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Friday, April 8, 2011

Rotterdam Mararhon 2011 - Pre Race Reports

Just returned from Rotterdam after collecting our Bibs - Our Bibs? yes, Our Bibs, Veda and I are running. Veda is attempting a her first 5k in Rotterdam and I will do the full.

The Train journey Den Hague to Rotterdam was quick, hardly to 20 odd minutes, found our way to Coolsingel and then to the Expo at World Trade Center. Lots of preparation happening on the streets with Red ABN AMRO Marathon flags waving. It was a bit cold but the sun was up and I hope it stays this way on Sunday.

Sharing some pictures of Rotterdam and Den Hague.

As i write this blog i am seeing Fauja Singh on BBC - who plans to set a record for the marathon for 100+ year category


Cheers
Murthy

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Mumbai Marathon - 2011

Two days before the 2011 Mumbai Marathon I could sense the pre-marathon blues in the form of right heel pain, which was increasing – part of it could be the bus journey and lugging bags etc.
Come Saturday, it was time to collect the bib. Veda and I headed for the Expo at World Trade Center – a busy place with lots of stalls to visit. I picked up a ice bag from our - Khusi exports. Met Chandra, JP, V Srini, Sindhu, Janardhan and family. Did not hang around
By evening my heel started to pain really bad and this time it seemed real. Iced it like hell, went to bed at 9pm. I was anxious about the Marathon, got up several times. Finally got up at 3:45am.
Ravi (brother in law) and I headed towards Marine Lines by the 4:30am local train, had some good adrak-chai at Marinel Lines and was in time at Gate no 3, Azad maidan. It looked like I was early. By 5:30 the crowd started building and festivities seemed to start with some loud music in the background.
Saw Ashok Nath, wished him a good run! Met V Srini and we parked ourselves on a plastic mat near the holding area. Was pleasantly surprised by a pat on my back by my ex-boss Stan Bradbury who was gunning for a 4-4:15 finish (he finished in 3:48!), Srini looking to do his PB 4:30 and me looking for under 5.
Off to the holding area. Met Janardhan, Tom and JP. All of us walked to the start and run kicked off on time at 6:15am.


0-10k
Ran a bit with Srini and Vinay. Met Chandra our brave runner running in spite of injured leg.
Vinay and I were about 300m behind the BUS (5 hour bus) and caught up at 4k and just around that time I spotted Kiran. I had promised him some electrolyte tabs and could not give it to him at the expo and was glad to spot him - gave him his share of dope and broke away from the BUS and Vinday as I wanted to maintain a 6:15 per K pace.
At Kemps corner made friends with Pankaj. We chatted a bit on the up slope and parted ways. (Marathon is a journey you meet friends on the way and also part ways)

11-21k
A familiar voice called “Murthy Uncle” and it was our good old little coach - Avinash manning the RH support along with Vinay's brother and his daughter. Grabbed a banana and biscuit and continued.
I met another Pankaj, who seemed to be running at my pace. Made friends with him and talked a lot about running, gait analysis and life. He had done mumbai before and gave me tips like - pick two bottles of water before sea link, and the need to conserve energy for peddar road on the return and say Hi to Ganapathi at Siddivinaya.
I hit the 21k at 2:13

22k to 30k
Veda and Saru(my sister) were waiting slightly ahead of Mahim Church. My heel pain was peaking and thought of quitting passed my mind. I immediatly dismissed it.

Ate Oranges, a fresh Bandana and off we (Pankaj and I).
And just then (24k) the lead vehicle passed us, followed by a double decker busload of camera men and the came the East Africans running at blistering pace, some of the runners were not even sweating.
Soon we were approaching the sea link. The sun was up but it was still pleasant. The sight of the gradient was daunting, I slowed down wanting to conserve and soon stopped. Was glad to see Pooja and Suman. Got my fix and contined. Pankaj and I parted as friends.
My calfs cramped, stretched it a bit and started trotting and soon the BUS overtook me. I felt de motivated at this juncture but made an attempt to tail it but realised in 60 seconds that it was a bad idea. Soon Vinay passed me at who was determined not to stop till end of Link.
Got to RH support, banana's etc and continued.
I hit the 30k in 3:36 about 15 minutes behind plan.

31k to 40k
What a relief 75% done at the same time I was thinking about the balance 12k. Negative thoughts were pouring in. I said to myself take it 1K at a time and I was determined now NOT to stop till I covered another K before the next walk break. It worked till 34k. I knew the next 1k was tough. Remebered Santhosh's advice, walked the uphill, well, the other option was to take a TAXI!
I was hoping to make up a bit on the down hill and started to stride, felt comfortable for the first 200m but soon the calf started to twitch, slowed down and reminded my self - as long as you trotting it is fine sub 5 hour is not important being close to it is.
Saw a runner cramping and massaging his calfs, helped him stretch and we continued at our own pace.
Marine drive was monotonous and hard. At the water stop I got my quads and calf iced. That really helped to increase pace.

Touched the 40k mark in 5 hours.

Felt great with 2k to go but legs were not willing to run. Saw a fellow runner with a ice bag, shameless asked him if could spared it and he willingly did. I iced my legs again, did strides to return the ice bag and headed to the finish line.

It was a great feeling to cross the finish in Amchi Mumbai and this would not have been possible without the support of Santhosh, Preeti, Chandra, Vinay, Vinon, Abnash, all RH support crew, RH runners, and last but not the least Ravi, Saru and my better half Veda and of course ICE!

Look forward to more running and getting better at it.

Cheers - Murthy