Day 1 of 10daysx10kms run

At the Start Point

1.Anandaselvan V S (First Marathon Run - Solo) - Hats off to you.

2.Niranjan

3.Ramesh Raghavan

4.Arvind

5.Gaurav (Manish's Friend)

6.Senthilanand

7.Karthik Padmanabhan

8.Ramesh Seshadri

9.Shahid

10.Yash (8th day of his10x10)

11.Saravanan

12.Vilva

13.Mohan (Met him after a loooong time)

14. Shankar Lal M Patel (1st Day of 10x10)

(Hope I have not missed any names....do add if I missed)

We started at around 5:20ish... and all decided to run the Classic run, except Me and Mohan who had decided to do around 10-11k.

All had a good run and learnt some CR's met Srinaathji at the besant beach stretch.

Today was a special day for CR's and the credit goes to Anandaselvan on his Full Marathon finish by looping inside AU Campus all alone and then to Bharani Shivakumar who had come straight from Egmore Rly Station to AU Campus after completing his Solo, self-supported, biking from Chennai to Trichy on Friday to attend Silver Jubilee Celebrations of his College and Alumni meet. He biked just 345kms in under 14 hours!!!!!! Hats off to both of you for your determination and commitment. You both made us Proud indeed...

Today was my first day of 10x10 run and Yash's 8th Day and went well for both of us.

Here's my Garmin Data:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/41712826

I AM A MARATHONER.... I AM PROUD OF MYSELF AND CHENNAI RUNNERS

Yes..!!! You read it right ... I am a Marathoner Now with My First Marathon completed at Mumbai

and dedicated to "CHENNAI RUNNERS" - Yes... you read it once again right...!!! because without

your support it wasn't possible

You may wonder why I dedicate this to Chennai Runners!!! Read this blog, you will understand.

FYI my first Marathon should have been the Singapore on 6th Dec 2009 but could not go due to personal reason and the next registered was the SCMM 2010.

The Training Phase:

Totally I had logged 1200kms in the last 10 months before this Mumbai Marathon. The training for the Mumbai Marathon was good and to be frank I did not stick to any particular schedule for my training runs and I was just running the weekly runs and adding more miles to my legs. I could manage to do only two 30+ runs ( One at ECR # 11 on 8th Nov and other 35k run on 27th Dec). Though I had tried to do four 30+ runs before the Marathon as advised by some of the experienced runners. One 30k on 29th Nov along with KK was foiled because of the previous day's 800m selection race and I could manage to run only about 15k and gave up after that. One 30k planned inside the Anna University along with Arun and Shahid was also not achievable due to some reason which I could not figure out even today.

The Tapering Phase:

On 8th Jan when I was running with the group I got a severe cramp on my back due to misplacing of my left foot and that made me stop running and made me walk all the way back to start point and did some stretching and the relief was minimal and this event made me think whether I would be fine for the SCMM 2010. Even during the tapering period I could not follow any particular schedule due to the travelling but I had managed to have healthy food (of course more of carbohydrates) , lot of stretching for the back and hydrated myself well by drinking lot of water.

I had to run the 800m race on the 11th Jan at Surat and was very cautious and decided to participate only if my back is normal. On the 10th Jan (Sunday) I just ran a 2.5km easy run to check the status of my back and it was normal and took part in the 800 m race the next day and was not able get any of the first three places but I was happy with my timing of 3m:16sec for a 800m run. But the last three days (13th, 14th and 15th Jan) were horrible for me with very minimal sleep due to Golden Jubilee Celebrations of our Samaj. I had gone to bed at 1:30 am on 16th Jan with alarms (Yes one alarm on my Garmin and Two alarms on my two mobiles) kept at 4:00 am to board the 5:40 am flight to Mumbai. In spite of all these alarms (which I never heard), I slept graciously till 8:45 am and suddenly got up to realise that I have missed the flight. (FYI this is the first and wish last time in my life, I had ever missed flight/train/bus). I checked the next immediate available flight to Mumbai and it was at 12:00 noon Jet Konnect. I booked and landed at Mumbai and headed straight to Expo to collect BIB, where Puru was waiting for me.

Day before the Race:

Puru was kind enough to wait for longer duration and I met Shumit at the Expo. I collected my BIB and the goody bag.

Then Puru and Me did the foot size check offered free of cost by Asics and Puru bought Asics 2150 and I bought the Asics Running Cap. We then headed to the Veg Restaurant The SAMRAT and had delicious and healthy, though it was very delayed Lunch at around 16:30 hrs. It was good carbo-loading with SAMRAT Briyani and Jeera Rice with Yellow Dhaal and Curd.

Puru dropped me at my Hotel just near the Start Point. I took out the running gears to be worn for the Marathon and fixed the BIB and checked the contents of the Goody Bag. I then went to Metro BIG Cinema and saw an horror movie "Case 39". After the movie I bought three Veg Sandwich and ate one. I drank lot of water before going to bed at 22:00 hrs. I had kept alarm at 4:40 am and had a sound sleep.

THE BIG DAY and THE RACE:

I got up at 4:40 am, had bath and got dressed in running gear, had one sandwich and reached the Holding Area (Azad Maidan) which was just 300 metres from the Hotel. I entered through the Gate 3 and went around the whole ground to see the arrangements and then I decided to hang around the Baggage Counter. I met Ram first, then Shiva, Rajamanickam, Ramani, Balaji, Abhijit. Then came the ETV Marathi crew and wanted to take the interview. There were more than 1000+ runners and I still wonder why/how they zeroed in to Chennai Runners group??? (We, Chennai Runners are always lucky... NDTV during the Chennai IDEA Marathon and now ETV at Mumbai). Shiva spoke fluent Marathi and surprised us all including the anchor. Ram declared that this was his 12th Marathon and first in Mumbai and was happy about the arrangements so far. Then Rajamanickam and then during my turn I declared that this was my First Marathon and I am excited and thanked Chennai Runners for the support.

Also met Tanvir Kazmi from Delhi. Now it was time to enter the Holding area through three gates (A, B and C). Ram and Ramani were pulled into Gate B being Veteran Runners and all others were led into Gate A and Gate C was for the Senior Veterans.

The race started exactly at 6:45 am and it was still dark. I crossed the start line just 45 secs after the Gun. Just few minutes after the start most of the Chennai Runners had a life time privilege to run with Dr.Ashish Roy, who was doing his 100th Marathon with a BIB 100 and back of his T-shirt read "Born in 1932".

We were with him for few minutes... encouraging him and in return he wished all of us good luck. I told him about the coincidence of being my first Marathon to run with a seasoned Marathoner like him who is about to hit Century Marathons. {My opinion no comments please... If the same Century was achieved by a cricketer in one innings would make a breaking news in all the News Channels for the whole day and an young man at his 78th age finishes 100th Marathon and not much coverage about him is really painful... :-( }.

Ramani, Rajamanickam, Balaji, Siva and myself were running together for another couple of minutes together and then everyone started to take off with their pace and I was at my pace and taking photographs of the Mumbai streets, buildings along the route. Was running with Rajeev Surana for few minutes.

Suddenly there was a timing vehicle from the opposite direction and realised that was the Half Marathon lead pack started at the same time we started but from Worli running towards the CST. And then after about fifteen minutes caught Puru running down to CST. And then came a huge crowd all half marathon runners. Among the crowd suddenly emerged a familiar voice uttering "Machaan!! There are no water points on the Sea Link. Carry enough water for that stretch." to Ramesh from Bangalore, who was running with me at that point.

When I had completed around 13.5k there was siren from behind to clear the way for the 7:30am starters of Full Marathon and the lead pack was 100% dominated by the Africans. This meant they have covered the 13.5km in about 34 mins approximately and the same distance I have been running for the last 1h:37m. Then came the women lead pack.

Running ahead seeing all these I had done my Half Distance in about 2h:40mins. Never realised so much time has gone by, may be because I was much involved in sightseeing and capturing the same in my camera. I was happy so far. And totally forgot the warning of Rajesh Vetcha and took one bottle of water just before the start of sea link. By the time I reached the toll gate for the sea link, I could feel the humidity and I had gulped half of the water bottle by then. Still there was 4km left to reach the next available water point and almost everyone were walking on this stretch. I too had decided to walk as I had finished the remaining water and was feeling thirsty. At the 3/4th distance of Sea Link there was a Police Jeep and I went to them and asked for water and they were kind enough to pass on the bottle they had for them and I gulped some water and thanked them and started walking. Thought would get water just after the sea link but was disappointed as there was no water point at the end of Sea Link and had to walk another 400m (Split 29.7km) to get hold of water and drank one full bottle straight away and poured one full bottle on the head and took one more as reserve and started running and saw the 30k mark and had done in about 4h:05mins and was happy that I could run the final 12kms as I had walked for the past almost one hour.

But I was not able to run continuously due to the heat and was doing walk/run combo and slowly moving ahead and I had completed 37k in about 5h:9mins and was happy that only 5k to be done. The heat intensified and there was no shade and I was drinking lot of water and at hence at one point my bladder was full and could not find a place to let it out and Balaji was asking me to pee on the side of the road to which I was first reluctant and had to do the same after I failed to convince a security to let me in, to use the toilet.

Now I was relieved, once again took over Balaji and Siva and met Puru at 40k point waiting with energy drink and banana. I took half banana and some energy drink and continued running but the traffic was let open and was difficult to run now and had to run on the foot path which was also crowded and saw already the 41k mark board was being removed and final 1k to finish and time was running out as the official website said only up to 5h:55mins the chip timing would be recorded and there was hardly few minutes left but the problem was traffic and managed to wade through the traffic and finished in 5h:56mins:11 secs. Ramani was the first person to congratulate me at the finish point and then I waited for Balaji and Siva to finish. They came in another few minutes along with Puru and we all headed to the Azad Maidan for collecting the medal and refreshments.

MEDAL CEREMONY:

Just after collecting my medal and refreshment, I was looking for a place to sit, I saw Shahid, sitting with a sad face and he asked my finish time and I saw my Garmin and said around 5h:58mins and he said his timing was around 5h:40mins and he had walked for the whole second half. He was not happy with his timing and just to bring the smile on his face I took the camera out and clicked his photo, and he smiled.

Then there was Medal Ceremony. I was lucky to be medaled by one of the Founders of Chennai Runners, Ram Viswanathan. And I was honoured when I was given chance to medal Mr. Ramani. Then Puru medaled Siva and Manish.

We all had taken a group photo and then had the refreshments and special refreshment was given by Rajamanickam to me and Ram and then one by one we dispersed.

P.S: Here is the link to the full photo album.

DEDICATION TO CHENNAI RUNNERS :

I have dedicated my First Marathon to Chennai Runners because without whose support and motivation, I could not have completed this. It was my dream come true and whenever I had doubts about running, you were the one who had cleared all my doubts and motivated me.

Thanks Chennai Runners....

I am a Marathoner....I am proud of Myself and Chennai Runners.

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.