5K Personal Best

It had been a long time since I ran a fast 5k. All my other personal bests -- for 10k, half-marathon, 8k -- were done in recent times i.e. 2009 (and in India). Only my 5k personal best was recorded way back in November of 2008 in lovely Oregon, with a time of 24 mins and 47 seconds.

So yesterday, I decided it was time to go all out and run a fast 5k.

Venue of run: Bagmane Tech Park.

All warmed up, I switched on my Garmin. It started looking for satellites, and I started getting impatient. Then suddenly it beeped: it had located the satellites but the batteries were low. Darn it! Rather than recharging it, I decided to start my run.

1 KM down I see that my pace was 5:10 -- more than 10 seconds slower than the target pace. I increase my pace. Then when I look down again, I see that the expensive gadget had decided to shut itself off. Darn it! Darn it! Darn it!

I was frustrated, but I still went on to complete my run. Nobody will never know, what my exact time was, but I decided to approximate it to 26 minutes (modest, humble me).

The scene moves on to today evening. I decide to pull the same stunt as yesterday. But this time around I remember to charge my Garmin. See ... I'm smart.

Venue of run: NGV (National Games Village).

NGV is a residential locality. So there were people all over the place and I had to dodge, sidestep and slow down to avoid the many walkers, strollers, cell-phone-babblers, aunties with sports shoes, cyclists, sleeping dogs, parked vehicles, moving vehicles etc. But on the plus side, you have many female beauties sauntering along -- keeps you motivated (a huffing, puffing, sweating runner does turn girls on, right? right?).

Interestingly and sadly, I didn't spot any other runner.

At the end of it, I managed a time of 24 mins and 39 seconds. It was a tough run for a shave of a measly 8 seconds. I'm happy, but I need to get better.

Auroville half marathon -- Number 4

I write this again half asleep. Yesterday I finished the Auroville half-marathon with a time of 2:07. I was aiming for a sub 2 hour timing and I would have gotten it, if I hadn't gotten lost in between and run another 1.7 KM extra. The time when I reached the 21.1 KM mark was 1:57:43, but I'm not considering the sub 2 hour goal complete till I have it on an official certificate -- of course I don't consider the midnight marathon certificate, listing my time as 1:06, official.

The race was overall well organized. The trail was scenic and well marked, except for the one place where I managed to go the opposite way. Aid stations were there at every 4 KM, with water, lemonade, biscuits, bananas etc. People running the full marathon started at 5 AM and were given torches. The half marathon started at 6 AM. The accommodation facilities provided by the organizers, for the out-station runners, at Auroville was rudimentary, but for Rs 200 it was fine. The pre-race pasta and the post-race breakfast was pretty good though.

The weird part is that I expected my race to go really bad, but it in fact it went really good. Here's a short course of events.

We reached Pondicherry by train at 10 AM on Saturday -- the race being the next day. One of the organizers came to pick us up, but he told us that the place we were supposed to stay won't be open till 4 PM and we therefore had to kill a lot of time. So we couldn't change, no shower, but ended up roaming around Pondicherry the entire afternoon. Even after reaching Auroville, and collecting the bibs, we were asked to stay for the pasta party (dinner at 6 PM) and then go to our accomodation.

It was 7:30 PM before we finally got a place to settle down -- note that I didn't say rest. We were put up in, what seemed to be one of their art galleries, called Kalakendra. The organizers had laid out portions of thin synthetic material on the floor, which was going to act as our mattress. There were three rest rooms and plenty of competition. Fortunately for me, as soon as we reached there was a power-cut and most guys decided to wait for the power, before the shower (ooh ... rhymes). I being impatient, went in the dark and got my deeds done (the power didn't come till morning). That night I didn't sleep well -- I had dreams that the race had started and I was still sleeping.

I woke up at 4 AM on race day. Everyone got ready by around 5 AM and were taken to the starting point by bus. On the way we could see the full marathon runners' torches bobbing along. There was a check-in counter at the starting point, where I deposited my wallet, cellphone and camera. I warmed up with a bit of walking and slow jogging. Finally it was go time.

I was exhausted and low on sleep, but once I started running all that went away.

Like the midnight marathon, I had planned for a negative split. I ran the first half of the race at a pace of 5:40/KM and the second half at 5:30/KM. Given that it wasn't too crowded I could easily stick to my plan and didn't spend too much time weaving around people.

Till the 12 KM mark everything was going according to plan. I was within my goal time and was feeling strong. I had passed many runners and I could just see one guy running in front of me. So I followed him. Then I crossed him. Then I reached a crossing where there were a couple of volunteers and they were looking at me quizzically: both me and the other runner had taken the wrong route. One volunteer decided to guide us to the correct turning. He got on his bike and lead. Frustrated I increased my pace and followed; hoping that I would still make the sub 2 hour cut. Finally, into the correct turn.

When I reached the 14 KM mark, my Garmin read 1hr 30 mins (15.8 KM on distance). There was still 7 KMs to the finish line. I had never done 7 KMs in half an hour. Although I was maintaining my 5:30 pace, I knew that I couldn't cross the finish line before 2 hours. Slowly and steadily I passed the remaining kilometers and many runners whom I had crossed once already. Finally when I saw the marker which read 21 KM, I sprinted. There were people cheering and I was running at full steam. I crossed the finish line. Just for that, the whole ordeal was worth it.

At the end it was again a personal best, a good race, and a good experience, but I was disappointed that I didn't get an official sub 2 hour time.

Number 3

I write this half asleep, cheerfully tired, bleary eyed and ready to take a shower at 4:56 AM in the morning. I just finished completing my third half marathon: The Bangalore midnight (half) marathon.

Less than a month ago, I was struggling to get back to running. Today, not only did I cover 21.1 KMs, but did it in my best time: 2h 9m 23s -- previous one being a 2h 10m the treadmill. That is from 12 AM - 2 AM. Of course, I wasn't the only crazy person doing it; in fact there were crazier: few people were running the full marathon (42.2 KM for the uninitiated).

Tomorrow Today is going to be a well earned Sunday.

Treadmill Half Marathon

I have only run a single race till date and that was a half marathon. This is of course excluding all the embarrassing races I had run in school. I still remember the 400 m race which I ran when I was in 12th. I came last and was almost lapped by the winner.

So where was I ... yes, only one race till date.

So, RFL organizes these fortnightly runs and I had never been to any of them. They had one today and I had decided to go. The only problem being it was starting at 6 AM. I set an alarm for 4 AM yesterday night and went to sleep at 9:30 PM (we runners need a good night's sleep .. eh?)

When the alarm started ringing I hit the snooze button. When it rang again, I hit it again. This kept on happening; I no longer needed to open my eyes to shut the alarm. My reflexes did not want me to wake up. My phone finally gave up after an hour or so and when I woke up it was 8:30 in the morning.

Dissappointed, I went through my usual routine. Went to the nearby Darshini; had an idly-vada and filter coffee. Read the newspaper. Went online. Checked mail. Checked orkut/facebook. Checked mail again. Looked at who all were on IM.

After four or five loops of the above I Started feeling guilty of not having gone for the run. I thought I could maybe run somewhere nearby: Agara Lake? Then I had an idea: Why not run a half marathon on the office treadmill? It was a challenge not just because of the distance, but because running on a treadmill for so long is DAMN boring. So that's what it was going to be.

I went to the office and long story short ran for 2 hours 10 minutes, covering a distance of 21.1 KM. My Garmin Forerunner acted as the stop watch and I had the Sansa Clip for musical harmony.

I shaved off 4 minutes from my previous half marathon time. I think I have also recovered well: I just have a blister on my right foot and no major knee pain. Tomorrow should give me a better idea.

Anyway ... YAY!

Half marathon

I ran my first half marathon last Sunday and it seems to be a bit late to be blogging about it, but I guess I can't let my laziness ruin an account of, what I consider, one of my formidable achievements.

I had decided to run a half marathon around three months back. I had just managed to get my BMI in the normal bracket and needed a new challenge or, I knew, I would go back to being a cubicle potato (Webster's, hear me). I decided to run the Mumbai half marathon. My brother had run the dream run (6 KM) last year -- with me smirking at him that 6 KM was not a "real" distance -- and my good friend Addy had run the half marathon. I being an ambitious person chose to run the half marathon. I was one of the earliest to register. Of course, most people around me thought that I was crazy. With reactions from laughter (yes Rakesh, I'm looking at you) to asking questions like "Why would someone pay to run?"

I got a training schedule from the Mumbai marathon website and followed it religiously. Each week I would do three short runs on the office gym treadmill, on weekdays, and one long run on Saturday. Given the condition of my shoes, my doctor had advised me not to run outdoors. So, I would drive all the way to office (10 KM), on a Saturday, go to the gym, get on the treadmill and do my long run. And when I say long run, think an hour or over that.

This went on for a little less than three months and few weeks back I ran 17 KM in Cubbon Park. I knew it then that I would be able to finish the half marathon.

But, being an International Businessman, I had to go to Oregon, for international business meetings. I thought why not run a half marathon there itself -- the earlier, the better, I thought. I picked the Gresham Jazz Half Marathon.

Now on to the race.

That Sunday morning, I drove 40 miles to the place. It was cold with temperatures around 8 C. Fortunately for me, it was neither windy nor were there any chances of rain. I was wearing my dri-fit shirt, underneath the race tshirt, underneath my light jacket. I had gloves and a skull cap. In retrospect, I was a bit too heavily attired. In my defense I didn't want to catch a cold.

The race started at 8:50 A.M. I had expected to run comfortably the first 10 KM or so, but all that was ruined. The first 3 KMs were steep hills. I had rarely done any training on inclines and got caught unawares. I jogged the first hill, but by the time I reached the second one, I realized that if I take these hills lightly I may not have enough energy left. So, like a lot of others around me, I started walking the inclines and jogging the plateaus. Fortunately, the rest of the race didn't have any such terrain.

I was comfortable till the 7th mile (around 12 KM). I had to push a bit after that. I would fool my mind into believing that I would take a break at the next mile, but not do it. I kept on going and my finish time was 2 hours and 14 minutes. Which was a bit of a letdown, because I wanted to finish near 2 hours and 10 minutes. Yeah, I was sufficiently arrogant to believe that I would finish my first half marathon, so I set a target time and not just "wanted to finish".

So, how did I feel at the end? I was just glad it was over. It's a gruelling experience; physically and psychologically. I gained a lot of respect for people who run the full marathon (which I plan to do in another year's time or so). I also gained a t-shirt and a shiny medal, which I have been showing off everywhere and won't hesitate to show off here as well. There you go: