I received a call last night from Mahesh informing me that he was scheduled to leave for Kerala (he works with a travel agency) and would be away for 2 weeks. He was checking whether he could do a 20 miler on Saturday ie today and also whether I would be kind enough to come along. I told him I would call him back cause this required careful thought. Here is the predicament: Mahesh has done two 20 milers on two consecutive weeks and this would be the third one; he was reduced to a shuffle in our 20 miler last Saturday; I had done a 20 miler, followed by speedwork on Thursday and felt it would be insane to do a 20 miler with just that one day gap. What do I do?
I analysed that Mahesh is young and has been a state level athlete, and would probably handle the load. Besides, if he is going to be away for 2 weeks, he would have enough time to recover. I, on the other hand, ol' chap, am still battling sleep deficit and the combination of training load as well as work stress may prove to be my bane. Well, again on the other hand, (reminds me of the "My Fair Lady" dialogue) I just might get rewards for pushing the "envelope":-). The call back to Mahesh was a resounding "YES!"
I reached Aarey, after bidding Monsoon and Bryan "Bon Voyage" for their trip to Gauhati. As I ran the first loop, I didn't see Mahesh and wondered if he woke up with the "dead legs syndrome", and decided to quit. I know he is not the type; if he says he'll be there, he will! I wasn't wrong cause I met him on the return leg of my first loop. A quick calculation told me that if I didn't see him pass me by and he started his run late, he was covering distance at a bloody good pace. But then this is Mahesh, my favorite marathoner that has done a 3:17 (based on my coaching - Ahem!) - burnt the bloody marathon route, didn't he:-)))) He wanted to turn and join me to run alongside, but I declined cause he would probably end up making me train like I wanted a Boston Qualifier:-)
We went our own ways, nodding encouragement everytime we passed each other. On my third loop, I felt my calves had turned to lead and when I met Mahesh, I saw the exhaustion wearing him down too. He gestured that he would call it quits on this loop - which meant abandoning the 20 miler! I was running extended loops and my third loop plus the run back home would give me my 20 miler. I told this to Mahesh and he nodded a congratulatory gesture. When I was returning from my third loop, I bade him "bye" and he sent me this shocker; "I am coming back for one more loop". So you see my dear friends, it works perfectly when you have two passionate runners that respect each other and vow to follow each others' footsteps (pun intended). In my utter exhaustion, I was only able to gesture weakly to Mahesh, "way to go man!" but my eyes must have shown admiration cause he went by with dogged determination.
I finished my run with the lead (which is maleable) having turned to cast iron, in my calves - they would have torn if I'd dared to stretch after the run. I realized with trepidation, that this year my training had taken a big hit in terms of mileage. I dare not even calculate the percentage loss! The only hope comes thru' such runs that are a God send thru' my dear pupil, Mahesh. Race day approaches and I feel that there are many elements missing from my training. But then, I'm in it for the long run:-)
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