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!!