Roshni Cecelia Pereira is an avid runner, a house-wife and loving mother of 2 children. She happened to get into running to lose weight and since then she is unstoppable. Roshni was nominated twice for the Mumbai Road Runner Award night; in 2017 for Improved runner and in 2018 for Best runner.
Roshni till now has officially ran One Full Marathon, Eleven Half Marathons, Maiden 25Kms run, Seven 10 kms & One 5 kms and has won many podiums till now :-
- 1st runner up @ Yeour Hill run – 21km
- 1st runner up @ Keep on running (KOR) – 10 km
- 1st runner up @ Goregaon Spirit of Sport run – 10 km in year 2018
- 1st runner up @ Goregaon Spirit of Sport run – 5 km in year 2019
Pacing is the new liking of Roshni and she recently also had the experience as a Pacer to drive her bus loaded with people on time to the finishing line.
In just 2 years of time she achieved her initial goal of becoming a Marathoner.
You can read her experience of running her 1st official Marathon from her own heart.
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The Experience of running my 1st Full Marathon !!!
“The pride in finishing a marathon is much greater than all the pain endured during the marathon.” Hal Higdon
On Race day…
I woke up at 1.20 am when the alarm rang in a fraction of second, no, it wasn’t the excite of the race, but the frustration of fight (silly one though) which had not allowed me to sleep whole night. Got ready by 3 am left with Sunil and Varsha to the station to take 3.30 am train for CST station (now I wasn’t in the mood at all, as I had not cleared my bowel). Reaching station my friend Varsha asked me where is the Garmin, and I was like, Holy Christ!! no records of my first FM on such expensive gadget what a waste 😉 …….Uff…… but I was still chilled……. Met my BBG gang in the train and I was normal by then… Samuel was asking me to take his Garmin watch, that was very sweet of him even my other runner friend Sunil was giving me his earphones, he runs with his earphones all time, for me it was ok, as I run without it, so it didn’t matter. After wishing goodbye to the HM’ers who got down at Mahalaxmi, we others sat there relaxed. We (Alwin, Rahul, Xavier, Jaj and me) reached the venue and started with the warm up….. I heard a voice shouting my name and it was my friend Ritu along with her hubby passing by, I told her to carry on I will catch up at the B line up………. At the time of stretching few thoughts started running in my mind, how I registered for this day.
Registration period / Training ……..
It all started in my Runners forum group ,lets register for FM this year and train together….the ones who wanted to do, had registered for FM immediately once the registration had started, I was still reluctant about it, frankly speaking, I’m a bit lazy to get up early in the morning during winters, and that’s only best time to train for us runners and Running a marathon is not anybody’s cup of tea. It takes huge efforts, determination and commitment for a long time. and I was asking myself : Do you think you have it in you ?. Finally made up mind and registered on 13th September 2018. I thought. I was excited, nervous, and anxious. What I didn’t realize was how much training for a marathon would change my life…for the better. Started with the Gym training since then and running most of the time 10kms, 15kms and 21kms in months of Nov and Dec apart form this only one 35km I had done with help of John (hubby) for water support, poor fellow was in the car for 4hrs ;-), everybody in different groups encouraged me a lot. But still I wasn’t satisfied with training plan the reason is, it was not a systematic one, the way the actual Marathoners train……no coach to guide, just got useful tip from few friends and my runner forum group and Sam (Samuel) he guided me with all the do and don’ts all the time till the race day (yes but this is for sure I trained hard and strong). So I decided do a 42 Km to overcome my fear before hand and later not crib on the race by saying Why did I register for the race, or abusing my friends for it who had asked me to register ;-). I always wanted to do a Full Marathon but I didn’t knew it would be this soon in two years of running (Also, I dream of running Comrades 🙂 ) …. So on 22nd Dec 2018, I get up early at 4 am get ready and leave the house by 5am and after warm up of 10 mins, I start my run in my locality finishing around 10kms and I go running to Goregoan west (3kms) , and a few kms I run there at back road (Malad west near behind orbit mall) , then I proceed on S V road till Dahisar end and return, I come to back road doing last 4kms there, weather was so pleasant it felt like never stopping that day. I took few breaks at general store, chemist, D’mart to purchase water…….during this run I was only on salted dates, water (before the run I had eaten 2 bananas which I always do during run or event days)……. I finished my 42.24 kms in 5.09.35 hrs (including all the breaks) … What a satisfaction it was !!!! ………. that’s it I’m ready!!!, there was nothing as such hitting wall that day……… We had planned for few days trip to Goa where I relaxed completely and recovered as well (for a week). after that did few runs in 2nd week of Jan and gymming for few days ,then last week I was completely on rest till the D-day arrived, as people around me kept saying I overdid it, I reached to peak and etc etc, so I controlled myself by not doing anything more further which could lead to injury and failure of the mission, only things I did was hydrate, hydrate ,hydrate carb loading, sleeping, stretching from the third last day of the D day.
Back to race day ………..
Reached the B line up section I met Ritu and her hubby Vijay as we were talking n walking we met Bijay and his friend we exchanged greeting n wishes, my eyes were looking out to my friend Vishu (Vishwanth) as we both had planned to start the race together n support each other but missed meeting him. I met Sameer, he gave me some tips and that was my actual plan (not to run with pacer) run on your own. Meeting such friends who inspires you, gives me always positive kind of vibes. I’m happy to meet them before the race. 🙂
The race started bang on time at 5.30am by the time I could reach the timing mat it was 5.33 am , it was dark, the road was narrow , I felt like everyone were going slow or maybe it was over crowed, few of runners dashed me , one guy stamped shoe from behind , so much of chaos starting 2 /3 kms, was going on a steady pace not shooting the HR(Hear rate), few kms later I saw Sunil sir and Sangeeta ma’am running together I went towards them and greeted n moved forward , I was running on the middle of the road stamping some of the reflectors , that’s when Sunil sir called from behind and said don’t stamp over it …… Thank you sir I wasn’t attentive enough at that moment . While I was reaching peddar road I heard sound screaming like some herd is approaching it was 4.30 hrs pacer bus I was with that bus till the peddar road down also met my friend Mani who was running strong, then I left as I wanted to go with easy . I was feeling better and the weather was also ok till then, I felt, when reaching at Worli I was searching for HMers friends who were running couldn’t see any. Slow and steady I reached Bandra Sea Link I was still feeling strong , At 19 km I stopped to use portaloo , told myself few kms and the half way is over, reaching Shivaji park it was 24km and I don’t know what happened then negative things started running thru my mind felt like stopping and walk off home, but I told myself why you want to do that did you train for this day to quit over a small silly fight ,(this silly fight happens in every house and especially if your spouse is a non runner, mentioning about it here because one should fight with your moods and not to give up under any such type of circumstances) No I said, I shouldn’t give up, I’m running for my joy and I’m going to complete it !!…. battling with my heart and mind (also praying). At 28.5 kms mark I again stopped for portaloo had to wait there for few secs as both of the portaloo was in use, I somehow reached Worli dairy where we had to go in loops which was a bit boring where the turn wouldn’t come it was like going on and on, but at the same time it was sight to see the Kenyan elite runners running from nowhere pass by next you…( from 27kms to 40 kms I was stopping at all the water stations for drink water feeling like throat was getting dried all the time but at the same time enjoyed the presence of Mumbai crowd along with their little ones offering salted oranges, salt, dates, jaggery, water etc etc.) reaching before 36 km I crossed my friend Alwin then met my friend Ravindra , at the start of Peddar road met my dearies Shweta, Ami, Sopan, Umed (God bless all the angel volunteers and the crowd for cheering out there for us ) so sweet of my friend Ami who offered me a piece of dark chocolate . few meters ahead met Prerna and Alpa they were shouting just run 7kms to go, run. At 38 km I met a friend Dinesh I wanted to run together but I told him to carry on and not to slow down for me.
Then the WALL HIT !! at 40 km, it sneaks up on you like a thief in the night. I wasn’t feeling pain, but my legs were starting to deflate, (but didn’t felt the same during training run ) suddenly felt a kind of push from behind and it was Raj Vadgama sir he told me don’t walk keep moving slowly, we are just reaching , it’s another 1.5 km to go and can be completed in 5hrs , come on keep moving he said to me. Thank you Raj sir for that push. Those last 6km I felt very humid with no shade that’s when I did biggest mistake consuming lots water which further slowed me down. At reaching the 41km mark suddenly I heard loud cheers from my friends from MRR cheering zone that boasted up my energy (thanks Yvette, Sam and Hemang), then my friend Hemang started pacing for that last 1km, I can’t thank him enough for that. He left at 100mts saying he will meet me later. Finally I reached the finish line with tears of joy in my eyes…….. And at last I said to myself, I’m a Marathoner !!!!
There was no target in mind as it was my first marathon and I wanted it to enjoy it fully, without any injury or tiredness left at the end of the run… I’m glad it happened the same also with an unexpected timing of 4.55.44 hrs of finish, what more I could ask for !!! Amen.
hemangfans 