The perks of having an early morning biathlon

Date: January 15^th, 2014

Time: Sometime in the evening

Location: Hostel 1, IIT Bombay

‘Dude, check your mail!’ exclaimed one of my friend who had just barged into my room.

I obeyed. There were 54 unread mails in my inbox since my last login, which was an hour back.

‘No wonder you don’t get time to browse through the text books (read power point presentations) in your MBA, the humongous number of mails keep you just occupied’

Before I could comprehend which mail he wanted me to check out, he said, ‘Prof. Momaya has sent a mail. We apparently have a fun biathlon starting from @ 6:00 AM on 26th Jan, 2014. The track length for men is about 3 Km running + 7 Km cycling and for the women it is 1.3 Km running + 3 Km cycling’

‘You lost me at Biathlon’, I replied.

‘Not a big deal, you can always Google it out. But I have a bigger problem at hand’

‘I am all ears’

‘The idea of having a marathon is so exciting. As adventurous and fitness freak that I am; waking up at 6:00AM is not my cup of tea’

‘Rising early is very much my cup of tea, and I keep sipping it quiet often. I can wake you up’ I suggested.

‘Problem solved! Wake up everyone in our wing too. We need good participation in the Biathlon’ he said.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seat-belts; for once in our lifetime we are going to rise before the Sun rises’, he announced as he left.

***

Date: January 26^th, 2014

Time: 6:00 AM

Location: Outside Hostel 8, IIT Bombay

‘Dude, How come you got up before me?’ I asked.

‘And I was not expecting more than 5 students. How come 40 of our classmates turned up for the Biathlon?’ I asked, surprised at the promising attendance in the early morning event.

‘Most of us didn't sleep last night. You see, a night-out is always better than waking up early’, he winked.

‘We played ‘Wolf’ till 5 AM. Then we realized the weather is too awesome to sleep. So we decided to come for the Biathlon instead’, he continued.

The 1^st perk of having an early morning jog: You get to experience the weather of Mumbai (read Bombay) when it is at its best. 

Our Professor was waiting for us to assemble. We were accompanied by some of our Alums who had decided to participate in this Biathlon.

After a brief warm up jog Professor explained that having this Biathlon on January 26^th every year has been a tradition of SJMSoM and in-spite of it being scheduled early in the morning, the participation has always been promising both from the students and the alums of our college.

The track length for men is about 3 Km running + 7 Km cycling and for the women it is 1.3 Km running + 3 Km cycling. Due to lack of practice and warm up, most of us found scaling the first kilometer very strenuous a task. But as we saw others run ahead of us, the competitive spirit got the better of our tiredness and lethargy. This inspired us to take the “next step”, even as our feet were pleading for rest. The pleasant weather further honed our spirits to complete the race. After the three kilometer run, some of us gave up on the cycling part. The people who didn't were the real winners.

The 2^nd perk of having an early morning jog: Apart from the physical fitness it promises, an early morning jog also acts as a stress buster. So the next time you feel stressed out; take a walk, not a pill.

***

Date: January 26^th, 2014

Time: 7:30 AM

Location: Hostel 1, IIT Bombay

When we reached our hostels, we realized that breakfast in the mess would start only after half an hour. So we decided to play football until the breakfast began. Once the game commenced we lost track of the time and hence ended up playing football for an hour in the Hostel 1 football ground.

At about 8:45 AM we ended the game and decided to freshen up a little and rendezvous at the mess after 15 minutes.

Even as we entered the mess, one of my friends announced, ‘This is, by far, one the most eventful start for the Republic Day. Wish you all a very happy Republic Day, friends’.

The 3^rd perk of having an early morning jog:  You get to full-fill one of your long lost wish of having a breakfast in the mess. For most of my friends this was the only day in the semester they got to have a breakfast in the mess.

***

Shashank Chepuri

SJMSoM'15