So... My first (official timed) 10K happened in Aug of 2016. I trained regularly and hard for it. This race was for – me. I really really wanted to do this well.
This was to be the Airtel Hyderabad Marathon (AHM). It's touted as the country's toughest city marathon course, and I don't doubt it one bit. Its got 5 flyovers, bare minimum tree cover and rolling hills to boot ! There would be hardly anyone who will say, i want to go run in AHM and set a new Personal Best (PB) time.
Overall, 10K, HM and FM , have about 12000 to 15000 runners. The crowds come out to cheer, plenty of school kids, bands playing music all along the route, plenty of hydration points, there is very little not to like. The atmosphere is electric ! I never really felt this "electric" before participating in this race....The race ends at the Gachibowli stadium (where i train regularly) and there is a ton of euphoria and celebration over there.
I had an objective in mind – wanted to do it under 60 mins.
I didn’t !
I missed it by 33 seconds :(
Doesn’t seem much…does it ? I felt so so so so bad. The euphoria of running with thousands of people notwithstanding, it was such a shitty feeling to miss by a measly 33 seconds !
But, it did have a silver lining - my rank was 173 of 3593 (total participants in 10K) - i finished in the top 5% of participants. And while it was a good feeling, i didn't really celebrate this achievement.
I'd had a 10K (non timed) race earlier too... and had done it in about 64 mins, on a flat route. It was my first complete 10K and while i had prepped well enough for it, it did not go well for me. I even had Rocketman (a C25K mate) come back and pace me for the final 200 odd meters. He'd completed much much ahead of us - 46 mins !
There was another one which i did with my C25K buddies, the Taramati Baradari - Go Heritage run. That one was also a non timed race, and while it gave me good experience of running in a crowd, it didn't really make the cut in terms of time. There was some elevation to handle and i was just over the 60 minute mark.
Then... My first half marathon happened in Feb 2017. I again trained hard for it…was regular most of the time. This race was for a friend. Again, I had an objective in mind – wanted to do it under 2 hrs and 15 mins.
I didn’t.
I missed it by a big margin of 7 mins :(
Now, 7 mins is a LOT.
But then, the last 5 kms were pretty bad…first my knees started hurting & then the pain travelled up to my hips… Last 2-3 kms I barely walked, just to finish the race. It was pure hell. It hurt badly for the next few days.
I was out of action. Zero running for me.
So, went back to my mentors and got some advice on how to heal. Turns out, i needed to strengthen my body, my legs and joints - to withstand the rigors of long duration racing. I was doing my training runs well enough - but wasn't fully upto the mark for 'racing'. The stress of the race did me in. I managed some strength sessions by myself, but couldn't get into a regular habit of doing the exercises. I even went and saw an ortho as well as a physiotherapist, both suggested exercises to strengthen...but i wasn't doing this regularly enough.
So from middle of feb to middle of aug, i didn't do any running at all.
In august 2017, my life turned upside down.
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