Day Breaker HM...from PB to PW, all in 12 weeks!

19^th July: Day Breaker Half Marathon

Due to incessant rains over the past few weeks, I had been anxious over the days leading up to the event. Every few hours I would check the weather forecast for Sunday morning. I had been silently praying that the forecast of rain and high humidity would not come true. After all, this was going to be my last event before the Airtel Hyderabad Marathon (AHM) scheduled for next month and I was keen to get a good uninterrupted run before AHM. Well, part of the prayer did get answered – thankfully it did not rain, but the unanswered part (i.e. the part related to humidity) was about to offer me the toughest weather conditions that I have ever run in!

Just like in any other event, I was in my own zone prior to the race kick-off. I was warming up in a corner and silently hoping to improve my PB (personal best) timing of 97 minutes, which I had achieved about three months back at Nehru Park HM. Just then my coach Jatin Arora walked up to me and offered a coaching tip:  

“Today is not the day for timings and records. It is very humid – don’t push very hard and focus more on completing the run safe and strong” – whispered Jatin softly in my ears. It was almost as if he had read my mind.

“Yes Sir – I understand that. Today is not the day for timings and records” – I replied, without meaning a single word of it!

Shortly thereafter, the run started and I started chasing the target time of 97 minutes. The run seemed to have started well for me. I was not running very hard so that I had sufficient energy left for a strong finish. At the same time, I was not running slow either, lest it becomes difficult to catch-up towards the end. I seemed to be moving at just the right pace.

Out of habit, I kept glancing at my stop-watch at all major milestones:

• 1 km – 4:30
• 2 km – 8:52
• 5 km – 22:49
• 10 km – 46:38  

I made a quick mental calculation and realized that I was pacing well. With a mild negative split (which I usually manage), I would have been around 97 mins mark and with a little bit of luck probably a little under 97 minutes. What I didn’t realize was that it was the adrenalin rush of the event day which had me going well till that time, but that couldn’t have been sustained for another 11 km in that atrocious humidity.

By around 13 km mark, I was badly drenched with sweat. The effect of humidity had started showing up and it felt like the engine was running out of ammunition very fast. It was around that time that the wisdom of Jatin’s advice started dawning upon me. The spirit had started dropping, but somewhere I was still hopeful of completing strong.

By around 15 km mark, the hope had also started dropping and it felt like I would have to run really well from there on to not hit my PW timing (personal worst, if there is something like that)!

By around 17 km mark, I was so drenched with sweat that it felt like I had taken a shower. Each step gave a sensation as if the shoe had been soaked with water by landing in a water pit. By now, I knew I had to do something different to even complete the run. Amidst dropping spirit and dropping hopes, I decided to drop-off my T-shirt too. I realized that with the amount of sweat it had soaked, just taking it off and squeezing out the sweat would probably make me carry half a kg lesser.

Shortly thereafter, the run came to an end and I did manage to achieve my PW by clocking 1:49 beating my previous PW of 1:47. The time I took for the run was about 2 minutes slower than my previous slowest run and a good 12 minutes slower than my PB of 97 minutes. All in all it was a good humbling experience with some great learnings, the most important one being – follow your coach’s advice.

On the positive side of things - despite the atrocious weather, the euphoria and the enthusiasm at the finish line was there for all to see. For me, the highlights of the day were:

1.       Coach Ravinder Singh did it again!
Rain or no rain, humidity or no humidity, route permit or no route permit (remember Nehru Park HM instance), Coach has developed a knack of organizing great events one after another. Here again, observing the celebrations and sumptuous meal at the finish line was a grand experience. It is no wonder that on the same day Coach was honored by TomTom (Global leader in navigation, sports watches etc.) for his contributions in the field of running and promoting running as a way of life.

2.       All running groups rocked!

It was great to watch my fellow runners from Boot Camp Yellow (BCY) and other running groups running hard under testing weather conditions. Everyone was a winner and could hold his / her head high for taking on a challenging run head-on. And may I dare say, none more so than the youngest member of BCY group (Rahul) – who completed his first half-marathon yesterday at a young age of 14. I heard one of the fellow runners commenting - 5 km before 5 years, 10 km before 10 years and 21 km before 21 years are all great accomplishments and I couldn’t agree more.

I have to admit that before reaching home, I was feeling a bit embarrassed to share the result of my slowest half-marathon with my wife. She made the job easier by saying that in such an unforgiving weather even standing still for 1:49 is commendable, running for that long certainly is a huge achievement. I am not sure how true that is – given a choice, I would rather run for that duration than stand still. Nonetheless, it did help me overcome the disappointment of my slowest HM.

...So, What next?

Next month I am travelling to Hyderabad to participate in AHM. I have heard a lot of nasty stories about the difficult terrain and weather conditions at AHM. Personally, I would have wanted to achieve anything but my PW in the last event before going into AHM next month. However, that was not to be and the only next step from here on is to prepare stronger and harder. As I earnestly start preparing for the next event, I so much hope that I get to label my next blog in September as - “AHM 2015...from PW to PB, all in 6 weeks!”

…but I know it’s easier hoped than accomplished!

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Sundeep Singh: +91 - 98181 19794

PS: I am releasing the August edition of my blog ahead of time because I want people to read it while the experience of Day Breaker Half Marathon is fresh in their memories!