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