Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Airtel Hyderabad 2012- My Journey

As i finished my first 10 K @ TCS World 10K run on May 26 in Bangalore and unofficial running of Paris 10 Km run at paris, the next thing that i looked for is when is the next run ? Where etc. It was because of the energy that i took from the crowd !!! I saw so many people of different age groups, different disabilities, and were so much energetic through out the crowd. I decided that i will do my next run.This is how i enrolled for the Airtel Hyderabad marathon 2012 edition.

As i decided that i will do my next Long distance running, but now i need to select after reviews on the web and taking stake of my physical fitness i decided to do the Half Marathon  and it is 21.1 Kms. I knew i can complete 10 Kms in 1.24 Minutes. So now strategy for the next10 Kms was  running up in my mind, But it didn't stop me in registering for the event.

In may  and June i have did my 10 KM and in August i have planned to do this. So again planning , Progressive elaboration ( A PMP technique) was used as i planned to increase my Laps in my regular running and my training was Up but to be honest i was not regular, I didn't even do any Strength training other than my regular stretches and the runnings.
As the d`day was nearing my strategy was changing ( Again my PMP Technique -change management) now i planned to complete only. And the strategy was 6 Km run 0.5 Km walk and repeat for 3 times on the entire stretch, with this in mind i boarded my train to Hyderabad along with Family ( Stake holders).
Amazing weather welcomed us  in Hyderabad, it was drizzling and chill. Checked in the hotel near the railway station, and went to the expo, collected the BIB , met my mentors other fellows, and chilled out with my family.
One of the lesson learned in my previous run is diet management on the previous day and a good sleep is required. So i went to bed early and challenged the alarm as i woke up before it and put it on rest.

August 26 ,  I was on the starting point, made a mistake of crossing the line with my timing chip.Initially it was little distracting as it would affect my timing. But again put my mind on steady state on the Scope of the run - Enjoy and Complete  not to worry about my timing. ( Avoid scope creep - PMP ). Now started enjoying the crowd. Again this is the X-factor that pulls me to the event seeing so much like minded people, getting guidance, sharing the energy , children, kids, Girls, Elders, Disabled people and lot of them .

As my event of HM was started i was in the middle and started moving into the crowd and i can see at least people in front me for Half a KM , again i put resistance to my thoughts of moving front and maintaining the pace. It was very good and my GPS on my SE mobile was on and it was guiding me.

                 My first 5 km was a cool run, and was same till next 10 Km. And i was on my same pace when i checked my GPS as it guided me for 1hr.20 Min. There were many flyovers so balancing the pace during the climbing and also during the down was interesting  and i enjoyed it fully.
This was different to my strategy but still as my progress was better i planned to move with it. and now after 10 Kms the weather was getting cool and there were all possible signs of a heavy downpour and i checked for the weather proof for my handheld and i had my BIB cover in my pockets. so i never stopped and continued i was able to realise my Pace is going down so charged me with little drinks and banana.
                And from here for me each KM was started going tough but i managed with little milestones,Like distance hoardings, flyovers,Parked vehicles,Tall Buildings etc. I switched to some fast songs on my device. It really helped me to push hard and as distance was decreasing an i was crossing 12,13,14,15 Kms and the rain was heavy, by the time was nearing the 18.5 Km the rain was decreasing and i was crossing the beautiful hitech city road and reached my last flyover.
here is when i felt the importance of the training as i was running very slow and took some help from the medicos with spray and again charged with some drinks and i crossed my 20 Km and was seeing people coming out with medals on the main road, but no sign of the stadium and now i took left and saw the stadium where the last lap and en-route there were many fellow runners who were on the way back to the parking and main road were giving us the energy .
     I noticed the countdown in metres and i entered the stadium touched the synthetic turf for the last 100 metres it was an amazing feeling that i completed and got the finished medal from a small and little kid.
  I joined with my family after few stretches and meeting with my fellow runners.As i was waiting to take a photo i had a small chat with fellow runner , after few lines of conversation he asked me are you coming to the KTM 2012? Crazy guys... and me too .. see you after my KTM 2012 run ...