2:43:19. Not my best but also not my worst. I'll take it!!
Everything went as planned last evening. Had my dinner early enough, balanced with carbs and protein. Went to bed by 7:30 pm which was meant to give me 7 hours of sleep before the scheduled 2:30 am wake up alarm. I kept waking up though and I don't think I was relaxed enough to get enough deep, restful sleep. Despite that, I was up on time and we left home as planned and got to the start point on time.
I always do a last minute pee before leaving home for the venue and I did so today as well. But I guess my hydration has been extra good these last few days because as I got to the venue, I felt like I had to go again! Now in all these years of doing running events like these, I have never once had to use the porta-potties that are provided at the corrals. So very hesitatingly, I joined the line at one of these "toilets". It was a kind-of long line and so by the time I was 4th in queue, the race had already been flagged off. But Thank God I waited, coz I really had to go. On the flip side, this left me with no time to properly warm up before the run. I had done some work at home before leaving and some movement while waiting in line but thats never enough. Anyways, I crossed the timing mat some 6+ minutes after the race had been flagged off.
I was completely with the plan at the beginning - (Running the course as a 7Kx3 and finishing each 7K in just under 50min and so finishing the HM at 2:30) In fact the first 7K went really well - I was feeling strong and finished it in about 50 minutes. From there on, I slowly started fading. I could feel that my heart rate was really up (And indeed it was. While normally my watch shows it to be in the low 170s during a long run, today it was in the high 180s) and I felt like I had to stop and take quick little walking breaks to bring it down. I knew that the next couple of 7K segments would be much slower. So I gave up on monitoring my pace. I continued with the run-walk plan till about 9K, and I could really, really feel myself fading and the thought of continuing for another 12K seemed impossible.
And then I met Prem (from my Nungambakkam Nitros days) who was running his regular training run and he joined me for the rest of the run. Honestly, if not for his company and the chit chat and his encouragement, I might have thrown in the towel before the end or definitely would have had a slower finish time. I continued with the run/walk plan till the end. When I saw the giant LED timer at the finish line suddenly loom up in front of me, I did a quick time check and saw it was 2:42: something... My plan B goal time of anything less than 2:45 was still within reach! I was glad to see that I had enough energy to dredge up from somewhere to "sprint" to the finish line.
In the finishing area, they had ice cold fruity popsicles (which I remembered being absolutely lovely from a previous edition of DRHM) so though the lines were long and crowded I waited patiently for mine.. :) I ran into many familiar faces and friends from my old running days and the whole running community vibe felt nice. I finished strong without any aches and pains and without having pulled any weird muscles along the way so all in all, today's experience has been a great one.
Should I sign up for another event while the going is good?
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