Racelogue : Corbett Diary

“I always loved running…it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs.” 

Jesse Owens

Back to Dec 2017, I had finished Airtel RFE in Nov and nursing small injury, trying to get ready for TSK25. In this period, I saw the   Corbett Running & Living XC Marathon ad on Facebook. I contemplated a bit on whether to run or not to, then decided to go ahead with it. I got registered immediately and got early bird benefit. I need to understand how to reach Corbett. Running and Living site had advise on how to reach. From what I gathered, I needed to reach Delhi on 29th March, take overnight train Ranikhet express to Ramanagar and from there to the resort/hotel. 30th March collect the bib, go for safari and run on 31st March. Take the night train back to Delhi and next day fly back to Kolkata. Did all the booking, Corbett XC marathon starts from Acorn Hideway resort, so decided to my stay there. 

Fast forward to March end. In between feb and march I was running less, felt tired after too many races. However, I decided I will run the 21k at Corbett as planned. 

March 29, I took the morning 8' o clock  flight  to Delhi. Landed in time and took a cab to Old Delhi station, dumped my luggage in the cloak room, and had my breakfast there. I had time to kill and decided to meet a friend for lunch at DLF Saket. 

The train was at 10pm and had plenty of time to kill/murder/abuse. I got back to Old Delhi station and had my dinner there.  Train was bit late, and got up when it arrived and went to sleep. The train reached Ramnagar about 30 mins late. My pick-up was waiting and I reached the Acorn Hideway resort. Checked in and went to sleep. Woke up late and finished my breakfast. Collected the bib and went for safari in afternoon. Coming back in evening, I had nice chat with Rahul Verghese of Running &  Living.

The 21K was to start at 6.00. I woke up at 5am , freshened up , go ready and moved to holding area at 5.40. Reached in minute, did my warm up and ready to run. There were potatoes, bananas in the arrangement at start point.  It was dark. 

Race started at 6.00 am exactly, there were about 14 of us at the starting. The road about 1.3 km was pebbly, and had water flowing at locations. The weather was cool, I started running and as moving towards the main road, had to negotiate the pebbly road and water. Climbing up to the road, started moving towards Dhela, There was uphill here for a stretch. and then a downhill after crossing 2 km. Water station was available at 2.5km, gulped down water and it was in cups, lost bit of time. Started moving again and this was stretch where saw some deer darting across the road.

There were overseas runners as well, two were in top three ahead, and these  guys were running as it was on plains. Coming downhill, came to part of road where  stream flowed and had gallop across it. Crossing this it was again uphill and we moved off from main road towards Corbett Woods, this was bit up and down. I reached the place where runners needed to take right, hydration/biscuits were available. by the way post 5km all hydration point had bottles. After this, I started running, this segment was through village, wheat fields on both sides, gold colour glittering. 

As nearing Corbett Treat resort, the road was converting into mud one, and about another five hundred meters it was complete trail/muddy road, I was running in border of jungle, there were electric fences in our left. This stretch was about 1.5 km from where we needed to turn back. At this turning back, hydration/oranges were available. I picked up 2 bottles. Returning back the trail was narrow, and few runners were coming.

Way back the sun was up and it was getting tough. I was slow till I reached Dhela Road. Started coming down to the stream, and on other side was a tough uphill, coming up I could see 3 runners up. I kept running, and could hear the runner behind me shouting out "Bharat mata ki jai". I kept my momentum, moving a km I found monkeys sitting on road and seeing us run (audience at last - wink). 

Finally reached the pebbly road , I was feeling tired. This 1.3 km stretch was tricky had to manipulate water flowing, uneven surface. I met the 42km guys in this stretch, there three of them. I finally crossed the finishing line in 2.15. Feeling of relief engulfed me. I had not been running  for a month before the event. The best part of race was even there were no cheering crowd, only fellow runners cheering each other you didn't feel lonely. The greenery around was eye soothing. 

I did bit stretching, cooling down. The refreshment were there ready, had eggs which was available in plenty. 

I collected the medal and certificate. There was mix of Gatorde with rock salt, specially for the runners. Finishing off , I moved to room and slept for 3 hrs. I got up and had lunch at room. 

I had the night train back to Delhi. I reached Delhi early morning. I had booked retiring room  at station and checked in there. I woke up around 8 and freshened up. I decided to try out parathawali gali at Chandni chowk. It was about km and decided to walk it down as recovery walk. The place was not crowded, I entered one of the shops. I tried few parathas, and I was not impressed. I went to airport  after this to catch my flight back to home.

Few fine tuning people can be done while planning to come. First, take a flight in evening  and you reach by 7pm to Delhi and catch the night train. You will need to do early check in which is chargeable.Other option reach  Delhi by noon and take 4' o clock train, reach by 9pm. If coming in group and planning for few days, I would suggest, stay at Acorn 1 day for the race and move out to resort inside Corbett -Dhikala. If you are planning to stay before race in Dhikala, then you have option of taking Volvo in afternoon 2'pm  get back to Delhi. In this case, you can take the late night flight back or stay back in Delhi. Plan the safari. And lastly, Corbett marathon is always held in Easter weekend. The vodefone network is working, other operators will help for digital detox as well.

#RUNNING #MARATHON #KOLKATA #CORBETT #RUNNING&LIVING #KOLKATARUNNERS #RAMNAGAR #PARATHAWALIGALI #HALFMARATHON

Racelogue: TMM Holy Grail for Runners

I think I get addicted to the feelings associated with the end of long runs. I love feeling empty, clean, worn out, starving and sweat-purged. I love the good ache of muscles that have done me proud. 

- Kristin Armstrong.

I was in the same flights with 10 more Runners from Kolkata to Mumbai. We managed to get our seats re-arranged close by. As usual, Stewardess had to ask our group to keep calm. Probably next time Indigo is going to ban us all travelling together. Any we reached close to Mumbai and had to wait for 45 min the air for traffic congestion- an eternal problem of Mumbai Airport.

The euphoria surrounding TMM is huge. All the runners start planning for the next one. It's the Boston for Runners in India. And to participate is not a cakewalk, you need to qualify for ii. So part of year goes ensuring that you are part of it.

The registration being closed within weeks underlines the popularity of the marathon. Thanks to my TCSW10K I got the confirmation. TMM was 5th long race in the sequence after BSF, ADHM, ARFE and TSK25. I don't need to prepare anything special, just had be careful that I don't carry injury. My last long before the race was Kolkata Trails 2018. I ran 10k in this event to be sure not to overstress myself. I did a fast 10k which was good.

I started writing this piece before the TMM, trying to make it something different. Fast forward to Pre race.

P.C. Sandip Mojumdar

We disembarked from Aeroplane and collected the baggage and moved to EXPO. We came down to MMRDA ground at BKC , Bandra and took sometime to reach as the address in sms for the Expo and actual location were not same. 

The Expo was full with Runners from the city and country and beyond. First thing in a Expo- Collect your Bib and we did that. As I was collecting my Bib, I got call from Prasun Majumder informing he was late by an hr, we both were going to hole up at same place. After collecting the Bib, came out and met more of Kolkata Runners, decided to check the Expo out. Subrata Mondal and myself went out checking the stall and purchasing stuff we needed. By the time we cam back to Food stall area, customary Kolkata Runner photo ops was done. 

Prasun Majumdar and myself were staying Hotel Hiltop,  familiar to me. We went down there and took rest till evening. In the evening we went to check the starting point for HM Worli Dairy. It was walk able distance and took us about 15-20 mins. We sat on Worli sea face for some time and moved back. We made plans for trying a sub 2 or close to that.  As both of us would be in different holding area, if I caught up with him then I would be end up with sub 2 maybe. 

Anyway, i Had simple of roti and aloo jeera. I went to sleep getting the dess and rest ready for next big morning. At 1.30 on night my stomach decided to party which was not good news for me. I popped up a pill hoping to stop it. But it didn't work at that point of time. 2nd round of party at 3.30. i was quite undecided whether to go or stay back at hotel. Then decided lets go and see if I hold up then will try to run. 

P.C. Sayantan Dasgupta

Both of us reached starting  point around 5.10. We met Sayantan, Srilekha, Rajendra Patil, Garima, Debojyoti there. I went to my holding area E. As I was reaching the holding area , the runners were already released from holding area.

By the time I was on Worli sea face to starting point it was 5.43 , at the mouth of holding area Puru The Guru was standing there with his personal pacing flag and calling runners to join him for a sub 2 . Anyway, i moved towards the start point and started running in the dark. Moving about 300 m the Navy band was palying. As I started moving towards the sea link, i could see the lights. I was running here at steady pace, sipping water. About sometime plus I was on to the sea link and it was climb on, i could see many of runners started walking or slowing down, I also lost speed bit. As I climbed the L to the sea link, there was water on left for the runners. The sea link was dark at places. After sometime, Sayantan crossed him, i was going at pace of 7 here, i got water on right. I crossed to end of sea link and took the u turn for journey back. By this time i was losing pace. And after the u turn there was a climb once again. I kept to the right, hoping I would meet fellow runners from Kolkata. As I canme to L down I saw some Runners were peeing standing on the sea link , quite disgusting act. After this I saw Jay Mali tearing up on the sea link of FM runners. And after this I saw the Badal Gupta from Kolkata first of kolkata runners i saw, gave shout and waved. 

Moving ahead, next I saw Chao and Ashish running up next. As I started moving down to the world seaface I tried to take the benefit of down slope. 

Coming down and started moving towards the Worli Dairy, I saw 2.20 pacer cross me and then 2.30 next 2.40 as I kept struggling. As I was near the Worli Dairy some one said Hello from behind me, I turned to see Abhilasa from Happy Feet Howrah. She chatted a bit said she was with 2.50 pacer and decided to.move up a bit. She asked if this was my first 21k, and I told no. She questioned why I am in back, told her not well. She joined back 2.50 bus , who took water break of 10 secs at Worli Dairy. I saw Saurav and Sourav on other side, followed by Rakesh. 

This was point my body refused to move, I had to think of  good things and tried to caox it to run.But legs were feeling heavy, shoulders were paining and was having headache. I decided to walk as either do that or had to give up. I started walking   11km onward, going ahead a bit saw Prema running on other side.

As I moved up, decided to enjoy the views. I could see Mumbaikars all out on street supporting the Runners, offering water, oranges, salt, placards, shouting. I met few more Kolkata Runners on the way. 

As I neared to peddar road, first thing to come out was F***k. It was going to kill my time. I looked into my Tomtom, and calculated what time I am going to finish. I recalculated the pace I needed to maintain to finish within cutoff time.  In between tried to run, could manage hardly 300-400 metres before resort to walking. I could some runners overtaking. I don't remember where on Peddar road, some was asking how long was the marine drive and some one answered back Three and half km. 

The Peddar road  was torturous, my calf muscles were aching, I was continuously having water, alternating with ORSL. I could see Runners around me struggling, walking, few time.they would go ahead, then stop have water and again behind me. This was cycle, I observed for quite a few times. 

There was something which I found amazed, one person was waiting with medals in his hand. As some runners were approaching he began shouting and garlanded them with the medal. I could see they were known faces.

The road looked never ending and Sun was up on the head and the weather was humid. I kept walking, trying to keep a pace of 10. 

I found lot of mist Chambers , generally I avoid those as don't like to waste time wiping my glasses. But this time visited as many as possible, but many were not functioning properly. I could see sponges lying on the raid at.many places.

Reaching the Marine drive felt like celebration and I could check my watch to see how much km covered and how much left to cover in. Here in marine drive, some of FM runner passed up, could see. As I was crossing Chowpatty seaface, Anjali Saroagi crossed me, and she was doing FM. See her, got motivated and ran about 800 metres. Near Maharastra Bal bhavan, I crossed about Amarjeet Singh the Blind Runner, he was guided by 2 people with him. I was walking behind him, I could hear the 2 guides describing him the surrounding and he would comment after each description. I followed him about a km or so, then I went into jog and walk routine. 
For people who don't know him, here is more about him.

The road seem  never ending and I was really tired. Mind said give up but heart said don't give up now. I didn't dare to sit anywhere in case some first aid catches me and put me into ambulance.

Coming to Nariman it was really painful with Sun shining on your face and you don't have the energy to run till the cover. I could see many runners with finishers medal coming down the course to cheer.

Looking back into my splits, last  two km had 11 min/km and 10min/km, 19th km had 8 min/km where I ran about 800 metres. As I neared to end point, ran about 400 metres to finish. 

As I moved towards the recovery zone, my legs were aching and I simply didn't have any energy left to stand.  went there got bit stretched. And I went to collect my medal and  refreshment which was quite pathetic .

Prasunda came looking for me and both of us moved back to hotel, we used the local train to move back to Dadar. I was sitting on the floor at CST, while he got the tickets. Somehow managed to reach hotel without any incidents. Meanwhile, learned that Yasho had got dehydrated and was hospitalised. Prasunda dropping me to hotel, went to get him released from Hospital.

TMM was grill for me this time, lesson was learnt. Saw the spirit of Mumbai, one word only comes out is AWESOME. Next year I will not be running as the dates are clashing, some day I will come back. And the above blog is not an example to replicate, this is one off incident which people need not follow. This is an extremely wrong example.  I managed to run a 10k a week after this and only reason is I don't abuse my body other than the above incident and my tummy can vouch for that.  As mentioned earlier I got addicted to feeling of emptiness, tired and hungry.

#TMM #MARATHON #KOLKATARUNNERS #RUNNING #HALFMARATHON

2017 - Trail to Trail.

2017 has been surprisingly different compared to other years. It had been full of happenings , misses , sadness, joy.

Glancing back I see meeting wonderful people, miserable people and so on. Its been said by elders that we should look into the good and ignore the bad or the evil. I am putting down highlights of year which is of course anyone's guess Running and few of the people I met during this year due to Running. I am trying to recall the first instances and impressions, hoping they will not beat me up in this year.

Rahul photobombs my selfie @ Kokata Trails 

Rewind to Jan 2017, I started off the year with Kolkata Trails 10KM run. This was in the wetland in Salt Lake and  had to run through the trail. Quite scenic landscape from normal road running. I injured myself at 7KM mark and managed to finish. In this trail I met Rahul Gupta, I was sitting nursing my injury, when he introduced himself. He seemed a nice guy and later in coming months found him so. I met him next time at the first collaboration run hosted by Kolkata Running Squad, he was walking down the last km. He again introduced himself. In this event met Sourav Kashyap who was with Rahul. The next event  where I met Rahul was Gulal Run at Lakes. Like always he again introduced himself.  Rahul in the year climbed mountain literally and physically as well as he ran Kalimpong half marathon. Starting from Trail 10k to Full marathon at Hyderabad, he came long way in terms of achievements in running. Towards the year he became a pacer in Airtel RFE  (10k) and TSK25 (25k) which is recognition of his capabilities. And at the, time of going press ( I loved using this line) he is selected as a pacer for FM. Nevertheless there  exists a child in him which comes out whenever you mention running or anything related to it. He has been face of Salt Lake Runners with Pramil aka Pam..

                                             

Gulal Run in March was with Milind Soman and a promo run for the Pinkathon. This event I met quite a few people Devender Singh, Arvind, Alivia. Those days I was just into running and hardly knew people or had friends. While coming down to the event I saw Arunji, and called him for a lift to the start point. For people who don't know him, he is master international athlete having won  gold overseas. This was beginning of interaction.with him.

Coming back to Devender, I was standing buy awkwardly alone. I saw him standing  alone as well in front of Milind poster.. Whenever I see a Sadarji, I always feel like speaking with them. I went up and spoke to him . after briefest introduction (brief is grammatically short, nothing called briefest exists), he asked me do you know Sudheer Ahuja. The salesman in me woke up not wanting to acknowledge said I think I have heard of him without faintest idea. Anyway that was the beginning of friendshi with this guy.One of the cool head guy in Salt Lake Runners, who always try to find out solution and he introduced me to Salt Lake Runners in April.

If memory does not fail me, Rahul Pam Devender all met in this event as well.  This probably set up the stage for Salt Lake Runners faces 

SALT LAKE RUNNERS

I met another guy in this one and whose name came to know after next month's collaboration run.  One thing was Milind Soman with his Salt and pepper look still had a strong female following. Being a promo event, there were people with camera. As I had finished my run of the Lakes, i was walking down the the event centre stage , I saw a young guy (disclaimer this is literally only) with camera as long as badminton racket in an Orange t-shirt taking pics. I signalled to him to take mine as well, he called out SMILE and again smile till I had actually smiled. After the event I though good photo must have been taken, unfortunately will not have it. Bit fast forward to 2nd week of April, i was running in Collaboration run hosted by Kolkata Ultra, saw this guy in orange again. He was again was welding the humongous camera and taking pics. This time I was part of Salt lake Runners, and came to know hus name Sayantan Dasgupta. For my non running friends most of the amazingly good pics of mine on FB has been shot by him.  His photography along with Suman Dasgupta helped popularising running, collaboration run. In fact, many of the Runners started running because Sayantan would taking pictures in the collaboration run. So I don't need to mention the huge fans he has. Additionally he is pretty good runner. This unfortunately does not help our cause.of getting good pictures. Lastly, he is naughty as well. The reason is for me(you) to know and others to find out and Aao kabhi haveli pe are his favourite pet phrases.

                                          Guess which one is Sayantan?

Trying to weave of continuity through the events is pretty hard. People are overlapping so are the events. Then putting stress on my grey cells gives me headaches. 

In May, there was event -Wings for life. Before coming to that, let me tell something before that. If people had read my racelogue- Airtel Hyderabad Marathon, they will recall that AHM registration had begun in April. Nowadays whatsapp group is the first thing we have before we do something in reality. So Salt lake Runners had a main group and also there was a volunteers group which was to het things done. One fine day in April, Rahul added me to it. Here there were many people about 20 if I am correct at that point of time. Only Rahul and Devender were the two people whom I actually met. So there were runners here who were going to AHM. One day one of the Runners wrote can anyone help her friend  who didn't have a certificate as prerequisite for AHM 21k. They were not accepting her application. All give some some suggestions. One of the Runners gave her suggestion load your Pinkathon certificate and put timing which get you qualified. I protested as it was not right way. We went into war of words as the people who asked for help seeing the situation , went into hibernation. The best of the lines was Do you know what Pinkathon is and to incite him I asked sure tell me. Anyway it got finished. Debjani Choubey was runner looking for help for Monalisa De and Sudip Ghosh was the most helpful guy. Its real fun recalling the incident. Sudip had joined Sketchers with me during that time

                                          ME, SUDIP, DEBJANI AND VIVEK @ ADHM

Debjani Choubey known as DJ in the running circle. I in fact met her first time on Wings of life event and didn't know her. I remember her telling Sudip that Tar ke jhar pe chadane, and later understood/learnt the lady does talk good. A tall Lady who is Journalist by profession, for one of the Hindi channel. She ran the AHM better to say danced though as she made pit stops whereever music was being played. To her credit she was not medically fit, her doctor had advised her to avoid running the event.  She continues to amaze people around her. Quite intolerant to any injustice.

Now  Sourav - Sbro. A sweet guy (stealing from someone's words), met him in my first collaboration run. He joined with me at Sketchers. Few memories at Sketechers, we used to have hurdles and he would always get into trouble with the. April end started 100 days running , this was the event that changed him completely, his passion, desire all blossomed. He did 2500km in 100 days event and was rechristened as  SBro. In between he was down with dengue . He came back quite strongly after that and did his first FM. Also, in December he He flew down to Chennai for  helping his elder brother Abhinav complete his maiden FM.

I mentioned Abhinav, he is based in B'lore and the guy has done mirror runs than any one. A mirror run is run person does in support of run on same day and time, distance also. He is integral part of Salt Lake Runners and has blog unclescrooge.com. I got to meet him first time in AHM.Without being on Kolkata is very much part of Kolkata Runners and is pacing 3.15 on Kolkata Police Safe Drive Save Life HM. He started the year with 5km and did a FM. Finance guy by profession, blogger by interest and runner by passion.

Probably this year I had made so many friends, became part of running family and it gets difficult to pick up people. Writing about them and not mentioning Yashovardhan Kanodia would be crime. I saw the name in DOF short for Dose of Fitness an whatsapp group by Prema Rajaram. First memory of him is he was inquiring any one coming down for Narcotics Run  from Park Street. In this run, I met him first time. Introducing the bare-chested runner of Kolkata and pretty fast as well. He is anti vegeterian, makes  most of the non veg dishes available around. And another great talker and human being. He coined one of most popular GMNB- Great Marathoners Need Backing. He is as well a brilliant cricket and banker by profession. Meet him to more, he is like eclairs. 

I saw Nikhil Pilania first time in Narcotics Run in June end. He was struggling in the race, not in smooth flow. Interaction with him began when he was trying to get registered for AHM. He did not have a valid timing certificate and was not being confirmed for HM. He had history of sprinting and was gold medalist for 400m. In end, Hyderabad Runners confirmed him for AHM. And he did finish the race pretty well in 2:12. He completed his FM in October. He did improved in leaps and bounds. He continues to amaze.

Prema Rajaram, one who runs DOF whatsapp group , journalist by profession, fitness enthusiast and runner.  I met her at Sketchers and we started interacting from there to AHM. What happens in DOF stays in DOF. Full credit to her to manage 200 people, where people are leaving  due to chitchat. (Chuckle). Writing about DOF will take pages.

Last, barefoot baba- Sandip Mojumder. He started barefooted this year, and had met him in collaboration runs. But interaction began when the project for Kolkata Runners t-shirt began in end June. He cam forward to start this project which was and is quite troublesome. T-shirt sizes, name , design - all needed to be in line and he coordinated with the vendor to see it though. Great person, always ready to come forward to help anybody. Actually, T-shirt project  introduced me lot of more runners as well and continues to do so.

I met so many great people and it's a injustice to leave someone out. But then I am writing a blog, writing about all of them would make a good paperback. Year had been amazing ran 4 10k - Kolkata Trail, IDBI FM, TCSW10k, Anti drug Narcotics Run,; 4 HM - AHM, BSF, ADHM, Airtel RFE and 1 25K- TSK25. Ran over 1000km. I became the brand ambassador for Kolkata Trail, thanks to Nishant Mahesawari and Sportiz for the honour. In my dreams I would have thought how things would have turn out. I just hope things would remains as such, but keeping fingers crossed after all life is greatest leveller.

Thanks to all the Runners being part of Trail(2017) to Trail(2018), life would have been same without you. I wanted to finish this before th next trail run to do justice to the heading as I missed new year deadline and had to change the name. 

Disclaimers : Any resemblance to any person living or dead maybe co incidental.

Racelogue: TSK25 Diary

A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways they're capable of understanding.

Steve Prefontaine.

As 2017 came into the home stretch, and 2018 waiting at the door. TSK25 2017 was the last race of year and this time it became the first international race in Kolkata bringing in big names like Bekele. Last year, I ran the 10KM and this year I had registered for 25K when the registration began in October.


Planning for this race was quite sketchy. I was running ADHM just a month before this and my training plan was to go for PB there ( http://samudrajeetghosh.blogspot.in/2017/12/racelogue-adhm-saga.html ). Moreover, I had never ran more than 21KM and guessed it was going to be hard as usual. Running HM is never a easy job, it challenges me at least.

Post 19th Nov, coming back to Kolkata with soreness in my calf muscles, I took rest for 5 days and decided to run 5KM on 25th Nov to check how the legs are after the last race as I was running AIRTEL RFE on 26th Nov- 21K. This was to test if I could complete the race next day.


Now coming to 26th Nov, the weather was fine and perfect for getting an PB. However, I was not fit, I started running cautiously and got injured at 4KM mark. I struggled for next 5KM's just thinking whether to quit or not to quit. Somehow, I decided to take it KM by KM and managed it finish it. And that's another story, which maybe someday will pen it down.

Fast forward to TSK25K, rested for a 5 days. On December 2nd, ran 3KM on red road and running was not smooth. Next day ran in Eco park, and didn't feel upto it, did 5km instead of 10km. It was obvious that my recovery was not complete.

I tried running again on 8th Dec , as it felt healed. But while returning back, got injured again. It seemed that injury didn't wanted to leave me.

With a week left, I decided to do a complete stretching routine hoping the niggling pain goes away. And it helped I felt good. I did a tempo training on Tuesday, and I could feel the niggle. The perfect description of situation was hide and seek by the niggle.

The whole week went on doing stretching and kept my fingers crossed. The day before the race, I was not feeling sure how the race would go. I again did stretching in the night hoping to overcome the niggle and bad news was that niggle had not taken leave.

D-Day, Sunday 17th Dec- Woke up early in the morning despite TSK25 being a late start (6.55am). I reached the event start point with Anjani, Lakshmi and Lalit. The weather appeared pretty good, reminded me of last year The northerly winds were blowing and it was foggy.

TSK25 being a home event, all the fellow runners were there and met Shibsankarda from Mumbai. We did our routine warm up and got ready to move into holding area. I moved up to A holding area, which was close to starting point.



m                      



We slowly moved out and we could see the elite men/women before us at the starting line. At 6.40 they were off and a loud cheer came from the runners. We were slowly moved little by little to the starting line. All the runners were charged up and determine to run well. As 6.55 showed in the clock above the starting line, we pushed off for 25 KM. As I moved forward and I found Ritesh beside me. Ritesh had been my running mate in the AHM post 10 KM which was my first HM. We started running together and I kept an eye on the pace on my TomTom. Running is an important part for tough races.

At 2 KM coming to Strand road, I remarked we were going too fast and need to keep an check as weather was expected to become hotter in mid race and we have to complete 25 Km.

Crossing 1 KM mark, we were joined by Sourav aka SBro. We continued till 4 KM after which SBro went ahead. After Prinsep Ghat, Ritesh accelerated and I told him go ahead, I will catch up.

Again Hasting onward I was alone and could see Ritesh ahead. I kept running at a steady pace and moved as usual. I crossed the Zoological Gardens then Bhabani Bhavan to Alipore judges court road. There was U turn here, as I was running towards the turn near the 8Km mark, I saw the 2.15 Bus pacers running towards Hazra, and behind them about a minute or less Ritesh and Sro together. I continued running and took the u turn and moved towards Kalighat Bridge. Now before reaching Gopal Nagar corssing, on the other side I met 2.30 pacers- Chao and Alok. 2.40 pacer - Anant & Lal, behind them 2.50 - Rahul with his band baaja. I saw Ranjanda once again. While Crossing Kalighat Bridge, I caught up with Sbro and Ritesh, we again started running together.
We moved right from Hazra towards Tollygunge. At the 10km mark, I told my running buddies we have done 10KM in 58 mins. As we were taking u-turn at Tollygunge , Alok overtook us and Sbro moved up with him. I told Ritesh, keep running , Chao should not overtake us if we need to finish in 2.30. At 15KM mark, we again caught up with Alok who was encouraging all the runners up/down. Here Ritesh decided to continue with Alok and I decided to move up. My calculation was that I needed to be before Alok I had to finish in 2.30, so I kept a distance ahead of him.  In this stretch met Ranjanda, Devender, Pam, Tam, Lakshmi on the other side towards Tollygunge. 

As I was crossed Taj bengal on my right and Zoological garden on my right at km 19, I was feeling the strain of running a 27 Km as I needed to complete 6 more km. As I came down to AJC Bose road, and took left towards Hastings, Surendraji overtook me. And just before Hastings crossing , Chao overtook me. After a minute or so, I could see Chao stopping and showing some stretching to Surendraji and I joined for the last few seconds with them. The moved out fast, I was following them and lost them before I could reach Queensway crossing.



I had crossed 20km and still more 5km to go. This felt torturous. Later looking into my Tomtom data, I saw 20-23 km were the slowest and I had felt the same. I kept going unsure what time I was going to finish and stopped looking at my watch. As I neared 24th Km mark, I could hear Alok's voice. He had been quite vocal throughout the race. He crossed me in few seconds and told we have 5 mins to finish for 2.30.


At that moment I felt like strangling him, I don't run at 5 min/km pace and he expects me to finish the last km in a 25 KM run in 5 mins/ 1.2 km. Nevertheless, I grabbed a Bisleri bottle and gave whatever was left in me for the final push. As I switched off my Tomtom crossing the finishing mat, and then I saw the time it was 2.32:16. Not bad considering the physical condition I started with and I was quite unsure which bus I wanted to be in.

Finishing the race, I went to the recovery zone. I got my calves, quadraceps, IT band stretched. Recovery zones have been always a night mare for me, got injured there more than the race. 

Moving out of recovery zone , collected my medal and food packet. Finished off the food and then saw Ranjanda at the entrance. I went to him and spent about hour with him. Spending time with Ranjanda was like in old days time well spent.

Lessons learnt from TSK25, its mind game how you tackle your niggles/injury. Most disturbing things was that the niggle which was there about a 3 weeks had disappeared after the race. Full and Proper Stretching should be done once a week at least which I had somehow had forgotten. The biggest thing is how your run the race on the day is all that matters, it can be bad and good. Taking it KM by KM always works out best. Nothing is perfect in life, and accepting that is more important in the end. And biggest thing is writing down the race after finish is more challenging.


Next is Tata Mumbai Marathon on my list. I hope that I will be  able to weave up something for people to read.


#TSK25 #MARATHON #KOLKATARUNNERS #RUNNING