Team Motiv8 athlete Manoj Thakur came full circle at Berlin Marathon, clocking 3:40, equal to his previous best from 6 years ago. The interim few years of demotivation, covid, and work pressures caused him to slack off training, but encouraged by team members and coach, he has been slowly coming back into the game. His first come back marathon was in a 3:53 in Jaipur in March 2022.
A continuation of the same dedication and consistent training after that meant that he went into Berlin in peak fitness condition, and he gave full justice to all his hard work and training by applying wise, prudent strategies and tactics on race day.
On challenges faced during training, he said:
“Balancing work and training was a bit difficult, but with good time management, I made it work. I set my goals very reasonable ( achievable) so was not under any pressure to achieve something extraordinary. I did all my training runs strictly within prescribed paces given by coach. And when it was race day, I knew that I will do good.”
Speaking about race day and race week, Manoj said:
“When we reached Berlin and went to expo it was too crowded and that gave some sense of the huge number of runners on the race day. We need to monitor weather as it was very unpredictable so need to ready to face all possible scenarios.
Fortunately the weather was good, no rain, rather there was full sunlight after race started . Finding space to move forward was a challenge and I feel it’s for all the runners in all corals, whether front or back. I stuck to my habit of holding one 200 ml water bottle in hand to be on the safer side and having water and energy drink from hydration counters. These hydration points were too crowded and slippery due to plastic glasses and water on the road but there was no option but to find a way out.
Right from beginning I decided to run my own pace, no greed, and no temptation to speed up, so was monitoring the pace till 37 K. I was observing my breathing and focused on current 1KM pace, and that very narrow focus helped me to run a controlled race. But after 37K I gave it everything, and enjoyed the cheering and was looking ahead to see Brandenburg gate just before the finish. Post 37K, I did not watch my Garmin till the finish”.
About the finish, Manoj said:
“Passing through the Brandenburg gate was one of the most emotional and happy moments of my life. After the race, I felt accomplished and there was joy on face, of finishing the world major marathon. I observed that there are other marathons and then there are the world majors. Every marathoner should run at least one major marathon for an experience. Through all this, training with my coach, running with my team members and all their support and encouragement is helping me to come back to my earlier form.”