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