BITS 2 Marathon 10 KM Race - 44:57 PB

Image by jeffjose via Flickr

I have been a member of the BITS 2 Marathon running discussion group for the past 4 months. This group consists of Alumni and current students of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, my alma mater.

I joined the group to share my experience of running 7 marathons (Chicago 2009, Copenhagen 2008, Berlin 2007, Reykjavik 2007, London 2007, Oslo 2006, Reykjavik 2006) and also learn from other BITSians who are on the running trail. One of the founding members suggested that we should organize a World Run, i.e. everyone runs a race in their current location on a specific date. The group enthusiastically supported the idea and the BITS Alumni Association took the initiative to provide us with the web space to allow registration and they did an amazing job of designing a T-Shirt and the certificate of completion. I will post them once I receive it. The race was set for December 6th 2009. There were a total of160 registrations in locations ranging from Bay Area in California to Marina Beach in Chennai. Many BITSians in the locations who could not participate in the race volunteered to organize the race and support the runners. We have been getting updates from each of the locations, and it is fascinating to see so many faces taking on this challenge. Note that many of the participants are first time runners.

I am the only BITSian in Reykjavik, Iceland so I had to run the race alone. My effort to get my running buddies to participate did not materialize as I was lazy to not announce earlier than the day of the run, what can I say the last minute planning of Iceland has its influence never the less it has been a gorgeous day for a run. I started at around 10 am and completed the race in 44 minutes and 57 seconds, this is my personal best and I improved on my previous personal best by 1 minute and 6 seconds. I am pretty happy with my performance and I acheived my goal which was to run the 10 km sub 45 minutes :)

Chicago Marathon 2009: 3:33:54 PB

I ran and finished the Chicago Marathon 2009 in 3 hours 33 minutes and 54 seconds, this was an improvement of 31 minutes and 26 seconds from my previous personal best.




We arrived in Chicago on the 9th and the day we were leaving Reykjavik the weather was interesting, we had winds of about 40 m/sec. There was some doubt whether the flight to chicago will leave on time but all of that uncertainty was put to rest when the plane took off on time and my buddies Villi and Joi were on the same flight and they were running the marathon as well. We reached our hotel at around 12am on Oct 10th, we stayed at the Westin Michigan Avenue, it was a great location for shopping right next to the John Hancock Building, Bloomingdales and Macy's. Our daughter has been so well trained to travel that she took everything in and she was having fun as well inspite of the jet lag and all the shuttling between airports.

Villi, Joi and I went to the Marathon expo center and got our bibs and running chip on the 10th, spent some time looking at all the running stuff. I bought myself 2 pairs of ASICS shoes, Performance Trainer and a Kayano. The Kayano felt like a massage for my feet.  In addition, got all the Nike Chicago Marathon memerobilia. Did some serious damage to the wallet, hey what the heck its not like I am going to run the 2009 Chicago Marathon again.

In the evening we went to Carmine's an Italian restaurant ate some spaghetti with meat balls, this time around I did not over eat just enough to feel full and satiated.  Since the race was starting at 7:30 the next morning we hit the bed. I woke up at 3:00 am as I could not sleep after that, read the book The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown, got some granola with yogurt, nuts and dates my typical Marathon breakfast.

The weather was cold, at 3:00 am the temperature was -1°C. We left the hotel at 6:10 and walked the 2 miles to the start. It was amazing to feel the energy of everyone getting ready to start the run. Villi, Joi and I found our spot near the fountain in the park. I was planning to run with my wind jacket and had my bib pinned to that, Villi and Joi advised me to run without the jacket based on their experience in Boston which was cold to start with but got warmer during the day and Joi had to throw away his jacket. That was slight change of plans, never the less I decided to run with the official Chicago Marathon T-Shirt on-top of my CWX cold top. We deposited our bags and squeezed our way to the front of the pack, we jumped over a fence to reach the 3:50 pace setting group. It was exhilarating to hear the start of the race, 33,608 runners ready to hit the road.

I started sprinting right away, my strategy was to push hard and keep at it until the finish. I think I was running at a pretty good pace at the start and caught up with many runners in the 3:30 pace and ran with them until the end of the race. I was expecting to see my wife and daughter in the half marathon stage but could not find them in the crowd and I slowed down a bit to find them. Never the less, kept on chugging. The weather was still cold and it never got warmer, I started feeling the strain around 27th km, slowed down a bit and walked during the drink stations. I think the saving grace for my run was the initial push that I did in the first half of the marathon, I ran 20km in 1:34:15. There were several instances where my body was ready to give up but I never gave up and kept running and I was delighted to finish in 3:33:54.

The next goal is to qualify for Boston Marathon, i.e. shaving 18+ minutes from this run!

Speed work 4X1600, Cold, Cough and Icelandic Weather

Did my speed work on thursday, I was starting to feel a tickle on my throat usually a symptom of me getting sick with a cold and flu. But never the less completed the training run: here is the summary of the run, it was hard and I think my feeling under the weather must have made it worse... but I did the speed runs at a pretty good pace.


As can be seen my first mile (1600m) time was 6:18 pace, followed by 6:34, 6:48 and 6:42. I would say the average speed for the speed runs were 6:35. This gives me a little bit more confidence that I can sustain a pace of 6:45 for a extended period of time.

I had to miss my long run this weekend as I am down with cold, cough and body joint aches. Friday I left work at noon and slept maybe 8 hours and continued to sleep on Saturday. I think this has been the longest sleep bouts I have had for some time. I woke on Saturday with a back ache due to lying in bed for an extended period of time. Anyway, I think I am feeling a little bit better today, took the dog out for a 6 km walk in the hale and wind. I have already started counting down the days till the Chicago Marathon on October 11.

Gave up after 35 km...

I was very disappointed after a horrible run last sunday. I managed to run 35 km in 3:06:54 @5:19/km... I think I have to blame myself for the dismal performance. The weather was horrible, it was windy, rainy and down right depressing when I looked out the window when I woke up around 7am. I was quite surprised with the games my mind was playing I have never been intimated by the weather before and I have run in much harsher weather so I don´t know what the issue was. I guess mentally I am getting tired of training, I need to start running with a group to keep up the training regime.

To get down to the specifics, almost 8 km I was running against the wind, which felt horrible and I just could not push myself to keep up a good pace. It felt like the wind was 10 to 15 m/sec, of course it feels horrible when your mind tells  you all that is wrong with the run. I am more motivated than I have ever been to get back into doing more speed work and tempo runs to improve my speed.

Core Workout

I found these exercises to be very useful... they basically work your abdomen and back, I have started doing Rope Yoga which is excellent for the core as well.

Core Exercise 1
Core Exercise 2
Core Exercise 3

Running & Reading...

I saw this clip with Will Smith, I thought it was so simple and yet communicated a very strong message.

Reykjavik Half Marathon 2009 in 1:36:10 PB

I had decided that I would run the half marathon in Reykjavik in 1:45:00 which is 5 minute pace. The day started very early as I got a call from India at 5:45am and I had my alarm at 6:45. Never the less, got ready, Alok and An our friends from Amsterdam had come to visit us and also to participate in the Marathon. Alok was running the half marathon and An was running the 10k. We took a cab from our house to the start line, got there about 40 minutes before the start warmed up by running around the lake in downtown Reykjavik.

I started out a brisk pace and kept at it till the finish, I felt very good all through the way and actually I pushed myself to run hard at the end of the run. The strategy seem to work well and I ran the race in 1:36:10, which is my personal best and this was the fastest average pace that I have ever run even taking my practice runs into account. Here is the official result

The average pace was 4:32/km, I am very happy that the hard training is starting to kick in but the ultimate goal is Chicago Marathon and Boston qualification. I need to keep this above pace if I want to qualify for Boston. It is going to be hard but I feel confident that I can train hard for the next month and be best prepared for the marathon in Chicago.