Auroville 2014 – My first HM

There were days when I have argued with @jmr_chn and other twitrunners that, I wouldn’t run a Half-Marathon, unless I run a 10K in less than 60 minutes(and that hasn’t happened yet, though i came close couple of times). So when Auroville announced that they are going to have 10K run only for locals and everyone else need to do either Half marathon or full marathon, I almost gave up. I thought I would run a different competition in Feb and skip Auroville. But Auroville is very special. As i have written in a post last year, Auroville is the first marathon “I saw” and also the fact that many of my running friends were talking about Auroville on emails, didnt help my decision not to run. I registered for a Half marathon.

I had no idea about the timing in which I can complete 21 KM. I decided to set the target to 2:30 hours. With the encouragement from @seevin and @scanman , on the first day of 2014, I ran 22 K ( or I should say walked). This gave a confidence that I can complete 21K, even if I dont meet my target. But then started some personal issues and I couldn’t run at all for 3 weeks after that. At the last 2-3 weeks, I ran few 10-12K runs, just to get back to the mood of running.

As usual @jmr_chn arranged for travel, @ela_m arranged for accommodation. We reached pondy on previous day night, collected bibs, had decent(!!) food, slept well. Next day morning, we started around 5 AM (race for me was at 6:25 AM) and reached early. Earlier I was planning to take little amount of Insulin before the run, so that, If i have to take glucose or a banana in the run, I would have Insulin in the body to get that food to my cells. I missed to take this shot. Mistake number one. 

Race started on time. I ran the first 5 KMs easily. Wonderful climate and awesome trail. It is always a fun to run in Auroville, just for this trail. I was on my 9th KM at the end of first hour. Actually better than my estimate. But “I think” I did a mistake number two , between 5th – 10th KM. Instead of water, i started taking glucose. I will come later on why I think this may be a mistake.

I saw the girl whom I was tailing in Auroville 2013 . I tried running with her, but gave up by 11th KM. There was one guy from Bangalore who encouraged me and I tagged along with him till 15th KM. When I crossed 16th KM mark, I think it was 1 hour 55 minutes. So I thought, I was on target. But then something happened. I almost stopped running by 17th KM. I was not even walking at my normal walking speed. I was almost down to 10 minute/KM speed. I was cursing myself and every try i did from there “to run” failed. One reason i think is the mistake number two above. With no insulin, glucose might have been increasing my blood sugar. Obviously, as i have noticed in my practice runs before, with high sugar, I mostly stop running. Or may be I am over complicating this. May be it is just the lack of practice that hurt. Whatever, I did the run in 2 hour 40 minutes. Last 5 KMS in 45 minutes.

 

There is always a next time. 🙂 And here is the photo. 🙂