As in 2023, the last time I ran this event, M and I stayed in Woodlands hotel close to Kanteerva stadium on 20th September. M came from Chennai in the morning by train, collected the bibs and checked into the hotel. I drove from home post lunch and got there around 4PM. The Woodlands room that M changed to was spacious and relatively new. It was a fairly relaxed evening - after spending a couple of hours visiting a cousin in MG road we had early dinner(the choice of food was limited in the restaurant) and went to bed by 9:45.
Though I heard some crackers (it being Ganesha week) I dozed off soon. Woke up at 4 - M had woken up at 3:30 and used the bathroom. We got ready and walked across to Kanteerva stadium around 5:15am after a quick pre-race selfie.
As is usual on a city race day in , the area was buzzing with runners converging to the holding area. Bumped into several friends in the holding area including Ra &Ru - 2:15 and 2:30 pacers for the race.
With over 11 thousand registrations, the HM start was in 3 waves. I started at 6:10 am about 10 mins after the first wave. Despite the staggered start it was very crowded getting out o the stadium and in the Cubbon park area. In fact, there were runners at close proximity all through the race except perhaps the last 4Kms or so. After Km 1 in moderate time of 6:21, ran the fastest Km split - doing the 2nd Km in 6mins. Thereafter, kept a steady pace of between 6:05 and 6:20 till Km 15. The first half took just under 1:07 - perhaps a minute too slow to hit a sub 2:15 finish. Slowed down to 6:25 to 6:30 pace in the last 6 kms- With Km 18 being the slowest at 7:13 when my right toes cramped and I walked a bit after stopping at the aid station for water. It was at this point that Ra - the 2:15 pacer crossed me. I did not push myself to keep up with her and finished about 30s behind her - more or less achieving my goal of 2:15.
The official timing splits were as below :
Did not meet many runners at the finish (most of my BHUKMP runners were doing the FM). Waited for M for about half an hour in the finish area - but missed seeing him in the crowds. So had breakfast by myself and walked back to Woodlands around 10am.
As M's train got delayed we decided to have lunch at PG. Left Woodlands around 11:45 and reached home around 1 - satisfied with the way the race went specially since several of the training runs in July and August were below par creating self doubt on whether I would be able to do a decent HM. Both the quads held up as did the right ankle. Credit to R for this turnaround - he seems to have assessed the core issue correctly as the excercises prescribed by him seemed to be making a difference.
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