- Event: IIT Bombay Half Marathon
- Date: October 22, 2023
- Distance: 21.1 km (Half Marathon)
- Location: IIT Bombay Campus, Mumbai
- Finish Time: 2:14:00
- Pace: ~6:20 min/km
This race was a lot of firsts for me. First time running with a pacer, first time finding out about my race pace and the first time exceeding expectations.
I had virtually no racing experience coming into this. The only race I had ever done before this was the Bengaluru Marathon 2023. I had almost no training for this race because I completely stopped running after my marathon. I was introduced to this event by my friend Abhinav, he told me that he would be running this and its a good event. Coincidentally, I was in Mumbai at the same time, so I decided to register for it. It was supposed to be a fun and easy run. And because I had already done a full marathon I was certain I would be able to finish it.
Prior to this event, I had no idea of what "race pace" was meant to feel like. For me, race pace was just easy pace because anything quicker and I wouldn't even be able to finish the race.
Pre-Race
The race was in the IIT Bombay campus. The walk from the main gate to the start line was quite long. It was a good day, not very warm as per Mumbai standards. I was not feeling great, I had mild diarrhea the morning of the race and consequently some dehydration.
I took a gel at the start line and kept another one for half way into the race. I had no idea what my target race pace should be. My 5k time at this point was 29 minutes, so keeping a 6:30 min/km pace for 21.1kms seemed difficult. I had completed the first half in my full marathon in around 2h40m. So I would be happy with 2:30 here.
The Race
The race started off at 6 AM. In typical rookie fashion, I started off too quickly, I crossed the 3km mark at 16min30s, which was far too quick for me. It was faster than my 5k pace. I was ahead of the 2 hour pacer. I realized I was redlining and slowed down a bit. I was passed by the 2 hour pacer. I did the net couple kms at 6:30 min/km pace. It was at this point that I was passed by the 2h15min pacer, Mr. Rakesh Garg. I decided to hold onto this pacer for as long as I could. I quickly realized that running along with a pacer was very different and seemed much easier. We were consistently maintaining 6:15min/km pace and it didn't feel that hard. I just had to match the pacer's footsteps and not constantly look at my watch or worry about going too fast (or too slow) on a uphill section. Rakesh was a very motivating pacer, he would constantly encourage me to keep up when would see that my pace was slipping up. Around the 14th km, he told me, "You can go faster, why don't you go ahead, and if it doesn't work out I am behind you anyway". This was all the push I needed. Around the 17th km, I broke away from the pace group and tried to pick up some pace. However i wasn't particularly quick, by this point in the race my legs had begun flailing. The lack of training and poor conditioning was very apparent. I kept pushing, holding around the same 6:15-6:20 pace.
I finished the race in 2h14mins. I did not think I had it in me, to maintain roughly 6:20min/km pace for the complete race. I had massively exceeded my expectations, a large part of the credit needs to go Rakesh, who had paced an amazing race and was very encouraging whenever I felt like I couldn't go on.
The Course
The complete route was inside the IIT Bombay campus, it was a good route to race on with two laps of 10.5km each. The terrain was moderately hilly, with around 120m of elevation over 21kms.
Event Review
In terms of logistics, the race was fairly well organized, the only qualm I had was the large water bottles which were given out at the aid stations. Obviously one wouldn't drink a litre of water while running, and we just had to lug around a large bottle of water for a large part of the race. Also, some pain relief spray at the aid stations would've been nice, as I ran the complete race with quite a lot of knee pain. A large number of runners were college students, who weren't very serious about the race, however I think the organizers did well to acomodate both serious and non-serious runners. The bib collection venue for this race was at a decathlon store in R City Mall. I would definitely love to run this race again, if I happen to be in Mumbai.
Post-Race
Post race, we had breakfast and took some pictures with Abhinav, whom I had met for the first time since our Kang Yatse II expedition. I particularly remember the cab ride back to the hostel, the driver was very intrigued about road running and marathons. He was very happy to see so many young people taking up running and a healthy lifestyle, especially at a young age. Hard to disagree!
Strava Activity
Tips for Future Runners
Be prepared for a typical Mumbai, humid course.
Have questions about this race? Feel free to reach out on Twitter.
]]>- Event: HRX Pinkathon 5K
- Date: November 26, 2023
- Distance: 5 km
- Location: Cubbon Park, Bangalore
- Finish Time: Not Timed
- Pace: N/A
The HRX Pinkathon was a 5k race that I ran on 26th November 2023. The race started at 6 AM, which I thought was quite early in the morning for a 5k.
Event Issues
Without mincing my words, it was a very poorly organized race. The start was very crowded, the gates of Cubbon Park, weren't open, so all the thousand people had to squeeze through the tiny gates on the side. The race was NOT timed as well (technically it isn't even a race), the bibs didn't have a timing chip (and there were no timing mats, obviously) although, during the registration it was advertised as a timed race.
There were very few aid stations, from what I remember. The route wasn't marked clearly and there were no volunteers to guide the runners. I was running the 5k, there was also a 10k event which was two loops of 5k. I accidentally went into the 10k loop, as I apparently missed a turn. I kept going, till my watch showed 6.5km when I found a volunteer and asked him where the route was, he told me to keep going which was weird since my watch was already showing over 6km. Soon, there were half a dozen people with me asking the same volunteer where the 5k route ended. The volunteer didn't seem to know that there were two different events. We just ended up following Google Maps back to the start line.
Event Review
The target audience of this event was not serious athletes. It was marketed as a "race", but it just ended up being a fun event that a received a lot of sign ups because of the HRX and Cult.fit branding and their sales channels. There were obviously no pacers. Post race a lot of people were waiting for the Winner announcement and the Prize Distribution, which obviously never happened, because the race was NOT TIMED!
All in all, it was a very disappointing event and honestly a massive waste of time on a Sunday morning. This time could've been so much better used for any other training session. I will definitely not be running any future renditions of this event.
Strava Activity
Tips for Future Runners
Dont run this race
]]>- Event: Bengaluru Midnight Marathon 10K
- Date: December 16, 2023
- Distance: 10 km
- Location: Bangalore, India
- Finish Time: 51:21
- Pace: ~5:08 min/km
This was a 10k event I ran on 16th December 2023. In hindsight, I probably should've run the 21k instead, as that would've been a good training session at race pace for my TMM training.
The event was sponsored by Akamai (my employer), so my registration was free of cost. The event started around 8:45PM for the 10k, so not the best time to run, but not the worst time either. It was a humid evening and there were no winds.
I met with some of my colleagues at the venue and collected the BIB as well as the race T-Shirt.
The Race
I made the mistake of starting at the back, the first 800m were extremely crowded, to the point where I had to slow down to a walking speed. I had to overtake around 600-800 people in the first kilometer.
This was my first timed 10k event, so I was not very sure of what pace I should be targeting, but from previous half marathons and the marathon training, I knew that 50 minutes was an achievable yet challenging target. The "plan" was to maintain 4:50 min/km pace with even splits throughout the race. Due to the crowds, my first km split was 5:33 min. However, the GPS under the Sathya Sai Medical Hospital Metro Station was very dodgy and it made trusting the pace/distance very difficult.
The first 5k of the race went by in a relatively smooth fashion, I was consistently hitting sub 5 min k's, or atleast my watch said so. I also took a gel around 20mins (~4km) into the race, since I wasn't very well hydrated before the race. 6th km onwards, it started getting painful, my km spilts started dipping into 5's and 5:10's. At some point I had side stitches for around a kilometer, but it was at that point in the race of which I barely have any memory of.
My final chip time was 51:21. I am quite certain that, had I started in the front, a sub 50 minute result could've been possible. Nevertheless, given the circumstances it was a good race.
Event Review
The event being very "corporate" in nature, was not very competitive. The winners were elite (and fast obviously), but apart from them there weren't many fast athletes which meant for a very long time I had to run alone, and that made keeping the target pace harder. The on-course nutrition was fine, since it was just a 10k, I didn't need a lot of support, just a little bit of water. There were no pacers, which is understandable considering there were very few serious runners.
I might race the event again next year, but definitely not in the 10k category. The longer 21k/42k events start later in the night, making the weather much more conducive to running as well as higher number of serious runners with fewer amateurs.
Strava Activity
Have questions about this race? Feel free to reach out on Twitter.
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