Maiden Half Marathon
Having knowingly given my usual Year end / New Year posts a complete miss this time, I'm here to write about something that I had taken as a New Year resolution this year.
RUNNING!
Frankly I did not even know about the existence of marathons here, in India, until my first ever volunteering experience at the Chennai Trial Marathon 2015. That event instilled in me, a new respect for the runners. And ever since, I had desperately wanted to start running marathons. But running a marathon is no child's play. You have to train properly with utmost discipline. It took me a whole 2 years to gain that discipline and train for a marathon.
In 2016, when I first started to run, I would hardly run (read jog) for 2.5 km and be exhausted already. I continued this, and still at the end of 2 months, I had not improved one bit. This was sure taking its toll my mind, and I gave up. I wasted the whole of 2016 doing not productive in terms of fitness.
Come 2017, V started pushing me to start running. Memories of 2016 still kept taunting me and I wasn't too sure of taking the plunge now. But then came the Kodai Hills Ultra (KHU) to make me take that plunge. It was a marathon to be organized by the Chennai Trekking Club in Kodaikanal in January 2018. Since, this was the first time KHU was being organized, V was all excited and wanted to participate. And you guessed it right.. He brainwashed me into getting me registered for the event as well. And that too, for the 20 km - Half Marathon category. Trust me, I have never ever ran more than 10 km (in Wipro Marathon) and even in that, most of the distance was covered only through walk. So, 20 km was seriously a big deal for me and if I don't practice properly I would be doomed.
Once registered for the event, I had to let go off my apprehensions and start training. I began with walking around in the nearby park daily for close to a month. Around 3.5 - 4 km per day. And one fine day, I started jogging, and guess what..I had run a whole of 4.5 km without any hiccups. It felt great jogging the whole 4.5 km without being too exhausted. Now that was some super improvement and it sure boosted my confidence and motivated me to start running more. This day is one that I would be remembered for long since it was this kind of motivation that I lacked back in 2016.
I became regular with running 5 km for 3-4 days a week. Weekends were for long distance slow running. We (V, I and a couple of his friends) would run for around 10-12 km on Sundays and I was impressed with the way my body was cooperating with my mind and run the whole distance without much of a trouble. The timings were not great, but I was not too much bothered about the timing as long as I was able to run without any problem. But 10 km in 1:20 minutes was far far better than my 10 km in Wipro Marathon which took me 1:52 minutes.
KHU marathon was expected to have a lots of uphill and downhill as the route was mostly in and around Kodaikannal Hills. Downhills are always a bliss to run. All that you have to do here is to stop / control yourself from running uncontrollably. The real challenge is the uphill climb. Practice runs were being organised at the Pallavaram Hills on Wednesdays. When I went there one Wednesday, it gave me a reality check of how challenging the uphill climb would be. Flat roads lam onnume illa'ngra nilamaiku aakiduchu. But the training there was worth every bit, because by the end of third practice run there, I was mentally ready for the event.
With a decent practice for close to two months and some hills and long runs, I was all geared up for the event.
One thing that we did almost at the last moment, before leaving to Kodai was to get ourselves a cold weather running jersey. The temperatures at Kodai were a whole different ball game again. It dipped down to 7-8 degrees during the night and would go up to 17-18 degrees during the day. Having been accustomed to 27-32 degree Celsius temperatures at Chennai, 17-18 degrees itself were a big deal, especially for me. Nights were even more torturous with chillness all around. I wasn't even able to step on the floor barefoot.
Our run started at 6 AM in the morning. The temperature was still lingering around 9-10 degrees. I belonged to the first batch of 100 people. We started off the run with uphill climbs and an amazing sun rising behind the mountains. The first 5 km was all uphill, uphill and more uphill. It was a gradual rise. But that gradual rise itself became the killer because climbing uphill for 5 km at a stretch was sure taking a lot of time and energy. The weather wasn’t helping either. My hands had become so numb by this time that I wasn’t even able to tie up my shoe laces as the fingers all froze.
Slowly and steadily, I progressed on, cautious enough not to rush too fast while running downhill, and by the time I had covered 8 km, it was already 1:20 hours. I was planning in for a sub-3 hour finish, but this made me reset my finish time goals. But after the first 8 km, the route became more of a rolling terrain with quite a lot of downhills and one or two uphills splattered here and there.
The weather though cold, had its own advantage as well because you never sweat :D And the, it was 14 km in 2:00 hours and by now, I thought I would finish off at 3:15 hours.
The last stretch of the run was a loop around the Lake and off to the finish line. I had been to Kodai once during school and had gone for boating in the lake. But little did I know that the lake spanned to a distance of about 5 km. Only as I ran along it, did I know this. Man, that sure tested my patience. I was like, epo da indha lake mudiyum?!
And finally when the loop around the lake ended, I could clearly see the finish line. I sprinted across the road and reached finish line at 3:18 hours. Not a timing that I’m very proud of, as it was way later than when I had expected to finish, but still happy that I was able to finish off without quitting and injury free.
This event has sure helped set bars for myself a little high! And that’s yours truly signing off for now happy and hoping to do more of such runs in the future!
RUNNING!
Frankly I did not even know about the existence of marathons here, in India, until my first ever volunteering experience at the Chennai Trial Marathon 2015. That event instilled in me, a new respect for the runners. And ever since, I had desperately wanted to start running marathons. But running a marathon is no child's play. You have to train properly with utmost discipline. It took me a whole 2 years to gain that discipline and train for a marathon.
In 2016, when I first started to run, I would hardly run (read jog) for 2.5 km and be exhausted already. I continued this, and still at the end of 2 months, I had not improved one bit. This was sure taking its toll my mind, and I gave up. I wasted the whole of 2016 doing not productive in terms of fitness.
Come 2017, V started pushing me to start running. Memories of 2016 still kept taunting me and I wasn't too sure of taking the plunge now. But then came the Kodai Hills Ultra (KHU) to make me take that plunge. It was a marathon to be organized by the Chennai Trekking Club in Kodaikanal in January 2018. Since, this was the first time KHU was being organized, V was all excited and wanted to participate. And you guessed it right.. He brainwashed me into getting me registered for the event as well. And that too, for the 20 km - Half Marathon category. Trust me, I have never ever ran more than 10 km (in Wipro Marathon) and even in that, most of the distance was covered only through walk. So, 20 km was seriously a big deal for me and if I don't practice properly I would be doomed.
Once registered for the event, I had to let go off my apprehensions and start training. I began with walking around in the nearby park daily for close to a month. Around 3.5 - 4 km per day. And one fine day, I started jogging, and guess what..I had run a whole of 4.5 km without any hiccups. It felt great jogging the whole 4.5 km without being too exhausted. Now that was some super improvement and it sure boosted my confidence and motivated me to start running more. This day is one that I would be remembered for long since it was this kind of motivation that I lacked back in 2016.
I became regular with running 5 km for 3-4 days a week. Weekends were for long distance slow running. We (V, I and a couple of his friends) would run for around 10-12 km on Sundays and I was impressed with the way my body was cooperating with my mind and run the whole distance without much of a trouble. The timings were not great, but I was not too much bothered about the timing as long as I was able to run without any problem. But 10 km in 1:20 minutes was far far better than my 10 km in Wipro Marathon which took me 1:52 minutes.
KHU marathon was expected to have a lots of uphill and downhill as the route was mostly in and around Kodaikannal Hills. Downhills are always a bliss to run. All that you have to do here is to stop / control yourself from running uncontrollably. The real challenge is the uphill climb. Practice runs were being organised at the Pallavaram Hills on Wednesdays. When I went there one Wednesday, it gave me a reality check of how challenging the uphill climb would be. Flat roads lam onnume illa'ngra nilamaiku aakiduchu. But the training there was worth every bit, because by the end of third practice run there, I was mentally ready for the event.
With a decent practice for close to two months and some hills and long runs, I was all geared up for the event.
One thing that we did almost at the last moment, before leaving to Kodai was to get ourselves a cold weather running jersey. The temperatures at Kodai were a whole different ball game again. It dipped down to 7-8 degrees during the night and would go up to 17-18 degrees during the day. Having been accustomed to 27-32 degree Celsius temperatures at Chennai, 17-18 degrees itself were a big deal, especially for me. Nights were even more torturous with chillness all around. I wasn't even able to step on the floor barefoot.
Our run started at 6 AM in the morning. The temperature was still lingering around 9-10 degrees. I belonged to the first batch of 100 people. We started off the run with uphill climbs and an amazing sun rising behind the mountains. The first 5 km was all uphill, uphill and more uphill. It was a gradual rise. But that gradual rise itself became the killer because climbing uphill for 5 km at a stretch was sure taking a lot of time and energy. The weather wasn’t helping either. My hands had become so numb by this time that I wasn’t even able to tie up my shoe laces as the fingers all froze.
The weather though cold, had its own advantage as well because you never sweat :D And the, it was 14 km in 2:00 hours and by now, I thought I would finish off at 3:15 hours.
The last stretch of the run was a loop around the Lake and off to the finish line. I had been to Kodai once during school and had gone for boating in the lake. But little did I know that the lake spanned to a distance of about 5 km. Only as I ran along it, did I know this. Man, that sure tested my patience. I was like, epo da indha lake mudiyum?!
And finally when the loop around the lake ended, I could clearly see the finish line. I sprinted across the road and reached finish line at 3:18 hours. Not a timing that I’m very proud of, as it was way later than when I had expected to finish, but still happy that I was able to finish off without quitting and injury free.
This event has sure helped set bars for myself a little high! And that’s yours truly signing off for now happy and hoping to do more of such runs in the future!
 |
| That joy when you hit the finish line :) |
Thanks je!
ReplyDelete