Report: Kaveri Trail Marathon (KTM) 2013 Half Marathon

The marathon season started off rather well for me and as far as I was concerned, the tone had been set for the rest of the season. I consider myself to be stronger than the average person with an immune system to compliment the same. But even so, I am still human and that is where we are different from machines. As much as we watch what goes into this bio-mechanic machine, there is almost always a chance that somewhere, something goes wrong.

As I sit here, peering through the small slits of eyes on my guppy swollen face, it is easy for me to think back to the 2.01 hrs of my 21.1k at KTM this Sunday just gone by. With a personal best of 3.38 hrs for my full only two weeks back, and with training in place, I was aiming for a personal best at the half marathon this week, but things were not to go as per plan.

With the wet and wild weather being a hindrance, I proceeded to make my first mistake close to race day. It was Thursday and I wanted to get my last long run in. Thinking that I would avoid the rain, I headed to the treadmill at the gym. Now, I have quit running on the treadmill since May when my knees were over-strained due to too many miles on the treadmill, so obviously my legs are not used to the treadmill anymore – but did I use common sense? No sir, I did not! In fact, I proceeded to do an 18k treadmill run in 1 hour and 25 minutes, and mind you I was super-chuffed at the timing.

By Thursday night my legs were giving me signals of pain, but I chose to ignore all the signs and symptoms. As I opened my eyes on Friday morning, I felt cold – ridiculously cold! Ankush came and checked on me and confirmed that I was running a temperature.

This was accompanied by knee and foot pain. “Not now, right next to event day” – was all I thought. I popped a couple of pills and went back to sleep. The rest of the day passed in the same groggy manner, with me waking up just to eat and pop more pills. Come Saturday morning, I decided I would be a trooper and head out to get my personal best, hoping against hope that I will magically be 100% on race day and get my personal best as per plan.

Saturday saw me popping my pills regularly and hitting the sack early. Sunday morning, I felt cold, there was pain in my legs and I was feeling uneasy. I had a fever too. Sri Ram asked me what I wanted to do – it was race day, I was already there so it was only logical that I take part in the event.

So we headed to the trail. Nagaraj had ridden his faithful Bianchi overnight to the event venue and we were carrying his change. He was doing the full marathon and thanks to the railway crossing, we were unable to get to him on time. He started his full marathon 10 minutes late.

We then managed to reach the start point of the half marathon. As I was walking, a lot of familiar faces said hello and waved out to me. I smiled back. I then went and stood in the corner. I had a couple of people say hello and ask me if I was feeling fine. Apparently, I didn’t look too good. Then, I had Anil come over and tell me that we could pace each other and run together. Seemed fair, since him and me have a similar pace. So, at the start line, off we went.

I was feeling good. First kilometer at 5 minute pace and then we took it up to a 4:30 pace. And we stuck to that pace for the next 4 km. But after the 5th km is when the drama began – it started with slow cramps and a feeling of the legs being heavy. I could not keep up my pace, the same pace that I had sustained for 42.2K only two weeks back, and I just could not keep it up.

Anil looked at me quizzically and tried to goad me on. I tried to pull. I just could not. As I looked beside me, Shweta ran past. I willed my legs to move but alas! They wouldn’t. I looked at Anil and asked him to carry on. My new plan was a simple one, just do what you can. And so I continued – I tried to stick to the 5 minute pace. It seemed too hard. Slowly, my pace dropped to 6 minutes to 7 minutes and I couldn’t do anything about it. I felt helpless – I have never felt so helpless before.

Around the 8K mark, I saw Vaishali overtake me with ease. Watching her strong stride filled me with a sense of pride – to know that this will be one of the first few Indian women running for the Indian tricolor at Boston in 2014. For a minute, I contemplated quitting the race and walking back to the start line – but then I decided against it.

For me, it was time to put my ego aside and complete this race to the best of my ability, and so I did. I continued my super-slow pace and had so many runners run past me, some cheering me on, some looking on quizzically. I soon reached the half way point i.e the U-turn to start back.

Not bad, I just need to plod on for that much more was what I thought. Around the 11.5K mark, I was honestly tired of my pace, it was just so slow! So, I decided to pick it up. I ran the next 2 kms at a 4 minute pace and that felt good. But those 2 km did all the damage possible – my knees and feet started screaming out in pain, my cramps kicked back in, and then began the longest 8 km yet.

I started walking – I don’t think I have walked so much in any race. The only time I have actually walked in a race was a year back at the KTM and that was because it was my first ever 21.1K distance, and that race saw me walk way lesser than what I walked this Sunday gone by.

By the 15 km mark, I had decided that there was no way I could pick up my pace, but a 6 minute slow jog was a possibility and would take me through to a sub 2-hour finish. I was not tired and had all the energy on this planet, but my legs were not supporting me.

So, I did what I do second best, I jogged slowly and cheered the other runners on. Chatting them up, motivating them and pulling them to the finish line for a sub 2-hour finish. I had fun, to say the very least. I also had all my favourite photographers in general and Vijay in particular screaming out my name, nudging me to the finish line with the biggest smiles on their face.

I got to see all the killer full marathon runners in action – Rachel Carter, Siddharth Bahuja, Siddesha Hanumanthapa. I saw Nagaraj at a distance and he was running with tape on his knee. He had hurt himself on a pothole. I met Shreyas, he was the only one who asked me to take it easy, maybe because he is the one person who knows that if I could push, I would already be pushing.

Then I saw Dharma with his warm smile and super energy. On the sidelines there was Aishwarya and Mike cheering on the runners – the energy was superb!

Once I crossed the finish line, I went on to go and congratulate the winners and then headed towards the stretching area. All the runners congregated there and we had a great time. Energy was high, the endorphin was pumping. We waited for the prize distribution, and had a quick bite to eat.

As the food went in and the chemical composition of the body returned to normal, I suddenly felt very tired and sleepy. I missed Ankush the most at this run since he is the one person who can always put things in perspective for me. I requested Sri Ram to drop me back at the hotel. As soon as I reached there, I fell asleep and woke up a couple hours later to a burning temperature, which still continues.

It was really heartening to see some healthy participation in terms of sheer numbers at this event. The KTM is easily one of the most scenic routes around the country as well as one of the toughest. The weather gods were kind enough to bestow the runners with a cloudy and relatively relaxed day on the trail.

The bullock carts, and sugarcane bundles along the trail only added to the flavour of the rustic trail experience. The aid stations were adequately stocked with the required eletrolytes, water, salt, sugar, fruit reserves, Volini etc which would be required by the runners.

The medical tent was adequately stocked and there were doctors who were on the trail running amongst the participants which provided the participants with mental peace. RFL has been organising this event for the last 6 years. 15th September 2013, saw them organise the 7th edition of this race and they did it in style. Kudos to you RFL. Keep doing what you are doing and in the trademark style – love it and will keep coming back for more.

Some learning from this event – read the signs! As a runner and an athlete you must listen to your body. Ample rest is important and when the body demands downtime, it is important to provide it with the rest that it is asking you for. There is no point in pushing a badly serviced vehicle – you can drive it and it will even take you from point A to point B, but the performance will be affected. So now, the resting and recovering mode to be followed by hard training to bounce back stronger and faster.