PB 5K solo run..

Like in many things in life when one has a rhythm or flow going then one can usually take one's performance to the next level. This is what happened during one of my training runs last week. I started off to do my usual 9K to 10K run in the EGL route with a average target pace of between 5:15 and 5:30. I got off the block quite fast (which by the way is not recommended by the experts) and covered the 1st Km in about 4 and a half minutes. I felt very  good and realised that I might be able to sustain a sub 5 minutes per Km pace for a while. I managed to do  that and hit the 5Km mark in 23 minutes 39 seconds - almost a minute faster than my previous best at last year's Urban Stampede which was 24 minutes 34 seconds. This helped me erase the disappointment of a slower finish(25:33)  in this year's Urban Stampede. I eventually did 10K in 49 minutes 30 seconds and 11K in just under 55 minutes - a great tempo run!

Importance of average pace to achieve target time

As I have posted before I am  addicted to my Garmin Forerunner 305 since I started using it 2 years ago and feel quite irritated if  either it runs out of battery charge during a run or worse if I forget to wear it for a run. Of all the different display fields available on the device, right from the beginning, I have been relying on the average pace reading to try and adjust my pace(usually to speed up) to hit the target time. And now as I focus on improving my FM timing  I am completely hooked onto the average pace field on the device.  I have recently changed the display settings on my device to have just 3 fields on one page: Average Pace, Current Pace and distance so that the Average Pace appears in large font size. In my recent training runs I look at this field on the device every few seconds! I put together the following table to keep in perspective the average pace at which I need to run marathons to achieve my target of 3:45 finish to qualify for Boston over the next few years.

Target FM Time	Average Pace	Target time 1st Half	Target time 2nd Half
4:15	6:02	2:05	2:10
4:10	5:55	2:00	2:10
4:05	5:48	2:00	2:05
4:00	5:41	1:55	2:05
3:55	5:34	1:55	2:00
3:50	5:27	1:50	2:00
3:45	5:19	1:50	1:55

Topically for me Active.com recently published Your Guide to Perfect Pacing recently which has a number of articles by people like Jeff Galloway and Matt Fitzgerald on how to pace one's run to achieve specific time targets. One of them Why you should run negative splits says that one should run 20 to 50% slower than target pace initially. Though this is in line with what books on runnng and experts say, it is  challenging to achieve. Personally I am looking to do a second half that is not too much slower than the first half - just a difference of 5 to 10 minutes. This is not going to be easy . In my only sub 4 hr FM I did the 1st half in about 1:55 and the 2nd half in a little over 2 hours. However, I have started working towards this and the average pace in my daily training runs has gone up. I now classify my training runs by average pace as follows:

Run type	Average Pace(Mins/Km)
Tempo Run	5:05 to 5:15
Fast Run	5:15 to 5:30
Easy Run	5:30 to 5:45
Slow Run	5:45 to 6:15

The above is a shift by about 15 seconds per Km in each band from what I was doing last season. I am hoping to do below 4:05 in Mumbai in Janaury 2010. And between the Bangalore ultra and Mumbai marathon , that is in December 2009, I plan to do at least one progressive run of 30K. That is, the first 10K at easy pace, the second 10K at 10 seconds per Km faster than target pace , that is at 5:38 per Km pace and the last 10K at 5:48 per Km pace.

Indian Long distance running season 2009-10

At the onset of the new Indian running season in August 2009, the thought that came to my mind is how the landscape of distance running has changed(for the better of course) during the last few years. In 2002 when  I started training for my first Full marathon I searched hard to locate an event to participate in. The only one I could find was the Pune International Marathon held in December of every year. It is not that we are spoilt for choice in India today. We lag considerably compared to other countries around the globe in terms of quantity and quality of marathon events eg US has over 400 marathon races a year; even a tiny country like Taiwan with a population of just 23 million people has seven marathons per year.

Nevertheless, long distance runners today have a choice of number of events that they can participate in during the running season spanning between August 2009 and February 2010. The table below lists the events of the 2009-10 running season that I am aware of and have been held at least once before. This list covers events which have at least a 21K distance. All except the Idea Chennai International Half marathon, Airtel Delhi Half marathon and Hyderabad 10K and Half marathon have a full marathon event and of course at the Bangalore ultra marathon one can run longer distances than a marathon. This note is based on personal experience through participation in all except three of these events and feedback from experienced runners on the remaining events. This year I plan to run 50Km at the Bangalore ultra marathon, HM at the Bangalore midnight marathon and FMs at Standard Chartered Mumbai marathon and Auroville marathon.

Event	Website	Date
Hyderabad Full and Half Marathon	http://www.hyderabad10k.com	30th Aug 2009
Kaveri Trail Marathon	http://www.kaveritrailmarathon.com/	13th Sept 2009
Idea Chennai International Half marathon	http://www.givelife-chennaimarathon.com/	27th Sept 2009
Airtel Delhi Half Marathon	http://adhm.indiatimes.com/	1st Nov 2009
Bangalore Ultra Marathon	http://www.bangaloreultra.com/	15th Nov 2009
Hyderabad 10K and Half marathon	http://www.hyderabad10k.com/	22nd Nov 2009
Running and Living marathon	http://runningandliving.com/marathonandahalf.html	6th Dec 2009
Pune International Marathon	http://www.marathonpune.com/	6th Dec 2009
Bangalore Midnight Marathon	http://www.toimidnightmarathon.in/	12th Dec 2009
Standard Chartered Mumbai marathon	http://mumbaimarathon.indiatimes.com/	17th Jan 2010
Auroville marathon	http://www.42k195.com/marathon/auroville_marathon	14th February 2010

Hyderabad Full and Half Marathon :

The 2nd edition of this event held on 30th August 2009 surpassed the high expectations that the participants had based the extremely positive feedback of the 1st edition in August 2008. Once again it was a runner friendly, point to point to road race with well marked route and amply stocked aid stations. The route took runners through two wonderful campuses: ISB and University of Hyderabad. The runners were taken care of very well with a pre-race pasta dinner, dormitory accommodation at the games village in Gachibowli, bus transport to the starting point and a decent breakfast and medal for finishers. The bonanza was cash prizes for the top 10 amateur finishers. With the feedback from the two editions of the race this event is surely a road race that should be on the calendar of every serious long distance runner in the country.

Kaveri Trail Marathon:

KTM is organised jointly by Runners For Life and Bangalor Hash house Harriers and is the only run in India that is close to 100% trail route. The route is a very scenic 10.5 Km out and back path going all along the Cauvery canal a few Kms from the historic town of Srirangapatnam. Full marathon runners therefore need to do two loops. The uneven terrain compounded by warm weather results in this being a challenging race for even seasoned runners. Though a great race to run in preparation for the Bangalore ultra marathon , its certainly not one to aim for a personal best in! The 2009 edition of this run held on 13th September saw record number of over 700 participants go through the gruelling run.

Idea Chennai International Half Marathon:

This is a 7K and Half marathon event. Chennai has had marathons in Jan/Feb in the past and in 2008 the first edition of this Half marathon was in August. This year’s edition was postponed from August 30th to September 27th. The reports posted on Chennai Runners group about the 2008 edition of the event were not very positive. Even then it is the only organized road race in Chennai and Chennai based runners are expected to participate in large numbers with the hope that the organizers will take better care of the details this year to ensure an event that is friendlier to amateur runners.

Airtel Delhi Half Marathon:

This is a professionally organised road race touted as the world’s richest half marathon. The event is managed by Procam the entity that manages the Stanchart Mumbai marathon and Sunfeast 10K in Bangalore, The HM starts opposite Nehru Park and takes the runners through historic parts of New Delhi such as Janpath, India Gate, Rajghat etc. Feedback from runners who have participated in this event is that this is an enjoyable race though it could get quite warm and large parts of the route does not have shade. This year's event is on 1st November.

Bangalore Ultra Marathon:

The only ultra marathon in India providing an opportunity for runners to test their endurance by running distances beyond the full marathon(42.2K) distance. The 2007 and 2008 editions organised in the Hesarghatta area outside Bangalore, with a mostly trail and part road route, were extremely well received by the participants. In November 2008 runners ran multiple loops of 12.5Km each - running between 2 loops(25Km) and over 8 loops(100Km+). Over 150 runners ran 50Km in 2008. The run course is kept open for 12 hours and the aid stations are well stocked with peanut sandwiches being a big hot among the participants. Definitely a MUST DO event for serious long distance runners in India. In the 2009 edition of the race, scheduled for 15th November 2009,  runners can do a 12.5K distance – this is expected to result in over 500 participants. Have been privileged to have been part of the first two editions this is an event I hope to do every year.

Hyderabad 10K and Half Marathon:

Organised by the Hyderabad 10K Foundation in November this event is growing in popularity and size. With inputs from the growing breed of Hyderabad runners this event is expected to pay attention to details and be friendly for amateur runners. I did this in 2006 and found it quite enjoyable though there should be have been a few more water stations in the route.

Running and Living Marathon :

Organized by Running and Living – another popular and passionate organization promoting running in the country the February 2009 edition was the first one. The overall feedback was very positive as is expected of an event by runners for runners. This year’s event, consisting of a full marathon and a half marathon, is on 6th December. The FM runners will do 3 loops of 14K. Like the 1st edition this year also runners can expect great support from volunteers and well stocked aid stations. Any serious long distance runner living in the North should definitely check this out.

Pune International Marathon:

This is probably the oldest organised marathon event in India– the 1st edition was  in 1983. At least in the early years this race was primarily used as a national marathon championship to rank Indian professional  runners. Therefore the organization was not friendly towards amateur slower runners in terms of traffic control, aid station support etc. Runners were expected to reach the half way point in 1 hour 30 minutes and complete the race in 3 hours. Experience of runners who have participated in this event in the last 6 years suggests that this race is avoidable for amateur runners. I attempted this in December 2002 - my first full marathon event. I had to give up at 33rd Km due to lack of water stations and traffic control. I for one would not recommend this to any amateur runner.

Bangalore Midnight marathon:

This event has so far been held twice : the first one wasMay 2007 and again in Janaury 2009(postponed from December 2008 due to the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 2008). As the only non-morning race in India this event is unique. Since most of us run in the mornings during our training runs running at night specially starting at midnight is a tremendous challenge. Due to the event being held at night and being a route with multiple loops traffic control and aid station support has been reasonable compared to the other Full marathon road race held in Bangalore a couple of times. The 2nd edition of the event was a definite improvement from the first one. The most popular part of this event is the 7K IT-city run which usually has several thousand participants. The Half marathon also has a large number of participants. The 2007 edition of the event in which I ran the FM had less than 80 FM runners. The 3rd edition is scheduled for 12th December as per the website. However, this event has been prone to last minute date changes in the past.

Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon:

By far the biggest and best organised road marathon in India it has been growing in popularity since the 1st edition in 2004. The race date is now fixed for the 3rd Sunday of January every year. This road race that starts from VT station and goes along the Marine drive in South Mumbai also sees the city of Mumbai coming out in huge numbers to cheer and support the participants. In terms of spectator support this event is akin to the large marathons in Europe and USA. No wonder that this attracts runners from all over India with over 50 runners from Bangalore going over to do the FM last year  despite the challenge of a warmer and more humid weather. Another sign of this event’s popularity is that registration starts over 6 months in advance and gets sold out within a few weeks. This year the registrations opened in mid July and by August end both HM and FM registrations were closed Runners who are unable to register in time often get disappointed to be turned away. I have participated in every edition of this event and have seen it grow in size and quality. I hope to participate in this one for years to come.

Auroville Marathon:

This is definitely the most scenic marathon in the country organised very passionately by volunteers within Auroville. The 2nd edition held in February 2009 was mostly trail and consisted of 2 loops of 21.1Km. Both the editions of this race have received such an overwhelming positive feedback that many runners have added this to their annual race calendar and are already looking forward to the 2010 event on February 14th. The magnificent beauty of the course and the wonderful hospitality of the Aurovillans certainly makes this a must do event.

Momentum lost..and regained

The flu that hit me around the Urban Stampede event had a major impact on my running momentum. For the first time in a long time I did just one run (of 6.5Km) in a space of 8 days between 23rd and 30th August. I cannot recollect the last time this happened in the last 5 years. As with any addiction when one is forced to stay away from the object of addiction there are side-effects not often very pleasant. In my case it was general depression, lack of motivation and considerable reduction in irritation threshold making life miserable for those around me. Though I have gone through such patches before, albeit, shorter ones and have always come out and regained my running form fairly quickly nevertheless during this period I kept having self-doubt. The feeling of misery was compounded by the fact that I was forced to give the Hyderabad marathon a miss and had also decided not to run KTM on 13th September. Maybe I had got so used to focusing on the goal of completing a marathon every month that once the goal went away there was a feeling of emptiness and lack of focus to achieve anything in any sphere.

Here are a few articles that talk about running and addiction:

Over the edge exercise addiction

Exercise addiction - When more Is less

The Running Addiction - this article talks about the five criteria for addiction and a long distance runner will typcially meet all five!

Mercifully, this phase did not last too long.

I was able to run 3 days during the week of 31st August including a 16K at an average pace of 5:33/Km and the momentum was completely back the week of 7th September. I ran a total of 41Km including a 22Km solo run in 2 hours on 12th September. I was quite pleased with this run as I had to dodge puddles and muck as well as stray dogs on the route and was still able to maintain decent pace. Besides I was able to do this without drinking any water during the 22K run. Had I carried water I should have been able to run faster. With this my momentum in running is back and so is my focus on other things – I am hoping to continue doing 40K+ weeks till the ultra on 15th November with a couple of weeks of 50K+ in October.

Hyderabad Marathon 2009

The 2nd edition of Hyderabad Half and Full marathon held on 30th August 2009 seems to have lived upto the high expectations and was a smashing success. Of course, with passionate and experienced runners like Rajesh Vetcha spearheading the organization this was not surprising. It looks like this event will now be the one to mark the beginning of the distance running season in India. Unfortunately, I missed it this year due to bein down with flu the week prior to the event. However, I definitely hope to run it next year. Runners from Bangalore did very well in the race with AKS finishing first among amateurs with timing of 3:32 and Deepak Mhasvade following suit with his personal best of 3:43. Manoj Bhat also did his personal best in 3:51 narrowly missing the 3rd position. Click here for the full results of the event.

Unfortunately, I missed the event this year due to being down with flu the week prior to the event. However, I definitely plan to run it next year and am hoping to do my first sub-4 finish in India in that event.

Following are email comments from a couple fo participants in this year's race:

Mail from ANS – a Bangalore based runner who came 1st in the full marathon among amateur runners:

Thanks everyone for a wonderful weekend.It doesn't get better than this..To the organisers for staging an event that was remarkable in many ways:

- great course with never a dull moment

- rollicking initial stretch in cool weather, barren stretches under harsh sun, some cool campuses, a university maze that didn't seem to have an exit and a grand finish in an international stadium. - course well marked with freshly painted arrows almost every 10m (curious to know how this was done. It would have taken an awful lot of effort to manually paint more than 4000 arrows for the FM course)

- well stacked aid stations every 2km with km marker and additional km markers where it is most needed - towards the end.

- greeting finishers with medal and certificate immediately on finishing.- to Ganesh in particular for the great hospitality and making outstation runners like us feel 'elite'.

- finally for recognizing the growing category of fun runners and surprising us with prizes

Mail from Rishikesh – a Bangalore based runner who co-ordinated accommodation at Hyderabad for a number of Bangalore runners

We will like to thank you for hosting us with so much of personal touch. We had an absolutely rocking weekend in Hyderabad. That was possible due to the fact that we didn't have to bother about our stay and most of the commute. The dorm was very comfortable and we were at home.The bus which took us to KBR park for the start gave us the feel of international atheletes. The route was beautiful and the aid station and volunteers were great. The finish line was well managed where every finisher was made to feel like a winner with a 100 mt dash on the Olympic style track amongst cheer from the crowd and medal with Camera and Video time for each.

First ever DNS...

I had the dubious distinction of a firstever DNS – 'Did Not Showup' of my running career this weekend. I had registered for the Hyderabad marathon on 30th August hoping to finish my FM streak with a 13th consecutive one in the city where I started it over a year ago. Unfortunately the flu that struck me the day before the Urban stampede 2009 on 21st August 2009 turned out to be quite severe. I do not quite remember the last time I was down with high fever like this. With temperature staying more than 102F for over 3 days and severe cold I had one of my worst weeks runningwise since mid 2003. While I was still wanting to go for the run in Hyderabad the family and several friends advised against it. On Thursday 24rth August after I had recovered form the fever I did a 6.5K run to test my stamina. It was a struggle and took me over 40 minutes and left me quite exhausted at the end of the run. That is when I made the hard decision to bail out of Hyderabad . It was not an easy call to make. There are not too many well organised road races in this part of the world. So one hand I thought it might still be worth going for the race to enjoy the atmosphere and comraderie of fellow runners and trying to do a slow finish. However, on the other hand I felt apprehensive about doing my slowest marathon finish in the very city where I did my best ever finish in India last year. I felt quite miserable throughout the day and for the next couple of days. I was missing a good marathon event and on top of that had a complete washout of a week with just one poor run in the last 8 days! Just goes to show what an equalizer life is and the role that luck plays in it. I was extremely extremely lucky to have managed 12 months of injury and illness free running and now perhaps this is a divine message that I should slow down for a while. I was anyway planning to take it easy for a couple of months from marathon running after Hyderabad . I have also decided to take a couple of months off from the strength conditioning training at Manipal Hospital. While my next 35K+ run will probably be in the second half of October in preparation for the ultra on 15th November I do hope to get back to running 3-4 days of running starting tomorrow.

Urban Stampede 2009

The 2nd edition of Urban Stampede organised by Runners For Life at Olde Bangalore resort on 22nd August 2009 was a huge success! With 139 teams from 56 companies and 10 non-corporate teams this was by far the largest ever RFL event. Three teams from Mformation participated in the event - 2 in the mens/open categaory and 1 all women team. I was part of Mformation team B. Though I was feeling perfectly fine when I left work on Friday 21st August evening I got hit with severe cold and sore throat later that evening. I did not sleep well at all that night. I left home around 520am and after picking up a couple of colleagues reached Olde Bangalore resort just before 630am. The place was buzzing with activity with runners everywhere. With overnight rains the weather was very pleasant. I volunteered to run 4rth in my team instead of 2nd. My goal this year was to better my last year's timing of 24:34 and if possible try and run below 24 minutes. However, with the cold and body ache picking up even before my turn to run came I knew this was going to be very tough. The run started punctually at 7am with the first set of runners taking off to huge cheering from their fellow runners. I walked around for some time chatting with lots of runners including a few that I did not recognize by name. Waiting for your turn to come in a relay specially when you ar enot feeling well can be quite challenging. By the time I started my run just before 8:40am the first three teams in the open category had completed the race. These were two teams from Toyota Motors and a team from Hindustan Unilever. Deepak Mhasvade ,a great RFL runner,finished his 5K in 22:09 to lead HUL to 3rd place.

I took off very fast and covered the first half Km quickly but had to slow down considerably soon thereafter. Even then I managed to get to the turn around point just after 12 minutes. However, I started to tire quite quickly and managed only a 25:33 finish - almost a minute slower than last year. I was quite disappointed with my timing - it was also one of those few runs that I did not enjoy too much. Considering that I am in much better running form now compared to last year and also managed a sub-49 minutes in Sunfeast 10K I can only blame the flu for the sub par run! Also, I guess I am more cut out for long distance running wherein I am able to sustain a certain average pace for a longer period of time rather than a fast pace for a short period of time. Overall most of the Mformation runners did well specially a few of them who were doing their first ever 5K. The Mfomation women's team finished second. The overall rank and timings of the 3 mformation teams:

• Mformation Team B: Ashish- 26:18; Ravi- 37:14;Sridhar- 36:39;Bhasker-25:33; 2:05:44 finishing 60th in the open category


• Mformation Team A: Sharan-41:44;Sanjay- 38:53;Dwarka- 33:43;Gaurav- 33:43; 2:28:40 finishing 81st in the open category


• Mformation Team C: Kalai- 36:32;Navya - 35:52;Ranu-45:22; Shilpa-41:14 2:39 finishing 2nd in the women's category

Click here for complete results and here for the pictures of the event.

A High 'Runners High' at Southbury, Connecticut

I made the choice to move back from the US to Bangalore over 15 years ago.And from a professional and family perspective I have never regreted the decision. One of the few times that I feel that perhaps I should have lived in the US is when I race in an event here or do an outdoor long run in this country. Today was one such day. I am visiting my Edison office in NJ for a few days. And during the trip I spent this weekend(8th/9th August) at my sister's place in Southbury Connecticut. I had intended to do a 20K training run this morning . I ended up doing 26.5Km in 2hours 35 minutes running solo and I enjoyed the run thoroughly. I started off from my sister's place just before 7am. Though there was hardly any shoulder space in the road that I took there was virtually zero traffic. At about 19 degrees Celsius and partly cloudy the weather was very much like Bangalore weather. I ran about 5Km to reach the Kettletown State Park - did not encounter a single car or human being on the way. On the way I was jolted by a loudly barking dog in front of one of the houses. However, there seemed to be an electronic fence and the dog did not venture onto the road. I ran multiple criss-crossed loops totalling 16Km in about 90 minutes inside the park. There was hardly anyone in the park even at 8am. I thoroughly enjoyed the greenery and the pollution free environment. The air was so fresh and energising - it was extremely enjoyable. I probably hit a High 'Runners High'. I heard lots of chirpy birds and observed a number of large squirrels going across the orad and up and down trees. The route itself was quite tough with several steep gradients. However, I was able to manage a decent pace throughout. On the way back I saw quite a few cars. I was running on a single lane highway - the car drivers kept a good distance from me and did not honk even once. I wish runners in India could get treated with similar respect - it often does not happen even in a road race leave alone during a training run. As I was not carrying any water with me I got quite tired and slowed down in the last 2Kms. However, had I carried water I could have gone on for a few more Kms. Overall I enjoyed the run tremendously - did not feel bored at all running alone.. The fact that it is much easier to do long training runs in this country and that there is encouragement and coaching at school level is probably why there are so many naturally faster runners in this country!

What Next?

After completing 12 marathons in 12 months I have registered to run the 13th one. This is the Hyderabad marathon on 30th August where I started the series in August 2008. It was a wonderfully organised road race last year and this year's edition is expected to be even better. After this I plan to take a couple of months off from marathon running till the Bangalore ultra in November 2009. My focus is then going to shift from quantity of marathons to quality that is do fewer marathons and look at steadily improving my timings. I intend to run maximum of 4 FMs per year and focus on being able to do sub 4 FMs consistently – I have done only one so far and never in India. I see this as a much bigger challenge than running 12 FMs than 12 months – it is far easier to do more number of slower long runs than to do faster and faster runs. Running faster also increases the chances of injury, especially at my age. My goal is to do a sub 4:10 in Mumbai 2010 , sub 4 in Hyderabad 2010 and Mumbai 2011. And then shave 5 minutes each year in 2012 an 2013 to get to 3:45 for Boston qualification!!

Looking back at 12 in 12..

A week after completing the 12th marathon on 12 months I thought it was time to look back at the past year and then look at ‘What Next’ in a subsequent post.

Inspiration :
The inspiration for doing 12 marathon in 12 months came while reading Bob Fletcher’s book in April 2008. Here’s the mail that I sent to a few of my fellow runners on 2nd May 2008 and some responses from them.

Have been wanting to mail this to the group ever since I finishedreading the book "Spaghetti Every Friday: The Story of Running 50Marathons in 50 Weeks, by Bob Fletcher. 2002, 2nd Ed., " a few weeksago. checkout the review at :http://www.michiganrunner.net/other/spaghetti1102.htmlThe book does not have too many tips on running but is a greatdiary/log of guy who went from no excecise to doing this within 3years. This was in 1981-82 when he ahd to write to the race organisersby post , get the entry forms and send them across!! And he did not runto finish - his goal was to finish first in his age group in all theraces- he did that in most of them with finish times between 2:45 and3:15. He was extremely disappointed when he finished around 3:25 in acouple of races!!This book is inspiring me to plan my running as I approach the age ofbig Five O myself ! While there is no way I can do something as crazyas 50 marathons in 50 weeks (even if there were events available inIndia to run in0 I am looking at doing(and in my case finishing under5 hours in all of them would be great) 12 marathons in 12 monthsbetween August 2008 and July 2009 which is probably crazy enough!!. Inthe months that there is no event I was thinking of doing a trainingrun of 42K. Still in thinking/planning stage - have not shared thiswith the wife yet :) but following are the events I am looking at so far:

Aug 2008 Hyderabad trail marathon

Sept 2008 Bangalore intl marathon?

October 2008 KTM

Nov 2008 Ultra

Jan 2009 Mumbai

Feb 2009 Pondy

July 2009 Tibet or thane varsha marathon

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Regards

Bhasker

Response from Rajesh Vetcha:
Dear Bhaskar,

No wonder it is inspiring.
As for your 12 marathons,12 months, it is doable for you considering your endurance level, planning and commitment.

My only issue is that you should take your wife's consent to begin with. If that comes through, we will all support you.

Response from Partha Roy:
BhaskerI am on it with you. I also need to get off my behind and do something. It's bit easier and if we have a long term goal like this. I totally concur with Rajesh, that get your wife's consent and make sure kids know this. There could not be better way to discuss this but over a slow long run. Cheers

Partha
Of course it would have been impossible to achieve this goal without the understanding and support of my wife and children. While the initial reaction was that it would be too much effort and that I was carrying the running stuff a bit too far they were accommodative and flexible to enable me to make the time for the long runs and the marathons. Being an ardent supporter of Dream A Dream I also decided to do extended fund raising for the organization. It was Vishal Talreja - the co-founder of Dream A Dream who suggested that I track my runs and the associated fund raising progress via a Blog – I took the idea one step further and decided to start writing a running related blog.

In the beginning of May I went to the Manipal hospital Department of Sports and exercise medicine for consultation and discussed my goal of 12 in 12 with Doc Rajat Chauhan with some apprehension. Doc very positively reassured me that I would be able to accomplish this. He also suggested that I do some strength conditioning. I am very happy that I followed his suggestion. The strength training has played a very significant role in enabling me to achieve my goal and stay injury free during this period. Click here to know more about my take on strength conditioning.

Summary of the 12 runs:
Six of the twelve runs were official events with five of them in India(of which one was the Bangalore ultra marathon) and the sixth in Washington DC. The other six runs were done as part of RFL organised runs. Click here to see a summary of all the twelve runs – in fact all the runs I have done to date in nearly seven years of long distance running. I was able to finish 3 of them below 4:15 including a PB of 3:56:49, had 3 finishes between 4:15 and 4:30 and kept all of the full marathons below 4:45. In doing so I certainly surpassed my own expectations. Of these runs I found the RFL Hennur run the toughest due to the uneven terrain and the warm weather. The RFL Kanakpura road course was the most challenging one I ran on ,I struggled the most at KTM and I had the most fun at Auorville. Though I spent a few nervous Saturdays on the eve of many runs , I stayed highly motivated during the run itself. Not once did I think of giving up without finishing.

Overall I lost 2Kgs during the 12 months going from 65Kgs to 63 Kgs. In the period between August 2008 and July 2009 I clocked a little over 1900 Kms at an average of 160 Kms per month consuming two pairs of Addidas Supernova cushion shoes. My training pattern between two marathons was typically FM, 12K , 25K, 15K , FM or FM,12K, 20K, 30K,15K, FM depending on whether the interval between two FMs was 4 or 5 weeks. I raised nearly 2.5 Lakhs for Dream A Dream with spurt in contributions around the Mumbai marathon and the Sunfeast World 10K.

Note of thanks:

Here's the note I sent out to a few fellow runners on 27th July morning the day after completing the 12th marathon.

Hi All

Please accept my heartfelt acknowledgement and appreciation of the moral and physical support provided by you all that helped me achieve the goal of running 12 marathons in 12 months. The T-shirt and the plaque at the end of yesterday's run are mementos that I shall cherish for a long time! These were unexpected and left me quite overwhelmed and speechless! Thanx very much for this wonderful gesture. 6 of my 12 runs were done in RFL organised runs. Manoj and Deepak did the FM with me at Kanakpura road in Sept 2008, Deepak and I ran the Bellandur in Dec 2008. Dharam, Manoj and Uday ensured that I was almost never running alone during the Hennur road run in April 2009. And then Rishi and gang helped make the last 3 runs (EGL May 2009, Bellandur June 2009 and Olde Bangalore July 2009) a breeze! And numerous other runners cheered me on in all of these runs. Last but not least kudos to Nikhil and A2 and the RFL support staff - who kept the course and water stations open till well past 10am in these RFL runs.

Thanx once again.

Bhasker

Meanwhile life has moved on:

During the 12 months one has survived the downturn caused by the drastic change in the world economy. We moved home from CV Raman Nagar to Domlur Layout and my duaghter has joined St Josephs College of Commerce and started her CA course.

12th in 12 months...a great morning!

After a nervous weekend spent hoping that everything goes off well I am pleased that the day(26th July 2009) went off fantastically well. With the help of a very large number of fellow RFL runners running along side and cheering me on and also aided by the wonderful running route at Olde Bangalore and great Bangalore weather I managed a very comfortable 4:29 finish in my 12th Full marathon in 12 months. Thereby I accomplished the goal I had set myself about 16 months ago April 2008. The high point of the day was unarguably the enthusiasm and support of fellow runners specially from the Red Dragon Gang and BHUKMP runners. The two cool and unexpected gifts: a T-shirt and a wooden plaque listing the twelve marathons (see pictures below) left me quite overwhelmed and speechless. I shall truly cherish these mementos for years to come !.

I started from Domlur layout at 430am and after picking up Rishikesh and Amrita at Brigade towers and connecting with Vasu, Nari , Chandra, Prasad and Ram at GKVK we reached the resort just before 530am. We started running at 535 am just as dawn was breaking out. We ran out from Olde Bangalore resort on the route of the Urban Stampede , went past Prakruthi resorts and at the T-junction took a right and ran up to the point of 7.5Km from Olde Bangalore. It was a fantastic route – pollution free, traffic free with chirping birds and greenery all around. We did not see even a dog for a long time. The route so good that had we carried water with us we would definitely have continued on for a few more Kms. However, without water we did not want to take any chances of risking cramps later in the run. On our way back to the resort as we hit the water point at the 2.5Km point we were joined by a number of other runners: Pankaj, Praveen, Meher, Shantanu, Partha etc. So a much bigger gang set off on the second loop from the water point in which we took a different road. This area turned out to be a great area for running and cycling with numerous peaceful roads crisscrossing around. By the time we returned to Olde Bangalore we had done about 22.7Kms in 2 hrs 20 minutes.

Rishi and I then decided to do two loops of 10K and 9.5K respectively to compelte the FM. I was accompanies by Nitin Gupta for these loops. Though the pace slowed down a bit as the weather warmed up I was feeling very comfortable and able to keep the target of a 4:30 finish well in sight. With Nitin and Manoj pacing me I managed to complete just under that time to cheers from A2, Nikhil, Praveen, Pankaj and others at the finish point. Felt really wonderful at the end to have accomplished my goal . Rishi, Prasad and Amrita also crossed the finished line a few minutes after me. After celebrating with the T-shirt, Plaque and a birthday cake for Pankaj Rai and a hearty breakfast we started the return drive around 11:15am with myself pretty much on cloud 9!.