Enjoyable experience of my slowest ever 50K at the 8th Bangalore ultra

After considerable dilly-dallying and much against the advice of coach Dharam I confirmed my entry for 50Km at the 8th Bangalore Ultra on the last date of registration. An easy pace 25Km on Oct 19th (HM at the Bangalore marathon  followed by a 4.7Km after a 10 min break) gave me the confidence to do a slowish 39Km(4:30) on 25th October - my first 25Km+ run since Boston 2014 in April. As my left leg seemed to be holding up I went with my heart to keep the streak at the Bangalore Ultra going.

My target was to run my slowest ever 50Km to finish between 6:15 and 6:30 - hoping that doing such a distance at a slow pace will reduce the risk of recovery from the niggle that been hampering my running since Dec 2013.  My performance at the ultras so far :

Year     Distance     Time

2007     52 Km         5:51

2008     50 Km         5:50

2009     50 Km         5:22:29

2010     75 Km         8:57

2011     50 Km         5:24:17

2012     50 Km         5:07:31

2013     50 Km         4:52:22

The lead up to the race on November 8th was not ideal with personal and official travel resulting in my sleeping in different places each night from 1st to 6th. Thankfully the stomach held up fine and given my goal of running slow I was not worried. Bobby picked up my bib and left it at my apartment security on 7th afternoon.  I coordinated with Pankaj Rai to ride in his Red dragon for yet another race. 

Pankaj picked me up from the Pizza Hut on IRR around 4:35am, Rishi and Amrita joined us from Kalyannagar a few minutes later and we were at the venue quite early by 5:20am in spite of the RFL banners en route giving directions not being very visible. Unfortunately a front wheel of the car went into the drainage pit. Deciding to retrieve it post the run we joined hundreds of other runners at the start area. As always met several familiar runners(and took a few pictures) and some new ones. 

After the usual announcements by Atul and A1 the race started at 6am sharp as daylight was breaking out.

I started at an easy pace  of about 6:30 per Km as planned chatting with a couple of runners doing their first 50Km. Between Km 4 and Km 5 I tripped on a stone and fell scraping my left elbow and knees - 2nd year in a row that this happened probably around the same spot though last year it was in the 2nd loop. I washed the bruises with water and dabbed some dettol using cotton at the next aid station and continued running at the planned pace. Ran alone most of the race running/walking with others in short stretches(should have probably taken my music -I normally do not take it to events).Completed the first half in under 2:54 at average pace of 6:50/km about 10 mins or so faster than planned and felt quite comfortable.  It was amazing to see so many runners doing 75Km, 100Km and 24 hours and many of the runners looked extremely strong.

The 2nd half took about 10 minutes longer as I crossed the finished line in just under 6 hours - about 15/20 minutes faster than I had planned. Felt strong enough at the finish line to have gone on and done another 25Km at similar pace. The left leg did not feel stressed. My official timing details   are below.  RFL report on this years's event is here. 

Bib Number	5233
Name	Bhasker Sharma
Gender	Male
Category	SENIOR MEN
Rank	27 / 105 Finishers
Category Rank	6 / 21 Finishers
Gender Rank	23 / 87 Finishers
Split@6.25 Km	00:33:20 Avg. Pace 05:20, Avg. Speed 11.25 Kmph Gender Rank : 65 / 87 Finishers , Category Rank : 15 / 21 Finishers
Split@12.5 Km	01:27:01 Avg. Pace 06:58, Avg. Speed 8.62 Kmph Gender Rank : 66 / 87 Finishers , Category Rank : 14 / 21 Finishers
Split@19 Km	02:20:17 Avg. Pace 07:23, Avg. Speed 8.13 Kmph Gender Rank : 63 / 87 Finishers , Category Rank : 12 / 21 Finishers
Split@25.5 Km	02:54:22 Avg. Pace 06:50, Avg. Speed 8.77 Kmph Gender Rank : 54 / 87 Finishers , Category Rank : 11 / 21 Finishers
Split@32 Km	03:30:41 Avg. Pace 06:35, Avg. Speed 9.11 Kmph Gender Rank : 50 / 87 Finishers , Category Rank : 11 / 21 Finishers
Split@38.5 Km	04:25:21 Avg. Pace 06:53, Avg. Speed 8.71 Kmph Gender Rank : 41 / 87 Finishers , Category Rank : 8 / 21 Finishers
Split@45 Km	05:23:42 Avg. Pace 07:11, Avg. Speed 8.34 Kmph Gender Rank : 26 / 87 Finishers , Category Rank : 7 / 21 Finishers
Net Time	05:57:41 Average Pace 07:09, Average Speed 8.39 kmph

For the first time in recent years I did not place in the top 3 in the ultra. By the time I completed Pankaj et al had finished their lunch. Soon after the prize distribution ceremony they went to retrieve the car. I joined them after my lunch. We left around 1PM and I was back home by 2PM after yet another ultra!!

Fun pacing experience at Bengaluru Marathon

In Cubbon Park during the 'run with Addidas pacers' promo run

It was a fun and satisfying experience of being a 2:30 pacer at the Bengaluru marathon on 19th October. Signing up to be a pacer ensured that I did not run too fast as I had the responsibility of steering a bunch of runners to the finish line in just under the goal time of 2:30. And I managed a 2:27:41 finish(bib # 26073) - a minute or so faster than planned. 

Met a bunch of runners targeting 2:30 at the Myntra sponsored promo run on 5th October. On that day about 10 of us ran 13.33 Km in Cubbon Park (photo above) in just under 1:34 at an average pace of 7:03/Km! Also interacted with some of the runners at the expo in Kantterva stadium on 18th October. 

Pacers interacting with runners at the expo at Kanteerva indoor stadium

As my goal pace was a comfortable one for me the day before the race was fairly relaxing with no nerves or phantom aches and pains. Due to traffic closure on old airport road  Rajesh Vetcha, Chandru, Ramakrishnan and myself left Ranka Heights at 4:50am on Sunday morning. As it turned out old airport road was still open for traffic. We parked in UB city around 5:20am, used the toilet there and were at Kanteerva by about 5:30am. After going in at 5:40 I collected my two pace balloons and pinned them to one corner of my bib. Met with a few of the runners targeting 2:30 in the holding area.  At 5:55am the runners were let into the tracks to line up at the start line. At this point I transferred the balloons to my collar. This made them more visible and also it looked like this position would interfere less with my running form. 

At 6:05 am the 4000 + runners took off slowly exiting the tracks and then the stadium to enter Cubbon park from Hudson circle side. The uber cool weather and the ambiance of Cubbon resulted in a  faster than target pace getting to 5Km in 33:16 at 6:39/Km pace.  We loudly cheered every completed Km. I  made conscious effort to slow down the average pace to 6:53 at the end of 10Km. Running around Ulsoor lake  reminded me of the  RFL fortnightly runs of 2005-06.  Traffic was very dense and at times quite close to the runners in the Kensington road stretch of Ulsoor lake. It got worse at Trinity Circle where drivers and traffic cops were having a shouting match. It was great to be cheered on by Raji and Latha while heading from Trinity circle to Old Airport road.  As we made the U turn at Domlur we were about 15 runners. The other 2:30 pacer was within a few meters of me - either ahead or behind.  Between 15 and 17Km  when we hit a slight gradient I lost a few of the runners as they fell behind.  During this period we also hit traffic as both sides of old airport road was opened to it. For a brief stretch we found ourselves running in the middle of the road with a bus on one side and two wheelers to the other side of us. I hit the 17Km  mark in just under 1 hrs 58 mins about a minute ahead of plan. At this point I asked the runners with me to push ahead based on the energy they had. Several of them pushed ahead. The traffic at Trinity circle had got worse- we were fortunate enough not to have been stopped to let the traffic go - which a some  runners experienced much to their frustration. I tried my best to push and motivate the runners to keep a steady pace during the last 3Kms asking them to dig into their physical and mental reserves of strength. Did not see any marker after km 18. It would have helped runners if there had been markers counting down the distance to the finish line. I ran the last Km in about 6:31 to finish in just under 2:28.  Several runners from my pace group finished in around 2:25 while a couple completed in 2:34. A large majority finished in around 2:27/2:28 and were extremely happy!

Entering Kanteerva for the finish

There was no race clock at the finish line which was a bit disappointing. Overall it was a good experience to pace and run through the heart of the city . There were ample aid stations though there was crowding of runners around a few of them. The organisers made special arrangements for waste management and minimized the litter. After about a ten minute break I went back on the course to meet a few FM runners doing another 4.7Km for a total of 26Km per my Garmin. 

The breakfast arrangement was smooth and the food itself quite nice.  With over 10K runners the race was  a great success. Hopefully it will become an annual fixture and the organisers will do better next year in certain areas specially traffic control and management.  I left the stadium around 10:15 and got back home by 11am. 

Boston marathon 2015 registration

Registration for Boston marathon 2015 opened on Monday 8th September and closed on Wednesday 17th September - it did not stay open even till the end of week 2.Over 1900 runners who qualified and applied did not get through as the cut-off was 1:02 - last year, when I was going through an agonisingly nerve wracking time during the Boston 2014 registration process, the cut-off was 1:38. This was personally a surprise to me. Due to the bombings in 2013 the interest for the 2014 edition was unusually high. I expected it to get back to the 2013 level this year but that is not the case.  It looks like BAA is going to review the registration process for 2016 as per this article in RW. The following from the BAA site gives details of this year's registrations : 

In cooperation with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the eight cities and towns along the Boston Marathon route, the B.A.A. has set the field size for the 2015 Boston Marathon at 30,000 official entrants. More than 80% of the field will be comprised of athletes who have met the qualifying standards. The balance will consist of invitational entrants, many of whom run for local charitable organizations.  

Registration for runners who met the B.A.A.’s Qualifying Standards for the 2015 Boston Marathon began on Monday, September 8 at 10:00 a.m. ET using a “rolling admission” schedule and continued through Saturday, September 13 at 10:00 p.m. ET. Registration re-opened on Monday, September 15 at 10:00 a.m. and application submissions were received through Wednesday, September 17 at 5:00 p.m. ET.

• 25,493 applications were received during the registration period for qualifiers.
• 23,546 Qualified applicants have been accepted to date or are in the process of being accepted, pending verification of their qualifying performance.
• 1,947 applicants were unable to be accepted due to the large number of eligible qualifiers who submitted an application for entry combined with field size limitations.

During the first week of registration, when the fastest of all Qualifiers submitted their application for entry:

• 4,093 Qualifiers accepted met their qualifying time by 20 minutes, 00 seconds or faster.
• 6,490 Qualifiers accepted met their qualifying time by 10 minutes, 00 seconds or faster.
• 6,160 Qualifiers accepted met their qualifying time by 05 minutes, 00 seconds or faster.

During the second week of registration, 6,447 Qualifiers were accepted. These were Qualifiers who were one minute, two seconds (1:02) or faster than the Qualifying time for their age group and gender. (Last year, for the 2014 Boston Marathon, Qualifiers who were one minute, 38 seconds or faster than the Qualifying time for their age group and gender were accepted.)

In addition, 356 Qualifiers who have an active streak of ten or more consecutive Boston Marathon completed also entered during a pre-registration period in August and have been accepted.  

It looks like despite the increased field size registration for Boston is getting more and more competitive and doing just a sub 3:40 is not going to be sufficient to get in. Perhaps my next time would be in the 60-64 age group for which the BQ time is 3:55?

To Ultra or Not...

is the big question!!Having run a 50Km or more at the Bangalore Ultra every year(probably one of a handful of runners to do so)  since its inception in 2007 I am very tempted to continue the streak and run 50Km on 8th of November. However, having not run beyond 25 Kms in the last 6 months and still not feeling quite normal on the left side(hamstring, calf, sole) it probably makes sense to skip it this year. Both the running coaches that I seek advice from namely Dharam and Bill Pierce are categorical with their view - not to run anything beyond a HM and continue to focus on strengthening the glutes for several more weeks and then slowly increase distance and/or pace. The head of course agrees with them. However the heart wants to keep the streak going - even with a very slow run/walk say at an average pace of 7:30 per Km to try and complete the 50Km in 6.5 hours or so. Knowing fully well that staying that long on my feet will stress the weak muscles and significantly increase the chance of setting back my recovery process by several months!

With running mileage of 25-30 Km per week and cycling mileage of 40-45 Km per week for past couple of months my cardio fitness is fair. The weight is also under reasonable control.  However, running Ultra distance needs larger weekly mileage and a few runs of 35Km+. My current thinking is  is to run a 4.5  hours/35Km  on 25th October assuming one is feeling fine after the HM at the Bangalore marathon on 19th October. If I am not in a shape to attempt this then Bangalore Ultra is certainly ruled out. If I feel OK at the end of it then I will probably take a chance and register for the Ultra. While I would like to get back to my peak fitness and try and do a sub 3:40 at least one more time it does not look like I will be able to do that at SCMM 2015 or anytime soon and this season is anyway a washout. So the logic is that after SCMM 2015 (where again I will run slowly probably a 4 :45 time) I will have good 6 months break to recover in  (the worst) case of setback due to these races. Is this really something to lose sleep over from now itself?

Pacing debut in 2 weeks

I am looking forward to the Bengaluru marathon on 19th October in just about two weeks from now. It will be my first long distance( >= HM)  event in  6 months after Boston in April. It will also be my first experience of being a pacer. Pacers have been around in international marathons for a while and pacemakers have helped professional runners beat world records. The growing number of races  in India means increase in the size of the long distance running community and as a natural progression in the sport the number of runners aspiring to beat their previous times and/or meet a certain time target has also gone up. Pacers in Indian races started appearing since 2012. I usually run a road race with a time goal in mind. Due to my injury I was not sure whether to run this race or not - even a half marathon. The opportunity to pace helped me make up my mind. If I had not opted to be a 2:30 pacer for the HM  and still run the race I would have probably ended up running it in about 2 hours or so, which  though much slower than my HM PB of 1:44  is still  too fast given the current state of my recovery. (Have been advised to run slower than 6:30 per Km pace) 

On race day my plan is to run between 6:45 and 7:10 per Km and get to 17 Kms in about 2:01 or so. At that point I will encourage the runners still with me to push hard and give it their best to try and finish between 2:25 and 2:29. I will continue at  about 7:05 per Km staying with the slowest of the runners who are likely to complete under 2:30.  I may need to tweak this strategy once the race route is announced depending on the elevation profile. As always I will keep a watch on the current pace and average pace on my Garmin - average pace of 7:04/Km  will result in a 2:29 finish.   For those doing their first HM the last 2-3 Kms could be a challenge - both physically and mentally. I hope to egg them on to cross the finish line within the target time. It has not been easy for me to do my training runs at this pace.  By consciously running slow I am able to manage a pace of around 6:30 per Km. Am not able to keep it closer to 7 mins per Km pace for too long. The longest I managed at 7 mins per Km pace was 13 Kms in 91 mins on a treadmill. I did a 21.2 Km in 2:22 at an average pace of 6:46 per Km my longest run since end of June.  Once I get into the groove I am confident of running between 6:45 and 7:10 pace - in general I tend to run fairly even pace.  I am eagerly looking forward to helping runners do their longest distance or achieve their personal best and with no time pressure on me hope to have loads of fun doing so!!

Piriformis syndrome or HHT or Mortons Neuroma?

These are injuries that runners suffer though not as common as some of the other runners' issues such as knee or ITB problems, shin splints,muscle pool or achilles tendon etc. The fact is during a period of a year about 70% of runners are likely to pick up an injury or another. I have had my share of injuries  -  first when I took to long distance running in 2002-2003 and subsequently in 2012-2013. Since December 2013 I have been having varying symptoms : pain in the glutes and hamstring during and after a workout(running and cycling) , pain in the calf while running and numbness in the toes during a workout(running and cycling) which pretty much disappear once the workout is completed. This affected my performances in SCMM in January 2014 and also Boston marathon in April. And this running season looks pretty much washed out unless there is a significant change for the better in the next few weeks.  The  low training volume and intensity is resulting in self-doubt -as to whether one will be able to regain the fitness to  run a FM in the near future, leave alone with any specific time goal.

After multiple consultations and some research on running related injuries  my issue looks like a mix of:

1) Piriformis Syndrome 

A tight piriformis muscle that presses against the sciatic nerve thereby irritating it. This causes numbness and pain in the buttocks which may travel down the leg to hamstring and calf along the nerve. Runners get it due to overuse/high mileage and it gets further accentuated if one spends long periods sitting down. There are a number of stretches and strengthening exercises available on the net to address piriformis syndrome. A few that I found useful  are(though my issue has still not gone away):

Piriformis Syndrome: How to detect it and strengthening and stretching programs to help you heal

Top 3 exercises for piriformis syndrome
Piriformis syndrome - the cause and 2 recommended treatments
Neural flossing

2) High hamstring tendinopathy (HHT)
Hamstring tendinopathy is related with deep buttock pain and pain in the posterior thigh due to inflammation of the hamstring muscles. The pain is often felt in the lower gluteal region, radiating along the hamstrings. The pain increases with repetitive activity such as long-distance running and can also occur while sitting or driving a car. Usually the pain is not acute when it appears- it gradually gets worse.Rest and stretches seem to be the main method of managing HHT. This runnersconnect article has a lot of details on HHT.

3) Morton's Neuroma
This is a swollen/inflamed nerve in the ball of the foot, commonly between the base of the second and third toes causing pain and numbness in the affected area. It can be caused by high-impact sporting activities such as running or karate or tight or narrow shoes. The treatment for this seems to be mainly through changing footwear and use of orthotics pads fitted into shoes and some calf stretching exercises. Some additional information is available here. 

Unsure whether Morton's neuroma really applies to me. I have included it because I do get numbness in the 2nd and 3rd toes which goes away soon after I stop the workout.

There are many running injury related sites. A couple below give a lot of information.
http://www.runninginjuryoracle.com/know-what-you-are-suffering-from/
http://www.marathon-training-program.com/running-injury-piriformis-syndrome/

 

Puma Urban Stampede 2014

Have been running 5Km on and off  in the Puma Urban Stampede in Bangalore. I ran in the 1st edition in 2008(in fact the company I worked for, namely, mformation was the title sponsor) as well as in the 2nd edition in 2009 as part of a team from mformation. Then  in 2012 as part of a team from ALU. And this year soon after taking up my new job at Wadhwani Foundation I triggered participation in the event. We had 3 teams participating. This year the event was held in Bharatiya City  on 3rd August 2014.  I did not train specifically for the event - just did a few easy to moderate pace runs in the previous 10 days after taking a 3 weeks break from running due to injury. 

I left in my car from Domlur at 5:35 am after a colleague from Koramangla came over and parked his bike. After picking up 3 others runners at Domlur flyover, CMH road and Kasturi nagar reached the start point by about 6:20am. There were direction signboards from RFL on Hennur road. As we approached the venue we saw runners on the road who had started their 10K run at 6am. After parking the car we were in the starting area by about 6:45am. In my time Mischelle ran first, followed by Austin with myself being the 3rd runner. My goal was to try and run below 25 minutes and if possible between 23 and 24 with the pace per Km of around 4:45..  I am generally not good at short distance intensive pace runs. My 5K PB is 21:51 at the Puma Urban Stampede in 2012. The only other 5K below 23 minutes that I have run is in the duathlon in 2010.

The weather was quite nice when the first runners from nearly 350 runners started at 7am. By the time I grabbed the baton from Austin and took off around 8:05 am it got a little warmer. Nevertheless started off at a pace closer to 4:30. At about half way mark the left  glutes and calf started to hurt a bit -so eased off a bit. Also I knew was on track to do a comfortable sub 25.  Still I managed to push in the last Km at 4:27 pace to finish in 23:33 - my 3rd best time for a 5K! I was satisfied with my performance. After eating the refreshments and taking some photos left for home around 10am. During the return drive my left glutes started to hurt after a few minutes and I suffered from this for the next couple of days making me realise that my glute/hamstrings needed considerably more strengthening. 

Bill Pierce in India

It was a pleasure to host my running coach Dr. Bill Pierce, who motivated and guided me to BQ in 2012-13, during his visit to Bangalore on 26th August. Bill was brought on his maiden trip to India by Hyderabad Runners as the event ambassador for Airtel Hyderabad marathon on 24rth August 2014.

Bill  is professor and chair of the Health Sciences Department, at Furman University, in Greenville, South Carolina, USA. He is co-founder of the Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training (FIRST). FIRST promotes running as a healthy physical activity by providing training based on scientific principles and research. Bill, now 64 years of age, ran his first marathon in 1977 and to date, he has completed 40 marathons. He also has the distinction of having run the Boston Marathon in five different decades – 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s – the last time being when he was in his sixties.

With over 250 road races under his belt, 1st place finisher in 10 road races of distances from 3k to HM between 1978 and 1991 and Top 3 age group finishes in 114 races, Bill’s running history is very impressive. Bill is co-author of the best selling book “Run Less, Run Faster”, which completely revolutionized marathon training. Backed by scientific research and experiences of real runners, the book describes how to achieve faster speed by limiting to just three running workouts a week.

Bill did well in his first race in India completing the HM in the challenging Hyderabad course under tough weather conditions in 1:50:46 and finishing 4rth in the senior mens veteran category. This despite sight seeing in Delh and Agra and also addressing several meetings in Hyderabad prior to race day.

Over 40 runners ( a lot of them were pacemakers trainees) assembled at Kanteerva stadium on 26th morning by 615am and had a nice easy 10Km run in Cubbon Park. Followed by some yummy food from fellow runner Aseema and  breakfast at 1st floor of Konark restaurant in the stadium. About 20 runners were around for breakfast and interacted with Bill.

On 26th evening Bill gave a talk titled 'Smart training for the long run' at the auditorium at the Puma store on CMH Road, Indiranagar. There were over 75 participants many of whom got their copy of Bill's book autographed. The talk was well received and Bill left for Chennai very satisfied with the interactions with the Bangalore runners.

Revisiting plans for running season 2014-15...

Like the past several years, I  had mapped out my events events in the running season 2014-15: TCS 10K in May, HM at Hyderabad in August, FM in Bangalore in October, 75Km at the Ultra in November, SCMM 2015 in January and finally Comrades marathon on 31st May 2015.  After running Boston marathon on 21st April 2014 I had a decent run at the TCS World 10K on 18th May. I then took a few weeks break with plans to start training for the Bangalore marathon(on 19th October)  from the end of June. However, despite taking 4 weeks break from running I was unable to run comfortably when going beyond 15Km or so or when running at a pace below 5:30/Km. The glutes,hamstring,calf and toes of the left leg felt uncomfortable and hurt slightly while running. Moreover I was unable to sit in the same position for more than 30-45 minutes after a workout without shifting the left butt due to discomfort. Therefore I shelved my plan to start training for a FM from June end and took a break again from running after an easy paced 27Km (longest since Boston 2014) with the BHUKMP gang on 28th June .  I have been having an issue with my left  glutes and calf for a while - my races in 2013-14 were all below par due to the issue; however it has never been this bad specially the numbness in the toes. I have been consulting Dr. Johnson Gladson of Attitude Prime for a while and following the stretching and strengthening regime suggested by him. I sought a second opinion from Dr. Kannan Puzhandi of Sparrc - which now has a center in Indiranagar. Despite the meeting with Dr. Kannan being unimpressive I went ahead with 3 consecutive days of deep tissue massage at Sparrc and a gait assessment session -  being on a short break as I switched jobs and career from ALU India to Wadhwani Foundation enabled me to do this.  Also went through a MRI after consulting a neurologist -  a horrifying experience that I will try my best never to repeat again. Fortunately no pinching of nerve or undue damage of lower back was detected .  With guidance from running coach D I started focusing on exercises to strengthen my glutes,hips and core. I resumed running after 3 weeks break at the end of July. While running at an easy pace seemed ok even a 5K at a fastish pace at Puma Urban Stampede 2014(see next post) exacerbated the pain. So I had no choice but to reduce both my training mileage and pace intensity- with no more than 25Kms of running at average pace between 5:45 and 6:15 and about 30Kms of cycling in the Gym at 30Kms/hour speed . Am having to make efforts to keep the running pace slower than 6 minutes/Km. I do not plan to run beyond 15Km  till at least September end. And am restarting  strengthening at Manipal hospital department of sports and exercise medicine from September. At the slower pace the glutes do not seem to be stressed as much and do not hurt post the run. This will at least help me keep my fitness at a certain level.

As a result my plans for  the running season 2014-15 has gone haywire. I had to miss the pleasure of running a HM with my coach Bill Pierce at Hyderabad on 24rth August and the fun of staying and travelling with the BHUKMP gang. I have not registered for any event this season except SCMM 2015.  As of now that is the only I will surely participate in this season. Registration for Comrades 2015 open in a couple of days on September 1- my participation  is out unless things improve dramatically in the next 60 days and registrations are still open. 75Km at Bangalore Ultra is also ruled out - still hoping that I can do a slow 50Km there to keep my streak at the Ultra going - despite the advice to the contrary from D and Bill. Will make that call towards the end of October. And FM at Bangalore is surely out. Hope to do a slow HM - considering being a 2:15 or 2:30 pacer which is better than skipping it altogether. The only event that I would like to really like to race  this year  is SCMM 2015 - my goal was to try and BQ again with a sub 3:40 - however depending on how it goes over the next 60-90 days it is now likely that I may  end up doing a 5 hour FM there just to keep my streak going!!

Moderate race at TCS World 10K Bangalore 2014

Considering that for the 1st time ever I ran a race without a watch and the first time since 2007 without a Garmin and that I had not trained specifically for the event I am satisfied with my finish time. My primary goal was to do a sub 50 and depending on the first half to get as close to 46 minutes as possible.  Few minutes before the start of the race fellow runner Sampath Jayaram tensed up on realising that his Garmin refused to power on. As he was targeting a PB with a goal of sub 40 I could relate to this. Not having a stringent timing goal I had no hesitation to giving my Garmin to Sampath. 

Bib Number	834
Name	BHASKER SHARMA
Gender	MALE
Category	50 to 60 years
Overall Rank	296 out of 10913
Category Rank	12 out of 241
Gender Rank	289 out of 9081
Split@3.9 Km	00:17:56 at an Avg Speed of 13.05 Kmph
Split@6.1 Km	00:28:20 at an Avg Speed of 12.92 Kmph
Split@7.5 Km	00:35:51 at an Avg Speed of 12.55 Kmph
Split@8.5 Km	00:40:39 at an Avg Speed of 12.55 Kmph
Net Time	00:47:30 at an Avg Speed of 12.63 Kmph
Gross Time	00:47:37

Irina and I left Domlur at about 525am and after parking the car in Lavelle road we reached the stadium around 550am. There was a long queue of runners to get into the stadium. I joined Shilpi and Rishi in the front of the queue. Once inside I rushed to use the loo. The port-a-loos had long  lines of people waiting. However, the stadium toilet close the coral A entrance was pretty much empty. Reached the corral a little after 6am and went down the steps close to the exit gate and mingled with the other runners. At about 6:17am the gate opened and the corral A runners moved to the start line on the tracks. The race was flagged off by John Abraham and Carl Lewis at 6:20am.  I started at a brisk pace with Shilpi and just behind Amrita. Looking at the Timing India splits above I reached the 3.9Km point at an average pace of 4:35/Km. Like every year the pace started to drop after about 5Km and I reached the 8.5Km at an average pace of 4:47/Km.  By this time Amrita had pulled ahead. Though I pushed myself I was a bit wary of pushing too hard due to the iffy left leg. So crossing the finish line at an average pace of 4:45/Km was quite satisfactory. Though given that I had done a solo 10K training running in EGL a few days earlier in 47:54 I should have done at least a minute faster. This is where the average pace on the Garmin would probably have helped. Due to overnight rain while it was a bit cooler it felt humid towards the end of the race. Near the High court at the entrance to Cubbon park there was a huge puddle of water covering the road (this could possibly have been cleared up by the organisers) due to which runners had to get on the pavement. This was also the first 10K race in which I ran without stopping at all for water. 

Overall the race was well organised at least for runners starting from corral A. For runners starting in the later corrals specially D, E and F the initial few Kms was very congested due to the sheer number of runners many of whom were slow and probably 1st timers. While it is great that the running movement is growing rapidly the organisers needs to make it smoother for the runners starting later to try and achieve their time goals. The Km markers along the route were clearly marked. Also there were huge trash bins a few metres from the aid stations for runners to throw water bottles in which was a major new feature of this year's race. Another addition was pacers for 1 hr, 1:15 and 1:30 finishes. The post race medal and refreshments collection process was smooth. After hanging out in the finish area for some time we walked to the car(s) in a group. The finish area became extremely crowded by the time we left.

Near UB City on the way to the cars

And drove for breakfast to Konark on Residency road- Nagaraj Adiga hosting a fantastic breakfast after the 10K race has now become a tradition. This year there were  a huge number of runners at breakfast including many from Hyderabad and Chennai!!

Post breakfast at Konark

Countdown to TCS World 10K Bangalore 2014...

TCS World 10K Bangalore  on 18th May,  the first event of the new running season just 4 weeks after my 2013-14 season ended with the Boston marathon on 21st April , means that unlike the last couple of years I don't get to take a break between seasons. Though I considered  giving the TCS World 10K a miss this year I decided to keep my streak going - having run the event since its first edition in 2008(then called Sunfeast World 10K).  I obviously have not trained specifically for the event and will probably continue to take it easy for a few weeks after the race (as I do not plan to run a full marathon till at least October). With a few easy runs and a couple of tempo runs in the last couple of weeks I feel in reasonable shape to aim for a sub 46 10K  and  try and  better my last year's time of 46:56. I certainly feel fitter than I was last year before the race despite the iffy left side(glutes/hamstring/sole).  And if the first half goes well then I may even gun for the PB of  45:57 achieved in 2011. A lot depends on the start I am able to get and the usual help from the Bangalore weather. With the number of runners participating in the event growing tremendously it is important to breakaway from the throng of slower runners and get into a rhythm within the first 2 Kms. Hopefully the holding area will be streamlined and the race starts staggered as was the case last year. My goal would be to get to the half way point in under 23 minutes.  The earlier start time of 6:20am(compared to 7:20am last year) should certainly help.

One other variable this year is going to be the shoe.  I plan to run in the much lighter Skechers Gorun2 which I was 'awarded'  for finishing 1st runner up in the 50Km at the 2013 Bangalore Ultra. . At 6.7oz , it is 4 ounces lighter than the 10.8 oz Brooks Defyance 5 that I have been using since September 2012.  And this mainly due to the lack of cushioning. The shoes feel comfortable in the training runs I have done so far; however on the couple of occasions that I have run a bit fast both my calves hurt post the run. So unless this changes I am unlikely to use this shoe for distances beyond the half marathon.

The bib collection process on 10th May was very smooth. The expo seemed bigger than he past years with large stalls from all the major shoe brands selling in India. Also, there were fewer non-fitness/non-running stalls. It was great to hang out and chat with fellow runners. 

Fantastic experience at the 118th Boston Marathon

Medley of items from the expo/marathon - the steel mug(engraved) is from my cousin and his wife

A few signs from around the city

A huge and awesome expo, general buzz in the city and media coverage about the race throughout the weekend, fantastic hospitality from my local hosts Shankar and Vidya, perfect weather conditions, 32000+ (mostly) fast runners, 1m+ wildly cheering spectators , numerous interesting placards along the way, the scream tunnel at Wellesley, comfortable first 25Kms, the tough battle of the hills in the last 17 Kms, the emotionally charged up crowds as we entered Boston and the joy of meeting family members a few minutes after crossing the finish line pretty much sums up my fantastic experience at the 118th Boston marathon on 21st April.  My finish time of 3:50:57 , though within a minute of my worst case target(race preview here) , was my slowest of the 3 FMs this season and well over 13 minutes  my PB.   I was extremely thrilled with achieving the goal that I have been focused on for nearly 3 years: BQ'ing first in October 2012 and again in January 2013, successfully making it to the entry list in September 2013 and then running  the venerable race itself last month. However, I would say,for me,  the journey itself was more satisfying and exhilarating than the end. While running in the oldest and  iconic marathon was a  great experience,  personally I would consider beating my qualifying time by 2 minutes 40 seconds in SCMM 2013 the pinnacle of my marathon running career(I doubt if I would ever be able to go below the 3:37:20 time - I hope to at least do a sub 3:40 one more time!). And the excitement and high on the night of 25th September 2013 on receiving the acceptance  e-mail from BAA was far more than crossing the finish line on 21st April 2014!!

At the family meeting point a few minutes after finishing

The five weeks leading up to the race was very hectic - with travel and personal and professional work. After leaving Bangalore on 31st March while I managed to put in most of training runs I got in just one cross training(cycling) workout in the last 3 weeks before the race and virtually no strengthening. The last two long runs - a 13 miler in Croydon, UK on 6th August and a 10 miler in Southbury, CT on 13th August did not go as per plan - one due to inclement weather and the other due to hilly terrain. As a result on race day I weighed about  60 Kgs/132 lbs -  4-5 Kgs more than my optimal race weight!

Wishing Luck to all runners on the wall at the expo

The  build up of nervousness and excitement started  from the Atlanta airport on 19th morning as I waited for my connecting flight after catching a red-eye flight from San Jose. There were numerous runners on the flight many wearing a T-shirt or jersey from a previous years' Boston marathon. I even spotted a runner with a T-shirt stating that she had taken the Boston to Big Sur challenge. My cousin Shankar(who received me at Boston airport) and I reached the expo by about 11am. The bib pickup process was very quick even though I had to get a duplicate runner passport (mine was snail mailed to India in early April despite my changing the mailing address to CT in the last week of March). The expo was huge - have never seen anything like this before - all brands of shoes, running apparel, nutrition products and  gadgets etc under one roof. Several talks/seminars and presence of celebrity runners such as  4 times winner Bill Rodgers, Dean Karnezes, Bart Yasso. Jeff Galloway etc meant that the John Haynes convention center was packed with visitors that Saturday morning. What little temptation I had soon melted away on seeing the huge queues to purchase Boston marathon branded merchandise. While BAA strongly recommended that all runners take their buses from Boston to the athletes village in Hopkinton my cousin and I felt it might be easier to get to Hopkinton on race morning and that would also give us an extra hour. So on Sunday, 20th morning we checked out the runners drop-off point, the athletes village and took some pictures of the start area  - a cop was on duty directing traffic to enable people to stand at the starting line and be photographed. It was a gloriously sunny day with morning temperature around 10C and race morning  was forecast to be similar.  The folks at the  information booth near the start area  , sponsored by TCS, were quite helpful - based on their inputs we decided that I would be dropped off at the runners drop-off parking lot in Hopkinton between 830 and 845 am on race day morning.

After some light stretching in the evening, laying out the gear for next morning and a fantastic pasta dinner at home(skipped the dinner organised by BAA in Boston) I  went to sleep at about 1030 with the goal of waking up at 630am - the plan was to leave home around 745am.  I felt quite good Sunday evening and based on the weather forecast of around 9C at 11am and 15/16C in Boston around 3 PM I decided not to carry my phone camera with me and try and race at least the first half. As usual I woke up a few minutes before the alarm went off. Had a couple of bananas and some nuts(almonds, pecans) and raisins and left home for Hopkinton around 750am.

 I had decided to run in a single layer half-sleeve shirt ; but wore two additional layers and a track paint to stay warm during the nearly 2 hours waiting period at the athletes village. When just a few minutes away from taking the exit off the highway to Hopkinton I realised that I had forgotten my Garmin at home and felt terrible.Being addicted to the Garmin   I am unable to do well in long runs without one whether I am racing hard or not. And hence became terribly nervous and tense. Fortunately my sister was at home and was able to meet us halfway with the unit.  Finally I was dropped off at the designated parking lot in Hopkinton around 920 am more than 30 minutes later than planned. Since the waiting time in the athletes village was going to be much shorter and it seemed quite warm I ditched my track pants and one layer of shirt in the car before getting off and joining the queue for the shuttle bus from the parking lot to the athletes village.  I regretted the decision as I felt a little cold in the legs due to the breeze while waiting in the queue. However, the queue moved quite fast and after a security check(hand-held scanner and frisking) got into a bus around 940am. Got off at the athletes village ten minutes later and headed straight for the portaloos which had long queues despite there being hundreds of them. The village was crowded with runners relaxing/stretching/eating/chatting.  By the time I came out of the loo at 1020am I heard the announcement for runners in Wave 3, corrals 1 to 3 to head towards the exit of the village and start walking to the race start point.  After discarding my full sleeves shirt(from NJ marathon of 2005) and  walking towards the start point I bumped into Vaishali and Bhaskar Desai. Vaishali handed me the bib with my name and India colours on it which I quickly pinned below my official bib. Runners were then gradually separated out by their corral no. - I was in mine by 1045am with about 15 minutes left for start of the race. One thing that hit me as I warmed up was the high proportion of women in my corral. Another runner from San Diago with whom I was chatting remarked the same.

The Wave 3 of the race started at 11am - I crossed the start line in about 55 seconds. Had to hold back     during the descent of 120 ft to complete the 1st mile  in 8:07. In fact the first 4 miles were flat or net downhill resulting in a much faster start than planned at  8:04,8:02 and 8:04 per mile. Though there were thousands of runners in each corral a few minutes after the race started there was enough room to run comfortably. In fact throughout the race I rarely felt cramped for race - unlike the experience I had at the only other  race with 30,000+ runners that I have run- London 2007 - where I was elbow to elbow with other runners for pretty much the entire 26 miles.By this time one had run from  Hopkinton to Ashland passing by a Lakshmi temple on the way. Miles 5 to 8  through the town of Framingham  saw the pace drop to the 8:15 to 8:30 range (in line with the original plan)  due to a couple of small rolling hills. Miles 8 through  11 I kept the same steady pace through Natick where I was pleasantly surprised by ex-colleague Chai Rao calling out my name and taking a beautiful action photo.

around mile 10 in Natick

And then we ran into the famous screaming tunnel of Wellesley which lived up to its reputation.

The Wellesley scream tunnel

I tried to take in as many of the diverse placards as possible. The one that stood out for me is "Kiss me - I am performance enhancing". Since I was doing a decent pace I did not regret not carrying a camera. Stopping for a picture here, albeit for less than a minute,  would have broken the momentum and perhaps slowed my finish time further. I reached the half way point in 1:49:11 at a decent  average pace of 8:20 keeping alive hopes of a sub 3:45 finish. However, the pace dropped rapidly in the hills between Miles 15 to 22 through Newton  as the iffy left leg started to act up. Though I had a gu gel each around the 15Km and 25Km I felt a bit hungry as well after 21 miles or so  probably due to having eaten over 3.5 hours before the start of the race. I did not need to stop or walk but found it difficult to pickup pace even in the downhill portions. After about a mile and half through Brookline I saw the famous Citgo sign while entering Boston. However, there was another short but steep climb along the overpass atop the MA Turnpike. And even the wildly screaming, emotionally charged up crowds- many urging runners to claim the finish line this year-  in the last 2 Kms leading up to the finish line did not help bring my pace to below 9 minute miles. The 5K splits below clearly depicts my fading  after 25 Kms and the desperate need to  be better prepared to run hills.

• 5K               25:18
• 10K             25:41
• 15K             25:54
• 20K             26:32
• 25K             26:43
• 30K             28:38
• 35K             30:34
• 40K             28:53
• 42.2K          13:16

The finish line camera shows me crossing the finish line at around 4:31 mark. While the timing was not great I thoroughly enjoyed the race. The weather was probably on the warmer side for most runners but it was perfect for me. I never felt hot throughout the race and did not sweat at all. I kept hydrating with water reasonably regularly - every 3 to 4 miles. There was an aid station with water and gatorade after every mile marker.  And of course the field had some really  strong runners. One of them running throughout with a small video camera strapped to his forehead stands out in my memory. 31,931 out of the 32,456 runners who started the race completed it!  I finished 15,552 overall, 10074 out of 17,575 men and 813 out of 1778 in my age group.  Despite being over 13 minutes slower than my qualifying time I finished nearly 4000 places ahead of my initial seeding of 19,428 (my bib no.).  

Each of the 8 towns had thousands of  amazing spectators on both sides of the road cheering loudly. The crowd support in this marathon is supposed to be like none other and it  lived up to the reputation with an estimated 1m spectators lined up along the race this year.   The spectators displayed various signs and placards many of which kept me amused during the run. There were all the  usual signs and many unique ones as well. Some that stood out are: 'Beer and cigarettes available here', 'I do marathons..on Netflix', 'slowdown runners - I am trying to count you all', 'WTF - where is the finish line'. 42 of the best ones are summarised here. 

After being draped in the thermal cape and the medal I grabbed a couple of cups of gatorade and headed over to the family meeting area thrilled to have crossed one off my bucked list!!