After a very good 1st half and being reasonably on target till 32K( as per my Garmin) the toes of the left sole started acting up making it challenging to move the legs. A short walk break just before the Peddar road flyover gave second wind enabling me to run a few kms. However, I bonked around Km 38 and thereafter it was a real struggle both physical and mental to continue running. With sub 3:48 out of the window and sub 3:50 looking tough I tried to press on but it tuned out to be one of those days when the mind and the left leg just did not co-operate. So I ended up crossing the finish line just under 3:51. Finishing 4rth in my age category and 404th out of 6700 runners is certainly nothing to sneeze about ;however having trained well for and being in sub 3:48 shape and not achieving it was disappointing. Given that the left sole felt pretty much normal just half an hour after finish, I will carry the thought that perhaps I should have tried harder in the last 5Kms till TMM 2020!
For the first time in 16 years I arrived in Mumbai on Saturday morning (rather than Friday evening) .
I drove to the airport (picking up Pankaj at Cubbon park) and parked my car there - also a first for me. The flight from Bangalore was delayed by a couple of hours due to weather. After landing around 12 , Patil and I went to the expo in KBC(spent quite some time locating it). Being the afternoon before the race the expo was packed. Though we met a few runners we did not hang around much. We grabbed a sumptious G ujarati thali lunch at Rajwad thal and shared a cab to our respective hotels in the Fort area. Though assigned one of the better rooms hotel New Bengal was more rundown than I had expected. After a nice dinner with bunch of friends at Ustaadi next door to the hotel went to bed by 10pm.
Woke up at 3:35am , as usual, before the alarm rang , got ready, had a couple of bananas and some nuts and was down in the lobby by 4:40.
We walked to Azad maidan in about 10 minutes and though the entry gate was crowded with runners the process of security check including the scan of the bag was smooth and we were inside by 5:10 or so. Entered the holding area 15m later and walked towards Coral B. There definitely seemed to be larger number of FM runners than ever. It took almost a minute and a half to cross the starting line and a couple of Kms before I could pick up pace. It was warm but not quite as humid as Mumbai can be. As per my Garmin (310XT) I ran between 5:05 and 5:20 per Km till the 30Km (about 1:50 at the halfway mark). However, the official splits above tell a different story. It is intriguing as to how the times between my devices and the official splits could diverge right from get go - something that I need to take into account better in future races.
I sighted Vishy(who had a similar goal as mine) ahead of me while going down the Peddar road flyover around Km 7 and kept a steady pace behind him. I caught up with him just before the sealink at Km 14 and we ran together till about Km 25 at which point he bonked. While my pace reduced slightly and I did not feel great I managed to plod on what I thought was a reasonably steady pace. However, I seemed to have slowed down more than I thought after the 1st half. This and the struggle in the last 4Kms cost me my goal time. And maybe the mismatch between my Garmin and the official clock. My Garmin showed I had done 42.82Km at 5:24/Km. And the Tomtom(which was in my pocket) 43.37 at 5:20/Km!! The temperature and humidity were was surprisingly steady through out the race. Apart from periodic farting there were no major after effects of all the hogging of the previous day. As I reflect on the race maybe some amount of negativity crept into my mind between Km 27 and 30. As the physical and mental aspects feed into each other it was probably triggered by early signs of numbness in the sole. And the only reason I can think of for this is inadequate tapering.
The walk from the finish line to Azad maidan and the collection of the medal and refreshments was smooth. Met Satish and a few other Indiranagar runners there and Jai of Bhukmp. Jai and I headed back after some rest to reach the hotel at 11am. After checking out around 12 a bunch of us took a cab to get some beer at Leopold. However, as the traffic was very heavy and most of us were feeling very hungry we ended up for lunch at Samrat. Nari and I got to the airport fairly early where we were joined by Pankaj and others. With the ifs and buts still going through my mind I reached home close to 10PM dropping Pankaj enroute. With no hard race in the next 6m there is plenty of time to continue to mull over what could have been and plan and execute better!!
