Enjoyable experience of my slowest ever 50K at the 8th Bangalore ultra

After considerable dilly-dallying and much against the advice of coach Dharam I confirmed my entry for 50Km at the 8th Bangalore Ultra on the last date of registration. An easy pace 25Km on Oct 19th (HM at the Bangalore marathon  followed by a 4.7Km after a 10 min break) gave me the confidence to do a slowish 39Km(4:30) on 25th October - my first 25Km+ run since Boston 2014 in April. As my left leg seemed to be holding up I went with my heart to keep the streak at the Bangalore Ultra going.

My target was to run my slowest ever 50Km to finish between 6:15 and 6:30 - hoping that doing such a distance at a slow pace will reduce the risk of recovery from the niggle that been hampering my running since Dec 2013.  My performance at the ultras so far :

Year     Distance     Time

2007     52 Km         5:51

2008     50 Km         5:50

2009     50 Km         5:22:29

2010     75 Km         8:57

2011     50 Km         5:24:17

2012     50 Km         5:07:31

2013     50 Km         4:52:22

The lead up to the race on November 8th was not ideal with personal and official travel resulting in my sleeping in different places each night from 1st to 6th. Thankfully the stomach held up fine and given my goal of running slow I was not worried. Bobby picked up my bib and left it at my apartment security on 7th afternoon.  I coordinated with Pankaj Rai to ride in his Red dragon for yet another race. 

Pankaj picked me up from the Pizza Hut on IRR around 4:35am, Rishi and Amrita joined us from Kalyannagar a few minutes later and we were at the venue quite early by 5:20am in spite of the RFL banners en route giving directions not being very visible. Unfortunately a front wheel of the car went into the drainage pit. Deciding to retrieve it post the run we joined hundreds of other runners at the start area. As always met several familiar runners(and took a few pictures) and some new ones. 

After the usual announcements by Atul and A1 the race started at 6am sharp as daylight was breaking out.

I started at an easy pace  of about 6:30 per Km as planned chatting with a couple of runners doing their first 50Km. Between Km 4 and Km 5 I tripped on a stone and fell scraping my left elbow and knees - 2nd year in a row that this happened probably around the same spot though last year it was in the 2nd loop. I washed the bruises with water and dabbed some dettol using cotton at the next aid station and continued running at the planned pace. Ran alone most of the race running/walking with others in short stretches(should have probably taken my music -I normally do not take it to events).Completed the first half in under 2:54 at average pace of 6:50/km about 10 mins or so faster than planned and felt quite comfortable.  It was amazing to see so many runners doing 75Km, 100Km and 24 hours and many of the runners looked extremely strong.

The 2nd half took about 10 minutes longer as I crossed the finished line in just under 6 hours - about 15/20 minutes faster than I had planned. Felt strong enough at the finish line to have gone on and done another 25Km at similar pace. The left leg did not feel stressed. My official timing details   are below.  RFL report on this years's event is here. 

Bib Number	5233
Name	Bhasker Sharma
Gender	Male
Category	SENIOR MEN
Rank	27 / 105 Finishers
Category Rank	6 / 21 Finishers
Gender Rank	23 / 87 Finishers
Split@6.25 Km	00:33:20 Avg. Pace 05:20, Avg. Speed 11.25 Kmph Gender Rank : 65 / 87 Finishers , Category Rank : 15 / 21 Finishers
Split@12.5 Km	01:27:01 Avg. Pace 06:58, Avg. Speed 8.62 Kmph Gender Rank : 66 / 87 Finishers , Category Rank : 14 / 21 Finishers
Split@19 Km	02:20:17 Avg. Pace 07:23, Avg. Speed 8.13 Kmph Gender Rank : 63 / 87 Finishers , Category Rank : 12 / 21 Finishers
Split@25.5 Km	02:54:22 Avg. Pace 06:50, Avg. Speed 8.77 Kmph Gender Rank : 54 / 87 Finishers , Category Rank : 11 / 21 Finishers
Split@32 Km	03:30:41 Avg. Pace 06:35, Avg. Speed 9.11 Kmph Gender Rank : 50 / 87 Finishers , Category Rank : 11 / 21 Finishers
Split@38.5 Km	04:25:21 Avg. Pace 06:53, Avg. Speed 8.71 Kmph Gender Rank : 41 / 87 Finishers , Category Rank : 8 / 21 Finishers
Split@45 Km	05:23:42 Avg. Pace 07:11, Avg. Speed 8.34 Kmph Gender Rank : 26 / 87 Finishers , Category Rank : 7 / 21 Finishers
Net Time	05:57:41 Average Pace 07:09, Average Speed 8.39 kmph

For the first time in recent years I did not place in the top 3 in the ultra. By the time I completed Pankaj et al had finished their lunch. Soon after the prize distribution ceremony they went to retrieve the car. I joined them after my lunch. We left around 1PM and I was back home by 2PM after yet another ultra!!

Marathon numbers 11,12,..and tentative plans for the next season

I am left with 2 more more Full Marathons to complete my goal of 12 marathons in 12 months which started with the Hyderabad marathon in August 2008. I plan to do these runs as part of the RFL organised runs on June 28th and July 26th. There is a possibility of travel to my NJ office on work in late June or some time in July. Unfortunately there is no marathon happening in the vicinity of NJ during that period. The ones I located are at least 4-5 hours flight away - that would be inconvenient and expensive. The only possibility is the 24 hour Around the Lake run in Wakefield, MA on Friday July 24rth. For now I am likely to stay with the RFL long runs. Assuming these two runs go well, I am quite tempted to do my 13th consecutive monthly marathon on 30th August in Hyderabad thereby finishing the series in the city where it started (on the eve of my 50th birthday a year ago). The 1st edition of Hyderabad marathon was very well organised and a wonderful experience. The expectation of the 2nd edition is higher and larger number of runners are planning to participate so it should be good fun. During the 30K training run last Sunday(7th June) I had a bit of a niggle in my left hamstring and calf due to which the run was not as satisfying . The stress is probably caused due to my pushing myself at the Sufeast 10K a week earlier. I have also struggled a bit in the subsequent short runs last week. Due to this and a few other reasons I amd giving the 1st edition of BSA Hercules Duathalon on 14th June a miss (the first RFL event I wont be participating in) and focus on completing my full marathons over the next few months. Post the Hyderabad marathon I plan to take a couple of months off from marathon running - giving KTM 2009 a miss and start my next season with the Ultra in November with plans to run Mumbai and Auroville in 1Q2010. That's the medium term plan and some ways off and a number of factors(work, injury, sickness...) could derail this!