After all the training, the D-Day was upon us !! The usual race-day blues were even higher. At my last run prior to race day, I tried a certain pace ,which pushed my HR to higher zone.This made me go cautious with my pace.
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| In my world !! Somewhere after 21K .Ladakh Marathon. |
Sridhar sir gave a suggestion to stick to Z2 boundary as it has worked for him.I decided to stick to a really conservative pace to keep the HR in control.
1-5K : The run starts at the NDS stadium and quickly goes downhill for the first 5K. I switched my Watch face to show the HR instead of Pace/KM and Time. I started off with a slow jog inspite of the downhill and broke my run for a walk once it hit my Zone2 limit.
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| Start point. |
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| The first 5K was Downhill |
5-21K - The FM route turned from the highway into a single lane route filled with farms and small houses on the side.The mountains on the backdrop was majestic and they were a constant presense on this section. I continued my strategy of run/walks to limit my HR for each lap to be less than 140. Several runners passed me but I kept my focus not to try anything new. Took a portion of my Unived Gel at the 17K mark.
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| Narrow roads with lot of trees. |
22-32k - Hitting the halfway mark gave me great confidence.I was not confident that I could complete a FM with run/walks.For the first time, I felt that this could be doeable. I tweaked my run strategy to run constantly until I hit 150 instead of 140 for this stretch. Besides this section was a bit downhill too. I felt comfortable in this whole stretech. By the end of this stretch , we were greeting
with beautiful views of the Thiksey Monasty.I paid my respect to the monks ,who were stading by the roads to cheer for us. It was an overwhelming experience. I completed the 32K at 3:59 hours. I felt confident that I can pull a finish time of 5:30-5:40 hours.
32-37k - The last 5K stretch of run/walk before the deadly uphill.We now turned into Leh/Manali highway . The roads were broad with lot of shops.
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The sun was high too. I was now starting to run until I hit 168-170HR before breaking the run to settle the HR to Zone2.
I cooled myself with a splash of water as my HR was drifting inspite of lower pace.
37-41.5 - By now I was confident that I will finish this run. Almost everyone on the stretch was walking.5K walk, with no breaks on an uphill with scortching sun !! It was a test of patience and endurance. I stopped looking at my HR and kept walking without breaks.
I felt happy that I was able to sustain a walking pace of 9mins/km.
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| The last uphill |
41.5 - The Finish line was in sight. Somewhere on the sides I sighted my buddy Bhasker who was cheering me and pushing me to sprint. This gave me a boost and finally crossed the finish line .The clock read 5:27:18 !! I managed to sustain one of the most grueling races that I had ever run.Happy tears as I hugged my coach !
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| I did it !! |
As I crossed the finish line, the overwhelming feeling is gratitude to God Almighty, my body which survived this grueling ordeal, and to all who helped me achieve this dream 🙏. My coach Siva Swaroop | TRYSquad from TRY and all from his team Deepali Rathod, Ramesh Chandra and all my running buddies from TRYSquad. My parents and my wife who were a constant source of support and encouragement and my buddies from Hyderabad Runners, BHEL ACE Runners , RunMachas and SBC Striders, Coimbatore.
Finding my WHY: Midway into training, the mind started to waver and was constantly questioning the reason I was running. Unlike other events, this marathon mandates us to spend more days to acclimatize the body to the harsh conditions. All of this made me think 'whats the point' 'what am I trying to achieve here'.
Just a day before the race, I was pretty anxious of the outcome.I couldnt shake off the thought that there is a high chance that I may push myself hard leading to DNF with AMS or worse!
Yet, as I ran downhill from the NDS stadium,a rare moment of clarity came to me. I felt myself as a raw human ..with a brain,heart and lung working in unison to overcome the tough conditions
that the mountains have set before I get their divine embrace.With each jog, I found my heart race up and then cool down. It was a unique feeling and it sustained for the complete distance.
As the KMS passed,especially post 21K, I started to enjoy the run/walk ..not for the finish line or the timing but just the pure act of it. That feeling was worth all the effort I had put for this race.
Final thoughts - I must admit that this was not a time that I expected. after training pretty well with consistent 70k mileage. I expected somewhere around 5 hours to 5:15 of finish time. Maybe I could still hit it had I gone a bit aggressive. But thats a topic for another day.
