My First Marathon

I had never, ever, even remotely, been considered an athlete, least of all by myself. At school, I used to be the first one to bunk sports class. And I hated waking up early to be dragged to PT class in the cold (OK, that was true of almost everyone in class!). My 8 hour sleep was always a prized possession I rarely compromised on. Till recently, my fitness routine consisted of hogging desserts, chugging beers and dragging myself to the gym/pool perhaps once a month to assuage occasional feelings of guilt about all that beer/dessert.

This changed when I started running from end-2009 (see earlier post).

Now, while I'm not as mad a runner as many in this group, I see myself happily getting up at (to me) unearthly hours 3 days a week, head out and run, leading up to my first Auroville run, also my first marathon.

The idea of doing a marathon had of course been on my mind, but it was a daunting prospect and I kept putting it off, sticking to the way less taxing half marathons, which I could manage without a strict training routine. Bit the bullet and signed up for Auroville encouraged by Krishna doing the same, after the IIT half. Now, for my first full, I had to figure out a program which would get the job done, but not tax lazy me too much. Like I said, sleep was a priority for me, so were a couple of late nights out per week, and I didn't really enjoy any fitness activity other than running. But I knew I needed to do some strengthening and stuff, so figured a 3 day running, 1 day strengh+core routine per week would be doable. And if I felt like it, I could do a short strength routine once in a way (of course I hardly ever felt like it).

So it was a simple schedule with a progressively long run on Sunday (increasing from 20k to 36k @ 2-3k each time, cutting back the distance every 3rd or 4th week), a 10k or so run on Tuesday, strength/core on Wednesday, 10-15k on Thursday. Threw in some speedwork into one of the weekday runs to keep it interesting, but didn't get to do any hill runs.

Anyway, come Feb 12th, I figured I'd done a decent job following my modest schedule, though it was a very comfortable routine compared to the hardcore ones recommended by many experts which go up to 60+ miles/week with lots more strength training and stuff.

Landed up at the run start point on Sunday morning and the race got off bang on time. My goal was to run continuously (no walk breaks) and finish comfortably, and had dreams off finishing near 4:30. The strategy was to keep a steady pace of 6:20-6:30 and hope for an even split.

The first loop was run with some trepidation, having heard stories of many runners who fell and injured themselves last year. Kept it slow and was concentrating on not losing my way or my footing. The trail was also undulating, and with my lack of experience on inclines, found my HR shooting up way over normal. So I kept to the lower end of the target pace band. Then the day started lighting up, and by 6.10 I'd ditched my dorky head lamp and was really enjoying the run. The second loop was of course the best, the sun kept low and the weather stayed comfortable. Volunteer support was excellent, especially at the superb and frequent aid stations. Maintained the same pace and, other than a bunch of us losing our way in the middle, the miles went by pretty uneventfully and I completed 21.1 at 2:15 hrs and kept on. 4:30 was looking like a distant possibility at this time.

Cue to 33-34k and I was maintaining the same pace but the sun had really started to show its fury and rapidly sap whatever energy stores I had left. During training, I had finished a 33k and a 36k comfortably at this pace, so hoped I could manage the additional 6k. But then, those runs had been on flat roads when Chennai was at its coolest, and the last part of these runs were inside the well-shaded Anna University so I hardly experienced more than brief moments under the sun. I was starting to realize how much of a difference the tough trail and weather could make.

And then, I misread a sign and took a wrong turn again. Made it back after a while and ran on, but when the 35k marker came up, found my Garmin showing 36.5k, thanks to the missed turns and an overall longer route, and realized I would have to run close to 44k to finish this. That was not the best news at a time when the miles were becoming longer and longer. Marathoners must have discovered that space and time are not absolute, much before Einstein. Having run without a break at an average pace around 6:30/k, my enthusiasm and energy started to flag at this point when I discovered there were over 7 kms to go and the sun had become, to me, a full-blown monster.

The mental game was well under way now. Stopped and took walk breaks at the next couple of aid stations (walking at aid stations didn't violate my continuous running plan, right?!) , which were thankfully not too far apart. It's a bit of a blur, but the walk breaks became longer and managed to jog till the last aid station close to the 40k mark and I was almost all tapped out. Having run pretty much alone most of the race, I was very happy to see Bala and Vilva literally chilling out there. Bala offered me some water to wash myself and then we proceeded to amble/walk towards the finish. With all the obvious exhaustion, Bala's enthu had not flagged a bit and he kept commanding us to giddy-up and run. My Garmin ticked past 42.2k at around 4:38 . And then, some 1k from the finish, we saw a fresh-as-dew Manivannan, presumably having not had enough with his awesome 4.07 hr run, coming back to drag us stragglers in. I huffed and puffed with him till I saw the 42k mark at the distance.

At this stage, I should of course have sensibly continued the slow jog/walk. But, having watched too many masala movies where the hero, beaten black and blue to within an inch of his life, suddenly comes up with one last flourish to put down all the baddies in one fell sweep, I had to see if there was something left in me. Picked up the pace just before the 42k sign (around 43.6 in my Garmin). Even with the space-time continuum substantially distorted at this stage, it took me a while to see the 100m mark and then a long time again to see the finish line. I am fairly sure Balaji and the other route organizers, with their ever-present sense of humor, decided to make the last '200m' more like 400m, just for fun! Crossed the finish line as exhausted as I've ever been. The happiness and sense of fulfillment took a while to sink in. It was 44.09k and 4:53 minutes by my watch.

It truly was the last part of the race, gritting your way through sapped energy reserves, fighting a losing battle with the sun, dragging yourself on, which makes you dig in deep and bring out all that you got. In the process, you understand your limits, and how much you can push those limits. There is no short-cut to a marathon.

Thanks to the team for a great course and fabulously organized run. Congrats to all the finishers, whatever the distance, especially those who dragged themselves through pain, exhaustion and doubt to complete the run. Like Karthik said, the feats of runners who push their limits to finish are probably more inspirational than those who breeze through these runs at incredible speeds.