Marathon mania - Bangalore 10k 2009

It's just running...why does it needs to be so complicated??? I remember thinking that whenever Suresh used to tell me that he was a fanatic runner and does it every morning and then the weekends too with a group called 'Runners for life'. He and Puru (@infa) had participated in many marathons and to us they were the kinda Experienced guys!!!

Bangalore sunfeast 10k was making noise in the news papers, it was big time advertised event round the time of june-july. Well this time I had decided to participate in the event with some motivation from peers at office. Now where to start, how to start? hmmm...started running daily morning and then with weekends some of our colleages (Puru, chandu) at GKVK, which is a good running location in bangalore, I too joined them, I really enjoyed the atmosphere there, it was a peaceful place...and the most important the bamboo forest trials. From further reading on running and marathons..,my thinking of 'just running...why so complicated' seemed to be diminishing as I learnt there was lot of techniques and processes involved :-)

Ten steps easy...ten steps hard....twenty steps easy...twently steps hard...one hundred steps easy...one hundred steps hard...some one mentioned this is an effective training mantras and was thought by Jack Daniels. Jack Daniels? I questioned thinking it might be just a punch line to make strong effect as the whisky :-). Well I learned it differently, he's world best running coach, scholar, exercise physilogist, athlete researcher and coach who does it right way - with scientific data.

After all the monthfull of running...it was finally the day of the run which was scheduled to commence at 6:45am, on 31st may 2009 and the event was divided in to multiple categories - 6 races - World 10k, nation's callenge 10k, Open 10k, majja run 5k, sr citizens run and a wheel chair event. A large number of participants took part this year - the kanteerava stadium was crowded, the hype created had worked or the buzz word Run-madi-run made the trick :-) whatever.

We were around 15 folks from Infa registered for Open 10k and wearing a Infa sponsored rebook T-shirt. I completed the run in 1hr:15m time, well not that great personal bentchmark too but a great feeling of accomplishment without a pitstop...

There were people running for charities...running for their fun, some people walking as though they were doing a ramp show :-) and some with costumes in majja run, well, probably I was in for curiosity as I was running for first time and testing my stamina :-)

It was a well organised event, they had taken care of every minute things to make the event so sucessfull. All in all a nice feeling, I will be back after a next marathon...probably bangalore ultra 26k event in nov 2009...bye for now!!!!

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Fact file: According to Scott-Barrios (the author of runners world) it boils down to a few basic rules.
* Do the minimal training needed for optimal results. According to Scott-Barrios, each runner has their own, personal "individual training threshold". Run at it and you will optimize your training. Run below or over it and you risk either under-training or getting injured. Each person has to find their own optimal training level.
* Be consistent. Becoming good requires running with some degree of regularly. It's not how hard your training as much as how consistently you train.
* Balance hard efforts with rest. As a rule of thumb, don't run back to back hard days. "Sandwich" (my term) hard days with easy days, allowing yourself time to rest and be restored.
* Expect peaks and plateaus. Runners naturally realize plateaus in training and racing. Learn to enjoy the peaks and understand how to work yourself off of the plateaus.
* Practice patience. This ranges from embracing the "10% rule" (never increasing your weekly running by more than 10% in terms of mileage or time week over week), building a base (especially if you're relatively new to running) and establish a consistent routine to your running.