Karnataka State Masters Athletic meet held at Hoskote, Karnataka.
Runners represent various districts and age 35 years and above participating, are the passionate sportsmen & women, from Services background like the Army, Airforce, Railways, Banks, or similar Government sectors, where sports is their primary skill. The salary increments and promotions are based on the success in sports. While few others come from good farming backgrounds. A lot of them would have been successful athletes during their heydays. Couple of them would have also won the National challenges and represented the country internationally at Asian or World meets.
Top 2 State winners in each event and category get to represent in the National championship that will be held in Bangalore from 21st to 25th Feb '18
I participated in 3kms race where they extrapolate the time to 5kms and the next day a 4kms race extrapolated to 10kms. Time constrains with over 50 events, across multiple age categories for Men and Women to be organized (20 categories for each event), was the reasoning to reduce the distance.
23rd Dec - 3kms race
A very interesting race. Our group had age categories 45 to 50, 50 to 55 and 55 to 60 years combined together. We would have been a total of around 20+ runners. I did not know anyone within the group, and was not aware on who would be the strongest. Back of my mind, I had the intention of attempting to be the winner across the 3 Categories, but then many of the runners in 45 to 50 looked pretty strong and had the nice athletic looks. As always, everyone smiled at each other, with the unknown factor on who is the strongest. In the age group of 55 to 60, there were a couple of known faces and knew them as the probable strongest within their category.
The race was scheduled at around 3pm and mentally was not in the best of moods to race at the odd time in the sunny afternoon. In the recent past, had not trained with evening runs. Had a good breakfast, but skipped lunch. Post a patient wait, the event for my age category finally started by around 4.30pm. The mud tracks were not hot, as I would have anticipated in the afternoon timing.
3 kms meant 7.5 loops on the first lane. Post the gun fire, at around 50 meters from the start around 7 runners took the lead and were going strong. To minimize the gap between the lead and myself, had to push myself and utilize my leg strength to force myself forward. By the completion of the 1st lap of 400 meters, there were 2 runners ahead of me and post completion of 2 laps only 1 runner ahead of me. He was going steady & strong and I was maintaining the same pace as him. With the focus on running fast, forgot my ChiRunning principles and continued to push myself with my legs and is not an effective method of endurance running. Pushing with legs results in heel landing ahead of knees / center of gravity, hence higher stride length and reduced Cadence. Infact Cadence in the first lap was around 151spm and unusually high stride length of 1.69meters, which proves the effort put in by the legs. This results in strain on the quads and calfs, and impact on the joints.
Post completion of 5 laps, took the lead ahead of my competitor and kept my ears open to understand the gap between us. Increased pace in the final 200meters, ensuring the gap is increased and for a strong finish. Completed 3kms in around 10mins 58secs, Avg Pace 3m39s/km, Avg Cad 172steps/min, Avg Stride length 1.62meters
Per lap in mins - 1.24, 1.29, 1.31, 1.28, 1.27, 1.27, 1.28, 0.44
24th Dec - 4kms race.
The advantage here was knowing the other runners and having the confidence that I could continue with the similar performance as the previous evening. Hence focus was more on the form, and other runners going ahead in the initial couple of laps was not a concern. All age groups of 50 years and above were combined together.
Run started at around 7.30am and body was feeling much more comfortable than the previous day. We were informed that we had to run 10 laps (4kms) only was a feel good factor.
Post the gun fire, only a couple of runners were ahead and my competitor did not take the lead ahead. His strategy would have been to maintain my pace and stride and take the lead in the final laps. By the finish of 2nd lap, I got the leading position and he continued at the same pace as mine. I gradually increased pace in the 4th lap and he also continued strong along with me. In the 7th lap, further increased my pace and realized that it was not easy for him to maintain that pace. By around the 9th lap, understood that the gap was over 20 meters but continued to go strong and went the strongest in the 10th lap. Overall a perfect run, at a strong pace with a strong finish. Best was to maintain a good running form.
Maintaining a good form resulted in a perfect Cadence of 178steps/min.
4kms @ 14mins 54sec, Avg Pace 3m43s/km, Avg Cad 178spm, Avg Std len 1.54meters
Per lap in mins - 1.34, 1.35, 1.34, 1.31, 1.32, 1.30, 1.27, 1.26, 1.26, 1.19
Runners represent various districts and age 35 years and above participating, are the passionate sportsmen & women, from Services background like the Army, Airforce, Railways, Banks, or similar Government sectors, where sports is their primary skill. The salary increments and promotions are based on the success in sports. While few others come from good farming backgrounds. A lot of them would have been successful athletes during their heydays. Couple of them would have also won the National challenges and represented the country internationally at Asian or World meets.
Top 2 State winners in each event and category get to represent in the National championship that will be held in Bangalore from 21st to 25th Feb '18
I participated in 3kms race where they extrapolate the time to 5kms and the next day a 4kms race extrapolated to 10kms. Time constrains with over 50 events, across multiple age categories for Men and Women to be organized (20 categories for each event), was the reasoning to reduce the distance.
23rd Dec - 3kms race
A very interesting race. Our group had age categories 45 to 50, 50 to 55 and 55 to 60 years combined together. We would have been a total of around 20+ runners. I did not know anyone within the group, and was not aware on who would be the strongest. Back of my mind, I had the intention of attempting to be the winner across the 3 Categories, but then many of the runners in 45 to 50 looked pretty strong and had the nice athletic looks. As always, everyone smiled at each other, with the unknown factor on who is the strongest. In the age group of 55 to 60, there were a couple of known faces and knew them as the probable strongest within their category.
The race was scheduled at around 3pm and mentally was not in the best of moods to race at the odd time in the sunny afternoon. In the recent past, had not trained with evening runs. Had a good breakfast, but skipped lunch. Post a patient wait, the event for my age category finally started by around 4.30pm. The mud tracks were not hot, as I would have anticipated in the afternoon timing.
3 kms meant 7.5 loops on the first lane. Post the gun fire, at around 50 meters from the start around 7 runners took the lead and were going strong. To minimize the gap between the lead and myself, had to push myself and utilize my leg strength to force myself forward. By the completion of the 1st lap of 400 meters, there were 2 runners ahead of me and post completion of 2 laps only 1 runner ahead of me. He was going steady & strong and I was maintaining the same pace as him. With the focus on running fast, forgot my ChiRunning principles and continued to push myself with my legs and is not an effective method of endurance running. Pushing with legs results in heel landing ahead of knees / center of gravity, hence higher stride length and reduced Cadence. Infact Cadence in the first lap was around 151spm and unusually high stride length of 1.69meters, which proves the effort put in by the legs. This results in strain on the quads and calfs, and impact on the joints.
Post completion of 5 laps, took the lead ahead of my competitor and kept my ears open to understand the gap between us. Increased pace in the final 200meters, ensuring the gap is increased and for a strong finish. Completed 3kms in around 10mins 58secs, Avg Pace 3m39s/km, Avg Cad 172steps/min, Avg Stride length 1.62meters
Per lap in mins - 1.24, 1.29, 1.31, 1.28, 1.27, 1.27, 1.28, 0.44
24th Dec - 4kms race.
The advantage here was knowing the other runners and having the confidence that I could continue with the similar performance as the previous evening. Hence focus was more on the form, and other runners going ahead in the initial couple of laps was not a concern. All age groups of 50 years and above were combined together.
Run started at around 7.30am and body was feeling much more comfortable than the previous day. We were informed that we had to run 10 laps (4kms) only was a feel good factor.
Post the gun fire, only a couple of runners were ahead and my competitor did not take the lead ahead. His strategy would have been to maintain my pace and stride and take the lead in the final laps. By the finish of 2nd lap, I got the leading position and he continued at the same pace as mine. I gradually increased pace in the 4th lap and he also continued strong along with me. In the 7th lap, further increased my pace and realized that it was not easy for him to maintain that pace. By around the 9th lap, understood that the gap was over 20 meters but continued to go strong and went the strongest in the 10th lap. Overall a perfect run, at a strong pace with a strong finish. Best was to maintain a good running form.
Maintaining a good form resulted in a perfect Cadence of 178steps/min.
4kms @ 14mins 54sec, Avg Pace 3m43s/km, Avg Cad 178spm, Avg Std len 1.54meters
Per lap in mins - 1.34, 1.35, 1.34, 1.31, 1.32, 1.30, 1.27, 1.26, 1.26, 1.19
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