The Final Frontier

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.”

Runners are likely cut from the same cloth as explorers who are seldom satisfied with status quo and want to boldly go, to quote Captain Archer, where no one has gone before. Last weekend, I finally pushed into a territory unknown to me – the 30K+ milestone.

I had first attempted to run this distance sometime in January or February of 2013 – cannot recollect exactly, but petered out between the 27K-28K mark. Simply didn’t have any juice left in the legs for that one final push.

Flash back. Early 2007 when I first ran 5K I thought that was it. It wasn’t that I wasn’t passionate about running then but felt 5K was a good score for someone who invariably has a 14 hour workday. However, later that year I crossed 10K at the Bangalore World 10K.

It took me another 18 months from thereon to move into the 21K league. I was certain then that 21K was the final destination. Not many people I knew were doing 21K and I certainly felt like a celebrity in my little social circle. Bragging rights aside, half marathon was not a norm but an exception for me. So clearly I couldn’t see myself going further than that.

Since then focus has been on improving the 21K timing. Having started out initially with 2h16m effort, I’ve managed to bring down the time to 2h4m on the same course. Barring last year that is. Organizer at Airtel thought it better to run the 2012 event in searing September heat of Delhi. I wish they had distributed chilled beer across the finish line – most runners would have forgiven them instantly.

Anyway, late in 2012, I started seriously looking at life beyond 21K. I had by then running anywhere between 15K to 20K once every 6 to 8 weeks. And that gave me the belief that 21 PLUS was doable. So it started one fine morning with Gagan, my frequent partner in crime. We were able to complete 25K that day with some huff and puff in the final stages. It wasn’t a strong finish, as they say in running parlance, but neither did it retire us to bed for the rest of the day.

And as clichés go, rest is history.

So what after 30K? Only time will tell, though at this very moment I am very tempted to register and run the Bangalore Ultra in November. To boldly go where I have not 'gone to run' before. 50K.