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.



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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