The Nike+ Human Race 10K

After some dilly-dallying I decided to go ahead and run the Nike Human race 10K on 24rth October with the goal of trying to complete it under 50 minutes and if possible under my  Sunfeast 10K 2009  time of  48:24. We ( myself and 3 others : Parminder, Shahid and Rajeev) left Domlur a little after 2:30PM - reaching Clarke's Exotica at just about 4PM - the traffic was a little more than we expected. There seemed to be a over 1000 runners in the starting area. Since everyone was wearing the red Nike race T-shirt the holding area was a complete sea of red.  Though at the time of picking up the race kit we were given a colour band based on estimated completion time this was not strictly enforced. I sneaked through the crowd and positioned myself towards the front. The race was flagged off a little before 430 PM by cricketer Sreesanth. Mahesh Bhupathi and Anju Bobby George were two other sports celebrities who were part of the event. I took off at a pace of about 4:35 per Km and ran the first Km in about 4:45. After that my pace started to drop. My stomach started cramping and I felt quite dehydrated. It was sunny and warm when the race started and I had lunch a little later than planned. Also, it probably was the side effect of indulging in a couple of drinks of  single malt on Friday night in the company of some relatives who had come over for dinner. Unlike at Sunfeast 10K I felt so thirsty that had to stop at each of the water stations which was every 2Km. Nevertheless I managed to get to the 5Km point in just over 25 minutes. The route was quite nice - completely within the resort property. At a couple of points enroute there was live music.The weather cooled off in the second half - this definitely helped me sustain my pace. Then with a little over 1 Km left I managed to accelerate a notch  to finish in 49:32 overtaking 'veteran' RFL runners Sunil and Jugy. Though a minute slower than at the Sunfeast 10K I was quite satisfied. For most runners like me who normally train in the mornings running in the afternoon has its challenges.  As per the results on the Nike website I finished 63rd among the Bangalore runners and 11644th globally among all the runners across the different cities where the race was held!

The men's winners in Bangalore were all from the army and clocked a little over 35 minutes. Among the runners I recognize,  ANS who is also from my age group, clocked an amazing 42:13 and finished 10th among Bangalore runners.Globally the fastest time clocked was 28:42 by a runner in Berlin - extremely impressive considering the world record for a 10Km is 26:17:53 set by Kennesa Bekele of Ethiopia in Brussels in 2005. Post the run we had some snacks and beverages and a foot massage before heading back around 630PM. We did not stay back for the live music and the dinner. That evening I felt quite fatigued even more so than I do after a long run. I crashed early and even skipped my Sunday morning run/cycling. This is probably due to pushing myself that too during an afternoon run- I do not seem to have the muscle strength and stamina to sustain a high pace for a period of time. Overall, I enjoyed the experience but now I need to focus on the Ultra on 15th November. My long runs have gone for a toss due to the cyclothon, sickness and now the 10K race - my last 30K run was on 27th September. I hope to get in a good 35K+/4hour  run this Saturday before tapering off!.

To run or not to run Nike+ Human Race on 24rth October?

The Nike 10K Human race is not an ideal one for long distance runners training for the Bangalore ultra on November 15th. Plus the race is on a Saturday afternoon and at Clark’s Exotica located quite far from the city. Therefore, it is not surprising that many RFL runners have decided to give it a miss. Nevertheless I decided to go ahead and register for it mainly because the NGO partner for the race is Dream A Dream and also a few others from my apartment community were interested in participating. The thinking was if I did a 10K in around 48 minutes , the same time as I took in Sunfeast 10K 2009, then it could serve as a good tempo run. Also I had planned my long runs in such a way that I could take it easy the weekend of 24th/25th October . The intent was to do a 4 hour/35K+ run on October 18th with a bunch of BHUKMP runners after gorging on Diwali sweets and savories on 17th. And follow this up with a 30K run on 31st October. Unfortunately, due to a massive stomach upset I could neither hog nor do my long run this weekend. For the 2nd time in less than 8 weeks I fell sick(does exercise increase or decrease immunity – a topic that needs to be researched further!). Due to this I am now in two minds about participating in this race. I am thinking maybe I will skip the 10K race and get in the 4hour/35K+ run instead. Will need to decide latest by Thursday. The irony is that I felt well enough by Sunday night to do a solo 21K/2:01 run this morning!.

Bangalore cyclothon 2009

The BSA Hercules Bengaluru Cyclothon 2009 was organized on 11th October by Sport18, a division of Network 18. As per the event website over 6000 cyclists took part across the 7 event categories ranging from 65 Km for the elite to 2Km for kids. Though I am not much of a cyclist I have been cycling 2-3 days a week for the last 3 years or so as cross-training and have found it quite enjoyable. I have done long distance cycling only once - in December 2006 a bunch of us rode from Hebbal flyover to Nandi hills - a distance of about 50Kms. It was a great experience. So I enthusiastically registered for the 50Km amateur ride at the cyclothon. My son Rahul registered for the 5Km teen ride.

I did not research at all about the cycling route on the NICE corridor but based on my previous experience of cycling long distance I decided I need to get a geared cycle. A geared cycle enables one to cycle longer at a constant pace with lesser efforts. After talking to a couple of people including A2 from RFL and Deepak I decided that I will not buy a geared cycle in a hurry. So I borrowed a couple of them including Deepak's Firefox Target. I finally used a Raleigh trail bike on which I practiced a couple of times. Compared to my ungeared bicycle in which I had to work hard to sustain an average speed of 17Kmph I found that I could do this much more easily and even hit 20-22Kmph with the geared cycles. A couple of more people from my apartment community were also participating in the event - so we arranged for a tempo to cart 5 bicycles from Domlur Layout to the starting point at BIEC.

A mailer from the organisers couple of days before the event informed the participants that the amateur ride distance had been changed from 50Km to 36Km due to traffic control reasons. This was disappointing news for many of us who wanted to do a longish ride. The so called expo at the Koramangla Indoor stadium was quite sad - there were hardly any stalls. Moreover there was only 1 counter giving Bibs for the amateur ride even on the Saturday before the event resulting in a long queue. Then they ran out of helmets which was part of the goodie bag and I understand thereafter they ran out of the bags themselves. Given that registrations were closed several days before the event I fail to understand how this can happen. Not surpisingly a few RFL runners who also cycle decided not to participate in the event after their experience at the expo.

Satish, Vani, Rahul, Venu and myself loaded our cycles in the temp around 630am and left from Domlur layout at 645am. We reached BIEC comfortably around 745am enjoying cheese sandwiches and boiled eggs thoughtfully brought by Vani enroute. Though I had feared that the tempo might be drive slowly and take longer to reach there(this was one of those mini-tempos) he actually reached there before us. We unloaded our bicycles and wheeled them to hangar 3 - the holding area for all the events. The infra in the holding area was decent - large and spacious, ample and clean restrooms, lot of stalls with water etc. There was also a lot of activity with people moving or even cycling around in their cycles. Satish, Venu and I moved to the area marked amatuer ride. I met up with several RFL runners : Manoj, Aswin, Amit etc . The event was supposed to start at 8:45am but there were absolutely no announcements as the time passed by. Finally, around 9:05am we were let out from the hangar to the starting point in 'waves' or batches. The start of the race was quite unimpressive. As soon as we started we went over a steep flyover and I thanked myself for riding a geared cycle. In general the route had quite a few gradients. It was great experience going down the NICE corridor with zero traffic. Our event probably had a thousand cyclists. The variety and colour of bicycles was quite amazing. I was mostly able to keep the speed slightly above 20Kmph at times touching 30Kmph.There were a large number of participants from MEG riding ungeared BSA bikes and most of them were faster than me!. Contrary to what was stated in the event booklet there were NO distance markers enroute. There were also no real aid stations - just saw one thinly equipped water station around the 10Km mark. Soon thereafter, when my Garmin showed that we had done about 13Km , we reached a point where lot of cyclists in front were turning around. The rider in front of me argued with someone standing on the road that we needed to go further ahead but he was directed to turn saying no one was going ahead. I followed suit and I think so did many other cyclists. I thought to myself that maybe the return leg has a slightly different route with some kind of a diversion of the main road or somethin. But that was not to be - it seems they had closed the 18K loop early. I ended up doing 26.7Km as per my Garmin in about 1 hour 20 minutes at an average pace of 3:02. There was also no clear finish line - apparently it was on the bridge that crossed Tumkur road.

It was very disappointing for all of us who had registered for the 50Km and eventually ended up doing a little over half that distance. It was not really worthwhile to go all that distance for this though the ride was quite enjoyable. In summary, it was an OK first attempt at a mass cycling event and it was nice to see so many cyclists come out a Sunday morning but for those of us looking for a sporting challenge it was disappointing! Rahul did his 5Km comfortably in under 20 minutes - though he had to rent a BSA cycle as he discovered a puncture in his cycle just before his event.