The Record 'R' Marathon

Pre-Read:
The 'S' Marathon
The 'O' Marathon
The 'R' Marathon

“Come on, Manoj, 20mins more and we are done”. This, after we had run 16kms at nearly 12kmph pace, in 1:16mins and when I was nearly dead. I lengthened my stride a wee bit. I glance at my watch, 1:33hours, Doc looked over his shoulder, “Just 2kms to go, a few more minutes.” I curse under my breath, “Easy for you to say”; the legs seemed to be flying though. The last km was somehow the longest, must have been the effect of adding the 200mts to make it to 21.2kms. “200mts to go”, he declared.
There was no tape to break, no line to cross, no gigantic clock on display… in the fields somewhere near Hoskote, Alain, Doc and I exchanged low-fives. What a fantastic run, it had been. I clocked my personal best timing, a half marathon in 1:40mins!!

At 4:30 this morning, when I looked myself in the mirror at my unshaven face, I was tired, 2 more hours of sleep seemed very very inviting, I was almost craving for it. The legs, though, seemed less stiff after the 5hours of sleep I had managed. Doc and I were running with Alain, who is a fantastic runner and had kept pace with Doc for most of the Ultra Marathon.
I reached Spring Meadows at Whitefield at 0530 and we started off in the dark armed with headlamps. It did slow us down a bit for the first 5-6kms.

At the finish, the feeling was simply amazing. Superman returns, resurrected!

Split timings:
10kms in 50mins
12.6kms in 1 hour
21.2kms in 1:40hours
25kms in 1:59hours
26kms in 2:05hours

BPM Stats:
Average: 167 Beats per min
Maximum: 227 BPM (something wrong I guess, can’t imagine this!)

Myths buried:
Taper? The run comes after 3 half marathons in the last 3 days – 66kms in 72hours!
Rest before the run? 5 hours of sleep was all I could manage the night before.
Carb-loading? Zilch, dinner was 3 chapatis with dal.

The only thing that mattered were the ‘extra nuts’ I was running with – Rajat and Alian, Thanks so much!!

Current mood: Someone remind me why I started running this series please!