My first Half Marathon - Corbett Half Marathon 2012
While I promised in my last post that I will write about my experience, last one week I was wondering of the value to do it. Blogs should be something different, not repeated, memorable, about something interesting, etc. - while these holds true from my perspective about my first run but may not be from readers perspective and it might be just another story of how someone ran his first half marathon. Anyway since this blog is for me so here I go :)
On Friday, 6th April, Prof Bakshi and I left early morning from Delhi to meet with heavy traffic (4-5 km long) near Garhmukhteshwar in UP. Locals said that it's due to it being auspicious day and people coming to Ganges for bathing. We decided to step out of car and walk for about 3 km which was not a good decision as I over exerted and increased the pain in my calf from pulling some muscle during training two days ago. Yeah, this is the part of the story where runner runs instead of pain :)
Woke up early, 4:15 am Saturday, 7th April: Fresh smell of jungle, cup of black coffee, anxiety of upcoming run - overall a beautiful morning. It was a serene ride towards start point, on roads canopied by the trees (I should have taken photographs). We were surprised to see many local residents out so early for their morning walk; this place really seems full of health conscious people. Runners were all read at start point warming up for the event - felt unique excitement in the air.
We were flagged off at 6:30 from near Maple Resort near Sawaldey village. The run started nicely with Prof Bakshi and me starting at the very end of the crowd. It was a great feeling to see so many people running so well. Given my lack of practice I wasn't sure of my pace and didn't want to speed up initially. So I was depending on Prof Bakshi and kept following him for first 5-6 km, just few steps behind him. We were clocking around 6:30 min/km. I wanted to run little faster and felt uneasy with the slow pace so I increased my pace and moved ahead. My first set of tiredness or boredom hasn't come so far (as it happens during all my runs) possibly due to beautiful weather, nice course, so many people running with me, or the occasional cheering up from support teams. In fact, for a change, I was enjoying the run :) :).
I made it to midpoint in about 67 min. At this pace with little stretch I could do 2:10 hours which is better than my target time of 2:15 hours. I wondered if 2:00 hour time is possible for which I had about 53 minutes to run 10.5 km which means 5 min/km to achieve 2:00 time. I had lot of water and power gel and started running again after about a min of walk. Suddenly there was acute stomach pain and I was wondering if drinking so much water was wrong or if power gel was expired (it was an old pack bought two and half years ago). I continued running and thankfully the pain was gone after 5 minutes. I tried increasing my pace and do around 5min/km.
Whenever I saw someone running ahead of me, I told myself if s/he can do it then I can too and raced past them - a fat guy or a girl or an old man ahead of me of course made me push myself more.
I kept pushing myself and finished the 20th km at 1:56. Now 2:10 was not the target and I was aiming for 2:00 hours. I was left with 4 min for last 1.1 km and then came the hard part, elevation in the finishing stretch. I was totally out of energy and made my best effort but couldn't push myself up the slope and saw clock ticking past 2:00. Finally, I finished in 2:04 hours. The timing was way better than what I aimed for before the run and the best part was that I completed the course which I was not sure of doing till 3 weeks ago. I called Megha and she couldn't believe the timing :)
Oh yes, that pain in my calf was there at the start and increased for first 6 kilometers and then remained same with no further increase during the rest of the run, so no complains and no heroism to run with it :). I learnt many other fellow runner had major pains, yet they ran.
If I can run half marathon with only 3 weeks effort, then anyone can run it. Will you? Best Wishes for one who takes the challenge. Please write to me and let me know when you run your first.
The next challenge is to improve pace and next target is a full marathon.
While I promised in my last post that I will write about my experience, last one week I was wondering of the value to do it. Blogs should be something different, not repeated, memorable, about something interesting, etc. - while these holds true from my perspective about my first run but may not be from readers perspective and it might be just another story of how someone ran his first half marathon. Anyway since this blog is for me so here I go :)
On Friday, 6th April, Prof Bakshi and I left early morning from Delhi to meet with heavy traffic (4-5 km long) near Garhmukhteshwar in UP. Locals said that it's due to it being auspicious day and people coming to Ganges for bathing. We decided to step out of car and walk for about 3 km which was not a good decision as I over exerted and increased the pain in my calf from pulling some muscle during training two days ago. Yeah, this is the part of the story where runner runs instead of pain :)
Woke up early, 4:15 am Saturday, 7th April: Fresh smell of jungle, cup of black coffee, anxiety of upcoming run - overall a beautiful morning. It was a serene ride towards start point, on roads canopied by the trees (I should have taken photographs). We were surprised to see many local residents out so early for their morning walk; this place really seems full of health conscious people. Runners were all read at start point warming up for the event - felt unique excitement in the air.
We were flagged off at 6:30 from near Maple Resort near Sawaldey village. The run started nicely with Prof Bakshi and me starting at the very end of the crowd. It was a great feeling to see so many people running so well. Given my lack of practice I wasn't sure of my pace and didn't want to speed up initially. So I was depending on Prof Bakshi and kept following him for first 5-6 km, just few steps behind him. We were clocking around 6:30 min/km. I wanted to run little faster and felt uneasy with the slow pace so I increased my pace and moved ahead. My first set of tiredness or boredom hasn't come so far (as it happens during all my runs) possibly due to beautiful weather, nice course, so many people running with me, or the occasional cheering up from support teams. In fact, for a change, I was enjoying the run :) :).
I made it to midpoint in about 67 min. At this pace with little stretch I could do 2:10 hours which is better than my target time of 2:15 hours. I wondered if 2:00 hour time is possible for which I had about 53 minutes to run 10.5 km which means 5 min/km to achieve 2:00 time. I had lot of water and power gel and started running again after about a min of walk. Suddenly there was acute stomach pain and I was wondering if drinking so much water was wrong or if power gel was expired (it was an old pack bought two and half years ago). I continued running and thankfully the pain was gone after 5 minutes. I tried increasing my pace and do around 5min/km.
Whenever I saw someone running ahead of me, I told myself if s/he can do it then I can too and raced past them - a fat guy or a girl or an old man ahead of me of course made me push myself more.
I kept pushing myself and finished the 20th km at 1:56. Now 2:10 was not the target and I was aiming for 2:00 hours. I was left with 4 min for last 1.1 km and then came the hard part, elevation in the finishing stretch. I was totally out of energy and made my best effort but couldn't push myself up the slope and saw clock ticking past 2:00. Finally, I finished in 2:04 hours. The timing was way better than what I aimed for before the run and the best part was that I completed the course which I was not sure of doing till 3 weeks ago. I called Megha and she couldn't believe the timing :)
 |
| At Finish Line |
Oh yes, that pain in my calf was there at the start and increased for first 6 kilometers and then remained same with no further increase during the rest of the run, so no complains and no heroism to run with it :). I learnt many other fellow runner had major pains, yet they ran.
If I can run half marathon with only 3 weeks effort, then anyone can run it. Will you? Best Wishes for one who takes the challenge. Please write to me and let me know when you run your first.
The next challenge is to improve pace and next target is a full marathon.
Aap se to logon ko prerna milti hai, tumhare achievement se ye shyr yaad aa gaya
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Jara ek pathar to tabiyat se ushalo yaaro…
Good one, keep running :)
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