#19. 13th edition MARG Chennai Runners 10K & Half Marathon 2011 @ IIT Madras Campus

 

This was my 19th Marathon event.  I was happy participate to this event.

       When the announcement for the event was made, I started my plans to run this marathon and prepared myself both mentally and physically.

       I was glad to invite all my friends and relatives by phone calls, sms, emails, message through Facebook and Dailymile website.

       The speciality of the event is the 10 x 10 run.  I started to do a 10 x 10 and completed my runs for four days.  Unfortunately I could not complete the 10 x 10 due to personal commitments (my joining a new office and travel to home town for diwali).  So, I missed the medal for the 10 x 10.  I will definitely not miss it next year.

       During the week end runs, I discussed about the event with my co-runners.

       Ram gave me a lovely event poster and I shared this with my friends and office colleagues.

       On Friday, I cycled to Bala’s office in the rains to collect the BIB.  I met his family and Avinash.  I was very happy to meet them at the time of BIB collection.

On November 6, 2011, Sunday, we woke up at 4 am and were ready for the event.  Me and my friend cycled to IIT campus and we reached IIT Open Air Theater (Starting point) at 5:30 am.

       I met all our Chennai Runners friends, warmed-up for a few minutes. My friend Anand joined to volunteer and he encouraged all runners.

       As the Digital clock showed 06:00 am, SLMP whistled to start the event.  All runners started running.

        I started with Sundar and followed him till the 4 kms mark. We ran at 12~13 km speed.

       After I took a water break, I missed him.   I continued to run at 11~12 km speed.

       Mid-way I met Venkatesh. He was riding and encouraging all runners.  He also gave me some running tips. It was very useful for me.  I like to thank Venkatesh.  

       Our Co-Chennai runners were at the aid section.  They all encouraged me and were cheering me “Come on Anand… Come on Anand…”. This made me to restore the energy in my body.  I successfully completed this event in 1 hour 51 minutes.

       A child gave me a medal and I was very happy.

       I collected T-shirt of this Marathon event and I took snaps with my friends and Co-Chennai Runners.

       It was such a wonderful event and I enjoyed every moment of it.  The post run music, food and the silambattam performance by the group was awesome.

       Afterwards, I went to the finishing point and gave medals to many finishers.

       The running Course at IIT Madras Campus was very amazing, with lot of trees on both the sides.

       I also saw deer and it was like a forest.  I loved to run in this route.

       The weather was very nice and my Special thanks to the rain Gods.

       I also thank the Organizers and volunteers for organizing this wonderful event.

You can see my running details in

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/126757866

Spirit of Wipro Run 2011 "Miles with The Sun", at Wipro Solinganallur Campus (October 15, 2011)

Spirit of Wipro Run 2011 "Miles with The Sun", October 15, 2011

Me and Wipro Friends... 

Friend AnandG and Gauthama

 

Spirit of Wipro Run 2011 "Miles with The Sun", at Wipro Solinganallur Campus (October 15, 2011)

Good run  with AnandG, Gouthama, Shekar and Wipro friends... and I finished overall 4^th place. Last year I finished 1^st place…

Thanks Gouthama(Wipro) invites this run...

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/121602409

#18. Celebration Mysore Half Marathon (CMHM) — 2011, October 02 @ Mysore

Celebration Mysore Half Marathon (CMHM) — 2011

On September 30th, I participated for my 18th Marathon event “CMHM – 2011” at Mysore. I reached Guindy at 8:20 pm and bought 2 tickets (including my friend Anbu) to park. We both met around 8:30 pm at Guindy Railway station and caught a local train. The train was fully crowded, absolutely no space to get-in; however, we both managed to board the train. We reached park station around 9:10 pm, All of a sudden I remembered that we had to buy dinner and medicines as I had soar throat. We searched for many medical shops near the subway but of no avail. We had no option but to buy dinner and catch the train (Kaveri Exp. 9:30 pm). So we ran through Moore Market to buy dinner. It was already 9:25 pm and there was hardly 5 minutes for the train to leave; Here, I would like to mention that we actually began our race here with full weight of our luggages on our back. We successfully managed to catch the train at the exact time!!!!

In our compartment, there were also DAV School boys. We could not sleep the whole night because of their roaring noise. Having a sleepless night we tiresomely reached Mysore on October 1st around 8:30 am. We waited in the station for one more participant who was our friend, Chellapani, coming from Theni. He reached around 10:00 am. It was a nice meeting time with a round of breakfast.

Then, we enquired for “Reliance Trends, Vinoba Road” to acquire our race kit. But no one directed us to the exact route. It was less than 2 km from the railway station. One man told us the wrong route; as a result, we had to walk nearly 4 km to reach Reliance Trends.

We collected our race kits finding our way to Youth Hostel, Saraswathipuram. Each person showed us different directions. We were thoroughly confused. We finally came to a conclusion “Enimel Neenga Anniye Pudunga Vendam”. We realized that Google map will be our best guide (I had printout). We found the correct route and reached Youth Hostel around 1:30 pm. We checked-in and kept our luggages in the dormitory and went for lunch. We took rest till evening and then had dinner. My health was not fine the next morning as the sudden change of weather had aggravated my throat condition. I was unable to find any medical shop nearby.

Me and Chellapani in Youth Hostel

On October 2nd, we woke up around 4 am ready for the event. We all took the city bus around 5:30 am and reached the event’s starting point around 6:15 am, warmed-up for a few minutes thinking the race will start at 6:45 am but it got delayed by 45 minutes. We met our other participants at the starting point.

Due to sickness I was finding it difficult to run my normal speed. The route was very sloppy with lots of ups and downs. I ran at the speed of 10~12 km/hr and maintained this till the finishing point. After the 16th km I developed nausea but managed to run somehow. I motivated myself with a strong will and determination to successfully complete this event. My pace was decreasing gradually. I took 1 hour 53 minutes to complete this Half Marathon. After reaching the finishing point, I vomited and went to the medical camp at the venue. The attending doctor prescribed some tablets and syrup.

The event was well-organized and we had a lovely team of supporting and cheering volunteers.

Later, all our participant friends met and we took snaps near the Mysore Palace. After having a gala time we reached the hostel and freshened up.

We checked-out the dormitory at 5:00 pm, my friend, Chellapani left Hostel at 4 pm as he had to baord Tuticorin express at 6 pm. Now Anbu and me went to Chamundi Hills by bus around 6:30 pm. Due to the Dassera festival there was heavy traffic on the way. We were unable to visit the inside of the temple because of crowd. We took some snaps of the temple and had an awful dinner.

Finally we caught the bus to the city bus stand. There was heavy traffic 1.5 km before city bus stand. We had no other choice except to get down and walk towards railway station. We had half an hour only to catch the train and the roads were flooded with a mad rush of passersby. We managed to get an auto and reached the station 5 minutes before, went to our berth, slept soundly and got up only to find ourselves at our hometown. We went home with the memories of our event.

My hearty thanks to Mr. Anbu and Mrs. Usha for helping to write these memories.

 

Me and Chellapani at Mysore Palaces

Chamundieshwari Temple

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/118800583



#17. 5th Kaveri Trial Marathon [KTM] 2011 @ Srirangapattina, Near Mysore.

KTM Starting point

Start race

Course...

Photo By Balaji

 KTM Bib number

With Vasanth



Gramin report

        I went to KTM-2011 Srirangapattina. I’m met Vasanth and we stayed there at Vengatashwara lodge, for two days.  On the first day's afternoon we walked in Sriranapattina to Young Island. We enjoyed the river, nature a lot. After reaching Young Island we collected our Bib, Timing Chip and then met Preethi, Shankar & Suresh (B’lore). We finished dinner and went to rest.

        On the Second day we woke early in the morning at 4:30am began preparing for the event. We planned to walk to Young Island. We started the walk and suddenly one person asked me if I was going to KTM?  I replied yes. And he gave me a lift in the car and dropped me at Young Island. We meet some other friends Selva, Mukesh, Bala family and Ridhima. We were going to the start point of KTM by the bus and then met another friend Bosco. I’m and Bosco did our warm-up session on the road.

        Start time of KTM marathon was 6:15 am. I ran at 11~12 km/hr and maintained the speed till 25th km. I took a water break every 5KM. After completing the 30th km my running speed decreased and I took “salt water” at the 39th KM. At the 40th km I suddenly started vomiting and my head ached a lot, so I stopped running but continued to walk from the 40th to 41st km and finally finished at 10:30 am. My best time 4hrs 15 min 47 Sec for full marathon. We went and relaxed in the Stream River and had lunch at Young Island. We met another friend Balaji. Finally we came back to room and then took rest.

#16. Hyderabad Marathon 2011 Organized by Hyderabad Runners

 

I'm and Puru together finished Marathon [Photo by Shankar Lal]

Photo by Shankar Lal

I'm and Puru together show the finisher Medal [Photo by Shankar Lal]

Timing report

I'm and Puru and Gowthama

Good Hill ran for me.

This is my first hill ran.

The course was tough with more ups & downs.

Well organized and good supports.

Thanks Neville, Ram Viswanathan, Puru for company.