That's the summary of the 17th consecutive FM finish at TMM 2024 on 21st January 2024. With a time of 4:43:48 I just about hit my plan C of 4:45 (Plan A was sub 4:28 and plan B sub 4:35) happy and relieved to have shaved a good 13 mins of my slowest FM finish of 2023. That I managed to do it with a training regime of mostly 2 runs per week , weekly mileage of less than 40-45K and just two runs of 32K (of which one was below par ) gives me hope that slighly higher mileage and continued focus on strength training I should be able to get close to 4:30 in the next season.
Took the Saturday morning flight to Mumbai along with Pankaj and a bunch of other runners and headed straight to the expo at the Kalina university campus in a car rented by Pankaj for the day. The expo was super crowded . However, the bib collection process was smooth and took just a couple of minutes. Both while heading to the bib collection counter and then back to the exit , as always, we bumped into a number of runners from Bangalore and other places . The temptation to stop at any of the stalls , however interesting, was low due to the crowds. The organisers (Procam) really needs to look at a larger space for the Expo . I even skipped collecting my T-shirt because of the long queue at the counter where medium sized ones being given out for male runners.
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About an hour ride from the expo took us to "Suzette" where we joined a bunch of other runners for a lunch of crepes and croquettes post which we walked to the marine drive for a quick photo before dispersing.
After a nice evening at a second cousin's place near churchgate checked into Hotel Fortune in the dhobi talo area near Metro cinema around 645PM. Surprised at the tiny size of the room (and the bathroom) all four of us were thankful that we lucked out to all have a room to ourselves. There would have been zero space to move around, open bags etc with 2 people in a room. After a solo dinner of roti and oily&spicy kadai vegetables at the Punjabi dhaba next door went to sleep a little before 10PM and woke up at 3:35am after a decent sleep. Downed 3 yelakki bananas and some nuts and raisins before a brisk walk to the holding area in Azad maidan at 4:20am.
The holding area and the corals seemed more crowded than usual. The race started promptly at 5(15 minutes earlier than the last year) . I crossed the start line couple of minutes later starting very cautiously as the path was narrow with metal jutting out a few inches from the ground due to the metro consturction work. The 1st Km took 6:45 after which I picked up pace. Nari and I ran together for the new few Kms at between 6:10 and 6:30 pace. Between Km 5 and 10 I held a steady pace of jut under 6:15. It was quite pleasant at about 21c and the humidity was low by Mumbai standards. Maintaining a fairly steady pace with intermittent practice of zen running technique that I learnt recently I hit the half way mark pretty much as planned in under 2:14. At that time I felt fairly comfortable and confident of running the second half in around 2:20 for a 4:35 finish. Probably a bit too confident that I lost a bit of focus and my mind wondered about the slight change of route immediately after crossing the sea link. Brought to earth literally with a fall in the 23rd Km. Fortunately this turned out to be yet another of my falls where I was luckly to get away with a few bruises around my right knee and right elbow and I was up and running again in 30 mins. It crossed my mind that maybe it was a signal from above that sooner than later i need to limit myself to runnign HMs. I managed to maintain an average pace below 6:30 till Km 31. However, post that the pace dropped significantly to 6:50 and just as the flyover was approaching the right quads started cramping again. So much so that from Km 36 I walked quite a bit at every Km. I decided not to push through the pain keeping in mind that I was anyway not going to achieve 4:35, I would fairly comfortably beat the 4:57 of 2023 and the Delhi marathon in 5 weeks. At this point the 4:40 bus passed me and I could not muster the energy to keep pace with it.
So when Partha clicked me at Km 41(the 1st photo) I was really really struggling. So just ambled across the finish line relieved tp have completed another FM at Mumbai. After collecting the medal and refreshments , walked back the hotel, had a shower and checked out around 12. Heard that several of the slow FM finishers did not get any water, refreshments or their medal which is ridiculous and unacceptable for the country's largest race which aspires to be recognised as the best race in Asia.
Vishy, his son Sanat and I took a cab to churchgate to eat at Samrat. Ended up eating mexican food at Relish next door to it. Post lunch visited a relative in Govandi and then travellled by metro to a friend's place in Borivili. After dinner with a bunch of ex-colleagues at a pan asian restaurant in a mall went to sleep around 1130. Left for the airport on Monday mornign after dhokla breakfast to catch a 9:20 flight. Reached home a little after 2 thanks to stupidly waiting for a 227 at the mysore road satellite bus station.
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