Goa River Marathon 2014
Well, How do I begin... It is
definitely a milestone to have achieved a first sub-100 HM at this event. I
personally had not even set this target and was just planning to run and treat
it as a training run for the upcoming SCMM. But things happen, and when you are
least expecting it to happen. My friend Purnendu Nath, whom I met recently just
a few months ago at Pune, and we ran together, then we again met up in Goa when
he was holidaying and again we ran together on the beautiful beaches of Goa
together, we ran twice, once a normal 10K on the beach and the second time we
did 8 speed runs of 1K on the beach and the road leading to the beach from my
residence, four each. It was an amazing
experience to train with Puru the Guru( That’s what he is known as), he is also
the famous six pack guy who always runs bare chested and is therefore the
cynosure of the eyes of many damsels ( they may not be in distress though...).
He trains specifically for this event at Goa and is very serious about his
performance and has a garmin which is pre-fed with a lot of information and
warning limits as he has to track his performance with respect to cadence,
average height lift off from the ground, pace etc. etc.. . I am not used to
running with gadgets and therefore am quite illiterate and ignorant about it,
but when someone with a gadget is running alongside, I do get tempted to know
my pace and performance, because it a sure-shot feedback and you can plan to
improve. So Puru came home for dinner, and me being a lousy host, made him cook
along with me and we prepared a funny concoction of rice, pulses, and mashed
potatoes and mixed it with fried tomatoes and onions. It was like “sludge”, yes
that was the word he used to describe the result of our effort. Hopefully it
was a nutritious pre-marathon night meal with sufficient carbohydrates. He just
mentioned that I should be targeting a sub-100 as he has run with me earlier
and he felt that it was do-able by me. I was not so sure about it because the
best I have done so far was a 1hr 41 min at Pune which was a bit of a cheating
as the distance was about 800 m short of 21K, and the last year, my GRM timing
was 1hr and 52 minutes. GRM has two hills both on the going as well as the
return route and the weather gods have not been particularly happy this time in
Goa, being quite warm for a mid December morning. So I was not at all sure if it was even
possible. Anyways, I made up my mind in the night that I would target a sub-100
and started making strategies and also asked Puru for his strategy, so he
immediately did a calculation and brought out a figure of 4.43 min/Km average pace for the race. I am used to “5. Something min/Km” and so this average value kind of intimidated
me a bit, but then I said I need to pull up my socks and try and achieve a PB
this time. The thought started playing in my mind and I started to imagine how
I will start off strong and try and continue strong by focussing on my form and
try not to lose the form in the return leg, too.
I woke up at 0330 am, and left for
my friend Appu Rajan’s house who I had planned to go along with for the race as
he lives close-by and knows the roads well (another friend whom I recently met
at Benaulim Goa, while running on the beach). Appu Rajan is also an amazing
runner, about 64 years of age, he has been running long distance for the last
approx 30 years or so, he is a Tamilian guy living in Goa for the last 40
years. He finished in 2hrs and 10 min. Running the mock race in Goa about 2
weeks earlier definitely helped as I had identified a public toilet near the
airport and I generally get the urge to visit the washroom twice in the morning
especially during the race day, and it is always better to identify a place
close by but not with the crowd of runners to save time.
It was amazing to meet up with
the entire Savio’s gang after a long time and this is something that I really want
to write about. All my work life of about 21 years in the Navy, I have not made
so many friends as in these last 2-3 years because of running. In my running network,
if I may so call it, I have about 50-60 runner friends in Mumbai, about 25-30
in Pune and now about 30-40 in Goa with whom I can really interact any time as we
all have a common interest and life is suddenly looking very interesting. I
have been travelling places in the Navy, but my running life in three places viz.
Mumbai, Pune and Goa have given me so many friends. What more can a person ask
for, I am so thankful to God that I am able to run and I would like to keep
running forever, because I just love to make more friends and meet new people
and enjoy these running moments. This is almost like meditation and I even love
to write about these experiences, because I believe that when you put down on
paper what is in your mind, the feelings and thoughts get cemented and stronger
beliefs and values are set. Secondly
running helps you to break your own mental barriers and become a stronger
person. Each day is different and there are highs and lows but running goes on
and targets are always there looking up to your resolve and training to get
there and achieve them. The flow of life is fully fresh and happening in such a
situation wherein you are always preparing to achieve a set target, it has been
a long journey of starting to run with a timing of “2hrs and 07 min” for a HM in 2009 to today’s PB of “1hr and 38 min” approximately (I still
do not know my official timing..). What I have come to realise is that there is
nothing impossible to achieve if we set our mind to it and put in our full
hearted efforts to achieve the target. It is important to keep pushing ourselves
out of our own comfort zone, whatever it may be, whether in job or in running
as only then, there is a flow happening in life, else there is stagnation and
life becomes uninteresting and dry.
Let me get my thoughts back to
this wonderful memorable event GRM 2014. So I met quite a lot of interesting
people, thanks to the celebrity Puru who was with me. A podium finisher in most
races, Andrea Stadler, an amazing spirited runner, who is practicing for the
SCMM 2015 FM, said that she planned to do an additional 10K if she felt well
after the race. I don’t know from where it came, but I immediately volunteered
and said that I too was interested in running an additional 10K and would love
to run with her. She was very happy that she would have some company after the
race. But I was scared as she is a 1hr 40min runner and I was not yet sure that
I would be able to keep up that pace, anyways, the game was on and we started
warming up and moving towards the start point. We all were together: Puru,
Andrea, self, Ajit, Azeez, Vikas and Sohini (who had come with Puru from
Mumbai) when the race started. We strategised to move from the sides and get
out of the crowd as soon as the race started and we followed the plan brilliantly
and Puru , Ajit and self just took off from the sides and overtook most of the
people much before even 1-1.5 k. The race was on, I had to keep up the pace
with Puru and Ajit, who were about 10-15 m ahead of me. But I was felling
scared that my pace may be too much to maintain throughout the 21k. I focused
on my breathing and form and kept these two guys in sight all the time and
ensured that the gap did not increase. I purposely did not want to catch up
with them because I wanted to set my rythm correctly to match with my breathing
and form. I maintained the form till we reached the hill and there I could see
the gap closing as they were a bit slow, I kind of run uphill faster as I enjoy
it and sub-consciously put in effort to increase my pace while running uphill,
it has something to do with my mind telling me to face challenges with more
power. I maintained a lag of about 5-7 m
continuously after that and finally we reached the turnaround point. This was
the first time I saw the elite runners cross in the return path at about 9K
point, normally I am used to seeing them at 6.5-7.0 K point. I knew that I was
doing good time, Aziz too was running with me and his garmin was giving the
pace at each Km and I heard 4.31 and 4.32 at 8k and 9K, so I was feeling good about
being able to maintain a good pace. After the turn around, it was good as I could
see people ( Savio Sir and Roshan running together), and I felt good that I was
ahead of Savio. I decided that I had to maintain my pace and not let anyone
overtake, I saw Andrea who was just about 100m behind after I turned around. On
the return leg, I could feel that Puru had slowed down a bit as I was
constantly catching up with him and running with him for some time and then he
would again go ahead. Every uphill, I would overtake him and in the downhill,
he would just take off like a rocket past me and increase the gap by about 20
m. It was scary but the last hill I overtook both Puru and Ajit and for quite
some time they did not catch up and then finally they overtook me and I too
decided to increase my pace and stay just behind Puru to maintain a rhythm, I
was confident that Puru would help me achieve my PB today, whatever it was. So I faithfully followed Puru and Ajit and I
was feeling good about everything, my pace was good and I was not feeling tired
and I was mentally strategising about the last 200m sprint to make up time and boy,
was I glad to see the 500m board, and then the turning and before I knew it I
was sprinting towards the end point and I knew that I had left both Puru and
Ajit behind, but I was only looking at
the finish board and I sprinted across the mat and turned around to see both
Ajit and Puru about 50-60 m behind the finsh point. Puru came to me and showed
me his garmin time of 1hr 38min and told me that I would be 1hr 37 min, and I
was feeling elated as this was a tough run and I still achieved my PB of 1hr 37
min and joined the “100 min” gang of HM runners. Incidentally, this was Ajit’s first sub-100
HM too and we hugged each other with joy and I thanked Puru from the bottom of
my heart for having given me the thought of sub-100 yesterday night. This thought
only led me to break the mental barrier and achieve a higher goal. Most of us are capable of doing much better
and we don’t realise our own potential and therefore need to keep pushing
ourselves to achieve higher targets and one of the ways is to identify a mentor
or running buddy who is better and then try and match up to his/ her pace. This
strategy has worked wonders with me; first it was Dr. Muthukrishnan Jayaraman
at Pune, and now Dr. Purnendu Nath( Puru the Guru) at Goa. I have still a long way to go before I can catch up to the pace of these two amazing runners as they are both way better than me, and
I hope they will allow me to run with them so that I can better my own timings
as they better theirs. This way, the flow of improvement continues and the
challenge is always on.
Andrea soon followed at 1hr 42
min and she again was a podium finisher here. We took two glasses of electral/
enerzal and started our 10K sojourn back on the same route. She is a very
strong runner and I again just wanted to keep up with her pace and I managed to
be with her till the 5K turning point after which my laces had come off and I
had to stop for a while and we had two uphills to do in this 10K run, and I
just could not continue the pace on the return leg, as my legs were feeling tired
and I slowed down considerably and at about 29K, I stopped and walked for a bit
till I reached a water aid station and emptied two cold water cups on my head.
I felt rejuvenated instantly and started jogging immediately after that and I
completed my 10K in a little over an hour. I could see Andrea waiting and
stretching at the finish point and I thanked her for the great run. So finally
I had a PB and a 31K run this Sunday which will be etched in my memory forever because
it is my first sub 100 and also because I met some really amazing people and
intend to be friends forever with them...
The event was very well organized with sufficient water aid stations and on the return leg, there were oranges and bananas, which ere thoughtfully peeled. There were biscuits too, on the whole, a well organised event with a lovely crowd cheering us when we ran. I hope the saps would come soon so that I can add them to this blog which would cement these memories for a long time to come.
Adios and looking forward to the
Mecca of Marathons in India..the SCMM 2015.... Hope to meet up with a lot of
friends there...
