If you came here looking for a review of the Stonehill Founders Day Run, I will save you the 6min read - Go for it, it is well organized.
Stonehill International School is in our side of Bangalore and I have run past the school a number of times. It comes 20kms into my home to Nandi runs. Over the last few years I have heard good reviews of this run, with some of my running pals traveling from all over Bangalore to participate.
My kids, N1 and N2 have also been training under coach Poonam at Kanteerava stadium for the last year or so. It would be good to test them against a longer distance such as a 5k. I have also been regular at HIIT with near 4min/km pace for the many stadium laps. It would be useful to test the training block with a race.
And so it came to be, that my entire family signed up - my wife and kids for the 5k and me for the half marathon.
Pre-race:
The bib collection the previous day at a location in the city centre, was a simple affair - no big race crowds, lines or rules. Just state your number (and anyone else's) and pick up the bib. The tee shirts were of good quality, and also available in XS for my kids! However, I received groans back home when they heard of the 5:15 am (yes, AM) reporting time!
Race day:
All four sleepy-eyed made it to just outside the school at 5:15am, found a place to park along the road. I let the rest of the family catch some more shut eye and trotted off to the start point. At a distance I saw a familiar tee shirt - a classic from the 2007 Bangalore Ultra! The wearer, Lingu, has been a passionate runner for the last two decades. The camaraderie at the start was palpable and energizing. I did some light warm up, the race started on time, 2 mins of dodging the crowd, by the time we were out of the school, I was all set to hit my pace.
I caught up with a small bunch of runners ahead of me - casually checked their target pace. Pat came the reply, "to finish in 1:35, but we are going too fast, the hills are coming soon". I decided to stay with this informed runner, Pavan. He was a 1:25 half marathoner taking it easy that day, recovering from a viral bout - perfect foil for someone like me, who was looking for this company.
The course turned into beautiful rolling countryside, the first 5k was faster than expected (even dreamy) pace - 21:34
The next 5k had this section which was downhill one way, U-turn, gel and uphill again, still managed to keep pace - 22:12
Coming uphill, I realised that the lead runners and the chase pack were coming back, we had to do this twice! I had by now fallen behind my pacer, Pavan, was happy to see the long downhill again. I thought I would slow down but pleasantly surprised to see the 5k split of 23:03 - 15k in 1:07. A sub-100min finish seemed very possible now. One more gel.
As I turned off back towards the school, a couple of runners passed me. I increased pace to stay with them. I thought of the "tensegrity and fascia" as suggested in "The lost art of running". I managed to keep some form and finished the next 5k in 23:31
As I neared the finish line, I saw Shreya and the kids passing the finish line. As I crossed the finish line in 1:35:42 I received warm wishes from them. They did very well too - N2 finishing in 31:13, N2 in 44:03 and Shreya in under 45mins for their 5k.
After collecting our medals and some customary pics, we moved towards the breakfast counters. This was a treat - south Indian counters, omelettes, bun chaska, burger, coffee and baked yogurt for dessert! All served hot and fresh with ample counters to handle the swelling crowd of finishers.
The cherry on the cake was the short Zumba session, Shreya and the kids loved this. The post run experience made up for the 4am wake up time for the day and we head back with great memories (and the baked yogurt of course).
