I, Run: Mysore Marathon 2014 - Close to a disaster run !

Mysore Marathon 2014 – 7th September

Running this marathon for the 2nd successive year and it always feels great to run in Mysore. With Dasara festival for a month to go, city is getting ready to welcome people all around the world for the grand display of the Palace and city in itself is great to visit during this festive season. Preparation to the marathon had been not that good, being out of injury I wasn’t putting lot of efforts into physical activities but running was part of my daily routing but not 100%. I had been part of Reebok Running Squad happening of every Saturday and Sunday. Here we do lots of exercise for different body part essentially which helps running better. This got me bit of confidence, also Sunday long runs help me. But I still had blues of not finishing the marathon strongly.

We, Anup, Naidu and I left to Mysore on 6th September by local train, reached the bib collecting venue in time. We went around to search for lodge and settled with the same lodge I stayed last year. After the dinner, I watch US Open and couldn't stop watching the match between Djokovic and Nishikori, exciting game of tennis it was. I pushed myself to sleep to get enough sleep before run. Reporting time for the Half Marathon was 6.15 am, we got up in time got fresh and had some fruits, we jogged till the venue to get some warm up, did some stretches and they we were ready for the run. Greeted guys for the good run.

Naidu took off with good speed, I joined Anup for run. I was not pacing for my comeback run, just wanted to finish the run strong without any fatigue or injury. Anup and I paced with each other for first 10kms doing it in around 1hr 4mins time. Soon I starting feeling pain in my right knee, it was the IT Band pain, slowed down and started few stretches. This is the worst kind of pain a runner can get. I was back to running after few stretches. Pace slowing down bit more, I soon caught up with Anup again, but moved over. By now knew I would be repeating my old marathon scenes, I went on completing marathon in 2 hr 27 mins, with painful last 5-6 kms where I took around 50 mins of time. Disappointed but was clear again to practice more. Naidu finished in 1 hr 55 mins and Anup did it in 2hr 32 mins I guess.

Few pics