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I am celebrating 10 years. Ten years as a recreational long distance runner. It was back in September 2009 that I started my journey in long distance running to keep myself fit. But soon it became my passion and now I take pride in how the journey has taken shape.
A childhood wish...
When I was a child, I aspired to become a sportsperson. But the place where I was born and grew up in was a small, devoid of any sporting facilities.
I was good at studies as well, and my parents convinced me to concentrate on studies more than sports. But my love for sport didn’t diminish. I kept on following various sports and athletes.
...nurtured at the workplace
The decision to continue in academics turned out to be very useful. I did well to complete my bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, which in turn earned me a job at Infosys.
My workplace has a sprawling campus and I had access to various sporting facilities that I had seen only on TV. Those facilities reignited my dreams of becoming a sportsperson. I tried my hands at tennis, badminton, table tennis, bowling and learnt them well enough to compete at least at my workplace.
But because of the dynamic nature of my work, I was unable to continue these for long. I used to be either too occupied with my work or unable to find playing partners. And my fitness regimen used to be irregular.
There would sometimes be prolonged gaps during which time I was unable to pursue any sports or fitness activities for many weeks. In addition, the sedentary nature of my work meant adding more kilos to the body.
My First step...
Somewhere in the month of September 2009, a synthetic athletic track (400 meters) was constructed in my office campus per International standards and was soon made open for employee usage.
After I received the communication about the opening of the track, I was there on the track next day evening itself and maybe I was the first among our employees to start using that. I had never seen and felt such a track before.
I started running on the innermost lane and got tired even before I completed my second loop, but stretched myself to complete three rounds. On that day there wasn’t a small hint in my mind that I had taken my first steps towards a long eventful journey in long distance running.
After that day, I became regular by hitting the track daily in evenings during weekdays. It started working well for me as I need not wait for a partner.
Within a month after I started, I could scale up to 10-12 rounds (4-5 km) of continuous running. I started feeling good both physically and mentally. Meanwhile, I was joined by couple of my colleagues.
Slowly the results started coming in the form of reduction in my overall weight and burning of extra fat around my belly. At workplace also, I was feeling an increase in my confidence level.
Introduction to competitive running...
It was in October 2011, when I got my first taste in competitive long distance running. I got to know about an event named “Celebration Mysore Run (CMR)" which was making its debut in Mysore. There were three categories in the event – Half Marathon (HM or 21.1 km), 10K (10 km) and 5K (5 km).
By that time, I had become adept at running 4-5 km at a stretch. Hence I registered for 5K along with few of my friends. But we got to know from organizers that 5K category was more of a fun run than a competition. Since we weren't aware about competitive races, it didn't matter for us.
But that race gave me good exposure to professional timed events. Post-race, I could interact with few of my colleagues who had participated in categories 10K and half-marathons (in timed events, the finishing runners get timing information digitally after their runs). The experiences they shared encouraged me to take up longer runs.
My first 10K run
Since it was an annual event, I set a goal for myself -- to try running in 10K category in the 2012 edition.
Till then, running was just for fitness. And I had not given much thought about the technicalities associated with long-distance races, including even warm-up and warm-down exercises, and diet.
To help by body with the challenge of running 10kms, I started including a few minutes of simple warm-up and warm-down exercises before and after my practice runs respectively. I started taking more water and also started including a glass of juice and a serving of tender coconut water in my daily diet.
Due to time constraints, I couldn't practice running an entire 10-km at a stretch before the event. In the run-up week to the race I could barely touch the 7.2-km mark. But I had gained enough confidence for race day.
On the race day though, there were butterflies in my stomach. Since it was my first competitive timed race, I was a bit nervous. I was just worrying if I could run the entire distance at a stretch.
As the race was flagged off, I started steadily. I kept a slow comfortable pace till my body got warmed up. My plan was to conserve energy in order to last for the entire distance. My target was to complete the race in 75 minutes.
Once warm-up phase was over, I started feeling confident about my body. Hence I started increasing my pace bit by bit. I was successful in scaling distance at a stretch and finish the race strongly in just 63 minutes.
Elevating to Half Marathon
After the strong finish in 10K, I started getting a strange feeling from within -- to go for more! I was slowly but surely getting tempted to try the next level --.the half-marathon. But, I was well aware that it was more than double the distance and would take that much more effort.
After participating in a couple more 10K races in local events over the next six months, I started preparing seriously for a half-marathon in 2013. Since I was finding it tough to spare time during weekdays, I started practicing during weekends.
I gave myself a couple of months and planned my weekend practice sessions in such a way that I could increase the running distance steadily with each passing week. My aim was to make my body comfortable in running longer distances without feeling fatigue.
Despite my planning, I couldn't go beyond 18 km of continuous running. Hence I devised my race plan such that I would be running at least 18 km (as practiced) at a stretch and then would be walking rest of the distance in case I got tired and was unable to continue running. My rough target was to finish the race in 2 hours 30 minutes.
But the enthusiasm of race day kept me going beyond 18 km, I could beat my target as I completed the race in 2 hours and 16 minutes.
Stepping-up for marathon
My confidence level as a runner had gone notches above after my strong half-marathon completion. I could repeat the strong performance next year (2014) as well in the same event. The important point was, the preparations were less compared to the previous year.
That gave me an indication that I was getting comfortable running 21kms and I could try for the next level, the marathon at 42.2kms.
Those days, there was only one event in and around Mysore which hosted a marathon. That was Kaveri Trail Marathon (KTM). KTM is an annual event held near the world famous bird sanctuary Ranganathittu, around 20 km from Mysore.
The marathon was scheduled on September 20. From July to September 2015, for every weekend, I marked an incremental distance in my plan for the practice runs. Since it was already more than six months since I ran my last HM, my weekend plan started with 15kms and the target was to reach anything above 25kms before the race.
I executed the plan diligently and a week before the event, I could clock three hours of continuous running covering 26 km. For the remaining 16 km I devised a race-day plan of trying fixed time sequences of alternative walk and runs (3 minutes of run followed by 2 minutes of walk).
As the name suggests, KTM happens on a trail, running parallel to the canals of river Kaveri. Next morning, I reported on time to the venue and completed all the pre-race formalities. The race started on time and like I did in my previous runs, I started with slow-steady pace.
I kept on running at steady pace for around 25kms and then I switched to my planned sequences of walk-run for the rest of the distance. As a result, I could complete the race without fatigue in a steady timing of 5 hours, 13 minutes and 6 seconds.
As I passed the finish line, I was simply overwhelmed with the thought of becoming a “marathon runner”. I felt a sense of achievement, that I had fulfilled my childhood wish of becoming a sportsperson.
Before the race, my idea was to give a try once. But the experience of running the mega race was so good that I couldn’t find any reason to stop.
Since then I have continued every year. Every time, I have bettered my previous year’s timing, the latest being 4 hours, 44 minutes and 49 seconds.
Following table gives the performances of my full-marathons:
