The Night of Oslo Marathon

Well, I am up at 3:30 am... I have been feeling awful, I don´t know how I got the cold. I was feeling funny when I woke up after my short nap around 4:45 pm yesterday and my throat was itching and my nose was running. I could not believe it, I have been so careful with water, trying to eat carefully and keep myself warm. I think it was the change in weather yesterday, everything was great until around 12pm and then it started raining cats and dogs.

I am really worried about tomorrow but I am positive and I am going to smile even if I feeling miserable. I woke up because of a dream or rather more like a nightmare! I was late to the start of the marathon and I was struggling after the 3rd kilometer :( anyway, I should be sleeping and I just cannot go back to sleep.)

But the night before I ate
1. Plain Pasta
2. Grilled Chicken
3. Green Salad

The dinner was great, almost everyone part of the Glitnir Marathon team was there with our CEO and it was a lot of fun. We shared a lot of funny stories and the mood was very positive. I like Oslo a lot... we had dinner at Brasserie located in Aker Brygge. We were also very close to Glitnir's new Norwegian headquarters. It is a great location in Aker Brygge and we had tour of that by Bjorn Richard our managing director of Corporate Communication.

1 week before Oslo Marathon

I cannot wait for the Oslo Marathon, I am really excited to run again and feed on the energy that everyone will exude there.
Some numbers
1. Total distance run from 8/20 to 9/24 = 165.22
2. Average Pace = 5 min 45 sec per kilometer
3. Average Heart Rate = 159 bpm
4. Average Speed = 10.44 kilometer per hour
5. Total Calories burnt = 19,873
6. Max Heart Rate during training = 190
7. Total Run Time = 15 hours 26 min 20 sec

Dean & Sam's Weblogs... a true inspiration

I have been wondering why Dean Karnazes has not started blogging, but he has and here is Dean's Blog. I learnt about Sam Thompson while I was searching for training programs to help me prepare for the Oslo marathon and it was only 6 weeks after I finished my first marathon. I was inspired by what Sam was doing with regard to running 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states. Sam has finished running this schedule and he has brought a lot of awareness and media to the fate of people in New Orleans following Katrina.

I was happy to note that Dean ran with Sam and has written about Sam in his Weblog... thank Asgeir for bringing it to my attention.

1 and half size smaller and 13 kilos lighter...

I went to my tailor to alter all my suits... she had to take 4 to 6 inches off my pants and similar measures in my coats. She mentioned that it would have been great if it was her suits :) I thought that was a great compliment for my efforts so far.

Looking back it has been a very interesting journey... I have learnt soo much about myself with regard to exercise and diet. I have lost 13 kilos total and I don´t think I will ever go back to being as heavy as I was 6-8 months back.

I have not made any drastic changes to my diet but I run 4 to 6 times a week and I try to eat a lot of green vegetables and keep off of sugar and soda. It has worked wonders for me...

Increasing speed and endurance simultaneously!

I have started my training for the Oslo marathon... so far I have been doing around 10km and I did 12.7km on saturday. The strategy this time around is to do temp runs... this entails running 1/6 th of the distance at a slow pace and then run 2/3rd of the distance 10% faster than the marathon goal and try to maintain the pace for the entire distance and then run the last 1/6th at a normal pace.

I started out by trying to run the first half of my run slower than the last half. I have accomplised that goal in my last 4 outings... the interesting observation is that I have increased my average pace to 5 minutes and 16 seconds per km which is about 30 seconds faster than my marathon pace goal!! I guess I need to see how much more I can push my body... of course I am not trying to kill myself doing this :)

We raised $315,000 for charity!

We raised US $ 315,000 for charity through the marathon. We had an event where we presented the monies collected for charity through the marathon to representatives of the charities.

I was honored to have the opportunity to present the check for $3800 US to the Diabetic Research Foundation of Iceland and talk about my fight against the disease. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes on January 5, 2006. I beat the disease by diet and exercise (preparing to run the marathon helped quite a bit! my doctor agrees :))

Iceland has been in the forefront of diabetic research. DeCode is a genetics company in Iceland that found the gene that causes Type 2 Diabetes, here is the link to the press release.

Official Marathon Result

I was eager to see my name in the official published list of marathon finishers the day after the marathon only to find "Hlaupari 2TM9EPY" next to my time. The marathon organizers did not get my name in the list :( I had to wait until last Thursday (8/24) to get my name in the list.

I am happy to note that they got my name in the List finally, I am number 242 in the list