My first marathon report

Silicon Valley Marathon - Sunday, Nov 04th, 2007

My running goal was

• Finish the marathon in 7 hrs.
• Finish the marathon injury free

My running strategy was

• Be an early(6am) starter
• Run at 15 min/mile pace, 15 X 26 = 6:30 minutes and 30 minutes for water stops, bathroom, photos, slacking etc
• Most importantly, take it easy easy, have fun and finish!
  

My problem is

• Ankle tendinitis injury on my right ankle. This is almost chronic problem since June 2007. It used to pop up when I cross 12 to 15 miles.
  

Earlier, Sundar and myself agreed that we both run together.

Since I wanted to be 6am early starter, I woke up around 4am and finished the morning duties. My wife dropped off me at the race course starting point around 5:30am. Sundar, Santhosh, Anubama also came around the same time. We all did some simple stretches. Rajiv.Patel came and distributed 6 miles course direction, people started showing up and almost 100 early starters. Around 5:59am, I saw Baskar and he asked me to help in tying the tag in his shoes. I quickly helped him, Krishna was trying to talk to me but my brain was focusing on tying the tag. Even without saying "All the best" to Baskar and Krishna, I just went in front of the start line, what an absent minded jerk!. There was an announcement, after that we heard a gunshot sound.

There you go......

Sundar and myself started jogging slowly. Sundar set the 4 minute run and 1 minute walk interval timer in his watch and started the timer. We keep our pace, timing and crossed 1st, 2nd and 3rd water stops. I took small amount of water in the water stops. We got onto the trail and crossed Campbell park easily without ever noticing, all along we have been chatting different topics, family, movies, studies, etc. We came to Los Gatos park and many runners were crossing us, we realized that these are all normal 7am start runners.

We came to Asha water stops at Vasona park, the whole Asha crowd was cheering us. What a wonderful crowd and day to start with! We kept our pace and 4 run/1 walk timing. Tony and Raghu were passing us. My wife and kids were cheering us around mile 11. At mile 12, I started slowing my pace and started lagging behind Sundar. Around mile 12.5 or 13, I told Sundar to move forward without me. Shanthi, Prithivi and Anjali were cheering us at Los Gatos High School ground.

I reduced my pace and continued on 4 min run/1 min walk cycle. Rajiv Patel and Arun were passing me. On mile 14, I stared having cramps on my left hamstring but I continued to run/walk. At around mile 16, before the Asha team water stop, I couldn't even walk due to left hamstring cramps. A couple of Asha team members came to rescue, they are godsend to me. They massaged my hamstring and gave me 3 salt tablets, water and asked me to keep 2 tablets for future use. I took 1 tablet, with in few seconds and I was back to normal and again started running.

I crossed Vasona park. After couple of miles running, I saw an Indian guy (not asha team member) having cramps like me, he was trying to stretch but it didn't help. I offered him 1 salt tablet, so he took it. I didn't see that guy after that, I hope he completed the run.

Around Los Gatos park, again, I started having cramps on both the legs. This time, Veena and Chakri offered 1 salt tablet, I took 2 (1 from earlier stop) tablets at once. My cramps are gone and started running again but I was worried about when next cramps would pop up, because I didn't have anymore salt tablets. Around Campbell park, cramps started again, I reduced my pace and started walking more than running till the end of the race.

Finally, I was able to complete the run in 7:02:12 hrs, the good news was that I didn't have pain in my right ankle. My goal is attained even though the cramps were slowing down my second half of the run.




Some key data in the last 7 months of marathon training

• Total running mileage : 292. I was off in Jun and July , due to injury.
• Total biking mileage : 82
• Total swimming hrs : 28 hrs
• Had following injuries : shin splint, stress fracture, runner's knee, ankle tendinitis (this is the worst problem I ever had and the problem still exists)
  
• 12 visit to physical therapist, Niraj Hazari (Pinnacle Physical Therapy). He is an amazing guy.
• 2 visit to sport Dr Amol Saxena, everyone raved about him but for me he is useless.
• 2 visit to Dr Roohpavar for general checkup based on advice from other runners.
• Took MRI, X-Ray and blood test
• Bought 2 running shoes, 5 running t-shirts, 4 running shorts, 1 ironman watch, 9 sun glasses (I'm sun glass fanatic), 1 foam roller, 1 arch support, 1 ankle brace.
• Canceled my India trip in August as I wanted to train for Chicago marathon because I was off for regular and long runs in June and July due to injury
• Canceled my SFO half marathon and Chicago full marathon due to ankle tendinitis injury
• Got to know many trails in the bay area
• Made few dozens "TRUE" friends

Lesson learned during the marathon run

• Drink enough water and Gatorade from the start of the race.
• The fuel belt is a must. Why? During our long runs, Asha team volunteers setup the water stop and we used to stop and drink enough water and Gatorade, the SV marathon also had many water stops but because of people are cheering us, we tended to not to stop and take enough water . This is the one of the main cause of my cramps - not taken enough water and Gatorade in the first few miles.
• Carry salt tablets handy

Thanks to all Asha team members, coaches, mentors, fund donors, friends & family, without their great support and encouragement, I couldn't have done it.

My special thanks to Sundar, P1, P2, Veena, Chakri, Martina & Sathya.

The journey is started....

Jogging trailblazer....

How is it started?

I was not a jogger or runner until 2006. In the Spring of 2006, I used to play with my kids at the Mountain View High School Track. We played soccer and cricket. At the track, there were many people who used to jog. By looking at them, I was enthused enough to do 2 rounds (1/2 mile) of jogging. I started liking it and end up in goal setting that by end of summer 2006, I should be able to do 10 rounds in the school track. So every Sunday, I jogged with my family (yes, my family also started liking it).

At that time, I didn't know any thing about following

• Jogging needs proper running shoes, I used to wear basketball shoes
• Pre and post jogging stretches
• Running injuries

Without knowing all of these, I was able to complete 10 rounds, 2 1/2 miles (my goal) by the end of Summer 2006.

How is it continuing?

In January 2007, I was chatting with one of my friend RV (Ramachandran Varadharajan) and I was intrigued by his running comments and his experience in the running. This kick started my 2nd phase in the jogging.

Based on RV's advice, I went to Runners World Shoe Store to buy running shoes. The store has many experienced runners who will look at your jogging pattern and recommend the right shoe for you. I went to one of the gentlemen and explained my problem and what I need.

Please note that I used to wear custom orthetics to take care of my knee, ankle problem, this was recommended and custom made by Amol Saxena two years back.

I told him about my custom orthetics support. He asked me to wear few shoes and requested me to jog, each time he was noticing my running pattern. Finally, he recommended Saucony shoe and he told me to try the arch support, I felt very comfortable with arch support, so I bought both the shoe and the arch support. Buying the arch support is one of my biggest mistake, I will tell you why in the later blogging.

I started jogging 3 days a week, 2 to 3 miles each time. I didn't have any goal.

How did I get into Asha program?

I saw an email from Veena Bhandarkar in Oracle Indian's mailing list which mentioned Asha's marathon training program kickoff meeting on April 1st, 2007 at Sports Basement. I just went to the meeting without any expectation. I was thrilled with the number of participants. On the same night, I just registered into the program. The registration is just for trail period, not a commitment for running a marathon. Satya is our mentor and Gurpreet, Bharath, Karthik, Kiran, Dinesh and myself are in the Mountain View Running Group. We all started our weekday runs.

At the end of April 2007, I signed up for the Chicago Marathon. I was thinking first run the SFO Half-marathon in July and then run the Chicago Marathon in October.