A very serious report on medals, photos and bananas

Waking up at 4:00 am sounds pretty impossible... impossible until you get the reason to do it. And CRG is exactly that.

There’s a first time for everything, even running a 5k run. For me, that was last Saturday. It was expected and completely unexpected at the same time. But let’s back off for a moment, and talk about the day before.

This was my fourth run. And definitely the longest. So, like any other perfectly insane human being, I decided to practice run the evening before (Google tells me you’re not supposed to, oops). I started with a simple goal in mind, cross the 5k mark (Start with an end in mind, 7 habits of highly effective people, iykyk, attended the Toastmasters meetings!!), no biggie right?

Wrong.

It was hard, it was laborious, and it was more of a rulk (run+walk) than anything. But I persisted. And when Strava showed me I’ve covered 4.95k, that’s when the smile slowly crept in, inching towards a full grin. I watched as the numbers ticked from 4.96...4.97...5.00 to 5.05 and I was beaming earnestly by now.

That happiness? One cannot simply describe it. You have to breathe it, live it, run it to know it. As a extremely inactive person who hadn’t stood up from her desk for the past 2–3 years, this was a big victory for me, a full U-turn from my previously “lazy” life (I prefer the term, negatively motivated, thank you very much).

Now, the Big Day.

Started like any other impossible task, waking up at 4:00-something, blinking at the ceiling like, “Am I really doing this?” Spoiler: I was.

I got a ride with a fellow member’s family (Thank you, Ruchi ma’am and family!). The walk from the parking area to where we collected our bibs and T-shirts was long, not gonna lie, but I was buzzing with so much excitement I could’ve walked another 5k then and there, no questions asked.

We finally reached the gathering area and after a brief photo sess (there were many, do not fret!), we started with the warm up. I’m sure the Zumba was great, but as a chronically down-to-earth (read: short) person, I could not see the instructors. But thanks to CRG, I knew about warmups and cool downs by then, personal growth <3.

The ground was pretty full. Full of unfamiliar faces. Finally I saw a very familiar face, Rajbeer! (Hi Rajbeer) and a not-so-familiar-now-familiar face, her cousin Neha (great people). Our energy matched instantly and we stuck together from photo sess (told you) to the starting line, right after the 10k runners (hats off to you all, great work!).

The start was energetic as always, so was the first kilometer, and the second, let’s not talk about the other 3k (Rajbeer can confirm it was fun though). The last 50–100 meter, we decided to sprint. Well, Rajbeer sprinted, I flopped around like a 50-year-old with lungs on fire.

After water and another round of (you guessed it) photo sess, we cooled down and joined the line for our medals. When the winners were announced (Big Kudos to Parul Ma’am and Mayanka Ma’am, keep being amazing and truly inspiring), the entire team cheered like India just won the Cricket World Cup (the joy was the same). Full decibel.

After being part of a sweaty almost-stampede, the natural thing to do was... have another photo sess!

By the time we reached the food area, the food was gone :(Special thanks to that one banana and lemonade for saving the day.

After some loud voices and much wandering, finally the CRG team was gathered at one place for another, well, photo sess. And even better, video sess! And more photos. A dash of more photos. Then a sprinkle of photos. Photos, photos, photos, etc. (You get it.)

The event was coming to its end. But no. The eager members of CRG team even tried the training rope thingies (if you can’t tell, it is totally not my thing, yet). Some succeeded with great success (Good job, Prakhar sir), others not so much.

We were shooed off by the military person who was very much done with us.

It ended then—uh no. There was another rope thing and obviously we had to stop and let the courageous people try it (Nice one, Ravi bhaiya) while we judged from below. Walked back to the parking. Hardest part of the day. And we left, obviously not without another photo sess, come on!

Then we actually finally left (Thanks to Mitali ma’am and Satvik sir for the ride back!)

I came for the run, stayed for the people, and left with sore legs, a medal, and a heart full of serotonin (plus 1000 photos in my gallery).

CRG didn’t just make me believe I could run, it made me want to.

So here’s to the 4 am alarms, the unexpected friendships, the banana rescues, and the joy of doing things you once thought weren’t for you. Can’t wait to do it all over again. (But maybe with food at the finish line next time.)

~ Mahi Bhatt (A now proud owner of my shiny proof of glory)