Racelogue: ADHM saga

We run when we're scared, 

we run when we're ecstatic, 

we run away from our problems 

and run around for a good time.

Christopher McDougall, Born To Run

Airtel Delhi Half Marathon is one of the gold event for 21k events for the country. This was in my bucket list of Procam events for the running season. Another two more to go (at time of writing).The euphoria surrounding the event by the runners is huge. International Runners are participate in this race. 

After finishing of Airtel Hyderabad Marathon, this was next planned event. All Runners  were eagerly waiting for the registration to begin. TMM Registrations began before ADHM. After TMM Registration for HM closed and registration began on  14th September. Being eagerly waiting for it, I did it on opening day, didn't wanted to miss out.

Now coming back from AHM - got injured again, decided give rest to Achilles tendon once again for the month of September. Come October and  started with slow and short runs as had BSF marathon on 29th Oct and needed to do some long runs and mileage.

Oct has Kolkata Runners Collaboration anniversary run on 8th Oct. I   needed to do a 15k before that. As decided , I ran 15km. I was satisfied considering the rest period, weather was sultry. As I was on improvement running plan, I needed to run according to the plan.

Next was 22nd., Run of 10.5k. This was part of Airtel RFE promo run. Then on 29th was BSF run, my training plan was for 17k but did 21.197 for the Marathon. When the race started ,  the weather was good and  mid way, the perfect Kolkata humid weather was back. Finished the race with personal best of 2.17.07 hrs

I was continuing as planned, then plan got shelved as need to travel out for work. In between there was lot of controversy with Air quality being extremely bad and ADHM  should be shelved. IMA was hell bent getting the event postponed/shelved. And finally came 18th Nov - day for travelling to Delhi. Avinash Singh, Rakesh Agarwal and myself traveled together to Delhi and onwards to Expo. We are staying at same place in Defence colony which was quite close to venue.

Reaching Expo, it took time to collect the Bib and t-shirt. After that spent some time with the other fellow runners from Kolkata. We went back to Defence colony market and we finished teh late lunch at Desi Vibes. 

Unlike other races, ADHM starts at 6.55am which is quite late. I woke up at 4.50 and got ready for the event. Avinash, Rakesh and me walked down to the starting point-  Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in about 15 mins.

We entered through gate 7 entry, we went directly to holding area and got ready for the race. Warm up was done near the holding area as we had not gone to the Warm up zone of Procam.  We were waiting for rest of Kolkata Runners. First to come were Anupam Mishra, Prasun Majumdar

I was starting from Holding area C, at 6.55 the holding area A released followed by B and then C. As I moved out of there I could see the 1.50, 2.00, 2.05 one lot of pacer in front and another in back.  As I moved out of the start point and into the road from the stadium, there was portion before a temple which was bricks with tar on them, this was a risky zone. After this, I saw few boys from the side walk jumped into the race - gatecrashers. I was wearing the band of 2.10 pacer whom I could not find the holding area. The first 2 km I was trying to get clear of the crowd, I got hold of a bisleri bottle at 2km point. ADHM route has water point every 2 km till 15th Km mark. I moved on following the crowd.

When I reached the Mathura Road, I could see the elites on their way back, this was I guess this around 16km mark. Following them about 400-500 m were the Indian elites.  Running towards the India Gate which could be seen from faraway gave me goosebumps. Crossing India Gate  and running towards Parliament I could see some runners pointing toward left. Moving my gaze to that side and saw Rahul Gandhi standing there and waving to the runners.

Running on Rajpath is something else, its a feeling which one cannot describe. The route went on Rajpath, to Sansad Marg ,to Jantar Mantar and back. Running across so many historical monuments gave feel good factor.

After crossing 10km mark, as I stepped on a flat speed breaker, as my foot came up I could feel I have sprained my right foot. But it was not hurting, I decided to continue. Before reaching Jantar Mantar, I met Rakesh on his way back. And on my way back from Jantar Manatar, I met two of my Kolkata running buddies- Sandip Mojumder and Abhinav Kashyap who were running together. Just for information Sandip is a barefoot runner.

In fact, I was running good after the sprain, the next 3 kms I was ahead of my planned times which I crossed checked with pace band. I was not far behind the 2.00 pacer chasing him. I was pretty sure I end up with better than my target time for ADHM.

As I neared 16 KM mark, my foot was starting giving problem, I was not in comfort. I decided to not push it hard, and  pick up pace after 19th km mark. I could hear the one of the 2.05 hr pacer behind me, motivating his bus. I was with him for while and could not keep up for long.

Crossing 19th KM, it was getting crowded (as 10k runners were there ) and lane was narrow. I started putting the pedal on the accelerator and moving up slowly. I could see my average pace was decent and according to 2.10 hrs pace band I was fine. And I could see the 2.05 pacer again.

Around 300 m mark, I face the stone road once again , and lost a bit of speed here. Finally moved back into stadium , sprinting towards the end line. And done, I did my 1st ADHM and finished with 2.09.32. My target was 2.12.30 for ADHM.

All the runners were presented a red towel as they moved away from the end point. I immediately stretched my calves, quads, IT band.  After that I moved into the volini recovery zone to get a better stretching, the place was crowded which is  a understatement. I waited at one of the station.

As my turn cam, I sat down and took my shoes. Since I thought I have sprain in the foot, I will get it sprayed with volini. As I was taking off my compression sock from left foot,   my left calf   muscle got pulled and it hurted like hell. It took me about 4 minutes to get over it.

I spent 10 minutes doing stretching with the help of volini volunteer. Afterwards, I walked to collect the medal with a limp - valuable lesson learnt  from ADHM. I collected my medal, went to nutrition zone for the breakfast. Palash Sen concert was going on beside that. Met rest of our running buddies- Sudip, Vivek, Prasun , Rakesh, Avinash, Debjani, Vivek, Atul, Anupam, Nikhil, Atul and many more.

There were 35000 runners, the biggest event I attended so far. The experience was fantastic. The crowd was good, in spite of the rain in previous night, there were people throughout supporting the runner,cheering , music, placards At one place, some people wearing Turbans  had put up water for the runners. The atmosphere in the stadium before the run was electrifying. This was something which we don't see everyday.  The whole route people were there, even in race of 2hrs plus you dont feel lonely, you see a runner in one hands distance in front and behind. Running in big events such as these, you dont find the race route empty and towards the end its crowded like anything. 

Same day evening pushed off back to home with  Runners high. Maybe next year will come back maybe not. Lets wait and see whats store in future.

Note: I started writing this after coming, final editing and getting this took a long time. TSK25 was also done before this is published.