Amit has been championing many public health initiatives in and around Thanjavur through ProHEALTH Foundation. Amit and ProHEALTH also organized the inaugural Tanjore Rural Marathon in December 2013, which is back in its second edition on 21-Dec-2014.

My family was in Thanjavur to celebrate Diwali with our parents and we enlisted ourselves as volunteers for the Thirukattupalli marathon. Race date was 25-Oct-2014 and there were three categories of runs: 3K (kids below 10 years), 5K (kids between 10 and 15 years) and 10K (Open category, above 15 years).

Thirukattupalli Marathon (Pic courtesy: ProHEALTH)

Amit told me that there were about 800 registrations already, including nearly 200 girls. It was heartening to see such huge enthusiasm for running in a rural setting. Amit also invited my 6-year old son to run the 3K. Local sponsors had pledged about Rs. 20,000 towards prize money, which should hot up the competition. It promised to be a cracker of an event and we were eagerly looking forward to it.

Race day arrived and we started from Thanjavur around 4:30 AM, and arrived at the start point shortly after 5 AM. Amit was already busy, and we got to know that the venue of the race in Thirukattupalli, Sir P. S. Sivaswami Iyer Higher Secondary School, located in the heart of the town is a 100+ year old institution. The place was buzzing with athletes even before the gates of the school opened!

108 year old school as race venue

We helped a bit with traffic management and directed parents and other spectators’ vehicles to designated parking areas so that they do not obstruct runners. The run was on a two-lane main road and the route to follow was an out and back loop of 1.5K, 2.5K and 5K according to the category. The local police also supported the race by blocking vehicular traffic for the runners.

Race start was delayed by a few minutes because of the huge crowd and a large number of last minute entries. Amit and the ProHEALTH team should be commended for encouraging everyone to run, even if they had not registered in advance. The crowd had swelled to excess of 1000. At about 6:10 AM the 10K runners were off, followed shortly by the 5K runners. The youngest of them all, the 3K athletes were waiting patiently for their ‘seniors’ to be flagged off. My son joined the 3K crowd, and accompanied by my wife, who ran with him, had a whale of a time running the race. The entire town of Thirukattupalli was out on the street, cheering the runners and encouraging them to run harder. Vehicular traffic was stopped for a while, and curious bus passengers got down from their seats and joined the Thirukattupalli crowd in cheering the runners.

Athletes lined up

And they are off!

Faster!

Overall it was a fun event and we had a great time doing our small bit towards its organization. My son thoroughly enjoyed the run and proudly wore his medal during our drive back home. No words of appreciation are enough for Amit and ProHEALTH for bringing running closer to the masses and making such events accessible to all. If such races mushroom in every village, recreational running will no longer be seen as an activity of the elite. For a mere Rs. 25 registration fee, the team has managed to provide a finishers medal, certificate, biscuits, bananas and water. There is plenty of scope for the big city organizers to learn from the Thirukattupalli Marathon. Hope this race becomes bigger and better next time around.

BACKGROUND

The Kaveri Trail Marathon is one of the most popular trail races in the country organized by Runners for Life. KTM, as it is abbreviated usually would always be special for me since it was the first ever running event I participated in (I did the 10K in 2012). This time around I had been training for the full marathon. My previous marathon personal best was around 5 hours, and I was eagerly hoping to set a new personal record in this year’s race.

PRE-RACE

The race was scheduled on 21-Sep-2014 and the course is in Srirangapatna, near Mysore, around 130 Kms from Bangalore. My friend Bharath (who was doing the half marathon) and I decided to drive down on 21st early morning directly to the race, since we were participating in a hackathon on 20-Sep-2014. It turned out to be a big mistake and I could not get to bed before 11:30 PM on 20-Sep-2014. With less than 2 hours of sleep, I woke up, got ready and we started the drive to the race venue. Stopped in Maddur Cafe Coffee Day for morning coffee and all seemed well. Unfortunately, as we neared the race venue, things turned bad and I was overcome with nausea. I got down from the car and puked on the road, emptying much of the coffee that I had taken in earlier. Felt really weak at that point of time, and if not for Bharath’s motivation, I would be decided to give the race a miss.

COURSE

The Kaveri Trail Marathon trail is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful courses in the country. It is a 10.55 Km out and back loop which the full-marathoners have to do twice. The river Kaveri runs alongside the entire trail and lush green fields make up either side of the course. It is indeed a visual delight, enough to make runners forget any pain they are feeling. Runners for Life are renowned for their near perfect organization and the full marathon started exactly at the stroke of 6 AM.

Kaveri Train Marathon. Pic courtesy: Runners for Life

Since I wasn’t very sure about my health, I decided to take it slowly maintaining a pace of about 7mins/Km for the first half of the race. I was pretty much leading from the rear, with my slow pace. However, I did not let that get into my head since I wasn’t sure whether I would be able to finish the race if I pushed myself. I consumed a gel approximately every hour an a sip of water every 30 minutes or so. I completed the first half of the race in under 2 h 30 m and I was reasonably pleased with myself, considering that I was doubtful even to start.

Meanwhile, I saw that Bharath, who was targeting a half marathon finish time of under 2 hours, did very well to finish in 2 h 3 m, which was a commendable performance considering that he had been deprived of sleep as well, and not to mention he did the driving all the way from Bangalore.

Pretty hot conditions

POST RACE

I finished the race so late that the organizers ran out of medals Jokes apart, the post race brunch was simply awesome and provided much needed relief after being out there on the course for six hours. Many thanks to Bharath for patiently waiting for me to finish, and driving me both ways. He must have been waiting for me for more than three hours.

LESSONS LEARNED

1) KTM is a tough race, I had seriously underestimated it.
2) Do not compromise on sleep the day(s) before the race. Next year I will stay closer to the venue and not do the 3 hour drive from Bangalore on race day.
3) Wear a cap, especially if you are a slower runner.

BACKGROUND

I had been seeing some posts about the IBM BlueMix Monsoon Marathon on my Facebook feed, but didn’t think much about it till almost the last minute when my wife and son decided to go for a running event on the weekend. Race day was on 31-Aug-2014 and online registrations were closed. Spot registrations were however open at the bib collection venue: Forum Value Mall, Whitefield, Bangalore which was a good 25 Km distance from my home. Went along with the family, finished the registration process and collected our bibs and t-shirts. I signed up for the half-marathon while my wife and son signed up for the 5K. One of our neighours and his son also signed up for the 5K. Timing chips were optional and cost extra, and none of us picked up timing chips since we did not have any realistic chance of a podium finish.

RACE DAY

We started around 5 AM from home to cover the 25 Km distance to the start point. Reporting time was 5:45 AM and the 21K was scheduled to start at 6 AM. Milkha Singh was to flag off the race and we were quite excited to catch a glimpse of the legend and hear him speak. We were not disappointed and soon enough Milkha Singh reached the venue and gave an inspirational speech about hard work and his dream to see an Indian winning a Olympic medal in athletics in his life time. The kids managed to get themselves clicked with the legend himself.

Milkha Singh arrives

The kids with the legend

COURSE

The 21K flag-off was delayed by about 15 minutes but we were pretty charged up after Milkha Singh’s inspirational speech. The race was in Whitefield, Bangalore: the city’s IT district. The course looked pretty flat with no flyovers or any major climbing to do. The entire race was on properly paved road. The race organizers had done a commendable job in cordoning off traffic along the run course, though there were some complaints (in the organizer’s Facebook page) from local residents about the “strict” traffic restrictions.

Cool conditions

More or less flat course

My primary goals for the race was two-fold:

• Run the entire race at an even pace
• Consume no supplements / energy drinks and as little water as possible during the entire race

My personal best for the half-marathon distance was 2 hour 19 minutes set in 2013 Dream Runners Half Marathon, Chennai and my secondary goal for this race was to set a new personal best.

With these two thoughts in mind I set off and got into a steady rhythm soon. The first 5Km of the race was smooth sailing with a heart rate of less then 155 bpm and a pace of about 6m30s per Km. I knew that if I maintained the same pace, I would beat my previous personal best. Kilometers 6-15 saw me put in some additional effort to maintain the same pace and my average heart rate rose closer to 160 bpm for a 6m30s/Km pace.

Towards the 15th Km, I began to tire and decided to take my fist sip of water at the next aid station, which thankfully, was not very far away. I grabbed a 200 ml bottle of water and it felt refreshing to have a drink. Unfortunately, there weren’t any dustbins after the aid station, and I had to discard the empty bottle on the side of the road. Hope the organizers make arrangements to strategically place dustbins after aid stations so that runners can discard their empty bottles / cups instead of littering the roads.

I had to put in additional effort to maintain pace for the rest of the race, my HR climbed to mid 160s bpm but I could still maintain a consistent pace. By now I knew that I was on my way to a new personal best. For the last few Kms, I didn’t care much about my increasing heart rate and romped home in 2h16m setting a new personal best. Overall, I was quite happy with my performance, having achieved a PB in fasted state with on course nutrition consisting of 200 ml water.

More or less steady pace throughout

Consistently increasing heart rate

POST RUN

There were lots of fun activities after run: Ice bucket challenge by Milind Soman, dance etc. Kids had a lot of fun and they even got to volunteer for a while distributing medals for the finishers. Post run refreshments consisted of biscuits and some juice. On the whole, it was a well organized, fun-filled event on a Sunday morning and I hope to be back next year again!

Kids got to volunteer for a while

Post run fun

One notable deficiency in aid stations was that they stocked just water. There weren’t any energy drinks or bananas or biscuits commonly found in other races. While this didn’t affect me personally because I didn’t plan to consume any, it could have been a factor for other runners. Hope the organizers make amends next year.

BACKGROUND

The journey started with an effort to loose weight in May 2012 from my then weight of 100+ Kgs. Having never engaged in any sport in my entire 30+ years of life, I took up the Couch to 5K program and was amazed at myself that I could run non stop for 30 minutes within a couple of months. Bought a cycle (RockRider 5.0) to add some variety and started commuting to office (around 6 Km one way) twice a week. Completed a few running races and started training for my first full marathon (Auroville Marathon) in Feb 2013. Enrolled in beginner swimming classes in Dec 2012 with a far fetched dream of participating in triathlons.

Auroville marathon was a pleasant experience and I managed to complete in around 5 hours. Fresh off the marathon success, in a fit of enthusiasm I signed up for IRONMAN New Zealand 2014 in March 2013. This gave me around a year to train for the event, and more importantly learn swimming well. At that stage I could just about swim one lap in a 20m pool.

Decided that I will follow Don Fink’s 30 week training program. For the Mar 2014 event, I would need to start following the plan in Jul 2013. Decided to use the time from Mar-Jul 2013 to improve my swimming and enrolled in more swimming lessons.

August 2013 was my first ever triathlon (Thonnur triathlon, sprint distance) and also my first open water swim. By them I could swim about continuously for 10-15 laps freestyle (in a 20m pool), recover using breast stroke for a while and then resume freestyle. Open water swimming was a different beast altogether and the Thonnur lake was far too choppy for my comfort. I struggled to find any rhythm, switched to breast stroke for almost the entire 750m and was last out of the water. Enrolled for more swimming lessons

Meanwhile, running and cycling training were going along nicely and in Oct 2013 I participated in my first half iron triathlon (swim leg in a pool) in Hyderabad. I was reasonably satisfied with the race, having completed it in 8h 50m, which even though was not within the official IRONMAN cut off for the half-iron distance, made me confident that with some more training I could do it. Especially satisfying was the swim leg which I completed in 1h11m (for 1.9 Km – the IRONMAN cut-off is 1h10m normally).

In Dec 2013 I enrolled in the Chennai Trekking Club‘s full iron-distance triathlon. By then I could swim non-stop, and do around 1.6 Km in an hour comfortably (in a pool). Unfortunately, this race shattered my confidence. In the open water swim, I could not swim in a straight line and I continuously veered off the course, leading to a very frustrating experience. I was again the last out of water, having finished the swim more than 3 hours after start. The race ended in a disappointing DNF after about 40 Kms cycling.

Concentrated on swimming in Jan/Feb at the expense of cycling and running. By Feb, I could do about 1.9-2.0 Kms in an hour in the pool. While theoretically, this is enough to beat the 2h20m cut off for the 3.8 Km swim, my previous experiences with open water and my inability to swim in a straight line made me worried to no end.

So, with doubts looming large, I reached New Zealand. The other professional-looking athletes further increased my doubts and the stress was just too much to handle. I just wanted the race to get over so that I could relax Before race start, my sole goal was the beat the swim cut-off and get “as far as possible” with the cycle. Just beating the swim cut off would be a victory for me – it would be a real short race to travel 10000+ Kms if I do not manage to finish the swim in 2h20m.

PRE RACE NUTRITION

• One bowl curd rice at around 4 AM
• 3 GU gels, one each at 5:30 AM, 6:15 AM, 6: 45 AM

Race start: 7 AM

SWIM

Equipment: Fit2Race Sockeye Wetsuit

So, with this singular aim of finishing the swim course within the cut-off time, I entered the clear waters of Lake Taupo. The swim is a one lap out and back course with a mass start. I stayed at the very back and started swimming once the canon went off. Almost everyone was ahead of me and I kept a few in my sight with the hope of following them (and if possible draft behind them) and not going off course. However, this didn’t work well, I soon lost track of others and was alone in the waters (though to my much joy, I could see a few people behind me). As expected, I went off course, the race officials would come next to me quite often to direct me back on track. This went on for some time and after a while, my sighting improved and I managed to stick to a more or less straight line. I had decided not to look into my watch till the turn around point and after what felt like eternity, I reached the halfway mark. My heart started beating faster when I knew that now is the time to look at my watch. Imagine my joy when the clock read 55 mins or so! At that point I knew that I would finish the swim (unless something drastically went wrong). With renewed enthusiasm, I turned back. My sighting improved on the way back, though I still swam in a zig-zag line. However, the waters were more choppy and this caused some trouble. I managed to get out of the water in 1h58m which was a great victory for me! I was overjoyed! I guess the wetsuit greatly improved my speed – I am sure I had swam at least 10% more than the course length of 3.8 Km.

Swim Exit

A happy me

CYCLE

Equipment: BTWin Triban 5 stock condition, Leopardskyn full sleeve jersey, BTWin bib shorts 9

It was a bit chilly and I decided to wear the full sleeve jersey (I had kept both the full and half sleeve jerseys in my transition bag). The bike course is a two lap out and back course (45 Kms one way). It is mostly flat with some climbing to do at the beginning and at the halfway mark. The outbound course is a gentle downhill and the return leg is a gentle uphill.

I started cycling with great enthusiasm and averaged around 26-27 Kmph for the first 45 Kms. If I could manage to keep this up, I was on track for a 7 hour finish. However things turned worse after I took the U-turn back to the town. There was a very strong headwind (It was only now that I realised that my 26 Kmph average for the first 45 Kms was due to the tail wind) and the course was a gradual uphill. I must admit that I tried to push hard so that I could remain on track for a 7 hour cycle course finish. This drained me somewhat but I struck to my nutrition plan of 1 gel every 30 mins or so with a few gulps of water and electrolyte drink. Crowd support was awesome and I reached the town after struggling hard on the way back. By now, I had given up on targeting 7 hours and was hoping to complete between 7h30m and 7h45m. Started the 2nd lap with the hope of making the most off the downhill and the tailwind. Energy wise I was feeling fine, but I was getting a bit frustrated on seeing other athletes with more aerodynamic cycles overtaking me with ease. Finally reached the U-turn point and started the last leg of cycling back to town. By now, I was getting tired of the electrolyte drink and the gel so switched to coke. But I continued ingesting gels every half an hour. My average speed for the last 45 Kms was only 18 Kmph but it was a steady effort. I finally managed to reach home around 5:22 PM (8 minutes before the cycle cut off of 5:30 PM).

Onwards!

RUN

Equipment: Full sleeve dri-fit T-shirt and shorts, Vivobarefoot Ultra shoes

I had approximately 6h30m to finish the marathon. I set a goal of 7 Kmph so that I finish the marathon in approximately 6 hours, giving me half an hour to spare in case things don’t go according to plan. The run is along a 3 lap 14 Km loop along the lake. I started well, maintaining more than 7.5 Kmph for the first 5 Kms or so. However, I could not continue running for long and started taking walking breaks. With a run-walk strategy, I finished 7 Km within the first hour (with a few minutes to spare). However, at this stage my walking time was increasing and running time decreasing. I realised that this cannot continue for long and that I needed to rework my strategy. I decided to take it one kilometre at a time. In order to maintain a 7 Kmph average speed, I need to run every Km in approximately 8m30s. At the beginning of the Km, I would sprint as fast I could so that my “lap time” for the Km would come down to 6m30s – 7m. Then I would start walking. Once the lap time went above 8m, I would start running to bring it down below 8m. With this strategy, I could finish each Km between 8m-8m30s. Occasionally, during uphills I would cross 9+ mins overall this was working well, and I maintained 7 Kmph without draining myself out (At times I would doubt whether I am doing the maths correct, but thankfully I didn’t make a mistake). Nutrition on the run course consisted of a gel every 25-30 mins and coke. Things were fine till 30 Kms after which I developed stomach pain. I slowed down drastically for a few Kms and stopped taking gels thinking that the stomach pain could be due to a overdose of gels. After a few Kms the pain eased up but at around 35 Kms I became very tired, possibly because I stopped the gels. However, I had around 1h25m to finish the final 7 Kms, and I knew that I would finish the race with 15-20 mins to spare. I tried my best to follow the run/walk strategy for the last 7 Kms, though I could not finish each Km within 8m30s, each Km took 9m – 9m30s.

Finally, 16h and 40m after the race started, and with 20 minutes to spare before the midnight cut-off, I jogged down the finish chute and it was a great moment when Mike Reilly called out my name and announced that I was an IRONMAN!

Almost there

IRONMAN finish line

THANK YOU

I am deeply indebted to many people without whom I wouldn’t have achieved my dream:

To my family, my wife, son and mother-in-law for taking care of me and putting up with me
To my office colleagues, some of whom started the weight loss journey together and continue to inspire me.
To all my friends for being with me, all these years
To Bharath Basappa, who introduced me to IRONMAN, who trained and raced with me, but unfortunately missed the cycle cut off by 4 minutes.
To Nisha Millet Swimming Academy for teaching me swimming
To Decathlon, BOTS, Leopardskyn, for all the wonderful gear
To Chennai Trekking Club for bringing triathlon mainstream in India
To the volunteers and the wonderful crowd in Taupo, without your support and encouragement on race day, I wouldn’t have finished

Thanks a lot!