TCS 10k 2012

Hi-Fi Runners High!

Felt a deja-vu for the last couple of days similar to ones a couple of decades back reminding my X std result days, where we talked only numbers with every one we bump into. Even after getting better numbers than deserved, used to feel that I should have got more. After 36 hours of indulging in numbers and spoiling a couple of hours of browsing through the database of pro-cam, am experiencing a core-dump listening to why every one in the list deserved a better timing. We need a virus in the pro-cam database to get bangalore some well deserved sleep.

My run was really good and memorable:
1. Woke up a minute before my alarm made the irritating noise
2. My daughter woke up cheerfully at 5-00 volunteering to join the RH cheering group
3. Bangalore was blessed with its signature heavy midnight shower
4. Exhaustive publicity and arrangements from Procam (like advertisement, hype and importantly Parking)
5. Early morning RH coffee - a blend of cubbon, cheerful faces & workout (warm up in this case)
6. My First sight of the superior species of our beloved sport - the Kenyans
7. "Odourless" Mobile Toilets
8. Bumped into 3 college mates after a span of 12 years, also sync'ed up with a dozen of cycling buddies
9. Realized the value of grapevine routine: Twisting and twirling making my way through the crowd
10. The cheer girls from the IPL had an extended contract to fill up the 4 stages in the course of the run. These cost me atleast 15 seconds * 4 = 1 minute
11. Experienced that Vidhana Soudha can barely catch an eye, when your brain is fogged with numbers/targets/goal
12. Grounding fact that I cannot catch up with sea of runners ahead of me, thus quickly switched to our RH motto "enjoy the run, not the numbers"
13. Took me 9 kms before I felt i should be running (not jogging) and scampered through our favourite cubbon palm groove
14. After all, I forgot the main lesson/tip to smile or pose at the camera at the finishing line, so my official photo will probably only depict facts

Coming to vote of thanks:
Santosh - Setting the right goal(Also the accuracy of goal pace: I finished at the goal pace that was determined 3 months back in the 2 mile time trial)
RH Community: Serious motivation for the "RH Coffee" session
Srini P - Helped me overcome my knee injury with his ideas on ice packs and foam rollers
Meghana - Reason behind me getting to know RH
Jai Prakash - Hes been pushing himself/me. attribute the better timelines to him
George and his scout team: Motivation for their running form
George's famous dialogue on his goal- "Finish all my 10k in the same numbers as my age"
Jayanthi, Kaiwan and the cheer group: For the noise, which I could barely hear, but cant forget the sight

Since starting with RH from this year's auroville, I have been coached that the main goal is to enjoy running. Full marks to Santosh and coaches for sticking to their motto. The 5-point mail from santosh did give some wake up calls. Appreciate the fact that, Srini P the coach I interact closely, did not even ask me my finish timings. Instead was asking about the run and stretches. I have been human and thus falling to the temptations of goal pace and number games, but will try to change this. Am still some way to fully realize the motto of "enjoy running", but am sure am on course especially in the company of RH with a community of mentors with abundance of inspirational characters

Hyderabad Marathon 2012

Me and Jay (Jaya Prakash Pai, quoting full name to avoid the confusion with the 4 jai’s we have in RH) at the start of the season, running at easy pace (as per RH definition- pace at which you can chat) chatting about our goals were wondering about a strategy to ramp-up for a marathon. Mindlessly decided that 3 strong half marathons and then we should be ready to start training for Mumbai marathon.  Thus seeded our idea of doing half at Hyderabad, KTM and Ultra.

The build up on  the day before was pretty good. It was cool and rains were spraying around. The expo for bib collection was put in a posh hotel ‘Radisson blu’ hidden somewhere in banjara hills. Auto driver went mad with the twisting roads amongst the hills. But a nice T-shirt was good enough to get us pumped up. Took care of all the advises from our coaches for the pre-run:
1.       Good healthy non-spicy dinner: A huge serving of rice with gongura chutni, poppu and Andhra pickles
2.       No Junk food: a triple sundae ice-cream at ‘cream-stone’ was supposed to be providing healthy  proteins and nutrition
3.       Good sleep: 4 hours on the bed turning around waiting to wake up the alarm
4.       Small Pre-run breakfast: Planned 1 dosa, was so focused on race thus did not realize I had finished 3 of them
5.       Pre run warm up: A one whole lap around the hussain sagar lake (10 km) not knowing the start point at tempo pace in the taxi

There was some drama before the start: Kavita had a bad knee and thus she decided to skip the run and partied till 12 midnight, but realized she was fine to run only at 2am. So Folks with injuries – partying is good for recovery. Malay had an adventure of missing his train because of Bangalore traffic, then tried his luck hoping that the train might take a detour to cantonment station to pick him up, but futile. Took a bus to hyderabad, went straight to see cricket match in stadium and finally by night he had realized he had a bad knee, thus no running and chose that he will atleast act as a cheerleader for us at the finish point. But probably again missed the bus, thus we never saw him in this whole trip.

Race start was a nice place around the lake, but was surprised to see very few people around, compared to TCS 10k. The 5 of us Jay, Kavita, Aseem, Shinto and myself were the last ones to start the run, as we did not want to be the reason for any clogging. Jay and kavitha paired up, so did me and aseem. Weather was perfect, so me and aseem decided we are going to take it slower than easy pace and just have fun. Aseem had by-hearted the whole elevation profile so knew the inclines and declines better than the garmin.  Shinto sometime in declines wanted to fly off with his arms out like an airplane, he did fly, but like a kingfisher plane of recent times.

We chatted around quite a lot, especially with Hyderabad roads giving us lots of topics. Airtel had hired up a few hundreds of people as cheer leaders in red shirts, thus they were constantly egging right thru the 21k track. They even had a couple of buses which ran up and down screaming around. Thankfully they were not the likes of IPL cheer leaders, otherwise half the participants would not have finished. Roads were long, wide all the way and were blocked. Participation from the locals was good – a couple of families turned up to cheer and 1000s of hyderabadis were egging us with their curses: “Why don’t you run in park, why roads”, “What are you doing *&^#$$” , “you must be nuts” sounded like “we love you running on road, instead of park”, “what a great thing you are doing”, “please take nuts”.

The aid stations were decent: Had water, Gatorade, bananas, biscuits in each one. The best part was that our noses would realize an approaching station, before our eyes did, thanks to volunteers using the moov spray like air fresheners. Probably that was the strategy to hide the Hyderabad stink, we barely smelt anything bad. Terrain looked a little challenging with lots of flyovers and hilly areas. It started raining for the last 30 minutes or so, providing perfect conditions.

Time for Stats: Me and aseem ran together for 18 kms, stopped at each station for water/gaterode, walked for a minute while munching on the bananas/biscuits, maintained constant pace at around 6.5 minutes per km. It seemed really easy, perhaps because of the extra 30 seconds we took per km, weather conditions,  environment and chatting around. Finished my race in 2h-17m, 10 mins off my goal pace, but 10 times the fun.

Race ended with a nice medal at finish line inside a stadium like a Olympic finish, decent brunch box (quantity wise). Jay/kavita helped our recovery by booking a super cab from a really far off stadium and taking care of dropping us back to our door steps.