Puma Urban Stampede 2014

Have been running 5Km on and off  in the Puma Urban Stampede in Bangalore. I ran in the 1st edition in 2008(in fact the company I worked for, namely, mformation was the title sponsor) as well as in the 2nd edition in 2009 as part of a team from mformation. Then  in 2012 as part of a team from ALU. And this year soon after taking up my new job at Wadhwani Foundation I triggered participation in the event. We had 3 teams participating. This year the event was held in Bharatiya City  on 3rd August 2014.  I did not train specifically for the event - just did a few easy to moderate pace runs in the previous 10 days after taking a 3 weeks break from running due to injury. 

I left in my car from Domlur at 5:35 am after a colleague from Koramangla came over and parked his bike. After picking up 3 others runners at Domlur flyover, CMH road and Kasturi nagar reached the start point by about 6:20am. There were direction signboards from RFL on Hennur road. As we approached the venue we saw runners on the road who had started their 10K run at 6am. After parking the car we were in the starting area by about 6:45am. In my time Mischelle ran first, followed by Austin with myself being the 3rd runner. My goal was to try and run below 25 minutes and if possible between 23 and 24 with the pace per Km of around 4:45..  I am generally not good at short distance intensive pace runs. My 5K PB is 21:51 at the Puma Urban Stampede in 2012. The only other 5K below 23 minutes that I have run is in the duathlon in 2010.

The weather was quite nice when the first runners from nearly 350 runners started at 7am. By the time I grabbed the baton from Austin and took off around 8:05 am it got a little warmer. Nevertheless started off at a pace closer to 4:30. At about half way mark the left  glutes and calf started to hurt a bit -so eased off a bit. Also I knew was on track to do a comfortable sub 25.  Still I managed to push in the last Km at 4:27 pace to finish in 23:33 - my 3rd best time for a 5K! I was satisfied with my performance. After eating the refreshments and taking some photos left for home around 10am. During the return drive my left glutes started to hurt after a few minutes and I suffered from this for the next couple of days making me realise that my glute/hamstrings needed considerably more strengthening. 

Bill Pierce in India

It was a pleasure to host my running coach Dr. Bill Pierce, who motivated and guided me to BQ in 2012-13, during his visit to Bangalore on 26th August. Bill was brought on his maiden trip to India by Hyderabad Runners as the event ambassador for Airtel Hyderabad marathon on 24rth August 2014.

Bill  is professor and chair of the Health Sciences Department, at Furman University, in Greenville, South Carolina, USA. He is co-founder of the Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training (FIRST). FIRST promotes running as a healthy physical activity by providing training based on scientific principles and research. Bill, now 64 years of age, ran his first marathon in 1977 and to date, he has completed 40 marathons. He also has the distinction of having run the Boston Marathon in five different decades – 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s – the last time being when he was in his sixties.

With over 250 road races under his belt, 1st place finisher in 10 road races of distances from 3k to HM between 1978 and 1991 and Top 3 age group finishes in 114 races, Bill’s running history is very impressive. Bill is co-author of the best selling book “Run Less, Run Faster”, which completely revolutionized marathon training. Backed by scientific research and experiences of real runners, the book describes how to achieve faster speed by limiting to just three running workouts a week.

Bill did well in his first race in India completing the HM in the challenging Hyderabad course under tough weather conditions in 1:50:46 and finishing 4rth in the senior mens veteran category. This despite sight seeing in Delh and Agra and also addressing several meetings in Hyderabad prior to race day.

Over 40 runners ( a lot of them were pacemakers trainees) assembled at Kanteerva stadium on 26th morning by 615am and had a nice easy 10Km run in Cubbon Park. Followed by some yummy food from fellow runner Aseema and  breakfast at 1st floor of Konark restaurant in the stadium. About 20 runners were around for breakfast and interacted with Bill.

On 26th evening Bill gave a talk titled 'Smart training for the long run' at the auditorium at the Puma store on CMH Road, Indiranagar. There were over 75 participants many of whom got their copy of Bill's book autographed. The talk was well received and Bill left for Chennai very satisfied with the interactions with the Bangalore runners.

Revisiting plans for running season 2014-15...

Like the past several years, I  had mapped out my events events in the running season 2014-15: TCS 10K in May, HM at Hyderabad in August, FM in Bangalore in October, 75Km at the Ultra in November, SCMM 2015 in January and finally Comrades marathon on 31st May 2015.  After running Boston marathon on 21st April 2014 I had a decent run at the TCS World 10K on 18th May. I then took a few weeks break with plans to start training for the Bangalore marathon(on 19th October)  from the end of June. However, despite taking 4 weeks break from running I was unable to run comfortably when going beyond 15Km or so or when running at a pace below 5:30/Km. The glutes,hamstring,calf and toes of the left leg felt uncomfortable and hurt slightly while running. Moreover I was unable to sit in the same position for more than 30-45 minutes after a workout without shifting the left butt due to discomfort. Therefore I shelved my plan to start training for a FM from June end and took a break again from running after an easy paced 27Km (longest since Boston 2014) with the BHUKMP gang on 28th June .  I have been having an issue with my left  glutes and calf for a while - my races in 2013-14 were all below par due to the issue; however it has never been this bad specially the numbness in the toes. I have been consulting Dr. Johnson Gladson of Attitude Prime for a while and following the stretching and strengthening regime suggested by him. I sought a second opinion from Dr. Kannan Puzhandi of Sparrc - which now has a center in Indiranagar. Despite the meeting with Dr. Kannan being unimpressive I went ahead with 3 consecutive days of deep tissue massage at Sparrc and a gait assessment session -  being on a short break as I switched jobs and career from ALU India to Wadhwani Foundation enabled me to do this.  Also went through a MRI after consulting a neurologist -  a horrifying experience that I will try my best never to repeat again. Fortunately no pinching of nerve or undue damage of lower back was detected .  With guidance from running coach D I started focusing on exercises to strengthen my glutes,hips and core. I resumed running after 3 weeks break at the end of July. While running at an easy pace seemed ok even a 5K at a fastish pace at Puma Urban Stampede 2014(see next post) exacerbated the pain. So I had no choice but to reduce both my training mileage and pace intensity- with no more than 25Kms of running at average pace between 5:45 and 6:15 and about 30Kms of cycling in the Gym at 30Kms/hour speed . Am having to make efforts to keep the running pace slower than 6 minutes/Km. I do not plan to run beyond 15Km  till at least September end. And am restarting  strengthening at Manipal hospital department of sports and exercise medicine from September. At the slower pace the glutes do not seem to be stressed as much and do not hurt post the run. This will at least help me keep my fitness at a certain level.

As a result my plans for  the running season 2014-15 has gone haywire. I had to miss the pleasure of running a HM with my coach Bill Pierce at Hyderabad on 24rth August and the fun of staying and travelling with the BHUKMP gang. I have not registered for any event this season except SCMM 2015.  As of now that is the only I will surely participate in this season. Registration for Comrades 2015 open in a couple of days on September 1- my participation  is out unless things improve dramatically in the next 60 days and registrations are still open. 75Km at Bangalore Ultra is also ruled out - still hoping that I can do a slow 50Km there to keep my streak at the Ultra going - despite the advice to the contrary from D and Bill. Will make that call towards the end of October. And FM at Bangalore is surely out. Hope to do a slow HM - considering being a 2:15 or 2:30 pacer which is better than skipping it altogether. The only event that I would like to really like to race  this year  is SCMM 2015 - my goal was to try and BQ again with a sub 3:40 - however depending on how it goes over the next 60-90 days it is now likely that I may  end up doing a 5 hour FM there just to keep my streak going!!

Moderate race at TCS World 10K Bangalore 2014

Considering that for the 1st time ever I ran a race without a watch and the first time since 2007 without a Garmin and that I had not trained specifically for the event I am satisfied with my finish time. My primary goal was to do a sub 50 and depending on the first half to get as close to 46 minutes as possible.  Few minutes before the start of the race fellow runner Sampath Jayaram tensed up on realising that his Garmin refused to power on. As he was targeting a PB with a goal of sub 40 I could relate to this. Not having a stringent timing goal I had no hesitation to giving my Garmin to Sampath. 

Bib Number	834
Name	BHASKER SHARMA
Gender	MALE
Category	50 to 60 years
Overall Rank	296 out of 10913
Category Rank	12 out of 241
Gender Rank	289 out of 9081
Split@3.9 Km	00:17:56 at an Avg Speed of 13.05 Kmph
Split@6.1 Km	00:28:20 at an Avg Speed of 12.92 Kmph
Split@7.5 Km	00:35:51 at an Avg Speed of 12.55 Kmph
Split@8.5 Km	00:40:39 at an Avg Speed of 12.55 Kmph
Net Time	00:47:30 at an Avg Speed of 12.63 Kmph
Gross Time	00:47:37

Irina and I left Domlur at about 525am and after parking the car in Lavelle road we reached the stadium around 550am. There was a long queue of runners to get into the stadium. I joined Shilpi and Rishi in the front of the queue. Once inside I rushed to use the loo. The port-a-loos had long  lines of people waiting. However, the stadium toilet close the coral A entrance was pretty much empty. Reached the corral a little after 6am and went down the steps close to the exit gate and mingled with the other runners. At about 6:17am the gate opened and the corral A runners moved to the start line on the tracks. The race was flagged off by John Abraham and Carl Lewis at 6:20am.  I started at a brisk pace with Shilpi and just behind Amrita. Looking at the Timing India splits above I reached the 3.9Km point at an average pace of 4:35/Km. Like every year the pace started to drop after about 5Km and I reached the 8.5Km at an average pace of 4:47/Km.  By this time Amrita had pulled ahead. Though I pushed myself I was a bit wary of pushing too hard due to the iffy left leg. So crossing the finish line at an average pace of 4:45/Km was quite satisfactory. Though given that I had done a solo 10K training running in EGL a few days earlier in 47:54 I should have done at least a minute faster. This is where the average pace on the Garmin would probably have helped. Due to overnight rain while it was a bit cooler it felt humid towards the end of the race. Near the High court at the entrance to Cubbon park there was a huge puddle of water covering the road (this could possibly have been cleared up by the organisers) due to which runners had to get on the pavement. This was also the first 10K race in which I ran without stopping at all for water. 

Overall the race was well organised at least for runners starting from corral A. For runners starting in the later corrals specially D, E and F the initial few Kms was very congested due to the sheer number of runners many of whom were slow and probably 1st timers. While it is great that the running movement is growing rapidly the organisers needs to make it smoother for the runners starting later to try and achieve their time goals. The Km markers along the route were clearly marked. Also there were huge trash bins a few metres from the aid stations for runners to throw water bottles in which was a major new feature of this year's race. Another addition was pacers for 1 hr, 1:15 and 1:30 finishes. The post race medal and refreshments collection process was smooth. After hanging out in the finish area for some time we walked to the car(s) in a group. The finish area became extremely crowded by the time we left.

Near UB City on the way to the cars

And drove for breakfast to Konark on Residency road- Nagaraj Adiga hosting a fantastic breakfast after the 10K race has now become a tradition. This year there were  a huge number of runners at breakfast including many from Hyderabad and Chennai!!

Post breakfast at Konark

Countdown to TCS World 10K Bangalore 2014...

TCS World 10K Bangalore  on 18th May,  the first event of the new running season just 4 weeks after my 2013-14 season ended with the Boston marathon on 21st April , means that unlike the last couple of years I don't get to take a break between seasons. Though I considered  giving the TCS World 10K a miss this year I decided to keep my streak going - having run the event since its first edition in 2008(then called Sunfeast World 10K).  I obviously have not trained specifically for the event and will probably continue to take it easy for a few weeks after the race (as I do not plan to run a full marathon till at least October). With a few easy runs and a couple of tempo runs in the last couple of weeks I feel in reasonable shape to aim for a sub 46 10K  and  try and  better my last year's time of 46:56. I certainly feel fitter than I was last year before the race despite the iffy left side(glutes/hamstring/sole).  And if the first half goes well then I may even gun for the PB of  45:57 achieved in 2011. A lot depends on the start I am able to get and the usual help from the Bangalore weather. With the number of runners participating in the event growing tremendously it is important to breakaway from the throng of slower runners and get into a rhythm within the first 2 Kms. Hopefully the holding area will be streamlined and the race starts staggered as was the case last year. My goal would be to get to the half way point in under 23 minutes.  The earlier start time of 6:20am(compared to 7:20am last year) should certainly help.

One other variable this year is going to be the shoe.  I plan to run in the much lighter Skechers Gorun2 which I was 'awarded'  for finishing 1st runner up in the 50Km at the 2013 Bangalore Ultra. . At 6.7oz , it is 4 ounces lighter than the 10.8 oz Brooks Defyance 5 that I have been using since September 2012.  And this mainly due to the lack of cushioning. The shoes feel comfortable in the training runs I have done so far; however on the couple of occasions that I have run a bit fast both my calves hurt post the run. So unless this changes I am unlikely to use this shoe for distances beyond the half marathon.

The bib collection process on 10th May was very smooth. The expo seemed bigger than he past years with large stalls from all the major shoe brands selling in India. Also, there were fewer non-fitness/non-running stalls. It was great to hang out and chat with fellow runners. 

Fantastic experience at the 118th Boston Marathon

Medley of items from the expo/marathon - the steel mug(engraved) is from my cousin and his wife

A few signs from around the city

A huge and awesome expo, general buzz in the city and media coverage about the race throughout the weekend, fantastic hospitality from my local hosts Shankar and Vidya, perfect weather conditions, 32000+ (mostly) fast runners, 1m+ wildly cheering spectators , numerous interesting placards along the way, the scream tunnel at Wellesley, comfortable first 25Kms, the tough battle of the hills in the last 17 Kms, the emotionally charged up crowds as we entered Boston and the joy of meeting family members a few minutes after crossing the finish line pretty much sums up my fantastic experience at the 118th Boston marathon on 21st April.  My finish time of 3:50:57 , though within a minute of my worst case target(race preview here) , was my slowest of the 3 FMs this season and well over 13 minutes  my PB.   I was extremely thrilled with achieving the goal that I have been focused on for nearly 3 years: BQ'ing first in October 2012 and again in January 2013, successfully making it to the entry list in September 2013 and then running  the venerable race itself last month. However, I would say,for me,  the journey itself was more satisfying and exhilarating than the end. While running in the oldest and  iconic marathon was a  great experience,  personally I would consider beating my qualifying time by 2 minutes 40 seconds in SCMM 2013 the pinnacle of my marathon running career(I doubt if I would ever be able to go below the 3:37:20 time - I hope to at least do a sub 3:40 one more time!). And the excitement and high on the night of 25th September 2013 on receiving the acceptance  e-mail from BAA was far more than crossing the finish line on 21st April 2014!!

At the family meeting point a few minutes after finishing

The five weeks leading up to the race was very hectic - with travel and personal and professional work. After leaving Bangalore on 31st March while I managed to put in most of training runs I got in just one cross training(cycling) workout in the last 3 weeks before the race and virtually no strengthening. The last two long runs - a 13 miler in Croydon, UK on 6th August and a 10 miler in Southbury, CT on 13th August did not go as per plan - one due to inclement weather and the other due to hilly terrain. As a result on race day I weighed about  60 Kgs/132 lbs -  4-5 Kgs more than my optimal race weight!

Wishing Luck to all runners on the wall at the expo

The  build up of nervousness and excitement started  from the Atlanta airport on 19th morning as I waited for my connecting flight after catching a red-eye flight from San Jose. There were numerous runners on the flight many wearing a T-shirt or jersey from a previous years' Boston marathon. I even spotted a runner with a T-shirt stating that she had taken the Boston to Big Sur challenge. My cousin Shankar(who received me at Boston airport) and I reached the expo by about 11am. The bib pickup process was very quick even though I had to get a duplicate runner passport (mine was snail mailed to India in early April despite my changing the mailing address to CT in the last week of March). The expo was huge - have never seen anything like this before - all brands of shoes, running apparel, nutrition products and  gadgets etc under one roof. Several talks/seminars and presence of celebrity runners such as  4 times winner Bill Rodgers, Dean Karnezes, Bart Yasso. Jeff Galloway etc meant that the John Haynes convention center was packed with visitors that Saturday morning. What little temptation I had soon melted away on seeing the huge queues to purchase Boston marathon branded merchandise. While BAA strongly recommended that all runners take their buses from Boston to the athletes village in Hopkinton my cousin and I felt it might be easier to get to Hopkinton on race morning and that would also give us an extra hour. So on Sunday, 20th morning we checked out the runners drop-off point, the athletes village and took some pictures of the start area  - a cop was on duty directing traffic to enable people to stand at the starting line and be photographed. It was a gloriously sunny day with morning temperature around 10C and race morning  was forecast to be similar.  The folks at the  information booth near the start area  , sponsored by TCS, were quite helpful - based on their inputs we decided that I would be dropped off at the runners drop-off parking lot in Hopkinton between 830 and 845 am on race day morning.

After some light stretching in the evening, laying out the gear for next morning and a fantastic pasta dinner at home(skipped the dinner organised by BAA in Boston) I  went to sleep at about 1030 with the goal of waking up at 630am - the plan was to leave home around 745am.  I felt quite good Sunday evening and based on the weather forecast of around 9C at 11am and 15/16C in Boston around 3 PM I decided not to carry my phone camera with me and try and race at least the first half. As usual I woke up a few minutes before the alarm went off. Had a couple of bananas and some nuts(almonds, pecans) and raisins and left home for Hopkinton around 750am.

 I had decided to run in a single layer half-sleeve shirt ; but wore two additional layers and a track paint to stay warm during the nearly 2 hours waiting period at the athletes village. When just a few minutes away from taking the exit off the highway to Hopkinton I realised that I had forgotten my Garmin at home and felt terrible.Being addicted to the Garmin   I am unable to do well in long runs without one whether I am racing hard or not. And hence became terribly nervous and tense. Fortunately my sister was at home and was able to meet us halfway with the unit.  Finally I was dropped off at the designated parking lot in Hopkinton around 920 am more than 30 minutes later than planned. Since the waiting time in the athletes village was going to be much shorter and it seemed quite warm I ditched my track pants and one layer of shirt in the car before getting off and joining the queue for the shuttle bus from the parking lot to the athletes village.  I regretted the decision as I felt a little cold in the legs due to the breeze while waiting in the queue. However, the queue moved quite fast and after a security check(hand-held scanner and frisking) got into a bus around 940am. Got off at the athletes village ten minutes later and headed straight for the portaloos which had long queues despite there being hundreds of them. The village was crowded with runners relaxing/stretching/eating/chatting.  By the time I came out of the loo at 1020am I heard the announcement for runners in Wave 3, corrals 1 to 3 to head towards the exit of the village and start walking to the race start point.  After discarding my full sleeves shirt(from NJ marathon of 2005) and  walking towards the start point I bumped into Vaishali and Bhaskar Desai. Vaishali handed me the bib with my name and India colours on it which I quickly pinned below my official bib. Runners were then gradually separated out by their corral no. - I was in mine by 1045am with about 15 minutes left for start of the race. One thing that hit me as I warmed up was the high proportion of women in my corral. Another runner from San Diago with whom I was chatting remarked the same.

The Wave 3 of the race started at 11am - I crossed the start line in about 55 seconds. Had to hold back     during the descent of 120 ft to complete the 1st mile  in 8:07. In fact the first 4 miles were flat or net downhill resulting in a much faster start than planned at  8:04,8:02 and 8:04 per mile. Though there were thousands of runners in each corral a few minutes after the race started there was enough room to run comfortably. In fact throughout the race I rarely felt cramped for race - unlike the experience I had at the only other  race with 30,000+ runners that I have run- London 2007 - where I was elbow to elbow with other runners for pretty much the entire 26 miles.By this time one had run from  Hopkinton to Ashland passing by a Lakshmi temple on the way. Miles 5 to 8  through the town of Framingham  saw the pace drop to the 8:15 to 8:30 range (in line with the original plan)  due to a couple of small rolling hills. Miles 8 through  11 I kept the same steady pace through Natick where I was pleasantly surprised by ex-colleague Chai Rao calling out my name and taking a beautiful action photo.

around mile 10 in Natick

And then we ran into the famous screaming tunnel of Wellesley which lived up to its reputation.

The Wellesley scream tunnel

I tried to take in as many of the diverse placards as possible. The one that stood out for me is "Kiss me - I am performance enhancing". Since I was doing a decent pace I did not regret not carrying a camera. Stopping for a picture here, albeit for less than a minute,  would have broken the momentum and perhaps slowed my finish time further. I reached the half way point in 1:49:11 at a decent  average pace of 8:20 keeping alive hopes of a sub 3:45 finish. However, the pace dropped rapidly in the hills between Miles 15 to 22 through Newton  as the iffy left leg started to act up. Though I had a gu gel each around the 15Km and 25Km I felt a bit hungry as well after 21 miles or so  probably due to having eaten over 3.5 hours before the start of the race. I did not need to stop or walk but found it difficult to pickup pace even in the downhill portions. After about a mile and half through Brookline I saw the famous Citgo sign while entering Boston. However, there was another short but steep climb along the overpass atop the MA Turnpike. And even the wildly screaming, emotionally charged up crowds- many urging runners to claim the finish line this year-  in the last 2 Kms leading up to the finish line did not help bring my pace to below 9 minute miles. The 5K splits below clearly depicts my fading  after 25 Kms and the desperate need to  be better prepared to run hills.

• 5K               25:18
• 10K             25:41
• 15K             25:54
• 20K             26:32
• 25K             26:43
• 30K             28:38
• 35K             30:34
• 40K             28:53
• 42.2K          13:16

The finish line camera shows me crossing the finish line at around 4:31 mark. While the timing was not great I thoroughly enjoyed the race. The weather was probably on the warmer side for most runners but it was perfect for me. I never felt hot throughout the race and did not sweat at all. I kept hydrating with water reasonably regularly - every 3 to 4 miles. There was an aid station with water and gatorade after every mile marker.  And of course the field had some really  strong runners. One of them running throughout with a small video camera strapped to his forehead stands out in my memory. 31,931 out of the 32,456 runners who started the race completed it!  I finished 15,552 overall, 10074 out of 17,575 men and 813 out of 1778 in my age group.  Despite being over 13 minutes slower than my qualifying time I finished nearly 4000 places ahead of my initial seeding of 19,428 (my bib no.).  

Each of the 8 towns had thousands of  amazing spectators on both sides of the road cheering loudly. The crowd support in this marathon is supposed to be like none other and it  lived up to the reputation with an estimated 1m spectators lined up along the race this year.   The spectators displayed various signs and placards many of which kept me amused during the run. There were all the  usual signs and many unique ones as well. Some that stood out are: 'Beer and cigarettes available here', 'I do marathons..on Netflix', 'slowdown runners - I am trying to count you all', 'WTF - where is the finish line'. 42 of the best ones are summarised here. 

After being draped in the thermal cape and the medal I grabbed a couple of cups of gatorade and headed over to the family meeting area thrilled to have crossed one off my bucked list!!

 

Bib# 19428, Wave 3, Corral 2..all set for The (Boston) marathon experience

Arriving at Connecticut, US with just about 2 weeks( and 5 easy training runs)  to go for the 118th edition of the Boston Marathon marks the beginning of  the end  of the journey that started nearly 3 years ago. Qualifying and running in Boston was an aspiration ever since I did my first sub 4 hour marathon  at the Sun Trust National Marathon in March 2009. However, I pretty much gave up the on this goal  after the Feb 2011 announcement tightening the qualifying standards by 5 minutes from 2012 onwards as I now needed 3:40 instead of 3:45 to qualify in the 55-59 years age group.  But then the PB sub 46 minute finish  at TCS open 10K in June 2011 and the interaction with coach and author Bill Pierce at a customised  FIRST running retreat in Greenville, SC in July 2011 gave me confidence that with focus and structured training I might be able to get there. Subsequently my main goal for 2012 was to qualify for Boston 2014 and I trained and picked my events accordingly.  I squeaked to a BQ by 3 seconds  at MHRM in Ocotber 2012 and managed to beat my BQ by 2 mins 40 seconds at SCMM 2013. In September 2013 this enabled me to get an entry into the 2014 edition of the  race - after a tense waiting period of  over 2 weeks after the registration opened. And now over 6 months later I am maha excited to be on the verge of running my 41st FM (including 7 ultras)  in the world's oldest and most hallowed marathon event and achieving one of my long term running goals!!

 Whether to give it all and race at Boston or simply soak in the experience and the ambiance and enjoy the 'once in a life time' event is now the dilemma that I am brooding over. Reflecting on my future running goals , while this may not be the ONLY time I run Boston  I don't expect to run it many times . I may do it  a couple of more times if I manage to qualify -   Boston and Big Sur marathon in the same year(2016?) and then maybe once in my 60s(2019?).  The 2013-14 running season has not been a great one for me -  a tear in the right calf muscle just before the TCS 10K in May resulted in a below par start to the season.  Post that race I took some time off and trained 10 weeks for the Airtel Hyderabad marathon. However, the race on 25th August did not go too well and I finished in 3:46:20 -  a good 10 minutes + slower than my target time. While I did well at the 7th Bangalore ultra I started suffering from severe pain in left glutes and calf and numbness in my left sole during my long runs while training for SCMM 2014.  As a result I missed my PB by  9 minutes in the race in January.  And the training for Boston 2014 which started a couple of weeks after Mumbai(11 weeks training instead o 16 weeks) has been a mixed bag. Due to the stress with the left  glutes, hamstrings and calf and numbness in the left front sole ( now pretty much diagnosed as piriformis syndrome  - more details in a future post)  - the training runs have been inconsistent - falling short of  the timing goal for at least one of the 3 workouts( intervals, tempo, long run)  in most weeks. Though some specific stretches 
(Neural flossing) and strengthening exercises (which I restarted at Manipal hospital from February) helped me feel better after the workout the pain/stress still appears  during a moderately hard run and the glutes continue to hurt when sitting for quite some time after a workout. I have been hesitant to push myself in the training runs  and risk further aggravating the injury.  Also more than normal amount of travel in February and March has impacted my training. The second half of March was specially disruptive with travel to Tirunelveli, Chennai and Pune in a space of 10 days. Less intense training and frequent eating out coupled with a glass or two of wine (I normally avoid alcoholic drinks completely in the last 6 weeks leading up to a race )has resulted in  my weight  increasing by 3 Kgs+ (from optimal race weight of 55 to about 58). Therefore not being in the best of shape means it is easier to decide not to push hard and race at Boston and instead enjoy the spectator support and the historic course.  I will most likely carry my phone to take pictures along the way - something I do only in events that I am NOT racing in. 

The only time I have run a large marathon before I did not have a great timing though I had a fantastic experience. The London marathon in April 2007 was my slowest ever(4:47:56). Even if I were in a better shape and completely injury free this race looks to be quite challenging due to several other factors.  Being in Wave 3/Corral 2 my race start time is 11am. To get to the athletes village in Hopkinton near the start area between 9 and 930 am  I will need to take a bus from Boston between 8 and 830am. This means I will need to leave Bedford (where I will be staying) around 7am.  So not sure what I should eat and when. Some food and beverages is likely to be available at the Athletes village. I typically eat bananas and some nuts 1 to 2 hours before the race start soon after waking up. In this case I would be up at least 5 hours before the start of my race which will be a new factor to contend with. Also, the comfort level during the 1 hour +  wait at the athletes village will depend very much on the weather - I am of course rooting for dry and warm ( or not too cold) conditions. Due to the unfortunate incident in Boston 2013 understandably security has been tightened up for this year's race. So there will be no baggage check-in allowed at the start point in Hopkinton. One has to check in gear in the transparent bag provided for the purpose (in the expo at the time of bib pick-up) before boarding the bus in Boston. This means depending on the weather one may need to discard some additional layers before starting the race. And crazy runners in this country are actually shopping specifically for things to wear and discard on race morning. 

BAA has been sending frequent mailers to participants for the last few weeks explaining the security policy, getting to the start area, the waves/corrals etc. All of this information is summarised here. The weather on race day will be another crucial factor for my performance. Detailed analysis of past race day weather can be found at Boston Marathon Weather History and Impact on Results and Boston Marathon Weather: Not as Crazy as You Think.  Personally, cold weather does not work well for me and I prefer temperatures around 15C . Depending on the weather one will need to decide what combination of half-sleeve and/or full-sleeve shirt to wear. As of now the weather forecast for 21st April is  sunny with high of 11 C and low of 8 C which, though not too bad,  is on the colder side  for me. If this forecast stays then I will  need to run in full sleeves and also wear gloves. 

The race itself is likely to be quite fast paced as most of the 36000+ runners have come through the BQ route(others coming through charity or running clubs).  The corral cut-off times for this year's race depicted below  shows how the race has become progressively faster over the years( With my qualifying time I would have been in wave 2/corral 8 in 2013  instead of the wave 3/corral 2). I am pretty much in the middle of the pack with over 19000 runners ahead of me and some 17000 or so behind me.

The race route passing through 8 towns and cities(Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline, Boston) is not an easy one. The first 15 miles are mostly flat/rolling hills after a steep drop in the 1st mile. From mile 15 onwards one is going to be climbing and dropping for the next 9 miles. None of these hills ,up or down, seems to be a killer on its own. However, the cumulative effect can be quite devastating if one is not careful. I am for sure not a strong hill runner. The hill in Newton after mile 16 is considered by many to be the toughest one.Mile 19 has another tough hill and then the famous Heartbreak hill at mile 20. Miles 21,22 and 23 have several downhill stretches some of them quite steep that could batter the quads. Though I have been training for a  MP of 8:17/mile(for a sub 3:38 finish) I am unsure of my race strategy as of now. Given the tough last 10 miles I am looking at a conservative start to hit mile 15 in about 2:08 at an average pace of 8:30 per mile and then try and keep an average pace of 9 per mile for the remaining 11 miles to finish under 3:50. I am hoping this will be my worst case time and if the first half goes well and if I hit the half way point in around 1:48 and feel energetic then I will probably skip taking pictures(even with the Wellesley girls - something strongly recommended by a dear fellow BHUKMP runner ) and push for  a sub 3:45 finish. I am not going to finalise this till race day morning based on the weather and how I feel at the athletes village.

Finally, would  like to conclude this post with kudos to the runners who have done over 25 consecutive Boston marathons;  Every race, specially the large ones, have a number of runners on a streak - but 25+ consecutive Boston marathons needs really special mental and physical endurance!!

9th FM at Mumbai done and dusted...

After 8 consecutive years of timing improvement in the FM at SCMM the trend changed this year -not unexpectedly as I was not strong enough either physically or mentally being  under prepared due to  injuries in the last 7 weeks leading up to the race.I completed my 9th FM in Mumbai( and 40th FM+ finish overall)   in 3:46:23,  nine minutes slower then my PB in 2013. Though this was my 2nd best time at Mumbai and 4rth best overall ( being pretty much same as the time in AHM 2013) I felt a little disappointed in not being able to do a sub 3:40 and sad that the upward trend in timing improvement had ended.  With age catching up and so many variables in training for a race and on race day it had to happen sooner or later. I am hoping it is a blip this year and can reverse it again in 2015 - of course that will not be easy at all.

The race itself was well organised as usual with traffic control, clear Km markers, good spectator support and well stocked aid stations(though runners who finished after 5.5 hours had a different experience). Over the years the event has grown in stature and size. The numbers in the picture above show that it is by far the largest race in India. And an amazing growth in the number of FM registrations going up from 2500+ in 2013 to 3500+!! The growing running community in India looks forward to this race and it fills up quickly. The organizers have already announced the registration dates for the 2015 edition!!

As has been my practice I reached Mumbai on Friday 17th January night. However, unlike the past 10 years when I stayed with a relative in Govandi near Chembur station, this year I stayed with a nephew in his PG accommodation at Nariman point. After eating a Domino's pizza I went to bed around 1130PM on 17th and woke up around 7am on Saturday. I collected my bib(and that of my brother Chandru running is 1st HM in Mumbai) from WTC by 1130am. The expo was buzzing with the high energy of outstation runners(Mumbai based runners collect their bibs the previous weekend). I hung around for over an hour chatting with them before heading for lunch at Samrat near Churchgate station. The north Indian food was nice as ever though a bit heavy on the stomach. I relaxed in the room from about 4PM - laying out the gear for the morning , reading a bit and doing some light stretching. After a pasta dinner at Moshe's - about a km walk from where I was staying - I lay down to sleep by 10PM setting an alarm for 4am.

I had a decent sleep and woke up just before the alarm rang. After eating 2 large bananas and some pecans and almonds I left the room at 4:55am. The holding area in azad maidan was less then 2 Kms away. However, I did not get a taxi for several minutes. And when I did get one I realised that due to traffic barricades along the route of the race the taxi could not get close to Azad maidan. So I had to walk briskly (gobbling my 3rd banana on the way)  for about a Km reaching Azad maidan around 5:25am - 10-15 minutes later than I usually get there when taking the train from Chembur. By the time I checked in my bag, used the port-a-loo and headed towards the start point it was past 5:35. The area was crowded with runners and by the time I rushed through sections D,C and B the section A(for runners faster than 4 hrs) runner had started the race. So I started a minute late. That was not really an issue - I picked up pace soon and ran the first 4Kms in under 5 mins/Km pace going past several familiar runners(Pankaj, Shantanu, Vishy, Sridhar et al) . Focusing on my pacing strategy I completed  10K  in about 51 minutes. I ran the race pretty much alone not chit-chatting with fellow runners and not interacting with volunteers at all. The half way mark was reached in similar time as last year(see comparative splits below) - 1:48 at an average pace of about 5:08/Km. This was in spite of strong headwinds in the sealink stretch. I managed to sustain this pace till about Km 25 despite the growing discomfort in the left glutes, calf and sole. At this point the numbness in the front half of the left foot became quite severe and the foot started feel heavier and heavier. It became difficult to move the left foot quickly enough. My mind seemed to have also given up quite easily and I just could not dig deep and push myself. The pace dropped quite a bit. Having given up on sub 3:40 time I knew that even a  sub 3:45 was going to be challenging and reconciled myself to a sub 3:50.  In fact for the 1st time ever in Mumbai I walked for a minute or so around Km 36. However, soon after the Peddar road flyover  a  sudden spike in inner strength enabled me to push hard  through the last 4 Kms, weaving past slower runners/walkers  and finish comfortably in  sub 3:50 time . 

Mumbai Marathon 2014 - Marathon 5:40 Start
Bib Number	2905
Name	BHASKER SHARMA
Gender	MALE
Category	SENIOR VETERAN
Overall Rank	149 (80)
Category Rank	4 (17 - in veteran category)
Gender Rank	143 (77)
Split@10.5 Km	00:53:15
Split@15 Km	01:16:10  (01:15:32)
Split@20.1 Km	01:42:02 (20Km/1:41:48)
Split@21.1 Km	01:47:14
Split@27 Km	02:18:14  (2:16:03)
Split@29.2 Km	02:30:38 (29.5Km/2:28:37)
Split@30.3 Km	02:36:44
Split@31.5 Km	02:43:49
Net Time	03:46:23  (3:37:20)
Gross Time	03:47:20 (3:39:07)

After hanging around with my brother Chandru and other runners for some time inside Azad maidan  I slowly walked back to my nephew's place  Nariman Point. Though my run was below par  I indulged in  a post run beer+lunch with runner friends at Leopold before heading to the airport. 

The numbness in the left forefoot disappeared a few minutes after the race. The slight  soreness in the calf and shin lasted for a day. The glutes was strained for several days after the race. Hopefully with renewed strengthening exercises over the next couple of months the issue will be addressed soon - And the 3rd and biggest race of the season in 11 weeks from now at Boston will  be better compared to the previous two in Hyderabad and Mumbai.