3M Relay- Race Report

My race season has finally started - three races in a span of four weeks! Up first was the 3M Half Marathon Relay. I was running the relay with Charanya. Both she and I have our big races coming up next weekend and hence decided that doing the relay was the best option. I for one didn’t want to get a freakish injury and jeopardize my target race. The 3M course is famous for being a fast one. Being mostly downhill, the course offers good prospects of setting personal records. The relay is split up such that the first runner runs 6.4 miles and the second runner runs 6.7 miles. The plan was for Charanya to start us off and for me to finish the race.

My part of the race-
The pre-race events were good. I got to see the start of the race, I saw the elite runners jet by and then the ASHA runners followed. I then was dropped off to the relay exchange point by ASHA volunteers- Murali, Gaurav and Bharat. It was a bitterly cold morning; I managed to stay warm by constantly moving and stretching. As I waited I cheered on the runners who were passing the relay exchange. I struck a conversation or two with some of the other folks who were also waiting for the racing partner to get to the exchange point. Around 8.20 or so Charanya appeared from the turn, and this was my cue to take my layers off and get ready. She gave me Hi-Five, I gave her my hoodie and off I went.

It took a long time for my body to warm up. My toes felt numb, my gloves didn’t help much but my brand spanking new shoes felt great! I had been battling some left knee issues, but it felt okay at that point. I was zooming past people, partly because I had just started the race and they were more than half way through it. I was running 7.5 min/mile pace for the first two miles, at which point I decided to slow down a bit in order to conserve some energy for the finale. This was about the time that my knee pain kicked in. This knee pain is a strange one, it happens on the inside bone on my left foot and no stretching/exercise makes it go away. I decided to suck it up and keep going. I passed the 10 mile marker and before I knew it, my pain was increasing. I decided to totally change my running form; I changed the way my foot landed - but it still didn’t help. So I decided to run by just straightening one leg- the right one. I somehow managed to keep the pace up in spite of a strange running step. Once I got to the 12 marker I forgot about the pain and dashed to the finish line.

All in all, it was a satisfying race. The course was easier than some of the other routes I have run in Austin. I managed to run a sub 50 min 10K, which is a PR for me. Mentally it puts me in good shape for my target race ahead. But the same cannot be said about my left knee. I have been icing/rehabbing it constantly for the past 4 days. It feels better, but I will not know for sure till race day Sunday!

Here are Charanya’s thoughts on how the race went!

Charanya:
I ran the 3M Half-Marathon relay this past weekend with another Team Asha runner Vishwas. It was the 2nd time that I was participating in a relay race – the 1st being the Silicon Labs Relay Marathon last year with G31 and G32. Relay races have a different dynamic to them – as a relay team member, you are not just focused on how you personally run, and how well you do, but also on how your relay portion contributes to the team’s success, and how your team members do. Vishy had been complaining about a knee pain the previous evening, but I knew that despite that pain, he would still run a great race – and I was determined to do my part in helping to acquire an overall good time!

I was running the 1st leg of the race – and started off slowly, letting the crowds pass me. I saw the Asha cheersquad at the start waving our brand new posters – which made me smile. The weather was cold that morning, but that worked for me since I LOVE running in the cold. I took off my jacket after the 1st mile and settled into a comfortable pace. I was carrying my own Gatorade, and did not need to stop at any of the water-stops. By Mile 2, I was doing sub 11-min miles, which for me is pretty good! I was excited at Mile 3 to see that I was maintaining that and started to pick up my speed a little. I ran past a few familiar faces along the way – and cheered on a couple of Asha runners as well. I was feeling great. We ran through the lovely Spicewood neighborhood and finally hit Mopac. I crossed the 5 mile marker right after the Mopac intersection and really picked up my pace. I had just a mile left and figured I might as well give it my all. Praveen – another enthusiastic Asha volunteer was cheering so loudly it really got me all motivated to keep up my speed! Before I knew it, I had crossed the 10K marker and reached the relay point shortly after. I had completed 6.4 miles in 1:07 h – which is a personal record for me! I was thrilled and gave a Hi-Five to Vish after taking his sweater and waved him off. I then rode the shuttle bus to the finish point.

Vishy reached the finish just 54 mins after the relay exchange – which is quite incredible! We had an overall time of 2:03h! Vishy’s knee was hurting a little but we were both excited about how the race had gone and stayed at the finish to cheer on the rest of the Asha runners and our friends who were running the race.

All in all, Vish and I had a really great race and truly enjoyed ourselves! We are both extremely grateful to the awesome Asha volunteers for cheering us on at the various points of the course – despite the cold, and boy was it cold!! We are both now looking forward eagerly to our target races this weekend in New Orleans! Hope we have a good time there as well!

The week of nothing!

I write this while I hog on another cheesecake at 28,000 feet on my flight back from Trinidad. After the race in Dallas last weekend this week has been nothing but rest. I initially didn’t plan on taking a week off training, but a combination of recovery from left knee pain (as described in previous post) and work travel essentially compelled me t¬o be off training this week. I have been in hot and humid Trinidad all week, I had to visit a client to take some important data for a study that we are performing for them. I didn’t bring my runner shoes along with on the trip, something that I started to regret on Thursday. In hindsight I should have throw them in my luggage. But running was the last thing on my mind when I was packing for the trip on Sunday evening. By Friday I was itching to get back into it, I think my legs are ready. It would have been a good test to run in the hot and humid conditions. I had a blissful leg massage at the Hyatt yesterday. The hotel was kind enough to give me a complimentary 15 minute massage voucher, which I pounced on as soon as I got into my room. I must say having a leg massage is something that I could totally get used to!
Even my eating habits this week hasn’t been the best. For those of you who don’t know Trinidad has a huge East Indian community, almost 45% of the population is of Indian origin. I have been eating Indo-Trinidadian food, it is very good, but it’s rich in Potatoes! All I have been eating this week is LOTS of potatoes. Don’t get me wrong, I love potatoes (aloo- as we call it), but I have had too much of it. To add to this the 2 hour time difference and weird working hours has messed up eating schedule. One thing I was proud of was that I managed to stay away from alcohol, something that I intend to do till I finish my target race (for the most part!). I wonder how ever-traveling consultants manage to eat/sleep/work-out healthy. Hats off to them!
All in all it’s been a decent week off training. I do however wish I had taken my shoes along and squeezed in a short 3 mile run yesterday. It would have been a good opportunity to test out my knee. Lesson learnt- take your shoes along EVERYWHERE with you!  The next two weeks of the holiday’s period will involve some travel for me, hopefully I can squeeze in a short run or two and eat healthy.

Tackling the Big D White Rock

My first half marathon experience was a real treat. The plethora of people, the smell of rubber soles, and the pre-race celebrations was amazing. Last weekend I drove up to Dallas to run the Dallas White Rock Half Marathon. I stopped by Austin where I was accompanied by some close friends (Charanya and Ganesh) - both Team Asha runners. I planned to run the race unofficially since I missed out on registration but my friend Sharanya fell ill and couldn’t run the race. So I ran with her bib number, which meant that I was Sharanya Rao for the day!

The pre race setting was perfect. Sharanya had made reservations for us at the race hotel- Hyatt Regency downtown. The drive up to Dallas with Charanya, Ganesh and Supratim was a lot of fun. We listened to some Hindi music (mostly Rock On and Ghajini), gossiped some and ate rubbish! We stopped at this place called Italy, Texas and hogged on Dairy Queen- perfect pre-race eating! Packet pick up was a breeze; Charanya got away with being Sharanya and picked up her race bib which I needed to run with. Staying at the Hyatt was very convenient as they had free shuttles to the race start/stop location. After a lengthy discussion about a place to eat, we decided that eating close by was the best option. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant inside the Hyatt. The oven baked veggie pizzas were delicious. Ganesh and I were on super hydrating mode, we both had about 4-5 glasses of water over dinner. (Although their wine list was incredibly tempting) Before we slept Charanya was awesome enough to pin up the bib to my Asha t-shirt and attach the race chip to the shoes. I was all set, now all I needed to make sure was that I get enough sleep! I never sleep well the night before a cricket match and I was afraid the same would happen the night before the run. After fighting off heater noise, blocked nose and warm conditions inside the hotel room I somehow managed to get about 5-6 hours of sleep- just enough to keep me charged.

Pre-race breakfast came in the form of two horrible tasting protein bars and 1 gu shot right before the start of the race. We took the free shuttle which got us to the start/stop location (American Airlines Center) in quick time. We met up with some of the Asha Dallas volunteers/runners. It was nice to touch base with another Asha chapter. The White Rock race served as a target race for majority of their runners, so they were well prepared. Charanya and Supratim waved Ganesh and I goodbye close to the 2.10 pace group at the start line. They were then headed to Asha Dallas’s mile marker 9 water stop where they would be volunteering/cheering/serving water. I must say Asha Dallas’s water stop was awesome, more about that later. Now breakdown of the race-

Mile 1-3: I started the race with Ganesh, he would be my pace-setter for the first three miles. Being a new runner I always need a pace-setter as I run the risk of starting off too fast. I enjoyed the steady 10 minute pace for the first three miles. It helped me warm up my legs, get my hands moving and get used to the conditions- it was incredibly overcast . 5K time- 30 minutes.

Mile 3-6: I parted ways with Ganesh just past the 3 mile marker. I was running alone, trying to get through the traffic. I must say I need to get used to running through hundreds of people, sometimes it slowed me down and I had to run off course to overtake them. Thanks to my watch I was able to keep a tab of my pace. This 3 mile stretch was by far the most comfortable for me. I was cruising, at 10K my clock had approximately 56 minutes and I felt good. (Salt tablet at 10K marker)

Mile 6-10: It was after the 10K mark when I started to feel the effects of the overcast conditions. The humidity was getting to me, left side of my stomach started to cramp (I had a salt tablet), I was sweating profusely (something I don’t do a lot) and felt a little zapped. For the next four miles I decided that I would grab Gatorade/water at every water stop to make sure I was over hydrated. I initiated conversation with a couple of random runners to keep myself distracted. Just before mile 9 the left side of my left knee started hurting. It was probably my ITBs- a problem I have had in the past. I changed my stride ever so slightly to help with the pain, it worked for a while. I finally saw the Team Asha water stop just past the 9 mile marker, it was awesome as they had a live band playing Hindi movie songs- it really got me excited! I quickly stopped as Charanya helped me have a gu shot. At the 10 mile marker I was doing good time, I had 1 hr 28. The previous week I had run 10 miles in 1 hr 26, given the conditions I was only off by 2 minutes which was great. I was all set to finish strong, little did I know J

Mile 10- Finish: I had some more stomach stitches, my left knee pain picked up, the running route wasn’t very good and I was really tired. Instead of picking up pace (my plan was to finish the last few miles at 8 minute pace) I had to slow down as I just didn’t have anything left. My leg (barring my left knee) felt great, it was just that the bad running conditions finally caught up with me. The narrow running road increased the wind velocity, we were running into very STRONG winds and it required me to work harder, something that I couldn’t. I should have got onto someone’s slipstream but I didn’t think of it. I was well in time for a sub 2 hr finish, which was my goal. Hence I was content with slowing down to 10 minute/mile pace and finishing comfortably. I was gasping for breath and realized that speeding up could affect me adversely. I was very glad to see the finish line about 500m away, I gave it all I had and sprinted to the finish line. I finished with a time of 1:58:47; I was pleased with it given it was my first race and the weather conditions.

The guy who finished immediately in front of me threw up as soon as he crossed the finish line, to be honest I too felt like that. I picked my finishers medal, t-shirt and cape with a huge smile and a sense of achievement. I thoroughly enjoyed the run, only that my left knee was hurting a little. I was dehydrated, I was cramping up, and I had a few more salt tablets and some banana to help me with it.

All in all it was a wonderful experience. I am fairly confident that with a little bit more training I can easily shave a few minutes off that time. I thank Sharanya for giving me the opportunity to run instead of her. Special thanks to Ganesh and Supratim for pacing and cheering respectively. Lastly big thanks to Charanya for making the whole experience ever so easy! J

Plan ahead: I want to do a couple of long runs- 12 miles and 14 miles. I would like to squeeze in my usual middle of the week short 3-5 mile run. My next race is the 3M Half Marathon Relay (Jan 25^th) after which is my target race (Feb 1^st) the New Orleans Half Marathon.

Till next time, Run Vishwas Run! J