BSafal Half Marathon, Ahmedabad. 4th Jan 2015

Event : BSafal Half Marathon, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

Organizers : L S Sports

Race Category : Half Marathon (21.1 Km)

Date : 4th Jan, 2015

Result : 2 Hours 22 mins and 45 secs. 335th in Age category & 425th overall. Total participants 866.

Race Report of My First Half Marathon

Pain is Temporary..Glory is Eternal !!

Preparation :

I started running in Aug 2014. Joining ADR ( Amdavad Distance Runners) was the turning point for me. I learnt the importance of form, stretching and cross training from my excellent mentors at ADR.

After the highly successful Chennai Triathlon, I took a break for a whole week. I wanted to rest and do basic physiotherapy to get in shape for the Half Marathon. Statistically I had never ran a distance more than 14 Km in a single attempt. Also my pace was around 7 min/km on most training days. But all the running before the Chennai Triathlon gave me the confidence that I could do a half marathon, no matter how slow. The only concern was the ITB pain in my right knee.

With a week to go, my confidence took a dent when I had to turn back at just 2 Km on my first run after the Triathlon. I decided not to run anymore, rest the knee and directly run on Race day. With 3 days to Race day, my sweet wife (who was preparing for her 10K) asked me to accompany her for as long as possible for a slow long run. We ended up doing a 10 km in about 1 hr 40 mins, which though slow, went easy on my legs and gave me the much needed shot of confidence.

Overall I went into Race day with around 240 Kms of running under my belt in the past 5 months.

Travel and Acclimatization :

This was home turf, so no travel or acclimatization required. Race venue was about 3 km from my residence.

Eve of the Race

I had always dreamt of a sub 2.15 on my first HM. I knew it wasn't going to be possible anymore, considering the injury. I made a more conservative target of 2hr 30 mins and made a small note of the splits that I would have to achieve at 5-10-15-18 km points. Even a 2.30 sounded over fetched but I tend to make myself targets that are slightly out of reach.

Hogged on home cooked dinner, drank an extra bottle of water and hit the bed at 10 pm.

Race Course:

Race course was primarily flat with tarred roads. No uneven or trail surfaces were to be encountered. All hydration and aid points were well marked and evenly distributed. Thankfully the route of the 5Km race didn’t coincide with that of the 21 or 10 km race. Race Director Lihas and the committee had smartly designed the race course.

Race day :

It was slightly chilly and windy at 15 degree Centigrade. Had a pre-race banana and a glass of water before leaving home. The atmosphere at the race venue was electrifying. You feel pumped when you see the elites warming up and stretching. Took a few pics with my run buddies, jogged, stretched and warmed up.

First to go out were the 10K participants. Tried to look for wifey but couldn’t trace her ( She eventually triumphed with a personal best of 1.32 for her 10K). After a gap of 5 mins the 21K participants were flagged off. The first Km was very unnerving because I felt everyone around zip-zapping around me and flying off. Most of the crowd just shoots out of the starting mark. I consciously took it slowly as advised by experienced runners and also to conserve my legs for the later part of the race.

I chugged on slow and steady, smiling to everyone standing on the sidelines with a camera( can’t find my pics anywhere though :P). By 4Km, my bladders were bursting with all the extra water I drank before the race in the name of hydration. Thank and God Bless the organizers for keeping portables at regular intervals.

My happiest moment was at the 5Km point when my mobile app announced that I was doing a cool 6.45min/Km. I was required to do a 7.17min/km as per the small note in my pocket and here I was doing pretty good pace without any trouble on the knee.

By 7 km, I could see that a lot of the crowd who had sprinted ahead at the starting point, were now walking. At the 9 km mark, I saw a van with a flashing beacon going pretty fast in the opposite lane. My jaw dropped to see that the race leader was being led by that vehicle. Here I was at 9 K and that guy had done 17. The sheer pace and athleticism left me in awe.

I was enjoying the pace that I had set. The DJs and their music at strategic points made sure that everyone remain pumped. A lot of school students were volunteering for the event and pleasantly handed out energy drinks, water and oranges at every Km interval. I kept sipping in small doses on the ORS(electrolyte) to balance the salt and water loss.

Meeting Anu(wife) in the opposite lane as she was returning was another happy moment. She looked really good. I was wary of accelerating as I was already going better than my plan. I stopped looking at the note altogether, as my average pace never fell to 7 min/km.

Running and chatting with my run buddies took me till 14 K mark where I took a breather. Stretched out my legs, took another sip and off again. They journey of the 21 km in an actual event is so different from a training run. You meet so many inspirational people, who have come from far and wide to participate. Some really elderly participants who ran so effortlessly. Most people in our society just want to rest in an easy chair at that age, and here there were a few who were being inspirations for youngsters like me(Young at 31 :P).

At 18 Km, I was pulling on my reserves. Exhaustion was creeping in and I had was struggling to keep it going. Our wise chief at ADR would always say, “ The race actually starts after 18Km”. I struggled with each step and slowly the pain was catching up. At 19 Km, I stopped and bent down to stretch my hamstring. I kept holding onto my ankles when I heard someone shout out my name from behind. One of my run buddies was shouting at the top of his voice. Asking me not to stop, asking me to keep running. It was the kick in the butt  wanted. I shot off from there,  closed my mind of all pain and ran to the final corner.

The rousing welcome  at the finish line by my wife, friends and all the ADR members is etched in my memory now. I crossed the finish line at 2 hr 22 min 45 secs, well before the targeted 2.30.

Event Organizer Review:

The Good

• Nice route planning
• Good volunteering by school children
• Good traffic blockage and security by the personnel
• Good sponsor support.

The Bad

• There should have been some cleanliness guidelines too. People were throwing water bottles, ORS packs, orange peels etc on the road. I personally saw one runner almost having a nasty fall when he slipped on a water bottle cap thrown carelessly on the road. Even the police personnel who were participating in the race were throwing litter right on the road. Shouldn't the authorities lead by example?
• When the nation is  talking about Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan, the race route didn't have ample dust/litter bins. I believe that a dust bin should have been kept around 200-500m from every nutrition station so that  the runner can discard the bottle property.
• Wastage. There was so much wastage in terms of fruit, water, drink. If it could have been given in smaller installments then wastage could have been reduced. Many runners didn't get refreshments at the end of the race. Water and ORS could have been brought in 20 litre capacities and handed out in paper cups. No one can drink 200 ml in one go while running. Around 100-150ml is always wasted.

Dose'O'Inspiration:

My inspiration have been all the senior citizen who participated in 10k/21k and my wife who shaved off a mighty 30 mins from her previous 10Km race.

Take Home Lessons:

- Don’t drink excessive water before or during the race. Drink(water) like fish on the eve of the race, not on race day.

- Manage injury better ie Train smart. If possible train at lower intensity instead of stopping altogether

Next Target : A sub 2.10 HM

Conclude

This was the first time ever that I ran 21 Kms(Inclusive of training). Incredibly happy to finish the race well within my targeted time and to see the other half do it in style too. Am I in pain after the race? Hell Yeah!! But then, PAIN is temporary…. GLORY is ETERNAL !!!!

PS

My Album
Event Pics

Chennai Triathlon 20th Dec 2014

Event : Chennai Triathlon Dec 2014.

Organizers : Chennai Trekking Club aka CTC aka Chennai Trekkers

Race Category : Olympic Distance ( 1.5 Km Swim, 40 Km Ride, 10 Km Run )

Date : 20th Dec, 2014

Result : 4 Hours and 2 mins. 8th in Age category & 12th overall.

Report of My First ever Triathlon

Preparation :

Swim : I have been swimming for a little more than an year now. Started with learning the doggy style (pun intended) swimming. And then started to learn free style using youtube video's as guides. It took me ages to learn the free style and I couldn't do more than 400-500m for about 4 months. Over time, I overcame the fear of water and felt more comfortable and confident with it. Though I couldn't do the distance my form/technique had improved. When the event was declared by the organizers (Sept) 2014 I took upon myself to register if I could do 1500m in a single swim session (inclusive of breaks). Eventually I could scale that peak in 3 weeks and thus registered for my first Triathlon. Swim stats :  Approximately 21 Km in 4 months.

Bike : I started biking when the Goa Triathlon was declared i.e. in Sept 2014. Restored a junk BSA Photon (gearless) and used it as a training bike. Rode approximately 300 km total in 3 months.

Run: Started running in Aug 2014. Started off with small distances. Did approx 190 km in 4 months. Swim and Bike was mostly done solo. Enjoyed the run since I joined ADR ( Amdavad Distance Runners ). It's like a huge family, everyone supporting, encouraging, inspiring, advising and pushing you to perform better. Excessive burst/ wrong form in an interval training gave me pain in the right knee and I was advised to lay off from running for 2 weeks with exactly 12 days to raceday

Did a trial Triathlon with 800m swim, 20k ride and 5k run in about 2hr 35 mins. Overall the preparation statistics weren't something to boast of, but I had done what could be done in 4 months. So was more or less satisfied and confident that I would definitely finish the distance in the cutoff time of 6 hours.

Travel and Acclimatization :

I reached Chennai, 4 days prior to raceday. Weather was humid and hot. I was suggested by the ADR elites who have done marathons in Chennai to get the hydration plan correct.

I managed to arrange a purple coloured Ladybird for a practice ride and went off to find the Bike Store which had promised to rent me a good hybrid bike for the race. The ladybird (as expected) had no brakes, but went strong for the 20 Km practice ride. I averaged 18kmph on it. So was confident of doing the 40 k in under 2 hours on a better bike. 

Eve of the Race

I had planned to take a bus to the Bike Store, take my rented bike from them and then ride 20km to the race venue to take a look at the course. A half an hour bus ride turned into a 2 hour ordeal thanks to the some incorrect bus numbers and routes on their website.

Exhaustion from the 2 hour bus ride turned into delight at Pro Bikers . I had never seen so many premium bikes at a single showroom. Absolute delight. I am very happy and thankful to Pro Bikers, Merida especially Gunaa and Suresh for providing me with an awesome Merida Crossway (Hybrid bike). It was light, nimble and fast. Far better than what I had ridden till now. I was told that 25kmph is a breeze on this beauty. I rode 18 km to the race venue (outskirts of the city) to understand the gears on the bike and to get a good feel of it.

CTC had done a fabulous job of tying up with an Engineering college ( Agni College of Technology) which provided free stay at their hostels for participants coming from afar. The hostel mess provided us with good hygienic dinner as well. The venue was outside the city, thus no reliable hotels in the vicinity.

Mentally I was confident of a finish. Only concern was the cough which may hamper the breathing. Ate well, prepared the transition bags and went off to sleep on the typical metallic beds provided in Hostels.

 

Race Course:

Swim- Ottiyambakkam Quarry. It was 150 m in length and around 30m in dept. CTC had put a strong rope across the length of it along with tubes at certain intervals. We were supposed to do 5 laps which would make the swim of 1500 m.

Swim Venue

Bike - After the swim at the quarry we had to bike out the OMR (Old Mahabalipuram Road) which is a very wide state highway. The distance of around 5 km between the quarry and the OMR highway was very rough and narrow. We had to go till Thiruporur and turn back to Agni College which was near the quarry. So the bike distance had a bad patch for about 9 km. The rest was good. Route on Google Maps

Run - We had to bike into Agni College, park our bikes and start running around the Ottiyambakkam village. Run route was partly uneven track. It was a single loop of 10.5km. 

Raceday :

Weather was warm and windy. Rode the bike to the swim venue and deposited the transition bags with the Volunteers.

Swim leg: First to start were the IRON and 3/4 IRON. They were followed by the 1/2 IRON distance participants. Almost half of the Olympic distance participants were first timers like me. Thus we all lined up for a warm up and stretch before the swim. There were around 60 participants doing the Olympic distance and thus we were distributed into 3 batches of 20 each. This was done to limit crowding and thrashing in the water. I was in the third and last batch. Every batch had a specific volunteer marking time as the starting time would be different for each. It was the participants responsibility to make sure that the Volunteer timer noted your lap and thus we had to shout our BIB number to the Volunteer at the end of every lap (300m)

I had mentally taken a note not to hurry and take the swim easy as otherwise I would get zapped of energy. But the adrenaline took over and I started of way faster than I would have liked. By the 600, I could feel my shoulder getting taut. Immediately focused on form and forgot the speed. Steady strokes, bilateral breathing and just enough kicking. I ensured that the rest of the swim was efficient with minimal usage of the legs. I wanted to save my legs for the bike and run. Coming out of the quarry was a tad difficult as the rocks on the edge had algae and it was slippery. Had to cautiously climb out of the water and ran to the Bike and Baggage station.

Transition 1
Took a long time to figure out where the bag was and to shift into biking shorts. I observed that I had exited the water pretty fast but the change to biking shorts, hydration, nutrition etc was messing things up.

Bike Leg: Was pretty angry at myself that I took a lot of time in transition. Close to 5 min I guess.

Took a small backpack with a Banana, First aid and my mobile. Biked in lower gears initially as advised by experts to get the blood flowing to the legs and for the muscles to get warmed up. Heaved a sigh of relief as I touched OMR highway and then accelerated to top speeds. I had checked on the weather and knew that the wind was behind me. At the U turn at Thiruporur the wind was going to be against me and I knew that it would slow me down considerably. So crushed it on the way to Thiruporur. Reached Thiruporur aid station and had Enerzal from my bottle. Had a few pieces of Banana and Oranges before turning back on the OMR. A km into the return leg, I realized that the wind was too strong and I was probably inching forward at half the speed at which I came. I had read that it isn't wise to resist the head wind. So I got as low as I could on the bar (aerodynamics), lowered the gears so that I could pedal easier and slowly went against the wind.

The ride after branching off from the OMR back to the college was horrible because of the road. Also I was feeling the exhaustion. I had never ridden a continuous 40 Km even in practice.

Transition 2

The transition bags were brought from the quarry to the college by the volunteers. So again had a tough time finding the bag. Pulled on my running shorts and a cap. The heat was getting worse. Snatched the bottle from the bike. Asked the volunteer to fill it up with Enerzal while I changed. After the change I ran to the aid station to retrieve my bottle only to find that Enerzal was missing and thus my bottle was still empty. God!! Fortunately they found it at that instant. Lost a few mins behind the enerzal.

Run Leg :  Took a sip of Enerzal, gulped a banana and trudged off into the run. After jogging a seemingly large distance I checked on my phone only to find to my horror that I had just done 1.5 kms. I thought it must be a GPS error or I might have taken a wrong turn etc. But the fact was that my legs were feeling heavy and I was dragging myself. The moment the realization came, I went into troubleshoot mode. I would assign a target like for eg jog till the 5th lamp post. Then would reward myself to a walk till I caught my breath. Then to the next target. At 3.5 Km the aid station guys welcomed my with a cold water spray, asked me for cramps/pains & refilled my enerzal. By 4 k I was feeling better as I had re hydrated quite a bit. Then I noticed someone coming behind me. Since the race had started I hadn't noticed anyone passing me and I had passed quite a few on the bike leg. Even though he was challenging my race position I couldn't help but appreciate how gracefully he ran. Perfect running form and steady posture. I couldn't hold his pace as he passed me. I trudge on with my jog-walk routine setting small 200m-300m targets.

Fatigue was catching up when I heard another set of steps behind me. It was my roomie from the hostel Sunny. He has done quite a few HMs and also the Javadhu Ultra. It was evident from the way he was running. He pepped me up. He was similarly happy to have someone to jog alongwith, to chat and to be able to take our minds off the fatigue.

At the 7.5 Km aid station we both asked the volunteers to pour water over our heads to cool us down. Took a refill in my bottle and went on. We passed a senior participant with a snazzy hairstyle. He was extremely fatigued and was walking the rest of the distance. We wished him luck and moved on. I was having difficulty keeping Sunny's pace. I could hear his watch beeping and he told me that his HR(heart rate) was going beyond the set limits and thus the beeping. At around 8.5 km, I had to stop the jog and take a breather. Walked and slowly sipped on the electrolyte. Sunny jogged ahead in spite of the beeping HR monitor. Around the 9 Km mark, I took the last few sips from my water bottle and  decided to jog the remaining 1 km. I could see Sunny far ahead and saw him swaying. As I reached him he was walking. The sun had hit him hard and he was dehydrated. Unfortunately I had finished my bottle too. Asked him to take it easy for the rest of the distance. As I neared the gate of the college I had visuals of the small victories I have had until that point. Entered the college, took a small loop inside and finished the race strong.

I was very happy to finish strong without any pain/cramps. Was equally happy to see Sunny finish just a minute behind me. Volunteers put the medal around our necks and we proceeded to gorge on the most tasty sandwiches we ever had. We had a few bits of chocolate and kept on sipping on fluids. Rested, Stretched (in between whatsapped the news to loved ones) in a tent put up by CTC.  After an hour we rode back to the swim site took another refreshing dip and then proceeded back to the city. A god sent angel was kind enough to rack our bikes on his car and drop us to the bike store 20 kms away.

Race Results : 
Swim (1500m) - 41 mins ( Personal Best Time). Fastest Swimmer- 26 mins
Bike (40 Kms) - 1hr 55 mins (Inclusive of T1. Again a personal best). Fastest Biker - 1 Hr 31 min
Run (10 Km) -  1 Hr 26 min (Inclusive of 5 min of T2) . Fastest Runner - 57 mins

MY TOTAL TIME - 4 Hours 02 mins

Winner Time - Swim (36min), Bike (1 Hr 34min), Run (57 min). Mr Koji Kita. He was a veteran participant ie above 43 yr old.

Event Organizer Review:
CTC and their leader Peter are simply amazing. Their events are very very economical, extremely volunteer driven and very environment friendly. My race registration was just Rs 400. Inclusive of free overnight stay. The volunteers are actually participants of other activities of CTC like hikers, trekkers, ultra runners etc. So they know what an endurance athlete goes thru. They know how to help with cramps, pain etc. The volunteer photographers were mindboggling. Never has anyone captured better snaps of me and all of them freely distributed the snaps instead of trying to monetize it.
But the most striking things about CTC is the minimal waste ethics. The water was in jugs and offered in glasses. No disposable bottles. The chocolates, bananas, oranges were all in small pieces so that you need not take more than what you can eat and subsequently waste. I sincerely wish and hope race directors and race organizers take a cue from CTC on keeping it environment friendly.

Dose'O'Inspiration:

I finished 12th overall. 4 out of the 11 who finished before me were veterans (above 43 yr old). The only person to pass me during the bike-run leg was also a veteran.

For Ladies: The fastest swimmer among all of the participants was a female. She did 1500m in a splendid 27 mins. Among the 4 veterans who finished in the top 10 overall is a lady who finished the race in 3 Hours 57 mins. A lady participant finished 3/4th IRON distance (2.9 Km swim, 135 Km Ride & 31 Km run) in 15 hours 28 min. Another lady finished a 1/2 IRON distance (1.9 Km Swim, 90 Km Bike & 21 Km run) in an incredible 10 hours.

A super veteran participant who is 65 yrs old finished the FULL IRON distance (4km swim, 180 Km ride and 42 Km run) in a mind boggling 18 hours and 50 mins

Take Home Lessons:
- Work on transitions
- Build more stamina and strength so that you don't have to walk on the run leg.
- This course was more or less flat. Would have got tough in case of elevations.
- Make proper use of wind while riding.
- Lost some time zig zaging on the swim leg. Need sighting lessons in open water swimming. SWIM STRAIGHT.
- Get better in nutrition and hydration strategies. They make a helluva difference.
-Taper off as you near the raceday. Don't risk injuries.

Conclude

5 months of effort had culminated at this moment. I am very proud of the achievement. Made some fantastic friends. What more could you ask for??....Another Tri??...Goa Triathlon Feb 2015..Here I come!!

PS:

Links
Chennai Triathlon
My Pics
Photographer Album 1
Photographer Album 2
Photographer Album 3