16 Comments
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narasimhan khadri's avatar

Superb article Sarthak. You are my top 3 favourite indian sports writers , others are Bharat sundaresan and harsha bhogle, not in any particular order. Shekar Gupta’s Cut the clutter on Sebastian sawe is also very good.

Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thank you, Narasimhan. That's very high praise :) I'll check out Shekhar Gupta's piece!

Rakhi Kurup's avatar

I got Goosebumps Sarthak. Thank you so much for always enlightening your readers. Otherwise all of this is just news headlines, when it is written like you do, it becomes so much personal.

I actually touched my legs and checked them when you mentioned the amount of pressure it takes when we run. 😅

Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thank you so much for reading, Rakhi!

Arvind Kumar's avatar

Nicely written Sarthak! IMO, sub-2 is way more difficult than climbing Everest, and that's why people only from certain regions of the world could do it.

You have to be blessed genetically, start training early on, have a flat course of London or Berlin, have perfect weather and be in peak shape on the race day. Those are too many variables for a sub-2 marathon.

Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thanks for reading, Arvind! And totally. It's been near impossible for 128 years haha.

The point of talking about Everest wasn't to compare the both but to highlight the impact of breaking barriers. :)

Ayush's avatar

Excellent read, Sarthak. Made me watch the last lap a few times 😀

Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thank you, Ayush! Did you get the official broadcast? It was very funny that the Sky reporter did not know, until about a lap to go, that Sawe might finish within 2.

Krishna Chaitanya Venkata's avatar

Hi Sarthak, this is so beautifully written, zooming in on Sawe (and Hillary) and zooming out to collective species and back to the individual, so finely balanced. Bravo!

Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thank you, Krishna :)

Sandhya Srinivasan's avatar

As always, such a beautiful essay! Thank you for this

Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thank you, Sandhya!

Rohan Banerjee's avatar

Love this essay to bits, man. The juxtaposition of Everest and Sawe is inspired.

Also, mountaineers = Michelin man is an image I can never unsee. Thank you.

Sarthak Dev's avatar

Thanks man. Hahah. That image got lodged into my brain during the Seinfeld episode where George buys this jacket: https://wearostrich.com/product/seinfeld-george-costanza-puffer-jacket/

Ashish Chatterjee's avatar

The first Marathon was run by Pheidipides in 490 BC taking 3 hours, no? 😊

Sarthak Dev's avatar

The first 42.2km competitive marathon :)