Kaveri trail Marathon, 2009

The Kaveri Trail Marathon held in the outskirts of the historical town of Srirangapatnam, 140km from Bangalore, was a unique run. It was my first complete trial run, with the entire course running parallel to one of the tributary of Kaveri river. It was the 3rd edition of this run. This event was organized by ‘Runners for Life’ group of Bangalore and Bangalore Hash house Harriers. The trail ran between the agricultural farmlands. Running a 21k is not difficult, but life has its own ways of posing new challenges. Exactly 15 days prior to this run, thanks to the bout of viral, I was struggling to run even a single kilometer. This run was almost scrapped from my schedule. But somehow I pursued on to the training, considering that this run would be a good preparatory run for upcoming bigger runs. A strict control on the diet and schedule got me somewhere. Even then, a 10k in 1 hour which normally showed my heartbeat 130 p.m., was now reading 150 pm. Obvious that body was experiencing more stress. Only way to counter this is run, run and run. Hence I added a few mid night runs in the schedule (Recommended only if you can dodge the dogs in your neighborhood). So a weekend prior to the run, I had touched 15km mark.

13th Sept, 2009; 7:00 am, Srirangapatnam : Reaching the start point itself was a big task. It went like; wake up at 2:30am, get race ready, reach the bus pick up point at 3:45 am, 2 hr and 30 mts bus travel from Bangalore to Srirangapatnam, and finally run for next 2 hour or so. But this didn’t deter 700 odd runners (all categories) to make this event successful. As the race started, runners took off with lot of excitement. Weather was good, cloudy, slight windy. The trail was very narrow, that at some points only two runners could run shoulder to shoulder. We were to reach a point 10.5 Km away and then head back on the same course. This was no place to set personal record, keeping in mind that I was still not 100% strong ; hence I ran a very comfortable pace. It took me 1 hr 6 mts to complete the first leg of 10.5 km. There was a good arrangement of water, energy drinks and fruits throughout the course. Palm trees and paddy fields made the scenery look extremely beautiful.

The return back to finishing point was going well till 12-13 km, but after that clouds disappeared and sun became very strong making the runners slower. In such races, the key lies in finishing the race as fast a possible, as it gets difficult at exponential levels if runners spend more time on the course. The trail itself was another reason for running slowly, as one has to keep a watch of loose pebbles and stones to avoid any ankle twist or a fall. For once I did feel like stopping and walking for some distance, but then I pushed myself to continue running. At a pace of 6mt 30sec per km, I continued running. I could see a lot of runners exhausted and walking their way back to finishing line. In normal road runs, I have picked up pace during the last 5 km, but I just became slower after very kilometer. My shoes felt so flat and sole hurt, I thought I needed a new pair, to realise later on that it was because of the running on pebbles that was causing this effect. I finished the last leg of 10.5 km in 1 hour 9 mts. The sun was shinning really hard. It was definitely a feel good factor, finishing this route with no injuries and sprains. It gave me just the confidence for the runs scheduled in upcoming months.

As Tiger Woods say 'The only way to get really good at something is to practice to a point where you don’t want to do anything the next day — and then come back and continue to do the same thing'. With 14 major PGA championships and over 70 tour titles under his belt, it’s safe to assume that Woods knows what he is talking about.