At the assembly point, I got to meet Fergal O’Flaherty, an Irish runner. His jersey, which said “Dublin to Delhi”, intrigued me. On enquiring, Fergal informed that he is running 13 half marathons in 13 weeks travelling through 13 countries over this period. SCM was his 11thrun (that’s the sign he is making with his hands). Next weekend he was scheduled to run in Pune, followed by Delhi to end his journey. Later, when I was a few hundred metres away from the finish line, we crossed each other again but I was more focused to finish than stop by & chat (we did exchange a smile & a wave, though). I am sure he has had a successful journey & will have many more of these to come. He has an interesting & inspiring story, one I read on his website (http://dublin2delhi.com/).
2 km into the run, and organisers chose to welcome the runners in a rather shocking manner! Of course, I was not at all shocked, for mainly 2 reasons. One, coming from the 1st “dry” state I knew what these laws usually mean. Second, having been to Kerala often in the past I was aware of the ground realities & we had prepared adequately for the trip (you will have to read till the end for this). However, for those wishing to do the Kochi run I will suggest something better – God’s Own Nectar (aka Toddy). Later in the evening, while loitering in the Allepey backwaters our boat stopped at an outlet that sold toddy. After having a glass of this superdrink, all signs of pain & tiredness vanished. I wasn’t sure whether this was real or only psychological, as I did not feel intoxicated at all (I only had a glass). Talking with a mallu friend upon return to Baroda, I was informed that Toddy has medicinal properties & the locals use it as an externally-applied pain killer too!
It was still dark when we crossed the iconic Mattanchery Bridge into Fort Kochi. Previous day, our driver pointed out this bridge to us from a distance, so it felt good to have struck off one item from the Kochi to-do list. A 72 year old bridge, it is now a heritage monument with traffic allowed for 2/3 wheelers only. Don’t go to Wikipedia looking for some dope on this, as wiki doesn’t have much to inform. But you can always add to the little info provided there (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattancherry_Bridge) as that would really help future readers.
Moving further, one moves into the old town that Fort Kochi is. It still being quite early & dark, most of the residents were asleep. Very few shops were opened, for those early risers who needed their daily supplies of milk, etc. This was also the time when I felt I needed a break for clearing the interiors. But for quite a few kilometres (and a pretty long time), I did not find any open house where I could ask for use of their facilities. Finally, I came across this sign & what a relief it turned out to be!! So if you intend to go to SCM in future, pls clean the bowels properly, as there are only 3 places where you can do so. Apart from this one near the Jew Street, there is another near the Fort Kochi beach (more of it later) where one turns back as well as the portable ones at assembly point.
Of course, I had the luxury of being on a holiday in this beautiful city in the midst of a long run to afford these kind of thoughts. But the residents of Kochi were already out & about their tasks. Like these people who had boarded the ferry to take them across the backwaters. Spare a thought for them, inside their cars or on their bikes, who will be chugging along the waters on this slow moving ferry. They will also be saving some cost in fuel as well as plenty of time. They will also be away from the narrow streets of Kochi so that we runners have a good time. These Rollo-on-Roll-off ferries are big business in Kochi, used more by trucks who bypass the congested city streets through the backwaters.
But the volunteers had an early start to their Sundays specifically for the SCM. They were there, every 3 kms, with water, energy drink, bananas, oranges & salt. Well managed & well stocked, they also did not use disposable plastic glasses which pose the problem of trash disposal (apart from not being bio-degradable). Other set of volunteers manned the route on their bikes & cars to take care of injured runners, while some were simply out there to encourage us. Like these drummers, one of who graciously let me try my hand with music. I don’t think I was really good at it, but I did enjoy this small break. Which was helpful as I realized a little later. this troupe was positioned just before the Mattanchery Bridge on Fort Kochi side. As I was running along the bridge, these two young kids on a bicycle crossed me & encouraged me with “Come on Uncle, you can do it!”. And I thought let me show them I can be as fast as them. I soon caught up with them only to see them go faster. Soon, I was actually sprinting (after almost 17 kms of running) and was exhausted before even crossing the bridge. A tired, famished, slowing me returned to Willingdon Island.
SCM had put up interesting signage along the route marking out the distance. The one at the 18K mark reminded us that it made no sense in slowing down now. Who would want to end up famished & realize that all one had was water? In fact, at SCM it makes more sense to speed up the last few kms (not just for the sake of negative splits) as they have a wonderful breakfast to offer. Freshly made idli, dosa & omelet after a 21K (or a 42K) run can salivate a runner like nothing else. Fast moving queues in front of the counters help in filling up fast too! Now, I actually moved too fast to break the sequence of events. Blame it on the SCM breakfast, if you will.
Just as I finished, I enquired about the whereabouts of our group & was informed that they had also just finished their run. In fact, the kids did very well, finishing before their moms. Here they all are, proudly showing off their medals! Made of coir, the medal is a beauty too.
You would have guessed where I chose to adorn the medal once I was back in my hotel room!!
