2010 Year end Musings (of a runner)

With the last training run and strengthening session of the year 2010 done it is time to reflect on the year gone by and look ahead at the goals for 2011.  By and large it has been another good year of running which includes making some fantastic new friends and strengthening bonds with other runner friends. I ran four full marathons, one 75K ultra and 81K at the Strides of Hope.  I also invested in a Schwinn  Searcher Sport  and did a long cycling trip thereby more or less achieving the goals I had set myself for 2010.

 2010 Highs

• My best marathon timing of 4:00:51 in India at SCMM 2010
• 75K at the Bangalore Ultra 2010 in course record time of 8:56:04
• PB 5K time of 22:55 at the Duathlon 2010
• My longest ever distance of 81Km run/walk at Strides Of Hope 2010
• Longest ever cycle ride to Nandi Hills covering 133Kms in 8hrs 15 mts

2010 Disappointments

• The transition times at the Duathlon 2010 that messed up my overall timing for the event
• Not being able to go for Athens marathon due to a personal reason
• Quads injury in August possibly due to the long cycle ride
• Missing my target times at ING Hartford marathon (FM)  and Midnight marathon (HM)  by a whisker

2011 Goals

• Sub 3:59 at SCMM 2011 - it will be challenge to shave nearly 2 minutes of my last year's timing
• Other marathons
• Auroville in February
• Hyderabad in August (target sub 3:55) - hopefully this will happen in 2011
• Kaveri Trail Marathon in September
• Bangalore Ultra Marathon in November (50Km or 75Km)
• Ambitious goal of sub 48 minutes in Sunfeast World 10K in May
• Stay on feet for 24 hrs and cover 120Km+ at Strides of Hope 2011 in January 

Of course, with a likely new job in 2011(31st December is my last day of work at my current job and I am starting 2011 with a few weeks off) I am a bit apprehensive as to whether I would be able to keep up my running schedule of the last few years. As usual I hope to start the New Year with a run - I have managed to do this since 2003. This year I am targeting 35K with a bunch of BHUKMP runners - my longest since Ultra 2010 and the last long run before SCMM 2011 two weeks away.

With Midnight Marathon done, the focus shifts to SCMM 2011

After the Midnight marathon on 18th December , where I ran a 'Half Marathon' , the focus now shifts to the Mumbai Marathon on 16th January 2011.  I had a reasonably good run at the MM completing the 22Km Half marathon in 1:52 at an average pace of  5:07 per Km (vis-a-vis an average pace of 5:02  per Km in 2009 and my target pace of  4:58). Yes, the race organisers goofed up badly in calibrating the run loop as a result of which HM runners ended up doing 22Km instead of 21.1Km and the FM runners 44Km instead of 42.2Km! It is ridiculous for such an error to happen in a professionally organised event specially as it was a straightforward road route that could have been  easily measured using a Garmin. What made it worse was when the race director from Crossover (Neeraj Varma) initially refused to accept that there was any issue with the distance calibration. When pressed and told that it was more than it should be he dismissed it casually saying as long as it is not short there was no issue - shows complete lack of appreciation of the training and effort required to run these distances.

The incorrect distance was not the only issue with the event this year which was poorly organised compared to last year. When we reached the bib collection counter around 10:30 PM after leaving our car in the parking lot of Ramagondanahalli School a few hundred meters away we were shocked to find that all HM Bibs were over. It looks like the organisers did not keep asid bibs for runners who had resgistered online in advance. After a long wait and lot of confusion runners were given bibs of other events such as the relay with HM scribbled on the bib. Soon even these bibs were over. And several HM runners ran without bibs - they were apparently given the timing chip free of charge. Collection of the timing chip was another big chaos with a long, slow moving line. Apparently these got over as well and several runners were left to run without one. I, like many othe runner friends, had decided not to take the chip - given that the timings were anyway not accurate last year. I collected my finishers medal and certificate(with time inserted as per my wish) soon after completing the run. Thirty minutes later there was a huge queue for this as well. And (what a surprise!) the organisers ran out of these well and have promised that they would be couriered to the runners. I understand non of the FM finsihers received either the medal or the certificate. With such a pathetically organised event I need to think hard whether to do this again next year. The only positive is the race itself cannot be easily screwed up since the run route is very short and this serves as a good tempo run towards my training fro Mumbai which follows a few weeks later.

The HM and FM were flagged off at about 12:14am after some announcements and speeches from the organisers and a local politician. I managed to pull myself away from the crowds after a few minutes and keep an average pace of 5:03 minutes per Km for the first two and half laps(11Km). The route was on one side of the divided road so there was complete traffic control. There were frequent water stations and thankfully the volunteers wanting to ink the bib at the turnaround point were missing. It was nice to see many familiar runners on the course multiple times - many doing the HM and several the FM. Chandra, Athreya and Manoj were running quite a blistering pace. My pace dropped  to 5:11 in the second half and I finished in 1:52:53. Though I missed my target by 3+ minutes(assuming about 1:48 for 21.1Km) I am satisfied. I was not feeling great either physically or mentally throughout the Saturday before the run and started the run lacking confidence that I would be able to hit my target. In any case I find it difficult to push hard in shorter distance runs compared to maintaining a reasonably steady pace in a longer run. Congratulations to fellow runners Meher and Amrita for finishing 1st and 2nd in women's FM and Arundhati and Neera for the 2nd and 3rd positions in women's HM - all of them have won decent prize money which is great!

My training has been below par the first two weeks of December - due to travel to Chennai in the 1st week of December for a wedding and short holiday(during which I ran only once) followed by travel to Tirunelveli where I had an upset stomach. However, with the 32.2Km run in 3:22 at GKVK this morning my training for Mumbai is back on track. The next two weeks are extremely critical in order to be in shape for a sub 3:59 on 16th January. I plan to do a tempo 10K run this week and next week with a fastish 20-25K in the weekend. And finally a 36Km  run on the 1st of January after which the tapering will start. Also need to ensure that one stays away from sickness and injury which ofcourse is never under one's control.

48 hours to Midnight marathon 2010

With just about 48 hours to go for this year's edition of Bengaluru Midnight marathon I do not feel as prepared and ready as I would like to be. With 2 birthdays, a wedding in Chennai and a small holiday in Mahabalipuram I have done less running than normal and much more eating than normal in the last 2 weeks. This has resulted in my adding about 4 Lbs of weight since this year's ultra . As a consequence I am quite apprehensive about bettering my time of  1:46:03 from last year. My goal is/was to run below 1:45 , that is, at an average pace of 4:58. It is certainly going to be very challenging. In general my body finds it much more difficult to sustain a fast pace for a longer period of time as compared to doing an average, steady pace for longer distances.  My strategy is going to be to try and do the first half  in under 52 minutes and the second in a bit over 53 minutes.

Hopefully the organisation of the race will be at least as good as last year.  The route is going to be the same. With an out and back loop of 2.1 Km traffic control and aid station support should not be an issue. I hope this time there are no volunteers at the turnaround point wanting to mark the bib of runners with ink. This was very annoying last year and  impacted the momentum of runners which anyway is affected by so many turnarounds. The short loops are also a  bit  boring more so for the  runners doing the FM which includes many of my friends from  RFL .  I have decided to run only HM in this event and use it as a tempo run for the FM in Mumbai in January.  While this event is not as well organised as RFL events it is reasonably popular being only one of two road races in Bangalore(the other one is the 10K held in May). Of course running at night, though not palatable to all runners,  is a unique experience!

Ultra(2010) experience

As mentioned in my previous post I had a great 75Km run at Bangalore Ultra 2010. However, the last few hours leading up to the start of the race was not that good. As  usual I was  quite restless the previous evening/night. (Thankfully I had a pretty good night's sleep the previous two nights which is important as most runners end up being tense and restless the night before the actual event). Though I had dinner around 8PM and went to bed just after 9PM I kept getting up to check that I had packed everything: towel, extra shoes, socks, T-shirt, cap, the energy bars etc etc. Eventually went to sleep around 1030PM and woke up before my alarm went off at 2:20 am. Praveen Singh picked me up around 3:15. With a roadblock on MG road due to the metro cosntruction work we got delayed a bit getting to the parking area outside Bowring Institute on St. Marks Road. Meanwhile Dharam had reached Cubbon Park and called a couple of times. When we finally got dropped off at Cubbon Park by Jugy at about 3:40am and I got into Dharam's car I suddenly realised that a plastic bag with my running shoes and the timing chip was missing. I was extremely flustered at this discovery and quite unsure as to what to do next when , much to my relief, a runner waiting for the RFL transport came by and gave the bag with the shoes . I was still quite disturbed and forgot to thank the good samaritan properly. Dharam and I set off in his car with the Vasu, Nari, Praveen and Sumanth following in Vasu's car. It was several minutes before I calmed down.  Fortunately, our drive was quite quick and we were able to get to Our Native Village in Hessaraghatta by 4:30am. The  large flourescent sign boards  providing directions to ONV placed thoughtfully by RFL along the way were useful specially those driving to the Ultra for the first time.

On the podium before start of the race

Starting the race

Of course, the starting area was buzzing with the energy of runners - a lot of familiar ones plus many new faces from Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and outside India. At the beginning of the path inside ONV leading up to the start area was a 'on-the-runner' baggage counter where runners could store small items that they may need at a later stage during their run such as sunglasses, cap, gels, energy bars etc. This was a useful innovation from RFL. I stored one energy bar and cap here while I carried another 1.5 energy bars with me. Next to the stage was a second baggage counter where I stored my bag with extra shoes, socks, shirt and towel. Runners were busy taking pictures, checking on each others' training, timing goals etc while waiting for the start of the race. LED torches were given out to runners starting at 5am as it was pitch dark at this point. After a few announcements from A1 and A2 including the course records for the various distances the run was flagged off at 5am sharp. Running in the dark with a torch was quite an experience. Though I have done this at Auroville marathon a couple of times. I felt quite unsure of myself and started off much slower than planned.  By the time we approached the 2nd Aid Station I had to take my first of several comfort breaks. By this time Nari and I were together. We pretty much stayed together for 2 and a half loops. It was great to see Santosh Padmanabhan running comfortably despite having run over 100Km since 5PM on Saturday(13th) along with Kavitha pacing him on her bicycle. It was highly inspiring  and every time I saw them I got renewed strength to continue my run. The run route was mostly same as the previous year - vast green fields with sparse trees along the way, damp grass, mostly red mud, stretches of narrow, uneven paths and a couple of gradients - all making it  a challenging race. The one difference in the route was the turnaround point. The grove of trees through which we ran after the road section before turning around had unfortunately been destroyed.So the turnaround was on the road section itself. Once it was daylight I was able to pick up pace and maintain it in the second loop.  Nari and I completed 25KM in about 2:38 as against our goal of 2:35. By this time I had eaten half an energy bar. Unfortunately, the weather gods were not as kind to us this  time unlike the last two years. By the time we started our third loop the sun was out nice and bright. It was clear that runners, specially those doing longer distances, were going to have a tough time in the warm weather.

Though it gets a bit boring to do 6.25Km out and back multiple times the great thing about this loop is that one gets to see the other  runners multiple times irrespective of the distance they are doing. The energy and enthusiasm that the comradarie and cheering each other generates is  amazing. As we were completing the 1st loop we met numerous familiar 50K runners. And then of course the 37.5K, 25K and eventually the 12.5K runners when doing the 3rd loop. Around the middle of the 3rd loop Nari started to slow down and fall behind.  I picked up my 2nd energy bar from the 'on-the-run' counter at the start of the 4rth loop. In this loop a few runner friends who were not participating in the event this year namely Gopal, Prasad and Mac joined me for a short while. Gopal actually ran with me almost the entire 4rth loop and this helped me tremendously Without his company and engaging conversation I would have definitely done a much slower time. I ended up doing the second 25Km  in a little over 3 hours nearly 10 minutes faster than my target.  Each time one went through the start point Atul or one of the other organisers enthusiastically called out the names of the runners - this was a nice tonic to start the next loop with.

Before starting my 5th loop I walked to the baggage counter and changed my shirt and also my socks and shoes. This of course involved transferring the bib and the chip. While transferring the chip and tying the shoe laces my quads cramped quite severely giving me a bit of a scare. However, I felt OK after I ran slowly to the aid station and refueled myself. Needless to say, the last two loops were very challenging. After about 55Km or so the legs started to hurt all over , specially the Quads, with occasional (mild) cramping. From this point on I stopped at every aid station, drank a lot of water and Lucozade, ate oranges and generously used the Volini spray on my legs. I then stretched for a few seconds and walked briskly for a few minutes before starting to run again. This is something that I had experimented with during my additional 16Km run/walk at KTM 2010. That  experience enabled me to cope with the tired legs and body and warm weather in a pre-determined manner and I was able to do close to 7:30 per Km pace when running.  I caught up with Chandra at the Aid Station around the 60Km  mark in the 5th loop and was able to slowly push ahead. By this time I was certain that I would be able to finish in about 9:15 or so.    

Surprisingly for me I felt really great in the 2nd half of the last loop even though it was past 1PM and  the few  runners on the trail were distributed sparsely. Once I realised that a sub 9 hr timing was within the realm of possibility I picked up pace and almost sprinted the last 2Kms finishing the race in just over 8 hours 56 minutes!! At this point in time I felt strong enough to  perhaps turn around and attempt one more loop - however I decided against that.  I think I am very fortunate that my body is able to handle heat better than most other runners.  Chandra finished a few minutes after me in 9:09. Praveen completed in 9:41 and Nari in 10:22 - the 3 of us doing our 1st 75Km at the Ultra!! I thought the lunch was quite ok this time around though many other runners felt otherwise.

Overall very satisfactory event including great organisation from the RFL team -despite the harsh warm weather runners enjoyed themselves thoroughly! Several runners did their longest ever distance and many achieved their PBs. And hats off  to the 100K runners ! Of course I was aching all over for a couple of days. Special mention must be made of the stiff upper back and a new purple toe that I collected . And the fact that the right glut and hamstrings were sore for longer than normal - it is ususally the left side that is weaker and hurts more.

Now on to the last event of the calendar year which will be a Half Marathon for me at the Midnight marathon on 11th December.

Great 75K run at Bangalore Ultra 2010

A quick post exactly one week after Bangalore Ultra 2010 to say that everything went as per plan on race day and I had an excellent run bettering my goal of 9:30 by a good margin. I finished my 75Km run quite strongly  in 8:56:04  - a course record for the distance - this despite the weather being much warmer than it has been the past two years. With an easy paced 11Km run today the recovery has also been quite smooth.

Lots of runners did amazing timings this year specially from BHUKMP. Click here for the list of winners and here for full results. Here are the top timings for some of the distances/categories.

37.5K Men's Open
1. Nitin Gupta 3:14:54     2. Thomas Bobby Philip 3:21:35  3. Abhishek Roy 3:32:39 

37.5K Men's Senior
1. Ashok Nath 2:58:26   2. Kothandapani K C 3:17:12    3. Ajith K 4:17:01 
37.5K Women's Open
1. Shilpa Deo 4:24:44     2. Vaishali Kasture 5:03:38 

50K Men's Open
1. Nigel Armstrong 3:57:04   2. R.Srinivasan 5:06:10   3. Priyankar Mukund 5:19:33 

50K Men's Senior
1. Paul Hemson 4:54:24  2. Siddesha 5:07:06  3. Daniel Richarad Vaz 6:14:27 

50K Women's Open
1. Meher D'Mello 5:09:12  2. Amrita Mitra 5:37:04 3. Roshni N Rai 7:01:12 

75K Men's Open
1. Bhasker Sharma 8:56:04 2. Chandra Sekhar Katuri 9:09:31 3. P Sundar 9:22:09

75K Men's Senior
1. Randeep Singh Arora 11:17:16 2. Jagdish Damania 12:27:34 3. Ravi Raman 13:09:54

75K Women's Open
1. Fumie Terahata 11:07:31 2. Vineeta Singh 11:23:20 3. Sabine Tietge 12:35:53

75K Women's Senior
1. Chandra Gopalan 12:59:39 

100K Men's Open
1. Jacob Boopalan 11:09:59 2. Athreya Chidambi 12:06:19 3. Praveen Kumar Vakde 12:39:04 

100K Women's Open
1. Cath Todd 11:03:00  2. Emma Rogan 11:33:12 

Countdown to Bangalore Ultra 2010

With the Bib and T-shirt collected a couple of days ago, the last training run done and the pre-race ritual of a haircut and nail clipping completed, the 48 hours countdown   to the 4rth edition of the Bangalore Ultra on 14th November has commenced. And the excitement and nervousness is building up among the running community in Bangalore. Any RFL event is now highly anticipated by the running community in India and the ultra is ofcourse the most challenging of these events. Personally for me this is going to be the longest run in a race(not counting the 81K run/walk at Strides of Hope in February 2010). After running 52K at the 1st edition of the Ultra in 2007 and 50K in 2008 and 2009 I am targeting the 75K this year.  With training runs of 58K and 53K within the last 2 months I am reasonably prepared for this. The lingering mild cold and sore throat is a bit of a concern. And of course the various (hopefully imaginary) aches and pains - which runners experience during the last few days leading up to a race. I know it is eventually going to be a battle of the mind on race day. Though the route has changed a bit this year it is still a 6.25Km out and back course. Running 6 laps to complete 75K could get a bit boring (and lonely towards the end) .This will certainly add to the challenge. One will also have to see how it will be to have 800 runners on the trail at the same time. I assume some of the faster 25K and 37.5K runners will be hindered a bit.

With over 50 runners registered to run distances of 75K and 100K this Sunday, the Bangalore Ultra has come a long way in the last 4 years mirroring the growth of long distance running community in the country. There are several good friends from RFL who are among the 27 runners registered to do the 75K this year: Praveen Singh, Dharam, Chandra Gopalan, Sabine, Preeti, Nari, Jugy etc. And ofcourse Chandra Karturi will be doing it for a 3rd year in a row!! He was the winner in the 75K category last year with a time of 9:21:45.

Here is a summary of the top mens performers  of the last 3 years for this distance:

2007 (78K)

1 Jacob Boopalan 7:38
2 Mukesh Singh 8:57
3 Madhu Avasarala 9:03

(Note : these are amazingly awesome timings!!)

2008  (75K)
1 Athreya Chidambi 9:05:43
2 Chandrasekhar K 9:30:00
3 Subramanian K 10:39:19

Senior
1 Sunil Chainani 11:20:14

2009 (75K)
1 Chandra Sekhar Katuri 9:21:45
2 Navin Thangiah 10:19:52
3 Nandesh P 11:37:40

Senior
1 Jagannath Raju 11:16:25
2 Rahul Varghese 11:30:30
3 Ajit Oak 14:58:00

My goal is to try and complete the 75K in around 9.5 hours at an overall average pace of 7 minutes 36 seconds per Km. Depending on how it goes I would be thrilled if my timing is close to 9 hours. However, I will be quite satisfied if I am able to complete in under 10 hours and feel strong at the end. Dividing the race into three parts of 25K each my plan is as follows:
- First  25K in about 2 hours 35 minutes at an average pace of 6:15 per Km
- Middle 25K in about 3 hours 10 minutes at an average pace of 7:30 per Km
- Final 25K in about 3 hours 45 minutes at an average pace of 9 minutes per Km
 
I have set the high pace alert in my Garmin to 5:35 per Km to avoid going too fast(in the first couple fo laps!) and low pace alert to 8:45 to manage the average pace during the last two laps.
 
Finally I hope the weather is as perfect as it was the last two years with the sun not coming out till after 2PM. Here's wishing the RFL organising team and all the runners a wonderful, enjoyable event!!

Kicking off my Annual fundraising for Dream A Dream

Like the last few years I am kicking off my annual fundraising campaign for Dream A Dream this Diwali in the middle of the long distance running season in India.  The long distance running season started for me with the Kaveri Trail Marathon on September 19th. I then ran the Hartford marathon on 9th October as I happened to be in the area on work.  Between now and the end of the running season in February 2011 I plan to do the following events:

• 75K at the Bangalore ultra on 14th November 2010 (update: completed in 8:57)
• Half Marathon at the Midnight marathon on 11th December 2010 (update: completed [22K] in 1:52)
• Full Marathon at Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon on 16th Janaury 2011
• Auroville Marathon on 13th February 2011

Through the above runs I hope to raise another Rs 2.2 Lakhs to add to the Rs 35,000 that I managed to raise in October as part of the India Giving challenge. As many of my friends and relatives who have been supporting me the last few years are aware I have been involved with Dream A Dream since 2006 as a fund raiser,volunteer in the IT and mentoring programs  and more recently as a board member(since August 2009).

Founded in 1999, Dream A Dream empowers children from vulnerable backgrounds by developing life skills while at the same time sensitizing the community through active volunteering leading to a non-discriminatory society where unique differences are appreciated.

Dream A Dream provides children from vulnerable backgrounds with non-traditional educational opportunities designed to allow them to explore, innovate and build important life skills. These life skills are fundamental to child/youth development and to the successful transition into adulthood and becoming fully functioning and productive members of our society. Dream A Dream programs allow children to develop:

· Interpersonal skills including teamwork, communications, negotiation and coping skills
· Cognitive skills such as decision-making, problem solving and critical thinking
· Creativity, confidence, self-awareness and a passion for learning

Contributions can be made in the following ways:

- Via check favouring 'Dream A Dream' - this can be snail mailed to me at 242, Ranka Heights,4th Main,7th Cross, Domlur Layout, Bangalore 560071

- Online in INR via   http://www.giveindia.org/give/pledgepage/Bhasker2010
- Online in other currencies via http://www.ammado.com/nonprofit/dream-a-dream or

http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/empowering-vulnerable-children-through-life-skills/

Looking forward to your support again!!!

Boston Marathon 2011 registrations close in record time

The above blurb is from the Boston Athletics Association website homepage. With the registrations closing in just over 8 hours , several runners who had qualified for the race missed out on registering either due to lack of time or due to snags in accessing the site for on-line registration. Following quotes of Guy Morse the executive director of BAA are from the article Rush to web snags runners.

Asked if there would be changes for 2012 — whether it is expanding the field, toughening qualifying times, narrowing the qualifying window, or holding a lottery — Morse said, “That’s a pretty good bet that we’ll attempt to alleviate the situation one way or another in 2012 and beyond. But it’s too early to predict what that might be, but there are lots of ideas out there.’’

Morse anticipates making an announcement about 2012 qualification shortly before next April. In the interim, ideas from runners denied registration to the 2011 race likely will keep coming. So far, they’ve suggested everything from staggering registration to a system for replacing no-shows.

Boston Marathon was never a race for everyone  argues that Boston is not for every runner and the only fair way to limit the field is to tighten qualifying times.

As A struggle to the starting line states I personally hope BAA does not take the path of tightening qualifying times. If they do that then it would be impossible for me to qualify in this life time - even now it looks extremely challenging.  Have included details of this article below,

BECAUSE OF improved training techniques and the growing popularity of the sport, the number of runners who qualify for the Boston Marathon is on the rise — so much so that a frenetic dash by thousands to register for the 2011 event overwhelmed race organizers last Monday. In the future, the Boston Athletic Association should adjust by modestly expanding the field, and resist the temptation to toughen its already strict qualifying standards.

Last year, online registration was open for two months before the number of runners reached the cap of 26,800, including charity participants. This year, a combination of forces, including electronic registration reminders from the BAA and a surge in interest by qualified runners, pushed the system to the breaking point. The results: the field filled in less than a day, to the dismay of runners who couldn’t stay at their computers as the BAA dealt with the enormous demands on its website.

Boston doesn’t need to become a mega-marathon, along the lines of New York and Chicago, which host upwards of 40,000 runners. The prestige of Boston, the oldest marathon in the nation, is rooted in its rigorous qualifying times and smaller size. But the physical course and medical supports along the way could likely accommodate a few thousand more runners.

The open question is whether towns along the route would accept longer road closures and other potential disruptions. But accepting a bit more inconvenience is a small price for accommodating an event that contributes so mightily to the state’s image and economy.

The worst option on the table would be to tamp down the potential number of racers by tightening qualifying times. The current times, which vary by age and sex, strike a healthy balance: For a dedicated amateur runner, they’re challenging but not necessarily unreachable. Toughening them could play havoc with some runners’ training plans.

If expanding the field doesn’t satisfy demand, BAA might consider a lottery system to reduce the field of qualified but non-elite runners. Tradition-minded BAA officials don’t relish the idea, but there may not be any fairer way to limit the field at a time when interest in competitive running is so high.

Hartford marathon : further analysis

The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy...It is not age; it is not diet. It is the will to succeed - Jacqueline Gareau , Boston Marathon winner 1980

This quote sums up what I went through at the Hartford marathon on 9th October 2010.  With a stronger will to succeed I should have handled the pain better and finished closer to my goal of 3:55. If I had avoided stopping in one less time I would have made it a few seconds under 4 hrs.   I was doing quite fine till about 32Km. After that the cramps in lower legs started and I started to slow down quite a bit. The last mile was really terrible. I had to stop multiple times to stretch and walk as a result of which the last mile took me 12 minutes nearly 3 minutes more than my avergae pace of 9:10 per mile. This is the first time ever I had such severe cramps in a run.

Based on  write-ups about causes of leg cramps in articles such as Toe cramps cause   and What Can be Done About Toe Cramps? it looks like my new pair of shoes was to blame. I had done only a couple of 10Ks and one 25K with this pair  before the marathon.  All my previous marathons have been run with a Addidas Supernova cushion which has now been discontinued and replaced with Addidas Supernova Glide and this was my first real long un with the Glide.  The other possible reason for the cramps, apart from the new pair of shoes, could be fatigue factor. That is my legs had not fully recovered from the 58Km at KTM 2010 that I had run just 20 days before this race. Other useful articles on this subject that I found are How to to prevent foot cramps while running  and Help with running cramps.

Two weeks after a slightly disappointing run  at Hartford  I did a 53K trail run with the same pair of shoes albeit much slower. I did this at a trail in Whitefield completing 42.2Km in 4:49 and an overall time of  6 hrs 15 minutes for another 11Km. Therefore, I have also concluded that running a fast marathon say at an average pace below 6 minutes per Km has a high probability of causing cramps for me. This is also consistent with the struggle I had finishing Mumbai 2010 in 4 hours. I therefore need to train specifically to be able to do a stronger last 10Km while running close to 5:40 per Km average pace. Maybe I need to look at interval training something that I have not done so far and also need to strengthen my calf muscles.

 
Following is an analysis of the split timings of my four best full marathon timings.

Race	1st Half	20 mi/32K	Finish	Last 10.2K
National Marathon Washington DC (21March09)	1:55:10	2:58:34	3:56:49	59:15
Hartford Marathon(9Oct10)	1:53:59	2:56:46	4:00:03	63:17
SCMM(17Jan10)	2:12:55(24Km)	2:45:21(29.7Km)	4:00:56
Richmond Marathon(10Nov07)	1:59:58	3:05:17	4:04:09	58:52

From the above I feel that I sould have been able to do a sub 3:57 at Hartford if the cramps had not hit me.
In order to achieve this   I need to do 32K in 2:57 and the last 10.2K in sub 60 minutes. My training program for a fast FM needs to focus towards achieving this.  Though my medium term goal is to improve my FM pace and achieve sub 3:52 in SCMM 2013(3:55 in SCMM 2012 following 3:59 in SCMM 2011) I decided to  stay with 75K at the Bangalore Ultra 2010. I felt that the sooner I get  the longer one out of the way  the better it will be for my focus on improvin my FM pace.

Impromptu marathon at Hartford CT

My unplanned 25th FM(28th including the 3 ultras) - the ING Hartford Marathon on 9th October was a bit if a disappointment. After the KTM on September 19th my next planned race was the Bangalore ultra on November 14th. However, when a sudden work related trip to NJ happened on 4th Oct and I found out that the Hartford marathon was scheduled the following weekend I was tempted to give it a shot. Considering my recent running form I felt this was a good opportunity to try and leverage the fall weather and see if I could do a sub 3:55 as a milestone towards my target of a 3:45 in a couple of years. Online registration was closed before I left India. I couriered the filled entry form plus the required waiver form and a copy of my photo id to my sister Mrs. Uma Narayanan as soon as I reached NJ. It was due to her efforts that I was even able to register for the event less than 48 hours before the race on 7th Oct afternoon. In fact, this race is dedicated to Uma and her husband Venkat who chauffered me back and forth a few times over the weekend. I felt quite good when Uma dropped me off at the starting point on 9th morning around 7:15am and with the buzz of runners all around I felt a 3:55 might be achievable. My fallback goal was to better my previous PR of 3:56:49 at the National marathon in Washington DC in March 2009 and worst case plan was to do my second sub 4 FM. I missed all the 3 goals finishing in 4:00:02 – my disappointment was not with my absolute timing(it is still my second best ever) but with the fact I did not meet or better the time target I had set myself for the race – something that has not happened for a while now – probably KTM 2008 and London 2006 would fall in this category. Missing my goals also made be introspect as to whether the effort and money spent in registration was really worthwhile. However, now more than 48 hours after the event I feel that this setback was a timely jolt to bring me down to earth and help me train harder and better with clear focus on goals. It clearly made me realise that doing a 3:45 even in US fall weather is going to be very very challenging for me and weill require a lot of hard work in the next couple of years. Perhaps the focus needs to be more on quality rather than quantity , that is, I need to cut down the number of races to run. Also I need to rethink whether to stay with the 75K at the Bangalore ultra or change it to a 50K in order to focus on a 3:59 SCMM 2011. My path to Boston qualification is to do a sub 3:55 SCMM 2012 and a sub 3:52 SCMM 2013 and hope that I can shave 7 minutes off of that in a well planned, well executed run in the US in fall of 2013. Of course, all this is a long way off and subject to staying healthy and  injury free for next 3 years. While I got over my disappointment of missing my time target fairly quickly I felt terrible for John Durham whom I met and interacted with in the holding area. John ran this race for the 3rd time - last year he missed the Boston qualifying time by a couple of minutes finishing in 3:38. Yes, John is exactly my age. He was hoping to crack the 3:35 timing this year. Unfortunately, he missed it by less than a minute finishing in 3:36:41!!

I reached Uma’s place from NJ around 6PM on 8th evening, got my race gear ready and went to sleep around 10PM with the alarm set for 5:20am. For the first time ever I changed my Garmin to show distance and pace in miles instead of Km. As usual I ended up waking  a few minutes before the alarm rang. We left home around 6:15am as planned and had a fairly smooth ride to Hartford. As soon as we exited the Capital Avenue ramp we saw waves of runners crossing the road. So I got dropped off there and made my way to the holding area where the baggage UPS trucks were parked. That is where I met and chatted up with John. Both of us walked together towards the starting line around 7:40am after I checked in my bag. Given the temperature of 11 degrees Celsius and sunny weather I decided to run in the hallf sleeves dri-shirt rather than full sleeves. A few minutes later I dashed off and joined the queue to use the potty while John went to the starting line. Ofcourse, I did not meet John again as by the time I came to the starting line it was very crowded and I had to squeeze my way to stand between the 3:50 pacer and 4:00 pacer. Unfortunately, this race did not have a 3:55 pacer which is strange as I expected a pacer for every 5 minutes time as was the case in the National marathon at DC.





Finish was just after this arch



The race started from Capitol Avenue in the center of Hartford a couple of minutes past 8am , after a prayer , a couple of speeches from some officials(have not experienced this in any of the other US marathons earlier) and after the wheelchair race and 5K race were kicked off. With both FM and HM runners starting together the start area was very congested. However, once the FM and HM runners separated around the 1.6 miles point things were much better. I started at a good pace covering the 1st mile in a little over 8 minutes – versus my target average pace of 8:58 per mile for a 3:55 finish. I kept a pace of around 8:30/8:35 for the next several miles getting to the 10 mile mark in about 85 minutes at an average of 8:30. Around this point the 3:50 pace leader over took me. The route had more gradients than I expected and took us through the riverfront park of Hartford. In this stretch I met a woman runner who had run this marathon last year when she was pregnant and was now running it again 6 months after delivering her baby( she had also done a 100 mile ultra last year). She just took off and should have finished way before I did. I felt very strong when I hit the halfway mark around 1:54 – I drank a cup of water at every other water station(every other mile) and by now had consumed most of my energy bar. The next 7 miles were definitely tougher but when I hit 20 miles at 2:56 I felt a 3:55 was possible . However, after the 20 mile mark I started to fade pretty rapidly. Both my lower legs started hurting with cramps. At times the feet and the toes froze completely and refused to move. I had started sipping Gatorade at every aid station the last few miles. However,  I had to walk for a few minutes after every aid station before being able to run again. On top of that strong headwinds also affected my pace adversely. By the 24 mile mark I knew that I had blown 3:55. And as I stopped to stretch a couple of times in the 25th mile at 3:49 I knew that a sub 3:57 was also gone and the only thing to focus on was a sub 4. But at this time I think the mind pretty much gave up - something that has never ever happened to me before. I could not carry on through the pain and stopped and walked a few times too many. Some spray on both the legs might have helped but I did not find any at the aid stations. As a result when I crossed the finish line after the Bushnell Park arch with gritted teeth my Garmin showed 4 hrs. I was hoping I had managed just under 4 hr finish but of course,later, I found that my official chip time was 4:00:02! A lot of ifs and buts went through my mind. I could not understand the cause of the severe cramps in both my lower legs – calves, feet and toes. Was it because I ran the 1st half too fast?. I had my usual 3 bananas before the race, 1 energy bar in the first 15 miles and kept hydrating myself. It was not very hot and I did not sweat much so I could not have lost excess salt and other minerals. I was tempted to blame the travel and the hectic work week but this is not my first experience of running in such circumstances. I did not like the course that much and that could have had a role. Another thing is I was probably more timing focused in this race than in most other races which also meant I did not enjoy it as much - neither the chit-chat with fellow runners nor the ambience of the route(which anyway was average). One notable positive was live music every couple of miles in the course. Llater in the day at home when I researched some literature on foot cramps(more on this in the next post)  I realized that the most probable causes were : 1) new shoes – I had done just one 25K run with this pair of shoes 2) over running – having done a grueling 58K just 3 weeks ago. While I definitely need to replan and rethink my training to improve beyond sub 4 timing , in retrospect, I do now feel much more confident that a sub 4 at least in the US fall or spring weather conditions is definitely doable with better planning and preparation.

The results tent in the finish area was very chaotic. There were print outs of results in no particular order scattered all over the table with runners scrambling to look for their names. There were laptops for online search for results that had glitches. Mine and those of several runners gave an error message for a while. When I went back nearly 45 minutes after finishing the race then I was able to find my results online. The food for the finishers was also not that great – cookie, veg soup, apple, chips etc. I reached back home just before 2 PM determined to refocus my training and efforts to improve my FM finish timings. As part of this I need to make a decision on the distance to run at the Bangalore ultra. I will decide this by the end of the week depending on my recovery as well as a few other factors. Had a decent  first run 48 hours after the marathon - a 38 minutes/5Km today(Monday) morning.



The winner of the Hartford marathon , Michael Wardian, won his 6th marathon of the year -finishing this one in 2hrs 24 minutes 38 seconds. See report here.





KTM 2010 experience

Almost exactly a week since the 2010 edition of KTM I seem  to have fully recovered from the run. However, recovery has been much slower than usual. Though I felt  fine on the evening of the event my body was very sore for the next couple of days due to which I found it tough to get a good nights sleep. Doing the additional 16Km in that terrain and heat took its toll. Usually I do my first ,  short recovery run within 48 hrs(Tuesday after the sunday event). This time I did a slow 4K on Wednesday and then a 7K on Friday  - I struggled in both these runs. It was only after a decent 13K on Saturday that I felt fully recovered and back to my normal self. Nevertheless, I am very satisfied with my achievement of having managed to run/walk 58Km in tough conditions after a good FM finish. As per the official timings on the Timing India results page for KTM 2010 I completed the FM in 4:32:04 finishing 23rd overall and 2nd in the senior category!

On Saturday 18th September we (Chandru, Ravi, Prateek and myself) left Domlur just before 3PM in my brother Chandru's car. Bangalore traffic being at its Saturday afternoon worst it took as an hour to get out of the city and reach the Raja Rajeshwari flyover. After that it was pretty fast going and after one short break in between we reach the start point of the race next to Ranganathittu bird sanctuary a little after 630PM in fading light. The RFL staff was setting up the podium on the starting line. We walked a few hundred meters on the trail so that Ravi and Chandru(both doing their first HM event) could get a feel of the uneven terrain. We reached Country Club located about 10Kms from the race start point a little after 7PM. The room there was just about average and OK for a nights rest before the race. After  an early dinner of dal, roti, and very spicy kadai vegetables we were pretty much asleep by 10PM after deciding to leave by 5:40am in the morning.  I slept well - undisturbed by the heavy traffic on the two major roads at the intersection of which Country Club was located. I had my alarm set for 5am and as usual woke up a few minutes before it rang. Chandru was already up and getting ready.  Thankfully there was no after effect of the spicy dinner. We left Country Club at 540am as planned in coool(almost cold )weather conditions and reached the race venue in less than 20 minutes. I consumed my customery 3 bananas before we left the room. As I was planning to try and run more than 42.2 Kms I carried two energy abrs with me instead of the one that I carry for long runs of over 30km. At the race venue cars were steadily streaming in and being parked on the side of the highway and runners were pouring out of them. As we walked from the parking area to the start point the whole place was abuzz with runners greeting each other and checking about their travel,  time targets etc.



Just before start of FM



The start area was crowded as many of the HM runners had also arrived. It was great to meet and greet a number of familair runners including Dan zico and Amit Joshi from Mumbai. After some brief announcements (as part of which A1 cautioned first timers that though the weather was deceptively cool it would warm up considerably later and one should not be targeting a PB at this event!) the FM started on the dot at 630am. Several  runners took off quite quickly - I started with a pace of about 6:10 per Km and then gradually slowed down. In the first leg I chatted with quite a few runners - Jugy, Senthilanand, Srinivas etc.The trail was pretty much as expected - uneven with frequent patches of embedded stones and grass or other shrubs. One had to constantly keep a vigil to ensure the foot was landing correctly apart from watching out for cows, cowdung, bullock carts and an occasional tractor. Nevertheless, one cannot but soak in the beautiful verdant scenery with the Kaveri canal on one side and  Paddy and sugarcane fields on the other. The pollution free rural setting makes for a great run ambience.  The route was mostly flat except for a gravel strewn gradient around the 9.5Km mark.  After about 40 minutes from start time I started getting overtaken by the faster HM runners including Ashok who was running as effortlessly as ever.

I completed the first half as planned in 2:10  averaging under 6:15 per Km and felt quite strong at this stage. I consumed most of my first energy abr by now. The name on the bib was an excellent feature of this year's event. This enabled runners to call out names of runners they did not know personally and encourage them which is always a morale booster for every runner. This also enabled one to put names to several familiar runners.   While returning to the start point I encountered the 10K  runners some of who were running at a very fast pace. At this time all the 800+ runners were on the trail and it was not as bad as I had thought it would be. I thought that on the narrow sections of the trail one might be impeded by other runners but that was not the case. Yes there were a few points  of congestion but for most runners who were not targeting stringent time goals this was not an issue. Pravin Kumar Takde who finished in an amazing course record timing of 3:17:44 looked extremely strong when I saw him returning on his last quarter of the race. I felt very strong till the turn around on the second loop. After that the impact of the heat began to be felt. When I started the race I was targeting around 4:45. around the 30Km  mark I felt I could do a 4:30. However, as I still wanted to run as close to 60Km as possible I decided to slow down. Around this point I went past Dan who was struggling due to the effect of the heat. I had consumed my 2nd energy bar by now. The aid stations that were just 2Kms apart were a great boon. This is another learning from the previous editions that RFL had made it a point to implement. Any fewer number of aid stations would have made it even more gruelling for the runners and they would not have enjoyed the experience as much. I hydrated myself constantly with water and Lucozade. After the 30Km mark I carried a bottle of Lucozade with me sipping it every few hundred meters. I completed the FM fairly comfortably in 4:32:04 to cheering runners and RFL crew. I had the energy to pick up pace in the last couple of Kms but wisely decided against it.  I handed my medal to Ashok for safe-keeping, filled my water bottle and started on the third loop.

By now (past 11am) the heat had picked up considerably. Of course, while it was warm and humid and many first time KTM'ers felt the conditions were less than ideal for marathon running upto this point I had I felt that it was less hot and humid compared to my previous FM experience here in 2008. I also heard the same from runners who had participated last year. Nevertheless, from here on it got extremely tough - not only was the heat overbearing -  the legs were hurting and it was a hard battle of the mind over body to continue.  I decided to slow down considerably to a 7:15 per Km pace. I also resorted to run/walk which I normally do not adopt . Even in the 3 Bangalore ultras that I have completed I have not walked much. But sensing the gruelling conditions and with the intention of at least covering a 55Km distance I changed my tactic. At about 3Kms mark I met Nari returning from his 3rd loop. He joined me and we ran/walked together for a bit.However, he soon gave up and took the motorbike back. I would not be honest if I said I did not contemplate doing the same. The mind kept reminding me that I had done a decent FM and all this additional effort was quite unnecessary. However, I proceeded  by setting small, manageable goals in my mind - of running upto the tree a few hundred meters away or till I overtook another runner and then walking a bit before running again. I stretched the goal from the 4Km water point to the 5Km turnaround point, then the 7Km water point. I finally turned around at the 8Km mark as I realised that it might take me close to 8 hours to do 63Km. With the food counter scheduled to close at 2PM I decided to try and be back at the start point by 1:30PM. I crossed 50Km with my  Garmin showing 5:46 - taking 24 minutes for the same distance compared to my performance in Bangalore Ultra 2009. My pace slowed down considerably and with the legs fully fatigued I tripped on the stones embedded in the trail several times. This was my lucky day as despite tripping at least 8 times(5 of them in the last 16 Kms) I managed to regain my balance each time . On another day I could very easily have fallen down and hurt myself. Every time I tripped I paused to drink some water and walked for a few meters before jogging again. The volunteers at the aid stations were very helpful. I got my water bottle filled a couple of times.I also experimented by eating a few Parle-G biscuits and peanut butter jelly sandwiches which I have never done before. I paused and stretched at many of the aid stations. My hamstrings and quads were completely shot by the time I touched 55Km so when a volunteer at the first/last aid station offered to use the spray on my legs I gladly accepted it. This gave renewed strength to my legs and I was able to run  the next 2 Kms at a decent pace. I was expecting to complete 58Kms in a little over 7 hours but thanks to this I managed it in 6:57 finishing in peak heat at 1:27PM!! Besides 2 energy bars, some bsicuits and sandwiches I had consumed 2 500ml bottles of Lucozade and at least the same quantity of water during the run.  Though I was tired and hurting I realised that the left Quads that  had been stressed a few weeks earlier did not bother me during the run which was a great relief for the season ahead.

Chandru and I had lunch  around 2PM at Young Island and then along with Hiren and Anuradha we drove back to Bangalore reaching home by 6PM.  I celebrated my run in the evening with a couple of glasses of red wine. Though I had run 58Kms in challenging conditions I did not lose any weight - by next morning my weight was back to 60Kgs/132 lbs. In fact, for 2-3 days after the run I felt ravenous and ate more than usual. While I had achieved my goal of training for a ultra I have  decided to give this year's GR 100 Bhati Lakes 2010 a miss and have registered for the 75Km event at the Bangalore Ultra on 14th November.

Nearing the end of 1st loop



Finishing the FM



KTM 2010 : My Second longest ever run..in tough conditions

A quick post to report that I had an excellent run at the 4th edition of Kaveri Trail Marathon yesterday(19th September). I completed my 27th marathon(including 3 ultras) quite comfortably in approx 4:32(official chip timing awaited) - well within my target time of 4:45 and 10 minutes faster than my timing in KTM 2008. This gave me 2nd position in the senior category behind Sid who finished in about 4:10.  As planned,  I continued running the third loop which was extremely tough as it had become very hot after 11am. However, I managed to run/walk and complete another 16Km(I turned around at the 8Km mark)  minutes thereby clocking a total of 58Km in 6 hrs 57 minutes - again meeting my goal of doing between 55Km and 60Km as training for a longer run within the next 60 days. This is my second longest distance ever after my 81Km in 13+ hours in Strides of Hope in February 2010. Will post more details of the run with some pictures and official timings by end of the week .

Preview of KTM 2010

I collected my bib for the 4rth edition of the Kaveri Trail Marathon(KTM)  (19th September) on the way back from an  easy paced  15K/1:37 run today at Cubbon Park/Sankey road followed by breakfast at Konark hotel with a bunch of fellow runners.  And am now pretty much set for my 1st Full Marathon of the season after a break of over 6 months - the last Full Marathon + run being the Strides of Hope a week after Auroville 2010. As usual, in the week leading up to a race I plan to run a 9K and a 6K on Tuesday and Thursday respectively.

After today's run following the  35.8K/3:48 last Sunday I feel re-assured that the quads injury is behind me. KTM is one of the most beautiful and at the same time gruelling races in the country. With one of the Kaveri canals on one side and beautiful open fields on the other side of the trail it is very picturesque. However, the uneven terrain, humidity and heat with very little shade cover makes it tough for runners.  I have run the FM at KTM only once - in 2008. It was the 3rd of my 12 marathons in 12 months and my slowest finish in that series with a time of 4:42:16.  I ran the HM in the 1st edition of KTM in 2007 - having run a FM in Richmond, Virginia just 8 days before the event. Last year(2009) I gave the event a miss - as I took a couple of months break from distance running  after completing the  12 in 12 in July 2009.

In my current form and fitness level I should be able to do better than my 2008 timing at KTM. However, I am thinking of being on the trail for the 6.5 hours that Runners for Life is planning to support runners on the course. If I manage to do that successfully I should be able to do between 55Km and  60Km - this will enable me to test whether I am ready to take on the 50 miler at the Globeracer event Bhati Lakes 100 miler on 19th October. Therefore, I am looking at maintaining an average pace of between 6:40 and 7 minutes per Km which should still enable me to complete the FM in about 4:45. Of course, a lot is going to depend on the weather that morning and how the first loop(21Km) goes. And I will need to strongly resist the temptation to make a fast start with the other FM runners. Also, with a participation of nearly 1000 runners across the 3 event categories(FM, HM, 10K) the route will be crowded after 8am and this could affect the average pace for some period time. One good thing is that the FM is scheduled to start at 630am this year.Also, I will be having the company of ultra runner Santosh   who is also doing 60Km+ plus at KTM as part of his training for the 100 miler at the GR event.    Any which way I am looking forward to enjoying the ambience and the race and do the best I can!!

 Due to the slightly earlier start most runners(including myself) are driving to the Srirangapatnam/Mysore area the previous afternoon so that they can get a good night's rest before the race. It is great see to an event that started out in 2007 as a training run for the 1st Bangalore Ultra grow in stature to be such a popular event by itself. This year more than 50% of the participants are doing the HM. About 140 runners have registered for the FM and the remaining 300+ will be doing the 10Km. Once again, looking forward to the fun next Sunday!

Month end musings August 2010

August has been a mixed bag. Started the month with the 'Mega' cycle ride to Nandi Hills on 1st August that I enjoyed tremendously. The following weekend , that is, 6th through 8th August I spent in Sankarnagar in Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu. During this weekend the Lucozade Urban Stampede was held - the 3rd edition of the event was a great success with participaton from 294 teams from 81 companies and 22 non-corporate teams. Once again Toyota bagged the top two positions. See here for all winners of this edition. Three teams from my company Mformation participated in this years and all the runners had a great time with many of them doing their personal best times. Having been involved in conceptualising and sponsoring the 1st edition of Urban Stampede it is a pleasure to see the event grow in size and stature.

Though I had a couple of very enjoyable runs at Sankarnagar soon after return I started suffering from a niggle in my left quads. Despite the pain the left quads I ran a decent 27K on 15th August at EGL. However, towards the end of that week the quads started to hurt quite a bit. Therefore after consulting with sports-physio Preeti, I decided to skip the RFL Nandi hills run on 22nd August. It turned out to be a great run based on reports and pictures from fellow runners who participated. I can imagine how it must have been - having experienced it myself 3 years ago- the only time I have run up and down Nandi hills. Well, it looks like forgoing the Nandi hills run and a forced lay-off from running and cycling is the price I have to pay for the Nandi Hills cycling during which period I ran 70Km and cycled 150Kms in a space of 8 days. At least that is what I think caused the stress in the quads. The only other possiblity is my shoes. I have over-used my current pair and am trying to break into a new pair - this transition could have also caused the stress. I have stayed with Addidas Super Nova cushion ever since I started long distance running 9 years ago. This model has now been replaced by Addidas Glide. Since I have not had any issue with the Super Nova cushion I assume the likelyhood of the shoe being responsible for the quads strain is low. Ofcourse, one can never tell.

Anyway, for 7 days from 20th to 26th August I stayed off running and cycling - my longest involuntary lay-off since the knee injury of 2003. I do consider myself fortunate to have stayed injury free for an extended period of time and hope that I have the good fortunate to stay with similar frequency of injury related lay-off(which is part and parcel of a runners life!). Forced lay-offs are never fun for a runner - it always makes me feel miserable and low on enthusiasm and energy. One gets the feeling during this period that one is likely to put on weight. Even my truncated strengthening sessions at Manipal did not got too well.

After nearly two weeks I ran a slow 21K today - my left leg (quads and toes) did not feel too good towards the end. Feel very worried and apprehensive about the upcoming Kaveri Trail Marathon and the 2010-11 running season. I had planned the following over the next 6 months:

• 
  
  Kaveri Trail Marathon(KTM) on Sept 19th
• Globeracers Bhati Lakes 100 miler on Oct 17th - 50 miles (tentative)
• Bangalore Ultra on November 14th - 50K if I do 50 miles above or else 75K if I skip the above
• Bangalore Midnight marathon Mid-December - probably a fast HM
• Mumbai marathon - January 16th 2011
• Auroville marathon - Feb 20th 2011

Now, I will  tune the above depending on how my left leg takes the full marathon at KTM. As of today it looks like I will have to skip the 50 miles at Bhati Lakes 100 miler and do the usual 50K at the bangalore ultra. Will know by this time in 3 weeks!

Blissful weekend in Sankarnagar

This post is mainly not about running - it is about my visit to Sankarnagar where I got a couple of good runs in and visited a few temples in the vicinity. I took a day (6th August) off from work to accompany my uncle, Mr. Krishnamurthy, to Sankarnagar in Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu. The main purpose was to visit Gita Krishnamurthy Vidyalaya (GKV) - a free school for under-privileged children set up by him and meet with the main trustees of Sri Jai Sankara Educational Trust who are helping setup and run GKV besides running the Sri Jayendra Golden higher Secondary School(SJGHSS). Overall it was a fantastic trip with wonderful hospitality from the hosts Mr and Mrs. Raman. We  were received from and dropped off at Kovilpatti station, put up in a well-furnished guesthouse next to the school and ate excellent food - breakfast was from the hostel next door while lunch and dinner was at our hosts house. Mrs. Usha Raman and Mrs Nirmal have built a great school over the last 25 years with a lot of passion and enthusiasm. In fact I was very impressed with their energy and continuing passion. The school , which is one of the best known instituions in the area,  has nearly 1900 students from LKG to 12th with excellent lab facilities including a computer lab with Internet connection housing nearly 50 desktop systems. The school campus is quite pretty with a Vinayakar temple, a small nursary garden and a nice quadrangle with a stage on one side.  The school has a hostel that houses 68 out of state children and also a separate house that accommodates about 16 children of priests who learn the vedas in addition to studying in the school. About 15% of the students in the school are provided free education.

Gita Krishnamurthy Vidyalaya started functioning in a temporary building where SJGHSS started years ago in June 2009 with 150 students over 3 classes. There is much more demand for seats in the school than the capacity of the school - shows the lacuna in facilities for basic education in interior areas of the country. The goal is to add a new class every year for the next 4 years and also create a permanent building and infrastructure for the school. I hope to help both these institutions with my time and effort and whatever little way I can.

On 6th August evening we visited the Nellaiappar Temple in Tirunelveli - one of the famous (Shiva) temples in Tamil Nadu known for its musical pillars as well as other brilliant sculptures. The temple dates back to 700 AD probably built by a Pandya king with inscriptions dating all the way back to 950 AD . There is also a shrine to Vishnu near the sanctum - one of the few temples where one finds shrines of Shiva and Vishnu together. Next to this temple in the same compound is the Kanthimathi Ambal temple housing a shrine of Parvati. It was a great experience to visit such an old and magnificent temple - my first to this temple.

On Saturday 7th August afternoon we drove an hour to the Tiruchandur Murugan temple - one of the 6 major abodes of Lord Muruga  situated on the shores of Bay of Bengal. The temple is situated so close to the sea that waves from the Gulf of Mannar lap at the eastern perimeter wall of the temple. It is an amazing testimony to the architectural ingenuity of our forefathers of centuries ago- the temple has been in existence since 7th century AD. It was another great experience - this temple was much more crowded and given its size with a number of dieties  it took us a good 2 hours plus to see.

I had excellent runs of 16Km and 11Km respectively on 7th and 8th August mornings. The backroads leading from the guesthouse (across the school building) where we stayed was completely pollution and traffic free. I did not see a single 3 or 4 wheeler till I reached the state highway - about 5.5 Kms to the highway going towards Rajapalyam and about 3.5 Kms to the Kovalpatti-Madurai highway. The latter had much denser traffic and not much fun to run on. The area overall was pretty green and in my first run I even saw a couple of peacocks crossing the road. Stretches of the route had uneven roads and a small stretch was a mud road.Of course, could not avoid being barked at (and chased) by a couple of stray dogs.  Nevertheless, I was glad that I had carried my running shoes along with me.

More on the 1st August Nandi Hills Cycle ride

Group photo before leaving Cubbon Park;Courtesy Prabhakar of GGI

I left home in Domlur Layout a few minutes before 530 am and covered the 7.2Km to Cubbon Park in about 31 minutes at an easy speed of 14Km/hour. I met another rider Jayant coming in from Banarghatta road at the St. Marks Road/MG road intersection. When we reached the assembly point at the Seshadhri library circle there were a few cyclists already  there and more cyclists were arriving from differents parts of the city. Around 615 am we started off after a few group pictures. I rode mostly alone (though I chatted with several cyclists along the way including a few from GGI ) covering the 9.1Km to Columbia Asia hospital after the Hebbal flyover in 26 minutes. While having Lucozade from a  bottle  handed out by a volunteer from Tandem trails I noticed messages and missed call from Vasu.  He was a few hundred metres ahead and decided to wait for me to catch up with him which I did in a few minutes. I learnt that Chandra had dropped out at the last minute. We  rode on together  for about 29Kms in just under 90 minutes till the turn off point from Airport Road towards Nandi hills. En route we took a comfort break when we also refueled ouselves. During this stretch Yogesh Rao of BBC - one of the main organisers of this ride - joined us from behind and after checking that we were doing fine took off at a very high speed. We were quite amazed at the power he was able to generate on his hybrid bike. The ride was generally  comfortable with sporadic traffic - we rode on the shoulder most of the time.

A stretch to the base of Nandi Hills

We ran into a large  bunch of cyclists, including Yogesh Rao, at the turn off point from Airport road. Many cyclists were having breakfast here. Vasu and I decided to press on without  breakfast at this time - I had a bite of the energy bar that I was carrying. The next lap of  13.5 Kms to the base of Nandi was covered in about 50 minutes. The weather continued to be fantastic and with very little traffic this was the best stretch of the ride so far. We encountered a short stretch of gradient which gave us taste of the hill climb that awaited us. We passed the 2nd idly point and reached the base of Nandi hills. At the base of Nandi Hills we saw several cyclists including Shreyas eating breakfast after having done the ride up the hill.  Vasu and I refueled ourselves with water and some Kit-Kats and started the climb up around 9:20am - after about 3 hours since I left Cubbon Park. At the first climb Vasu hit a wall(he had run 27Kms the previous day!) and slowed down quite a bit. On his urging I pressed on. It was quite tough and challenging and I quickly shifted the gears to 1 and 2. For the next 50 minutes or so I alternated between 1 and 2 and 1 and 1 going up at the speed up between 5Km/hr and 10 Km/hr. There was a light mist and intermittant drizzle and the scenary looked even better than normal . Saw several cyclists speeding downhill. While car traffic was low there were quite a few motor bikers going in both directions. Though I felt tired and sore I did not stop even once - however at the last steep turn just as the arch was in sight I took a narrow turn, my cycle slowed down too much and I lost balance and fell. Fortunately for me I got a foothold and avoided rolling down and did not get hurt. Picking myself up immediately I crossed the arch to reach the 'lower top' in about 53 minutes of cycling from the bottom. Drank more than half a bottle of Lucozade and on hearing that hot breakfast and tea was being served on the top I started cycling again after a couple of minutes break. Another cyclist,Upendra(?), gave me company during this stretch. We reached the top in about 10 minutes of real hard  cycling as the muscles were quite stiff and sore by now and the seat was also beginning to hurt a bit. We were directed to the government bungalow for breakfast by some volunteers. While heading towards that a couple of people(Deepak and MJV) recognised me and were kind of surprised to see me as they normally associate me with long distance running and not cycling.

Hot upma and lemon rice was being served in a hall which was filled with cyclists who had conquered the hill that morning. Bhaskar Rao , the transport commissioner of Bangalore and an avid cyclist himself was there chatting with cyclists and ensuring that everyone was being served. In the breakfast room Manjula shouted out to me and cheered the fact that I had done it. It is thanks to Manjula's encouragement that I got the confidence to attempt this. After having some excellent upma and chatting briefly with a few cyclists I decided to start the return leg. I tried to check where Vasu was but could not reach his phone.

The ride downhill, ofcourse, was much easier - I was on gears 2 and 6 most of the time. I moderated my pace and did not go down too fast- never went to 3 and 8 as many cyclists did. On the way down I stopped briefly and chatted with Yogesh - checking whether he knew where Vasu was. I did not time myself downhill very accurately - I probably took around 20 minutes to reach the base. When I found that Vasu was just leaving the top I decided to continue my return journey. However, soon I realised that it did not make sense to make the long trip(which usually seems even longer on the return leg) alone. So I decided to stop and wait for Vasu  a few Kms from the base. We then cycled the return leg together till Mekhri circle. Despite the headwinds , high traffic, a couple of voluntary stops to rest and refuel and a few forced stops due to traffic lights we made steady progress at about 17 Kmph. I was extremely glad that we decided to ride back together. It would have been boring and more painful ride if I had ended up doing it alone. Vasu's company was simply fabulous and we chatted about a number of different topics during the 6 hours or so that we cycled together. We split around 2:15 PM when we reached Mekhri circle. I reached home just after 3PM after  stopping at 5 traffic lights enroute - fatigued but happy with the great experience of  having cycled  133Kms in 8 hrs 15 minutes of cycling time in a total of 9 and a half hours of elapsed time door to door!! 

While it took me about 53 minutes to cover the 7.4Kms from the base to the arch several experienced cyclists did this in amazing timings with the top three doing it in less than 25 minutes. Also once cyclist, Prakash S, did the climb three times in incredible timings of 35 m, 42m , and 37m respectively !