day i wanted to jot down about the journey, training, the race and learnings from this event for quite some time now, just managed to get some time squeezed in between to put in my experience.
Repeated attempts to qualify...
While the original attempt to get qualified for boston started in Mumbai marathon 2015, i was definitely not prepared then, yet attempted. then had a whole year of high mileage training. the whole of 2015 had logged 1268 miles (2029 Kms), highest of all, i felt i was training enough.
Bengaluru Marathon
While my original plan was to use bengaluru as a fitness check race or B race to see how i am in the process, i happened to speak with Ramesh Kanjilimadhom at bangalore, who encouraged to register for spice coast marathon, being that officially certified by Boston association, i dared to register for the same, which was in 3 weeks from bengaluru.
Bengaluru full i took it conservative, never tried to push so much, stayed in my own zone, managed to finish in 3:16, finishing 2nd in 30-35 age group
Spice Coast Marathon
i did train for the hot and humid conditions to be expected at kochi, being along the sea, but was also equally into my brother's wedding. Tired enough reached for spice coast, where i met Vijay from FastnUp, discussing about my plans to get my BQ, not knowing he had the same agenda :) i started fast, was with the lead vehicle for almost 3 miles then to fade out slowly. My first race ever where i felt i would want to give up at 8k Mark, from then on, not sure how i prolonged it to a finish, it suffered all along, finishing in 3:24, finishing 3rd place overall, alas i realized that i was literally tired to even start with. Lesson learnt, never club a race with any personal event which would not have any rest assured during it
Mumbai Marathon 2016
I had registered for a full marathon at mumbai, while in the process i had a potential travel to seattle for techready event, hence registered for a race in the least amount of travel time, found the Surf City Marathon to be aligned to my travel dates, registered for it without second thought. @ Mumbai i downgraded to Half marathon to finish a comfortable Half in 1:29
TechReady & Surf City Marathon
While it was almost end of January 2016 i headed to seattle for techready event, which had a jam packed agenda from 7 AM till 6 PM for 5 consecutive days, end of the week was my race at Orange County which was 2 hours flight from seattle. After a super hectic week at Seattle i flew to Orange county on Saturday Feb 5th morning, collected my bib, it was nice and sunny with near indian climate, but much comfortable and ideal running climate. Had good rest on saturday slept for more than 4 hours in the noon, woke up at around 6 PM ran for half hour along the beach, and hit for dinner. With obvious Carb loading at an italian place, i hit bed early.
Race Day - Feb 7th
had an early rise, took a cab to the start point, in singlet and racing shorts, i was literally shivering :) finding spots along the heat blowers i kept myself warm. while i used to use Gaitorade Pre Race tangy drink 3 years back, thought of trying out a indian substitute, which i was anyways trying out various products of FastandUp. I did have a dose of FastandUp Activate and ready for the race start, with a tangy flavour, was feeling good with loads of confidence and minerals :)
Race Plan and till Mile 18
Plan was to stick with the 3:05 Pacer all along, come what may. With full load of FastandUp Activate and fresh legs, i was all set for a solid start and went great until 14 miles. Casually chatting with the pacers, exchanging Pace placard often times, was fun time. at mile 8 we had a small climb to make, which by no means is any way near any climbs in hyderabad :), slowly climbed up and mentally had the obstacle out of the way and rest of the route was to be a flat course.
At mile 10 we turned into a huge highway which was easily 6 lanes wide, all along the beach, we started to feel good head winds and sun opening up for the day!
Slowly i began drafting behind the pacer and happily cruised past the half point mark still on target for a 3:04 finish, had gels every 45 minutes along the way, never missed a water station, and electrolyte, so no worries with hydration nor the cardio.
Mile 18 on to Finish
At a little metres past the mile 17, my shoe lace knot had come off, so i stopped to quickly get it right and in the meantime my pace group went ahead by at least by 1.5 minutes, i was already running at my best pace of 7:04/mile, this was even more a mammoth task to be going faster than that to catch up my pacing group.
i decided to stick to my 7:04 pace, went on till mile 20 at around the same pace, then i hit the WALL, my cardio was perfect, hydration was on target, but my legs couldn't take it any more to keep up to the pace. i tried for half more mile and i knew it would be a DNF if i even tried to keep up the pace. I started to slow down gradually from then on, while we hit the long stretch of road along the beach, 100 mts away from water, it was a nice breezy sunny day, surfers were there in big numbers, what a beautiful sight it was, but i was struggling with my form :( and pace, just kept running at a pace of 8:05s... eventually hitting 8:30s per mile at the end.
i was at least having minor hopes of not allowing the 3:10 pacing group ahead of me, to at least get a official BQ, but that hopes were dashed at mile 21 :(, then on, it was just counting the number of people i could overtake that kept me going. My mile splits was making me go crazy... with the decline in my pace.
Finally the only motivation for me to keep pushing was to atleast get a Personal record,which managed to get and finished at 3:14. I was at least happy for that.
Thanks to all the fellow runners back in hyderabad who were tracking me, that kept me feeling that i should never give up. Change in pre race nutrition with FastandUp Activate was another trial, need to see how it goes with combination of others in the product line.
Statistics
Graphs
Splits
Activity
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1043274522
Lessons learnt
Fingers crossed and different training plan in place and different nutrition off course and on course with high hopes of cracking it in the next attempt.
Repeated attempts to qualify...
While the original attempt to get qualified for boston started in Mumbai marathon 2015, i was definitely not prepared then, yet attempted. then had a whole year of high mileage training. the whole of 2015 had logged 1268 miles (2029 Kms), highest of all, i felt i was training enough.
Bengaluru Marathon
While my original plan was to use bengaluru as a fitness check race or B race to see how i am in the process, i happened to speak with Ramesh Kanjilimadhom at bangalore, who encouraged to register for spice coast marathon, being that officially certified by Boston association, i dared to register for the same, which was in 3 weeks from bengaluru.
Bengaluru full i took it conservative, never tried to push so much, stayed in my own zone, managed to finish in 3:16, finishing 2nd in 30-35 age group
Spice Coast Marathon
i did train for the hot and humid conditions to be expected at kochi, being along the sea, but was also equally into my brother's wedding. Tired enough reached for spice coast, where i met Vijay from FastnUp, discussing about my plans to get my BQ, not knowing he had the same agenda :) i started fast, was with the lead vehicle for almost 3 miles then to fade out slowly. My first race ever where i felt i would want to give up at 8k Mark, from then on, not sure how i prolonged it to a finish, it suffered all along, finishing in 3:24, finishing 3rd place overall, alas i realized that i was literally tired to even start with. Lesson learnt, never club a race with any personal event which would not have any rest assured during it
Mumbai Marathon 2016
I had registered for a full marathon at mumbai, while in the process i had a potential travel to seattle for techready event, hence registered for a race in the least amount of travel time, found the Surf City Marathon to be aligned to my travel dates, registered for it without second thought. @ Mumbai i downgraded to Half marathon to finish a comfortable Half in 1:29
TechReady & Surf City Marathon
While it was almost end of January 2016 i headed to seattle for techready event, which had a jam packed agenda from 7 AM till 6 PM for 5 consecutive days, end of the week was my race at Orange County which was 2 hours flight from seattle. After a super hectic week at Seattle i flew to Orange county on Saturday Feb 5th morning, collected my bib, it was nice and sunny with near indian climate, but much comfortable and ideal running climate. Had good rest on saturday slept for more than 4 hours in the noon, woke up at around 6 PM ran for half hour along the beach, and hit for dinner. With obvious Carb loading at an italian place, i hit bed early.
Race Day - Feb 7th
had an early rise, took a cab to the start point, in singlet and racing shorts, i was literally shivering :) finding spots along the heat blowers i kept myself warm. while i used to use Gaitorade Pre Race tangy drink 3 years back, thought of trying out a indian substitute, which i was anyways trying out various products of FastandUp. I did have a dose of FastandUp Activate and ready for the race start, with a tangy flavour, was feeling good with loads of confidence and minerals :)
Race Plan and till Mile 18
Plan was to stick with the 3:05 Pacer all along, come what may. With full load of FastandUp Activate and fresh legs, i was all set for a solid start and went great until 14 miles. Casually chatting with the pacers, exchanging Pace placard often times, was fun time. at mile 8 we had a small climb to make, which by no means is any way near any climbs in hyderabad :), slowly climbed up and mentally had the obstacle out of the way and rest of the route was to be a flat course.
At mile 10 we turned into a huge highway which was easily 6 lanes wide, all along the beach, we started to feel good head winds and sun opening up for the day!
Slowly i began drafting behind the pacer and happily cruised past the half point mark still on target for a 3:04 finish, had gels every 45 minutes along the way, never missed a water station, and electrolyte, so no worries with hydration nor the cardio.
Mile 18 on to Finish
At a little metres past the mile 17, my shoe lace knot had come off, so i stopped to quickly get it right and in the meantime my pace group went ahead by at least by 1.5 minutes, i was already running at my best pace of 7:04/mile, this was even more a mammoth task to be going faster than that to catch up my pacing group.
i decided to stick to my 7:04 pace, went on till mile 20 at around the same pace, then i hit the WALL, my cardio was perfect, hydration was on target, but my legs couldn't take it any more to keep up to the pace. i tried for half more mile and i knew it would be a DNF if i even tried to keep up the pace. I started to slow down gradually from then on, while we hit the long stretch of road along the beach, 100 mts away from water, it was a nice breezy sunny day, surfers were there in big numbers, what a beautiful sight it was, but i was struggling with my form :( and pace, just kept running at a pace of 8:05s... eventually hitting 8:30s per mile at the end.
i was at least having minor hopes of not allowing the 3:10 pacing group ahead of me, to at least get a official BQ, but that hopes were dashed at mile 21 :(, then on, it was just counting the number of people i could overtake that kept me going. My mile splits was making me go crazy... with the decline in my pace.
Finally the only motivation for me to keep pushing was to atleast get a Personal record,which managed to get and finished at 3:14. I was at least happy for that.
Thanks to all the fellow runners back in hyderabad who were tracking me, that kept me feeling that i should never give up. Change in pre race nutrition with FastandUp Activate was another trial, need to see how it goes with combination of others in the product line.
Statistics
Graphs
Splits
Activity
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1043274522
Lessons learnt
- how much ever mileage you have put in, DO NOT mix up your race with any hectic schedule, happened to me twice
- though your nutrition and cardio is fine, without lower body strengthening, we are nowhere to get significant improvement
- Plan just one A race, or two races but split over time, otherwise it would lead to excessive mental and physical pressure
Fingers crossed and different training plan in place and different nutrition off course and on course with high hopes of cracking it in the next attempt.
