2:14:18 at SPBM 2015

The 2nd year of HM pacing at Shriram Properties Bangalore Marathon 2015 on 18th October 2015 went well as I finished with a chip time of 2:14:18 vis-a-vis the target of 2:15. The timing of a pacer should not  exceed the target time by even one second and should be within a minute of the same. That is, the ideal completion time range for a 2:15 pacer is 2:14:01 to 2:14:59. During the run and post completion one debate that has been raging in my mind is should the pacer run as per chip time(that is, the time that he/she crosses the start line) or as per gun time(that is the time that the race starts). The night before the race I read in the pacer's  manual (written by Venkat of Youtoocanrun - an experienced pacer and involved in organising pacers for various races) that pacing should be done by gun time. I did not agree with this and ignored it for this race. However, during the run I realised the advantage of doing so. The gun time serves as a reference point irrespective of when runners cross the start line. This helps runners who do not start with a pacing bus and  rather join it during the course of the race. On the other hand if the difference between gun time and chip time is more than a couple of minutes then it could be a challenge for many runners in the bus. Ideally all the runners targeting a certain time should start from the same coral together in which case the chip time should be fine.  Based on what is being followed in other races it looks like either gun time or chip time is fine as long as it is communicated up front to runners.

I left home at about 4:35am with RK to pick up RV from 80 ft road in Indiranagar. Portions of the 100 ft road was already blocked for traffic and we had to take an alternate route. After parking the car in UB city we reached the stadium by 5:20 am. After belting up the pacer flagpole with the help of Venkat I entered the stadium 10 minutes later. The area was , of course, flooded with runners- apparently nearly 8000 runners had registered for the HM making it one of the largest races in the country (after Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon and Airtel Delhi Half marathon). Several runners - some familiar and most not known to me - expressed interest in running with the 2:15 pacing bus. Once the gates opened and runners rushed to the stadium tracks towards the start point I lost most of these runners. 

The race was flagged off just after 5:45am and I crossed the start line couple of minutes after that. It was quite slow going till we got out of the Kanteerva stadium. The route for this year's race was different from last year. The first 4 and the last 4 Kms of the race was inside Cubbon Park. Plus the MG road/Trinity circle/old airport road stretch was completely  avoided. This was done to optimise traffic control which was a huge challenge in 2014. 

Plus it is fantastic to run inside Cubbon anyway.Nice early morning weather, adrenaline of the race start and the ambiance in Cubbon Park meant that runners tend to have a faster first few Kms than they should.  I had factored this in. After a 6:30 1st Km, Kms 2 thru 4 were run at about 6:09/Km pace . Thereafter, the pace was steady between 6:20 and 6:35. Like last year I cheered every Km completed and struck up a conversation with some of the runners. Unlike last year this year's bus was less cohesive. That is, runners kept dropping off and new runners coming in. One reason was the aid stations. Up to the 15Km or so mark aid stations were very crowded and one time as well as some runners around them. Given the volume of runners there should have been more tables instead of just one or two. We reached the half way point in 1:06:49 at an average pace of 6:20/Km - about a minute slower than what I had targeted. On the way back we lost some momentum at the Kamraj Raod/Cubbon road intersection as traffic police stopped runners to let the traffic go.  The cops found it tough to hold the traffic- this is an area that has to improve - hopefully will do so over a period once the city becomes more aware and also the road blockages and alternate routes are well publicised. When we entered Cubbon park on the return stretch I realised that I had to accelerate a bit to finish within 2:15. Egging on runners around me I pressed the pedal and ran the last 3 Kms at under 6 mins/Km pace. This is not ideal and the lesson is to manage better and put more minutes in the bank in the first half. It had become quite warm after 730am. Another factor was the lack of clear Km markers towards the end. Anyway overall I was satisfied that I helped a few runners. 

I had intended to go back and run 10Km after a few minutes break like I did last year. I did start out to do that but abandoned the idea after about 500m. After hanging around the finish area for sometime I enjoyed the sumptuous hot breakfast. 

Ritika reached the stadium around 10am for the 5K Hope run. After some general entertainment and Zumba based warm up session the race kicked off a little after 10:50am. It took nearly 5 minutes for Ritika and me to reach the start point. The race was crowded and a lot of participants were walking rather than running. Ritika and I did run/walk and completed the 5Km in about 42 minutes. 

Before the 5K run/walk

Some photos from the 5K run/walk :

KTM 2015

Ran the Kaveri Trail Marathon   on 20th September after a gap of 5 years and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I have not been a regular at this race  - now in it's 9th edition - having run it only 3 times before : HM in the 1st edition in 2007, a FM in 2008 as part of my 12 marathon in 12 months and a 58K in 2010 as training for 75K at that year's Bangalore Ultra. So I excitedly looked forward to participating this year. Apart from the thrill of running the wonderful trail the anticipation was also due to this being my first race of the 2015-16 season and the first race since SCMM  in January 2015. Having been plagued with some injury/pain or other  since December 2013 I was looking to this race to regain self-confidence . However, having recently recovered from a pain in the right hip(lower abdomen, near the bone) and still having a dull pain just below the inner left knee I decided against racing hard.(Running too fast and/or too long too soon  increases the probability of injury and almost certainly was  the primary cause of my prolonged injury woes). My goal was to complete under 2 hrs. So I was extremely satisfied that  my left knee held up well during the run and I managed a time of 1:53:33 without pushing too hard  And to top it  I was pleasantly surprised when I learnt (after reaching home) that I ended up being 1st in my age  category. This was because the faster runners of my age group  did not run the race or ran the FM.  

Chandru (my brother) and I left Bangalore around 2:45 PM on Saturday afternoon and after a couple of stops enroute, to take care of some personal work, we reached Wild Orchids resort - our hotel by about 6:30PM. After  freshening up quickly we reached Greens Hotel for the RFL pasta party by about 7:30PM. It was nice to interact with runners and current and past RFL'ers. After a sumptuous pasta dinner (during which there was an interesting quiz) we returned back to the hotel by about 9PM. While I collected my bib at the dinner unfortunately RFL forgot to get my brother's bib to the dinner. We slept around 9:45PM with the plan of getting to the venue by 5:45am - well in time to collect the bib.

I slept quite well and woke up at 4:45 am just before my alarm was about to go off. Though the hotel was just 7 Kms from the race start point and we got there by 5:45am it took us time to walk up to the start point after parking our car. We reached there just in time to see the FM get flaggged off at 6am. Realising that the bib needed to be collected from the help desk in the holding area in Ozone resorts we quickly rushed there. It was a good 10 minutes walk away - so I jogged there which also served a a warm up for me. After collecting the bib we were back at the start point by 6:20am.

The race was flagged off  just after  6:30am - being in the middle of the pack of about 800 runners it took me about 40 seconds to cross the start line. After a couple of hundred meters I broke from the crowd of runners and for some reason took off.  After about a Km or so when crossing a couple of familiar runners I realised I was running too fast and slowed down a bit.  However, I felt quite good and quite comfortably maintained an average pace between 5:18 and 5:21 per Km.  The trail seemed to be a bit broader and less uneven from what I remembered from the previous years. Of course the Km leading up to the turnaround point was narrow and uneven - had to run quite carefully. As always the weather was pleasant when the race started - however as the sun came out it started to warm up. With the river flowing one one side and the fields on the other the shade cover is very sparse on the trail. However the trail was as beautiful as ever.

In the return lap it became quite warm but at no point I felt uncomfortable or dehydrated. In fact I felt so good that Kms 13 to 17 were my fastest with pace between 5:08 and 5:14. Knowing that I was comfortably on target to finish within 2 hours and would likely finish in sub 1:55 I eased of a bit and crossed the finish line in just under 1:54. It was great to see some of the other runners - Athreya(FM), Sid(FM), Rachel(FM), Dharam(HM) blazing the trail and finishing their races in amazing timings. Austin had a good race finishing about a minute behind me. Chandru though did not have best of races and finished in about 2:33 - one of his slower times.  

After hanging around in the finish area for some time we walked to the holding area and had breakfast which(IMHO) was quite decent. We then went back to the hotel had a quick shower and left for Bangalore around 11:30. After a break at Kamat for tea and snack reached home by about 3:45.

The race organisation was good as usual - the aid stations were well stocked and  the Km markers were clear and prominent. Parking of cars was also handled smoothly. The breakfast area should have had hand wash kiosks. However, the biggest mess up was with the timings. The release of timings was delayed almost a week and then too  it was incorrect or incomplete for several runners showing gun time and chip time to be same. Also there were no split timings which was a big disappointment for several runners specially relative new runners. Given that RFL has been doing this for many years now and there are lots of other choices for runners in terms of events RFL will need to work hard to recover the lost goodwill due to this mess up with the timings.

Random musings

Skipping TCS World 10K 

It has been over 3 months since the last post - the last one was the SCMM 2015 report. Normally at this time the post would have been a preview of the new running season's first big event, namely,TCS world 10K 2015  on 17th May 2015. However, after running the event every year (one of three events in which I had a streak going)since its inception  in 2008, in its earlier avatar as Sunfeast World 10K, I am giving it a miss this year.  It was not an easy decision - I went through the same dilemma last year.  Short distance (5K,10K) racing has never been my forte and despite a complete break of 7 weeks  when my niggles in the left leg continued even at slow paces I decided to skip the TCS 10K. I am not feeling too bad about it. 

Replanning this season's events 

Having done 3 weeks of 40-50 Kms mileage(albeit all moderate or slow paced runs) I am re-looking at the goals for this season. I will definitely run SCMM 2016 on 17th January the registrations for which open on 21st July. Most likely I will run either 50 or 75Km (most likely 50) at the Bangalore Ultra on 7th November though after last year my resolve to keep this streak going has reduced a bit. I was considering  running the Spice coast marathon in Cochin on 15th November in which case I would have skipped the ultra. Now I am veering towards doing the full at the Bangalore marathon on 18th October.  Which ever race I do I would like target a sub 3:50 and then if things go well target a sub 3:40 at SCMM 2016.  Of course, this is assuming that things continue to improve specially after I re-start interval and tempo training in June after a break of  15 months!!

Less events/slow finishes

Since achieving a FM PB of 3:37:20 at SCMM in January 2013 I have struggled to finish close to 3:45. My timings subsequently are :

•  3:46:20 at Hyderabad in August 2013
•  3: 46:23 at SCMM in January 2014
•  3:50:57 at Boston in April 2014
•  3:57:14 at SCMM in January 2015

Have been bothered with issues in the left leg since December 2013 resulting in reduced participation in events.  Earlier in 2011-2013 I had reduced my particiation n marathons in order to focus on gettign a BQ. In the 2014-15 season I did not race hard in any event and did just 2 long distance events  - 50Km  at the ultra and SCMM.  This means my goal of completing 17 more mrathon/ultras to hit my goal of 60 marathons/ultras by the time I turn 60 in August 2018 is unlikely to happen!

Injury Woes

The worst part is not being able to figure out exactly what the injury is.  Since February 2015, I have consulted two new sports physios(apart from Doc Gladson) and have started doing a bunch of additional stretches and strengthening exercises suggested by them. Both these physios  surmised that my issue is mainly due to poor posture and running form and prescribed exercises to improve the same. Two other items I have added to my repotoire are sitting in the Indian/Hindu squat position for 2-3 minutes and standing for extended periods of time (instead of sitting). To help correct running form I have added a fourth easy weekly barefoot run. Over the last 5 weeks I have increased the barefoot run from 2Km to 6Km(40 minutes).  Hopefully a combination of all this will help me get back to peak running form this season!!

Slowest SCMM in Five years

With no interval or tempo run since March 2014 and low number of runs beyond 21Km (several of which were a struggle) starting from October, I was aware that I was  in no shape to race hard in SCMM 2015. Nevertheless, (perhaps foolishly in hindsight)  I set myself a loose, albeit, aggressive goal of trying to finish between 3:45 and 3:50.  I ended up struggling to the finish line in just under 4 hours in 3:57:40 - my slowest finish since the 4:00:56 of 2010!! 

It was one of those runs where I never hit a rhythm;Within the first 5 Kms my legs - specially the left one - started to feel heavy and lethargic. While I started along with other runners who were targeting around 3:45 very early on I slowed down  and even started mentally revisiting my timing goal.I ran a fairly steady pace till the sea link (about 16Km) but from there on slowed down considerably. The legs just would not move fast enough. In addition to the dull pain in the left hamstring and calf and slight numbness in the left sole, I also felt pain in a toe of the right leg. Later I discovered a blister in that toe and realised that I had made the mistake of wearing the wrong socks for the race.  Wearing thick cotton socks (double layer in the left leg) - one that I had not raced in for a long time - was a very stupid and unconscionable error considering my running experience. 

Hitting the half way mark in about 1:52 I knew anywhere close to 3:45 was going to be impossible.  I was still hopeful of about 3:50. However, I did not manage a single sub 5:30 Km in the second half and logged over 6 min Kms in the last 7 Kms when several runners overtook me. Somewhere around 30Km I knew I would have to push harder to finish even under 3:55 which I was just unable to do so. There were just too many negative thoughts going through my mind and for the first time in 12 years I sensed I was not enjoying SCMM. I then knew I was beaten both physically and mentally and decided to make an effort to have fun and started acknowledging the  spectators, volunteers and Mumbai cops  along the way - they as usual did a fantastic job in supporting the race and the runners. This possibly gave me a bit of positive energy that enabled me to squeak through in just 4 hours. My Garmin showed that I had run 42.78Kms in 3:58 - over running the marathon distance even more than usual was another reflection of my state of mind. 

Cannot attribute any single reason to justify my below par run - the wrong pair of socks, about 10% more than optimal weight, inability to regain fitness level in 8 weeks training , work related stress , travel in the last 4 weeks leading up to the race and lack of  motivation to dig deep and push myself were all contributors. Though a bit warmer compared to the previous two years weather was not a factor as far a I was concerned. The dull pain in the hamstring and numbness in the sole disappeared soon after the race though soreness in the glutes stayed for a few days. 

The race itself was quite well organised. The additional security to enter the Azad maidan in the morning resulted in long queues and slow processing of runners with bags  - causing a bit of a nervousness among runners. The mass urinals in the maidan was a nice new addition - reducing the waiting time for the port-a-potties and also avoiding men from urinating in the open in the ground.

While the volunteers tried to create a clear path for FM runners in the last few Kms by moving the slow dream runners to one side the FM runners with stringent time target still had to weave through them. However, the handling of runners after crossing the finish line was very disappointing. There was no medals or water in the area after the finish line and insufficient number of volunteers directing the runners to the medals/refreshment counters. After collecting the same runners had to climb a bunch of steps to enter the maidan. Due to the large number of half marathon finishers this took me nearly 15 very irritating minutes !

As has been my practice I landed in Mumbai Friday 16th January evening and stayed again in Govandi this year (after the break of last year). The bib collection process on Saturday morning took just 5 minutes - the expo was shifted to Phoenix city market in Kurla for the first time making it convenient for runners in the suburbs. Hung around with runners for a couple of hours before returning home for lunch and putting up my feet. Co-ordinated with fellow Bangalore runner Amit to travel to the start point together on Sunday morning.  I managed a little over 5 hours sleep between 9:45 and 3 am. Amit picked me up from Govandi at 3:55am and he, myself and a 3rd runner called Umang took the 4:15 train from Chembur to reach VT station comfortably by 4:50am. As usual the train was filled with runners and VT station was abuzz with their energy.

After hanging around in Azad maidan for a couple of hours post the race I returned home. After a quick lunch I headed to the airport to catch a 5:15PM flight back to Bangalore pondering the need to re-evaluate my injury recovery progress and strategy  as well as the training plans and race distances for the year! Probably the topic for my next post. 

Looking forward to my 10th FM at SCMM

It is just about a week to go for the 2015 edition of SCMM where I will be running for  the 12th consecutive year - having done  HMs in 2004 and 2005 and FM  every year since 2006.  Due to niggles in my left leg that have been hampering me since December 2013 I have not trained well for the event. Nevertheless,I am looking forward to what will be my first FM since Boston in April 2014. SCMM is without argument the largest (and arguably the best) road race in India and with over 3000 runners, well organised including traffic control and with good crowd support. As has been the case for several years now it will see participation of runners from across the country including a large contingent from Bangalore.

My FM timings at SCMM have improved Y-o-Y starting with 4:42:28 in 2006 to 3:37:20 in 2013. I have not trained for any specific timing target this year- rather the training  for this year's edition has been quite limited -  just 9 weeks starting with the week after the Bangalore Ultra on 8th November. During this period I have managed three runs per week in most weeks  including 3 runs of 33Km, 29Km and 35Km. However, not all the runs have been good quality - have struggled towards the end of quite a few. Plus I have not done any interval  or tempo training since March 2014. Therefore, my current FM fitness level is far below that of its peak in Jan 2013 and fairly below that in Jan 2014.

However, based on the timings of some of my better long runs I feel sub 3:50 is still within the realm of possibility. I will be extremely thrilled if I manage to beat my 2014 time of 3:46:23. It will be quite disappointing if at least a  sub 4 is not achieved. The strategy will be to do the first 10Kms in about 52 minutes and the first half in under  1:49 at an average  pace of 5:13/Km.  Thereafter get to 32Km in 2:45 and then push hard to finish as close to 3:45 as possible. Eagerly looking forward to getting on the plane to Mumbai next Friday and have an enjoyable race weekend!!

2014 Year End musings

Delayed reflection on the year gone by - with hectic work schedule and vacation in Rajasthan was unable to make time for this in the last fortnight of the year as I usually do. Better late than never I guess. After 5 years of relatively injury free running and consistently improving performances, 2014 was a let down.  The injury that I picked up just over a year ago in December 2014 plagued me throughout the year and impacted my race performances. Due to the injury it was also a lean year in terms of events  : 2FMs,1HM, a 10K and 50K Ultra. The high point was of course being able to run Boston marathon - fulfilling a goal I had set myself in 2011 though the timing was nothing to write home about.   The other first in 2014 was the maiden experience of being a pacer at Bangalore marathon - albeit it was my slowest HM. The 50K at the Bangalore Ultra was also my slowest ever - over an hour slower than my best in 2013!!

The running mileage was the usual 1800Kms:

1.  157
   Jan '14
2.  176
   Feb '14
3. 224
   Mar '14
4. 151
   Apr '14
5. 98
   May '14
6. 81
   Jun '14
7. 36
   Jul '14
8. 105
   Aug '14
9. 136
   Sep '14
10.  186
    Oct '14
11.  262
    Nov '14
12. 175
    Dec '14

And  cycling mileage was 1300 Kms :

1.  143
   Jan '14
2. 142
   Feb '14
3. 165
   Mar '14
4.  52
   Apr '14
5. 159
   May '14
6.  216
   Jun '14
7. Jul '14
8. 30
   Aug '14
9. 63
   Sep '14
10. 156
    Oct '14
11. 62
    Nov '14
12. 65
    Dec '14

Update on 2014 goals set in Dec 2013:

1. Sub 3:37 at SCMM - this one may get changed to a sub 4 based on how the left glutes/hamstring/calf behaves in the next 3 weeks  - 3:46:23

2. Sub 3:40 at Boston 2014 - 3:50:57

3. Sub 45m 10K in TCS world 10K  - 47:30

4. Sub 3:45 at Hyderabad marathon in August - skipped due to injury

5. 75K at the Bangalore Ultra - downgraded to 50K - completed in 5:57:41

Additionally I ran  a 23:33 5K at Puma Urban Stampede in August as part of a team of my new employer, namely, Wadhwani Foundation.  This was faster than I should have given my left leg niggles and this further  exacerbated the injury . Since September my focus has been on strengthening  - I restarted sessions at the Manipal Hospital- Department of sports and exercise medicine.

For the first time in last 5 years I am unsure about what events I will do in the year  - in any case I am unlikely to race hard in any event till I fully recover from my injury.   For sure I will run (though not race) SCMM in January. And the TCS 10K in May and most likely the Bangalore Ultra in November. I will definitely NOT be doing Comrades in 2015. I plan to take stock of events in April based on my recovery status. in any case I am reconciled to enjoy running in 2015 with no time targets and focus on strengthening and come back strong(er) in 2016!!

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!!