After the first half marathon , which i barely managed to finish in 2 hrs 40 min, I had made up my mind to prepare and run next time properly. I must say that every time we used to run a cross country in our cadets time( cross-country was about 14 kms) , I remeber, we used to be dead tired at the end of the run and used to sleep all afternoon. I wanted to complete my run and still remain fresh and fit without any body aches and so on. In Delhi, staying at Moti bagh was an advantage as "Nehru park" was just 1.5 kms away and therefore, I used to run daily in the mornings from 0530 to 0615. On weekends , I practised running longer distances by taking more rounds of Nehru park. I had once taken my elder son, 7 yrs old, on his bicycle, and he cycled alongside me for three complete rounds of Nehru park on the road. The perimeter around Nehru park will be approximately 3 km as the track inside Nehru park is 2.8 km.
Just one month left for the half marathon, I noticed a group of people practising daily in Nehru park. One of my course mates was also a part of the group. So I just joined the group and realised that the group was a part of the Reebok initiative for preparing people for the ADHM 2009. Ms Sheeba Mehra was the coach and I started attending the sessions. These sessions were about performing stretching, warming up, cooling down, diet planing, carbo-loading etc. Phew! I never knew things could be so scientific, after all, I have been running all these years. But it was good because I suddenly felt the change, I never had any aches after proper stretching exercises.
D-Day... Pandemonium in Nehru park, huge crowd... searching for the loo to dump one last time before the run... My wife dropped me near the venue and then it started... I was jostled madly by the crowd and it was 6 minuted by the time we reached the "Start" point. I started well and picked up pace. I was running with my course mate and we both kept pace with each other. At times, we realised that we were trying to go faster than we could and we used to slow down... At the return leg of India Gate, the sun was bearing down on us and we were mighty exhausted. I reached mid point in 52 minutes. Was very happy and thought that I would reach under 2 hrs. Then after that, when we reached the Safdarjung flyover, my friend wanted to take a leak, and went to the toilet booth. I continued to run and was feeling very tired and hungry too. Picked up bottles of water with lime and biscuits on the way. The last stretch near NCS Chankyapuri was extremely psyching as it was an uphill road and a long run before that with a U turn was most psyching. Speed had reduced a lot by now. Somehow, I mustered all my courage and gave a sprint in the last leg and reached finishing point. My timing was "2hrs 06 min" . Phew... FInished much better than last time and ran continuously. I searched for our reebok coach and went for a good stretching exercise. I felt fresh after that and actually went for a party to a friend's house after this. so far so good!
Just one month left for the half marathon, I noticed a group of people practising daily in Nehru park. One of my course mates was also a part of the group. So I just joined the group and realised that the group was a part of the Reebok initiative for preparing people for the ADHM 2009. Ms Sheeba Mehra was the coach and I started attending the sessions. These sessions were about performing stretching, warming up, cooling down, diet planing, carbo-loading etc. Phew! I never knew things could be so scientific, after all, I have been running all these years. But it was good because I suddenly felt the change, I never had any aches after proper stretching exercises.
D-Day... Pandemonium in Nehru park, huge crowd... searching for the loo to dump one last time before the run... My wife dropped me near the venue and then it started... I was jostled madly by the crowd and it was 6 minuted by the time we reached the "Start" point. I started well and picked up pace. I was running with my course mate and we both kept pace with each other. At times, we realised that we were trying to go faster than we could and we used to slow down... At the return leg of India Gate, the sun was bearing down on us and we were mighty exhausted. I reached mid point in 52 minutes. Was very happy and thought that I would reach under 2 hrs. Then after that, when we reached the Safdarjung flyover, my friend wanted to take a leak, and went to the toilet booth. I continued to run and was feeling very tired and hungry too. Picked up bottles of water with lime and biscuits on the way. The last stretch near NCS Chankyapuri was extremely psyching as it was an uphill road and a long run before that with a U turn was most psyching. Speed had reduced a lot by now. Somehow, I mustered all my courage and gave a sprint in the last leg and reached finishing point. My timing was "2hrs 06 min" . Phew... FInished much better than last time and ran continuously. I searched for our reebok coach and went for a good stretching exercise. I felt fresh after that and actually went for a party to a friend's house after this. so far so good!
