A Marathon to Remember

I had been practising for the SCSM from mid September. Had a rigorous hard training (I felt it was hard :) ), running 4 times a week. The amazing training schedule from marathonrookie.com coupled with the tips in Jeff Galloway book made my running more easy.

Distance in miles

I have completed all the runs except the two ones in red. The first one was interrupted by rain after some 6km of my run and the second one I took a wrong turn and got lost.

Yesterday I had my amazing first half marathon clocked in 1hr53'35". My target was to do finish in 2 hours and I was well within my target. Reached the 10K mark in 53 min and then made sure I was running every subsequent 1K on an average in 5.5 min.

I started the race slowly hoping to catch up on the speed at the later stage. After 10 min or so I realized it was too slow to finish in 2hrs. Adding to my woes all the people were cramming towards the left side of the road leaving little space to place the next step on the road, thereby often landing on someone's foot.

And as you can expect the right side is totally deserted. So much so that a small car can easily pass through with any constant velocity. This realisation struck me little late. Better late than never I immediately found my way to the right and then started picking up my speed. Ran with my usual speed without worrying about the KM mark and by the end of the 50min I saw the 10K mark lying at some distance. Felt safe.

Got tired at the 18K mark but then kept on pushing myself to not to take more than 5.5 min /km. The last 1K was excruciating. The anxiety to see the finish mark made me restless. Overall had a vibrant atmosphere which fuelled me and helped me race without a hint of realisation that I have been running for about 2 hrs. Had a marathonic fun.

And after all this will I be taking part in the next year's marathon? Actually don't know. I can always run on that day without any training and still complete the race. But that's not how I wanted. Want to finish in a good time.

4 times a week of 3 months training is too long. I was forced to put my other activities like tennis and swimming on the back burner during this time. Will think about it in next August. This is turning out to be a marathonic post. Isn't it? Better stop here.

G