Our first podium finish and the luckiest man on Earth.

The final timing was 29m:04s. Our personal best.

The little one had her first podium finish while clocking her personal best for 5km at 29m:09s.

Her coach, Vidyanand Yadav Sir (himself a marathon runner who qualified for the Boston Marathon last Sunday in Delhi), who has shown tremendous confidence in her over the past couple of months, paced her and brought her in on a sub-30-minutes timing, as he had confidently declared before the race.

My little champ, of course, ran the race of her life, egged on by her coach and even spectators along the route, finishing in style with only one other female runner ahead of her. Since she’s been running races since November 2021 now, it isn’t surprising that everyone (the organisers, the competitors, the spectators, random strangers) all knew her name and came over to wish her the best before the race and congratulate her after. Kym is like a mini-celebrity now and I am known on the Pune running circuit as ‘Kym ke Papa’ (as usual I was in my ‘Ninja Dad’ tee, which everyone recognises).

I think my chest is going to burst with pride. I better sit down and have a cup of tea to calm my nerves.

P.S: As I typed this, the little one was busy making an ‘I <heart> U, Baba bear and Mamma bear’ painting for her mother and me. I don’t know what I have ever done in my life to deserve this. ‘It’s got a little star in the centre, Baba bear. That’s me.’ Yes, my darling. You are a star. And I am the luckiest man on Earth!

P.P.S: I have a beautiful human (and a published poet) as a friend on Facebook. Her name is Nandini Sen-Mehra and her son Ishaan is the Singapore national swimming champion. They recently shifted to Australia so he can train with the best and have a real shot at an Olympic medal and the world championships. She posts about him once in a while, especially about his love for his kid sister and his swimming wins. I’d always look at these posts and wonder how proud she must be when his name would be called out during prize/medal distribution. I know he’s a national champ and probably will be world champ soon, and Kym is nowhere in the same league yet. But I just wanted to say, now I recognise that feeling inside my heart too. And ‘pride’ is too vulgar a word to describe it. I don’t think there’s a word in English for this, and I am not a poet. So, I can’t put my finger on it. But I think she will know what I mean. It’s. Just. Beautiful.