Enjoyable family weekend at Auroville Marathon 2013

The 6th Auroville marathon on 10th February was a very enjoyable family outing. The icing was that both my brothers did their PB HM time. I also had a  good run with an official time of 1:44. This is the first time in 5 years that I raced(ie ran hard) at Auroville. In 2009,2010 and 2011 I did easy FMs and in 2012 a slowish HM generally enjoying the fantastic route/ambiance and wonderful race organisation. This time my focus was the pace - so I did not interact with anyone during the run. Nevertheless,I enjoyed the race like every year.  I was on target to hit my goal of around 1:40 reaching 20Km in 1:34:50. However, instead of heading to the finish line I took a wrong turn and started running a 3rd loop. After about 450m I realised my mistake and turned back thereby doing about 900m additional. Anyway I am very satisfied with the run  specially considering that it was just 3 weeks after pushing very hard at SCMM 2013 and am confident that if I maintain my current fitness level I should be able to do a sub 1:40 HM in a road race. 

My goal was to try and do a fast HM and better my PB of 1:43:33 achieved at Mysore HM in October 2011 and get as close to 1:40 as possible. That is, run at an average pace of around 4:45 per Km. I did not train much after SCMM 2013 - apart from a couple of recovery runs in the week after Mumbai and couple of easy runs in the week leading up to the event ,I did a 5K short tempo run and a 13K run at close to target HMP (4:46/Km). It is generally not advisable to run hard for at least a month after a tough race in order prevent chances of injury. Therefore many people, including my coach Bill Pierce, would typically not approve of my racing at Auroville. Of course the ability to do multiple races in a short period and still stay injury free varies from runner to runner and many runners are able to race even on consecutive days leave alone consecutive weeks.  

We(myself, my wife, my brother and his wife) left Bangalore at 730am on Saturday and reached Auroville at 230PM with 1 break at A2B for breakfast. The  370 Km  route of Krishnagiri >> Arcot(bypass) >> Cheyyar (bypass) >> Tindivanam >> Vandavasi  had mostly good roads.  After lunch at the visitor's center we visited the Maitri mandir there and reached the hotel around 630PM after collecting our bibs and meeting with a few fellow runners. I went to sleep at 10:15PM and woke up at 430am. We left the hotel around 525am and were at the starting area in Auroville by 550am when it was still dark.

There were nearly 3000 runners this year across all categories - a huge growth from the less than 300 runners in the 1st edition in 2008. Over 1000 runners lined up at the start of the half marathon. I positioned myself at the front near Hari Menon. The race started on time at 6:15 just as daylight was breaking out.  I started out much faster than planned and did the first 3 Kms in 4:21,4:36 and 4:35.  I was able to sustain a good pace and completed 10Km in little over 46 minutes in about 4:37/Km.  Felt a bit warmer in the 2nd loop but surprisingly did not feel the humidity at all. Hit the 10K runners in the 2nd half of this lap - lost a little bit of time between Kms 15 and 18 in the narrow stretches where it was difficult to overtake runners. I took water or electrol at every other water stop. As always the support and enthusiasm of the volunteers was admirable. If I had not misunderstood the direction of the volunteers and taken the wrong turn I should have completed the run in about 1:40. There were a few minor changes  from last year's route.

The medal was again quite different this year and finishers got a bag instead of a T-shirt.

We hung around in the finish area meeting other runners till a little after Lakshmi finished. We then took a few pictures, had breakfast and headed back to the hotel. After a shower and lunch we left Pondicherry at 145PM and reached home at 830PM after a great weekend following the same route with one break at the TN tourism hotel just before Krishnagiri. 

A family affair at season ending Auroville 2012

After some hesitation I registered for the HM at Auroville 2012 just before the closing date in early January.

I normally do not travel out of the Bangalore area to run a half marathon -  however did not want to miss the wonderful Auroville experience.  I am glad I participated- my fourth Auroville marathon and the last event of the season 2011-12 was real special – apart from thoroughly enjoying the route, ambience , comraderie of fellow runners and enthusiastic support of the organizers and volunteers this year’s event was a ‘family affair’.  While my two brothers , Mahesh and Chandru, and myself participated in the event in 2011 (I did the FM while my brothers did the Half)  this year  the 3 of us and Mahesh’s wife Lakshmi  all ran the Half marathon.   

I left Domlur in Satish's car along with his wife Vani around 10:30am on Saturday 11th Feb. We were joined by Ashok enroute who was planning to run his first FM. After a lunch break at A2B and a tea break in Tiruvanamalai we reached the visitor's center at Auroville around 5:45PM. As expected the place was buzzing with runners.  Mahesh,Lakshmi and Chandru came soon thereafter and we had a bit of a photo session.

The bib collection barely took a minute. Though we missed the lively session of  ‘Barefoot’ Ted  , the interaction  with runners – mostly from Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad – before and at the pasta dinner  was thoroughly enjoyable. After dinner we reached our hotel Surguru around 9:15PM after buying some bananas on the way. I went to sleep at 10:15PM after discussing our pacing strategy for the HM with Mahesh and reading a few pages of 'Born to run'. Unlike in the case of Hyderabad 2011 and SCMM 2012 I was not nervous at all. This was because I was not targeting an agressive time goal. I woke up at 4:15am while Chandru was already up and about. We left the hotel in Mahesh's car at 5:25am and reached the Auroville visitor's center parking lot by 5:45am. It was still quite dark  - this year there were tubelights along the way from the parking lot to the start point instead of lanterns.  After using the wash room we made our way to the starting point.

Mahesh and Lakshmi at the visitors center before heading to start point

 Mahesh and myself positioned ourselves near the 10KM/hour speed  point . Segregation of runners based on their target speed or pace was a welcome innovation at this year’s race specially with growing participation in the event. There were  over 800 HM runners out of a total of over 2000 runners across all events. My goal was to pace Mahesh to try and help him beat his PB of 2:13 that he achieved  a few years ago. All his recent HMs have been in about 2:19 or so.

It seemed more humid than I expected as we took off at 6:15am at under 6 minutes per Km pace. The route was brand new taking into account the higher participation as well as the havoc Cyclone  Thane had caused in Dec 2011. HM runners this year were to run two loops of  10.15Km each while the FM runners did 3 looks of about 13.8K each. 

Mahesh and myself stuck together and hit the 10Km mark on target in 61 minutes. Except for one stretch the route – almost 100% trail - was quite broad for multiple runners to run together. It was mostly flat – just one gradient of any significance. The aid stations were well spaced out and stocked and the volunteers at these stations were as supportive and encouraging as ever. The route was better marked then last year (I missed a turn during the FM last year – I learnt that a couple of HM runners lost their way this year too) and the drum beats from ‘Swaram’ added to the unique environment. The only flaw was the incorrect calibration of the route with both the HM and FM runners running more than the required distance. It was sad to see fallen trees and broken branches along the way reminding us of the impact of the cyclone a few weeks earlier. Mahesh slowed down quite a bit after the 13Km mark and started to do run/walk more frequently.  I coaxed him on till 18Km trying to keep the average pace below 6:10 per Km but realized that sub 2:10 was not going to happen. At around 18.5Km when Mahesh felt a bit giddy and slowed down considerably I decided to leave Mahesh to complete the run at his comfort pace and sprinted ahead to finish in a  time of just under 2:15. My first two Kms of the race and the last two Kms were the fastest. Though the finish time was much slower than my PB of 1:44 at Mysore in October 2011 I felt quite stressed with my left glutes and calf at the end of the race.  This is the only race that I stop and take pictures in – took nearly a dozen of them during the race this year. The quaint hand crafted doll medal that all finishers got was really cool. Mahesh finished a couple of minutes after me  in 2:17 followed by Chandru and then Lakshmi.  Though Mahesh was a bit disappointed it was a good performance considering we ran about 400m extra - most garmins showed 21.5Km for the half.

Mahesh is in action

Mahesh is in action

Lakshmi sprinting to the finish line

Udaya and Giri in action

We hung around mingling with other runners while having breakfast and taking pictures. Out of the 11 runners who started training in November 2011 using the 'Run Less,Run Faster' program from FIRST 6 particiapted in the event. Of these six met their timing goals - others did not due to either injury or because of not having a great race day. However, uniformly they all enjoyed the structured training program and are likely to be continuing with the same in future also. We returned to our hotel rooms by 11:15am resolving to come back again next year! And this is pretty much true of everyone who has ever run at Auroville – I don’t know of any runner who did not enjoy the experience and did not want to come back again and again to ‘Run for the Joy of Running’ as the last event of the long distance season. On my part I need to take some time off from running and work on strengthening my glutes and calves.

We left Pondicherry after lunch at about 1:30PM and reached home around 8:45PM. Ashok had completed his first full marathon(actually 42.3Km) in under 6 hours - a great achievement for a trail marathon specially considering he had never beyond 25Km before. Vani and Satish (who drove both ways) also had good half marathons .

Training Run at Midnight marathon 2011

I had planned to do my penultimate long run before SCMM 2012 at the Midnight marathon 2011 on 11th December. I registered for the half-marathon again just as I have done the last two years.  Rahul and I went to the KTPO parking lot in Whitefield and collected the bibs around 1030am on 10th morning. Preparations were underway for the event with the various banners going up. My goal was to do 32Km in just under 3 hours at an average of 5:37 per Km. This meant doing at least 7 and not more than 8 loops of 4.2Km each.

After a busy morning I rested most of the afternoon. Rahul and I left home 7PM to pick up my Dream A Dream mentee David and his friend Mahesh. This took some time as they were waiting at a bus stop in IRR instead of at the Domlur bus stop on old airport road. After seeing one of the posts on my runs on Facebook, David informed me that he had started running and wanted to run in an event. He readily took the opportunity to run 5Km at the Midnight marathon. His friend Mahesh who had come with him for company  decided on the way to Whitefield that he would also like to run. Fortunately there was an extra 5Km bib available which I was planning to use. At Brookefield we picked up Abhi (my brother's son) and reached the parking area in Whitefield by 745PM. The parking area was huge with volunteers directing vehicles. It was 5 minutes walk from the parking area to the holding area where there were a few food stalls. Also, there was a stage where a band was playing live music and announcements were being made. We took a few pictures here.

Mahesh,David,Myself and Abhi

The 5Km event was flagged off at 830PM. David and Mahesh took off very fast. I ran the first loop of 2.5Km with Abhi who ran a pretty steady pace. I then waited on the course and ran the last 100m of the second loop with Abhi who finished his 1st 5Km in a very creditable under 35 minutes!! David and Mahesh seemed to have run their 5Km very quickly and ended up doing a 3rd loop for a total of 7.5Km in under 30 minutes!! At the end of it they felt they should have run 10Km - I told them they could do that at the TCS 10K in June 2012.

Mahesh, David and myself ate a Dosai each - after which I dropped them and Abhi at Brookefield. I was able to come back and park my car easily at 10PM - just as the 10Km event kicked off. I waited patiently at the turn around point to try and shoot Rahul in action. Though I saw him in each of his loops I was not quick enough to take pictures. There were quite a few other runners standing at the turn around point and it so happened that just before Rahul came by I got distracted by conversation with one or the other runner friend. I did manage to take a photo of the Ethiopian who finished first in men's 10K in about 32 minutes and a few of Rahul when he was quite exhausted at the end of his run. He finished in a very reasonable time of 1:07:46   considering that he had not done even a  training run  since the TCS 10K in June 2011.

The HM and FM was flagged off at midnight - there seemed to be a few hundred runners. We had to do an out and back loop of 4.2Km , that is 2.1Km out and back. The route had several turns - however overall I liked it better than the route of the previous years. The road was wider and the divider was broad enough for the traffic on the other side to have no impact on the runners. Plus the run did not disturb people in a residential area. Except for the turns the route was not tough despite a couple of long, steady gradients. I did 12.6 Km(3 loops) in 1:09 at an average pace of 5:28 per Km. As always in an out and back course of multiple loops one meets familiar runners multiple times which adds to the comraderie and motivation. I was able to pretty much sustain my pace doing the HM(5 loops) in 1:56:28 at an average of 5:30 per Km. However, after that my pace started to drop rapidly as the left glutes and hamstrings started hurting quite a bit.  My stomach also ached on and off. The next 11.2Km took me 69 minutes at an average of 6:10 per Km. Overall I completed 32.3Km in 3:06 - about seven minutes slower than target. The last 3-4 Kms was a real struggle and has me quite worried and disappointed. With this kind of running the target of 3:45 in Mumbai looks quite impossible. Not sure what excuses to make for this. I had been on my feet since 7:30PM well before start of the race and  had not eaten a proper dinner . Also, for the first time in a long while I did a 25Km+ run without eating a couple of bananas ; on top of that I had forgotten to get an energy bar. Several runners did very well - Athreya lapped me a couple of times on his way to a FM in his PB time of 3:06 - the first Indian male to complete. Neera was the first Indian woman to complete the FM  in 3:52.  And Vaishali was the first Indian woman to finish the HM!

Since the midnight run on 11th December I did my last 30Km run in GKVK on 24rth December. Again I had a fairly comfortable run till about 25Km but had to slow down considerably after that struggling to do 35Km in under 3:15. It is clear that I need to take some time off from long distance running and focus on strengthening my glutes and hamstrings.  I definitely intend to do this after SCMM 2012 in Janaury.

With Midnight Marathon done, the focus shifts to SCMM 2011

After the Midnight marathon on 18th December , where I ran a 'Half Marathon' , the focus now shifts to the Mumbai Marathon on 16th January 2011.  I had a reasonably good run at the MM completing the 22Km Half marathon in 1:52 at an average pace of  5:07 per Km (vis-a-vis an average pace of 5:02  per Km in 2009 and my target pace of  4:58). Yes, the race organisers goofed up badly in calibrating the run loop as a result of which HM runners ended up doing 22Km instead of 21.1Km and the FM runners 44Km instead of 42.2Km! It is ridiculous for such an error to happen in a professionally organised event specially as it was a straightforward road route that could have been  easily measured using a Garmin. What made it worse was when the race director from Crossover (Neeraj Varma) initially refused to accept that there was any issue with the distance calibration. When pressed and told that it was more than it should be he dismissed it casually saying as long as it is not short there was no issue - shows complete lack of appreciation of the training and effort required to run these distances.

The incorrect distance was not the only issue with the event this year which was poorly organised compared to last year. When we reached the bib collection counter around 10:30 PM after leaving our car in the parking lot of Ramagondanahalli School a few hundred meters away we were shocked to find that all HM Bibs were over. It looks like the organisers did not keep asid bibs for runners who had resgistered online in advance. After a long wait and lot of confusion runners were given bibs of other events such as the relay with HM scribbled on the bib. Soon even these bibs were over. And several HM runners ran without bibs - they were apparently given the timing chip free of charge. Collection of the timing chip was another big chaos with a long, slow moving line. Apparently these got over as well and several runners were left to run without one. I, like many othe runner friends, had decided not to take the chip - given that the timings were anyway not accurate last year. I collected my finishers medal and certificate(with time inserted as per my wish) soon after completing the run. Thirty minutes later there was a huge queue for this as well. And (what a surprise!) the organisers ran out of these well and have promised that they would be couriered to the runners. I understand non of the FM finsihers received either the medal or the certificate. With such a pathetically organised event I need to think hard whether to do this again next year. The only positive is the race itself cannot be easily screwed up since the run route is very short and this serves as a good tempo run towards my training fro Mumbai which follows a few weeks later.

The HM and FM were flagged off at about 12:14am after some announcements and speeches from the organisers and a local politician. I managed to pull myself away from the crowds after a few minutes and keep an average pace of 5:03 minutes per Km for the first two and half laps(11Km). The route was on one side of the divided road so there was complete traffic control. There were frequent water stations and thankfully the volunteers wanting to ink the bib at the turnaround point were missing. It was nice to see many familiar runners on the course multiple times - many doing the HM and several the FM. Chandra, Athreya and Manoj were running quite a blistering pace. My pace dropped  to 5:11 in the second half and I finished in 1:52:53. Though I missed my target by 3+ minutes(assuming about 1:48 for 21.1Km) I am satisfied. I was not feeling great either physically or mentally throughout the Saturday before the run and started the run lacking confidence that I would be able to hit my target. In any case I find it difficult to push hard in shorter distance runs compared to maintaining a reasonably steady pace in a longer run. Congratulations to fellow runners Meher and Amrita for finishing 1st and 2nd in women's FM and Arundhati and Neera for the 2nd and 3rd positions in women's HM - all of them have won decent prize money which is great!

My training has been below par the first two weeks of December - due to travel to Chennai in the 1st week of December for a wedding and short holiday(during which I ran only once) followed by travel to Tirunelveli where I had an upset stomach. However, with the 32.2Km run in 3:22 at GKVK this morning my training for Mumbai is back on track. The next two weeks are extremely critical in order to be in shape for a sub 3:59 on 16th January. I plan to do a tempo 10K run this week and next week with a fastish 20-25K in the weekend. And finally a 36Km  run on the 1st of January after which the tapering will start. Also need to ensure that one stays away from sickness and injury which ofcourse is never under one's control.

48 hours to Midnight marathon 2010

With just about 48 hours to go for this year's edition of Bengaluru Midnight marathon I do not feel as prepared and ready as I would like to be. With 2 birthdays, a wedding in Chennai and a small holiday in Mahabalipuram I have done less running than normal and much more eating than normal in the last 2 weeks. This has resulted in my adding about 4 Lbs of weight since this year's ultra . As a consequence I am quite apprehensive about bettering my time of  1:46:03 from last year. My goal is/was to run below 1:45 , that is, at an average pace of 4:58. It is certainly going to be very challenging. In general my body finds it much more difficult to sustain a fast pace for a longer period of time as compared to doing an average, steady pace for longer distances.  My strategy is going to be to try and do the first half  in under 52 minutes and the second in a bit over 53 minutes.

Hopefully the organisation of the race will be at least as good as last year.  The route is going to be the same. With an out and back loop of 2.1 Km traffic control and aid station support should not be an issue. I hope this time there are no volunteers at the turnaround point wanting to mark the bib of runners with ink. This was very annoying last year and  impacted the momentum of runners which anyway is affected by so many turnarounds. The short loops are also a  bit  boring more so for the  runners doing the FM which includes many of my friends from  RFL .  I have decided to run only HM in this event and use it as a tempo run for the FM in Mumbai in January.  While this event is not as well organised as RFL events it is reasonably popular being only one of two road races in Bangalore(the other one is the 10K held in May). Of course running at night, though not palatable to all runners,  is a unique experience!

HM at Bengaluru Midnight Marathon 2009

The 3rd edition of Bengaluru Midnight marathon on 12th/13th December 2009 was definitely much better organised than the last two editions.However, the participation seemed to be lower. Though I did not reach the venue in time to see the 5K run happen I heard that it had far fewer runners compared to last year when a couple of thousand people ran. I rode to the venue with Vinay Chaurasia and Shumit Vatsal after having an ‘early’ dinner around 8PM -we got there by 1030 PM. The bib and timing chip pick up process was quick and smooth. Inside the Sigma Tech Park RFL had setup a stall manned by Arvind Bharati and Nikhil. In that area I met up with a number of RFL runners – several of whom were running the Half.There was a baggage counter conveniently located in the holding area. About 15 minutes to midnight, runners moved over from the holding area to the start line on the road outside the Tech Park. After a couple of announcements including one regarding the run lap having reduced from 2.64K to 2.1xK the run started off exactly at midnight.

About 400 runners must have started the race. While I started with Shumit and Chandra , who like me were planning to do a fast HM, within a few minutes they pulled ahead. I ran a steady pace with the goal of keeping my average pace around 5 mins per Km. Traffic was completely blocked on one side of the road.There were 3 aid stations in the 2.1K stretch which had water and juice.There were adequate volunteers and cops patrolling the area. The route itself had a couple of slight gradients. The chilly night made it a perfect weather for running. I was able to able to keep my target pace in the first half and completed 10.5 Km in about 52 minutes. One had to necessarily slow down at the turn around point. At the far point some volunteers wanted to mark the bib for each loop for which one had to almost stop – this was a bit frustrating and after the second loop I refused as this was upsetting my rhythm. One big advantage of the up and down route was one was able to see and cheer other runners quite often. This resulted in more than usual comraderie amongst the runners energizing them further. I stayed pretty focused on the run and my target time – talking very little with other runners. I managed to sprint the last 500 meters and finish in 1:46:03 as per my Garmin. Though I feel I could have pushed a little bit more and done a sub 1:45 I am quite satisfied that I shaved 3 minutes off my previous PB set over 3 years ago. Official chip timings are still awaited. It should be available here.

The single biggest contingent of runners was from RFL and they all did very well in the race with many of them clocking their PB HM or FM times. Like last year Arvind and Nikhil cheered the runners, took photographs and setup an additional aid station with electral which was definitely helpful for the FM runners. Shumit did an amazing 1:38 Half while Chandra clocked 1:42. Among the FM runners Ashok and Honda San led the pack with Ashok clocking a very impressive 3:13. Several RFL runners had podium finishes including RGI team in the women’s relay, Meher in women’s HM and Amrita in Women’s FM! We left the venue at about 3am just as Ashok and Honda San were on their last lap of the FM. Everyone seems to have had a good run and also lots of fun at this year’s Midnight marathon. So hopefully this event will go from strength to strength as the premier long distance road race in Bangalore!

The next event is...Bengaluru Midnight Marathon

I have registered to run the HM at the Bengaluru Midnight marathon on 12th December 2009. This is the third edition of this event. I ran the FM in the first event in May 2007 , finishing in 4:44 - my third slowest FM finish. It was a tough run and got very lonely towards the end. Last year I did the 5K with my son as the event was postponed from Dec 2008 to January 2009 due to the Mumbai terrorist attacks and was held exactly one week before Mumbai marathon. I am hoping to run a fast HM this year and try and beat my best ever time of 1:49 that I did in Hyderabad HM in November 2006. If I get into a good rhythm I might even attempt a sub 1:45. While the weather should be nice for running it will still be a challenge for the body as it is not used to running in the night.

There are a couple of other events leading up to the main event on 12th December. A power mile for CXOs mainly to create some publicity about the event amongst senior professionals in Bangalore was held on 22nd November. I ran this  and managed to complete the 'power mile' in just under 6 minutes finishing second amongst about 100 runners. The second pre-event is the 'pet-a-thon' on 6th December wherein onwers are supposed to run with their pets!

Due to the experiences of the last two years ,serious runners in Bangalore have a very poor opinion of this event. In the past there have been issues like lack of traffic control, aid stations running out of water/electral, chaos with timings/certificates etc. Feedback has been given to the organisers, namely, Crossover and I sincerely hope these issues are taken care of this year. I would like this event to improve and attract more and more serious runners - after all this is the only long distance(>10Km) road  race that Bangalore has. Being a midnight run it is quite unique. Also, this is a good race for those  runners who are not able to or do not want to run the ultra distance in November or travel to Mumbai in January. Nevertheless, unless its reputation improves I suspect that a majority of serious runners will do the HM and the FM will have much fewer takers!