Never considered age to be a bar on performance. Also will
iterate that, I have never had any Performance Enhancing drugs J. It’s the
determination and discipline that has given results.
Grace of God and Blessing from Friends and Well wishes is
the driver for the required motivation. Proper training plan from Coach
Kothandapani , Regular massage from Yash Pandey, Strengthening workouts and
proper nutrition ensured an injury free year. Love and support from my wife Susan gave
me time and freedom for my workouts and other related commitments. Had taken 3 weeks off in Dec, for the additional focus on fitness.
Since the completion of SCMM 2016 in 3hrs 6min 34secs, had
the plan for a Sub 3 hrs attempt at SCMM ’17. Target for an improvement of 7
mins was practical, but then could not afford any secs more than 2hrs 59m 59s.
Post the cycle accident on 14th Oct, had a dream performance at #ADHM on 20th Nov,
which build up the confidence to repeat the same at #SCMM. A lot of effort was
put in at ADHM ’16, and was not confident if I had the strength and enthusiasm
to repeat the same at SCMM.
Had done 3hrs 6mins 34 secs at SCMM ’16 and Avg pace was 4m25s/km.
Target for SCMM ’17 was 2h 59m 59s and Avg pace of 4m15s/km. This required an
improvement of 10secs/km and was extremely challenging.
Post improvement of 3m 30s at Airtel Delhi Half Marathon '16 from ADHM 15, a
6 mins improvement for FM looked practical. Training for
Full Marathons demands runs of distances over 30kms, which has always been painful. Gradually
build up endurance by putting in more weekly mileage. My time trial run of
35kms showed the improvement of exactly 10secs/km, but would have been extremely
risky with this zero secs margin of anything going wrong on the event day.
For me personally, a FM event is a 75% mind game, post the rigorous training
put in. Strategy was to maintain a consistent pace, a couple of secs faster
than the average pace. I had planned a loss of around a min at Peddar Road at
around the 35th Km.
On the event day, completed warmup drills, and was at the
start line well ahead of the Gun time. Post the flag off, gave an additional
push to be ahead of the rush. Most part of the route was pretty familiar and always
reminded myself to restrict going very fast. Had a plan of maintaining around
4m11s/km average pace, which was not very challenging to maintain. Surprisingly
got slower than planned, at the incline before the Peddar Road (9th
km), but did not drastically impact my average pace. Found myself
extremely comfortable at Worli Sea Link and pace increased substantially. I
knew that this would not tire me and hence continued the pace for a couple of
kms. Overall average pace of 4m12sec continued till the 32nd km, and this
build up my confidence of attaining my Sub 3hrs target. Always maintained my form, kept myself relaxed and was thinking of
my family and well-wishers for the positive energy.
Major fear was the impact of Peddar Road incline post 35th km, where
my pace initially dropped to around 5m30s/km, but later increased intensity to
achieve an avg pace of 4m44s/km which has been my fastest ever in the past
years. The crowd of Half Marathon walkers increased and was extremely difficult
to run through them. Strategically moved to the right side of the road which
had no traffic and no runners. Ran comfortably till Marine drive and again was
a much bigger group of HM walkers. Almost had to push a lady when she suddenly
stopped walking, just in front of me. Post a km through this crowd, the FM’ers
were given a freeway. By then had to put more effort to maintain the pace, but
was not much concerned about the impact on my target. Post some distance the
freeway disappeared and had to again run through the crowd till Flora Fountain.
Pushed myself to the best in the final km and could see the 2.58.xx in the
clock around 75 meters ahead. Thought of the Almighty, Family, Friends and
Well-wishers and thanked GOD for giving me the opportunity to crossing the
finish line, in less than 3 hrs.
Personally find it difficult to believe my Garmin Forerunner 920XT stats. It’s in a race that I go far faster, than any of my training runs.
4:00, 4:12, 4:19, 4:07, 4:07, 4:08, 4:12, 4:07, 4:33, 4:15 – 42.00 mins
4:05, 4:15, 4:09, 4:09, 4:13, 4:10, 4:11, 4:10, 3:52, 4:00 – 41.13 mins
4:00, 3:55, 4:06, 4:05, 4:11, 4:15, 4:17, 4:13, 4:18, 4:14 – 41.34 mins
4:18, 4:15, 4:18, 4:21, 4:30, 4:44, 4:10, 4:21, 4:20, 4:20 – 43.37 mins
4:22, 4:16, 1:46 (450 meters) – 10.22
42.2Kms @ 2h 58m 46s, Average Pace 4min 14sec/km, Average Speed 14.16 kmph, Avg Cadence 175spm, Avg Std len 1.36meters
Winner in my Category and 12th position overall from 4299 finishers.
The route was far more Barefoot friendly than any of the
previous years. Sea Link was well tarred and Marine drive was equally great.
As part of my training, maintained an average weekly mileage
of 90kms for 4 weeks from the last week of Nov ’16. Knew that Sub 3hrs would be
extremely challenging without the additional mileage. An improvement of
3m30secs at ADHM, meant a possible improvement of 6mins at SCMM. But this was a
bit risky, hence put in the additional mileage for 4 weeks, which further gave
me the 1 min buffer. So confidence levels were high and was in the best of moods
during the training and tapering periods.
To ensure good health towards the event, had frequent
Fast&Up Reloads the previous days, Recover & Recharge regularly & 7
Malto Gels at an interval of 6kms, during the run.
