[dude]

"AAyyeee, Uniqlo, Uniqlo !!" ..I picked up my feet and
my jaw that was hitting the ground at this point, and ran in the opposite
direction of abhi as fast as I could. I did not know this man I said. The
Japanese kids stunned, but still in the spirit of the marathon cheered him
"GO AB, GO AB!!” .phew!!.. we survived... I’m still recovering form this
amusing horror... FYI, for those who don’t know, "UNIQLO" is a Japanese
brand of clothes with a store in soho that our friend abhi luurvvvs..


Queensboro br. was a lot of walking coz it was UH…then we started running DH
for the second half. And into the arms of Manhattan!! My CITY!! Met geeta
and divya along the way. Them my sister, archi, archi’s mom, chand, sonal g.
and sonal ra. under the bridge. My sister I can see is almost on the brink
of tears. I know she’s proud of me right now. I wish mom-dad and my other
sis were there too. Tons of hugs and a thought, “f@*k the world, im doing
this for my family!! Coz I love them to death and they love me!!!”


The rest of the run was great too... A lot of ppl we know in the crowds.
Karthik and someone, somewhere on the way. I think I waved to karthik
atleast 8 times b4 finally moving on. Then the sheela, Vishnu, shiks, pawan,
ravi, shanka gang again… in the mean while, chand, vasu, sonal ra., archi,
lok, monel and nitin take turns to buddy run with us at different points.


Didn’t like 1st ave at all!! …all UH…arrghhh…but we kept running slowly…
abhi’s had a meal by now… bananas, dates, gu’s, my brains, etc… I stuck to
dates. I like natural stuff much better for some reason. Bronx was barely
there. Met Sheila and srini in the Bronx. Stopped to talk to them for a bit,
gave our love to shiela, srini said he’ll stay with her…and we moved on….
back into nyc .. Harlem was pretttyyyy…


Now u have to know one thing that’s going thru my head all this while and im
telling u my secret mantra to running a marathon…I kept telling myself, “ONE
MILE AT A TIME” …so I wasn’t counting the miles at all…only concentrating on
reaching *A* mile marker… no T-8 and all… only one more to go all the
time…when I would cross a mile marker I would tell myself “just one more to
go”. When the goal is just one mile, it’s not that daunting. Worked like a
charm for me!!


We finally entered the park…priyanka and someone else [I forget] on the
way…then remya and ritika as soon as we entered the park…they joined
in…FYI, ritika poor thing ran with us in her knee high black patent leather
catwoman boots!! ..that was SOOOOO FUNNY!! She poor thing did not intend to
run but did and got a lot of comments from the sidelines which ofcourse she
fashionably ignored for the sake of running with us…Team ASHA!!…very cute I
tell u..u should have been there to see it... thanks hun


CATS HILL…yeahiee…we flung are arms up in the air and let ourselves run wild
like horses..eeeeh hoo!! … DH on catshill is the best ever… I love it…I
think it was the fastest mile we ran!!..nitin , with his “GO TEAM ASHA” sign
hung around his neck like a homeless guy tells me “ I cant believe ur
running this fast at mile 24!!” … I look at him, smile and think to myself,
“for the past 3 yrs I have run this same god damn path 4 times a week...I
owe it to the park”..abhi and I race..he wins ofcourse!!


The rest of the way was HISTORY … we ran the last 1.2 miles alone..just abhi
and I…sis and others again appears just b4 the finish line..we hear our
names in loud cheer…we finish the last mile in 12 mins or so…. We cross the
finish line together.... holding hands!!


6hr and 15 mins from the time we started … 14.20 mpm pace… about 1.5 mins
faster than our avg. pace for our 20 mile run 4 weeks ago… 25mins faster
than our first marathon 2 yrs ago..we get our PR!!


We hug each other… we did it. It was the FUNNEST race ever!! We got our
medals. Posed for more pics.. Picked up our bags and I stole an apple from
the lady who gave us our bags. It was a GREAT DAY!!


Thank you all for everything…coach Courtney, coach uli, JSS, the entire team
from 2007, 2008 and 2009, my mentees, my friends [all of u], my donors,
ASHA, the kids, the bag watchers, my family and my poor feet. I genuinely
love you all!!