PB at Celebration Mysore HM

I had a near perfect race and while I narrowly missed my goal of going below 1:43 I still achieved a PB of 1:43:33 bettering my previous best  in a half marathon by over two and a half minutes. Ravi Balasubramanya and I pretty much ran the whole race together. And I got the benefit of a running commentary on the localities we ran through  from the local boy. Ravi , who  is a much younger and faster runner than I am, was returning from injury and decided to stick with me. With the finish line visible  a few hundred meters away Ravi found that extra burst of energy and sprinted to  finish 13 seconds before me. Sid ran a very steady race and finished a few seconds ahead while Neera also ran a strong race to finish just after I did. I finished 30th overall out of about 173 timed finishers. See here  for complete results.

The day started very early - 2am to be precise when my alarm went off. Though we had planned on driving down to Mysore the previous afternoon we changed our plans once  we learnt that bibs would be given out on the morning of the race for outstation runners.  I left home at 2:45am and reached Rich's place a little after 3am after picking up Sid on the way.  Rich, Sid, Neera, myself, Raj and Sabesan then left Lavalle road at about 3:20am in Rich's Innova. Enroute I was able to doze a bit. We reached the start point outside the Mysore palace at about 5:45am just before day break. The area was buzzing with runners as well the road seemed to have quite a bit of traffic. We collected our bibs in a few minutes(thanks to Nikhil of RFL for helping us out on this) , got into our running gear and headed for the portable potties across the road. At about 6:30am the timing technologies folks were setting up the timing system at the start point and there was some confusion as to where exactly the runners were supposed to assemble for the start of the race. The cricketer Javgal Srinath and actress Nidhi Subbiah appeared soon after. However, the run did not start as scheduled at 6:45am as the chief guest -  a minister arrived late. The crowd became very restless and started booing. Finally, after a few speeches which we could not hear anyway the race got underway a little over 20 minutes from the scheduled start time.

Ravi and I ran together from the start. In the 1st Km or so it seemed like the sun would come out; however thankfully it did not and it stayed partly cloudy throughout with little humidity.  We went out on Devraj Urs road and continued on Hunsur road  where there were a few gradients. Overall the route was quite scenic specially the  Mysore university area and the trail around Kukkarahalli lake. There was a downward slope leading up to the entry point of the trail which provided momentum to both Ravi and myself. Ravi hit a curb and stumbled across in front of me - fortunately he was able to regain balance as I managed to grab his elbow - else both of us could have got injured and our race might have ended at that point. We turned around at the end of the trail a little past the half-way mark. At this point I was pretty much on target with my garmin showing a little over 49 minutes.  The second half also had a few gradients and my pace strarted to drop a bit. However, I managed to keep the average pace at 4:55 . I could have possibly pushed a bit harder in the last Km - however as both my left glute and calf were hurting a bit I decided not to that. Both of these were sore tilla couple of days after the race. The traffic control was reasonable with the volunteers and cops doing their best to give priority to runners at intersections though there were a few instances when they found it challenging in handling buses. There were not too many Km markers on the route and also the route seemed to have the runners cross the road a few times more than is desirable. Otherwise , overall it was a good experience.

After the run we had a sumptious buffet breakfast at Pai Vihar and started the drive back to Bangalore at about 11am reaching home at 2:30PM. I decided to take a couple of weeks easy and do some light running and also undergo soft tissue therapy before starting on the rigors of the 'Run Less, Run faster' training for Mumbai 2012.

Hyderabad 2011: Disappointing despite a PB

Though I managed a PB time of  3:51:48 beating my previous PB at SCMM 2011 by exactly a minute and  finishing 1st in the senior men's category (all winners  here) I was  disappointed with the race. I had trained for over 10 weeks using the FIRST 'Run Less,Run Faster' program with a target of going sub 3:40 or at least sub 3:45. Except for the last 2 weeks I had some excellent training runs specially the tempo and long runs - though the interval runs were a struggle. I got to the half-way point on target at 1:46 and the 30K at 2:37 as planned. However, after that things went downhill. Both my glutes started to hurt and around the 34K mark I suffered from cramps in both the quads and feet. However, I hung on despite the average pace dipping rapidly specially between 35K and 39K. It was during this stretch in the Hyderabad University that fellow runenr Kumar who had stopped due to cramps passed by in a pickup vehicle and asked if I wanted to get in. Despite the pain that the thought of givving up never crossed my mind.  By the 35K mark I realised that 3:45 was not going to be possible so my focus was to try and do a sub 3:50. However, soon even that slipped away and I had to push hard in the last 2Kms including sprinting  into the stadium to go just below my previous PB time ! See the official split timings here and detailed analysis from my Garmin data here.

I am unable  to figure out why I cramped in both the legs. I had hydrated well before and during the race,  taken adequate rest and was not using a new pair of shoes. Infact the weather was very nice - mostly cloudy and temperature in the low 20s celsius.  Perhaps , the couple of Kgs that I had put on since January made a difference or for the type of  course I ran too fast in the first 30Kms. That is , my legs (and glutes) did not have the strength to handle the pace across 3 flyovers and numerous fairly steady and long gradients. See here for the route description. An additional challenge was strong headwinds at times.  I have not been doing any strengthening since January 2011 when I discontinued the  sessions at the Manipal Hospital Department of Sports and Excercise medicine. The niggle in my left glutes and left calf continued to linger on several weeks after the run - so I need to start strengthening excercises soon. That and sustained interval training is probably key to be able to sustain the desired pace for a longer period of time specially towards the end of the race. As always met with several friends and also my brother Mahesh at the end of the race and took a few pictures. Several friends from Bangalore had podium finishes - Ashok, Neera, Vaishali..and the awards were given away by the governor of AP. I myself missed the opportunity to go upto the podium to receive my plaque as the winner of men's veteran category as I was busy catching up with ex-colleagues Nathan(see picture below), Mathivanan and my brother Mahesh.

Overall, the event was well organised. For most part the traffic was well managed - there were a few small stretches where we had to run with traffic. The Km markers and turns could have been marked better. Also, in a few other places the volunteers were not attentive enough and one had to ask for directions. I also heard that the aid stations did not have the spray which many runners required inorder to get temporary relief from their pain and cramps. Apart from this ofcourse the delay in the bib distribution commencement the previous day was an irritant that should be avoided. Nevetheless, on the positive side it gave an opportunity for runners to hang around longer and mingle and catch up each other and take some pictures - see below. The major put-off for most runners was the 24 minutes delay in the start of the race possibly due to the chief guest arriving late. Nevertheless, the overall race experience was very nice and I am sure Hyderabad Runners will ensure that the event improves year after year.

Being interviewed for 92.7 Big FM

With the 12m in 12m gang

With Nari,Sundar and Kumar

On race morning I left Domalguda at 4:20am by cab and reached the start point at people's plaza in about 15 minutes with ample time to check in my bag, warm up and exchange banter with other runners. The 24 minutes delay in the start of the race made the runners quite restless. When the race did begin I had night-marish start - within a minute or two I felt my timing chip come-off my shoe. This was one of the rare times where I had used only the plastic tag and not a shoelace to tie the chip and I seem to have done a shoddy job with the tag(a lesson learnt ofcourse!). As soon as I realised this I stopped and turned around to walk back a few steps and pickup the chip causing a minor panic amongst the runners directly behind me including Neera. I put the chip in my pocket and ran a short distance mulling over what had happened and what I should do next. Fortunately, I got the idea of stopping on the side and tying the tag via a shoelace which I did. Around that time I started to run with Sundar from Chennai Runners. We ran together for about a Km or so after which he took off and finished in an amazing timing of 3:33:04. After that I ran most of the race by myself.  At around the 14 Km mark after the Khairatabad flyover in the gradients of Banjara Hills I saw Nitin waiting for Neera to come by. Upto about the half-way mark I was just behind Siddhartha Menon - at this point I was doing quite well- hitting the mark within my target time of 1:47.  But soon after he too took off or rather I dropped off as he seems to have run a steady pace to complete in 3:35:55. Though Rajesh Vetcha went by in a crew vehicle shouting that the gradients were all but over that was not all true. I found that even the stretch inside the university, though very green, was not flat. And as mentioned in the first paragraph above the last 7-8 Kms was quite a struggle. After crossing the finish line I took the help of Mahesh and collected my bag - this was my first experience of a point to point race and a baggage bus in India and it worked without a hitch. And then met with fellow runners and other friends.

Finishing..at last

With ex-colleague and good friend SV Nathan

With Mahesh

Less than 12 hours to the Mysore Half Marathon

After vacillating quite a bit I went ahead and registered for the HM in Mysore  couple of weeks ago.  I would be leaving for Mysore in a few hours along with Rich, Neera, Sid and a couple of other runners. The evening/night before a race is always a restless one for most runners and certainly so for me. This one is even more so as I know that I should probably not be running this race(My coach and mentor  Bill Pierce is quite categorical about it). I have not been unable to train much since the Hyderabad marathon on 28th August. Work schedule has been hectic and also I have not fully recovered from the niggle in my left glutes and calf which I picked up a couple of weeks before that event. So logically I should take some more rest and focus on the training for my next marathon event. However, I did not want to miss the opportunity to run a runner friendly (with RFL handling the organisation) HM event in the vicinity. Moreover, I have not run a daytime HM event since May 2005.  My goal is   to use this race to get over the disappointment of not meeting my target at Hyderabad and also restart my training   using the Run Less,Run Faster program from FIRST  for SCMM 2012 which is 15 weeks away.

The  1st target is to beat my HM PB of 1:46:03 from Midnight marathon in December 2009 and if all goes well to go below 1:43. This will depend on how the 1st half goes . If I can manage the 1st half in about 49 minutes at an average pace of 4:52/Km without  much stress to my left glute and calf then I will try and do the second half in under 54 minutes. Else I will take the second half easy. Either way am looking forward to the race - the route looks pretty interesting  with the start and finish being at the famous Mysore Palace and about 4 Kms of soft path around a lake and also going through Mysore University. Hopefully there will be efficient traffic control and weather wont be too bad - both critical factors for a race starting at 6:45am. This is the first time I have seen the video of the route put up on the website for an event in India.