Bengaluru Marathon – 2018

Over last few years, Bengaluru Marathon(BM) has become a regular part of my running schedule. I personally think that every runner should run in his/her city’s marquee marathon event, only then the event will grow big. I genuinely want to see BM grow in stature and become as big and sought after as Mumbai Marathon.

2018 edition of BM was special. Special for the race organizers because its was the 5th edition and special for me because I was going to run an FM just 7 days after a grueling 80 km Malnad Ultra. Given a choice again I would never even attempt an FM within a week of an Ultra. But, this one just happened, lets say, due to a bit of a calendar oversight from my end. Most of my running buddies advised me to skip BM and rightfully so. I decided to postpone the call of skipping till a day before BM. And, that day, I felt good. There were a few niggles in calf but nothing serious and I decided to go for it.

The plan was to go at a regular under 4 hr FM pace but with a strict rule of taking it easy at the first sign of major body fatigue or niggle. The race kicked off at 4:15 am. Despite early start, the weather was surprisingly humid. I started out easy and slowly built up the pace. The idea as always was to find a comfortable breathing and stride rhythm. At about 1 Km mark, I found one and went on with the flow. The track went through serene inner roads of Cubbon and there we quite a few patches which were very dark with extremely limited visibility. Anyways, I went on with the flow and kept moving a decent tick. My good friend Manoj was pacing 3:45 bus and I was surprised when I passed the bus at around 3 km mark. I realized I was going faster than the plan but I was feeling okay so moved on. I also knew that this bus will very soon catch-up with me.

I hit 10 Km mark at around 52 mins and kept pushing further. Manoj caught up with me along with his bus and I boarded on the bus. We chatted for a couple of Kms. He knew I was running this after Malnad 80 Km and he advised me to take it easy instead of trying to push and risk an injury. When an advice comes from someone as pedigreed as Manoj, you better listen and follow. I did the same – eased up and dropped out of the bus.

HM distance came at around 1:52 and I was still feeling okay. No sign of fatigue. Right calf niggle still there but not something hampering the pace. I decided to keep on the pace and move. However, after 25 Km the fatigue finally caught up. The right calf started to talk. I tried to run through it without any improvement. 30 Km mark came at 2:44 which meant I was still within sub 4 finish. However, by then calf refused to co-operate at the higher pace. The weather was also getting hotter by minute.

So, as planned earlier, I decided to take it easy . Started focusing on enjoying the run a bit more, engaged with the crowd around and generally started cheering everyone around. At 40 Km mark, I got tired of taking it easy. The leg break of 10km had also helped so I pushed up the pace for the final 2 km. Finally, crossed the finish line at 4:14. I did a quick check on key muscles and joints with a bit of a cool down and thankfully there were no areas of concern.

The feeling at the finish line was that of satisfaction. I was content with a 4:14 FM after a 12:32 80 Km at Malnad. I was now confident that with fresh legs sub 4 FM is in the bag and on a good day I would probably fancy a finish closer to 3:50 than 4. With ~12 weeks at hand for Mumbai Marathon, I also fancy the thought of shaving off few more minutes. However, as things stand in Oct 2018, I am yet to get a sub 4 hr FM time but I know that its only a matter when I ran the next FM with fresh legs.