IIMB Community 10Km Run- TvaRun- 17th-Feb-2013

Event name: IIMB Community Run- TvaRun
Event date: 17h-Feb-2013
Event venue: Bangalore
Run distance: 10 KM
Bib #: 145
Overall time taken: 65 minutes (Exact to be shared by event organizers)
Overall run Speed: 6.31 minutes per KM
Time of run: The run started at 7:00 AM
URL: http://www.facebook.com/pages/IIMB-Community-Run-TvaRun/508322475876259?ref=ts&fref=ts

Having participated in many running events throughout India in last 5-6 years, i can really say that one thing about the IIMB Community run that really stood out and that thing is the name of the event. It was called as "TvaRun" which in Hindi means "ACCELERATION". I found this a very beautiful word. The precision used to select the name of the event itself is an indicator of the care that was chosen to organize the entire event.

IIMB has a beautiful campus and i had recently enrolled for a Management program there, i hadnt so far gotten a chance to see the entire campus. Its lush green and inside of the campus looks quite unlike Bangalore of today (which is fast becoming a concrete city losing its greenery). With parking of vehicle being a challenge and me not showing due diligence to collect the Running bib the day earlier meant that i had to reach the venue early in the morning. With the run start time of 7:00 PM, i probably was the first one to reach there by around 5:30 AM. Being an early riser, i didnt complain reaching at the venue earlier but there was just one glitch that i was at a get together at the friends place till about 1:00 AM last night. I tried as much to escape the offer to Saturday night drinks but not all excuses work to escape drinks when you are with your close friends. So i had to hold the glass with Single Malt waiting and pretending to take a sip once in a while (i never drink on race eve). Though my attempt to pretend was caught couple of times but friends being friends understood my take (knowing that i am a serious runner for as long as they know).

I got the comfortable parking and then went around for the walk till the Bib collection and the other stalls were put up. Ii patiently observed things happening around me and finally got my Bib number. But run was still around an hour away so i just roamed around and soaked in the beauty of the incredible campus.

Eventually the much awaited starting announcement was made. I set my Endomondo running app, which is my constant companion for all the runs. The feature i like it is that it tells the Distance, pace after every Km so one can make changes to running and pace on the fly. The announcement could have been louder as folks close to start line could only comprehend what was being said but i knew it was usual route information. One of the things that i could hear and found strange at the first go was the action to collect Rubber bands at the end or every loop (there were 4 loops of 2.5 Km). While the purpose of collecting Rubber bands was understood (its a way to ensure that everyone went through all the loops) but given that audience was either IIM alumni or current students or faculty, i thought people could just be trusted to run fair. But i am sure organizers would have had a better perspective than i have to come up with this rule in first place. Thats what i thought and geared up for the start of the run.

Before this run, the last i ran was on 16th-Dec on Bengaluru Midnight marathon and that completed my own version of hat-trick of half marathons i.e. 3 half marathons in 3 straight months. After that i thought i deserved rest and did run actively for couple of months. So before the start of this run, the thoughts specific low on practice were running in my mind. I actually acknowledged this fact and committed to myself that i wont run for better timing but just for the love of running, which is what i have always done.

So at the swing of the flag, i along with other enthusiasts started off. The start was nice as the route had downward slope and it assisted in the pace and i completed first Km in around 5 min+. After that i continued to go steadily as my pace remained around 6 min 30 sec on an average. I didnt complain given the lack of practice. I was just happy running and with some great weather along. Towards the later half of the run, the sun did come out fully but with the brilliant shade of the trees surrounding the route, it could hardly have a greater impact on me. The aid stations were good and having very active volunteers who passed on water, other stuff quite proactively. Near to the main entrance part of the route were the cheering squad beating drums and cheering the runners. They worked tirelessly to encourage the runners. A big Thanks to them, probably they dont realize enough even a single act of cheer in long runs help recharge the runners and i felt great everytime i passed them. I tried to do my bit to Thank them verbally and clapping in coordination every time i passed them.

Towards the end of the run, especially the last 2 km, i put in more efforts to managed a decent time in the end. In the end, i sped past to the cheers of the people at the finish line. Very few things match the joy of crossing the finish line of a long distance run. I  have always run with 2 goals in my mind- i.e. to complete the run and secondly not being last in doing so :-) So i achieved both of them and completed the run in around 65 min.

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

Sunfeast World 10K Run- 23rd-May-2010

Event name: Sunfeast World 10k
Event date: 23rd-May-2010
Event venue: Bangalore
Run distance: 10 KM
Bib #: 4513
Overall time taken: 69 minutes (Exact to be shared by event organizers)
Overall run Speed: 6.9 minutes per KM
Route: http://images.photogallery.indiatimes.com/photo/5917754.cms?
http://sunfeastworld10k.indiatimes.com/race-day-information/Open-10-K-Category/articleshow/5670861.cms
Time of run: The run started at 8:10 AM
URL: http://www.sntrun.org/
Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/amagazine/Sunfeast10KRun2010#
Image source: http://images.photogallery.indiatimes.com/photo/5917754.cms?

Running experience:
Certainly the most special run for me as this was entirely dedicated to my new born son- Anusheel born exactly 5 days before this run.
The start of the run had a same story as with some of the previous runs i.e. i could not get much of the practice, infact no practice at all for last 2 months or so (except the occasional RFL runs). Something i need to seriously consider changing in the coming time.

From my experience in the past runs, i knew that the traffic situation is quite messy during the Sunfeast 10K run. So i parked my vehicle around 3 Km from the venue and boarded an Auto till the venue. Reaching the venue was quite challenging with loads of traffic diversion. Despite all this, i along with my cousin (Rahul) managed to reach on time for the run.

I heard the event organizers announce that for Open 10K run there were around 7000 participants. Thats a huge number for Kanteerava Stadium to hold but as it happened in last 2 years, this run was quite well managed too. Unlike last years, the timing chip was mandatory for all the participants.

The run started at an sluggish pace. With scores of people around, it was tough finding space to put one's feet on the group so the first kilometer went quite slow. After that it was fine. I purposefully ran slower than my usual pace. Since i was out of practice, i was trying to find out how my body was responding. This is one thing i learned in today's run- Learn to respect one's body in marathon. We cannot take for granted that the body will be able to carry the load always. This knowledge helped me immensely as i was not in best of shapes for the run. I knew when i had to slow down or catch pace.

The water stations were at regular Intervals and i deliberately took Electral and water at regular times. One of the new things that i saw introduced in this run was the Cool zones after about the half the distance. Cool zones were nothing but a covered place along the route with constant spray of cold water. I did not find it very effective, may be it did not work as expected.

Another new thing was the presence of Cheering stations along the route, it was not there in any of the last editions. It helped to hear the cheers like- "Go Bangalore Go", "Dont listen to your legs, only your mind", "Only 3 Kilometers to go..."
I was able to complete the run in around 70 minutes, may be less but i am happy that i was able to sustain myself throughout the run.

Feet on the street- 09th-May-2010

Event name: Feet on the Street
Event date: 09th-May-2010
Event venue: Bangalore, Cubbon Park
Run distance: 5 KM
Overall time taken: 34 minutes
Overall run Speed: 6.8 minutes per KM
BIB number: 533
Route: Marked route in Cubbon Park
Time of run: The run started at 7:10 AM
URL: http://www.feetonthestreet.in/
Pictures: None

Running experience:
I was on the running track after quite a lull. For some reason, hadnt been training for 2-3 weeks so getting to this run was mentally challenging for sure. But as usual, in the end i was glad i made it.
For a good change, this Feet on the Street run was run to support 3 charaties (details mentioned in the next section). The one that quite caught my attention was tGo Support, which was working towards a rather unconventional cause of providing the right means to prospective Olympians, which is an often neglected cause. I hope to associate with them in coming time.

With time to be given to 3 Charitable organizations to give their introductions, the run started around 7:10 AM. Being out of practice, i purposly decided not to push myself hard. So i went on to cover the entire distance at a steady pace. The only time i accelerated was the last leg of the race when i suddenly realized that amount of reserve energy that i have and went on in a full throttle.
Overall, a satisfying run and glad to complete it without much of after effects- read pains. :-)

Other Notes:
Below content taken from Feet on the Street May 2010 announcement email-
GoSports Foundation
Registered as a non-profit trust in September 2008, GoSports Foundation was conceptualized by an Olympian, and graduates of Harvard and Oxford who wanted to translate their passion for sport into a concrete idea that strengthens the future of Indian sport.
In India, junior talent in Olympic disciplines has very little recognition and funding support to motivate them to stay in their sport and proceed to senior and international levels. At GoSports Foundation we believe that champions are created when the right talent gets the right support at the right time. We have directed our efforts toward providing crucial financial support for high-potential athletes. We are committed toward building an India where the best sporting talent, regardless of economic background, physical ability, religion, caste or region is given fair opportunities to perform and incentives to excel.
We invite you to be a part of the GoSports Foundation Sporting Revolution.

India Literacy Project
India Literacy Project, ILP, is a volunteer based non-profit organization dedicated to the cause of literacy in India. By empowering every individual they serve with functional literacy and an understanding of their basic rights and responsibilities, they strive to be a catalyst for 100% literacy in India.

proVISION ASIA
proVISION ASIA was started in Bangalore with an objective to assist the differently abled and encourage them to live a life of self reliance. To enable them so that, they provide differently abled people from very weak economic background, free mobility aids like wheelchairs, crutches, calipers, walkers; provide physiotherapy and sponsor corrective surgeries; sponsor education to many of the special kids who are disabled or whose parents are disabled; provide job placement services and mobility aid camps in villages with an aim to reach out to the people who cannot afford to come to Bangalore.

Science and Technology Run- 11th-Apr-2010

Event name: Science and Technology Run
Event date: 11th-April-2010
Event venue: Bangalore, Indian Institute of Science
Run distance: 10 KM
Bib #: 2303
Overall time taken: 67 minutes
Overall run Speed: 6.7 minutes per KM
Route: Marked route in Indian Institute of Science
Time of run: The run started at 7:45 AM
URL: http://www.sntrun.org/
Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/amagazine/ScienceAndTechnologyRun11thApril2010#

IISc Image courtesy: http://z.hubpages.com/u/332603_f496.jpg

Running experience:
This run marked the 100th Anniversary celebrations of prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc) . Runners for Life had organized the usual Feet on the Street run on the same day. I usually don't miss Feet on the Street runs but when organizers could not oblige to my request of changing the date of Feet of the Street, i had to choose this run because of it being a 10K and chance to run on different terrain.

I reached for the run along with my cousin(Rahul) by around 6:45 AM on a rather hot Sunday morning. Having completed the registration formalities, we stood in anticipation for the run to start at prescribed time of 7:30 AM. But the organizers seemed to be a bit lax with some organizational arrangements still on the way and soon they started customary introduction of sponsors and some esteemed professors. All this (including all invited individuals on stage speaking a few "words") made the run schedule move up a bit and by around 7:40 AM or so, we were at the start line eagerly waiting for the run to start. Apart from inherent enthusiasm with every run, one more reason we wanted to the run to start early was because of heat. The sun was unforgiving. There was one elderly gentleman at the start line who intended to give directions on "Dos" and "Donts" regarding the run. His words reflected his simplicity as well as a bit of Ignorance. Inagine this- "This is the start of 10Km run in which both Ladies and Gentlemen will run together. Also remember that this is a run and not the walk and you are not supposed to walk." The audience certainly took these words in a lighter vein and had a good laugh. After a while, Finally the race was declared open to my relief.

I knew the sun would be a challenging factor in this run because of start timings but one of the comforting factors were the tall trees throughout the IISc. Though the usual Bangalore breeze was missing but the greenery certainly helped a lot. The terrain was quite challenging too. With the initial part of run starting on leveled road, the terrain soon took us to uneven areas within a sort of mini forest. For most part of the run, the terrain remained zig zag and full of uneven surface. The terrain reminded me of Kaveri Trail 10k run, which was one of the most challenging and physically demanding routes that i have been part of. I had passed through the institute from the outside road quite a times before but could never imagine it to be so huge as it was. The event was fairly reasonably organized with the help of many volunteers from the institute. I maintained a steady pace and did not really push hard during the most of the run. Just an energy saving tactic to deal with heat. Overall, it was as usual an incredible moment crossing the finish line.