Travelogue and more.....

Mumbai welcomes SCMM runners with some great weather

2013-01-18T22:19:00.000-08:00

Hi SCMM 2013 runners,

i Woke up early to check how Mumbai feels at 5:40am - surprised by the chill in the air, seemed much cooler than Bangalore. Felt like sub 20 deg-C. Later at about 7:30am did 3k on a grass 400m track to loosen up. Felt very good.

Hope the weather holds and look forward to the great “Amchi Mumbai” support on the roads.

All the best to all SCMM runners.

Lessons from training for Mumbai Maraton 2013

2013-01-01T02:07:00.001-08:00

Three weeks to go for the Mumbai Marathon, as always, I go back to my 2012 Mumbai marathon race report to refresh my memory - and as I was reading the first two sentences:

"Preparation for the 9th edition of the Mumbai marathon 2012 was hard as any other marathon training."

2012 training seemed hard then - 2012 training volume, if i recall right was a sum total of 600 km. This year my running volume is 3600+ km - 6 times 2012 volume and it did not seem 6 times harder! I think the difference was the ratio of training intensity - hard v/s easy.

Tinman's training has been one of high volume (relatively speaking), with lots of slow running (almost 80%) with two hard/long workouts,well spaced out, every week. The training was hard initially and took me about 12 to 15 weeks to adapt to the high volume. It was never easy, there was once a situation where cumulative fatigue caught me and i had to lay off for three days. On one occasion my soleus hurt badly and more recently (Nov'12) I had some severe shin ache. I had almost given up on my training and that is when Prakash pointed me to Dr Gladson Jackson. Dr Gladson, some of you may already know him as a barefoot runner, soon got to root of the problem - muscle tightness, helped release the tightness and taught me some great stretches. What i like was he did not stop me from running and soon i was back to my normal weekly volumes.

So, what did I learn from the training - couple of things:

the discipline of running slow and for long
the fact that it is not necessary to run fast all the time to be able run fast
Never ignore stretching - irrespective of your injury status
know when to stop running
running multiple 30+k's teaches you a lot

I often get questions like - so what is your target for Mumbai and I say I don't have a target time, but I do know for sure that it will be better than 2012. Of course there could be unforeseen factors that could come in the way but I am hoping for the best!

Good luck to all the runners planning to go for SCMM 2013.

I want to thank a number of people who helped me in this long journey - Runner's High coaches, Dr Gladson, Dharam, V Srini and my coach Tinman!

Also a special thanks to Veda my better half for tolerating my running, in fact, she took to running along with me!

And lastly, please visit my page on Asha to see how you can support my run.

Mumbai Marathon 2012 - race report

2012-01-16T05:37:00.000-08:00

Preparation for the 9th edition of the Mumbai marathon 2012 was hard as any other marathon training. This time I was determined to break the 5 hour time and the outcome was good, in fact better than I expected, a 4:43:30 finish.

Here is my story – starting the day before at the EXPO or lack of it at the WTC on 14th Jan 2012. The fanfare of 2010 was lacking but was soon made up when friends got to meet each other. I saw Parom, Ravish, Srinivas V, Deepak and of course Doc (Rajat). There were other familiar faces from Bangalore too.

In the Q for the bib, I made friends with a 56 year old watch man (security guard) who trains 2 hours a day and was waiting in the que for his HM bib.

Server Crash!
8 out 10 times I have the innate ability to crash systems by just being present at the head of any service queue – be it at the bank, ticket counter, checkin counter and this time it was no different – the BIB server crashed but did come back quickly and the wait was not painful thanks to my newly found friend who kept me entertained in chaste hindi. Armed with BIB #334 I was on my way back.

At Churchgate met my old friend Renu after gap of almost 11 years, chatted for a while over a Rava Sada Dosa and soon, I was back home for some additional carb loading.
Slept early, Z..z..z..z…z, slept well.

3:00 AM 15th Jan
Got up early, Ravi made some great coffee, I followed it up with a small oatmeal breakfast. Got dropped off at Santa-Cruz station. Sat on the bench, at platform 2 waiting for 4:10 local for Churchgate, which came on platform 6 – rushed along with a co-passenger to 6 and we got talking to each other. The co-passenger, Samir Singh, casually inquired about my Vibrams and how long it lasted. His questions and interest indicated he was a runner and later turned out to be a runner whose personal best was 2:58 and was gunning for the first place in the open category. The guy was simply amazing – he trained 6 days a week and always ran S’Cruz to Churchgate and return!
Samir and I walked to Gate 4 the entrance to SCMM 2012 – soon met a friends and it was time to head for the start point.

5:40am …….the race begins
It was a cool morning, I guess around 19 deg-C, and hoped it remained that way for long…Srini and I started to trot at an easy pace, I lost him some where at 3k…. I reminded myself about my race strategy – a simple strategy, 70 min per quarter of a marathons, keep it slow and steady, walk the hill and if I was over the Kemps corner hill within 4 hours – plan was to give it my best shot.

As planned I hit the 5k mark within 0:34 met Chids on the way – chatted for a while and moved on, met Meghna on the way and soon hit the 10k at 1:04 almost on schedule. Met Narayan (Chandra’s cousin), who was supporting the RunnersHigh, and thanked him for being there for us. So far, so good, another 5k and we see the Chandra who had enough stuff there to open a mini restaurant. Hit the 15k at 1:36.

Aha, the Sea Link starts – as we approached the middle of the Sea Link bridge – we could the sun rising on our right – that was indeed a great view with the profile of the city in the foreground – wish I had a camera. Soon hit the 21k mark at 2:12 (3 minutes less than plan). Met my cousin, Ranga, who was struggling with some cramps, ran a bit with him. Renu came all the way to support me at the HM point, shook hands with her and caught up with Ranga. Soon, 25k mark approached at 2:37. After the 25k mark my pace started to deterirate a bit, I tried to pick it up with some strides within about 5 minutes. I started to get some pain in the right quad, making it difficult to raise the leg. Soon, saviour Chandra was in sight with RELISPRAY, what a relief. Speed kills, bad idea stick to the slow pace is what I kept reminding myself….at 3:13 I was at the 30k mark.

I was eager to ensure I was at 36k by 4 hours, curtailed any thought of speeding up, just kept chugging along, all along the 30k to 33k, I kept eating ground nutchikki (for those in the west, a kind of granola bar, but a lot cheaper) and hydrated myself well for the hill at 34k.
Walked the uphill and what a relief hit the 36k mark at 3:58, was elated that a sub-5 was now a reality, at the same time did not want to spoil that by changing pace on the downhill – resisted any increase in pace, just relaxed going down hill and kept the pace easy upto 38k…in 4:13
4.2k to go, 4:45 finish looked feasible and doable, even if took 30min for the balance distance. I kept the pace steady, taking every ICE station/sponge station as an opportunity to cool the legs a bit….that helped…soon the 40k mark approached me at 4:28, I knew I was home, but was patient and now wanted the sub 4:45 and went for it…… soon the I see “1K to go” board and it felt great then a bit later saw 500m to go, then 300m, then 200m and then 100m was elated and very please to finish 4:43:30

Thanks to all my friends/coaches at RunnersHigh and last but not the least Veda, Saru and Ravi who were by my side to support me to achieve the goal of a sub-5 hour marathon.

The big Thank you to the Mumbai crowd who came out in large numbers with water, biscuits, chocolates to support the marathoners. Jai ho Amchi Mumbai.

By the way this was my first full marathon in Vibrams!

Rotterdam Mararhon 2011 - Pre Race Reports

2011-04-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

Just returned from Rotterdam after collecting our Bibs - Our Bibs? yes, Our Bibs, Veda and I are running. Veda is attempting a her first 5k in Rotterdam and I will do the full.

The Train journey Den Hague to Rotterdam was quick, hardly to 20 odd minutes, found our way to Coolsingel and then to the Expo at World Trade Center. Lots of preparation happening on the streets with Red ABN AMRO Marathon flags waving. It was a bit cold but the sun was up and I hope it stays this way on Sunday.

Sharing some pictures of Rotterdam and Den Hague.

As i write this blog i am seeing Fauja Singh on BBC - who plans to set a record for the marathon for 100+ year category

Cheers
Murthy

Mumbai Marathon - 2011

2011-01-20T00:36:00.000-08:00

Two days before the 2011 Mumbai Marathon I could sense the pre-marathon blues in the form of right heel pain, which was increasing – part of it could be the bus journey and lugging bags etc.
Come Saturday, it was time to collect the bib. Veda and I headed for the Expo at World Trade Center – a busy place with lots of stalls to visit. I picked up a ice bag from our - Khusi exports. Met Chandra, JP, V Srini, Sindhu, Janardhan and family. Did not hang around
By evening my heel started to pain really bad and this time it seemed real. Iced it like hell, went to bed at 9pm. I was anxious about the Marathon, got up several times. Finally got up at 3:45am.
Ravi (brother in law) and I headed towards Marine Lines by the 4:30am local train, had some good adrak-chai at Marinel Lines and was in time at Gate no 3, Azad maidan. It looked like I was early. By 5:30 the crowd started building and festivities seemed to start with some loud music in the background.
Saw Ashok Nath, wished him a good run! Met V Srini and we parked ourselves on a plastic mat near the holding area. Was pleasantly surprised by a pat on my back by my ex-boss Stan Bradbury who was gunning for a 4-4:15 finish (he finished in 3:48!), Srini looking to do his PB 4:30 and me looking for under 5.
Off to the holding area. Met Janardhan, Tom and JP. All of us walked to the start and run kicked off on time at 6:15am.

0-10k
Ran a bit with Srini and Vinay. Met Chandra our brave runner running in spite of injured leg.
Vinay and I were about 300m behind the BUS (5 hour bus) and caught up at 4k and just around that time I spotted Kiran. I had promised him some electrolyte tabs and could not give it to him at the expo and was glad to spot him - gave him his share of dope and broke away from the BUS and Vinday as I wanted to maintain a 6:15 per K pace.
At Kemps corner made friends with Pankaj. We chatted a bit on the up slope and parted ways. (Marathon is a journey you meet friends on the way and also part ways)

11-21k
A familiar voice called “Murthy Uncle” and it was our good old little coach - Avinash manning the RH support along with Vinay's brother and his daughter. Grabbed a banana and biscuit and continued.
I met another Pankaj, who seemed to be running at my pace. Made friends with him and talked a lot about running, gait analysis and life. He had done mumbai before and gave me tips like - pick two bottles of water before sea link, and the need to conserve energy for peddar road on the return and say Hi to Ganapathi at Siddivinaya.
I hit the 21k at 2:13

22k to 30k
Veda and Saru(my sister) were waiting slightly ahead of Mahim Church. My heel pain was peaking and thought of quitting passed my mind. I immediatly dismissed it.

Ate Oranges, a fresh Bandana and off we (Pankaj and I).
And just then (24k) the lead vehicle passed us, followed by a double decker busload of camera men and the came the East Africans running at blistering pace, some of the runners were not even sweating.
Soon we were approaching the sea link. The sun was up but it was still pleasant. The sight of the gradient was daunting, I slowed down wanting to conserve and soon stopped. Was glad to see Pooja and Suman. Got my fix and contined. Pankaj and I parted as friends.
My calfs cramped, stretched it a bit and started trotting and soon the BUS overtook me. I felt de motivated at this juncture but made an attempt to tail it but realised in 60 seconds that it was a bad idea. Soon Vinay passed me at who was determined not to stop till end of Link.
Got to RH support, banana's etc and continued.
I hit the 30k in 3:36 about 15 minutes behind plan.

31k to 40k
What a relief 75% done at the same time I was thinking about the balance 12k. Negative thoughts were pouring in. I said to myself take it 1K at a time and I was determined now NOT to stop till I covered another K before the next walk break. It worked till 34k. I knew the next 1k was tough. Remebered Santhosh's advice, walked the uphill, well, the other option was to take a TAXI!
I was hoping to make up a bit on the down hill and started to stride, felt comfortable for the first 200m but soon the calf started to twitch, slowed down and reminded my self - as long as you trotting it is fine sub 5 hour is not important being close to it is.
Saw a runner cramping and massaging his calfs, helped him stretch and we continued at our own pace.
Marine drive was monotonous and hard. At the water stop I got my quads and calf iced. That really helped to increase pace.

Touched the 40k mark in 5 hours.

Felt great with 2k to go but legs were not willing to run. Saw a fellow runner with a ice bag, shameless asked him if could spared it and he willingly did. I iced my legs again, did strides to return the ice bag and headed to the finish line.

It was a great feeling to cross the finish in Amchi Mumbai and this would not have been possible without the support of Santhosh, Preeti, Chandra, Vinay, Vinon, Abnash, all RH support crew, RH runners, and last but not the least Ravi, Saru and my better half Veda and of course ICE!

Look forward to more running and getting better at it.

Cheers - Murthy

Running in 2010...

2010-09-06T20:37:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking for a while that i should be writing about my running journey but never got to it. Today seems to be the day, as i am off work, down with a bad cold, tired of sleeping - so tooking this task...

The first nine month of 2010 have been eventful for me....It all started with training for the Auroville Marathon 2010, my first, a difficult one for me, some how managed to complete took me a good 5:40 to complete this trail marathon - my first goal acheived.

Took some time off to review my running goals and settled for half marathon but with a focus on improving time..The season started of with Sunfeast 10k and the Runnershigh training was tough - with a lot of tempo runs - but we did see some improvement in speed. Come race day, we are all off the starting block but with very little space to run - the crowd was too much, however, did the 10k in 55m (not much different from last year).

The next challenge comes two weeks from now - 19-Sep - the Kaveri Trail Marathon - plan to do a half marathon and having been training hard for a better timing and hope the weather is kind to runners on the race day.

Wish me luck.

My First Huarache Sandal

2009-11-28T00:59:00.000-08:00

What is an Huarache Sandal?
Tarahumara Indians are a tribe residing in Northern Mexico and their footwear is minimalistic and is called Huaraches or akaraches.

I read with interest some of the articles on barefoot running and a website dedicated to barefoot running. Thats when I got a but curious and said lets build one. But here is what I did - bought a Bata Slipper, hacked the straps except the peice that goes between the toes and used cotton lace. It just takes couple of minutes to do the whole sandal.

Here are some before and after pictures

Making it was easy - and followed instructions on how to wear it ...I could not wait to test it and here is the video of my initial trial.

Couple of days later I ran a 3x400m - felt comfortable but there was a sense of non-shoes...Will i run with these? don't know as yet - whats blocking me now is the fear that my toes will bang against something on a trail run...I am not as a tough as those Tarahumara Indians....

If you want to try - you have the option of buying it - Barefoot Ted sells it for 60-70 US$ - the Bata hack costs 2$.

Fun at Bangalore ULTRA 2009

2009-11-20T16:53:00.000-08:00

It is a bit late to report about the Bangalore ULTRA 2009 - no problem - better late than never. I am sure you guys must have read about the kind of attendance - over 600 plus runners at the ULTRA 2009 and what a location to run. My friend Uttam - an professional aeromodeller - was so impressed by this location - now plans to do all his experimental flying at Heserghatta.

For those new to ULTRA 2009 - ULTRA 2009 is organised by RFL and is an Ultra Marathon race with provision for short distances too! - we have 100k, 75k, 50k, 37.5k, 25k, and even a 12.5k (thanks to Jayanagar Jags)

Location was great and add to the great weather - though it had rained the night before and quite dark when the 100k/75k started 5:00am, 50k at 6:00am and the 25k at 6:30am....

The routes is a 6.25k out and back and here is what the first 6.25k looks like. The first 3/4k has open spaces are that quite daunting - it kind of gives the feeling that you are not progressing while running. The next 1k or so is narrow trail - can be quite a challenge if you are not used to trail running - this then is followed by a down slope on a tar road. The forward and return journey have equal share of slopes up and down and kind of get tougher on second and subsequent loops

Some performances by experienced runners was inspiring - wonder what do they eat!
Santosh Padmanabhan - did a 125k and will soon be attempting a 48 hour run....
Yasuhiro Honda - did a 100k in 10:23:59 - he is like an engine. I heard he has been running for about 25 years!

Some senior runners put in massive efforts, hats off to them - Chandra Gopalan 50k (bib # 716 ) in 7:20 and Sunil Chainani ran a 100k in 14:57 look for bib # 933

I did a 25k at the ULTRA 2009 - my first and the longest since I started to run in early 2009. thanks to Runner's High who made me fit to run. Check out bib 533

The training for ULTRA was long over 18weeks with a mock run at the ULTRA Location

Through this blog I want to encourage each one of you readers to start running - distance/speed is not important - just begin and enjoy the act of running... If you have never run before and want to start then here is a good place to begin. If you need support then check out Runner's high

Ulsoor Lake Run

2009-07-25T23:33:00.001-07:00

Run around Palak soup lake
The run around Ulsoor lake was good - I am sure the authorities (BMP) could do better than just putting up a board disclaiming responsibility for any "loss of life in or outside the lake" this make it clear that they do know nothing can survive the thick palak soup kind of water - as Preeti put it - if there is something in there it must be a MUTANT! (looks like she been watching a lot of x-men type of movies).. The Army guys were busy rowing and i can imaging they were having tough time rowing the boats/canoes through the thick palak soup!

After the run everyone got busy stretching - we were so focussed that we almost tore down the steel fencing around the lake.....

Break fast at M Gees.
It was good to see about 25 people gather at the M Gees with Santhosh trying his best to motivate all to get some better attendance - we even explored proxying to improve it...

The idlis, vadas and dosas were good and the service quite efficient considering it was a sit in place. We almost got Chandra to pay for the B/F but did not succeed, of course there is always a next time....

The Tees looked good - especially the pink ones - stands out in the crowd and one of our runners suggest the group with pinkies should be named 'gay ho'

Some photos to remember this day....

We should have this more often and at different places - overall it was a good opportunity to know runners from other groups

Jai ho!

--
~~~~~~
Regards
http://www.jaxtr.com/ugmurthy
Murthy

Chai, Samosas and the batch of 1982 BHU-ITs

2007-12-29T21:21:00.000-08:00

Over a 100 plus ex-BHU-ITians descended in Varanasi, some braved the roads, other took the trains and still others came by air. Some with family and some without. All eager to meet their batchmates after 25 years.

25-Dec-2008 Christmas in Kashi

A contingent of 'n' people left their hotels for a la BHU. The buses could not take the main streets of Varanasi and had to take route via DLW and soon arrived into Lanka - greeted by the tring-tring of the rickshawallas, the incessant honking of the motor vehicles and of course the aroma of samosas and kachori on the road side, the tea vendors overboiling their tea to kill any kind of bugs. Groups of people huddled around the chaiwalla cupping the kullad and having hot chai and warming themselves on a cold Christmas morning.

Thus began our silver jubilee journey in Kashi......

Seeing the main gate took me back 25 years, there were goosebumps on my forearms. Some good and some not so good memories came to me - only to be shaken by the sudden braking of the bus which halted strategically in front of WH (Women's Hostel)

Going by the number of hugging incidents we had since 24th Dec 2007 we could have easily broken any previous Guiness record for hugging.

Chera yaad hai lekin naam yaad nahi araha hai!!!!!
The Name tags help resolve a lot of memory lapses and saved a lot of embarassment, thanks to organisers and volunteers (Thats Keshav not a post card vendor)

Chaos at Birla Mandir

There were more photographers than the number of people being photographed.

And dont forget there were some first time visitors to Birla Mandir

We then proceeded for lunch at Morvi...........

Visit to the Hostels, Chai at the nukkad....
Each of us parted ways to look at our hostels - of special interest to me was the Dhanrajgiri where i started and the final year hostel - Visveshwaraya - nothing seems to have changed - its all frozen in time......however there are fewer cycles and Wifi in hostels...that at times works...and note Ragging is punishable - the guys don't have to visit Birla temple as often as we had to do to avoid ragging...

The chai at the Rajputana nukaad still tastes the same....and the Sada Panwa costs Rs 2.00

While the guys were having a good time the ladies too made friends and were enjoying themselves......

210 minutes of not going through the bridge....by Crofty

2007-12-06T04:52:00.000-08:00

It was 6:00 am on the morning of 4th December - the Janpur railway station was complete confusion and disorientation. We stumbled along behind ButtFloss, who had taken it upon himself to lead the herd with superhuman speed. For lesser mortals like me who’s legs need to do two cycles to match one of the rest, I put my head down and sped along, avoiding men and mucus with equal dexterity.

We positioned ourselves under the largest public address speaker (or so it seemed) and for half an hour were brainwashed by the Janpur Railways to ‘go through the bridge’. Just as I reached a hypnotic state of heading towards the bridge in blind madness, Buttfloss hurtled down the platform, once more followed by a team desperate to keep up. Saved from a suicidal trip through the bridge, I was suddenly awake as we found a landmark next to a pile of garbage. And I saw samosas.

Rows and rows of fresh station-made samosas lined up and selling like hot cakes. Corona Discharge and Lung Farang were especially impressed by this sight, having been deprived of such treats during their growing years - the good old days. Lucifer’s demons watched transfixed as golden brown, deep fried, management, teamwork and leadership examples emerged till rudely disturbed by a cow.

Repeated pleas by to move away from the beast went unheeded, and suddenly the animal was inches away, head in dustbin and Lung Farang in considerable danger. The dustbin’s lid flew off, agilely sidestepped by Lung Farang (who refused to retreat), and the cow was balancing precariously, neck deep in trash. The tension lasted a few minutes until someone threw water all over the beast. Shocked out of position, it staggered off, leaving us to battle another problem.

Draped in traditional albeit rather dusty Indian attire, this new problem stared us in the face, neck and back. All movement from Paneera, the Sergeant Major and myself were watched from various angles. Romeo found considerable entertainment in providing a running commentary of the gentleman’s eye movements and the Sergeant Major’s reaction was to stare back with equal intensity.

As time passed and the train got further delayed, ButtFloss emerged with food supplies and Corona Discharge alternated between listening to music and assessing if a body on the platform was breathing or not. Lung Farang’s expression of gloom had increased since morning (if that was possible) and Paneera had been sucked into the pages of Bollywood. This left me to discourse with whoever was ready to listen, on the state of the country, female infanticide and subconsciously fight the urge of going through the bridge.

Waiting at Wimpy's....by Lung Farang

2007-12-05T06:10:00.000-08:00

It was cold. It was dark. It was 5:30 in the morning. And we didn't care! We were young, rich, and flushed with the success of snatching two more for Lucifer from the jaws of IIT Janpur (and Sleeping Jerk). We piled into the taxis for the short journey to the train station and the horror began.

Two cars turned left. Two cars turned right. A plot? Where were the others being taken? We would call the police when we got to the station if the others didn't arrive. Fortunately, it was only a difference of opinion as to which was the best route that avoided the train gates (which spent a lot more time staying open for the trains than the cars). Nearly 30 minutes early for the train. Just enough time so that we could take it easy finding the platform and where to stand for our carriage.

210 minutes later the train arrived. The drivers who were waiting at the other end to pick us up would have to be informed. So Crofty called them and let them know we would be a bit late. They said they would wait at Wimpy's.
They called back 15 minutes later. Apparently Wimpy's had moved