TCS 10K 2013 : Decent run despite a torn right calf muscle

Considering that a week before the run on 19th May 2013 I was unsure of making it to the starting line due to a right calf injury, I am satisfied with my 46:56 performance  (bib# 578) in the race with an overall ranking of 189 out of 8137 finishers. The icing was the 3rd place finish out of 191 runners in the 51 to 60 eyars category behind awesome runners Pani and Sid. Running through right calf pain for the last 2 Kms was quite tough. The wonderful capture below around the 9th Km by  Shantanu Singh shows this well.

I literally limped over the finish line with severe right calf pain - thanks to friend and fellow runner Ravi Venkatesam for getting the volini spray from the medical tent in the finish area. After spraying that generously the calf felt much better. 

Ravi and I left Domlur Layout at 6am by car and after parking at UB city we reached Kanteerva stadium by 620am. There were hardly a handful of runners in the category A section(finisher in less than 50 mins within the previous 2 years) at that time. At 630am the World 10K men racers took off at a blistering pace. Soon thereafter the area was buzzing with runners - many of them familiar. After using the restroom one more time I went down the steps to a position close to the gate to the tracks. At about about 7:19am (by my Garmin) the gate was opened and all runners rushed out tot he start line. The pushing and jostling was much less compared to the previous two years - though it was still there specially with the corporate challenge runners also joining the category A runners at the same time. (I understand it was much worse for the category B and Category C runners - their gates were opened a few seconds later). The race started at 7:21 within a few seconds of my getting to the start line. I was able to get a good start and clocked the 1st Km in 4:07 much faster than planned. Ran at a good pace till Km 4  clocking an average of 4:16/Km - the gradient after the turnaround at Ulsoor slowed me down considerably and the pace gradually fell. By the half way mark I knew that sub 45 was not going to be possible and soon thereafter also vanished any thoughts of a beating my previous PB of 2011. The last 4 Kms were really tough as the right calf pain steadily increased. Surprisingly, my usual left calf and left glutes niggle did not show up this time. I have always found it difficult to sustain a fast pace in the shorter races - My goal was to ensure that I finished sub 50 and as close to 47 mins as possible. I was doubly relieved to cross the finish line around the 47 min mark. As has been my practice at the 10K race I consumed water 3 times during the run all in the 2nd half. I felt the weather was quite ok.

After hanging around in the finish line a bit - stretching and getting photographed - drove to Konark for the wonderful breakfast hosted by Nagaraj Adiga (aka 'godfather'). It was great to exchange thoughts with fellow runners and also an opportunity for more pictures. Got back home around quarter past 10am - well fed but a bit worried about the right calf.

A day after the race I discovered that the right calf had swollen quite a bit. In general the right leg was quite sore even more so than after a typical marathon. Next day when I found some internal bleeding below the ankle it had me really worried. The ultrasound scan of the calf area (recommended by Doc Gladson of Attitide Prime) revealed ' a partial tear of the proximal muscle fibres of soleus with associated hematoma'. The soleus is one of the 3 muscles that form the calf muscles. A hematoma is defined as a collection of blood or a clot that has accumulated outside of a blood vessel. The blood has leaked from a ruptured artery, vein, or capillary and then seeps into the surrounding tissue. 

The only solution for such an injury is to ice the area and stretch lightly frequently and stay off from running for a few weeks. After a complete break for 5 days I did some cycling over the weekend. After a week the swelling in the ankle has gone but there is still a dull pain while walking or going down the steps. Depending on how it goes I hope to restart running the week of 3rd June and after a couple of weeks of light training start the formal training for Hyderabad marathon towards the end of the month!!

TCS 10K 2013?

I am quite under-prepared,physically and mentally for the 6th edition of  Bangalore's  world 10K run that is less than a week away . With just 4 running workouts since 18th April training has been minimal. While the usual stress in the left glutes,calf and sole has been nagging me for the last few weeks I have also been having a problem with my right calf since the 1st of May. On 5th May I had to abandon my  fastish 16K run after a 48mins/10Km with stress in both the calves. I literally limped back home. This is the first time ever that I had an issue with my right calf. When I had to give up on the  medium pace  run yesterday that I was doing after a break of 5 days after a Km or so with acute pain in the upper right calf I was completely shattered. It looked like it would be prudent to skip this year's 10K and train for the Hyderabad marathon after recovering from the injury. An injury like this at the beginning of a running season is a real dampener - I have been unable to avoid being depressed the last couple of weeks. Not being able to run the 10K to plan was bad enough, the possibility of the injury impacting the marathons targeted for the season and that beating my BQ time by 2:40 may not be sufficient to get me a place in Boston 2014 made it much worse.

Despite  uncertainty of whether I would make it to the start line on 19th May I collected my running bib from Koramangla indoor stadium on 11th May morning. And then went to show my right calf to Dr. Gladson of Attitude Prime. It looks like the calf pain may be due to a weak plantar fascia not being able to strain of my running pace. As per Gladson it is not Planatar Fasciitis - a very common injury among runners. And I should be in a reasonable shape to run the 10K after exercising the plantar using a  golf ball  a few times a day for the next few days.

Hope to make it to the starting on line on 19th May and keep my streak of running the world 10K if the easy  training runs on 14th and 16th May go well.While I had changed my goal to Sub-45 or to at least beat my 2011 PB of 45:57 now I will be satisfied if I can keep it below 50 minutes though I know I am in shape to do sub 45. My strategy will be to get a good start(a challenge by itself considering 11,000 runners are expected to participate and the organisers have been unable to enforce discipline in the starting area to have runners assemble and start based on their previous finish times) and try and sustain  sub 4:30 minutes Kms as long as possible. 

More on Boston 2013.. and some thoughts on 2014 too

Three weeks since the dastardly event at this year's Boston marathon while the perpetrators have been identified the motivation behind this is still unclear. And those directly impacted by the blasts are still trying to cope with it. The week of 16th April was a a horrible week for the running world and runners worldwide. While I was relieved to know that runners from India (a couple of whom I knew personally) were safe I went about my work almost like a zombie - some colleagues at work wondered why was I was off-colour and distraught. Among the several reflections  about Boston 2013 here are some that I found interesting:

We should simply come out and play more

Boston, from one citizen of the world who calls himself a runner

Let the healing begin: running still matters

One aftermath of Boston 2013 is that there is huge interest in qualifying for Boston 2014 - apparently the interest is about 15 to 20 times higher than at any point since 2008.The 118^th Boston Marathon is slated for Monday, April 21, 2014. Quoting from this article: 'In recent years, about 27,000 people have been granted entry to the race (through qualified entries, charity entries and sponsor’s exempt entries), but only 22,000 typically start the race. But several thousand are also turned away each year once the race reaches its capacity.'

So there is expected to be  a surge in marathon entries over the next several months as runners try to register a 2014 qualifying time before registration opens in early September.As per the analysis here Of the 17,580 finishers of Boston 2013 , according to MarathonGuide.com, 10,391 runners, or 59.1%, qualified for Boston 2014.  And a large number of these qualifiers would likely want to come back and run Boston 2014. Also BAA needs to decide how to handle the 4,496 runners who were unable to complete the race due to the blasts. With a time of 2 minutes 40 seconds under the qualifying time of 3:40 (achieved in SCMM 2013) my chances of getting through in the registration process in September 2013 now looks quite challenging. Unless BAA decides to expand the field of runners in 2014 - which they did before for the 100th anniversary run. I am hoping and praying that they do this. It will be very disappointing if I am unable to make it for Boston 2014. The Hyderabad marathon at the end of August is the only one I plan to run before September  and it is highly unlikely that I will be able to better my 3:37:20 on that course. Anxiously counting down the next four months...