After my successful outing in NMDC Hyderabad Marathon 2024 after a 10 week training cycle. Since then I have been looking for my next marathon to race during this season. Unfortunately I had a pretty severe influenza viral bout which partially eroded my base gained over the past 3 months. However I continued to build base fitness and also help some friends in their long runs for their respective marathon training sessions.
I had the opportunity to check the fitness gained at the 20 miler race (Thump) and that seemed pretty positive. At this point of time I decided to do the New Delhi Marathon rather than TMM, as the chances of getting a good time could be slightly better. This decision is partly because I wanted to get rid of the ghosts that haunted me during the same race two years ago.
However, things didn’t go smoothly as I was affected again by one more bout of viral fever that set me back by another 2 weeks. Had roughly about 10 weeks of training till race week.
Long runs were the key runs during the training. Had run 5 20+ milers as long runs. Many of the long runs had “marathon effort” sections, especially thrown in towards the later part of the long run. Some long runs also had workouts like 3 repeats of 8k at marathon effort with 1k jog thrown in between. I have included a threshold workout once a week as a maintenance load to retain the LT capacity.
Taper started 3 weeks before the race. The long runs during the taper weeks were totally focused on getting the marathon effort/pace right. The threshold work continued during the taper weeks. During the race week, this was reduced to half of its original volume.
For Strength training, I relied on bread and butter workouts like weighted lunges, leg presses, squats, nothing out of the world to mention here. One session in gym and one session at home, so twice a week.
I traveled with my running group (Team Miles Ahead) and we booked several rooms in a hotel and this was pretty convenient as we could come together as a group, have a relaxed pre-race atmosphere and also discuss, plan and also help each other in various logistical aspects. During our weekly regular training we do not get to interact so much as we did during the pre-race/post race time. This was real fun.
Wanted to have as much home cooked food as possible and hence decided to travel only on Saturday late morning to Delhi. I carried my lunch box to have home cooked food during the flight. I also made sure to bring in a little extra food, just in case. I also did not want to roam around much before the race, hence asked a close friend (Sanghamitra Guha) to collect my bib, which she kindly obliged with.
On race day, I woke up at 1:45 am. We started off from the hotel at 3:00 am for the 4:15am race start. We pre-booked rental cars so that we are guaranteed that the cabs are reserved for us and will be waiting for us ahead of time at the hotel.
2 hours before the race started, I had my pre-race breakfast which was the extra lunch box (curd rice) that I bought from home and stored in the mini-fridge of my hotel room. Had topped it with an ORS electrolyte drink.
Even though not consciously thinking about the race or targets, the mind was already playing games which resulted in poor sleep for the last week before the race. And for the final 3 days before the race, it was really bad. I took time off for 2 days from work to try and take some short day time naps whenever possible, but it only helped partially.
The holding area at the start is full of runners doing their own thing, people meeting and greeting each other and had the chance to meet some runners both from Bengaluru and also from other cities. It was fun catching up with them. The start point was also pretty exciting with quite some sloganeering and shouting.
One thing to improve is the start corrals. There were no corrals and one had to somehow “race” with other runners to reach the start point to get as close as possible to the start point.
The weather was perfect to start with, hovering around 12 Celsius with a clear sky.
Murali (serial sub 3 finisher and a long time running partner of mine) had a pacing assignment with Vishal for a 3:05(~4:23/4:24/km pace) and he suggested that we both (Simanta and I) also tag along with them. All the four of us are training buddies and have run several long runs together and were obviously comfortable with each other.
We decided to run together for at least 25 kms. Initial 10kms was planned to be completed in 44:30 min. After that the idea was to ramp up the pace until 35 km and then take a tactical call based on how each of us feel.
We couldn’t get too close to the start line, and we had a slow start and could only get some open space to run after a mile. By the second km, we were on the planned pace. But I and Simanta separated from Murali/Vishal as they did not seem to be settling into the planned pace for the first 10k. Meanwhile, I and Simanta took a tactical call to stay conservative until 35 kms at the same pace(4:24/4:25 per km), instead of the original plan of ramping up pace at 25th km.
It turned out that Vishal had a DNF due to hamstring strain. Murali then sped up and caught up with us at the 17th km and started running with me and helped with pacing and also hydration. We started ramping up the pace by a few seconds per km (A goal pace). We had some intermittent chit chat which helped break the monotony and ease up my nerves. We continued together until 37th km and at this point Murali had to take a loo break. I continued further maintaining the same pace.
Finished the race with a negative split of 2 min (H1 ~ 1:33:15, H2 ~ 1:31:10) with the fastest kilometer Strava segment at the very end of the race. Overall consumed 6 gels, one every 8 kms (5 Unived gels and 1 SIS Bete Fuel Gel kindly offered by Harish V). Three of these were caffeinated. This included one regular Unived double espresso gel consumed 5 minutes before the race start.
I had run this race in 2023 and don’t remember that hydration was up to the point. This time there was a massive improvement, bottles were available every km or so. Had I known this, would have bought dissolvable salt tablets. As a precaution, I carried my own electrolyte water bottle for 25 kms. Overall, the course management was much better than the 2023 edition, including baggage management and aid stations.
Felt very happy and at the same time relieved after crossing the finish line. The ghosts of the 2023 NDM race had been haunting me for a long time, where I almost DNFed at the 28th km, but then decided to somehow finish the race. Felt like a redemption run to be honest. Waited for Murali and Simanta to cross the finish line and gave each other hugs and high fives.
Learnings:
Upcoming:
The goal for the upcoming year is to be able to shave off 3-4 minutes, hoping and praying that training can be continued in a consistent way like it happened last year.
Inspired by his colleagues, Pavan has been into Running for the past 9 years. He likes to experiment, and has run barefoot, ran in minimalist shoes and has recently been trying cushioned shoes. He has been running about 3000 kms per year.