Week 1, Day 1 of 16 weeks marathon training

Started my 16 weeks marathon training using the FIRST  'Run Less, Run Faster'  program today with  3 x 1600m interval training at Kanteerva stadium. This program requires one to do 3 specific runs and 2 cross-training sessions per week. The three training runs are: interval training, tempo run and a long run. Each of the 48 runs has a specific pace/timing goal. Of these, the interval training is definitely my least favorite - in fact I am always apprehensive before the interval run and usually want to get it over with as the 1st run of the week.Today though  I was  pretty much on target with 6:55, 7:02 and 6:58 versus a target of 6:57. Though I had been very busy the previous few days with inadequate sleep perhaps the fact that I was working out after a low mileage week(20Kms) ,  running after a break of 2 days and the cloudy weather helped me.  This was my 2nd run with  a new pair of Addidas Supernova glide 4 - a family of shoes that I have stayed with for the last 9 years.

There are of course several different marathon training programs out there- I have for now decided to stay with the FIRST program.  I recently acquired the 2nd edition of the book which has several improvements over the 1st. The tables are both in Kms and Miles. The sections on cross-training as well as stretching and strengthening are more specific and detailed. In general, I found the flow to be better. This is the 3rd time that I will be using the program. Both the previous times - Hyderabad marathon 2011 and SCMM 2012 - I fell short of my target. This time I am training for a marathon pace of 8:19 per mile with the goal of completing the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon on 7th October   in 3:38 and qualifying for Boston marathon 2014 in the 55-59 years age group. I used the last two weeks to do interval training and tempo run after a gap of 5 months.  I am continuing to do strengthening two days a week at Manipal hospital. Based on advice from several sports physios I am also trying to spend adequate time stretching(specially my calves and glutes) after a workout. 

For the record my weight after the 1st day of training was 59.7Kgs close to my target optimal weight of 59Kgs. It is quite amazing how my weight varies  as much as 1.5 -2 Kgs between the morning and night - not sure if so much variation is normal. The picture below was taken just after the workout:

PS.  By the time I completed this post I also did my tempo run for this week - which was a 2 miler at a short tempo pace of 7:30 per mile after a 2 mile warm up. 

TCS open 10K 2012

The TCS open 10K on 27th May 2012 was  my 5th consecutive Open 10K race in Bangalore. Though it was my slowest finish in terms of timing I enjoyed the race experience specially the comraderie with so many fellow runners that I usually bump into at races around the country. I had gone out of town on a short vacation and reached home around 7am as my train got delayed on the return.   After getting ready quickly (I had pinned my bib and tied my timing chip to the shoe  before going on the trip) I rushed to Kanteerva stadium. I reached the holding area around 7:52 am with less than 10 minutes for race flag off. Though the organisers had seggregated runners by previous finish timing the holding area was still too crowded .I got caught up in chatting with a few fellow runners and did not realise till very close to race start time  that I was at the far end of Zone B. At 7:55 am the elite women took off and soon after that the open 10K runners were let into the track by Zone. It was  very chaotic getting to the start line with a lot of pushing and jostling while going down the steps and getting out of the holding area.   It took me over a minute after the start of the race to reach the start point. It was so terribly crowded that the first 2 Kms was a lot of start/stop, wading through slower runners and even some walkers.  I could not really pick up to my normal pace till I reached Cubbon road about 2 Kms from Kanteerva stadium in over 12 minutes - there were simply too many people on the road. Many of them were not running and ended up blocking the faster runners.

After that I had a good race from Km 2 till the finish. It was warmer than last year but the changed route (due to metro construction work) seemed a bit easier. As has been the norm there were water stations and Km markers enroute. I stopped at two water stops once around 4Kms and the second time around 8Kms. Once I entered Cubbon park between Km 8 and 9 I was able to pick up pace and finished very strongly in net time of 51:11. After the first couple of Kms I knew that I was not going to achieve my goal of sub 48:30. However, I was hoping to keep it sub 50 and was quite disappointed in not being able to do so. I should have started pushing harder from Km 6 itself. My Garmin showed the following split timings. Clearly splits 7,8,9 below should have been at a better pace.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	52:36.1	10.27	5:07
1	1:09.0	0.16	7:09
2	5:58.0	1.00	5:58
3	5:24.4	1.00	5:24
4	4:45.5	1.00	4:46
5	4:46.7	1.00	4:47
6	5:04.3	1.00	5:04
7	5:09.9	1.00	5:10
8	4:56.7	1.00	4:57
9	5:08.2	1.00	5:08
10	4:53.7	1.00	4:54
11	4:46.2	1.00	4:46
12	:33.5	0.11	4:59

See here for official results. The split times here are different from that shown by my Garmin and incorrect. As per the official timings I covered the last two Kms in 6:35 - how I wish I could do that!! My timing gave me 8th position in my age category in which  Pani and Sid took the first two positions.  Rahul completed in 70 minutes about 4 minutes slower than his PB. 


My net chip  times in the open 10K over the last 5 years :


2012   51:11
2011   45:57
2010   49:05
2009   48:24
2008   50:39

While I am not yet as fit as I was last year I should certainly have been able to do a sub 50 if I had been able to break away at the start.  The distribution of post race medals and refreshments was much better organised this year - it was inside the indoor stadium. After hanging around and exchanging notes with several runners I returned home around 10:30am.

Start of FM training for the new season

The new running season,at least in South India, usually starts with the 10K race organised in Bangalore by Procam  in late May/end June. See here for the 2012 India running calendar. This year's TCS open 10K event happened last Sunday on 27th May. Since my main focus is marathon training and I had planned a short vacation just prior to this race I set myself a modest goal of 48:30 for this event. I fell well short of this goal - see my next post for more details.

In the 9 weeks since I started training after a 7 weeks break I have built a reasonable foundation to launch the formal training for my next marathon - Mohawk Hudson River marathon on 7th October- one of two Full Marathons I plan to race in the 2012-13 season(the other being SCMM 2013). I have done a few weeks of 40K to 50K weekly mileage including my first 30K+ run of the season. With two easy  weekday runs and the weekend long run my mileage build up has been as follows:

2/4  25K

9/4 35K

16/4 35K

23/4 40K

30/4 41K

7/5  50K

14/5 40K

21/5 25K

28/5 45K

During this time I  signed up for runyourbq - a website focused on helping runners run their fastest marathon and qualify for Boston. While there is lot of useful information on the website, the training plans there have me confused. Like many other marathon training plans available on the net their training plans advocate 5 days of running per week and high weekly mileage of between 40 and 55 miles per week. This is quite in contrast with the 'Run Less, Run Faster' program from FIRST where the max weekly mileage is about 35 miles consisting of 3 runs per week - an interval run, a temp run and a long run. Of course, the 3 runs need to be complimented with 2 intense cross-training workouts per week.

At least for now I plan to stay with the FIRST program. I plan to do a practice interval training run and tempo run next week and  start the formal 16 weeks marathon training program the week of 11th June. Given that my next race is in the US I have changed the setting on  my Garmin  to show the distance and pace in miles rather than Kms. I plan to have a trial of  this as well next week. I will have a buffer of a week at the end as well - that is, it is exactly 18 weeks to the Mohawk Hudson River marathon. Incidentally this marathon got sold out on 12th May - nearly 5 months before the race!

The training plan is for a target FM time of 3:38 at an average pace of 5:11 per Km or 8:19 per mile. This target time/pace assumes that I can do a HM in about 1:44 - which I did at the Mysore Half marathon in October 2011. Since then I have put on some weight and have had some major issues on my left side - glutes, calf and numbness in the toes. After consulting with a couple of different sports medicine professionals I have realised that probably the only way to get over this issue is continued focus on strengthening and  stretching. I have been doing strengthening since February and plan to continue this through the year. I have not given sufficient importance to stretching after a training session - I plan to address this now on. This might mean spending longer hours on my weekday training session as well -something that is going to be a challenge to achieve with my current work schedule.  I also need to manage my weight and bring it down by a couple of Kgs to under 60 - for this I need to manage my diet better which is another challenge.  In order to test my progress with train I would like to run a fast HM in the July timeframe(I have a  13 miler scheduled on 29th July). There is no race scheduled in the area during that time - so this will have to be a training run on a flat course. Or I have to look at a event in the US in late August/early September (I will be in the NY area starting 22nd August till the race date) but that would be too close to the FM date.

As mentioned in my previous post my goal is try and BQ between September 2012 and September 2013. I am looking at a maximum of 3 attempts for this - Mohawk Hudson River marathon in October 2012, SCMM in January 2013 and possibly another race in the US in 2nd half of 2013!

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.

Stroll in the park in CWDR 2012

The Contours Women's day run has now become part of the running calendar in Bangalore.  The event usually has 10K and  5K runs - this year there were shorter distances too. The first edition was held around the Ulsoor lake in 2010. Last year (which I skipped) was at Clarkes Exotica - a resort  on the way to the International airport. The 3rd edition was held on 4rth March at Kanteerva stadium/Cubbon Park.  Being in the middle of my break from running(see previous post) I was not planning to run in this event. However, I still wanted to participate in support of the event as well as the NGOs benefitting from it. Chandra Gopalan the organiser of this event is a good friend and veteran runner passionate about promoting fitness and running in general and among women in particular. I convinced all my family members to participate in the 5Km and registered myself, my wife Asha, son Rahul and daughter Ritika barely a few hours before the registration closed.  While Rahul was planning to run 5K the rest of us were going to take a walk in Cubbon Park.

Asha,Rahul and myself(Ritika dropped out of the event  at the last minute to go on an excursion with some ex-colleagues ) left home around 630am and reached Kanteerva at 7am on 4rth morning. Musical warm up was going on - I spotted Vishy and Ravi with their kids. Pankaj showed up after completing one lap as part of his 10K to do the 5K with his kids. This year's event had over 1200 participants across all categories.

The race start just after 715am . Rahul took off at his usual pace trying to squeeze his way through the crowd. Asha and I walked pretty much the entire distance enjoying the nature and fresh air of Cubbon Park. Though I have run here several times - see Cubbon Park weekend - I thoroughly enjoyed the leisurely stroll. I stopped to take several pictures and chatted with a few other walking runners along the way. The route took us past the Sheshadri memorial Central library , KSLTA  center and Bal Bhawan . Asha and I completed the walk in about 56 minutes while Rahul took 32 minutes for his run. Met several other runners in the finish area  including Naresh and Sridhar from the Chaitanya Samarpan gang.We returned home by 9am after collecting our certificates.

start of the 5K

The 5K route



Towards the end of a Longish Break...

It is now exactly 4 weeks since I last ran any distance or cycled over 2Kms.  As mentioned in my previous post I decided to take a few weeks of complete rest from cardio exercises ie running or cycling before resuming training for my next marathon.  This was primarily to enable the stress in my left glutes and left calf to heal. Also a rest period helps heal mirco muscle tears that are caused by intense long distance running.This is the longest break I have taken from running - voluntary or involuntary- since January 2004.

After completing my first marathon in Janaury 2003 I was forced to take several months off from running due to a knee injury. However, this time it is a voluntary lay off. And it has not been easy. Not only have I been missing exercising but also  the energy levels have been low and stress levels high.  This is not surprising. A run in the morning not only makes one feel good about oneself but also improves the energy level for the rest of the day.  The stress levels have also been very high in part due to increased professional workload but largely due to lack of exercise. Another dimension has been to avoid putting on much weight. My  two main motivations to take to  distance running were so that I could eat and drink without feeling guilty and to manage stress. So far I have been fortunate enough   to keep my weight around 61Kgs over the last 4 weeks without controlling my diet too much.  It is not that I have not been exercising at all. I have been doing some stretching and glutes strengthening exercises  3-4 days a week and strengthening sessions at the Manipal Hospital department of sports and exercise medicine 2 days a week. I also walked 5Kms  in Cubbon Park at the Countours Womens Day Run on 3rd March - will give more details of that in the next post.

I am looking forward to resuming my training in a couple of weeks from April 1st. Hope to build some base mileage and pace in April and May and then embark on a 16 weeks marathon training using the FIRST training program with the goal of running my next marathon  in late September or October . I evaluated 4 fall marathons in the east coast of US :   Wineglass marathon on September 30th , Steamtown marathon on October 7th,  Mohawk Hudson River marathon on October 7th and Baystate marathon on October 21st. All of these races , specially the last 3, are ranked high by Marathon Guide for the large percentage of runners that qualify for Boston from these races.  The Mohawk Hudson River marathon and Baystate marathon are also in the Runners World list of 10 fastest marathons for 2012. Taking into account multiple factors: type of course, weather history and distance from Southbury Connecticut I have more or less decided to register for the Mohawk Hudosn River marathon and will be doing so within the next few days.

Focus shifts to BQ

Being the only marathon with stringent qualifying times for participation, most marathon runners aspire or even obsess with qualifying and running Boston Marathon. This applies to me as well - my only running goal in 2012-13 is BQ ie Boston Qualification.  The Boston marathon, one of the five world marathon majors,  is the world's oldest annual marathon held on the 3rd Monday of April which is a holiday in MA for Patriots Day. The 1st edition was held in 1897- my goal is to qualify for the 118th edition scheduled for 21st April 2014. Of course, with a reduction in 5 minutes across all age groups for men, the BQ time has become even more challenging from the 2013 edition. I need to complete a FM in under 3:40 after September 2012 to qualify in the 55-59 years age group for the 2014 event (I get into this age group in August 2013).

Personally I feel that if I am unable to hit BQ(sub 3:40)  in the next 12-18 months then it will be impossible for me to qualify - that is this is my last opportunity to achieve this - as age will catch up sooner than later. Therefore, my focus for the next season is BQ - a daunting task considering  I need to shave nearly 10 minutes off my previous best of 3:48:57!

The following is my approach to try and achieve this:

1) Take a break from running and cycling for a few weeks(hopefully max of 4) to recover from the stress in my left glutes and laft calf - this will be my longest break from running since Jan 2004! Will need to be conscious not to put on too much weight - hope to keep it around 62Kgs.

2) Focus on stretching and strengthening - have re-started strength conditioning at Manipal Hospital Department of sports and excercise medicine from Feb 1; have also identified a few glutes strengthening excercises to do.  See here and here.

3) Run very few select races  - will participate in a couple of 10Ks(Contours Womens day run and TCS world 10K)  but do not intend to race in them. Most likely will be skipping Hyderabad marathon and Kaveri trail marathon this year

4) Register to run  a marathon in the US in October 2012 by May. Based on inputs from Marathon Guide and Runners World Jan 2012 list of fastest marathons in North America I am looking at running either the Mohawk Hudson marathon on 7th October or the Baystate marathon on October 21st. Both are considered flat, fast courses which typically have  over 30% of participating runners qualify for Boston!

5) Start training for the October marathon using the 'Run Less,Run Faster' program from FIRST with a target time of sub 3:40 starting June 2012.

There is of course a long and ardous way ahead to achieve my goal - I hope to fully recover from my left glutes and calf stress and give it my best shot!!

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 .

SCMM 2012 - A missed opportunity

I did manage my PB  in my 29th Full Marathon at SCMM 2012 on 15th January. However, finishing  in  a time of 3:48:57 four minutes slower than my target time was a big disappointment. Considering the early 5:40am start, pleasant weather by Mumbai standards, no glitches in the race  organisation during the run, the fact that I reached the 35Km mark around   3:06  without too much stress on my glutes and calf muscles and that I did not have to take a leak break during the run I should have pushed a bit harder the last 5Kms for a better finish time! Of course, one can rationalise with  ifs and buts - and though weaving through the slow HM runners rather walkers on Marine drive on the return leg did impact my rhythm a bit I think I lost the battle more mentally  than physically.  Given that this was just my 2nd FM race of the season(I do not race at the Bangalore Ultra) and I had trained hard for a sub 3:45 I missed a good opportunity to acheive that.

As has been my usual routine I reached Mumbai on Friday 13th Jan night. I reached WTC for the bib collection on Saturday morning 1130am. At the gate I bumped into a number of runners coming out after picking their bibs - doc Rajat Chauhan, BHUKMP'ers Rishi,Nari, Vasu, Chandra etc and then Sunil Chainani. Met several more in the bib collection queue -   Naina Lal, Asha Arora, Madhumita, BB Patil, Prakhar etc. The bib collection process was smooth - though due to the change in  schedule we outstation runners did not get to see the expo this year.  After collecting the bib I joined Dharam and Sanjay for a pasta lunch at Moshe's before returning to Govandi by 4PM. Dharam was not running his own race and agreed to pace me for a 3:45 finish. He and I discussed our pacing strategy for the race over lunch - 21K in 1:48/1:49, 30K in 2:35 and 35K in 3:03 or so.

Saturday evening was spent with the usual pre-race jitters and nerves.  After a noodles dinner around 830pm I went sleep at 10pm. As usual I woke up just before my alarm rang at 3:10am. The security in the front gate was able to send in an auto at 4am. I caught the 4:17am local train at Chembur to reach VT station at 4:55am. I had 3 small bananas before leaving home and a 4rth one and a few almonds enroute to VT on the train.  Met Latha Narayan and Bhasker Desai there heading towards the start point. After using the rest room and greasing my legs with Vaselin I entered azad maidan at 5:10am.  As expected it was buzzing with the energy of runners getting ready to start the FM. Met lots of  familar runners. Checked in my bag, streteched a bit, took one last leak and headed to the start area at 5:25am. At 5:35am the gate opened and while runners were supposed to line up as per assigned enclosures(something new at SCMM this year)  the volunteers were unable to enforce this. I was assigned enclosure A and managed to get to the front of the pack. 

The race was flagged off at 5:40am and I took off a bit fast completing the first Km in 5:02. Dharam, Neera and I started together - Dharam kept warning me that we had started too fast. We settled into a rhythm of average pace of between 5:05 and 5:15 per Km.  A stray dog ran a bit ahead of us at this pace attracting the attention of the spectators. I felt that in the first half of the race the crowd support was thinner compared to the past years - perhaps due to the earlier start. This time when we reached the sea link at the 15th Km the sun had not come out. We crossed a huge swathe of HM runners in the other lane.  We ran quite steadily and reached the 21K mark pretty much on target in 1:49.  We saw Milind Soman a little ahead of us. At this point in time Dharam took off leaving Neera and me behind. Neera and I continued pretty much together till the Peddar road flyover at the 35th Km going past Milind. We slowed down considerably at the flyover and at this point Neera fell a little bit behind. Between 36K and 37K I managed to pull ahead of Dharam and saw Sid a bit ahead of me. This is where the slower HM runners/walkers took over the entire road impacting my momentum. I realised that 3:45 was definitely not going to happen and was targeting  3:47. Around the 39th Km I caught up with Sid. However, just as he did at Mysore half marathon in Oct 2011 Sid got inspired by seeing me next to me and pushed ahead with renewed energy. This is where I lost the battle mentally. While the legs were tired the left glutes and calf did not bother me much - so I am not sure why I could not push harder. I did feel a bit giddy though - possibly because I did not consume my usual energy bar. The couple of cups of gatorade seems to have been inadequate. I managed the last Km in 5:42 to get across the finish line a few seconds behind Sid(having started the race late Sid actually had a timing 1.5 minutes faster than me) quite exhausted.  For some unknown reason there are no official pictures of mine this year from Marathon-photos. The photos below after the finish are thanks to Madhumita.

A number of my friends did their PB this year - many of them doing sub 4 and also shaving tens of minutes of their previous best. Of course, the whole field seems to have got faster - the weather and the route would have helped apart from better training ofcourse. I finished 78th overall out of 1442 finishers with an age category place of 20.  See here for some interesting  statistics on this year's run.  This year's event was pretty much well organised - except for the chaos to get inside Azad maidan after the finish. There was one narrow entrance and too many tired runners trying to get in. There were more pacers this year - see http://tanvirkazmi.com/ for a detailed write-up of a 5:30 pacer.

'Final Countdown' to Mumbai numero 9

The next 6 days leading up to my Seventh Full marathon at the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon  on 15th January(9th run at SCMM including the Half-Marathons in 2004 and 2005)  is going to be quite nerve wracking- I can sense the tension building up since Saturday(7th) evening. I was pretty much in the same state last year also. From my 4:42:28 finish in SCMM 2006 to the 3:52:48 in 2010 I have been successful in beating my goal every year specially at Mumbai with significant improvements in the last three years. However, this year's target of 3:45 looks daunting. This is the second Full Marathon that I have trained using the 'Run Less,Run Faster' program from FIRST. As per the race prediction table in the book I should be able to do a FM in 3:43:49 as my best HM time is well below 1:46:36( 1:43:33 at Mysore HM in Oct 2011). Nevertheless, in my previous FM of this season at Hyderabad, which was the previous FM for which I ahd trained using the FIRST program, I struggled to finish in 3:51:48. I ran a very fast first half in this race(1:45:17) which took its toll in the second half given the elevations in the course. 

To finish within 3:45 I need to do an average 5:18 per Km pace. I am as yet unsure about the race strategy to adapt this year. That is, whether to try and do almost even splits that I managed last year   or to try and do a fast first half    and sustain a good pace till 35Km. Given the way my pace has dropped in the last few Kms in the past , one option is to get to 35Km in 3:04 at an average pace of 5:15 per Km. This would leave me about 40 minutes for the last 7.2 Km at an average pace of 5:40 per Km.  Last year I got to 29.9Km in under 2:44 at 5:28 per Km. I certainly need to be much faster this year. If I were to aim for even splits then I am looking at 21K in 1.51, 30K in 2:39 and 35K in under 3:06. So my goal will be to get to the half way mark between 1:46 and 1:50, 30K between 2:35 and 2:39 and 35K in as close to 3 hrs as possible. Of course, despite all the hard training of last several weeks(which has mostly gone well) a lot depends on the next few days and the race day itself. One needs to get to the race day adequately rested both mentally and physically. This means very little running and cycling the next four days(I will do one easy 9K and another easy 7K on Tuesday and Thursday this week and nothing after that) and reasonable amount of sleep every day with no undue tensions at work.  On the race day itself there is a major dependency on the weather being favourable. One is hoping it will be at least as good as it was last year. The earlier start of 5:40am should help though the weather forecast as of now says it will be 23 Celsius at 6am going up to 27 by 10am! Finally to have a near perfect race one is praying there would be no issues with the stomach on race day , no recurrence of severe cramps and ache in the left glutes and hamstrings and the shoelaces don't come off(well even a few seconds matter!). I may even avoid taking a leak during the race or chewing on a energy bar and depend only on water and Gatorade  to shave a few seconds - I will carry the bar with me though and decide during the course of the race. In races where I have a stringent time target I avoid talking to runners and try and stay focused on my pace - something that is tough to do at Mumbai with so many familiar runner friends. Familiarity with the route should  help. After some speculation in the press that the route might be changed this year it looks like it is going to remain the same as last year with the sea link round the 25th Km.

I would of course be thrilled to hit my target of 3:45; finishing a minute or so below 3:50 would be satisfying; not bettering my PB of 3:51:48 would be a disappointment.  One will know by this time next week. Here's wishing all friends running SCMM 2012 a great race!!