Well, I really wanted to write more than just my marathon experiences, but given that I just finished one, I had to write about it. This time, it was the Auroville Marathon on 13th Feb, 2011.
I wanted to run Auroville Marathon last year itself, but given that I had finished my first Marathon in more than a couple of years at Mumbai in January 2010, I was not very confident of doing two marathons in two months. So, I just passed it, but heard from all people who ran that this was an amazing trail and too good to miss. So, I was determined that I run it this time around, now that I already had 5 marathons in my bag.
I was a little lax in registering for the race and by the time I eventually got to do it, I found that all hotels in Pondicherry were full and I had no option but to stay with my uncle in Cuddalore, about 24 K from Pondicherry. I took the night bus on 11th Feb and reached Cuddalore on Saturday morning. Since it was pretty early in the morning, I decided to walk the distance (about 2K) to my uncles house from the bus stand.
After relaxing a bit, I left for Pondicherry by around 11AM to collect the running bib. I was waiting for the bus at the bus-stand where I just saw one bus after the other pass by, but none bothering to stop. After a while I realised that buses do not stop there during the day time, but only during early mornings and late nights. So, I walked to the next bus stop and caught the next bus. It was overflowing and for the first time in several years, I did a foot-board travel. It was a good experience but given that I am no longer in my college days, I got inside the bus at the first opportunity. I had to stand all along (about 45 mins travel), but it was not too bad.
Once I reached Pondicherry bus-stand, I quickly got into another bus that went close to Auroville. That was another 25 mins travel. I needed to collect my bib from the Visitor's centre and I already saw a lot of people coming , who probably were making their way back after collecting their bibs. I enquired the flower vendor for the directions and she told me that the visitor's center was a solid 8K away. For some reason, I chose not to believe her and asked another man on a bike. He told me that it is about 4K and that if I walk for a kilometer or so, I would find a lot of vehicles going that way. So, I set off walking the first K. The first K slowly became the second and third K and then I enquired at a shop. That fellow assured me that the visitor's center is about 2K away and so I set off again. I could see a lot of Karnataka cars coming the other way and I was just looking to get to my destination which never seem to be in sight. I finally asked one more person who said it was another 1K and by the time I reached the visitor's center, I had clearly walked close to 8K. . I quickly picked up the bib and was wondering how to get back to Pondicherry. I asked one of the organizers and he was gracious enough to drop me in the depot from where buses were scheduled to depart to pick up marathoners from the city for the dinner. I waited in the depot for about 30 minutes and then got into the bus and got dropped at the bus stand. Again, I had to stand all the way to Cuddalore and by the time I got home it was close to 5:30PM, clearly more than 2 -3 hours later than what I would have liked. Given all the walk I did in the morning, this 10K walk was clearly not in my to-do plans for the day before the race day.
As with most of the pre-race nights, I had a pretty disturbed sleep and I woke up several times before eventually getting up at 3PM. I had booked a taxi and he came in at 3:15AM and we set off at around 3:20PM. I was hoping to catch a wink or two, but the driver was in a pretty talkative mood and I was awake the whole distance to Auroville. We reached at around 4:05AM and the first set of runners were just coming in. Slowly, the runners trickled in and I met Vishy, Prateek, Sundar and a few other Bangalore runners. The race started off at 5AM and it was pitch dark and we were running with a torch in our hands. It was infact a very curious feeling -- to run with the torch on one hand and the water bottle on the other. The trail was amazing, but could not make out much because of the darkness. Also, my average pace was considerably slower than SCMM for the first one hour or so. When it dawned, it was more than an hour or so later and the sight was amazing. We running through the forests and a little later on residential quarters. When I completed my first lap, it was about 2:12, much slower than my time at the half way mark at Mumbai.
In all the races that I have run before, I had always had to walk towards the end and I did not expect anything better here as well. And given that my first half was slower, I clearly felt I had no chance of finishing below 4:30 and was bracing for a more 4:45 like finish. I kept pushing myself to run till 35K and then walk if required. Then a lucky break happened. I met Vishy at around the 32K mark, or rather he caught up with me, and he was running a solid controlled pace. I just decided to stick with him as much as I could and that turned out to be a great move. I kept pace with him till about the 39K mark and then walked a bit after the 39K. Vishy continued and he went on to finish by 4:26. After the walk, I started running again and somehow pushed myself to run till the end and when I touched the end tape, I was surprised to see that I had clocked 4:27, about a minute faster than the Mumbai time. Was it an amazing feeling?
P.S. I eventually realized that I clocked 4:27:52 and so it was about 10 seconds faster than SCMM and not a minute faster, but still a P.B :)
I wanted to run Auroville Marathon last year itself, but given that I had finished my first Marathon in more than a couple of years at Mumbai in January 2010, I was not very confident of doing two marathons in two months. So, I just passed it, but heard from all people who ran that this was an amazing trail and too good to miss. So, I was determined that I run it this time around, now that I already had 5 marathons in my bag.
I was a little lax in registering for the race and by the time I eventually got to do it, I found that all hotels in Pondicherry were full and I had no option but to stay with my uncle in Cuddalore, about 24 K from Pondicherry. I took the night bus on 11th Feb and reached Cuddalore on Saturday morning. Since it was pretty early in the morning, I decided to walk the distance (about 2K) to my uncles house from the bus stand.
After relaxing a bit, I left for Pondicherry by around 11AM to collect the running bib. I was waiting for the bus at the bus-stand where I just saw one bus after the other pass by, but none bothering to stop. After a while I realised that buses do not stop there during the day time, but only during early mornings and late nights. So, I walked to the next bus stop and caught the next bus. It was overflowing and for the first time in several years, I did a foot-board travel. It was a good experience but given that I am no longer in my college days, I got inside the bus at the first opportunity. I had to stand all along (about 45 mins travel), but it was not too bad.
Once I reached Pondicherry bus-stand, I quickly got into another bus that went close to Auroville. That was another 25 mins travel. I needed to collect my bib from the Visitor's centre and I already saw a lot of people coming , who probably were making their way back after collecting their bibs. I enquired the flower vendor for the directions and she told me that the visitor's center was a solid 8K away. For some reason, I chose not to believe her and asked another man on a bike. He told me that it is about 4K and that if I walk for a kilometer or so, I would find a lot of vehicles going that way. So, I set off walking the first K. The first K slowly became the second and third K and then I enquired at a shop. That fellow assured me that the visitor's center is about 2K away and so I set off again. I could see a lot of Karnataka cars coming the other way and I was just looking to get to my destination which never seem to be in sight. I finally asked one more person who said it was another 1K and by the time I reached the visitor's center, I had clearly walked close to 8K. . I quickly picked up the bib and was wondering how to get back to Pondicherry. I asked one of the organizers and he was gracious enough to drop me in the depot from where buses were scheduled to depart to pick up marathoners from the city for the dinner. I waited in the depot for about 30 minutes and then got into the bus and got dropped at the bus stand. Again, I had to stand all the way to Cuddalore and by the time I got home it was close to 5:30PM, clearly more than 2 -3 hours later than what I would have liked. Given all the walk I did in the morning, this 10K walk was clearly not in my to-do plans for the day before the race day.
As with most of the pre-race nights, I had a pretty disturbed sleep and I woke up several times before eventually getting up at 3PM. I had booked a taxi and he came in at 3:15AM and we set off at around 3:20PM. I was hoping to catch a wink or two, but the driver was in a pretty talkative mood and I was awake the whole distance to Auroville. We reached at around 4:05AM and the first set of runners were just coming in. Slowly, the runners trickled in and I met Vishy, Prateek, Sundar and a few other Bangalore runners. The race started off at 5AM and it was pitch dark and we were running with a torch in our hands. It was infact a very curious feeling -- to run with the torch on one hand and the water bottle on the other. The trail was amazing, but could not make out much because of the darkness. Also, my average pace was considerably slower than SCMM for the first one hour or so. When it dawned, it was more than an hour or so later and the sight was amazing. We running through the forests and a little later on residential quarters. When I completed my first lap, it was about 2:12, much slower than my time at the half way mark at Mumbai.
In all the races that I have run before, I had always had to walk towards the end and I did not expect anything better here as well. And given that my first half was slower, I clearly felt I had no chance of finishing below 4:30 and was bracing for a more 4:45 like finish. I kept pushing myself to run till 35K and then walk if required. Then a lucky break happened. I met Vishy at around the 32K mark, or rather he caught up with me, and he was running a solid controlled pace. I just decided to stick with him as much as I could and that turned out to be a great move. I kept pace with him till about the 39K mark and then walked a bit after the 39K. Vishy continued and he went on to finish by 4:26. After the walk, I started running again and somehow pushed myself to run till the end and when I touched the end tape, I was surprised to see that I had clocked 4:27, about a minute faster than the Mumbai time. Was it an amazing feeling?
P.S. I eventually realized that I clocked 4:27:52 and so it was about 10 seconds faster than SCMM and not a minute faster, but still a P.B :)
