35 battles in one day!

After my bout of overtraining I decided to get back into running with a bang. Actually it was more of a whimper. My running group - the Chennai Runners (corny name I agree- but I didnt come up with it, so Im absolved) - organized a run to Mahabs from the Toll Gate. The total distance being about 29km.

So at 4.50 AM on Sunday September 16, 35 guys (34 guys + 1 girl whose one of the guys anyway) assembled at the Toll Gate on ECR with their ipods, water bottles, caps and other assorted battle gear. Battle started at 5.00 AM sharp thanks to the main organizer Ram.

I did my usual slow start with a gentle walk. I kept Mahadevan company for about 5 minutes. After that I started jogging. Managed to catch up with several people along the way and was listening to music most of the way. It stayed dark almost until 6.30 I would think because the sky was somewhat overcast. After about an hour, I was hit by a revelation.

The idea of running from Toll Gate to Mahabs is a BAD idea. Anyway, the water points were supposed to be at 5KM intervals. So when I passed the 3rd water point I was very impressed that I completed 15km in little under 1 hour and 15 minutes. As I was passing by I asked with requisite arrogance how far I had reached. The volunteer chirpily informed me that we had covered 11K. THe water points were moved to 3.5 to 4 k intervals because there were some newbie runners in the group!

It took me about 30 minutes to shake off that dissappointment. I then made it to the 17Km mark and caught up with my friend Cmdr Ashvini. He was a little sick from the previous days chicken curry apparently. So I sat with him (ok - that was an excuse to get some rest), drank a litre of water and ate a banana. All bad ideas.

I also packed an Electral drink. The packet advised 1 packet for one litre. I was a little over enthusiastic and made a drink of one litre with 3 packets. So my drink turned into a salty mess. So I had to drink the water. I was hungry so the banana was demolished. Anyway, these are all things you should not do!

After that we got one of the support cars to come back and pick up CAsh - as he likes to be called. Then I decided I will continue. I then started a run/walk attempt. I did that for about 40 minutes and went a bit further. Again caught up with several people along the way. I was feeling quite strong and my knees werent giving me any trouble as yet.

By now it was 2h 30min and I had about 9 km to go. I decided I'll just walk fast at this point. Suresh - another runner - joined me and we both walked briskly to a 3.30 finish.

The finish was somewhat of an adventure. The end point was to be a resort called Mamalla Beach resort. We were all looking at signs for Mamalla Restaurant and ended up at the restaurant which was 1 km further away than the actual end point. We hobbled and cursed but made it the wrong end point and came back to the correct spot.

Breakfast was as usual a diet disaster for me. I ate like I returned from a concentration camp and put away several dosas and eggs. Several trees and fruits were also demolished. It was topped off with a beer with Shumit.

All in all 35 battles were fought that day. Some won decisively, some lost, many didnt know whether they had won or lost. But at the end the breakfast was good.

Planning to do my next run on Saturday just to recover. Been doing some light jogging and some hard weights. My next event is on OCtober 14 where I want to run the 100, 400, 4x100 relay, and 1 mile. Im starting my training this coming week.

Lets see how that goes...