First Full Marathon attempt

My first attempt at Full Marathon was at the Pune International Marathon on 8th December 2002. I gave up at the 34rth Km completely dehydrated and exasperated. Not because I was not well prepared or did anything majorly wrong during the race –in fact I had done a couple of solo 40Km runs in training. The event just was not conducive for slower amateur runners like me. Runners were expected to reach the half way point in 1 hr 30 or so and complete the FM in 3 hours or so. Maybe because of this I ran the first half quite fast. I was very keen on running my first full marathon and relied on the assurances of the organizers that slower, amateur runners like me would be allowed to complete the race. However, in reality the experience was very different. My bib was snatched away at the half way point as got there in about 1 hour 50 minutes. And soon after that the aid stations started to disappear and all traffic began to flow. I found myself running along with two wheelers, buses, autos etc and also pedestrians and cows and the weather also became warmer(the race started at 9am). It was very tough - both mentally and physically. Due to this I had to start walking and lost my momentum. I had a couple of bites of the energy bar without washing it down with water – as a result I also began to feel nauseous. At that time I lost the will to go on and I gave up. Later I learnt that very few amateur runners were able to finish the run. Given that I had been preparing for over a year(since August 2001 when I did my first 15K) for a Full marathon I was extremely disappointed with the DNF(Did Not Finish) result. In the train journey back from Pune to Bangalore ,I did a mental rehearsal of the race several times and realized the errors I made and the lessons to learn:
a) I started too fast. 1 hrs 50 minutes for the first 21Km was way above my target pace and that drained my energy. I resolved henceforth to start slow and steady
b) Taking walk breaks – I had tried this in training based on Jeff Galloway’s recommendation but it did not work for me. So I had abandoned it. During the race I was kind of forced into doing something I was not used to
c) Eating the energy bar without washing it down with water – I later read in Jeff’s ‘Marathon, You can do it’ that doing this is likely to cause nausea

I was quite determined to ensure that I don’t make these errors again and try and run a Full marathon at the earliest available opportunity. And this came in Janaury 2003 in Chennai 6 weeks after Pune. Thank Fully, I have not had a DNF since Pune 2002 and hopefully it will stay that way! It can be very traumatic for a runner to work hard and train for an event and then not be able to finish the race due to some unforeseen reason.

20th FM/Ultra finish

<--- Running Solo for a short period

After the finish

Dharam leading the way

The Hennur RFL run on 19th April was my 20th completion of a Full Marathon/Ultra distance. My first attempt at a Full Marathon in December 2002 ended disastrously - more about this in the enxt post. I am happy with my 4 hours 32 minutes finish (my second slowest f in the current series after KTM in October 2008) considering the stressful week (professionally and personally), the trouble we had locating the starting point and the hot weather.

The week leading up to the run was extremely hectic at work – with post 11PM conference calls on three days. The Saturday was a stressful day with personal chores – I had dinner after 11PM and went to sleep at quarter past midnight to wake up at 3:45am. Dharam, Manoj and I had planned to meet at the ring road/Hennur Road intersection at 4:45am with the goal of starting the run between 5:15 and 5:30. Unfortunately, both Dharam and myself overshot the intersection(albeit from opposite directions in the ring road) and woke up Manoj to get some directions. Dharam and I then drove down Hennur road and missed the right turn towards the start of the run. Eventually we reached around 5:40am and started run just after 5:45 – that is over an hour and a quarter after I left home - which was a bit frustrating. The route is a full trail run on either side of the start point – one loop measuring 4.4Km and the other 4.1Km. Dharam and I completed the first couple of 4.4Km loops at an average pace of 5:56minutes per Km. While running the 4.1 Km the first time we were joined by Manoj. And at the end of this loop Uday also joined us. At this point in time over 60 RFL runners had hit the trail. That’s a good number considering the location was quite far from the city and not easy to get to. As the foliage was dry in several areas there was less shade than what I had experienced the previous time we had run here. However, still a nice route to do a long run – no traffic, no pollution and occasional sights and sounds of birds. It was great to have the company of Dharam, Manoj and Uday. I am thankful to them for ensuring that I had company for pretty much the entire 4 and a half hours. Also many regular RFL runners who were aware that I was doing my ninth FM in nine months cheered me very enthusiastically which was a high motivator – not that I needed any external motivation. We kept a steady pace and by the time Dharam (and Manoj) stopped we had clocked 30Kms in 3 hrs 15 minutes or so. Not a bad pace and still on target to finish below 4 hrs 30 minutes. However the last 12 kms turned out to be much tougher and the pace dropped considerably. I did 3 loops of 4.1Km accompanied by Uday in the first and the third one. He had cramps and took a break while I did a loop solo. Even though there were more gradients in this loop and the terrain was a bit rougher in parts I still felt it was easier to do mentally. Mainly because I could visualize this loop much better than the other 4.4Km. This can be very important. Specially at distances beyond 30Km and in warm weather it helps to know what to expect. I finished just after 10:15 to loud cheers from Nikhil and a bunch of RFL support staff and as always it felt great to have another one under the belt – the ninth in this series. The great thing is once I got going I was able to keep a reasonably steady pace and the thought of giving up did not come to me even once. Just three more to go to complete the 12 in 12 – the next one will be in the RFL run on 17th May!

Care Champion for Dream A Dream

Over the last few months I have been able to raise a little over Rs 1, 50,000/- for Dream A Dream - A Bangalore based NGO that I have been working with for 3 years. Now with the 2nd edition of Sunfeast World 10K just 7 weeks away I have signed up to be a care champion for Dream A Dream. Which means I am going to try and raise Rs 1,00,000/- between now and end of May. This will be challenging and I am looking forward to support of friends and family to get me over the finish line! Any contribution, big or small, will be highly appreciated. Contributions can be made via check or online - more deails in the sidebar.

Tempo run and tapering to number 9

I had a great solo Tempo run yesterday – doing about 9.6Km in 50 minutes in my usual CV Raman Nagar route at an average pace of 5:13 per Km. This is pretty good time considering that I had to fend off a few stray dogs and keep constant watch for speeding BPO vehicles and potholes in the road during the run. Over the last few months I have been able to increase the pace of my week day training runs from between 5:45 and 6 minutes per Km to around 5:30. I have also been put in a tempo run of around 5:15 once a week or so – usually the day after the Strength conditioning session. Tempo training is one category of speed training; the others are interval training, repeats, sprints and fartlek. Speed training is required for a distance runner who would like to improve his/her performance. – it is not necessary for someone training for their first marathon. Tempo runs and Strength conditioning sessions have been the two major contributors to the improvement in my Full marathon timings. As per exercise scientists, doing temp runs is the best way to increase the lactate threshold of a distance runner , that is, the ability to run at a fast pace without accumulating lactic acid in the bloodstream.(accumulation of lactic acid in the muscles slows you down). This involves training at the optimal point between aerobic and anaerobic running. A tempo run is one in which you begin at an easy jogging pace, gradually accelerate to near 10K pace(edge of lactate threshold) and then gradually decelerate to the earlier jogging pace. It should last at least 40 minutes. Here are a few links related to speed training:
The basics of speed training

Speed training for runners
Speedwork basics

My next full marathon will be during the RFL run on 19th April at Hennur . I had a nice 25K+ run on 5th April with Dharam and Udayakumar at GKVK. I consider GKVK to be the best place in Bangalore to do 2 hour + runs with no traffic and wonderful greenery around. The place is large enough to do 10K+ loops. However, since it is about 20K from my place I have not been able to run there often enough – in fact the last time I ran there was sometime in 2007. With 3 easy paced training runs between now and 19th(12th,14th and 16th)I feel in good shape to do around 4:30 finish in my 9th one– the warm weather is the only concern as of now.