Bengaluru Midnight run- 15th(16th)- Dec-2012

Event name: Bengaluru Midnight run

Event date: 16th-Dec-2012 (midnight)

Event venue: Bangalore

Run distance: 21 KM

Bib #: 718

Overall time taken: 163 minutes (Exact to be shared by event organizers)

Overall run Speed: 7.51 minutes per KM

Time of run: The run started at 12:00 AM

URL: http://www.midnightmarathon.in/

Running Experience:

This was quite a different run for me primarily because of it being in midnight and also i could not get a chance to practice enough for this one due to vacations (marriage function in family). I had earlier taken part in the midnight run but that was for a short distance of 7 Km i think and it was a different route then (3-4 years back). I happened to have the Office Annual party the very same day of this run so unfortunately i had to eat light and finish the dinner by around 8:30 PM. I reached the venue at around 10:45 PM in the evening and found a lot of hustle-bustle. I had heard that the venue expected the crowd of around 10000+ people, probably 6000+ runners that day running in various runs. The Half marathon and Full marathon was scheduled to start at 12:00 PM and while i stepped in, the runners were completing 10K runs. One of my close friends was running his first 10K and he finished with a great time of around 65 minutes. I met him briefly at the close of run and then had around 45 minutes to pass before my run began. It was not a difficult thing to as the whole place was glowing and there were participants from various sponsor companies and a lot of individual ones as well.

I reached near the start line 10 minutes before the start time. There were announcements being made from the stage but i couldnt hear an iota because of the poor sound systems. Apparently, all the speakers were kept near the stage making it difficult to hear. They do share the route information etc. at the start which i was keen to hear but thought to just go with the flow in absence of any good sound. The route consisted of 5 loops of 4.2 Km each so to ease out my goal setting, i divided the route logically into 10 segments and mentally checking the box each time i crossed a segment. Since i was low on practice, i didnt go with any time goals in mind. I just wanted to enjoy the route, the moon light with the sole goal of finishing the run. Though i divided the whole run into segments, it was quite difficult to control the mind to to go ahead of itself. It took a bit of effort to maintain the focus, which is important in a long run. I guess i struggled here because of lack of practice from last 2 weeks. Other thing that i found different in the midnight run was that there are less people cheering on the route obviously because its midnight but cheering does help add some steps to the pace as i have observed during the day runs. The close of every loop was the music band playing high energy music and it does have a positive impact when you hear "Gangnam Style" in full volume while running. There were some people playing the drums (local Indian) which added the local flavors.

There were some World athletes competing during the run from Kenya, Ethopia and other countries. They were escorted by a bike so that the whole route remained without any interruptions for them.

All in all it was a satisfying run as i completed around 2:43 AM and was having hunger pangs. Luckily could get something to eat at that hour from the one of the food stalls that was closing down.

Good fun, overall!

Detailed timing data (from the Timing chip results ):

ANUJ MAGAZINE
Bib Number:    708
Rank:    280
Gender:    Male
Gender Rank:    257
Split@1.9Km:    00:12:07
Split@4.2Km:    00:27:22
Split@6.1Km:    00:40:39
Split@8.4Km:    00:56:59
Split@10.9Km:    01:12:08
Split@12.6Km:    01:28:59
Split@14.9Km:    01:45:07
Split@16.8Km:    02:04:19
Split@18.7Km:    02:21:51
Net Time:    02:43:12
Gross Time:    02:43:21

Source: http://www.timingindia.com/results_page.php?category=113&keyword=6145

Bangalore Ultra run- 11th-Nov-2012

 Event name: Bangalore Ultra run

Event date: 11th-Nov-2012

Event venue: Bangalore

Run distance: 25 KM

Bib #: 2678

Overall time taken: 185 minutes (Exact to be shared by event organizers)

Overall run Speed: 7.23 minutes per KM

Time of run: The run started at 6:00 AM

URL: http://http://www.bangaloreultra.com/

Running Experience:

I got up at just before 4:00 AM to go at the venue for the run which was a good 30+ Km from where i stay. I was to report there by 5:00 AM and run was expected to start at 6:00 AM. I did wonder for a moment what will I do there so early but being an early morning person didn’t seem to be too bothered by that as I would anyway be in the company of the runners. I always find the pre-run environment quite inspiring. With all these thoughts I dropped in at the venue and was in for a treat for my eyes. It was still dark when I reached there but I found that felicitation for the runners who ran in 24 hour category was about to begin. Yes, it’s not a typo- I did mention 24-hour run. I had heard about it as a category but wished to see the people who actually do it. It was a treat for me to watch only a handful of people of the stage and one of which happened to be a lady. Took long time to believe that they actually had been running for 24 hours straight and some even completing 150 Km. This was an inspiration for me. As for my goals for this run, it was no different than the other runs i.e. to complete the run and not come last in doing so :-). But having got some shots of inspiration, a new goal starting conspiring in my mind and that was to better the time i did in the last Ultra 25 Km run and may be even try to do it in less than 3 hours.

I met a few colleagues of mine, one of which happened to be the VP and GM of my organization. He is a diabetic and runs regularly. He carries his own snack as usual stock at the aid station is usually have more sugary stuff. The run began and I took good strides forward. The first km was on the road and after that was a trail surrounded by the Japanese Bamboo forest. The trail was quite beautiful and surrounded by the trees so there was enough shade throughout the run. With the peripheral time goal in my mind, I began to push myself harder than what i usually do in the runs and i could see myself huffing at some instances. To me this was a bit if unusual experience as it try to keep things simple and not chase any time goals. This time i was clearly distracted.

However, i pushed on and completed my fastest 5Km in little above 29 minutes and then fastest 10Km in little over 60 min. I maintained the pace till about 16 Km and managing a bit of huffs but then a small incident happened between 16th and 17th Km that shook by body and muscles quite a bit. Being a trail, the ground was a bit uneven and i hit upon a stone half immersed in the ground. That strike made me go off-balance and i could feel the tension in my shin muscles and the back. The fellow runners who were at my pace advised me to walk a bit to recover, which I did. I walked for a minute or so and then started running. But the pain and heaviness in the muscles remained. But I chose to carry on. For my luck or may be lack of technique to run on this trail, I suffered couple of more such (but less impactful than the first) blows through which I could recover by slowing down my pace. I completed Half marathon in around 2 hours 25 minutes and after that slowed down considerably to complete the run. I think the Km from 22 to 24 were the slowest due to these minor incidents and eventually I completed the run in around 3 hours and 5 minutes or so.

I was happy to have completed and also learned some valuable lessons down the line. I had read about the distraction of Peripheral goals i.e. the goals that eventually get tagged along with your most important goals. e.g. when one starts running practice keeping in mind major goal of completing 42 Km irrespective of time taken. This goal remains active but the time goal (which was never in existence) gets tagged along just because fellow runners talk about it or some other reasons. The key learning was to always have a single focus on the major goal keeping the mind free from distractions.

One last thing, I had run in Bangalore Ultra for the first time in last year and with great effort completed the 25 km run. I was awarded a medal then, which i proudly displayed on my desk at office. The medal looked like sliver one (though it was made up of some plastic) and I was surprised to find one day it was no longer on my desk (i suspect somebody stole this thinking its silver :-( but I may be wrong). It was obviously not a good feeling and since that day I longed to complete this run again to regain that medal. And I did it this time. Only difference is that the medal won’t sit on my desk anymore. :-)

Timing data (shared by event organizers):
First split  (6.25 Km): 00:37:22
Second split (12.5 Km): 01:18:12
Third split (18.75 Km): 02:06:51
Fourth split (25 Km): 03:05:36

My Rank was 194/366 in 25 Km Category

Mysore Half marathon- 28th-Oct-2012

Event name: Mysore Marathon 2012

Event date: 28th-Oct-2012

Event venue: Mysore

Run distance: 21 KM

Bib #: 1113

Overall time taken: 140 minutes (Exact to be shared by event organizers)

Overall run Speed: 6.7 minutes per KM

Time of run: The run started at 6:45 AM

URL: http://www.lifeiscalling-sports.com/mysore/

Running experience:

One of the runs for which i had prepared really hard for last 2 months. Last year i did 25 km Bangalore Ultra run but i must admit i didn’t practice well for that run barring a few long walks and occasional run. For this time, i actually started to prepare following an overall marathon training schedule as prescribed in the book- The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer  . The practice of last 2 months helped a lot on this run in which i managed my best timings so far. If i remember, i completed 10 K mark in this run in 63 minutes and overall half marathon by 2 hour 20 minutes or so. Though i have never run with any time goal in mind but this run was quite satisfying. I often jokingly tell my friends- i run only for 2 goals- one is to complete the run and second is to not be last in doing so. So i achieved both this time :-)

Since this run was in Mysore, i along with my family reached Mysore a day earlier. My plan for to start back from Bangalore immediately after the run was over to i hired a driver, the move which will allow me to relax a bit. Spent the Saturday going around in Mysore vising places like Zoo, which my son liked a lot and the Palace in the evening which was looking as beautiful as any monument but it was overly crowded. So didn’t really get down. Other thing was that my run the next morning was expected to start at one of the gates of the Mysore palace called as "Balarama Gate" or "North Gate". Zoo visit was a good warm-up for me as it was a long walk of 3 Km or more. I was a bit cautious on what i was eating the day before and had some good intake of Gatorade and water.

The next day morning, i got up a bit early around 5:00 AM. Had Gatorade, freshened up and had half banana and set out towards the Palace. The atmosphere was electrifying as usual with loud music and lot of people around. There was a unique freshness in the air which one would find only with lot of energetic crowd around. I could spot Reeth Abraham , one of the premier former athletes from India. She was not surrounded by many people but i could not gather courage to go and speak with her at that time.

Eventually the run started. The route was tricky for me because i was running in Mysore for the first time. It involved going through a lot of turns around small roads. I realized that Mysore had lot of roads with elevations, something you don’t realize when you are driving on wheels. But while running you experience each and every slope. I did maintain a steady pace and starting setting small goals for myself. My basic approach, since this was a long run, was to make each and every kilometer important i.e. to say that i had goals to cover each Km and motivated myself to find something unique in each Km e.g. 7 Km mark is important because that will mark the 30% of run being over or if i was on a steep road on 9 km mark, i would say i got to focus on and complete this milestone because i will conquer the steep slope. While completing 15 Km, i said i need to reach 16 Km because then i could say only 5 km are remaining. I found this type of Self-talk helping a lot during the run and achieving each sub-goal gave confidence. I felt quite good on completing 10 Km at 63 minutes (which is my fastest 10K so far). One of the other things that i experienced was the beauty of Mysore. You got to be on the road to experience the same. The run went through the Mysore University campus, around the lake and lot of shade which made running a pleasure even though there were less than usual water stations. The last few Km were particularly tough not because i was tired but because the route was very steep at times, causing me to slow down. Eventually i beat all the demons and reached the finishing line with lot of satisfaction in the mind.

I could still spot Reeth Abraham post the run and now i gathered the courage to reach out to her and ask for a picture. I asked the person standing next to her to take a picture but he messed it up and did not take us at all. In my excitement to see her, i did not even check the picture. She did however ask, how was the run and how much time did i take to complete. Felt great, not only because i spoke to her but also that i gathered courage to approach her. One more interesting thing happened at the start of the run when one of the participants came over to me and said he recognizes me as he had heard me in many of the public talks that i have delivered. Felt good to get that mini-celebrity feeling (atleast for a moment :-))

On to the next run now!

Timing details shared by the Organizers:
Bib Number:    1113
Rank:    142/260
Gender:    Male
Gender Rank:    137
Category :    open
Category Rank:    122
Split@6Km:    00:39:45
Split@7.25Km:    00:46:38
Split@13.65Km:    01:27:33
Split@14.85Km:    01:34:21
Net Time:    02:22:50
Gross Time:    02:23:13icv

Certificate:

Image Source:

http://www.lifeiscalling-sports.com/mysore/

http://www.endomondo.com