The London Marathon is one of the World Marathon Majors. The first London marathon was run in 1981 and it has been held in April every year since then. There are 3 starting points: Greenwich park, St.John’s park and Shooter’s Hill road. The 3 routes converge and after running 26.2 miles the contestants finish the race in The Mall. The most recent event was held last Sunday. One of our colleagues, George, participated and completed the race. It was his first attempt. He had been training for quite a while. Dedication, determination, discipline and sheer hard work went into this. Considering that he was not a spring chicken but in his early 50s made it even more impressive.
My brother wanted to do the New York marathon, but his endeavours always ended in misery due to injuries. The one year he almost made it to the starting line, the marathon was called off as it was soon after Hurricane Sandy. This was in 2012 and the hurricane caused widespread damage. Bloomberg, the city Mayor and race officials decided to call off the race after considering several options. The participants who asked for a medal were all given one through the post. I thought it didn’t really mean anything without actually running the race, but Nishanth has corrected me saying that it did mean a lot. He had worked hard for almost a year. Preparing for the marathon is very demanding and takes its toll both mentally and physically. He was in a lot of pain and the Friday before the event, he was getting his feet bandaged professionally at the event meet-up place when the cancellation announcement was made. He was prepared to start and finish the race at all costs. So it was I suppose lucky for all of us that the race was called off before he did some serious injury to himself.
George was actually on call on Sunday and wanted to swap his duties with Mano, who conveniently palmed it on to Mohammed as he thought George might not make it back in one piece to return the favour. Well not only did George (who is from Trivandrum) come back in one piece, but he completed the race with good timings and raised his target charity money as well. So, well done George, we are all very proud of you.
