Whims published... It's not an expert's opinion, It's not an online diary, It's not a web journal... It is just my whims published

After running my first ever marathon in Auroville in Feb 2012, I was dying to run my next marathon at the earliest. Summer and the rainy season that follows is a lean period for most of the marathons in India. The ones that were held were not in the neighboring states. This made me register for Airtel Hyderabad Marathon.  My practice for this started soon after TCS 10K i.e., in June. Though I thought of taking a formal coaching from an experienced marathoner, I some how ditched the thought and decided to continue on my own for some more time. Started following a training program by Hal Higdon with difficulty of intermediate level-1 [the site has training programs for novices to expert runners]. This training was of 18 weeks. Since I did not have so many weeks to train after June, picked the training program from the midway till August 19th, keeping a week for rest before the marathon.

Before I started training, not ignoring the strain in my right shin which happened during the training for TCS 10K, I went to a physio who is also a marathon runner. I was relieved to hear from him that it was nothing serious. The shin stretches he suggested really worked and the pain subsided. After that, I started following this training. I kept taking enough breaks and rests in the middle of this training to avoid overkilling of my leg muscles. This regular running seems to have worked for me [otherwise, I was mostly a weekend runner]. My Personal Best Half Marathon timing has improved considerably. It used to be consistently around 2 Hrs 15 mins, has now come down to 2Hrs 05Mins. Also looks like I am more comfortable with my Half Marathon runs now, than ever before.

A practice marathon:

Ran a marathon on last Sunday. I wanted to run one before the actual race. I remember a fellow blogger and marathoner saying 'Marathon is such a sport, that the previously run marathons never guarantee a completion in the next marathon you are going to run'. Every marathon poses its own challenges un-encountered in our previous ones. After all it's bloody 42.2 kms :) Every marathon is going to be a Herculean achievement for all we mere mortals.

On Sunday morning, drove to GKVK, just to dump chocolates, bananas and enough water in my car. Started my run at 6:45AM. Should have started much earlier. The weather was very very pleasant till I completed 25Kms. Later it became quite sunny. My struggle had already begun around 25Kms. My mins/km reading was dropping kilometer after kilometer. When I completed 30Kms, I was clearly struggling. Kept pushing myself hard to complete the rest of daunting 12Kms. Did a lot of run-walk-run to reach 38Kms. This is when a thought of giving up occurred. As they say, the mind gives up long before the body. To curb the thought of giving up, I deliberately detoured from the path which was leading to the place where my car was parked. Good I did that. I am sure, I would have given up running at the sight of my car. After almost walking for last 2-2.5Kms, I finished what I can call as my 2nd marathon in 5 Hrs 08 Mins. 

Split Timings:
0-10kms - 59 Mins 30 Secs
10-20kms - 1Hr 1Min 31Secs
20-30kms - 1Hr 11Mins 48Secs
30-40kms - 1Hr 34Mins 47Secs
40 - 42.2kms - 21Mins 24Secs

Good things: Carrying enough water, bananas, chocolates, plastering my nipples to avoid chapping (the easy solution I learned after that torturous 25Kms in last year's Ultra Marathon) and most importantly NOT GIVING UP!

Not so good things: Two boils between the toes - I suspect the slightly tight socks I was wearing,  no fellow runners and supporters to cheer. That's the problem with running alone such long distances. It can bore you in the end.