More on the 1st August Nandi Hills Cycle ride

Group photo before leaving Cubbon Park;Courtesy Prabhakar of GGI

I left home in Domlur Layout a few minutes before 530 am and covered the 7.2Km to Cubbon Park in about 31 minutes at an easy speed of 14Km/hour. I met another rider Jayant coming in from Banarghatta road at the St. Marks Road/MG road intersection. When we reached the assembly point at the Seshadhri library circle there were a few cyclists already  there and more cyclists were arriving from differents parts of the city. Around 615 am we started off after a few group pictures. I rode mostly alone (though I chatted with several cyclists along the way including a few from GGI ) covering the 9.1Km to Columbia Asia hospital after the Hebbal flyover in 26 minutes. While having Lucozade from a  bottle  handed out by a volunteer from Tandem trails I noticed messages and missed call from Vasu.  He was a few hundred metres ahead and decided to wait for me to catch up with him which I did in a few minutes. I learnt that Chandra had dropped out at the last minute. We  rode on together  for about 29Kms in just under 90 minutes till the turn off point from Airport Road towards Nandi hills. En route we took a comfort break when we also refueled ouselves. During this stretch Yogesh Rao of BBC - one of the main organisers of this ride - joined us from behind and after checking that we were doing fine took off at a very high speed. We were quite amazed at the power he was able to generate on his hybrid bike. The ride was generally  comfortable with sporadic traffic - we rode on the shoulder most of the time.

A stretch to the base of Nandi Hills

We ran into a large  bunch of cyclists, including Yogesh Rao, at the turn off point from Airport road. Many cyclists were having breakfast here. Vasu and I decided to press on without  breakfast at this time - I had a bite of the energy bar that I was carrying. The next lap of  13.5 Kms to the base of Nandi was covered in about 50 minutes. The weather continued to be fantastic and with very little traffic this was the best stretch of the ride so far. We encountered a short stretch of gradient which gave us taste of the hill climb that awaited us. We passed the 2nd idly point and reached the base of Nandi hills. At the base of Nandi Hills we saw several cyclists including Shreyas eating breakfast after having done the ride up the hill.  Vasu and I refueled ourselves with water and some Kit-Kats and started the climb up around 9:20am - after about 3 hours since I left Cubbon Park. At the first climb Vasu hit a wall(he had run 27Kms the previous day!) and slowed down quite a bit. On his urging I pressed on. It was quite tough and challenging and I quickly shifted the gears to 1 and 2. For the next 50 minutes or so I alternated between 1 and 2 and 1 and 1 going up at the speed up between 5Km/hr and 10 Km/hr. There was a light mist and intermittant drizzle and the scenary looked even better than normal . Saw several cyclists speeding downhill. While car traffic was low there were quite a few motor bikers going in both directions. Though I felt tired and sore I did not stop even once - however at the last steep turn just as the arch was in sight I took a narrow turn, my cycle slowed down too much and I lost balance and fell. Fortunately for me I got a foothold and avoided rolling down and did not get hurt. Picking myself up immediately I crossed the arch to reach the 'lower top' in about 53 minutes of cycling from the bottom. Drank more than half a bottle of Lucozade and on hearing that hot breakfast and tea was being served on the top I started cycling again after a couple of minutes break. Another cyclist,Upendra(?), gave me company during this stretch. We reached the top in about 10 minutes of real hard  cycling as the muscles were quite stiff and sore by now and the seat was also beginning to hurt a bit. We were directed to the government bungalow for breakfast by some volunteers. While heading towards that a couple of people(Deepak and MJV) recognised me and were kind of surprised to see me as they normally associate me with long distance running and not cycling.

Hot upma and lemon rice was being served in a hall which was filled with cyclists who had conquered the hill that morning. Bhaskar Rao , the transport commissioner of Bangalore and an avid cyclist himself was there chatting with cyclists and ensuring that everyone was being served. In the breakfast room Manjula shouted out to me and cheered the fact that I had done it. It is thanks to Manjula's encouragement that I got the confidence to attempt this. After having some excellent upma and chatting briefly with a few cyclists I decided to start the return leg. I tried to check where Vasu was but could not reach his phone.

The ride downhill, ofcourse, was much easier - I was on gears 2 and 6 most of the time. I moderated my pace and did not go down too fast- never went to 3 and 8 as many cyclists did. On the way down I stopped briefly and chatted with Yogesh - checking whether he knew where Vasu was. I did not time myself downhill very accurately - I probably took around 20 minutes to reach the base. When I found that Vasu was just leaving the top I decided to continue my return journey. However, soon I realised that it did not make sense to make the long trip(which usually seems even longer on the return leg) alone. So I decided to stop and wait for Vasu  a few Kms from the base. We then cycled the return leg together till Mekhri circle. Despite the headwinds , high traffic, a couple of voluntary stops to rest and refuel and a few forced stops due to traffic lights we made steady progress at about 17 Kmph. I was extremely glad that we decided to ride back together. It would have been boring and more painful ride if I had ended up doing it alone. Vasu's company was simply fabulous and we chatted about a number of different topics during the 6 hours or so that we cycled together. We split around 2:15 PM when we reached Mekhri circle. I reached home just after 3PM after  stopping at 5 traffic lights enroute - fatigued but happy with the great experience of  having cycled  133Kms in 8 hrs 15 minutes of cycling time in a total of 9 and a half hours of elapsed time door to door!! 

While it took me about 53 minutes to cover the 7.4Kms from the base to the arch several experienced cyclists did this in amazing timings with the top three doing it in less than 25 minutes. Also once cyclist, Prakash S, did the climb three times in incredible timings of 35 m, 42m , and 37m respectively !

Quick update on the 'Mega' Nandi ride on 1st August

Just after a hot breakfast on the top; Photo courtesy Manjula Sridhar

The  longest ever cycle ride that I have done was fantastic. From home-to-home I cycled about 133 Kms in 8 hrs 15 minutes of cycling time on Sunday 1st August including the climb up the hill which took me over 53 minutes. With over 120 cyclists on the road to Nandi ,fantastic support from Brigadier Vijay's army truck as well as folks from Tandem Trails, great encouragement from Yogesh and other cyclists from BBC  and Vasu of BHUKMP for company it was a truly memorable experience! I plan to write more details of the experience in my next post hopefully before the end of next week. Meanwhile, take a look at this post with photos from GGI  - another fantastic cycling group that I got introduced to on Sunday!. Check this for the hill climb timings of some truly amazing cyclists.

Random July end musings

It has been over a month since my last post. I have been meaning to write every weekend but have not been able to make the time to do so. Finally I decided that I cannot let the whole month of July go by without a single post and decided to combine a number of thoughts into a signle post.

The running has been going well. In preparation for the upcoming marathon season I have managed to do two good 30Km+ runs on consecutive Sundays. Did a 3:20/32Km on 18th July with Rishi,Nari, Amrita, Chandra etc of the BHUKMP gang at GKVK . Running in GKVK after nearly 8 months was a great experience. And of course the weather was fantastic. This was folllowed by a 3:47/35Km run as part of the RFL long run at EGL on 25th July - just a day before completion of one year since my milestone of twelve marathons in tweleve months . I again had the pleasure of the company of several of the BHUKMP runners who made 26th July 2009 truly memorable.  These runners also encouraged me in all my marathons and ran several of them with me. Looking back I am glad I set myself that goal and  managed to achieve it. It has certainly made me a better, stronger and confident runner and strengthened my friendship with numerous runners.

My next 35Km+  run will hopefully be the Nandi hills RFL run on 22nd August. Meanwhile I have registered for the 4rth edition of KTM on 19th September which will be my first marathon of this season. Registrations for Mumbai marathon - SCMM 2011 opened on 22nd July. There are a few changes this year including a new website for registration. See the website or the press release from the event launch for details of changes. Thouh I had a few initial hiccups I completed the registration for SCMM 2011 on 22nd July evening itself.

After running the Urban Stampede in 2008 and 2009 I will be missing the event this year as I will be out of town the weekend of 7th/8th August. With over 230 teams already registered the Lucozade Urban Stampede on 8th August will surely be the largest RFL event ever and could see close to a thousand runners. It will definitely be a great occassion - I wish all the participants including the 3 teams from Mformation all the very best!

23rd June was the the 98th birthday of Alan Turing - a poineering mathematician, philosopher and computer scientist of the 20th century. Through an alert on google related to martahon running I learnt that day he was also an accomplished long distance runner who ran a full marathon in 1947 in an amazing 2 hours, 46 minutes, 3 seconds! See this scrapbook page for more details of Turing as a runner.  Of course, today we know of several celebrities who are also marathon runners. Among these are :   Oprah Winfrey, 1994 Marine Corps Marathon (4:29:15), Sarah Palin, 2005 Humpy's Marathon (3:59:36),George W. Bush, 1993 Houston Marathon (3:44:52) ,Lance Armstrong, 2006 (2:59:36) and 2007 (2:46:43) New York City Marathon and Al Gore, 1997 Marine Corps Marathon (4:54:25)!!

Finally, tomorrow, 1st August 2010 I am planning to go on  a cycle ride to Nandi hills as part of the July month end ride of BBC(Bangalore Bikers Club). With over 130 cyclists registered to participate  - many of them experienced cyclists this should be good fun. Of course, I am a bit apprehensive as I have not cycled more than 55Km in a day before and that was 3 years ago. I am banking on the strength of my running form and also that I have been cycling 30Kms+ per week regularly. I also hope to get support and tips from the other experienced cyclists!!

Update on progress towards ideal racing weight

After a little over 3 months since I did the posting on ideal racing weight based on some research I had done on the Internet, it is time to take stock. I am pleased to state that for the last 2 weeks my weight is consistently  lower by about 5 Lbs moving from a little over 140lbs to around 135 Lbs. The factors responsible for this,in the order of probable impact, are:

• Consistent running, cycling and strengthening sessions for the last 6 weeks
• Eating heavy brekafast, followed by a lighter lunch with dinner being the lightest meal
• Lower calorie lunch during week days due to my taking lunch from home instead of eating the catered food in the office cafetaria
• Slight reduction in my consumption of fried foods and desserts

One thing that is highly recommended for weight loss is to eat smaller meals more often.This simply does not work for me. I am usually not able to eat small meals. Either I dont eat or I eat a substantial quantity whether it is a snack or a meal- nothing in-between. I hope to keep the weight at this level now and try and get it as close to 130 Lbs as possible over the next few months. I have not checked the body fat percentage but I assume it is a bit lower now.

P. Venkataraman of Mumbai runners has an interesting and in-depth discussion thread going on weight loss and running. A couple of good resources from this thread:

BodyRecomposition - The Home of Lyle McDonald - http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/

http://www.racingweight.com/

Another resource I came across recently is http://www.muchomuscle.com/weight_loss_tips.htm

Inspired to run Comrades and other ultras

So far my experience of ultra running is limited to the three 50Km runs at the Bangalore ultra. After reading about the stupendous accomplishments and experiences of Indian runners at Comrades Marathon 2010 I am inspired to run  a few ultra marathons around the world.  To start with , I have added the Comrades Marathon  ,considered arguably the greatest ultramarathon in the world with the tag line of 'the ultimate human race', to my longterm running goals. The first Comrades Marathon took place on 24th May 1921 starting outside the City Hall in Pietermaritzburg with 34 runners. It has continued since then every year with the exception of the war years 1941-1945, with the direction alternating each year between Pietermaritzburg and Durban, the so called up & down runs.  Now it attracts thousands of runners from around the world. Here is some amazing statistics from the event in 2010 which as the 85th edition.

Entries: 23568
Entrants who met the qualifying criteria: 17627
Starters: 16480
Finishers: 14343

The Comrades has a qualifying criteria which includes completing a full marathon within 5 hours. Apart from the distance of 89Km an additional challenge is to complete the race within a time limit of 12 hours and also reach interim milestone points within specified time limits failing which runners are taken off the course. Keeping in mind my goal of running Boston marathon in April 2014 I would probably look at doing the Comrades in May 2012.

While the Comrades marathon is one of the best known ultra marathons, there are hundreds of other ultra marathons held in Asia, Europe and Americas. Other very well known and extremely challenging ultras are the Western State endurance run and Badwater ultra.  Closer home a popular ultra is the Addidas Sundown marathon which is a 84Km night race held in Singapore. And another spectacular race is The Himalayan 100 mile stage race. Also Globalracers is now organising some interesting and challengin multi-day endurance event sin India.

BSA Hercules Duathlon 2010 - race report

My 1st ever experience of a duathlon event on 13th June 2010 was great. As  is now the norm and expectation the event was organized very well by Runners for Life.  The collection of bibs at the Track and Trail store in Koramangla on Saturday(12th June) morning was a smooth affair well managed by A2, Nikhil, Ashwin and other support staff.  I had decided to take complete rest the two previous days(Friday and Saturday) before the event. This has been my practice whenever I participate in an event with a timing target. In this case I was even reluctant to cycle down a Km or so on Saturday morning to fill air in my cycle. That is also the reason why I decided not to use the RFL option of transporting the cycle to the venue as it would have meant cycling 6-7 Kms to drop it off and also to pick it up. Besides I wanted to take care of transporting my new Schwinn Searcher Sport bicyle myself. 

Five of us(myself, my son Rahul, Satish, Ashok and Neera) left Domlur layout just before5:15 after loading our bicycles on a tempo. We reached the venue Prakruthi resorts a little after 6am. Unloading the cycles we wheeled them to the transition area and parked them in pre-marked areas there after duly registering the cycles. This is the  first RFL event with chip timings. Also this being a multi-sport event(with running and cycling of course) A2 explained in detail what to do(and not to do) in order for participants to get accurate and detailed split timings. The route was also explained in detail with  the running and cycling happening in opposite directions - the runners going towards the Airport road and the cyclists the other way. After brief speeches by the marketing head of TI cycles (the title sponsor ) and Bhaskar Rao - Bangalore's transport commissioner and an accomplished runner and cyclist himself the latter flagged off the long category run at 7am.

I made a strong start to the 5K run clocking the 1st Km in just over 4 minutes - helped by the pace set by several fast runners and  the  cool weather. Of course, that was not a pace I could sustain.Nevertheless, I completed the 5Km in 22:55 my fastest ever 5K beating the 24:34 in Urban Stampede 2008 by 91 seconds!!

I managed to grab my cycling helmet and the cycle and start cycling after a transition time of about 1 minute 36 seconds. It took me 52: 40 to complete the two 10Km loops. I think I did each loop in roughly the same time at an average speed of 22Kmph. With both the event category cyclists on the road  concurrently, at times the  narrow road became fairly congested and one had to ride a bit carefully. Plus the occasional car, bike or truck was also a bit of a pain specially when they honked. It would have been better if the traffic had been blocked for about 2.5 hours but that is easier said than done due to the complex permissions and also the challenges of actual implementation. The faster cyclists specially those with road bikes were cycling at amazingly high speeds. I found the area near the 5K cycling turnaround point very cluttered as the aid station was also at that point. I had to actually get off my cycle at the turn point losing a few seconds in the process. This has to be wider so that the cyclists who do not want to stop at the aid station do not get hampered.  Also, the turn around points both for running and cycling could have been marked explicitly with a chalk mark. However, overall it was a good fun experience. While my performance would  definitely have been better with a road bike I feel I need to improve my cycling efficiency. And of course it would have been much tougher with a MTB or worse a single gear bike like the one Rahul used. I lost quite a bit of time in the transition area the second time around as my cycle would not stand on its own and kept falling down. This was due to the cycle stand not having a bush and the metal stand sinking into the damp mud. Finally after 5 attempts I pushed the cycle against a tree close by and started to move  out of the transition area and towards the start area. 

This was my first week with my new Garmin 305 after the previous one had died after nearly 3 users of usage.  And of course this was the first event with it. In my enthusiasm of setting up the new unit I discovered the multi-sport mode functionality of the device and decide to use that in the duathlon. However, in my hurry to get going with my 2nd leg of running I pressed the power off button instead of the mode button and so instead of switching back from cycling to running mode the device switched off. I immediately switched it on and rushed to the start area leaving it in the cycling mode. In this process I lost a few more seconds of time.

Therefore, it was not a big surprise to me that the split timings showed that I took 2:29 in the 2nd transition. Most others had transition times below 2 minutes both times. For detailed  timings including all splits click here.

I started the 2nd 5Km run with stiff and sore legs. Honda-San (the Japanese super ultra runner) led the way encouraging and cheering me and all the runners we saw along the way. His enthusiasm and energy was incredible. While I struggled to keep up with Honda-San I focused on keeping my pace below 5 minutes per Km. It was specially difficult during the return leg as my hamstrings began to hurt. It was a big relief to turn back into the Prakruthi entrance and finish the race to the cheering of lots of friends with my Garmin showing 1:43:44. The official timings showed that I finished in 1:44:44(the 2nd 5K taking  24:33) - 21st overall and 4rth in my age category. While I was a bit disappointed that I ended up finishing at the higher end of my target timing of between 1:40 and 1:45 and missed the age category 3rd place  by less than half a minute, I was overall quite satisfied and enjoyed the experience thoroughly. The top three finishers in the event finished in amazing  timings of under 1:19 - completing the 20 Km cycling in under 40 minutes and each 5Km   leg well under 20 minutes !!! Neera Katwal who rode with us to the event showed amazing grit and perseverance. Despite falling off her cycle and injuring herself due to a crash between two cyclists in front of her cycle, she won the women's category finishing in 1:47:46. My son Rahul also completed his 1st duathlon in 1:16:41 in the short category - a wonderful achievement to add to his 1st 10K at the SW10K 2010 in May.

With Vikas Grover

                             

As always it was fantastic to cheer and meet and a lot of familiar friends and runners both during the race and in the finish area. And of course, kudos to Honda-San for pacing and cheering the runners  on-the-run and Nitin Gupta for enthusiastically cheering everyone at the turning point to the resort. After hanging around for some time and taking a few pictures we re-loaded the cycles on the tempo just as the prize distribution ceremony was underway around 10am and headed  back on the long road home reaching Domlur  just after 11:30am.

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

BSA Hercules Duathlon 2010

I am looking forward to doing my 1st Duathlon event two weeks from now on June 13th 2010. This will be the 2nd edition of the BSA Hercules Duathlon being organised by Runners For Life. I did not participate in the event last year. I felt a bit tired after the Sunfeast 10K 2009 at the end of last May and decided to conserve my energy to complete my 11th and 12th marathons in June and July as part of my 12 marathons in 12 months. Having recently invested in  a hybrid bicycle I hope to do fairly well in the duathlon. The winning time in the men's senior category last year was 1:31:11. My goal is to complete between 1:40 and 1:45.

While I have been cycling and running regularly, I have never  done both of them back to back on the same day. So the RFL duathlon practice today at EGL was a perfect opportunity for me to experience this. I managed to complete 5Km running+20Km cycling+5Km running in 1 hr 55 mins. The two runs were done in about the same time of 27 minutes - though of course the 2nd one was much tougher and I really had to push myself the 1st Km or so when the legs were  stiff. I should be able to shave 3-4 minutes off this time in the actual event. The 20Km cycling took me a little over an hour. While the route was not ideal for cycling with the speed bumps, potholes and warts I need to improve significantly. A2 and Ashwani of RFL observed that increasing the seat height on my cycle would result in considerable efficiency. Plus the route of the duathlon would be much better suited for cycling. So my aim is to do the cycling also in about 50 minutes.

Oldest Half Marathoner!!

Fauja Singh in Addidas 'Nothing is impossible' advertising campaign

His name crops up often in discussions on how runners can push themselves and accomplish anything at any age and why not. Most recently  he was in the news for achieving the distinction of being the 'oldest half marathon runner'  when he completed the Inter Faith Luxemourg Half marathon in 3:29 on 16th May. While there are many many   amazing older long distance runners Fauja Singh certainly stands out. I hope he is able to meet his goal of running London marathon at the age of 100 in 2011.

Fauja Singh moved to London in 1992 from a small village  near Jallandhar to live with his son after his wife's death. He took up jogging to beat the boredom of just sitting at home.  He shot to fame, when aged 89, he completed his first  marathon in 6 hours and 54 minutes in 2000. He holds the marathon record for the 90 plus age group at 5 hrs 40 minutes.

His profile as found in  Facebook :

Born: 1st April 1911 in India

Former Occupation: Farmer

Running Career: Rediscovered at age of 81

Diet: Ginger Curry

Marathons: London (5), Toronto (1), New York (1)

Marathon Debut: London, 2000 aged 89

London Marathon Personal Best: 6h 2m

London Flora Marathon 2000 6 Hours 54 m

London Flora Marathon 2001 6 Hours 54 m

London Flora Marathon 2002 6 Hours 45 m

Bupa Great North Run (Half Marathon) 2002 2h 39m

London Flora Marathon 2003 6h 2m

Toronto Waterfront Marathon 2003 5h 40m

New York City Marathon 2003 7h 35m

London Flora Marathon 2004 6h 7m

Glasgow City Half Marathon 2004 2h 33m

Capital Radio Help a London Child 10,000m 2004 68m

Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon 2004 2h 29m 59s 

Sunfeast World 10K 2010 Report

I completed the 3rd edition of this 10K race with my (borrowed) Garmin showing  49:46(gun time). I expect the chip timing,which will  come out in the next few days, to be about 20 to 30 seconds faster probably close to my timing of 49:32 in the 2009 Nike Human Race. In any case my timing this year is likely to be about 45 seconds slower than last year. I can think of lots of factors to justify this: the cluttered, chaotic start with hundreds of runners jostling to move from the holding area to the start point, the stomach upset since Friday night, too many U turns in the route, niggle in the left calf and ofcourse the more than expected heat. However, the bottom line is that I am not cut out for running at a fast pace , that is, I have dominance of the 'slow twitch muscle fibers' vis-a-vis 'fast twitch muscle fibers' . Which means I can run at a decent average pace for a longer distance rather than run at a very fast pace for a shorter distance. Therefore I think it will be near impossible for me to better the 10K personal best of 48:24 that I achieved in last year' s race.

The elite men's and women's winners finished in 27:54 and 31:58 respectively. The complete results should be available here  in the next day or two.

Rahul and I, along with Adam and Vidhya from our appartment community, took the bus to Kanteerva stadium this morning. We left home around 6:55am , caught a bus around 7:10am and were comfortably in the holding area around 7:30am just a few minutes before the first of the elite men's finishers came into the stadium. The holding area started to fill up quite rapidly and by the time the women's event flagged off at 8am the area was jam packed. When the gate in the fence separating the holding area from the tracks in the stadium was opened at about 8:05am there was a mad rush to get out of the holding area. I was scared that I might get injured while being shoved down the steps. Several runners just climbed over the fence. So before I could even get to the starting line the race was flagged off. The whole arrangement in the holding area was highly disappointing for a race that has the IAAF gold label and is apparently one of the most prestigious 10K races in the world! Another standout was the absence of restrooms in the holding area - at least there should have been signs pointing runners to the nearest restrooms.

I turned on my Garmin as the race started and it was about 20-25 seconds before I crossed the starting line. With an estimated 6000 runners in the open 10K I found the first 1.5 Km to be very crowded and tough to break away. The first few hundred metres was at an average pace of 6:15 per Km - my target average pace today was 4:45 in order to finish below 48 minutes. I was never able to achieve this average pace. After about 2Km I managed to get to about 4:47 per Km and stayed around that past the half way mark. Around the 5Km mark I passed Amrita - a brilliant women's marathoner while Vasu another runner from BHUKMP surged past me soon after.  I started to slow down again after the Kamaraj road U turn which BTW was the 4rth U turn in the course and had a upward gradient on the return leg. The heat was also beginning to have an impact. My goal now was to keep my pace around 5 mins per Km and the average below 4:50. I did not stop by at any aid station except once. Nevertheless, the average pace crept upto 4:53 by the time I touched the 8Km mark near Vidhan Soudha. I pushed as hard as I could for the last 2Kms - around this time Neera , a fast women's runner, surged ahead. I managed to complete with my clock showing an average pace of 4:51 and a distance of 10:25Kms in 49:46!! Heartfelt thanks to Meher for loaning me her Garmin - if not for  constantly monitoring my pace via this device I would have probably finished 3-4 minutes slower. See here for this year's route.

Of course, I met up with a lot of familiar runners in the finish area.  Some like Honda-San seemed to have done extemely well - he finished in about 40 minutes. Many did their PB timings while a few people I met were slower than last year's timing by a minute or two. My brother Chandru completed in 1:04 while Rahul and my brother's son Akshay did their first 10Km race in a very creditable 1:20! While this event is here to stay as a premier road race in Bangalore and the season opener I hope the organizers do better in terms of facilities and infrastructure to cater to the growing number of participants.

Experience of bicycle shopping

After nearly 3 months of researching on the web, talking to a few friends and visiting a few shops I finally bought a Schwinn Searcher Sport from R and R cycles in Ulsoor. This post is a summary of a few basic concepts that I learnt as well as a few websites, blogposts and discussion threads that discuss the subject of buying a bicycle. One thing I realised very quickly is that there is numerous choice of cycles now available in India - Indian makes and  imported ones. The choice of cycle depends on the budget and the purpose of usage : daily commute to/from work, weekend rides, cross-training, long rides, racing etc. The usage also determines the type of cycle:

Mountain Terrain Bike or MTB for off-road riding

Road bike for racing or fast riding on roads

Hybrid bike for a mix of the two - primarily road riding with occassional off-road

Here are a few options in increasing order of budget - this is certainly not an exhaustive list.

1. Single speed bikes would do good for local commuting but not efficient if one wants to cycle for the purpose of 'cycling' (Rs 3K - Rs 5K)
2. Hercules Ryders ACT series start from 7.5K. The latest release is ACT 110  that is more for the purpose of commuting and fun ride with friends! See here for a user's review of this cycle.
3. Hercules Mach is the basic model of a road bike that should cost around  6K - but this does not come near any of the other international brands
4. LA Sovereign is a Taiwan based product that has a series of MTBs starting from 8K. ("Navigator" is a good commute bike and seemed to have been quite popular in Bangalore till recently
5. Firefox has a very good series of MTBs (starting from 13K) and also road bikes at a relatively lower cost
6. Schwinn has number of hybrid bikes starting from  13K range as well as a few MTBs.
7. Decathlon has a series of MTBs branded Btwin/Rockrider  starting from Rs 12K. Read here for one user's comparison of Merida with Btwin.
8. Merida is a another brand that has several MTBs and also a hybrid bike.
9. Cannondale starts from 20K and goes upto 2 Lakhs. Cannondale F9 is very popular among cyclists in Bangalore.
10. Bianchi has a couple of Hybrid bikes that are worth for commuting and riding. Starts at 28K.
http://www.trackandtrail.in/
11. Trek is one of the most trusted brands used by many serious cyclists. Trek 7100 is a good hybrid bike for 21 K. There are other series starting from 25 K.

There are a number of bicycling forums in Bangalore/India where various bicycles have been reviewed by users and which have discussion threads on the topic of buying a cycle. Here are a few links that I found useful.
Want to buy a bike? READ THIS FIRST
Bicycle Suggestions
The Bike Affair
Bikeszone-cycle cycle reviews

I chose the Schwinn Searcher Sport as I decided on a hybrid bike which I can use for cross-training and occasional road racing and ocassional long rides. I had started with a budget of Rs 15,000 and was planning to go for Schwinn Searcher. However, at the last minute I switched to the Searcher Sport which has 24 gear combinations  instead of 21 and ended up spending Rs 17.5K including a stand, lock and mud-guards. So far I have been using the cycle for cross-training riding a total of about 25Km two days a week - the experience has been quite satisfactory. .

Finally, a couple of general sites that I found with a wealth of information about bicycles.
How to buy a bike
Bicycle tutor