ECR # 9 - 5k, ECR # 10 - 21k ,ECR # 11 - 30k and ECR # 12 - ???

The above title is not a competitive exam question asking you to find the next number of the series. I myself don't know the answer. But I definitely know it would be an improvement than previous.

This is how I have managed to improve myself over a period of 8 months to be precise from 12th March 2009 to 8th Nov 2009.

This improvement has not come just like that. Definitely it had strong commitment and consistency. And the one single motivating factor to achieve this commitment and consistency have been the CHENNAI RUNNERS.

This commitment had made me to run a total of 872 kms in 113Hrs:43Mins in 97 training days before I broke my mental barrier to go beyond 21k mark at the ECR # 11 to run my first ever 30k.

I would not have achieved this mammoth task without the Chennai Runners. My hearty thanks to all the Chennai Runners who have been part of my success story. Special thanks to all the volunteers who kept me keep going.

Experience of my first 30k:

Everything was going as planned until three days to go for ECR # 11 and suddenly the low depression formed in the Bay of Bengal started giving worries to most of them including me. Unlike others the worry was not about the cancellation/postponement of the run but How to run in the rain? What should I do if it rains heavily? Is there anyway to avoid shoes getting wet if there is downpour?

At the same time my conscious told me a day before that it is going to be a wonderful event without any disturbance due to rain. That is what happened as we all were witness to the that. I believe this is the power of Positive Energy. We could not have expected better climate than this at Chennai for ECR # 11.

I reached MGM Resorts at around 5:20 am along with my nephew,Kishan, his friend Navin, Anbu Chembiam and Sudha Mani.

After reporting at the registration counter collected the BIB (158) and was ready to do some stretches. Met few of the first time 30k runners Bharani, Manish, Shameek and Purushotham. Many were asking my time target to complete the 30k and my only answer to them was "I just want to finish, No time targets".

At around 6:10 am there was a call (roar) from Tiger for the 25k and 30k runners to assemble at the start point. Listened to his genaral & safety instructions and at around 6:18 am was the Green Signal to start the run with the countdown to Zero. And there I go running... on the way to complete my first 30k.

I had set my Garmin for interval training mode with the 5min Run and 1min Walk of 51 Repeats. Thanks to Rajamanickam who taught me this setting over phone a night before going to the Delhi Half.

I stuck to the 5:1 method until I reached 15k. Till then I was feeling great. On the return I could manage to follow the 5:1 only till the next water point at 17.5km mark and after that I stopped listening to the beeps from the Garmin and listened to the beeps from my Body and Mind. My mind started giving me signals to stop running and do more of walk and then I had overcome this by self-talk to keep my rhythm but I could manage this only upto the 20k water point and the next 5k from there was more of walking than running.

At around 23.5k mark I could see someone with yellow t-shirt running towards me and then I could recognise it was Shahid who had run towards me to keep me running. He made me to get back my rhythm. After the 25k mark and final 5k to go I was feeling great since I had finished my first 25k mark but my target was 30k. I saw Balaji clapping at 27k mark and ran with me till 27.5 mark water point. I stopped there for couple of minutes and Ms.Savithri and Balaji had decided to run with me till the finish. I started running along with Ms.Savithri and later Balaji joined with us. In between I had to stop running and walk and Balaji went on encouraging me to keep my rhythm and we reached the final water point and now the final stretch of 1.5km to go and Balaji made me run at my own pace and restricted my walk.

He went on motivating me by talking in positive tone and the above subject line was his motivational sentence asking me to imagine with 5k in ECR # 9, 21k in ECR # 10 and this would be your 30k in ECR # 11. When we reached the MGM Resorts entrance he called someone at Finish Point to get ready to receive me. Thanks Balaji for the special efforts and support. The final stretch to go and there I saw Ram with his camera and the Race Director Senthil Kumar with the medal for me and many other Chennai Runners clapping for me. That was a red-carpet welcome at the finish point. This was a very special moment for me.

Had a good brunch, collected the certificate and goody bag and came back home and had a nice five hours of solid sleep. This is the best part I like after running.

Analysis of my First 30K in 4h:35min:

I had good time running the 30k but still I found something went wrong after 17k mark. To analyse this, I checked Garmin Data for 5k Splits.

Distance in Kms		Time Taken
Split	Cumulative	Split	Cumulative
5.46	5.46	00:35:00	00:35:00
5.04	10.50	00:36:00	01:11:00
4.51	15.01	00:37:00	01:48:00
5.28	20.29	00:53:00	02:41:00
4.76	25.05	01:00:00	03:41:00
5.17	30.22	00:54:00	04:35:00

As mentioned by Ramesh Seshadri in his mail, just like him, I too was pulled and pushed by the other runners until 15k mark not realising that pace was higher for a 30k distance would take a toll on me at the later half. The first half was done in 1h:48m and second half in 2h:47m which is 1 hour more than the first half. I think this was the only mistake I have done. I know only by practice I would be able to make my pace consistent. I would try to keep my pace consistent.

Once again thanks a lot CHENNAI RUNNERS, friends and well wishers for the support.

My Journey from 0k to 21.1k”

This blog is about my journey of running episode from 0k before March to 21.1k on 30^th August 2009 when I had finished my Hyderabad Half Marathon. Initially I never had any idea of running but in some corner of my body the genes for running were lying idle and one fine day when I was surfing the net, I came to know about Chennai Runners. I got myself enrolled into the Google Group on 11^th Jan 2009. Below is the approval mail I received.

Google Groups: Your subscription request is approved

noreply@googlegroups.com to me

Hello

shankar1252@gmail.com,

Your subscription to Chennai Runners was approved!

If you have questions related to this or any other Google group, please visit
the Help Center at hl=en.

Thanks,

The Google Groups Team

May be the above action was the first catalyst to kindle my running genes into action. My inbox started flooding with mails posted by the members. Slowly the Auroville Marathon (15^th Feb 2009) mails floated around with request for registrations, logistics etc., I was just a ghost reader of all these mails religiously and would think "When am I going to be the part of this action?".

During first week of March, I got myself ready to run and went to Alwarpet early morning. The first day I couldn't locate the Dimensions Gym and disappointedly came back home, ran on treadmill for some time and next day I made it and met few of regular runners at Alwarpet and all were kind enough to give me useful tips about running shoes and other related accessories.

On the first day of running I could not complete even 5k of running. I had only managed about 3.5 k that too with last about 1.5k only walking. But I had the strong desire to run and that desire with commitment had helped me a lot.

Here's the Progress Report of my running activities till now (Includes Hyderabad Half Marathon)

Count:	71 Activities
Distance:	595.09 km
Time:	81:46:06h:m:s
Avg Speed:	7.3 km/h
Avg HR:	163 bpm
Avg Distance:	8.38 km
Max Distance:	21.43 km
Max Time:	02:56:30h:m:s
Avg Time:	01:09:06h:m:s

On 27-03-2009 I weighed 82.50kgs and today I weigh 78.50kgs, almost lost 4 kgs in the last 6 months. Have to work on this area seriously to reduce 10 more Kgs.

Though I have not mentioned any particular runner's name in this blog and if I don't mention about Ram Viswanathan, this blog "My Journey from 0k to 21.1k" would be incomplete. He is my role model for Marathon Running. He has set target of completing 50 marathon runs of which the Hyderabad was the 10^th. I wish all the best to achieve his target.

Finally, I thank all the Chennai Runners, My Family and Friends who have been part of my success story. This is just the beginning................more to come....

Story of a Deer

Whenever I see a deer I get reminded of this story.

A deer lived in a jungle and had a good beautiful horns. Once it had gone to drink water in a shallow water body and it could see its own image reflected in the water. After seeing the image of the self, the deer thought "How beautiful are my horns and look at my legs so lean and they look awkward and spoil my whole beauty".

The deer had just finished drinking water and heard the sound of roaring lion. The deer slowly moved without making noise to escape from the lion but the lion had seen the deer and gave a chase. Now the deer had to run to save its life and ran faster and faster until it had seen a place to hide. It hid in a small cave like formation. But the lion had seen the deer hiding and was heading towards the cave and deer seeing lion approaching, deer decided to run but its horns got stuck since the cave was small. The deer at last could take out its stuck horns and was fortunate to run once again faster, faster and faster to save its life from the Lion.

After it reached to a safer destination the deer thought how foolish was its previous thought and realised if its legs had not given the pace to run, it would have died in the hands of Lion and the beautiful horns never helped but only made the deer land into problem by stuck in the cave.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Never underestimate your weakness and at the same time never be overconfident of your strength.

The above moral is as per my thinking and can always be related to other moral.

Tips for Better Life

It is always easy to say than to follow. But at the same time it is also important to share what you have. So this is sharing and I may/may not be following all what is shared below.

But after reading all the TIPS, I feel that the TIPS are not really hard to follow provided you have proper mindset.

Tips for Better Life

1. Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day. And while you walk, smile.

2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.

3. Sleep for 7 hours.

4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.

5. Play more games.

6. Read more books than you did in 2008.

7. Make time to practice meditation, yoga, and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.

8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.

9. Dream more while you are awake.

10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.

11. Drink plenty of water.

12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

13. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.

14. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.

15. Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

16. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.

17. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.

18. Smile and laugh more.

19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.

20. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

21. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

22. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.

23. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about. Don't compare your partner with others.

24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

25. Forgive everyone for everything.

26. What other people think of you is none of your business.

27. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

28. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

29. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

30. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need..

31. The best is yet to come.

32. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

33. Do the right thing!

34. Call your family often.

35. Your inner most is always happy. So be happy.

36. Each day give something good to others.

37. Don't over do. Keep your limits.

38. Please Forward this link to everyone you care about.

Just try to follow the above TIPS and live life to the fullest.

Fire in the Belly, Run Run Run.....

This is my first blog and I want to share my motivational slogan "Fire in the Belly, Run Run Run..".

The timeline goes back to early 1980's when I was studying in A.G. School at a small village called Piranoor situated on the Border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The village has a good climatic conditions as it is very near to the Southern tip of Western Ghats and in Tamil known as Podigai Malai. This mountain range has special mention in almost all Tamil epics due to the famous water falls and for its picturesque beauty. 

At the school during play period we were asked to line up in a circle and the teacher used to sing "Fire on the Mountain" and we all used run in circle holding each other and shout "Run Run Run". At first I did not know the meaning of the words used as there was only one subject in English and all other subjects were in Tamil.

After the school, I used to play outside my house along with my cousins. In the evening just after sunset we could see some fire on the mountain. My elder cousin suddenly used to shout in Gujarathi "Hey look there is fire on the mountain" and I use to pester him with lot of questions like "How that fire gets lit up there? Is there anyone living on the mountains? Who will put that fire off? etc., and one day I finally got the answer from my elder sister that the fire lights up automatically!!!! I asked how? She explained that the dry bamboos grown close to each other gets  friction due to strong winds and in turn gets heated up and at one point fire lights up. This is called wild fire. 

After this explanation and understanding the meaning of the words of the rhyme, we regularly used to look out for fire on the mountain and once seen we would all shout in chorus "Fire on the mountain, Run Run Run..." The mountain fire used to be regular during summer and we enjoy our summer vacation evenings running by chanting those words. 

During school days I used take part in all types athletic events and finish within the first three places. This continued till my higher secondary having few school level championships to my credit. During college I lost touch with athletics and then marriage which made totally away from any form of physical exercise. 

But I realised there is something I am missing and after nearly a gap of 15 years when I was surfing through Internet and came to know about "Chennai Runners" and joined the google group. I was a silent audience for nearly six months reading all the mails by the group and after the recent Auroville Marathon, I could not wait any longer and took that first step to join the runners on their weekly runs from Dimensions Gym from first week of March and been regular from then. 

I got to know some real marathon runners like Ram, Harishankar, Ramesh a.k.a Tigerswamy, Ramani, Narayanan.....and got some useful tips and got hold of some basic gears like dry fit tee, running shoes, road id and advanced gear like Garmin Forerunner 405 to keep my running log updated.

And this slogan struck me when I had to write a motivational phrase in the Wrist Strap and gave a brief thought and finalised "Fire in the Belly, Run Run Run" which is now engraved on my Road Id.

I have now decided to make running as part of my life. 

At last my favourite poem which I learned during my 8th grade at Kodaikanal

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening   by  Robert Frost.

"Whose woods these are I think I know. 

His house is in the village, though; 
He will not see me stopping here 
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer 
To stop without a farmhouse near 
Between the woods and frozen lake 
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake 
To ask if there's some mistake. 
The only other sound's the sweep 
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, 
But I have promises to keep, 
And miles to go before I sleep, 
And miles to go before I sleep."

The last stanza coincides my running desire and I would read as

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

 But I have promises to keep,

 And miles to run before I sleep,

 And miles to run before I sleep." 

Thanks for reading my blog and be generous to comment.