Standard Charted Mumbai Marathon 2017

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 35^th 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 (9^th 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 32^nd 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 35^th 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 12^th 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.