First ever DNS...

I had the dubious distinction of a firstever DNS – 'Did Not Showup' of my running career this weekend. I had registered for the Hyderabad marathon on 30th August hoping to finish my FM streak with a 13th consecutive one in the city where I started it over a year ago. Unfortunately the flu that struck me the day before the Urban stampede 2009 on 21st August 2009 turned out to be quite severe. I do not quite remember the last time I was down with high fever like this. With temperature staying more than 102F for over 3 days and severe cold I had one of my worst weeks runningwise since mid 2003. While I was still wanting to go for the run in Hyderabad the family and several friends advised against it. On Thursday 24rth August after I had recovered form the fever I did a 6.5K run to test my stamina. It was a struggle and took me over 40 minutes and left me quite exhausted at the end of the run. That is when I made the hard decision to bail out of Hyderabad . It was not an easy call to make. There are not too many well organised road races in this part of the world. So one hand I thought it might still be worth going for the race to enjoy the atmosphere and comraderie of fellow runners and trying to do a slow finish. However, on the other hand I felt apprehensive about doing my slowest marathon finish in the very city where I did my best ever finish in India last year. I felt quite miserable throughout the day and for the next couple of days. I was missing a good marathon event and on top of that had a complete washout of a week with just one poor run in the last 8 days! Just goes to show what an equalizer life is and the role that luck plays in it. I was extremely extremely lucky to have managed 12 months of injury and illness free running and now perhaps this is a divine message that I should slow down for a while. I was anyway planning to take it easy for a couple of months from marathon running after Hyderabad . I have also decided to take a couple of months off from the strength conditioning training at Manipal Hospital. While my next 35K+ run will probably be in the second half of October in preparation for the ultra on 15th November I do hope to get back to running 3-4 days of running starting tomorrow.

Urban Stampede 2009

The 2nd edition of Urban Stampede organised by Runners For Life at Olde Bangalore resort on 22nd August 2009 was a huge success! With 139 teams from 56 companies and 10 non-corporate teams this was by far the largest ever RFL event. Three teams from Mformation participated in the event - 2 in the mens/open categaory and 1 all women team. I was part of Mformation team B. Though I was feeling perfectly fine when I left work on Friday 21st August evening I got hit with severe cold and sore throat later that evening. I did not sleep well at all that night. I left home around 520am and after picking up a couple of colleagues reached Olde Bangalore resort just before 630am. The place was buzzing with activity with runners everywhere. With overnight rains the weather was very pleasant. I volunteered to run 4rth in my team instead of 2nd. My goal this year was to better my last year's timing of 24:34 and if possible try and run below 24 minutes. However, with the cold and body ache picking up even before my turn to run came I knew this was going to be very tough. The run started punctually at 7am with the first set of runners taking off to huge cheering from their fellow runners. I walked around for some time chatting with lots of runners including a few that I did not recognize by name. Waiting for your turn to come in a relay specially when you ar enot feeling well can be quite challenging. By the time I started my run just before 8:40am the first three teams in the open category had completed the race. These were two teams from Toyota Motors and a team from Hindustan Unilever. Deepak Mhasvade ,a great RFL runner,finished his 5K in 22:09 to lead HUL to 3rd place.

I took off very fast and covered the first half Km quickly but had to slow down considerably soon thereafter. Even then I managed to get to the turn around point just after 12 minutes. However, I started to tire quite quickly and managed only a 25:33 finish - almost a minute slower than last year. I was quite disappointed with my timing - it was also one of those few runs that I did not enjoy too much. Considering that I am in much better running form now compared to last year and also managed a sub-49 minutes in Sunfeast 10K I can only blame the flu for the sub par run! Also, I guess I am more cut out for long distance running wherein I am able to sustain a certain average pace for a longer period of time rather than a fast pace for a short period of time. Overall most of the Mformation runners did well specially a few of them who were doing their first ever 5K. The Mfomation women's team finished second. The overall rank and timings of the 3 mformation teams:

• Mformation Team B: Ashish- 26:18; Ravi- 37:14;Sridhar- 36:39;Bhasker-25:33; 2:05:44 finishing 60th in the open category


• Mformation Team A: Sharan-41:44;Sanjay- 38:53;Dwarka- 33:43;Gaurav- 33:43; 2:28:40 finishing 81st in the open category


• Mformation Team C: Kalai- 36:32;Navya - 35:52;Ranu-45:22; Shilpa-41:14 2:39 finishing 2nd in the women's category

Click here for complete results and here for the pictures of the event.

A High 'Runners High' at Southbury, Connecticut

I made the choice to move back from the US to Bangalore over 15 years ago.And from a professional and family perspective I have never regreted the decision. One of the few times that I feel that perhaps I should have lived in the US is when I race in an event here or do an outdoor long run in this country. Today was one such day. I am visiting my Edison office in NJ for a few days. And during the trip I spent this weekend(8th/9th August) at my sister's place in Southbury Connecticut. I had intended to do a 20K training run this morning . I ended up doing 26.5Km in 2hours 35 minutes running solo and I enjoyed the run thoroughly. I started off from my sister's place just before 7am. Though there was hardly any shoulder space in the road that I took there was virtually zero traffic. At about 19 degrees Celsius and partly cloudy the weather was very much like Bangalore weather. I ran about 5Km to reach the Kettletown State Park - did not encounter a single car or human being on the way. On the way I was jolted by a loudly barking dog in front of one of the houses. However, there seemed to be an electronic fence and the dog did not venture onto the road. I ran multiple criss-crossed loops totalling 16Km in about 90 minutes inside the park. There was hardly anyone in the park even at 8am. I thoroughly enjoyed the greenery and the pollution free environment. The air was so fresh and energising - it was extremely enjoyable. I probably hit a High 'Runners High'. I heard lots of chirpy birds and observed a number of large squirrels going across the orad and up and down trees. The route itself was quite tough with several steep gradients. However, I was able to manage a decent pace throughout. On the way back I saw quite a few cars. I was running on a single lane highway - the car drivers kept a good distance from me and did not honk even once. I wish runners in India could get treated with similar respect - it often does not happen even in a road race leave alone during a training run. As I was not carrying any water with me I got quite tired and slowed down in the last 2Kms. However, had I carried water I could have gone on for a few more Kms. Overall I enjoyed the run tremendously - did not feel bored at all running alone.. The fact that it is much easier to do long training runs in this country and that there is encouragement and coaching at school level is probably why there are so many naturally faster runners in this country!

What Next?

After completing 12 marathons in 12 months I have registered to run the 13th one. This is the Hyderabad marathon on 30th August where I started the series in August 2008. It was a wonderfully organised road race last year and this year's edition is expected to be even better. After this I plan to take a couple of months off from marathon running till the Bangalore ultra in November 2009. My focus is then going to shift from quantity of marathons to quality that is do fewer marathons and look at steadily improving my timings. I intend to run maximum of 4 FMs per year and focus on being able to do sub 4 FMs consistently – I have done only one so far and never in India. I see this as a much bigger challenge than running 12 FMs than 12 months – it is far easier to do more number of slower long runs than to do faster and faster runs. Running faster also increases the chances of injury, especially at my age. My goal is to do a sub 4:10 in Mumbai 2010 , sub 4 in Hyderabad 2010 and Mumbai 2011. And then shave 5 minutes each year in 2012 an 2013 to get to 3:45 for Boston qualification!!

Looking back at 12 in 12..

A week after completing the 12th marathon on 12 months I thought it was time to look back at the past year and then look at ‘What Next’ in a subsequent post.

Inspiration :
The inspiration for doing 12 marathon in 12 months came while reading Bob Fletcher’s book in April 2008. Here’s the mail that I sent to a few of my fellow runners on 2nd May 2008 and some responses from them.

Have been wanting to mail this to the group ever since I finishedreading the book "Spaghetti Every Friday: The Story of Running 50Marathons in 50 Weeks, by Bob Fletcher. 2002, 2nd Ed., " a few weeksago. checkout the review at :http://www.michiganrunner.net/other/spaghetti1102.htmlThe book does not have too many tips on running but is a greatdiary/log of guy who went from no excecise to doing this within 3years. This was in 1981-82 when he ahd to write to the race organisersby post , get the entry forms and send them across!! And he did not runto finish - his goal was to finish first in his age group in all theraces- he did that in most of them with finish times between 2:45 and3:15. He was extremely disappointed when he finished around 3:25 in acouple of races!!This book is inspiring me to plan my running as I approach the age ofbig Five O myself ! While there is no way I can do something as crazyas 50 marathons in 50 weeks (even if there were events available inIndia to run in0 I am looking at doing(and in my case finishing under5 hours in all of them would be great) 12 marathons in 12 monthsbetween August 2008 and July 2009 which is probably crazy enough!!. Inthe months that there is no event I was thinking of doing a trainingrun of 42K. Still in thinking/planning stage - have not shared thiswith the wife yet :) but following are the events I am looking at so far:

Aug 2008 Hyderabad trail marathon

Sept 2008 Bangalore intl marathon?

October 2008 KTM

Nov 2008 Ultra

Jan 2009 Mumbai

Feb 2009 Pondy

July 2009 Tibet or thane varsha marathon

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Regards

Bhasker

Response from Rajesh Vetcha:
Dear Bhaskar,

No wonder it is inspiring.
As for your 12 marathons,12 months, it is doable for you considering your endurance level, planning and commitment.

My only issue is that you should take your wife's consent to begin with. If that comes through, we will all support you.

Response from Partha Roy:
BhaskerI am on it with you. I also need to get off my behind and do something. It's bit easier and if we have a long term goal like this. I totally concur with Rajesh, that get your wife's consent and make sure kids know this. There could not be better way to discuss this but over a slow long run. Cheers

Partha
Of course it would have been impossible to achieve this goal without the understanding and support of my wife and children. While the initial reaction was that it would be too much effort and that I was carrying the running stuff a bit too far they were accommodative and flexible to enable me to make the time for the long runs and the marathons. Being an ardent supporter of Dream A Dream I also decided to do extended fund raising for the organization. It was Vishal Talreja - the co-founder of Dream A Dream who suggested that I track my runs and the associated fund raising progress via a Blog – I took the idea one step further and decided to start writing a running related blog.

In the beginning of May I went to the Manipal hospital Department of Sports and exercise medicine for consultation and discussed my goal of 12 in 12 with Doc Rajat Chauhan with some apprehension. Doc very positively reassured me that I would be able to accomplish this. He also suggested that I do some strength conditioning. I am very happy that I followed his suggestion. The strength training has played a very significant role in enabling me to achieve my goal and stay injury free during this period. Click here to know more about my take on strength conditioning.

Summary of the 12 runs:
Six of the twelve runs were official events with five of them in India(of which one was the Bangalore ultra marathon) and the sixth in Washington DC. The other six runs were done as part of RFL organised runs. Click here to see a summary of all the twelve runs – in fact all the runs I have done to date in nearly seven years of long distance running. I was able to finish 3 of them below 4:15 including a PB of 3:56:49, had 3 finishes between 4:15 and 4:30 and kept all of the full marathons below 4:45. In doing so I certainly surpassed my own expectations. Of these runs I found the RFL Hennur run the toughest due to the uneven terrain and the warm weather. The RFL Kanakpura road course was the most challenging one I ran on ,I struggled the most at KTM and I had the most fun at Auorville. Though I spent a few nervous Saturdays on the eve of many runs , I stayed highly motivated during the run itself. Not once did I think of giving up without finishing.

Overall I lost 2Kgs during the 12 months going from 65Kgs to 63 Kgs. In the period between August 2008 and July 2009 I clocked a little over 1900 Kms at an average of 160 Kms per month consuming two pairs of Addidas Supernova cushion shoes. My training pattern between two marathons was typically FM, 12K , 25K, 15K , FM or FM,12K, 20K, 30K,15K, FM depending on whether the interval between two FMs was 4 or 5 weeks. I raised nearly 2.5 Lakhs for Dream A Dream with spurt in contributions around the Mumbai marathon and the Sunfeast World 10K.

Note of thanks:

Here's the note I sent out to a few fellow runners on 27th July morning the day after completing the 12th marathon.

Hi All

Please accept my heartfelt acknowledgement and appreciation of the moral and physical support provided by you all that helped me achieve the goal of running 12 marathons in 12 months. The T-shirt and the plaque at the end of yesterday's run are mementos that I shall cherish for a long time! These were unexpected and left me quite overwhelmed and speechless! Thanx very much for this wonderful gesture. 6 of my 12 runs were done in RFL organised runs. Manoj and Deepak did the FM with me at Kanakpura road in Sept 2008, Deepak and I ran the Bellandur in Dec 2008. Dharam, Manoj and Uday ensured that I was almost never running alone during the Hennur road run in April 2009. And then Rishi and gang helped make the last 3 runs (EGL May 2009, Bellandur June 2009 and Olde Bangalore July 2009) a breeze! And numerous other runners cheered me on in all of these runs. Last but not least kudos to Nikhil and A2 and the RFL support staff - who kept the course and water stations open till well past 10am in these RFL runs.

Thanx once again.

Bhasker

Meanwhile life has moved on:

During the 12 months one has survived the downturn caused by the drastic change in the world economy. We moved home from CV Raman Nagar to Domlur Layout and my duaghter has joined St Josephs College of Commerce and started her CA course.