Joy of Running

Joy of Running, that would be right name for Airtel Delhi Half Marathon, which held on Nov 21^st at Delhi. Over 30000 runners from Delhi and around came in on fine Sunday morning. It was perfect weather to run long distance race.

Airtel Delhi Half Marathon is now annual affair like rituals for most of us that include Dickie, Susheel, Prem, Darvesh too. However, for this run Dickie not able to make it because of his personal commitment at home in Ranchi to take care her Mom. I personally inspire by him since he love to run but did not because of he has given priority what he felt is right. On other side my wife Rupinder and Rina, Susheel wife also run Great Delhi Run, which was fantastic.

Every time it is detail planning from evening dinner to morning breakfast to travel plan. Transport is one thing which need coordination with most of the people since this require greater coordination with all. This time responsibility of taking everyone to venue had given to Susheel, since he own big car to accommodate everyone and for ladies, whose event was starting late, it was decided to take a cab to drop them at venue and on return, and they can come along with us in same car.

We started on time and on the way to venue we picked up new runner Kanishk, who was running marathon first time; however we reached the venue post the race started, as there was big queue due to security check.

Prem ,as usual run very fast and I lost him in beginning itself, even Susheel started bit early however I started late as I had not got chance to stretch so took bit time to start the race. I had started slow and slowly picked up my pace and finished the race in 1:53 hr. I was expecting to finish the race in less than 2 hour and I did that. I was not expecting great timing since I was not running from some time and few days earlier of this event, I was even not sure if I will be able to finish this marathon or not as I was down with viral and before that some other medical complexity. However now after finishing it is refreshing moment. Prem did it very well so what Darvesh. Susheel took bit time but he able to finish the run very well without any pain or injury.

This event is like annual affair met lot of old and new pal that include Karishma, Amit, Percy, Rahul, Tanvir, Nitin, Tejpal, Sameer, Veer, Suresh Amita and many more..

This time I train only for 14 days and which I think not good, as there is always chance of injury if you run long distance without proper training. However, to my surprise I did well. Now when I look back and I found I did certain change in my training pattern as listed below. Most of things are common however generally we skip while we train our self but I tried to follow these and I feel these all helped me.

1. I have not exerted myself during my training, I had run only one long run of 2 hours but I did lots of small run.
   
2. I eat lots of carbohydrate that include Porridge, Oats, Bread and had lot of water intake to avoid dehydration
   
3. Post and prior to run I used to do stretching without any fail.
   
4. In my routine, I have added yoga too; I use to do Sun Solicitation and "Pranayam" (Breathing technique).
   
5. I tried to choose my best ft attire that includes shoes, T and shorts.
   
6. I had worked on speed training too; few runs were with good pace ( I think J ) of 5:15 to 5:45 minute/Km pace.
   
7. I also used special coach to train myself that is my cell phone loaded with MiCoach apps from Adidas. This is fabulous application with GPS and gives you all detail of the workout including cal burned, distance covered, your speed etc and it worked as coach to improve your performance.
   

Now I am gearing up for Chandigarh and Pondi Half Marathon, let us see how well I do in there..

Parvinder 22/11/2011