Fun on The Run @ Forty
On the Bangalore 10 K run eve, my son made an interesting comment,"Looks like you get faster with age ! "
Me: Lets see, linear improvements are hard, unless you are Ashok T(eenage) old man who does it effortlessly each time !
Shivering in the pre-dawn chill, I got onto my trusty commute cycle and had a nice ride down to the Kanteerava Stadium. The overnight rain had sharpened the heady aroma of Cassia and Gulmohar Blooms on route, and I was partly thinking, this is so blissful, I just go on riding and ditch the run. Bangalore is so blessed, we need to cherish and protect it all we can !
Met yoga buddy Rajesh, and started the run with him. He set a nice pace, and I followed, to my shock and delight (short lived alas !) , we were on the 50 Min bus !
Of course the running gods were watching. Doing a 50 requires some dedicated practice, you cant simply stroll over (unless you are Anil Kadsur !) once a year and fake it. 3 Km into the run, my breathing was getting ragged, and I had a severe stitch in the side, forcing me to slow down to a crawl for the next couple of km, clearly shows up on the official graph.
Rajesh had disappeared in the distance, I saw him again at one of the turns, he was about 300 mtr ahead, and I hoped to catch up with him. Of course I never saw him again till the end, and I had an epiphany. You never catch up with people who are just a few km ahead when you are cycling, and same happens with a few hundred meters in running.
Met Chiddu at the end point, he narrated a similar tale, he started off with the 45 bus, and had to slow down. Our take, with cycling we are used to slow and steady starts, we should stick to that, and then go full throttle later in the run.
Had a relaxed ride back home, crossed Rohan and a few other fixie fiends out on a morning ride near Lalbagh.
And for the curious cats, the Timing was a full minute off my last year PB , finishing today with 55:06.
Silver lining was the chronological bump into the halfway to the grave slot (40+) gave me a nice 123 rd place in the 40+ category, with overall rank of 1088/7772 !
posted by ParagRAPh @ 6:54 AM
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