Mumbai Marathon 2020

For those of you who started reading this blog at least a decade ago, it is very likely you would have come across one of my posts on running. And the common thread between most of those posts, especially the ones on my full marathons in Mumbai (of which there have been over a dozen since 2005), was that I had one thing or the other going wrong till this year.

2020 was a welcome relief from all those painful memories and even more painful recounting that followed in the days, weeks and months (and in all honesty, years!) that followed each such race.

2020 was also the first time I ended up at the starting line with a rather flexible goal, mostly due to what I had put into my training - no intervals or tempos (since I have been unable to get commensurate sleep due to father duties in the last year or more). In fact, almost all the hard runs I had put in, came in the company of my running buddy, Vipul in whose company I did all my long runs at a challenging pace at Agara lake. I also had such a hard run at Goa in Nov 2019, that I knew anything better than that (~3:49) would be welcome at Mumbai. So I would be happy with a 3;30, not very unhappy with a 3:45 (which is faster than 3:49) and delighted if a 3:20 happened, esp since I found out that the race start was 5:15 am (literally a day before the race, when someone who collected my bib). I started rather conservatively, since I knew I had blown up in the past b/w 26-34km as the temp rose. In particular, I had been overtaken by a really good runner (woman) at about the 29km mark (U turn just off Worli Sea-Face), on more than one occasion in the past 3 years.

As a result, I wasn't too fussed with some pre-race events - one being my getting stuck in cluster f* jam near Kurla thanks to road closures and another being a late dinner, not to forget that my poor roommate for the night before had a violent cold he was recovering from.

I also made one change to my prep, thanks to a donation of a box of Maurten gels from one of my trainees in the US, also a friend. I even tried it in practice but I had tanked on my training long runs due to other causes. While I liked the gels, I wasn't sure whether the rest of my training was in line.

When the HM mark went by uneventfully, I was mostly waiting for the tanking to happen. However at around the 25km mark, I realized that I had hit a faster split than any of the prev 5 kms. Suddenly I realized that something special was possible. From there till the 34km mark, I was hoping for 6 min/km splits and doing well under 5 min/km. From there till the 38km mark, I was calculating what my finish time would be if I ran 7-8 min/km as in prev years and getting happy that I would get under 3:45 even if it did. At around the 38km mark, I caught a lucky break.

The leading woman runner (she did finish 1st amongst amateur women) came up behind me with a motorcycle escort. I realized that I stood to benefit if I could somehow just keep up with her and also just ahead (so that she didn't get impeded) while the motorcycle cleared the way. Thus, unlike much faster finishers ahead of me, who suffered due to the large nos of runners from other events, walking along Marine Drive, I had a free passage all the way to the finish. It wasn't a painless one though as fatigue had begun setting into my legs. But my spirit didn't flag for once.

I finished in 3:16:13, my second fastest marathon in India till date. Thanks to the weather, the organizers' decision to start early and Preity Rai (the top woman runner amongst amateurs), I had a memorable day.

The run was also memorable due to my decision to run in some excellent training shoes from Puma (Speed Sutamina which weigh 310g for UK size 9, in case you were keen to know), which weigh more than typical racing shoes which weigh about 200g. But the decision was predicated on work reasons, more than running, which is surprisingly not item no 1 in my life at this point.

(A couple of things prevented this post from going out at least 2 weeks ago - one is the aforementioned work reasons and another is a tragedy in the life of some running buddies, which I didn't want to divert attention from, by going on about my running).

I don't think I have ever got more from my running with such limited input. I am quite delighted with it. 

Mumbai Marathon 2019

A little bit of blood, lots of sweat and some tears...

Y’day was the 15th edition of the Mumbai Marathon (now called the Tata Mumbai Marathon).

The last year has been a significant year (and not just on the running front) in my life. With the birth of my son in Apr last year, I decided to put my running way down on my list of priorities at least in the short term. From Apr to Aug, I ran for just 3 days a week and at an easy pace. From Sep, I began running 6 days a week while continuing to run easy. By the time KTM came around in Nov, I was in good shape, despite no speed work.

I had a very good run at KTM thanks to some German business travellers, running under 90 min for the first time ever. So I was looking forward to Mumbai this year wondering this would be the year I would have a good run in the full marathon. Since 2011, I have had great runs at Mumbai in the half but a good run in the full has been elusive.

I had been to Mumbai last week (Well, Vashi isn’t exactly Mumbai - it is much cooler than South Mumbai, for sure) and I knew that come race day, the weather would suck - like it has in most years. While I wasn’t looking for a PB, despite being in PB shape, I wanted to beat my best time in India 3:14 from a race in Bangalore. I knew that was possible as my fitness felt better than that. I felt confident enough to tell anyone who asked me what my target was that I’d love to run between 3:10-3:15, unlike in previous years where I felt telling someone my target for Mumbai would jinx it. As an aside, I don’t feel like this at other races - when Hari (a running buddy) had asked me at KTM what my target was, I had said that I’d love to get as close to 1:30 as I could. And I did. But then…

Since the race started at 5:30 am this year, I woke up at 2:30 am as I was staying with a friend at Worli and wanted to be at the venue by 4:45. Since I had nothing to do after 3:30, I tried taking a nap till 4 am but that didn’t work. I finally ended up at the venue by 4:15 itself as the ride was a breeze. My cab went thru Marine Drive which was a surprise since I expected road closures much before the race start.

The race start was great as my first km took me almost 4:40 thanks to the crowds. I was kicked as I have never started this slow. I spent kms 3-10 talking to Murthy, a fellow runner from Bangalore, about his daughter, already a promising runner. Once we hit Pedder Road, I held my pace but Murthy dropped back a bit.

By the time I got to half way point, I was so looking forward to the 32km mark where I would begin a planned surge. That was not to be. Thanks to my bowels not being empty, I ended up with gas which got progressively worse from around the 26-27 km mark and I slowed to a walk. I went to some shops on the sea-face and asked for ginger which helps with gas. Since I couldn’t get one, I had to walk as my abdomen hurt a lot. I got one only by end of the sea face with a vegetable cart! That helped a bit.

I then stopped at a porta-potty at Kemp’s Corner but that didn’t help at all.

I began running again but in another 4-5km my legs which had got compromised thanks to a weakened core, just didn’t recover. I gave up and did a mix of walking and jogging till the end. I even entertained thoughts of pulling out of the race at the 29km mark when I passed close to where I was staying in Worli, but the memory of my only DNF in a 75km race at the 50km mark, thanks to a bad attitude haunted me for a year. I just sucked up and went on. As I established a few years ago, if you don't hit your target, any number is not palatable. So even if I finished in over 4 hours, it didn't matter.

Only when an old running friend, Priyankar popped up by my side with about 200m to go, did I attempt any sort of running.

That helped me finish looking better than I did after 30km but my stomach was bugging me.

Due to the gas, none of the electral and water (or even a banana) I had consumed along the way had been absorbed. Due to this happening at the ultra, I knew I had to puke it out or risk a messy flight trip back to Bangalore. So I did that. An old trainee and friend, helped me get thru this. We were both spooked when I puked some blood at the end. At first I thought it might be ORSL in the apple flavour, but I went home and checked that the drink is just light brown in question. I am guessing that my dry throat must have gotten scratched and puking must have made it worse.

Anyways, I was fine after this and went home, showered, had a nice lunch thanks to my host and left for the airport. Just a few years ago, I would have agonised over this. Thanks to the baby, there were very low expectations. I am disappointed but not exactly shattered. Another year, another race.

See you all next year.

Mumbai Marathon (SCMM) 2017

My 28th event of marathon distance or over, was a bitter-sweet experience.

While I was handing over my bag at the baggage counter, I realized that my Garmin had somehow managed to discharge itself before the start of the race, despite being fully charged the prev night. I decided I'd run on feel. It wasn't a major concern and I have dreamed of doing this for a while now.

I was in good shape to run close to 3:10 if all went well on raceday and 3:15 if something went wrong. Since I had landed on Fri, I had treated the news of the cold wave in Mumbai with some amusement since SCMM has almost never had cool weather on raceday. So I expected it to pass.

While AJ and I warmed up, I knew it was going to be a warm day as I was already sweating at what must have been around 7 min/km pace during my warm up.

The race start was a bit dodgy and the organizers could have done a much better job of handling the corrals and almost none went into the marked B, C, D areas and everyone just rushed into A.

I started very conservatively and had only effort to guide me. There were a bunch of people who I know, run around the same pace, who were all ahead of me but within sight. That helped.

At the 9.6km mark or so, I got confirmation of my first time check as the elite HM runners were on their way to the finish and 43:31 was the time on the lead vehicle's clock. The next time check happened at the 21.1 km mark when I went thru in 1:35:18. So far, so good. I was looking forward to doing a mild negative split or worst case, even split. My left knee which has been a bother for a while now, began causing a minor gait change from around the halfway mark but I wasn't too concerned as my pace was on target. At around the 30km mark, I began to feel mild cramps from my butt all the way to my calf in both legs and began slowing down. The only saving grace was that unlike last year, I didn't walk for even a moment during the entire race.

If you see my relative position in the race, I stayed in pretty much the same overall position till about the 30km mark. Thereafter 5 people overtook me if the timing data is to be believed. I finished in 3:26:12 as per the official time, although I thought a few more seconds should show up as lag b/w my getting to the mat and the elapsed time. I don't really care as 3:10:01 is as unsatisfying as say, 5:40:00 to me if I step out to race today in an event I have run since 2004. Some minor consolation/major sobriety check is provided by my AG top finishers - the 3rd of whom finished in 2:53:50! I am quite pleased for the talented and hard working Nanjundappa in particular, as he finally broke 2:40 in a full marathon at Mumbai! The studly Henrik Westerlin ran 2:49, although he too ran a +ve split. A bunch of other known runners had incredible runs, incl. the ridiculously good Mahesh Londhe, who I saw for the first time at the Ultra this year. And then there were the runners from Shillong, who looked so good running smoothly. On a warm day, all these guys went sub-2:55! And then a bunch of my AG toppers from prev years all suffered much like I did, to varying degree. Some credence to the argument that it wasn't just me.

My BIG takeaway is that I can now run a sub 3:30 marathon w/o a watch, which is a nice ego-massage but my weakness against the heat persists.

Chop wood, carry water.

Half Marathon at the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2013

1:32:23 (if you are like me and can't wait till the end of this post!)

I ran in the half marathon event for only the 3rd time in my 10 straight years at running in the SCMM event at Mumbai. Most of the reason to run the half rather than full was my CIM which was around 6 weeks ago. Since that was a hard effort and I recovered for 2 weeks after it, I had about 4 weeks to train for this race. And I did.

I had no plans to run a PB. Mumbai is not the course for a PB for me, whatever the distance and besides my body does not handle hard efforts so close to each other. My plan was to try and run 1:35 or  just a bit faster. I did 2 half marathons in practice but those were pacing efforts, below my PB pace. I did one 10 miler at just faster than target pace.

Since I had run below 2 hours, I was in the A corral. The start was good and within a mile, I had only the Indian elites and a few Western Naval Command runners ahead of me with a few assorted faster runners not aligned to any group.

I started with my first mile in 7:01 which pleased me immensely since I hate to run the first mile as the fastest of the race. The sea-link appeared soon enough. By the time I got to the highest point on the sea-link I had crossed at least 1 runner ahead of me, just by putting in a hard effort to hold pace. The 2nd & 3rd miles were both under 7 min each.

This was easily the best section of the run. I was feeling fresh. The sunrise was over an hour away. There was a gentle breeze and there were hardly any runners around! Pretty much to my liking.

I continued to hammer after 3 miles and the downhill helped me cross another runner or so. I am not sure I liked the stretch of the route where we went to Cadel Road and then came back to the Worli Sea Face, but I couldn't care less. I had a bunch of minor contests with fellow runners who were trying to peg against me and cross me. By the time we got to Pedder Road, all such contests were settled one way or the other because  we had a little over a mile of uphill to climb. And I really love uphills. On that section, I managed to cross at least 2 runners who had burned too much fuel by that point and lost pace. I did cross a bunch of Bangalore runners in the full marathon, all of whom I gave a good shout to. I think I will lay partial claim to the no of PBs set by my buddies ;)

My plan had been to run steady till 10 miles and burn the last 3 if I had any strength left. This didn't quite play to plan. While my average pace didn't dip, I couldn't push any more than I was running at. This was a surprise as I felt good but what seemed like a gentle upward slope from Wilson College to the Air India turn, ate up whatever strength I had, in just maintaining the pace.

To massage my ego further, I did manage to cross 2 people at least in the last mile, incl. one in the last 400m. The clock showed some 1:30:15 or some such time and I knew it was about 2 mins off since my Garmin showed 1:32:30 or thereabouts.

I am more than happy since my target was to not go slower than 1:35 and stay uninjured from the experience. While I had planned some celebrations at Leopold's with my trainees, only some of the Mumbai group turned up. So that was somewhat muted. However that was more than compensated within 36 hours by a series of visits to the Pint Room in Bandra, the home-bar of an ex-colleague, Rajdhani's in Phoenix, The Pali Village Cafe in Bandra and Lemon Tree also in Bandra and an overdose of filter coffee  - homemade as well as from Cafe Mysore.

The week-long visit to Mumbai was also made memorable by not just the run but also a meeting with Haile, Fauja Singh as well as the charming Tim Hutchings who I managed to meet before the "meet & greet Haile" session happened.

Since I had such low expectations from my own rather unvenetful run, the results were pleasing by largely being in line with expectations. I guess there is a lesson in there somewhere :)

I am looking forward to at least a month long layoff from running now!

Training for 10K, Half Marathon, Marathon, etc

The last time I started batches for SCMM & SCDM, I had trainees running the following races

1. Kaveri Trail Marathon 2012
2. Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2012
3. Amsterdam Marathon 2012
4. Wineglass Marathon 2012
5. Newport Liberty Half Marathon 2012
6. SAFRA Singapore Bay Run/Army Half Marathon 2012
7. New Balance Real 21K (Singapore)
8. Newton's Challenge 2012 (Singapore)

Most of my trainees in the above races set personal bests in the above races. As of now, I have trainees running the following races

1. Istanbul Marathon 2012
2. Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2012 (Dec 2nd)
3. Bangalore Midnight Marathon 2013
4. Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2013
5. Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon 2013
6. Shanghai Marathon 2013
7. Auroville Marathon 2013
8. Tokyo Marathon 2013
9. Paris Marathon 2013
10. Berlin Marathon 2013

I am myself running in the California International Marathon 2012 (also on Dec 2nd). I am not taking any more trainees for Mumbai or Dubai. However if you have pre-registered for Berlin 2013 or any race beyond Feb 2013 (at least 12 weeks away) and would like to be coached, get in touch with me at dhammonia@gmail.com

I am back in India on 5th Dec 2012 after my race and will take on trainees interested in running in the Auroville Marathon 2013 & other races.

Read this post and this to get a hang of how I go about things and then mail me at dhammonia@gmail.com.

Good Luck with your running.