What's the point of running marathons?

See Runners for Life discussion forum for an interesting discussion on this topic. Most certainly if one is interested in health and fitness it is not necessary to run marathons. Its sufficient to run/walk 45 minutes a day 4-5 times a week. So why run marathons? According to the article Why run marathons because it's there, it's hard, yet an average person can do it. My personal view is that most of us amateur marathoners do it for the satisifaction of achieving a challenging goal and the high that comes with it, that is, the benefits are more internal than external. And once we achieve the goal of completing of our first full marathon many of us set ourselves even more challenging goals. This could be in terms of running faster marathons (and qualifying for Boston) or greater number of marathons (say 3 marathons in 3 months or 12 marathons in 12 months 0r 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days ) or running extreme marathons(such as the Great Tibetan Marathon) or running beyond marathon distances : 50K, 100K or even 100 miles. None of these challenges are necessary for the health benefits but still lots of runners are doing this and the tribe is growing rapidly!!

Recovery after the September marathon

The week after a marathon, often called the recovery week, is very critical perhaps as much if not more than the week before the marathon. After the completion of a marathon several muscles get stiff and sore specially the hamstring. The time taken for recovery of these muslces varies from runner to runner. In general, it is recommended that the week after a full marathon should be a week of resting with some walking/cross-training towards the end of the week. After the Marathon and Hal Higdon's Post-marathon training guide are two sources of information on training in the period immediate after the marathon.

In my case the recovery after thr RFL Kanakpura run was very quick : I was able to do a comfortable 31 munutes 5K within 48 hours of the run ie on Tuesday. I followed this up with a 8K run on Thursday and a slow 12K run in Cubbon park on Saturday. I guess once you have run several marathons recovery is also much faster. This has definitely been my fastest every recovery. (Apart from the fact that I ran a half marathon at KTM last year within 8 days of doing my personal best full marathon finish at Suntrust Richmond marathon).

Two Done, Ten to go!

With Nagaraj in the 3rd loop (approx 25K)


As planned, I had an easy week leading upto Sunday 21st September with 8K runs on Monday and Thursday and 10K cycling on Tuesday and Wednesday. Got a bit of a scare Friday evening/Saturday morning with a niggle in the hamstring. However, by Satuday evening I felt quite OK. Finalised the logistics of getting to the starting point by 530 . The plan was to drive with Deepak picking up Doc and Ashok along the way . Manoj and Athreya planned to come on their own. The idea was to start running latest by 545am so that one was done with the run by 1030 am or so. Manoj, Deepak, Doc and myself were planning to do the full 42.2Km while Ashok and Athreya were planning to do a Long one..

On Sunday morning when Doc sent an SMS to me around 3:45am dropping out, we changed our driving plans. Deepa, along with Amit, picked me up at Big Bazaar and we met Ashok in Koramangla. Ashok was then the navigator to get us to the starting point. Dharam joined us at Family Mart and followed us in his car. We got to the starting point a little after 530am. Amazingly there were at least 10 other runners already waiting there. So around 545am we took off. A2/Nikhil had talked about a loop of 10 or 10.5 Km. However, there was some confusion in the first loop and we had to do the lake bed twice to get 10Km loop which was not that much fun. At dawn the run across the lake bed was really great. Several runners started their run today between 545 and the actual RFL run start after 630am. So the RFL run got a bit disrupted. Having run the route a couple of times before I was well aware this would be a tough course with several fairly steep gradients. However, it turned out to be much tougher than I anticipated with the side loop also having steep, long gradients.So much so that I started wandering whether I made a mistake in attempting a full marathon at this location. Even though it was partly cloudy whenever the sun came out it was quite warm. The first 2 laps went off quite well. Was at the 22K mark around 2:10(compared to 1:59 in Hyderabad a month ago). Ran the first loop with Suresh and Chandra. In the second loop it was a pleasant surprise to see Nagaraj - he was coming back from an extended leg injury. It was great catching up with him over 15 K or so. Around the 26K mark was quite zapped by a fluroscent yellow T-shirt runner - there was doc sprinting by. He woke up late and decided to run after all! which was great for me as he kept pace with me pretty much till the end. Thanx a lot Doc! - I would have found it harder without your company. Doc was also very supportive when I tripped and almost fell when turning at the end of the lake bed in the 4rth loop. Doc, ofcourse, is an amazing runner - he had done a 45K the previous day at Cubbon Park - most of it running solo. The 4rth loop specially the last 2 Kms to the starting point was a really killer. Slowed down considerably in the gradient - 7:30 minutes per Km. Ended the run around 10:15 with a small stretch on Kanakpura road as each loop was 10K. . Manoj, Deepak and I finished together. Ashok and Athreya had completed earlier. I am pretty satsified with my just under 4:30 finish - just what I had targeted for. The support from RFL volunteers was good- the 2nd water point was a real boon! Also it was nice to be cheered and encouraged by several runners who knew me and were aware that I was doing the full 42K. Thank folks- really appreciated all the support!. It was also very heartening to note that a few runners ran their first 30K yesterday despite it being a very tough course. Click here for the RFL pictures of the run.

Had a quick breakfast of masala dosas and vadas at Vaishnavi before returning back home.

Though I felt really tired towards the end of the run , later in the day it felt that the muscles were less sore and fatigued compared to the previous marathons. Was able to climb up and down staircases much more easily than before. And thankfully there were no signifcant niggles in the left calf or hamstring. I am attributing this to the strength training that I have been doing at the Manipal hospital for the last 4 months or so. Even though I often wake up quite early on the morning of a marathon (it was 3:20am yesterday) I have never ever felt like sleeping or even lying down after finishing one. Au contraire, I normally feel quite energetic and good about myself after a nice long run. Now, onto the 3rd one at the Kaveri Trail Marathon on 19th October!!

Less than a week to go for the September run..

Despite having run several marathons, the week before another marathon seems to be always a nervous week. One is apprehensive about possible illness or injury during this time. Its been easygoing weekend for me with no cycling or running either Saturday or Sunday. Will be doing a couple of 8-9K runs probably on Monday and Thursday with 10K of cycling on the days in between.

Also, this is the first time, after 2002, that I will be running 40K+ distance outside of an actual race or event. Way back in 2002 when I first took to distance running and did not know of any fellow runners in Bangalore I used to do my long training runs alone. And in training for my first full marathon I have done 16 loops of a 2.5Km loop a couple of times. I cannot imagine doing this ever again - now that I have been doing long runs in company for the last few years. I can at most run 2 hours or so(approx 20 Kms) alone - anything beyond that would be tough to do now. On 21st September since it is a regular RFL run there should be plenty of company for at least the first couple of hours. Doc Rajat and Deepak have expressed interrest in doing the full 42Km. While they will both run much faster it will still help me to know that I am not the only one doing the full marathon.

Why Maniac808?

Dharam asked me whether there was any specific reason for picking maniac808 as part of my blog's URL. Well one key reason was the fact that I am maniac #808 in the Insane Asylum of Marathon Maniacs. Also, coincidentally, August 2008 is when I turned Fifty and also ran the first of my target 12 marathons!

September Marathon Plan

There has been no response yet from the organisers of the Taj Mahal marathon scheduled for 21st September. This is inspite of my email and phone enquiry. The sign up link on the website is still not working. Given that the event is 2 weeks away this is ridiculous. While I have decided against running this event the state of (mis-)organisation of marathons in India is making me real mad!! I have pretty much decided to run my September marathon in Bangalore, most likely, as part of the RFL run on 21st. The venue for this is likely to be Kanakpura road. This part road, part trail is quite a tough one with steep gradients. I definitely will not be able to do a full marathon in less than 4 and a half hours at this venue.

Below par training week including the long run

My plan is to do one training run of 25Km or more between two marathons. If the gap between the 2 marathons is 4 weeks then I will limit the long run to 25Km or so. In case of 5 weeks gap the long run will be around 30Km. So the plan was to do about 30K on 7th September.

The week leading upto the Sunday was not been great in terms of running and cycling. After a reasonably good 20K in Cubbon Park on 30th August I did 10K of cycling on 1st September at a below average pace. I took Tuesday 2nd of September off hoping to run on 3rd(Wednesday) and 5th(Friday) and cycle on 4rth(Thursday). However, I woke up on 3rd with a slight sore throat and also it was raining quite a bit around 6am. So I ditched the idea of a run. I continued to feel tired with a bit of a cold on Thursday as well. On Friday I somehow pushed my self to do a reasonably fast 10K despite the roads being wet with overnight rains. I took rest on Saturday but continued to feel a bit tired and very apprehensive about the long run on Sunday. Was planning to join the RFL run at EGL. Though convenient to get too EGL is not a great running route compared to Bellandur and GKVK. Specially if it rains the route gets slushy and even has huge poodles.

The turnout for the Sunday RFL run was moderate - probably about 35 or so runners. The first 2 loops (turned out to be a 9.4Km loop instead of the 10Km that A2 announced) were very average for me -somehow did not get the right rhythm. Also the niggle in the left calf that I get on and off bothered me a bit. Somehow, the third loop was much better albeit a bit slower than the first two. I ran 1.2Kms beyond the RFL turnaround point in order to get to 30Km. Towards the end my hamstring also started hurting a bit. Am quite worried about this as this is still very early days as far as my mission to do '12 in 12' is concerned. While I completed 30.2Km in just under 3 Hours I did not feel great at the end of the run. Maybe for some reason I did not hit the 'Runners High' today? Need to do more research on this later.

The weather was ideal for running - mostly cloudy , temperatures in low 20s as is quite common this time of the year in bangalore. Inf act, training in Bangalore makes it challenging to run in other cities in India where the weather conditions are not as runner friendly.

Dur to this long run I missed my volunteering session for the Dream A Dream Computer 202 session for Ananya children. This got moved from Saturday(6th) afternoon to Sunday(7th) mornign at the last moment.

Catching up with an old RFL buddy

Late morning of Wednesday 3rd September(Ganesha Chaturthi) was pleasantly surprised to see a mail from Vijay about wanting to catch up during his trip to Bangalore for a couple of days. Vijay is one of the first RFL'ers(along with Rajesh) that I started to run with outside of RFL runs. He changed jobs and moved to Pune in April 2007. Vijay was coming over on 3rd evening and was up for dinner the same evening - so I quickly got in touch with Arvind, Pankaj, Dharam, Praveen, Deepak and Partha to see if we could get together for dinner with Vijay. Arvind, Dharam, Deepak and Partha were unavailable for the evening.

The 4 of us met at Little Italy in Indiranagar at 830ish. It was great catching up and chatting about old times - the various runs we had done together and the runners we knew. And all this over fairly good food. Two hours passed very quickly.

Its heartening to note that Vijay is determined to run the ultra this year and also the full marathon at Mumbai. Vijay is desperately looking for company for his long runs in Pune. Pankaj suggested that he listen to e-books on his logn run and select the books depending on the planned duration of the run. The implication being that one runs till the book is completed.

Felt bad for Praveen. I know how terrible it is to stay away from running due to injury specially for an extended period. I hope he recovers soon and starts running regularly with us.

Planning the September Marathon

After a fairly strong 10K run on 23rd August, within 7 days of the Hyderabad marathon, I confidently got down to the business of identifying a marathon in September. A while ago I had stumbled across the Kathmandu International marathon scheduled for 20th September. However, the website had not been updated since last year and my repeated emails to the organisers did not result in any response for several weeks. Then suddenly on 27th August I got a mail from the organisers confirming the event and stating that the website is in the process of being updated. I was less than 50-50 for this marathon anyway due to the costs involved.
And after speaking to Doc Rajat on 30th August during my 20Km training run in Cubbon Park I decided to drop the idea of running in Kathmandu.

While generally searching for a marathon to run in September I came across a couple of different versions of Taj Mahal Marathon. One by Albatros Travel that was scheduled for March 2008 and has been postponed to 2009 and another by Discovery Journeys India Pvt. Ltd. that's scheduled for 21st September. However, the signup link on the latter's website does not work which is not an encouraging sign. I have sent an email to the organisers asking for details including the registrations charges and am awaiting a response. As of now I am not too inclined to travel all the way to Agra and spend money to run a road race in fairly warm weather without having any idea of how the race organisation and support is going to be. Most likely, I will run a Full Marathon in GKVK on 21st September.

The wonderful Experience of Hyderabad Marathon

The Hyderabad marathon was a great experience - truly a runner friendly road race organised very well. Personally, I felt it was one of the best road race experience in India. The firenly and smooth distribution of Bibs at KBR Park on 14th evening, dinner at ISB, the dormitory at the games village and bus transportation to ferry us around was all very well organised - as Shyam commented we(the outstation runners) truly felt like elite runners. On 16th morning most of us who slept in the games village dormitory woke up around 3:30am and took the bus to the start point of the race by 4:15am. The run started on the dot at 5:15am - there were about 90 runners about of half of them were professionals or from the services. The course was quite challenging with a lot of ups and downs - specially the last 5Km or so which was mostly up. However, the early start helped and the weather was pretty good till about 9am or so. Every KM was well marked(something I have not always seen in Mumbai), the volunteers at the aid stations every 2Kms were very very helpful. The aid stations were manned till the last runner finished. The traffic control was excellent - one lane on the multi-lane roads was clearly marked on the road with signs of the marathon and reserved for runners throughout the race and the cops worked very hard to ensure that the runners were given priority over the traffic. Traffic control, as we all know, is very challenging in Indian road races and for a first time race theorganisers at Hyderabad did great! The course was also fairly good - the 3 Km inside the ISB campus was nice but 6.5 Km inside the University of Hyderabad was absolutely stunning!! The finish inside the stadium was followed by a nice brunch for all the runners. The one thing that was missed was electronic timing and a big digital timing clock at the finish in the stadium. And the cheering crowds of Mumbai. I finished in 4 hrs 6 minutes - beating my previous best in any race in India by 20 minutes!! I reached the 22Km point in just under 2 hours and at that time was quite hopeful of a sub 4 hour finish. Having got to 39Km in 3 hours 45 minutes I just could not sustain the pace to finish under 4 hours. I ran the last 7 Km in the company of a young services guy called Raghuramaiah who had never run beyond 10Km before - we egged and supported each other from about the 35Km mark till the finish in the stadium.

A big THANK YOU to Rajesh, Gopi, Uma and the rest of the organising team for doing such a wonderful job - I am definitely putting this event on my annual calendar. Also, special thanks to all the volunteers and the cops whose help and support made this such a great experience

Week leading upto the Hyderabad Marathon

The week before the Hyderabad Marathon was a very hectic one. Did my fastest ever 5K (24 minutes at the corporate relay Mformation Urban Stampede on 10th August morning. Then took a non-stop Continental Airlines flight to NewArk the same night and was at work at my Edison office at 930am on 11th August. Had hectic meetings on 11th, 12th and 13th August and took the return flight to Mumbai on 13th evening getting there on 14th night. The Hyderabad marathon being the first one of this season and coming 6 months after the previous one at Mumbai I was hoping to do a fast marathon - definitely targeting sub 4:15 and possibly sub 4. However, on the plane ride back I felt quite fatigued and all sorts of apprehensive thoughts went through my head. Until I read about the stupendous feat of Dave Heeley , a blind runner , who ran 7 marathons in 7 days in 7 continents in an issue of Runners World. This gave me confidence that the human body is capable of much more than what we normally imagine. You can read more about Dave’s achievement at the official Seven Magnificent Marathons web site. I was now eagerly looking forward to reaching Hyderabad and running a good race.