A couple of (off-season) fun runs

Before starting formal training for the 1st event of 2013-14 running season I participated in a couple of fun runs in March : the last RFL FOTS run in Fraser town/Ulsoor lake area on 17th March  and the Pinkathon promotional event on 24rth  March. The nostalgia of having run the 1st RFL run way back in March 2005 attracted me to the last RFL run. The cupcakes to celebrate the 8th anniversary of RFL was an added attraction.  It was nice to run around Ulsoor lake - a loop that I have run 11 times in 2006 while training for a marathon. Each loop was 8Km - I did a bit more than a loop to complete a 10Km run. Several of the old timers were there (see photo below) - of course many more were missing! Running in Banglore and India has come a long way in the last 8 years with the running community and the number of running events growing every year. Discontinuing the fortnightly run had a mixed reaction from the Bangalore running community. The fortnightly RFL runs has helped many runners in Bangalore train for their first long distance event and also helped them get hooked onto running. Personally these runs helped me the most during my 12 in 12 marathons in 2008-09 - I did 6 of those 12 marathons in RFL fortnightly runs with wonderful support from RFL employees and volunteers for over 4 and a half hours in each of these runs!

There were a number of promotional runs for the Milind Soman promoted Pinkathon to be held in Bangalore on 7th April. I participated in one such run on 24rth March - the run from Forum mall Koramangla to Forum value mall in Whitefield via the Inner Ring road and old airport road. I joined the run on Inner Ring road and Ran till the Kundanahalli junction  doing about 15Km before returning home by bus. It was a slow fun run stopping every Km or so for water as well as to ensure all the runners caught up. I decided to skip the real fun part of breakfast and beer at Forum Value mall post the run.

Less than 48 hours to the 6th Bangalore Ultra

With under 2 days to go for the 6th edition of the Bangalore Ultra  the buzz is building up among the running community not just in Bangalore but across the country. The Bangalore Ultra is India's 1st and largest Ultra marathon. The event has grown in leaps and bounds since the first edition in 2007 with not only more number of participants each year but also newer categories as well as other innovations from Runners For Life. After 5 years of the race being at Hesarghatta , this year the venue has moved to the bamboo forest off Hennur road which is something for all the ultra runners to look forward. to. There have been a couple of RFL runs at the Hennur road forest route including one in April 2009 when I did the 9th of my 12 marathons in 12 months. The new route for the ultra seems to be flatter and less uneven apart from being a 25Km loop (12.5Km out and 12.5Km back) instead of 12.5Km loop. From a logistics and organisation perspective it will be challenging for Runners For Life - as there will be no support of a resort. Port-a-potties, changing rooms, large holding area, food, waste management etc will need to be taken care of. With the experience of over 5 years in organising high quality running events behind them I expect RFL to do well and meet the runners expectations. 24 hours run and splitting the event between 2 days are the other changes that have been brought in this year.

Since my last marathon - Mohawhk Hudson River marathon on 7th October - I have been in a dilemma as to whether or not to participate in the ultra this year. Had I met my timing goal of 3:38 the decision would have been easy. However, since I am now targeting this time for the SCMM in January 2013 the advice from my coach Bill Pierce as well as running coach Dharam is to skip the ultra and focus on training for the Mumbai marathon. While my head also says I should focus on training for the Mumbai marathon and not run the 50K I decided to go with my heart. Having been involved as a core team member for the 1st edition of the event and having run 50Km or more every year since then I am keen on continuing the streak as long as I possibly can. I am verye xcited about the new route off  Hennur road and am glad that I decided to register for the race. Hopefully this will not have an adverse impact on my training for SCMM and more importantly on the race itself. Well one will have to hope for the best.

Though I am in a shape to run the 50Km in about 4:45 or so  this year, I am going to try and take it easy and not push myself in order to conserve energies for the next race. My best time for 50Km  was 5:22:24 in 2009. I should be able to beat this time comfortably. By what margin depends on how the race goes. My strategy  will be to do the 1st loop of 25Km in  about  2:18 at an average of 5:30 per Km and try and do the second half in 2:30 at an average of 6 minutes per Km to try and finish around 5 hours. A lot will also depend on the weather on race day - if it rains then this new route is going to be very slushy slowing me down. Very warm weather will also take a toll on the pace in the 2nd half. My main goal with the Bangalore Ultra  is not the target time but as always to enjoy the route, race ambiance and the tremendous comradarie of fellow runners doing 50Km or more -  I understand that nearly 50 runners are doing either 75Kms or 100Kms or the 24 hours category!!

Start of the 6 months quest for BQ...

My only running goal for 2012 (and 2013 if I dont make it this year) is to qualify for Boston. My qualification time in the 50-54 years age group is 3:40 - I probably need to do a sub 3:38:30 to assure entry. And this needs to be done between September 2012(after the registration for Boston 2013 closes) and September 2013(before registration starts for Boston 2014). And to achieve this I need to shave over 11 minutes of my previous PB - a real daunting task indeed!! Nevertheless, if I can't do it in the next 12-18 monthls then it is unlikely that I will be able to BQ in this lifetime! While I have been steadily improving my FM timings over the last 6 years and in theory the human body can be pushed much beyond one's imagination ,in my case I expect age to catch up soon resulting in plateauing of my performance.

After a 7 weeks break from running and cycling I started my quest for BQ with a 6Km/36 minutes training run on 1st April. And two weeks later did a 16.5Km run at the RFL run at EGL today. Though I have been stretching and strengthening during my break and have added just about 2Kgs to my (optimal) weight of 60Kgs it has been quite challenging to get back to running and the first couple of runs have been bit of  a struggle. Right now completing a 42Km run looks very daunting - leave alone completing it in under 3:40.  My left glutes and left calf  feel slightly stressed during and at the end of the run. In fact, the left glutes now hurts even when I am siting in one position for a couple of hours. Based on Dr. Rajat's advice I consulted Dr. Thomas Kishen of Sparsh Hospital. He advised X-ray and MRI of lower back for suspected pinched nerve. I have decided to park this for now and see how the training goes for the next few weeks.

I intend to build the base mileage by the end of May. This includes getting to 45Km+ per week and at least one run of 25Km. I will start my 16 weeks Full marathon training using the Furman 'Run Less, Run Faster' program starting 11th June. I have registered for the Mohawk Hudson River marathon on October 7th.  I do not intend to race in the TCS world 10K this year - will run it at a moderate pace to try and do a sub-50. I probably will try and race a HM in early September and am targeting the Swanzey Covered Bridges Half marathon.  Assuming it is good to do a fast HM 4-5 weeks before the FM  - I need to confirm this with my coach.

It is going to be an arduous 6 months which I am sure will have its share of ups and downs. The key will be to stay mentally(more on this in a future post)  and physically strong and injury-free. I am looking forward to some serious training starting 1st May - after returning to Bangalore from  10 days vacation starting 18th April; will need to be careful not to put on weight during this period of low training and unbirdled eating/drinking! Not so coincidentally this post is being written less than 48 hours before the 2012 edition of Boston marathon.

PB at Celebration Mysore HM

I had a near perfect race and while I narrowly missed my goal of going below 1:43 I still achieved a PB of 1:43:33 bettering my previous best  in a half marathon by over two and a half minutes. Ravi Balasubramanya and I pretty much ran the whole race together. And I got the benefit of a running commentary on the localities we ran through  from the local boy. Ravi , who  is a much younger and faster runner than I am, was returning from injury and decided to stick with me. With the finish line visible  a few hundred meters away Ravi found that extra burst of energy and sprinted to  finish 13 seconds before me. Sid ran a very steady race and finished a few seconds ahead while Neera also ran a strong race to finish just after I did. I finished 30th overall out of about 173 timed finishers. See here  for complete results.

The day started very early - 2am to be precise when my alarm went off. Though we had planned on driving down to Mysore the previous afternoon we changed our plans once  we learnt that bibs would be given out on the morning of the race for outstation runners.  I left home at 2:45am and reached Rich's place a little after 3am after picking up Sid on the way.  Rich, Sid, Neera, myself, Raj and Sabesan then left Lavalle road at about 3:20am in Rich's Innova. Enroute I was able to doze a bit. We reached the start point outside the Mysore palace at about 5:45am just before day break. The area was buzzing with runners as well the road seemed to have quite a bit of traffic. We collected our bibs in a few minutes(thanks to Nikhil of RFL for helping us out on this) , got into our running gear and headed for the portable potties across the road. At about 6:30am the timing technologies folks were setting up the timing system at the start point and there was some confusion as to where exactly the runners were supposed to assemble for the start of the race. The cricketer Javgal Srinath and actress Nidhi Subbiah appeared soon after. However, the run did not start as scheduled at 6:45am as the chief guest -  a minister arrived late. The crowd became very restless and started booing. Finally, after a few speeches which we could not hear anyway the race got underway a little over 20 minutes from the scheduled start time.

Ravi and I ran together from the start. In the 1st Km or so it seemed like the sun would come out; however thankfully it did not and it stayed partly cloudy throughout with little humidity.  We went out on Devraj Urs road and continued on Hunsur road  where there were a few gradients. Overall the route was quite scenic specially the  Mysore university area and the trail around Kukkarahalli lake. There was a downward slope leading up to the entry point of the trail which provided momentum to both Ravi and myself. Ravi hit a curb and stumbled across in front of me - fortunately he was able to regain balance as I managed to grab his elbow - else both of us could have got injured and our race might have ended at that point. We turned around at the end of the trail a little past the half-way mark. At this point I was pretty much on target with my garmin showing a little over 49 minutes.  The second half also had a few gradients and my pace strarted to drop a bit. However, I managed to keep the average pace at 4:55 . I could have possibly pushed a bit harder in the last Km - however as both my left glute and calf were hurting a bit I decided not to that. Both of these were sore tilla couple of days after the race. The traffic control was reasonable with the volunteers and cops doing their best to give priority to runners at intersections though there were a few instances when they found it challenging in handling buses. There were not too many Km markers on the route and also the route seemed to have the runners cross the road a few times more than is desirable. Otherwise , overall it was a good experience.

After the run we had a sumptious buffet breakfast at Pai Vihar and started the drive back to Bangalore at about 11am reaching home at 2:30PM. I decided to take a couple of weeks easy and do some light running and also undergo soft tissue therapy before starting on the rigors of the 'Run Less, Run faster' training for Mumbai 2012.

Less than 12 hours to the Mysore Half Marathon

After vacillating quite a bit I went ahead and registered for the HM in Mysore  couple of weeks ago.  I would be leaving for Mysore in a few hours along with Rich, Neera, Sid and a couple of other runners. The evening/night before a race is always a restless one for most runners and certainly so for me. This one is even more so as I know that I should probably not be running this race(My coach and mentor  Bill Pierce is quite categorical about it). I have not been unable to train much since the Hyderabad marathon on 28th August. Work schedule has been hectic and also I have not fully recovered from the niggle in my left glutes and calf which I picked up a couple of weeks before that event. So logically I should take some more rest and focus on the training for my next marathon event. However, I did not want to miss the opportunity to run a runner friendly (with RFL handling the organisation) HM event in the vicinity. Moreover, I have not run a daytime HM event since May 2005.  My goal is   to use this race to get over the disappointment of not meeting my target at Hyderabad and also restart my training   using the Run Less,Run Faster program from FIRST  for SCMM 2012 which is 15 weeks away.

The  1st target is to beat my HM PB of 1:46:03 from Midnight marathon in December 2009 and if all goes well to go below 1:43. This will depend on how the 1st half goes . If I can manage the 1st half in about 49 minutes at an average pace of 4:52/Km without  much stress to my left glute and calf then I will try and do the second half in under 54 minutes. Else I will take the second half easy. Either way am looking forward to the race - the route looks pretty interesting  with the start and finish being at the famous Mysore Palace and about 4 Kms of soft path around a lake and also going through Mysore University. Hopefully there will be efficient traffic control and weather wont be too bad - both critical factors for a race starting at 6:45am. This is the first time I have seen the video of the route put up on the website for an event in India.

Strides of Hope 2011

It is now nearly two weeks since I had the the  privilege of being able to do my bit in the 2nd edition of Strides of Hope held from 21st to 23rd Jan. Despite being unemployed since the beginning of the year I have not been able to make the time to update the blog  as regularly as I would like to(Besides - there is a long overdue project to revamp the blog and creat a version 2.0 - hopefully will be able to get to it sometime this year!). The event this year was much bigger than last year as seen by the summary stats below:

Total number of participants: 624

Total distance run: 5677.6 Km
Total distance walked: 577.5 Km
Total distance Cycled: 5529 Km
Total overall logged distance: 12255.1 Km
Cities  reached out to: Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Austin and New Jersey

The above is in comparison to over 350 runners and over 3000 Kms in the 1st edition of the event in 2010. The event is slated to grow tremendously both in terms of number of particpants and coverage of cities in the years to come. More details are available in the post event report and press release on the SOH website.

My goal this year was to do 5-6 Kms at the flag-off on Friday, run as much as possible starting Saturday night with the goal of exceeding my last year's 81Km and possibly do 120Km+ and also be at the finale in Madhavan Park on Sunday afternoon. I failed miserably in  my overall goal  - nevertheless I had a great time and felt satisfied to have participated and made a small contribution to this unique event.

On Friday 21st Jan afternoon I reached the Home Guards group in Ulsoor by about 4:45PM for the flag-off. There were a number of Runners High folks as well as other runners and cyclists gathering there for the flag off. Everyone was very enthusiastic - the high energy levels were palpable. Nikhil of RFL arrived with all the stuff required for aid stations. Radha Ganesan was interviewing and filming a few participants  - see photo below.

Radha and crew interviewing some of the participants before flag-off

The event was kicked-off just before 530PM with the runners running out of the Home Guards ground into the Ulsoor lake ground and the cyclists heading towards Hebbal flyover , enroute to Hyderabad, soon thereafter.  I ran two loops covering 6.34Km in about 49 minutes with Santosh, Sam and Jacob Bhoopalan. Several other runners joined in. While I was tempted to run longer I decided against it in order to conserve my energy for Saturday night.

I pretty much rested most of Saturday and had a 'semiya-upma' dinner around 745PM. By 8PM I had packed my bags(with extra clothese, shoes, energy bars, bsicuits etc) and was ready. On Saturday, 22nd  Nari picked me up just before 9PM and in a few minutes we reached the Goldman-Sachs parking lot at EGL where the aid station was being setup by a few volunteers. There were also a few runners waiting there. Around 930PM Santosh, Chandra, Preeti and others arrived. Nari and I started our run around 940PM. We ran the first two loops of 9Km each at an average pace of around 7:45 per Km. There were a couple of dark stretches on the route and it helped that I was carrying a small torch. Though I had thoroughly enjoyed running  this stretch at night last year I found it a little more challenging and a bit boring this year.  During these two loops there were about 10-12 runners/walkers on the route including Santosh, Sunand etc. As we were returning to complete our 2nd loop Honda-San joined us. The three of us (ie Honda-San, Nari and myself) did the next 3 loops pretty much together. From the 2nd half of the 4rth loop (from about 32Kms or so) we started following a run/walk pattern.  I am sure Nari and I slowed Honda-San quite a bit but he stuck with us. By the 3rd loop our eyes got used to the darkness and since htere was also reasonably good moonlight we did not really need the torch. The weather was great -in fact a bit on the chillier side as the night wore on. Also during the course of those 3 loops all of us passed a lot of gas (symphony of f*rts!)- intially I felt a bit embarassed and tried to suppress it but later I just let it go as Nari can testify! Farting while running is quite normal - ofcourse it depends on on the food and the timing of the meal before a run - Here is an interesting post on this subject with a bunch of links.

Between each loop we stopped for a few minutes at the aid station to drink and eat a bit - biscuits, chocolates etc. At the end of our 5th loop Honda-San stopped running- he said he would be abck after a couple of hours of rest. I am amazed at how runners are able to do two long runs with a short break of a few hours in-between. Santosh did this as well. Before coming to EGL at 930PM he had taken a few hours break to get some sleep. At EGL also he took a couple of hours break and started running quite strongly thereafter. Towards the end of the 5th loop my back started hurting and I had to slow down considerably - we crossed the marathon distance in just under  6 hours. We started the 6th loop after a slightly longer break  - I changed my socks while Nari changed his attire. In this loopthe back pain increased considerably and I also started to tire mentally. The mind started to say maybe I should not push myself too hard and risk a long term back issue. I have never had an issue with my back during a run and so it was quite worrisome. The pain did not seem to stay in one place- it seemed to traverse across the back. At the end of the 6th loop(54+Kms) I knew  that I would not be able to continue too long. The legs hurt for sure but it was not too bad. However, the back pain was quite disconcerting.  Preeti also advised that it was better not to take a chance with the back. I decided that the 7th loop was going to be my last one. Nari was determined to do an 8th one- I would have loved to give him company but this was one of those days where I lost the battle both mentally and physically. During the return leg of the 7th loop we met tens of familiar RFL runners. This one took a good 1hr 45 minutes to complete and I stopped at the end of it with my Garmin showing 63.4Km in 9hrs 41 minutes!! I felt disappointed that I was short of my goal but at that time I did not think it realistically possible to do two more loops to cross 81Km!! I did not hang around at EGL for too long - I left for home soon after and lay down on the floor. At the end of 90 minutes of sound sleep my back felt better. The legs also recovered in a few hours and a twinge of regret crept in my mind - maybe I could have pushed on and stayed the course a little longer :).  I was able to do 81Kms last year exactly one week after running the Auroville marathon. However, I found it much more difficult this year one week after a fast Mumbai marathon. I guess this is because the body takes much longer to recover after a fast run while recovery is faster and better after a slower run(intend to research and post on this some time in the future). Doing 100Km+ will have to wait till next year now :)

I slept like a log for over 3 hours  after an early lunch and thereafter felt too lethargic to go to Madhavan park for the finale!! While the soreness in the back lingered on for a few days I was able to comfortably do a 8Km run on Wednesday 26th Jan.  Hats off to Santosh Padmanabhan for doing over 230Kms in 38hrs - his passion and commitment to running and helping under-privieged children through Asha is really amazing!! Several others ran/walked over 100Kms during the event : Jagadish, Sunand and of course Honda-San. Not to forget the 5 cyclists who rode to Hyderabad and back clocking  3007Kms in 48 hours with Samim Rizvi alone doing 1237Kms - again an amazing feat of endurance and commitment!!

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!

Ultra(2010) experience

As mentioned in my previous post I had a great 75Km run at Bangalore Ultra 2010. However, the last few hours leading up to the start of the race was not that good. As  usual I was  quite restless the previous evening/night. (Thankfully I had a pretty good night's sleep the previous two nights which is important as most runners end up being tense and restless the night before the actual event). Though I had dinner around 8PM and went to bed just after 9PM I kept getting up to check that I had packed everything: towel, extra shoes, socks, T-shirt, cap, the energy bars etc etc. Eventually went to sleep around 1030PM and woke up before my alarm went off at 2:20 am. Praveen Singh picked me up around 3:15. With a roadblock on MG road due to the metro cosntruction work we got delayed a bit getting to the parking area outside Bowring Institute on St. Marks Road. Meanwhile Dharam had reached Cubbon Park and called a couple of times. When we finally got dropped off at Cubbon Park by Jugy at about 3:40am and I got into Dharam's car I suddenly realised that a plastic bag with my running shoes and the timing chip was missing. I was extremely flustered at this discovery and quite unsure as to what to do next when , much to my relief, a runner waiting for the RFL transport came by and gave the bag with the shoes . I was still quite disturbed and forgot to thank the good samaritan properly. Dharam and I set off in his car with the Vasu, Nari, Praveen and Sumanth following in Vasu's car. It was several minutes before I calmed down.  Fortunately, our drive was quite quick and we were able to get to Our Native Village in Hessaraghatta by 4:30am. The  large flourescent sign boards  providing directions to ONV placed thoughtfully by RFL along the way were useful specially those driving to the Ultra for the first time.

On the podium before start of the race

Starting the race

Of course, the starting area was buzzing with the energy of runners - a lot of familiar ones plus many new faces from Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and outside India. At the beginning of the path inside ONV leading up to the start area was a 'on-the-runner' baggage counter where runners could store small items that they may need at a later stage during their run such as sunglasses, cap, gels, energy bars etc. This was a useful innovation from RFL. I stored one energy bar and cap here while I carried another 1.5 energy bars with me. Next to the stage was a second baggage counter where I stored my bag with extra shoes, socks, shirt and towel. Runners were busy taking pictures, checking on each others' training, timing goals etc while waiting for the start of the race. LED torches were given out to runners starting at 5am as it was pitch dark at this point. After a few announcements from A1 and A2 including the course records for the various distances the run was flagged off at 5am sharp. Running in the dark with a torch was quite an experience. Though I have done this at Auroville marathon a couple of times. I felt quite unsure of myself and started off much slower than planned.  By the time we approached the 2nd Aid Station I had to take my first of several comfort breaks. By this time Nari and I were together. We pretty much stayed together for 2 and a half loops. It was great to see Santosh Padmanabhan running comfortably despite having run over 100Km since 5PM on Saturday(13th) along with Kavitha pacing him on her bicycle. It was highly inspiring  and every time I saw them I got renewed strength to continue my run. The run route was mostly same as the previous year - vast green fields with sparse trees along the way, damp grass, mostly red mud, stretches of narrow, uneven paths and a couple of gradients - all making it  a challenging race. The one difference in the route was the turnaround point. The grove of trees through which we ran after the road section before turning around had unfortunately been destroyed.So the turnaround was on the road section itself. Once it was daylight I was able to pick up pace and maintain it in the second loop.  Nari and I completed 25KM in about 2:38 as against our goal of 2:35. By this time I had eaten half an energy bar. Unfortunately, the weather gods were not as kind to us this  time unlike the last two years. By the time we started our third loop the sun was out nice and bright. It was clear that runners, specially those doing longer distances, were going to have a tough time in the warm weather.

Though it gets a bit boring to do 6.25Km out and back multiple times the great thing about this loop is that one gets to see the other  runners multiple times irrespective of the distance they are doing. The energy and enthusiasm that the comradarie and cheering each other generates is  amazing. As we were completing the 1st loop we met numerous familiar 50K runners. And then of course the 37.5K, 25K and eventually the 12.5K runners when doing the 3rd loop. Around the middle of the 3rd loop Nari started to slow down and fall behind.  I picked up my 2nd energy bar from the 'on-the-run' counter at the start of the 4rth loop. In this loop a few runner friends who were not participating in the event this year namely Gopal, Prasad and Mac joined me for a short while. Gopal actually ran with me almost the entire 4rth loop and this helped me tremendously Without his company and engaging conversation I would have definitely done a much slower time. I ended up doing the second 25Km  in a little over 3 hours nearly 10 minutes faster than my target.  Each time one went through the start point Atul or one of the other organisers enthusiastically called out the names of the runners - this was a nice tonic to start the next loop with.

Before starting my 5th loop I walked to the baggage counter and changed my shirt and also my socks and shoes. This of course involved transferring the bib and the chip. While transferring the chip and tying the shoe laces my quads cramped quite severely giving me a bit of a scare. However, I felt OK after I ran slowly to the aid station and refueled myself. Needless to say, the last two loops were very challenging. After about 55Km or so the legs started to hurt all over , specially the Quads, with occasional (mild) cramping. From this point on I stopped at every aid station, drank a lot of water and Lucozade, ate oranges and generously used the Volini spray on my legs. I then stretched for a few seconds and walked briskly for a few minutes before starting to run again. This is something that I had experimented with during my additional 16Km run/walk at KTM 2010. That  experience enabled me to cope with the tired legs and body and warm weather in a pre-determined manner and I was able to do close to 7:30 per Km pace when running.  I caught up with Chandra at the Aid Station around the 60Km  mark in the 5th loop and was able to slowly push ahead. By this time I was certain that I would be able to finish in about 9:15 or so.    

Surprisingly for me I felt really great in the 2nd half of the last loop even though it was past 1PM and  the few  runners on the trail were distributed sparsely. Once I realised that a sub 9 hr timing was within the realm of possibility I picked up pace and almost sprinted the last 2Kms finishing the race in just over 8 hours 56 minutes!! At this point in time I felt strong enough to  perhaps turn around and attempt one more loop - however I decided against that.  I think I am very fortunate that my body is able to handle heat better than most other runners.  Chandra finished a few minutes after me in 9:09. Praveen completed in 9:41 and Nari in 10:22 - the 3 of us doing our 1st 75Km at the Ultra!! I thought the lunch was quite ok this time around though many other runners felt otherwise.

Overall very satisfactory event including great organisation from the RFL team -despite the harsh warm weather runners enjoyed themselves thoroughly! Several runners did their longest ever distance and many achieved their PBs. And hats off  to the 100K runners ! Of course I was aching all over for a couple of days. Special mention must be made of the stiff upper back and a new purple toe that I collected . And the fact that the right glut and hamstrings were sore for longer than normal - it is ususally the left side that is weaker and hurts more.

Now on to the last event of the calendar year which will be a Half Marathon for me at the Midnight marathon on 11th December.

Countdown to Bangalore Ultra 2010

With the Bib and T-shirt collected a couple of days ago, the last training run done and the pre-race ritual of a haircut and nail clipping completed, the 48 hours countdown   to the 4rth edition of the Bangalore Ultra on 14th November has commenced. And the excitement and nervousness is building up among the running community in Bangalore. Any RFL event is now highly anticipated by the running community in India and the ultra is ofcourse the most challenging of these events. Personally for me this is going to be the longest run in a race(not counting the 81K run/walk at Strides of Hope in February 2010). After running 52K at the 1st edition of the Ultra in 2007 and 50K in 2008 and 2009 I am targeting the 75K this year.  With training runs of 58K and 53K within the last 2 months I am reasonably prepared for this. The lingering mild cold and sore throat is a bit of a concern. And of course the various (hopefully imaginary) aches and pains - which runners experience during the last few days leading up to a race. I know it is eventually going to be a battle of the mind on race day. Though the route has changed a bit this year it is still a 6.25Km out and back course. Running 6 laps to complete 75K could get a bit boring (and lonely towards the end) .This will certainly add to the challenge. One will also have to see how it will be to have 800 runners on the trail at the same time. I assume some of the faster 25K and 37.5K runners will be hindered a bit.

With over 50 runners registered to run distances of 75K and 100K this Sunday, the Bangalore Ultra has come a long way in the last 4 years mirroring the growth of long distance running community in the country. There are several good friends from RFL who are among the 27 runners registered to do the 75K this year: Praveen Singh, Dharam, Chandra Gopalan, Sabine, Preeti, Nari, Jugy etc. And ofcourse Chandra Karturi will be doing it for a 3rd year in a row!! He was the winner in the 75K category last year with a time of 9:21:45.

Here is a summary of the top mens performers  of the last 3 years for this distance:

2007 (78K)

1 Jacob Boopalan 7:38
2 Mukesh Singh 8:57
3 Madhu Avasarala 9:03

(Note : these are amazingly awesome timings!!)

2008  (75K)
1 Athreya Chidambi 9:05:43
2 Chandrasekhar K 9:30:00
3 Subramanian K 10:39:19

Senior
1 Sunil Chainani 11:20:14

2009 (75K)
1 Chandra Sekhar Katuri 9:21:45
2 Navin Thangiah 10:19:52
3 Nandesh P 11:37:40

Senior
1 Jagannath Raju 11:16:25
2 Rahul Varghese 11:30:30
3 Ajit Oak 14:58:00

My goal is to try and complete the 75K in around 9.5 hours at an overall average pace of 7 minutes 36 seconds per Km. Depending on how it goes I would be thrilled if my timing is close to 9 hours. However, I will be quite satisfied if I am able to complete in under 10 hours and feel strong at the end. Dividing the race into three parts of 25K each my plan is as follows:
- First  25K in about 2 hours 35 minutes at an average pace of 6:15 per Km
- Middle 25K in about 3 hours 10 minutes at an average pace of 7:30 per Km
- Final 25K in about 3 hours 45 minutes at an average pace of 9 minutes per Km
 
I have set the high pace alert in my Garmin to 5:35 per Km to avoid going too fast(in the first couple fo laps!) and low pace alert to 8:45 to manage the average pace during the last two laps.
 
Finally I hope the weather is as perfect as it was the last two years with the sun not coming out till after 2PM. Here's wishing the RFL organising team and all the runners a wonderful, enjoyable event!!

KTM 2010 experience

Almost exactly a week since the 2010 edition of KTM I seem  to have fully recovered from the run. However, recovery has been much slower than usual. Though I felt  fine on the evening of the event my body was very sore for the next couple of days due to which I found it tough to get a good nights sleep. Doing the additional 16Km in that terrain and heat took its toll. Usually I do my first ,  short recovery run within 48 hrs(Tuesday after the sunday event). This time I did a slow 4K on Wednesday and then a 7K on Friday  - I struggled in both these runs. It was only after a decent 13K on Saturday that I felt fully recovered and back to my normal self. Nevertheless, I am very satisfied with my achievement of having managed to run/walk 58Km in tough conditions after a good FM finish. As per the official timings on the Timing India results page for KTM 2010 I completed the FM in 4:32:04 finishing 23rd overall and 2nd in the senior category!

On Saturday 18th September we (Chandru, Ravi, Prateek and myself) left Domlur just before 3PM in my brother Chandru's car. Bangalore traffic being at its Saturday afternoon worst it took as an hour to get out of the city and reach the Raja Rajeshwari flyover. After that it was pretty fast going and after one short break in between we reach the start point of the race next to Ranganathittu bird sanctuary a little after 630PM in fading light. The RFL staff was setting up the podium on the starting line. We walked a few hundred meters on the trail so that Ravi and Chandru(both doing their first HM event) could get a feel of the uneven terrain. We reached Country Club located about 10Kms from the race start point a little after 7PM. The room there was just about average and OK for a nights rest before the race. After  an early dinner of dal, roti, and very spicy kadai vegetables we were pretty much asleep by 10PM after deciding to leave by 5:40am in the morning.  I slept well - undisturbed by the heavy traffic on the two major roads at the intersection of which Country Club was located. I had my alarm set for 5am and as usual woke up a few minutes before it rang. Chandru was already up and getting ready.  Thankfully there was no after effect of the spicy dinner. We left Country Club at 540am as planned in coool(almost cold )weather conditions and reached the race venue in less than 20 minutes. I consumed my customery 3 bananas before we left the room. As I was planning to try and run more than 42.2 Kms I carried two energy abrs with me instead of the one that I carry for long runs of over 30km. At the race venue cars were steadily streaming in and being parked on the side of the highway and runners were pouring out of them. As we walked from the parking area to the start point the whole place was abuzz with runners greeting each other and checking about their travel,  time targets etc.



Just before start of FM



The start area was crowded as many of the HM runners had also arrived. It was great to meet and greet a number of familair runners including Dan zico and Amit Joshi from Mumbai. After some brief announcements (as part of which A1 cautioned first timers that though the weather was deceptively cool it would warm up considerably later and one should not be targeting a PB at this event!) the FM started on the dot at 630am. Several  runners took off quite quickly - I started with a pace of about 6:10 per Km and then gradually slowed down. In the first leg I chatted with quite a few runners - Jugy, Senthilanand, Srinivas etc.The trail was pretty much as expected - uneven with frequent patches of embedded stones and grass or other shrubs. One had to constantly keep a vigil to ensure the foot was landing correctly apart from watching out for cows, cowdung, bullock carts and an occasional tractor. Nevertheless, one cannot but soak in the beautiful verdant scenery with the Kaveri canal on one side and  Paddy and sugarcane fields on the other. The pollution free rural setting makes for a great run ambience.  The route was mostly flat except for a gravel strewn gradient around the 9.5Km mark.  After about 40 minutes from start time I started getting overtaken by the faster HM runners including Ashok who was running as effortlessly as ever.

I completed the first half as planned in 2:10  averaging under 6:15 per Km and felt quite strong at this stage. I consumed most of my first energy abr by now. The name on the bib was an excellent feature of this year's event. This enabled runners to call out names of runners they did not know personally and encourage them which is always a morale booster for every runner. This also enabled one to put names to several familiar runners.   While returning to the start point I encountered the 10K  runners some of who were running at a very fast pace. At this time all the 800+ runners were on the trail and it was not as bad as I had thought it would be. I thought that on the narrow sections of the trail one might be impeded by other runners but that was not the case. Yes there were a few points  of congestion but for most runners who were not targeting stringent time goals this was not an issue. Pravin Kumar Takde who finished in an amazing course record timing of 3:17:44 looked extremely strong when I saw him returning on his last quarter of the race. I felt very strong till the turn around on the second loop. After that the impact of the heat began to be felt. When I started the race I was targeting around 4:45. around the 30Km  mark I felt I could do a 4:30. However, as I still wanted to run as close to 60Km as possible I decided to slow down. Around this point I went past Dan who was struggling due to the effect of the heat. I had consumed my 2nd energy bar by now. The aid stations that were just 2Kms apart were a great boon. This is another learning from the previous editions that RFL had made it a point to implement. Any fewer number of aid stations would have made it even more gruelling for the runners and they would not have enjoyed the experience as much. I hydrated myself constantly with water and Lucozade. After the 30Km mark I carried a bottle of Lucozade with me sipping it every few hundred meters. I completed the FM fairly comfortably in 4:32:04 to cheering runners and RFL crew. I had the energy to pick up pace in the last couple of Kms but wisely decided against it.  I handed my medal to Ashok for safe-keeping, filled my water bottle and started on the third loop.

By now (past 11am) the heat had picked up considerably. Of course, while it was warm and humid and many first time KTM'ers felt the conditions were less than ideal for marathon running upto this point I had I felt that it was less hot and humid compared to my previous FM experience here in 2008. I also heard the same from runners who had participated last year. Nevertheless, from here on it got extremely tough - not only was the heat overbearing -  the legs were hurting and it was a hard battle of the mind over body to continue.  I decided to slow down considerably to a 7:15 per Km pace. I also resorted to run/walk which I normally do not adopt . Even in the 3 Bangalore ultras that I have completed I have not walked much. But sensing the gruelling conditions and with the intention of at least covering a 55Km distance I changed my tactic. At about 3Kms mark I met Nari returning from his 3rd loop. He joined me and we ran/walked together for a bit.However, he soon gave up and took the motorbike back. I would not be honest if I said I did not contemplate doing the same. The mind kept reminding me that I had done a decent FM and all this additional effort was quite unnecessary. However, I proceeded  by setting small, manageable goals in my mind - of running upto the tree a few hundred meters away or till I overtook another runner and then walking a bit before running again. I stretched the goal from the 4Km water point to the 5Km turnaround point, then the 7Km water point. I finally turned around at the 8Km mark as I realised that it might take me close to 8 hours to do 63Km. With the food counter scheduled to close at 2PM I decided to try and be back at the start point by 1:30PM. I crossed 50Km with my  Garmin showing 5:46 - taking 24 minutes for the same distance compared to my performance in Bangalore Ultra 2009. My pace slowed down considerably and with the legs fully fatigued I tripped on the stones embedded in the trail several times. This was my lucky day as despite tripping at least 8 times(5 of them in the last 16 Kms) I managed to regain my balance each time . On another day I could very easily have fallen down and hurt myself. Every time I tripped I paused to drink some water and walked for a few meters before jogging again. The volunteers at the aid stations were very helpful. I got my water bottle filled a couple of times.I also experimented by eating a few Parle-G biscuits and peanut butter jelly sandwiches which I have never done before. I paused and stretched at many of the aid stations. My hamstrings and quads were completely shot by the time I touched 55Km so when a volunteer at the first/last aid station offered to use the spray on my legs I gladly accepted it. This gave renewed strength to my legs and I was able to run  the next 2 Kms at a decent pace. I was expecting to complete 58Kms in a little over 7 hours but thanks to this I managed it in 6:57 finishing in peak heat at 1:27PM!! Besides 2 energy bars, some bsicuits and sandwiches I had consumed 2 500ml bottles of Lucozade and at least the same quantity of water during the run.  Though I was tired and hurting I realised that the left Quads that  had been stressed a few weeks earlier did not bother me during the run which was a great relief for the season ahead.

Chandru and I had lunch  around 2PM at Young Island and then along with Hiren and Anuradha we drove back to Bangalore reaching home by 6PM.  I celebrated my run in the evening with a couple of glasses of red wine. Though I had run 58Kms in challenging conditions I did not lose any weight - by next morning my weight was back to 60Kgs/132 lbs. In fact, for 2-3 days after the run I felt ravenous and ate more than usual. While I had achieved my goal of training for a ultra I have  decided to give this year's GR 100 Bhati Lakes 2010 a miss and have registered for the 75Km event at the Bangalore Ultra on 14th November.

Nearing the end of 1st loop



Finishing the FM



Month end musings August 2010

August has been a mixed bag. Started the month with the 'Mega' cycle ride to Nandi Hills on 1st August that I enjoyed tremendously. The following weekend , that is, 6th through 8th August I spent in Sankarnagar in Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu. During this weekend the Lucozade Urban Stampede was held - the 3rd edition of the event was a great success with participaton from 294 teams from 81 companies and 22 non-corporate teams. Once again Toyota bagged the top two positions. See here for all winners of this edition. Three teams from my company Mformation participated in this years and all the runners had a great time with many of them doing their personal best times. Having been involved in conceptualising and sponsoring the 1st edition of Urban Stampede it is a pleasure to see the event grow in size and stature.

Though I had a couple of very enjoyable runs at Sankarnagar soon after return I started suffering from a niggle in my left quads. Despite the pain the left quads I ran a decent 27K on 15th August at EGL. However, towards the end of that week the quads started to hurt quite a bit. Therefore after consulting with sports-physio Preeti, I decided to skip the RFL Nandi hills run on 22nd August. It turned out to be a great run based on reports and pictures from fellow runners who participated. I can imagine how it must have been - having experienced it myself 3 years ago- the only time I have run up and down Nandi hills. Well, it looks like forgoing the Nandi hills run and a forced lay-off from running and cycling is the price I have to pay for the Nandi Hills cycling during which period I ran 70Km and cycled 150Kms in a space of 8 days. At least that is what I think caused the stress in the quads. The only other possiblity is my shoes. I have over-used my current pair and am trying to break into a new pair - this transition could have also caused the stress. I have stayed with Addidas Super Nova cushion ever since I started long distance running 9 years ago. This model has now been replaced by Addidas Glide. Since I have not had any issue with the Super Nova cushion I assume the likelyhood of the shoe being responsible for the quads strain is low. Ofcourse, one can never tell.

Anyway, for 7 days from 20th to 26th August I stayed off running and cycling - my longest involuntary lay-off since the knee injury of 2003. I do consider myself fortunate to have stayed injury free for an extended period of time and hope that I have the good fortunate to stay with similar frequency of injury related lay-off(which is part and parcel of a runners life!). Forced lay-offs are never fun for a runner - it always makes me feel miserable and low on enthusiasm and energy. One gets the feeling during this period that one is likely to put on weight. Even my truncated strengthening sessions at Manipal did not got too well.

After nearly two weeks I ran a slow 21K today - my left leg (quads and toes) did not feel too good towards the end. Feel very worried and apprehensive about the upcoming Kaveri Trail Marathon and the 2010-11 running season. I had planned the following over the next 6 months:

• 
  
  Kaveri Trail Marathon(KTM) on Sept 19th
• Globeracers Bhati Lakes 100 miler on Oct 17th - 50 miles (tentative)
• Bangalore Ultra on November 14th - 50K if I do 50 miles above or else 75K if I skip the above
• Bangalore Midnight marathon Mid-December - probably a fast HM
• Mumbai marathon - January 16th 2011
• Auroville marathon - Feb 20th 2011

Now, I will  tune the above depending on how my left leg takes the full marathon at KTM. As of today it looks like I will have to skip the 50 miles at Bhati Lakes 100 miler and do the usual 50K at the bangalore ultra. Will know by this time in 3 weeks!

SW10K 2010- official timings and some pictures

'Official' pictures from Marathon-photos.com

In my previous post I wrote about the clutter and chaos at the start of this race. With the growing number of runners the organisers must seriously think of either wave starts or have runners line up at the starting point  in groups based on their past finish times. This practice is followed in many international races with large number of participants. For this to be feasible at the SW10K a longer lead time is required between the time runners move out of the holding area and the start of the race .


However, apart from this issue I must say that from the overall organisation perspective the race was quite satisfactory.There was complete traffic control, there were aid stations every few Kms and also Km markers. I noticed portable toilets in at least one location on the route and there was even a water shower to relieve runners from the heat though I did not run through it. There were water counters   right next to the finish point and refreshment counters had streamlined queues, that is, the finish area was well managed.There was a bit of confusion and some errors when the chip timings and photos were first uploaded - even now a few runners are unsatisfied with their timings.

My official chip timing was 49:05 - pretty much what I had expected. I ranked 222 overall and 6th in my age category(50 to 59).RFL and BHUKMP runners Honda-San and Pani finished 1st and 2nd respectively in this category - kudos to these amazing runners!  BTW - this is probably the first event that I ran without a cap. I have decided that the cap is more a hindrance rather than an advantage for shorter distance events(5K/10K) where one is trying to complete at an average pace faster than 5 minutes per Km. Rahul's official chip timing was 1:18:42. Official results are available here.

Rahul, Akshay, Chandru in the holding area before the race

With Rahul and Akshay after the race

Rahul,Chandru and Akshay after the race

Contours International Adidas Women's day run

I was pleasantly surprised with the turnout for this run last Sunday organised by Contours International in support of Intenrational Women's day. There seemed to be over 500 runners participating in either 5K or 10K at Ulsoor Lake. Probably the convenience of the central location was one contributing factor. The run conducted by Runners for Life required 10K participants to do 3 loops around the Ulsoor lake starting and finishing in the Home Guards ground. I rode to the venue in the Red Dragon - we reached there just in the nick of time. The run started a few minutes after 630am before my Garmin could link up with the satellite. It was nice to run around the Ulsoor Lake after a long time specially with traffic blocked on one line. A few years ago RFL used to conduct its long runs quite regularly at this venue and I have actually done 11 laps around the lap ie 39K  in preparation for a marathon. This run reminded me of those early days of RFL runs.  I ran at a easy pace. My Garmin started working towards the end of Loop 1 after about 2.5Km. I ran a bit with Rishi and quite a lot with Srinivas. En route in the 3rd loop I saw my cousin Raji walking and also ger daughter Indu jogging. I completed the 10 K in approximately 53 minutes without sweating at all - this is 4-5 minutes slower than my performance in the 2009 Sunfeast 10K. Met with a lot of runners in the ground at the finish point and also my cousin and her daughter. It was great to see so many new faces there as well. Congrats to Ravi Shankar, Amrita, Neera and Pani for their podium finishes! Returned home after a hearty and boisterous breakfast at Konark. Overall it was a nice enjoyable morning. Click here for some photographs of the event.

Post run group photo

Countdown to the 12th..

Just about a week from doing the 12th marathon in 12 months on 26th July. My confidence level is pretty high with a few good training runs under the belt while at the same time I am a bit nervous. A lot of fellow runners and family members are aware that this is the 12 th run putting somewhat additional pressure - I hope everything goes well and I am successfully able to complete the mission that I sent out on 12 months ago! Running wise I am in as good a shape as can be. I did a 2hr 23 minutes 25Km run on 11th July. Followed by a couple of good tempo runs of 9K last week and a decent 12K with Rohit today. Nevertheless, I am not looking at pushing myself to achieve any specific timing - I would be happy to complete between 430 and 445.

The RFL run on 26th July is going to be a mock relay run to practice for the Urban stampede on 9th August and is at the same location of Olde Bangalore resort starting at 7am. As has been the case in the past few marathons done in the RFL organised runs, I hope to start running around 530am with the goal of completing 15K before the start of the RFL run at 7. And again I am expecting the company of RFL runners throughout the race including those of several runners from BHUKMP who are planning to do the full marathon.

Overdue post on the 10th marathon

It is over 3 weeks since I completed my 10th Full Marathon in 10 months at the RFL run in EGL – it has been quite challenging to make the time to write about in detail. I along with Rishikesh and Vasu managed to complete the run in 4 hours 29 minutes aided by wonderful support from Nari , Amrita and Gopal in the form of a mobile aid station. Considering the warm conditions it was a very satisfying performance. It was really great that six others (the above and the doc turned up early morning and we were able to start the run around 5:25am.

In the first loop during which I ran mostly with doc we did 6.1K instead of 5K - the idea was to then do 3 more loops with other RFL runners. Since we started about 10 minutes later than planned we met the RFL runners when we were about 1.5K from the start point. At this point Udaya Kumar joined me in the run. Met a lot of familiar runners in the out and back second and third loops. Also made friends with Ravi from Domlur during the course of the second loop. Was able to complete 32K in about 3 hours 10 minutes. Due to the high demand for water and some oversight on the part of RFL support staff there was no water at the water station in the starting point and I had to get some water from my car. At this point everyone else except myself, Rishi and Vasu dropped out. Rishi and I started the 4rth loop together and in a few minutes Vasu caught up with us. Both of them are very strong runners and helped me keep a steady pace. With Amrita, Nari and Gopal driving through the route supplying water, lemonade and Gatorade at various points on the course the 4rth loop turned out to be a bit easier than I had anticipated. All three of us managed to finished just under 4:30 without pushing ourselves too much. Due to some misunderstanding, no RFL support staff was around when we completed. We hung around for a few minutes and then headed out to New Shanthisagar in Domlur a pretty satisfied lot!

Solo weekend 'long' run

There is probably no standard definition of the long run. Personally I consider any distance greater than the Half marathon distance of 21K as a long run. Long runs need some preparation in terms of proper hydration the previous 24-48 hours, greasing up to avoid chaffing and water during the run. Even during the cooler months in Bangalore it is difficult to run beyond 15Kms or so without drinking water. I needed to get in a 25K run this weekend (midway between my April and May marathons). Due to personal constraints I was not able to drive over and join other runners for a run during this weekend and decided to do a solo run locally in the CV Raman Nagar area. Since joining Runners For Life over 3 years ago one has got used to having company on long runs - solo runs of over 20K have been very rare.

I set off with a couple of bottles of water in my hand at quarter past 5 on May 1st(a holiday for labour day)- it was still quite dark and not great fun running down Old Madras road towards BEML road. I was quite relieved when I crossed the railway track into the CV Raman Nagar area. I hid the water bottles in the bushes behind the statue and had a very decent run keeping pace around 5:55. I went upto the HAL walkers park next to the HAL hospital, did a couple of loops there and came back and did the usual loops around Bagmane Tech Park. Was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few runners out there- running is definitely picking up in Bangalore. I was quite satisfied in doing a comfortable 25.5K in 2 hours 30 minutes and happy that I could still do solo long runs if I needed to- though unlikely that I will ever be able to do 16 loops of 2.5K again like I did when training for my First full Marathon in 2002. I am as ready as I possibly can be for the next marathon two weeks from now in the RFL run on 17th May. Once again the weather will be a big factor and hopefully this time I can start around 5:15am.