My marathon journey

42.2 kilometres: How I did it

How did I do it? 

1. This one you know - start small. 

I started with 1 km every day some five years ago. I invested in a running shoe (2.5K) and was determined to recover that cost. So I kept at it. 

2. Graduate carefully. You will be very excited to scale up fast. But you should be mindful of how your body, particularly your knees and leg muscles, take it. 
3. I did two mistakes initially, I wasn’t doing enough strength exercise initially and did not space out my run as my miles got longer. In my haste, I developed injuries. 
4. So you must do your stretches. You should spend as much time in warm-up workout as in clocking your miles. When you start doing more than 3 km a day, you should run only on alternate days.
5. When you touch 5 km you may think of doing it once a week and short runs during other days you go for a workout. 
6. One important thing - you should always hydrate well, drink about a litre of water, before your run.
7. At any sign of muscle pain, you should stop. I naively thought legs would recover on themselves as I ran more and nearly aggravated runner’s knee and tendon pain which I was afflicted with. 
8. You may continue with your strength training while taking a pause from your running. Eventually your muscles become strong enough to absorb the shocks during the run. Give them time. I didn’t run for almost a year when tendon pain gripped me. This was after I touched 5K. 
9. Needless to say, you should hold on to your passion to come back into running even after such considerably long absence from the running track. 
10. It is good to have some personal milestones. I aimed for a 10K initially and harboured ambitions to do a 21K later. 
11. When you reach a big milestone like 5K, you shouldn’t think of accelerating further. You should stay at 5K for some time so that you would always be in a position to do a 5K. Many of those who accelerated fast and won a 10K or half-marathon medal, never returned to the track. It is good to go slow and steady.
12. Once you sense 5K is “hardly anything” for your body you think of running farther. You will see 10K is within reach.
13. 10K is an important milestone for every amateur runner. By this time, you are a lot slimmer, stronger and more athletic than when you started out. Hold on to it. I see to it that I do a 10K every weekend and will try to squeeze in a 5K mid-week when I have a holiday.
14. This regime will help you prepare well for a 21K. If you clock 10Ks at a stretch comfortably and consistently, then you are in good shape to aim for a 21K. Of course, you should step up your strength training and do trials before you sign up for a race. 
15. Full marathon. Mind you, this is not just about your leg muscles but about your whole body, particularly your heart, too. One should be very discreet while deciding on a 42K. Because 21K level - that is going that distance once a quarter, doing 10Ks on weekends and shorter workouts in between - is good enough to maintain your physical and mental well-being (I am talking exclusively from a running point-of-view)
16. It is advisable to undergo an echo 2D and TMT checks before you go for a full marathon. Ideally you should prepare for about three months. 

While this is my short guide to friends who want to start running, I have done a retrospection of my journey as a full marathoner. 

My Marathon Journey

So where will I begin? I am hitting keyboard to write something personal after years (save occasional brief Facebook posts). I have forgotten the art, if at all I had possessed one. Yet, let me give it a shot. After all, it was a long overdue which I had thought about doing many a time. And many of my friends had asked me for this a number of times.

I would rather do it in a Q&A format. Short questions and long answers:

How did you get into this?

 I think all of us seriously start thinking about doing some form of exercise in the early 30s. Indian men start getting worse for the wear by that age. My case was no different but I wasn’t doing any. Then there was a time when I stayed  alone in Mumbai when wife was in Kerala for the delivery of our first child. During those prayerful period I used to walk to the hilltop church to attend mass every morning. It was a 2 km stretch. At some point I felt it was a good idea to run a portion of that distance. I found some sudden change in my body. I felt I looked prim at the baptism ceremony. 

Soon babysitting took up most of my non-work hours and I could not carry on my newfound physical activity. But household chores including floor mopping kept me physically active :D Later, when I shifted to a new suburb, the two kilometre walk from the station on my return from work in the late evening was the major physical activity. 

You still didn’t answer how you got into this

Those sporadic activities weren’t enough to keep a bulging midriff under check. You have to do something serious. The long Mumbai commute, your desperate efforts to stay relevant in your work and other personal struggles didn’t really allow time to think about this. Providentially, I could rejoin my wife and toddler daughter in Bangalore after staying apart for a year. I would still thank my benign then boss in Hindustan Times for the transfer. 

Hey you are digressing big time!

No, it was just to tell you that, although I got a taste of regular running in Mumbai, it really took off when I moved to Bangalore. The commute distance became less than a tenth of that in Mumbai. And our super efficient house help freed up a lot of time for us (Alas, our dear chechi bid us farewell four years later). I started getting fed very well. I soon started looking awkward in my slimfit white wedding shirt, the one I got stitched from Raymond and preserved for special occasions and meetings. At 34, my midriff now seriously threatened to bulge out. It upset me. I gotta run!

The shirt I told you about. This is when I started running in 2014.

Then?

Then, into the third month of my relocation to Bangalore, one fine morning I put on my old Woodland shoes and home clothes with some semblance of running wears and headed out to the nearest park. After a short warm-up I started running down the hardly 100 metre perimeter of the neighbourhood park and disturbing the morning walkers. Oh, what joy it was to finish ten full rounds then! I did it daily and again started feeling the change in the body. 

That’s it?

Not really. One day when I got a PR call asking if I would be interested in meeting Mohammed Naseem, the technologist-marathoner-entrepreneur whose fitbands were gaining popularity among Bangalore’s IT crowd, I grabbed the opportunity. The running picture of Mohammed on ET had caught my eyes. I told him about the small start I made. “Oh you stay just 1.5 km away from Lalbagh. You got a beautiful running track.” New to the city, I didn’t know this. I then started walking to Lalbagh every morning. 

Two things did happen during this time. My walking/running became much longer. My old Woodland shoes soon gave up. I clocked about five kilometre daily - 3 km walk to and fro Lalbagh and a 2 km run around the beautiful lake. One day I forgot my purse at home and seriously felt the itching to buy a pair of sports shoes when I was in office. My then colleague Sudipto lent me money. I bought a pair of Reebok shoes on discount. Much like my slimfit wedding shirt served a warning about fattening, this 2.5K investment during financially constrained times put pressure on me to make serious attempts to recover that cost. 

My well worn first running shoes. 5 year-old Rs 2.5K Reebok. I still use it sometime

So you kept on running?

Yes. Predictably, I overdid it. While I was becoming fitter,  this daily 2 km run and 3 km walk put pressure on my legs. I got scared by a strange pain around my knees. I even got them X-rayed; only to find practically nothing. Even normal walking became painful. That is when I googled and came across ‘Runners Knee’. That inaugurated my research on running. There is an abundance of authentic and scientific material available online. It was a big relief to know I am not alone in this journey. Most of the amateur runners, especially those who aren’t naturally endowed with broad physique, come across such troubles pretty soon. So running is as much about our consistency as we deal with such physical and circumstantial hurdles each time we come across them. In short, focus and perseverance. 

What did you find out?

I found out I was doing it all wrong. In my excitement I straightway ran every morning. And I did it every day. I didn’t space out for the fear of missing out something. So two things. You don’t start running straight away. You need to do your stretches. You got to strengthen your muscles. There is something called strength exercises. Also, you don’t run every day. If it is a short 2 km jog or walk you may do it every day. There will be little effect otherwise. But as your miles get longer you need to space out. When you get the signs of trouble you need to pause. 

I came across various forms of strength exercise through youtube videos. I followed them consistently. The runners knee went away within weeks and I started running again, but only after doing my stretches. I went for a run only on alternate days. By this time I began doing two rounds through the track around Lalbagh lake - 3.6 km - comfortably. 

Okay, but that isn’t a big milestone

It is not. But, in about three-four months I got my basics right. My miles got longer. Then one day I met Mohammed and updated him about my progress. “The perimeter of Lalbagh is 5 km. We will do a full round together.” It was difficult to keep up with the pace of tall and athletic Mohammed. I was in great distress by the final stretch but he pushed. He handheld me for a few yards to the finish. I blacked out for a couple of seconds at the finish of my first 5 km. There was a serious mistake in my run-up - I didn’t hydrate. You got to drink a litre of water before you start a run. If it is a long run you need to drink during intervals. I now do 10 km on weekends. I start after drinking 1 litre or more. After the first 5 km I will again start drinking. 

So, you reached your first milestone!

Yes. But not without troubles. In my journey to 5K I became familiar with two new kinds of pain - plantar pain and tendon pain. Luckily, the plantar pain - the pain in the sole of the foot - which I experienced soon after my first 5K went away in a couple of days. However troublesome my first 5K experience was, I had decided to stick to 5K each time I hit the running track then onwards. I did my next 5K a day after or so to reinforce my own belief I could do it. While I comfortably finished it, my tendon pain resurfaced perhaps more forcefully. These kinds of muscle pain can be so distressing that you would start doubting whether you would be able to run again. A week later I did another full round  Lalbagh. My pride of finishing the run lasted only a few hundred metres of walking back home. I started feeling strong tendon pain. This repeated each time I clocked a 5K. 

My strength training was not sufficient to deal with this pain. It refused to go away. I returned home each time with a heavy heart. So my running lasted hardly a year. I was convinced I should stop. For the whole of 2015 I made only a few attempts to get back into running. Each time it pained my shin bones. I read up on the internet about ways to deal with tendon pain. Almost regularly I did exercise to strengthen muscles. Eventually, I reached a stage where I no longer felt tendon pain even after a 5K round on weekends. I thus became a weekly 5K runner. 

5K is small, isn’t it?

Yes and no. No, because it is a calorie-burning strenuous workout to finish a 5K. You will start feeling changes in your body. Good enough. But, yes, you cannot claim to be a runner. You are still at an aspirant runner stage. I was at that stage for many months - a weekend 5K runner. I never put a single picture of my running on Facebook. I felt that one should at least clock 10K to call oneself a runner. I was aware of the perils of accelerating too fast too early, thanks to my previous experiences. I took it rather slowly. 

Every weekend I would complete a full round along the perimeter trail of Lalbagh and walk back home. It became very predictable and easy. One day I felt like adding a smaller stretch to it - running around the lake or adding some 2K. Nearly 8K run didn’t really stress my body. I then decided to run two rounds thereafter. 

I don’t really remember but I would imagine how ecstatic I might have been when I first did it. You are now in a position to call yourself a runner. Within weeks I signed up for Adidas10K, my first ever race. Registration fee was cheap so I did not have to think twice before registering. My friend Brian alerted me about it.

I was nervous that morning amidst a large crowd of serious runners. I found myself asking a few strangers whether I would complete this. One of them asked me whether I had done that in the past. “Yes, a few times I clocked 10K.” “It should be fine then.” It indeed was. About 2.5 years after I jumped out of my bed and started running, I now completed a 10K race. I had a bib and timing chip. My timing was 1 hour 13 minutes. Got some photos and certificate to tomtom about my run, my reaching the first milestone of a lifetime dream of a half-marathon.

My first 10K

That was the first milestone? You earlier said it was 5K!

 Yes, 5K is the first milestone as far as your transformation into a serious runner is concerned. But if you have the dream of doing a 21K, you should first cross 10K to start aiming for it. I did that in October 2016. I knew once you reached 10K, there was no stopping. You achieved a certain level of endurance. It is just a matter of time you do your first half marathon. It actually was. The following months went rather uneventfully with weekly run and workout. I registered for TRORT Run. In another eight months I did my first half-marathon. I ran through the picturesque Kanakpura countryside with many uphills that tested my endurance. I finished with a smile in 2 hours 29 minutes. Of course, a couple of times I had clocked this distance during my trials but this was the first official run that testified my run levels as a half-marathoner.  Since I ran regularly I approached the race with some degree of confidence. So, three years since I started running, I did 21K. 

I quite enjoyed the the picturesque wayside of TRORT run route. My first half marathon in mid-2017

You reached your lifetime dream!

Yes. That was a dream come true. Then I participated and completed three races more in 21K category and bested my timing in each. Eventually, I felt a half-marathon a quarter isn’t challenging me enough. And felt like removing this prefix in my ‘half-marathoner’ tag. My friend Brian, who had already done a marathon and is more organised, technically sound and experienced runner than me, was planning a second full marathon. We synced up for this year’s Bengaluru Marathon. Another reason I am turning 40 next year. I wanted to do a 42K before turning 40. 

How did you prepare for your full marathon?

I ran my last half-marathon at Bengaluru Marathon 2018 very casually. I sprinted to the finishing point and didn’t really felt exhausted. I then got a sense perhaps I could aim for something harder. That is when I decided to attempt for a full marathon. I did not participate in any race for quite sometime while I continued my weekly 10Ks and mid-week 5Ks (this, whenever I got some extra time, very irregular). I had decided my next race should be a full marathon and skipped many running events. I was looking to join for a marathon coaching at Cult or some place like that. It didn’t happen. In the run up to this year’s Bengaluru marathon I decided “Enough of this wavering. I am doing it this time.”

Brian and I had less than two months to prepare for the full marathon since the day we firmed up our decision over lunch. So, we had to follow a strict schedule that involved at least two 35K runs in the space of three weeks. 

His preparation tips including using small bits of tape to cover nipples to avoid chafing and applying liberal doses of vaseline on the inner thighs for the same reason were immensely useful. I wish I could follow his strength training regime too. Way too impressive, involving daily push-ups and pull-ups. Mine is still not up to the mark. 

Brian and I after our first marathon trial run session

How was the training?

The training was pretty intense. Sample this: I run 40-60 km a month on an average. In August I ran 110 km and in September I ran 113 km. Brian and I met at around 5 am on September 2 for our first long run together in preparation for the marathon. We brought along energy bars, peanut chikki, water and biscuits. Predictably, even for a regular half-marathoner with decent levels of training it is a lot tougher after 30 km. We clocked 38K then. Three weeks later the 36K was even tougher. In between there were several 10Ks and 5Ks on almost every alternate day. I considerably slowed down about two weeks prior to the race day. 

What was the effect of such a rigorous training?

I adopted this rigorous training regime in my anxiety about whether I would successfully finish a full marathon. I was emotionally invested in it. Your legs will give up by 30K. It is your training, careful calibration and perseverance that pulls you through the last 10K. But 42 is not just about your leg muscles as in the case of 21K. It is more about your heart. You should intently listen to how your heart responds to such strenuous exercise. My reading as well as my experience of three 35K+ in the space of six weeks suggest it is a bit punishing for the heart. In hindsight, I wouldn’t want to squeeze in so much workout within such a short time. As those who know me will understand, I don’t take things lightly. Though I did not have any palpable signs of trouble, I did not leave anything to chance. I got an echo 2D and treadmill test done in the week up to the run. 

How was the run?

As in the two previous occasions during my trials, I got up very early at around 3 am, quickly made a scrambled egg sandwich and ate it (again, Brian’s tip). At 3.45 am, I barely made it in time for the full marathon. The Uber auto guy told me I was the third person he dropped at the venue that night/morning! I carried my daughter’s pink water bottle which I use these days when I go for a run. While they provide water at every alternate station I did not want to leave anything to chance. There was a nasty experience of not having enough water during the race at another event. 

After 15K or so, I tried a leg up hamstring stretch during a loo break and that didn’t go well. I developed a muscle pull in my right inner thigh. “Something I never experienced before! Why should this happen today??” That slowed down my run and eventually I got over it after another 10 km. That might have been the reason - (or my over-workout?) - I crossed half marathon at my slowest pace of 2 hour 30 minutes. Anyways, that is a lesson, a clumsy movement during the run, when your body is completely shaken, can cause some awkward twists and pulls. Do your mid-run stretches very carefully. Also, use the nearest toilet whenever you want to. Never hold up to complete a mile. It’s a bad idea.

One good thing was I wasn’t feeling particularly exhausted. So the slow pace was in a way a good thing. But, as expected, by around 32K legs almost gave up. But that didn’t stop you do your hardest 10K to reach the finishing point. From 28K, I started walking some small stretches. In total I may have walked 5-6 kms in the middle. I stored enough energy and always took care to hydrate very well so that the last stretch was fun and exciting. I ran to the finish with a sense of strength and poise. In 100 metres to the finish I howled! I looked at the race clock. It was 4:36:11.

Full marathon. Just 300 mtrs before the finish.