Bangalore Ajmera Thump Marathon - My Half Marathon Misery !!

8th December 2013

With same group of running buddies we had run for Mysore Celebration Run, Amit, Samatha & Anup were looking forward for a good run in Bangalore. Amit & Samatha, the running couple were running 10k marathon, Anup & I where chasing our half Marathon run, we had new member this time, Ananth, brother of Amit running his 5k. Route for the run was NICE corridor, stretch of 10&1/2 km to and fro. 

We arrived at the venue just before the start of the run, got ready for the run with little bit of stretches. I was little bit of sceptic this time seeing the route, this stretch was concrete road and I was wearing soft training shoe from Puma, I was afraid of spraining either my knee or ankle. Started off good, I was keeping my pace with Anup, first half of the run was slow and steady, I believe we took around 1hr 4 mins at 10kms mark. It was all started at the second half, I was feeling bit of pain in my right foot, just below the foot, asked Anup to continue with his pace and I will follow up. Started with walk and run strategy, few times I kept pace with fellow runners. It was really getting hard on my foot, decided to have a long walk and see if I can further able to continue with run. This proved to be effective, after a long walk of about 100 meters or so, I started to run, marking a distance from sight and run to the point, walk a bit and continue again. Soon, I could see the finish line, gathered all my energy to finish last marathon of this year with push-ups that I been doing in all marathon this year, went with the push-ups with cheers of the crowd. I finished with timing of 2 hr 27 mins in my watch. Not bad with the pain, but not so good. Every time I feel, a little extra could have improved my timings. Anup finished good; Amit & Samatha did pretty well with their second 10k together. Amit got his personal best. Soon he will be running his next 10k in Midnight Marathon. Samatha din her best for second 10k, While Anup did a good sub 2hr 30mins for his second half marathon.

This marathon took a toll on my foot, I was limping after the marathon, it continued for next two days. I was initially worried of having a fracture in my foot but soon realised this was because of the shoe I wore & surface I ran. Shoe didn't provide the arch support, so my foot was stretched too much. With some googling and info from Runner's World, I could relate the pain I was facing. I did icing and foot massage twice a day for couple of days, pain reduced considerably. No pain after three days, but keeping a watch on my foot for some more time, hoping no serious injury. I will be resuming my run with Infosys 5k run on 19th December, hope to come back strong with no pain. 

Soon will upload my race results and pics.

Keep running !! 

Infosys Run - November !!

21th November 2013

These days I am mostly off-blogging, this is just framed by me, this is blogging inside your mind and not putting it actually on to site. Work has taken away bit of toll, not being able to put down some of my experiences in the recent past. Few things still to come over are my cycling series posts and few runs. This November I ran Infosys 10k called Infosys November Run, previously held in September by the slightly different name Infosys September Run. This time I got it all wrong, missed to notice the event date after registering for the run, I assumed it to be on 28th November while the actual event date was 21st November, that's my bad. With few weekend runs I was bit confident on finishing it good. 

This time crowd was fantastic, more in numbers then last year's September run. I started not so good, with little bit of heavy stomach and dizzy feeling, but soon after crossing half mark, I was confident and ran comfortably for the rest of the run. I finished in 59 mins, finish was good. Next on my list was Bangalore Marathon by Ajmera Thump.

Till then keep running, care for environment around you.

Cheers.

Mysore Marathon 2013 - Good event and run !!

Running Kaveri Trail Marathon wasn't in my cart until the last moment. Earlier I had decided to run Mysore Marathon and registered for the event. Not having ample practice during the week and missing some weekend runs, I planned to take these marathons as my substitute to long runs. Although ideally not recommended, but having not able to make out time for the run, this was my last resort. I was running KTM on 15th September and Mysore run was on 29th September and Wipro run on 22nd. My run at KTM was good except the last few kms where I struggled with cramp and could not push my self. I finished it in 2hr 34mins, although not a good timing but finished on high spirits. I couldn't register for Spirit of Wipro run, which I had planned to run 10k, but ended up cheering up my friends few of whom where running 10k.

Think I already mentioned about my few friends who are now taking up running. I could influence them to register for Mysore Marathon, few actually did. Anup, Amit and Samatha, had registered for the event in 21k, 10k and 5k respectively. So these days I am having good company of my friends at Marathon. That's something to cheer about. So on 28th we planned to go by car. We reached Mysore on 28th September evening, after witnessing the wonderful palace in lights we collected bibs at the event store. We booked a hotel near to the start of the race and called off the day after light dinner.

Up and ready by 5.30 am, we started up to the race start venue. On the way, I was suggesting Amit, Samatha to run at the pace they are comfortable with and importantly enjoy the race as it comes.I was really pumped up to have my buddies along with me on the run, its just those moments when you run together or cross your friend on the other side of the run, to cheer and a high five, pumps up energy. And to see someone at the finish line whom you know adds on more to it. 

Into the race, first half of the run was really wonderful, climate was perfect, I was easily pacing with Anup. Route was perfect with both road and off road running, few kilometre run was beside the lake which added to its beauty. At 16kms mark, Sun started show up. My weak point of not having enough run under the sun was clearly seen, I was getting tired now and getting exhausted after 200-300 meters of run. I started pushing myself to finish off in sub 2hr 10mins or may be plus 5 mins more. But what kept me away from reaching that goal, my practice runs, it was clearly visible to me now, last couple of run I was not finishing well. Last 3-4 kms were taking toll on me and I wasn't finishing the race strongly. Something I need to note for my next race. I finished race around 2hr 23 mins as my watch showed at the finish. To repeat my finishing stunt, I did 5 pushups at the finish line and could locate Amit standing at the finish line cheering for my finish. Soon I was joined by Samatha, who had run 10k instead of registered 5k with Amit. I said wow, that was good to start off.

After finish

Credits - Flashbuzz

Credits - Flashbuzz

Credits - Don't know !

My race results ..

Result

Happy Running.
Cheers..

I run, I cheer for run !

I missed registration for Spirit of Wipro run, although had chance to run without running bib, but decided to cheer the runners this time. Few of my friends had registered for the run, some never run before. It was good to see them running and I felt they needed push around the finish line. I was bit late for the start, run for 10K had already started. I met Samatha at the start line, we strolled for sometime taking pictures. Atmosphere at the event was great, lots of people and noise, which ideally created a very good feel for the run. After first three finishes for the 10K run, I walked to 100mtr mark to the finish line, began cheering the runners who were about to finish. I could see people who were walking began their last 100mtr run to the finish line. After some time, I saw Anup and Irfan running, I began the cheering for them and took few pics. They were all pumped up to finish, soon they were followed by Shetty, Shivram, then Amit and Jambya. It was great fun to see them all finishing. Also I did pacing for my friend Romel on my floaters for 50m to the finish line.

I was still cheering for others, someone patted me on my back, said thanks for the cheer. I felt the purpose is now met. We gathered after the run for the snacks and then waited for the Raghu Dixit Project to perform. Next stop was Raghu Dixit stage performance, I was all pumped up and started enjoying the good music, jumping and singing along. What a show it was, thoroughly enjoyed the music.

Will always look for cheering when I am not running. People do it, feels good. !!

Happy Running. Cheers.

Kaveri Trail Marathon 2013 - Doesn't meet the hype !!!

First thing, I was just able to register for this event through my friend and got the confirmation week before the marathon day and could hardly manage to run couple of practice runs. With almost no practice, I was facing the half marathon running challenge. Only confidence I could put together was from the Hyderabad Marathon, which I had run on 25th August finishing it with descent time.

My friends Anup and Shireesh had registered for 10k run which was on 14th August and Half Marathon which I was running was on next day. So we couldn't plan out well about our stay and also some visiting the places around.

I left to Shrirangapatna on 14th by train, which landed me to my destination by 1.30 pm. Out in Shrirangapatna station, I was feeling it was kind of set for 'Chennai Express' movie, I could just feel that's not the real train station, it was pleasant and kind of picture perfect for the shoot. I took a rick and went to bib collection venue which was a resort on the Mysore-Bangaluru highway called Young Islands. I collected the bib and now what ? I called couple of my friends in Mysore then spoke to Anup about their run, by now they were on their way back to Bangaluru. I thought staying in Mysore would take a toll to commute early in the morning for the run, I decided to stay around race start which was Ranganatittu Bird Sanctuary. I got a decent room in a resort and settled there for the rest of the day.

I woke up with the race day bugaboo. Got ready and was there at the pick point by 5.30 am. I was dropping my bag at the baggage counter, a guy came to me and told we met in Mumbai. I could then realise he was Debu, friend of Radhe [my Pune friend]. I stayed at his place in Mumbai last year, when I was running my first half marathon. Oh, its such a good feeling to meet someone on your run at some unknown place. We exchanged some talk and its now race start time. Race start point was just after the entrance to Ranganatittu Bird Sanctuary. Weather was good, place was very green and route seemed less challenging though organisers claimed it to be toughest among the marathons in India. With no presumptions, I started the race, first half of the race was pretty much smooth with distance 10k covered around 1hr 2mins I guess. But soon sun was out and could feel the difference, I had hardly practised my runs under sun and this was bit draining me out. Till 16th Km, I was about time of 1.40 hr but could not maintain the pace and bad cramp pulled me to the walking lane. I pushed myself to the finish line and gathered my strength to do five push ups !! That's this years race ending fun.

Below my pic and my race results.

Overall Rank	Bib	Category / Gender	Category Rank	Gender Rank	Split@10.55	Net Time
395	3200	OPEN / Male	327	372	01:10:09	02:35:38

Although the race was not that tough but a little more practice was enough for me to complete the run around the 2hr mark. Hoping to reach that magic figure soon. As far as race is concerned, it the most scenic route for the marathon to run and enjoy. My next in the cart is Mysore Marathon on 29th September 2013. Hope to see you at Mysore, lets start Dasara together and Running !! 

Save Envrionment !!

Keep Running !!

Hyderabad Marathon 2013 - As hard as it gets !!

Yeah, did it again. Hyderabad Marathon 2013 done with a bang. Happy about how the run went through, finished with a time of 2hr 34mins, I would have cracked sub 2hr 30mins but that's not the whole point to me. Thoroughly enjoyed the route, the atmosphere and my push ups at the finish line. 

After finish

Finisher Certificate

Some moments captured by Velocscope.

Cheers !!

Tour de Ride Series -- Blore to Mahadeshwara Temple [Tattekere Lake]

[05-May-2013]

Writing this blog very late, it was in the draft list for more than a month now. Trying to write it off, as one more ride detail is following soon. This ride is the first of the Tour de Ride series, what I will call it for the weekend cycling activity, me and few friends have taken up. As we don't get all things in place, the right mindset, people, place and cycle, we don't venture out every weekend. But we try to have once in a month or every two months. We take cycling as our weekend get outs, its basically moving our butt of the bed into the wild.

Our first planned ride was from Adugodi to Kanive Mahadeshwara Temple [also known for Tattekere lake], which google maps showed to be around 35 kms distance. We started off on Sunday after the plan got dropped on Saturday. Anup, Amit and I were the guys for the party. Anup and I left around 6.30 am after Amit didn't respond to our calls. Soon got to know Amit didn't notice our calls and he left 10-15 mins after we left, he joined us for the breakfast at around 15 kms mark. After taking few pics, we were back on roads. We enquired locals about the route along the way. We rode through Bannerghatta forest area, long roads with no traffic, it was a pleasant ride. Amit took photos all along the way and captured most of the birds and forest region. We reached the temple around 10.30 am and went other side of the lake. We took some rest while Amit clicked some wonderful pics of birds around the lake. We took some time to fix one of our cycles flat tyre. There are no hotels around this place, so we had settle with banana and fruit juice. Having to deal with the hot sunny afternoon, we were actually feeling the heat of doing this ride:). But we kept our cool and managed to ride slow until we reached back to highway. Rest we stretched a bit and Amit got the bike ride from there. We did manage to ride a descent 
75 kms (guess ~80 kms of cycling !! Couldn't manage to track it !!). Not bad for our first ride, enjoyed the ride completely but left with sore bums for a while :).

Cycles we rode, Anup had RockRider 5.1, Amit rode Hercules Neo and I rode LA Soverign 650b Wave.

Cycling Route

Tour de Ride Pics

[L-R] Me with LA Soverign 650b Wave, Amit with Hercules Neo and Anup with RockRider 5.1 

Few suggestions for those who are trying to go for this ride. 

• Carry puncture kit 
• Carry some packed food and some fruits 
• Enjoy your ride. 

                                                      Happy Cycling !!

Happy Anniversary to Appaji & Avva !!

27th June 1983, day when two people bonded themselves as one by tying the knot in the presence of God and several others, promised each other of staying together in each and every aspects of life, take every moment of it as it unfolds a new story. Marriage is what bonded them into noblest relation of husband and wife. 

Man was from far away countryside, fighting his odds with family, had to struggle to get his education. He had to run away from his home to get higher education. With adoration of few people whom he still remembers, helped him all through his student life. Man was glad that he landed into a job. Now an eligible bachelor married this women. This girl in her teen age had to sacrifice few things after losing her father very early. Left with a mother and younger sister, was fighting her own odds, soon after her father’s demise, she was in the verge of discontinuing her education but continued till she finished her basic education. Soon she got proposal for marriage. 

Man visited the girls home formally along with his family members, both agreed to marry each other. Nothing seems to be out of the world but people here are special and they stand out in the crowed. Man was able to progress ahead with his job, girl now a women, faithfully maintained the family amidst meagre income. They welcomed their first child after two years into marriage. Now a proud father and mother, couple celebrated the first year birthday of their son with over joy and happiness, spending beyond their economic strength. Life remained to be nice and happy. With arrival of their second child, things were turning good. Man landed into decently paid government job and both were happy to see the family growing. Although smooth but life remained to take its twists and turns, the couple sailed across each barrier. Now being self-sustained, they welcomed their third child. With children growing each day, women was more occupied with bring up the family of five people. Not only did she manage the family in terms of teaching her children good manners, she was able to manage all the financial things just with her basic education. Children were given good education.

Over the time, couple managed to build a home for themselves. They provided higher education to their kids. Now was the time their children get married. They were happy to announce their daughters marriage and arranged the occasion in a very grand way and now expecting to celebrate few more occasions of marriage in the family. Couple were delighted and happy when they welcomed their grandson into this growing family, now a proud grand father and grand mother. Today 27th June 2013, with lots of joy, happiness, togetherness, love, affection, modesty, couple are celebrating their 30th Year Anniversary of bonding, their Marriage.

With lots of love, Wishing a Very Happy Marriage Anniversary to Appaji and Avva. God bless you with many more years of joy, happiness and togetherness.

-Prashant, Jaya, Prasad

Few pictures down memory lane ... I believe no captions are needed. :)

TCS World 10k.. yet again !!

Having been part of this run for the last 2 years, this is my 3 year in a row at TCS World 10k run. Always amazed with enthusiasm, fervour and electrifying atmosphere when I run at Bangalore’s world 10k. With increase in the number of participants every year TCS10K is growing bigger and better. Like Mumbai Marathon, I feel Bangalore 10k is not a marathon but a running festival where everyone participates and celebrate their run. Men and women of all ages, people with special abilities bring on their best foot forward and set an amazing example of human spirit. Running is all about that, isn't it :)

Two of my friends Anup [7606] and Irfan [2683] were running TCS10k for the second time and Shrikant [5462] was new entrant to running. Due to rains in Bangalore day before, Sunday seemed to be perfect day for running. Run started sharply at 7.22 am inside the Kanteerava Stadium. Due to the large number of participants my initial run was bit slow. After around 2 kms into race, I got caught with stomach stitch, which slowed my pace again for some time. At 5 kms into the race, I was feeling good and increased my pace and could finally finish in 1 hour 33 sec net timing, although I was aiming to finish few mins before. That was okay to me, I enjoyed the race thoroughly, did small steps at DJ, ran with elderly person for some time, overall it was good run. After the run, I waited for my friends, who finished within a small difference of time each. Anup finished in 1.04 hrs, Irfan in 1.10 hrs and Shrikant in 1.17 hrs. All doing their best from the previous run. Happy to see them making it through smiling. It was great fun to run and even more wonderful sharing the running experience with others. We got our medals and small dose of snacks. Got the pictures clicked and enjoyed the moment. 

Few picks are below

Irfan, Shrikant, Anup and Me [L-R]

Shrikant, Karan, Me, Irfan, Puneeth, Anup

One more click

Shrikant, Me and Irfan

Happy Running !!!!

P.S: Certificate, timing details and marathon photos to follow.

Infosys Summer Run 10k 2013

With running becoming popular in Bangalore, most people are now serious about running. Running communities have come up which trains new runners. Few running organizations have already been there for some time now and organize runs, also providing each runner with individual consultation. Runners for life is one such group which has membership norms and is most active in the city. Also few groups are created among runners where you don’t need any membership, you can be part of their running over the weekends, Nike free run is one such group.  With this growing interest in running, people in IT turning out make themselves fit, so as people in Infosys.

Infosys running community organizes 5k and 10k run every six months called Infosys September Run and Infosys Summer Run in September and April respectively. I was part of ISR held in September 2012 and finished 10k with timing of 1 hour 3 mins. Event was good except that I had to skip my work for some time and later had extend the work at night. Summer time it’s called Infosys Summer Run which was held yesterday 24^th April. I had registered for it only couple of day before the run since I was not sure. But things took it course day before when I had to attend a telepresense call at Cisco Belandur office, that is around 18 kms from electronic city office. Well, it was a day of events, I went to attend the meeting in the morning, after the meeting I met my Cisco office colleagues and left to Infosys by 3 pm expecting to have ample time before the run that will start at 5 pm. I went to my room got my running gears and shoes, was back on my office desk by 4 pm. Completed a small work I was doing and then left to the starting point of the run. All through the way I was giving a second thought for the run as I was bit exhausted travelling almost 40kms on bike in Bangaluru traffic. I thought about Chennai marathon which was even worse than this, so made my mind on running comfortably and finishing the race. This time around running crowd was good in numbers. We were supposed to run 2.5 kms loop four times for 10k run. Marathon started at 5.30 pm, as always I started slowly, picked up bit of speed in loop 2 and the next two loops, I was aiming to finish within an hour. Except the stomach stitch in my last loop, run was pretty well. Finished it in 59 mins 11 secs, according to my watch timings, will wait for the official timing to come out. It was a descent run, I need to work on increasing my pace, which would cut down some more minutes. No pictures taken, no certificate yet :)

Happy Running !!

I run, now I cycle too

[21-April-2013]

I had thoughts of buying a cycle for some time now, but I was not sure on maintaining it. This thought kept me more puzzled whether to buy cycle or not. These days especially starting with this year, I have been cycling around, with couple of duathlons and major adventure event in February Enduro3 in which I cycled around 75kms. It was simple decision to make and buy the cycle. With budget around 11k to 12k I felt this would not put big hole in my pocket. After some research and inquiry, I had brought down my options to Hercules and LA-Sovereign. Hercules is well established cycle brand in India and very popular brand and this was safe bet, but somehow I had my reservations on this, not sure why but I wanted to go for other brands and thought of taking my chances. Extending budget beyond 15k or close to 20k was not an option for me. Well, I thought good cycle with better price tag would always perform well, how about making an average cycle to outperform and meet all your expectations. Cyclists owning Trek, Marida, etc please don’t curse me for this.

I browsed for LA-Sovereign and found the features and price fit my needs. LA-Sovereign wave was priced at 11,190 rupees. A descent bike, good color , Thai-India collaborative brand. Last Saturday I went to check the bike at RR Cycles at Madivala. I asked for LA-Sovereign wave alloy and found the cycle very good looking. I checked the reviews with the shop owners which he said is descent one, feature which stand out in this bike is the front disc, wheel rim size which 27.5 in this cycle for 12k range. Later I googled to check the reviews in the net, to my surprise there were no reviews available for this bike except it was mentioned in some blogs, 27.5er or commonly called 650B bikes are intermediate of 26er and 29er bikes and had a good review. Now let me try this one. I spoke to few of my friends who own cycles, they too were not heard of this brand much. So now it was just a matter of gut feeling to go with this bike. Next day I visited the cycle shop, with few more tests and comprehensions, finally I decided to take chances and bet on LA-Sovereign wave 650b. Cycle came along with side stand, dealer fitted me water bottle cage and bell. I bought the lock, in all paid 11,400 /- rupees. They offered two months of service on the bike. I rode the bike back to my room that was around 15kms. It was a good ride but I had few hiccups during the gear change and also wheels were wobbling. No presumption yet, I will put up a good review, after good long ride in 2-3 months from now. For now, I welcome new member to my family LA-Sovereign Wave 650b.

Few pics here

At RR Cycles, Madivala

With LA-Sovereign Wave 650b

Balachandra with bike

LA-Sovereign Wave 650b

Happy Cycling !!

Boston Marathon Blasts- Lets keep the human spirits high!!

As soon as I read the post on facebook from my friend, who mentioned blasts occurred at Boston Marathon and he luckily missed running due to some registration problem, I was shocked. I have never heard of such incident where athletes, spectators were targeted in the terror attack except the 1972 Summer Olympics incident in Munich. I began to read the articles in the newspaper which explained most of the events. Series of two blasts occurred at the finish line after around 4 hours into the race, 3 are dead and almost 100 people got injured. It was a shocker. I was not able to comprehend the attack, as the matter of fact 99 percent of the people running in the marathon are general public who put in lot of efforts over the years just to prove to themselves that they can do it, they can run and complete the race. It was sheer attack on the humanity beyond any doubts.

Boston Marathon has a long standing history of being one of the elite marathon events in the world having completed 116 running years and one of the six World Marathon Majors. People take pride to be part of Boston Marathon and being able to complete it. Running in its 117th year, what happened today is beyond the words to describe. 

Marathon draws people from every ethnicity, age, culture, physicality is a forum to celebrate brotherhood, togetherness and human spirits. Participants pull in lots of efforts, hours of preparation physically and mentally to be able to participate in the race. They struggle to overcome there weakness during the course of their runs. They form an intangible bond with the fellow runners all through the run and spectators become part of their motivation. What they achieve at the end is the sense of accomplishment, beyond the words could reach. Its a human triumph over their weakness.

I am deeply saddened today. I give my condolences to the deceased, keep their souls rest in peace. My heart goes out for all the ones who are injured, I wish for the speedy recovery, wish them to be back on their feet for the next practice session. Running is not over yet, you people have done it, you can do it again.

Final word, lets not get bogged down by the heinous terrorist act, lets show them the human spirits are high beyond the reach of anyone.

Lets get warmed up, lets have a run !!!

To all, Happy Running !!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dedicated to all Boston Marathon Runners

I ran 5 kms in the evening and dedicated my run to all the Boston Marathon runners specially to the one deceased and injured. Lets keep the running spirits high, lets keep the marathon spirits high and finally lets keep OUR human spirits high !!

Happy Running !!

Mumbai Marathon 2013

Mumbai Marathon 2012 was a wonderful experience  for me. I loved everything about it, running, cheerful crowd, course, fellow runners and the whole scintillating atmosphere that formed a perfect marathon. Organizers and authorities did a good job to maintain the crowd and traffic. With these factors, I had no other thoughts running in my mind when I registered again for Mumbai Marathon 2013.

Registration for Mumbai marathon starts as early in June every year due to huge number of participation it usually starts early. This year Mumbai marathon was celebrating its 10^th year and it was my 2^nd year in succession.

I had already started my training for Hyderabad Marathon and also had a thought of running Chennai Marathon this year. So, nothing much did I thought initially about my run in Mumbai. With a good finish time at Chennai Marathon in December boosted my confidence to perform better. I was aiming at finish time around 2 hrs with couple of minutes here and there. 

This time in Mumbai, it was Abhinav who helped me with the stay. Abhinav was a good friend of mine and my previous company colleague. We were in touch even after he left job to pursue MBA in Delhi. He got job in Mumbai and was staying there after his degree. He stayed at Kandivali East.

I travelled to Mumbai on 19^th morning by flight, thanks to SpiceJet for cutting down their fare to 2013 Rs. On landing Mumbai, I went to Abhinav’s room by taxi. It was after long time we were meeting, we had our chat having aloo paranthas prepared by cook. Abhinav  told he will come with me for collecting the bib number and other running stuff. After collecting the goodies, we roamed around the Marine Drive, had our lunch and returned back to the room. I arranged things necessary for the morning and fell asleep. I got up early, got ready and left by 4 am to Kandivali Station to catch local to Bandra. Already there were bunch of people travelling by that local. Friendly smile at 4 am in the morning local, feels good. All knew we were on that local for a cause, to prove ourselves something we had trained so hard.

Race began by 5.40 am. I started with normal pace and this time I wanted to maintain single pace for first 10 kms. I took around 1 hour to complete the 10 kms mark, till this mark I had not taken any break. I was feeling good and thought I could add few more kilometers. I continued in the same pace for next 4-5 kilometers. I remember once the hill running began, bit of pain started in my right knee. I slowed my pace and started slow run, now with another 4 kilometers to cover my watch timer showed 1 hour 45 mins. Now sensing sub 2 hour completion was bit unrealistic with the pain, I thought to finish the race at comfortable pace without hurting myself. I felt 2.15 hours was achievable but knee pain was making me feel that too was far. With my slowest pace, I completed my run in 2.22 hours as shown in my watch. After the race I collected the medal and snacks and went back to the room.

Finisher Certificate

Timing Details.

Marathon Photos.

I called up Keta, my good friend. We worked together in Pune. After her marriage she is now staying in Mumbai with her husband Aditya. We planned to meet around 4 pm after that I would catch my bus to Bangaluru.

As planned, I met Keta and Aditya at a CCD with Abhinav, I was meeting her after around 2 years. We had chat almost for an hour. I thanked Abhinav, it was nice meeting him. I said bye to Keta and Aditya and took bus from Borivalli to Bangalore.

Mumbai and my friends again treated me very well. Hope to be here again next year.

Chronicles of Chennai Marathon 2012

Why I named this post 'Chronicles of Chennai Marathon 2012' will explain in sometime. 

Well, having run 2 half marathons I was aiming at finishing the year 2012 with three half marathons. After Hyderabad Marathon in August, I started planning for my first Himalayan trek. I did most of treks in Karnataka and was planning at something bigger. When I proposed my plan to my adventure friend Vijay, he instantly agreed. Plan was to go in first week of October, trek to Gaumukh and Tapovan, visit Rishikesh, Haridwar, Delhi and return. Planning things went fine, except some last minute hitches on getting my leaves approved. I was off for a week and completed the amazing trek to Himalayas.

Back to the main story, running Chennai marathon was back of my mind. As soon as I was back from the trek, I registered in Half Marathon category. Chennai marathon was scheduled on 2nd December 2012. I continued my practices runs on weekdays and long runs during the weekends. By this time, I got allocated to a new project and my work was at peak. More to add on that I was asked to work on a release that falls on 1st December.. holy cow. Although I skipped few runs over the week but I was pretty much on track for the run. Question to me was, if at all I am running on 2nd December, how would I collect running number, timing chip and other stuff for the run?? With not much hopes, it was definite I was going to miss the Chennai Marathon.

On Friday 31st November, I was checking my Facebook account and saw Chennai Runner had put up the final list of runners in all the categories. I downloaded the excel and started going through the list. I noticed a name which looked familiar. I forgot to mention that in September, Infosys running group had arranged 'Infosys September Run [ISR]', I had participated in the 10 kms category. Among the organizers group I did remember some of the member who were runners too. That name I saw in the list was one of the person who was in the organizing group. Next thing was to confirm if he was the same person, I opened up the telephone directory and searched for Romel Dutta. Luckily I got it right, immediately I called him and explained things. He was kind enough to help me. I sent authorization mail to Chennai Runners copying him to collect running stuff on my behalf. Such a relief, but still there was chance of missing the marathon if my work extends beyond a time where I could not make it.

As expected, on 1st December I assumed to finish things by 12 pm and leave to Chennai but my work extended till 4 pm. Travel to Chennai would take anywhere between 6-7 hrs. In the meantime, Romel called me to update he had collected my running stuff. Being very skeptic on leaving to Chennai by 5 or 6 pm I called up my mother and explained everything. Since I had already practiced and put in some hard work for the run she suggested to go ahead and run the marathon. This was a bit of motivation I needed to go and run. I left by 5.30 pm and caught a bus to Chennai. Bus took an extra hour to reach Chennai around 2.00 am. My fellow passenger helped me to catch bus to IIT Madras, which was starting point for the marathon. I was there in campus around 2.45 am and went to Mechanical Department, only there I could see lights were on. Went directly to washroom and got fresh, changed to my running gear. I could already see volunteers gathering at the venue. I took a small nap at a desk, thanks to the good roads, I was able to get a good nap in the bus.

Race was starting at 5.15 am. I called up Romel, he was on his way to the venue. He was there by 4.30 am. I collected the running stuff, thanked him for helping me out and wished him a good run. After all the drama, I just wanted to complete the race without worrying about PR [Personal Record]. I started the race with slow pace, weather was awesome. Initial 4 kms was inside the campus, around 13 kms of run was outside campus and rest 4-5 kms was again inside the campus. Overall my run was good, I cracked time of 2 hr 12 mins to complete the race. Well, that was my best timing so far.

Overall Rank	Bib	Name	Gender Rank	Split @7.25	Split @16.55	Net Time
243	2439	PRASHANT PATIL	231	00:42:33	01:41:30	02:12:06

                                                                    Timing Splits

Later I called up Venky,  he was my buddy and previous company colleague, who lives in Chennai. He came and picked me, we went to a nearby beach, I don't remember the beach name now. We talked about our days in Pune and in Bangalore. I left Chennai that afternoon and reached Bangalore by evening. I hugged my bed for a good sleep later. That's my chronicles of Chennai Marathon.

Timing Certificate

After the event, many runners complained about the running distance was less than 21.1 kms. Chennai Runners team came with justification after couple of days, race distance was less by 700 meters. I was not very happy to hear that but overall it was very good running experience with lots of drama in it.

Hyderabad Marathon 2012

I was clear about running my 2nd Half Marathon but the question to myself was where will be next. Delhi Marathon was around mid of September and Hyderabad Marathon in August. 

I had been to Hyderabad trip in 2009 with my friends, now could only remember few few things though. On the other hand, I was bit non assertive on travelling to Delhi as it would consume lot of time to travel and money too. Obviously, I had only one option to run Hyderabad Marathon. I registered Hyderabad Half Marathon and started off my practice. Race was scheduled on 26th August 2012. 

I had already started off working on things which I had noticed in my last half marathon. Things like breathing control, increasing my knee strength and lots of running. Now plan was to reach Hyderabad on 25th August, collect the running number and goodies bag, run marathon on 26th August, take a day off on 27th August revisit some places of interest. I called up Deepak who stays in Hyderabad for a stay at his place. Deepak was my college mate and one my good friend. 

I planned to meet my other friend Rashmi who was also staying in Hyderabad. I called her up and came to know that she is planning to run the marathon. My photographer friend Harpreet was also taking part in the run. He was common friend to both me and Rashmi. So this time I had some familiar faces to run with.

On Saturday we planned to meet at Chatney's Restaurant for the lunch and later to collect the our bibs. After relishing lunch, we went to the venue to collect our running number, chip and other stuffs. Since I had already run a half marathon and it was their first, they posed few queries. I said to them, run with a aim to complete and enjoy, not to worry on the other part of it. We planned to meet next morning for the marathon.

Rashmi and Harpreet picked me on the way to the race start place Necklace Road. Race started at 5.15 am. This time I aimed to finish the race within 2 hr 30 mins. After running with my friends for sometime I picked up the pace. Few kilometres into the race, I could see uphill. Initially it was fine but uphill didn't seem to end there. Course was full of up-hills. At around 10 kms mark it started raining, I was enjoying my run in the rain at an expense of timing. Since it was uphill most of the time I was not able to increase my pace beyond certain level. I kept my running at a constant pace and completed the race. My watch showed time of 2 hr 50 mins. I was okay with my timing since the run had lots of hills. With the uphill gradient factor in it, whole race was considered to be around 23 kms. Race at Hyderabad was tough and rain made it bit tougher, traffic was poorly maintained and whole race was full of uphill running which off course tested the stamina and took will to complete it. Hyderabad Runners team did a good job at organization front, but yes they can still do better.

Soon Rashmi and Harpreet finished the race too. We took few pictures, talked about the race and left for the day.

Finisher Certificate

PRASHANT PATIL

Bib                  Number	3006
Rank:	827
Gender:	Male
Category :	OPEN
Category Rank:	705
Gender Rank:	774
Split@10.8:	01:20:50
Net Time:	02:46:37
Gross Time:	02:48:27

                                                                     Split timings

Next day I visited Birla Temple, Sarlarjung Museum, Golkonda Fort on a hot sunny day and left to Bangalore by night. This time for a change I was all well with no serious pains.

TravelnRun Hyderabad Marathon Photos

Happy Running !!!