Most Comfortable Marathon Run so far...
The First statement to make is obvious. Feeling so much Contented to get a good result after putting in so much efforts.
Registration by Impulse
After finishing Coimbatore Half Marathon with a half marathon PR of 1:32, i heard from many of my fellow runners from Hyderabad Runners group with whom i train with, that almost every single person that i spoke with had registered for Mumbai Marathon. With me having registered for Tour of Nilgris already, was in no plan to register for any other event around the time frame.
But my runner's instinct did not let me do it, and ended up registering for Mumbai marathon, the day after Coimbatore half which was on October 8th. Having said that i just had 3 months to train for Mumbai full and also train and ride Tour of Nilgris.
Target for next 3 months
My target for both the events were pretty obvious, finish TFN without a DNF and run Mumbai in 3 hours 20 minutes, my failed attempt to get a 3:20 at Eugene full Marathon in 2012 was still fresh in mind. Immediately reached out to my running coach Chuck Bartlett under whom i was training in Seattle for a training plan, that too with an ambitious target of 3:20. He got back with a much rigorous plan of close to 90km per week with the statement "i know you can do it". With the confidence he had in me and knowing my previous years attempts, i thought i can do it and started with the training.
The training with 90k of run per week and close to 300k biking per week until december, was putting on undue pressure on me. From being 78kgs in March 2013 i went down to 67Kgs by November putting me in underweight Zone. that speaks of the intensity of training. With great training plan set it by him and awesome company and support that Hyderabad runners group had extended i felt i got a good set of training with a no run but intense biking week during TFN times. I was confident for a solid race in Mumbai but was still skeptical about the finishing in target time since anything can go wrong till the last mile.
Group travel and Expo
With a whopping >150 runners from Hyderabad runners travelling to mumbai for the race, it was nothing short than a festive mood with many of us boarding the train and the only thing that we spoke for next 48 hours was just about running and nothing else. Having attended much more bigger marathons, felt that the organization for bib distribution was bad, with long queues and with almost 20 + counters, felt that it was not greatly though through. Collected the bib, and followed with a heavy carb load at Moshe's. Had a great time interacting with many runners during the meal.
Race Day
we were put up in a hotel very near to CST, we had the luxury of having little more sleep and be all prepared to go get the best race. With all the folks from the group already gone to the start point, we 4 of us were the last to start. All smiles in the morning just before the grueling race!
Seamless Start
After a brief walk through the CST and entering the Azad Maidan, saw a few yellow tees, it was Chief and few other folks who were all preparing for the race. Had few quick sprints and was trying to stretch my calves, with chief remarking to not try too much few minutes before start. Since i was in the Coral A, i thought i would start jogging towards the point, not realizing that i had very few minutes to reach there. Once i saw a board for Corral A, entered into to see people from HR runners Venu, AB and others, and was instructed that Corral A was ahead. With quick wishes exchanged, started to jog to the Coral A, soon after i reached the rear end of corall A i see the time of 5:39:34 on the watch, just 26 seconds to start, i tried to sneak to the front of corall A, and the race starts, so seamless for the first time, i did not even feel that i am starting a huge event, was easing through the crowd in the dark.
After close to half a mile from the start, felt a hand from behind and wishing all the best, it was our desi superman Sunil Menon with his usual effortless stride, moving ahead. Exchanged wishes and started to pay attention to my Pace.
Pace Plan
based on my successful pacing stratergy from Portland Marathon 2011 and failed stratergy from Eugene Marathon 2012, i arrived at the following plan. With my target pace for being 7Minutes 38 Seconds per Mile or 4Minutes 45 Seconds per Km, i thought i shall start with a faster pace say at around 7:30 per mile, keep it up for 6 miles and then next 10 miles at 7:35 and then run any pace above 7:38 based on how i feel. If at all i am hitting a wall it might mostly be around mile 17 or 18, so planned to save some time before i reach that point so that i can expense it during the last 10 miles.
First 6 Miles
While it being dark and with cold breeze, we were cruising along the Marine drive with a U turn around Nariman point , i again managed to sight Sunil, with a loud cheer in for him, i kept going, i was going good with Splits falling at 7:31 more consistently. At the end of mile 6 i had slightly varied splits than what i expected
With 11 seconds off target, i decided to continue the 7:31 plan for next couple of miles and then decided to fall back to 7:35. But with prolonged distance at 7:31 i always was fearing about the experience in Eugene marathon 2012 where i ended up being super fast in the beginning only to lose the time by a big way later.
With Mile 7 and 8 showing not much improvement, with still 5 seconds off target, i decided to fall back to 7:35 pace without any delay. By then i had already got on to the Sea Link. I remember visiting Mumbai during 7th grade, when the basic ground work for the sea link was in progress, and i would never dreamed about running on that bridge 20 years later running a full Marathon. While on the sea link was almost alone with couple of people ahead of me in distance. Was really enjoying the cool breeze, running on the bridge with foggy view with water all around. An unique experience indeed. The plan was to meet the 1 hour 40 minutes by 13 miles(21k), which i managed to be right on target with pace maintained around 7:35
Post the Mid point Mark
The First statement to make is obvious. Feeling so much Contented to get a good result after putting in so much efforts.
Registration by Impulse
After finishing Coimbatore Half Marathon with a half marathon PR of 1:32, i heard from many of my fellow runners from Hyderabad Runners group with whom i train with, that almost every single person that i spoke with had registered for Mumbai Marathon. With me having registered for Tour of Nilgris already, was in no plan to register for any other event around the time frame.
But my runner's instinct did not let me do it, and ended up registering for Mumbai marathon, the day after Coimbatore half which was on October 8th. Having said that i just had 3 months to train for Mumbai full and also train and ride Tour of Nilgris.
Target for next 3 months
My target for both the events were pretty obvious, finish TFN without a DNF and run Mumbai in 3 hours 20 minutes, my failed attempt to get a 3:20 at Eugene full Marathon in 2012 was still fresh in mind. Immediately reached out to my running coach Chuck Bartlett under whom i was training in Seattle for a training plan, that too with an ambitious target of 3:20. He got back with a much rigorous plan of close to 90km per week with the statement "i know you can do it". With the confidence he had in me and knowing my previous years attempts, i thought i can do it and started with the training.
The training with 90k of run per week and close to 300k biking per week until december, was putting on undue pressure on me. From being 78kgs in March 2013 i went down to 67Kgs by November putting me in underweight Zone. that speaks of the intensity of training. With great training plan set it by him and awesome company and support that Hyderabad runners group had extended i felt i got a good set of training with a no run but intense biking week during TFN times. I was confident for a solid race in Mumbai but was still skeptical about the finishing in target time since anything can go wrong till the last mile.
Group travel and Expo
With a whopping >150 runners from Hyderabad runners travelling to mumbai for the race, it was nothing short than a festive mood with many of us boarding the train and the only thing that we spoke for next 48 hours was just about running and nothing else. Having attended much more bigger marathons, felt that the organization for bib distribution was bad, with long queues and with almost 20 + counters, felt that it was not greatly though through. Collected the bib, and followed with a heavy carb load at Moshe's. Had a great time interacting with many runners during the meal.
Race Day
we were put up in a hotel very near to CST, we had the luxury of having little more sleep and be all prepared to go get the best race. With all the folks from the group already gone to the start point, we 4 of us were the last to start. All smiles in the morning just before the grueling race!
Seamless Start
After a brief walk through the CST and entering the Azad Maidan, saw a few yellow tees, it was Chief and few other folks who were all preparing for the race. Had few quick sprints and was trying to stretch my calves, with chief remarking to not try too much few minutes before start. Since i was in the Coral A, i thought i would start jogging towards the point, not realizing that i had very few minutes to reach there. Once i saw a board for Corral A, entered into to see people from HR runners Venu, AB and others, and was instructed that Corral A was ahead. With quick wishes exchanged, started to jog to the Coral A, soon after i reached the rear end of corall A i see the time of 5:39:34 on the watch, just 26 seconds to start, i tried to sneak to the front of corall A, and the race starts, so seamless for the first time, i did not even feel that i am starting a huge event, was easing through the crowd in the dark.
After close to half a mile from the start, felt a hand from behind and wishing all the best, it was our desi superman Sunil Menon with his usual effortless stride, moving ahead. Exchanged wishes and started to pay attention to my Pace.
Pace Plan
based on my successful pacing stratergy from Portland Marathon 2011 and failed stratergy from Eugene Marathon 2012, i arrived at the following plan. With my target pace for being 7Minutes 38 Seconds per Mile or 4Minutes 45 Seconds per Km, i thought i shall start with a faster pace say at around 7:30 per mile, keep it up for 6 miles and then next 10 miles at 7:35 and then run any pace above 7:38 based on how i feel. If at all i am hitting a wall it might mostly be around mile 17 or 18, so planned to save some time before i reach that point so that i can expense it during the last 10 miles.
First 6 Miles
While it being dark and with cold breeze, we were cruising along the Marine drive with a U turn around Nariman point , i again managed to sight Sunil, with a loud cheer in for him, i kept going, i was going good with Splits falling at 7:31 more consistently. At the end of mile 6 i had slightly varied splits than what i expected
Split
|
Time
|
Distance
|
Avg Pace
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7:30.4 | 1.00 | 7:30 |
| 2 | 7:31.5 | 1.00 | 7:32 |
| 3 | 7:31.0 | 1.00 | 7:31 |
| 4 | 7:32.0 | 1.00 | 7:32 |
| 5 | 7:31.5 | 1.00 | 7:32 |
| 6 | 7:36.3 | 1.00 | 7:36 |
| 7 | 7:31.8 | 1.00 | 7:32 |
| 8 | 7:33.3 | 1.00 | 7:33 |
With Mile 7 and 8 showing not much improvement, with still 5 seconds off target, i decided to fall back to 7:35 pace without any delay. By then i had already got on to the Sea Link. I remember visiting Mumbai during 7th grade, when the basic ground work for the sea link was in progress, and i would never dreamed about running on that bridge 20 years later running a full Marathon. While on the sea link was almost alone with couple of people ahead of me in distance. Was really enjoying the cool breeze, running on the bridge with foggy view with water all around. An unique experience indeed. The plan was to meet the 1 hour 40 minutes by 13 miles(21k), which i managed to be right on target with pace maintained around 7:35
| 9 | 7:34.8 | 1.00 | 7:35 |
| 10 | 7:37.5 | 1.00 | 7:37 |
| 11 | 7:38.5 | 1.00 | 7:39 |
| 12 | 7:39.0 | 1.00 | 7:39 |
| 13 | 7:32.0 | 1.00 | 7:32 |
| Split@10.5 Km | 0:49:40 at an Avg Speed of 12.68 Kmph |
| Split@15 Km | 1:11:02 at an Avg Speed of 12.67 Kmph |
| Split@20.1 Km | 1:35:16 at an Avg Speed of 12.66 Kmph |
| Split@21.1 Km | 1:40:03 at an Avg Speed of 12.65 Kmph |
I was felling great post the mid point mark, with beaming confidence i was continuing on at the steady pace. But on the other hand was feeling skeptical with the fast approaching "Could potentially hit the wall" distance. Frankly speaking i was feeling myself starting to slow down, with relatively lesser runners around that time along with me, for some reason even on top of crowd support felt deserted. Soon came the section where there was a table stacked with water bottles with numbers pasted on them. It was potentially meant for the Elite runners, just passing that i was nearing around 17.5 miles which is the crucial moment according to me at every race, we were able to sight the sea link, with too much of water bottles crushed and dropped on the road and with no one to clean it, was like jumping through a maze for the next 2 kms, glad i had that to focus that worrying about the distance.
Single Digit Miles to Cover
With a never before attitude, i just had this thought in mind stating that its just 9 more miles to go, also i was feeling lot better at around mile 18, It was a stretch of out and back in there, where in i started seeing the usual runners from soles of cochin team easily sprinting barefoot at around 30k mark, in fact i started to pick up the pace and wanted to get back to maintain around 7:31 per mile pace. As i was reaching the 30k mark myself i say Tim Tim running at around 27k, with the secret mission of not getting beaten up by her in timing, i was happy enough with my lead.
Sight of the Elites
Soon was i crossing the intersection of sea link and as i proceeded towards Peddar road, for the first time in any of my 30 odd races, saw the elite runners gliding the surface of the road as a huge group, that was a real delight to watch these folks glide through, soon to be followed by the Indian elites lead by Ram Singh. Seeing all the elites i was all pumped up and continued my pace around 7:30's.
Single Digit Miles to Cover
With a never before attitude, i just had this thought in mind stating that its just 9 more miles to go, also i was feeling lot better at around mile 18, It was a stretch of out and back in there, where in i started seeing the usual runners from soles of cochin team easily sprinting barefoot at around 30k mark, in fact i started to pick up the pace and wanted to get back to maintain around 7:31 per mile pace. As i was reaching the 30k mark myself i say Tim Tim running at around 27k, with the secret mission of not getting beaten up by her in timing, i was happy enough with my lead.
Sight of the Elites
Soon was i crossing the intersection of sea link and as i proceeded towards Peddar road, for the first time in any of my 30 odd races, saw the elite runners gliding the surface of the road as a huge group, that was a real delight to watch these folks glide through, soon to be followed by the Indian elites lead by Ram Singh. Seeing all the elites i was all pumped up and continued my pace around 7:30's.
| 14 | 7:38.0 | 1.00 | 7:38 |
| 15 | 7:35.8 | 1.00 | 7:36 |
| 16 | 7:35.5 | 1.00 | 7:36 |
| 17 | 7:37.0 | 1.00 | 7:37 |
| 18 | 7:35.0 | 1.00 | 7:35 |
| 19 | 7:34.5 | 1.00 | 7:34 |
| 20 | 7:37.0 | 1.00 | 7:37 |
Start of the Weaving Run
Soon after the sighting of the elite runners, had a steady run trying to maintain pace within the required pace of 7:38 was on and was progressing steadily, until somwhere near the peddar road where i started to see a huge crowd, half of it were the supporters from the local generously handing over choclates, sweets, biscuits and what not. Wish i had the liberty to slow down and treat my taste buds :) , while i was looking around seeing all this to realize that my pace started to slow down partially due to me not paying attention to it and increasing crowd of people. Wish garmin has an option to show how laterally do you move along the course, by this section i started going to the left and right trying to find some way out and still maintain my pace. soon to hit the climb up to the peddar road, which i never expected to come.
6 weeks of hill training and the gift of running routes in hyderabad, that didnt seem to affect my pace too much, though it slowed down, i managed to get back to 7:32 pace for couple of miles then. soon to realize that i was hitting a huge patch of walkers who were at their own pace and only thing that i could do was to weave like crazy around the people and trying hard to maintain the pace.
| 21 | 7:40.0 | 1.00 | 7:40 |
| 22 | 7:42.3 | 1.00 | 7:42 |
| 23 | 7:45.3 | 1.00 | 7:45 |
| 24 | 7:38.8 | 1.00 | 7:39 |
Last 2 Miles
While i was at 24 miles i was at 3:01, i exactly had 18 minutes to cover 2.2 miles, which boils down to 9 minute/mile pace which is easily 1.5 minutes slower, so i was extremely delighted and was hoping for a 3:19 finish, but unfortunately the width of the running course started to get reduced and huge chunk of people walking. Thats the last thing any runner would want to do, i had no option other than to trouble my ankle to a great extent, run around folks, push a few, and ultimately when i was all near the last mile and ready to sprint and give it all to get my 3:20, i had no option except to run in the ditch or a rain water lane along the left side near the finish line to get around the walkers and managed to sprint just the last 200 meters with a STRONG finish of 3:21. Only to realize i had 0.30 miles more and the weaving contributing to the off target finish at 3:21. Yet i was extremly happy that i would have got it if not for the crowd, and a lesson learnt to have close to a minute buffer for handling the extra distance and the crowd.
Yay finally a Personal Record at 3:21 with a strong finish and felt great, I am extremely satisfied with my performance and owe it all to the Excellent Training plan provided by my Coach Chuck, awesome Hyderabad Runners team with whom i had all the practice runs and obviously my family who co-operated in a great way! Followed the race with a group photo, medal collection and headed for a 5k roaming walk to the hotel :)
Final Statistics
| Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2014 - Marathon 5:40 Start Back | |
|---|---|
| Bib Number | 3977 |
| Name | SANKARA NARAYANAN VENKATARAMAN |
| Gender | MALE |
| Category | OPEN |
| Overall Rank | 41 |
| Category Rank | 38 |
| Gender Rank | 41 |
| Split@10.5 Km | 00:49:40 at an Avg Speed of 12.68 Kmph |
| Split@15 Km | 01:11:02 at an Avg Speed of 12.67 Kmph |
| Split@20.1 Km | 01:35:16 at an Avg Speed of 12.66 Kmph |
| Split@21.1 Km | 01:40:03 at an Avg Speed of 12.65 Kmph |
| Split@27 Km | 02:08:15 at an Avg Speed of 12.63 Kmph |
| Split@29.2 Km | 02:18:56 at an Avg Speed of 12.61 Kmph |
| Split@30.3 Km | 02:24:03 at an Avg Speed of 12.62 Kmph |
| Split@31.5 Km | 02:29:53 at an Avg Speed of 12.61 Kmph |
| Net Time | 03:21:41 at an Avg Speed of 12.55 Kmph |
| Gross Time | 03:21:54 |
Summary
| Distance: | 26.50 mi |
| Time: | 3:21:37 |
| Avg Pace: | 7:37 min/mi |
| Elevation Gain: | 1,158 ft |
| Calories: | 3,141 C |
Details
Timing
| Time: | 3:21:37 |
| Moving Time: | 3:21:27 |
| Elapsed Time: | 3:21:40 |
| Avg Pace: | 7:37 min/mi |
| Avg Moving Pace: | 7:36 min/mi |
| Best Pace: | 5:21 min/mi |
Speed
Pace
Elevation
| Elevation Gain: | 1,158 ft |
| Elevation Loss: | 1,140 ft |
| Min Elevation: | -19 ft |
| Max Elevation: | 272 ft |
