurance through the year 2025, gradually gaining comfort with pace and distance again.
This year’s TMM - TMM 2026 - I was not running alone; many of my close friends and family members, including my wife and sister, were also running their first 6k run. While they were not running alongside me, they were an integral part of my training, accompanying me in training during many weekends. Knowing they would be at the finish line also gave me a boost of energy during the race.
On 18 January, the TMM 2026 race day had arrived, and I was nervous yet excited. Excited because I had put in the hours in my training to know that I would be able to finish the race at a decent pace, but still unsure if I would be able to time it better than the first marathon. The overall energy during this year’s race was even higher than previous ones, with twelve thousand participants running the full marathon, out of the total sixty thousand participants across distances. With the addition of the coastal road to the route, it was more scenic, but a slightly challenging course with the increased elevations to get onto the coastal road at a couple of entry points.
I was able to push through till the 25 KM mark at a good pace, relatively comfortably, with the energy of my fellow runners, the rhythm of dhol and DJs along the route, reducing any discomfort or stress. In a full marathon, the 20-25 Km distance is manageable for most of the runners, but it always starts to feel uncomfortable post 25-30 Km, and I am not sure if anybody can really get comfortable with that much distance, irrespective of the training; the training only ensures that you can sustain the discomfort till the finish line. After passing the 25KM mark myself, I had started feeling the stress, with my body temperature getting elevated due to the heat and sustained load, and the entry elevation during 28-30 km along the coastal route slowed me down further.
Crossing the 30-32 km mark, I was completely exhausted; the exhaustion was more than I had anticipated because I had barely slept the night before due to the nervousness of the race. Now was the time I had to dig deep mentally to push for every kilometre and be able to maintain the pace, but I was slowing down rapidly with every kilometre. At this point, I realised that I wouldn’t be able to finish the race within the target of 4 hours 15 mins, a target which would have easily got me my personal best, which was at 4 hours 33 mins in TMM 2024. With the target time out of reach, I tried to push for 4 hours 30 minutes so that I could complete the race around my previous best timing and still get the personal best. I tried to push myself to pace up during the 36-40 Km, but my body just couldn’t let me pace up because of the exhaustion.
After crossing the 40 Km mark, I knew I had already lost any chance of getting a personal best, but knowing it was the last 2 km of the race, I tried to put out every ounce of energy that was left within my body. At 41 Km, I started getting emotional and just couldn’t stop myself from crying; those tears were flowing not because I was gonna miss my personal best time, but because of the realisation of the effort I had put before the race to be able to reach the 41 km mark, efforts in rebuilding my strength, rebuilding my endurance, rebuilding my courage, to be able to finish another full marathon, and the completion was just another kilometre away. Amid all the emotions, the huge number of supporters along the last stretch of Marine Drive gave me a further push, and I picked up the pace to complete my third full marathon.
How do you express the feeling of finishing a marathon, completing a distance of 42 km? It is too ethereal to be completely encapsulated in mere words. It is not just about the finish line; it is an outcome of years of consistency that nobody can take away from you. Once you experience it, you want to keep chasing it every year, and hence, I want to keep running at least a full marathon every year.