Aravind's 1:27:56 personal best at the Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon 2026, with the training behind it and a km-by-km look at the race
I have been running for more than a decade, but for some reason the Delhi Half Marathon was never on my race calendar. Like last year, I chose not to run a full marathon in the fall and trained for a half instead. Vedanta Delhi Half seemed a good fit. It gave me four full months to train, and it is my second race in the Procam Slam, which Kolkata and then Mumbai will complete.
Date: 18 October 2026
Race Distance: 21.1km
Start point: Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi
Goals:
After the New Delhi marathon in February, I focussed on speed with the TCS World 10K and the Jatre 5K. I used the Norwegian Singles Method for both, with reasonable success. Here is my TCS World 10K race report.
With my time of 41:27 at the TCS 10K, a half marathon under 90 minutes was a possibility. There were doubts because of a lingering plantar niggle, but I went with sub 90 as the A goal and a personal best as the B goal.
I wanted to build on that fitness, so I made a customised plan based on John Davis’s approach to the half marathon. Davis builds the cycle in three phases. A general phase develops fitness across a wide range of speeds. A race-supportive phase works on speed faster than half marathon pace and endurance just below it. A race-specific phase finishes with long, fast work at around half marathon pace. The idea is simple. Train for endurance, train for speed, and as the race gets closer, train for the race. Most of the work sits around threshold pace, which I have become very familiar with, so the plan felt like home.
A few highlights of the training:
I had two tune-ups, my annual Hyderabad and Bengaluru halves, and neither was a full effort because I wanted to train through them. At Hyderabad I ran a flat effort (adjusted for elevation) and finished in 1:34:50, a course best. Bengaluru was a race-pace workout: 3 x (3km at half marathon pace + 1km marathon float), then 3 x (2km at half marathon pace + 1km marathon float). Somewhat surprisingly it turned out to be a PB, 1:30:46. It was also three weeks before Delhi, which is where Davis places the biggest race-specific session. Sub 1:30 was now on the cards.
Here is the full training recap from my RunStrong plan. It ran for 17 weeks, from 22 June to race day, and I finished 89 of 97 planned sessions.
This was not the best cycle. The plantar niggle lingered, and a viral infection hit right at the peak of the cycle. But the quality of the sessions was very satisfactory.
I reached Delhi on Friday and headed straight to the expo, a couple of metro stops away. By far this was my best expo experience at an Indian race. It was spacious and extremely well planned, with clear signs and plenty of counters to collect bibs.
There was not much to do on Friday and Saturday, as I wanted to keep my legs fresh. A short shake-out run on Saturday morning helped me check the weather and feel the mood. Temperatures were not as bad as predicted. It felt like home, like being in Bengaluru.
Nutrition was dal-chawal for both days, and I sipped an electrolyte drink through Saturday. Honestly, there were not many nerves. The half marathon is not as scary as a 10K or a full marathon, and I fear both of those distances.
I met a large running group, the Champions from KTPO, Bengaluru, and we planned an early dinner together.
The morning was uneventful, and I woke up after a restful sleep. For every race in this cycle I have used homemade puffed-rice balls with jaggery as the pre-race food. They are light on the tummy, reasonably dense in calories, and have worked well for me.
I took the very first metro to JLN with the Champions runners. The metro ride was super convenient and I reached the venue by 4:55 AM. The stadium was buzzing, and the start area was spacious, better than TCS World 10K and TMM. I found a 30m stretch where I could do my warm-up routine properly. I took my first gel (24g) as I entered the holding area.
The holding area and the start line, though, were a mess as usual. I went in early and was in the A corral, yet quite a few runners were still ahead of me.
The pacing plan was simple. Run a comfortable 4:20 for the first 5km, then 4:15 for the rest, and go full effort after the 16th km.
Start to 5K
Getting through the slower crowds at the narrow start line and the stadium gate was hard. The stretch past the Sai Baba Mandir and the cobbled section was tough to navigate too. The organisers should seriously consider splitting the waves better, especially when the event is marketed as the “world’s most prestigious marathon”.
The first kilometre took 4:34, way beyond the planned pace. Once I reached Lodhi Road I sped up to make up for it. The second km was 4:11, and it felt surprisingly comfortable, so I kept the same effort and the third km came in at 4:02. I was in two minds on whether to continue or slow down. I moderated a bit and kept the next few kilometres under 4:10. These paces are still new territory for me.
The first 5K came in 21:04. I took my second gel (40g).
6K to 10K
Settling into the middle of the race.
This section was uneventful and steady, although I kept second-guessing whether I was going too fast. I could feel a bit of fatigue setting in. The 10K came in 41:45, my second best 10K ever, which was encouraging.
11K to 15K
India Gate through the haze.
I took my third gel (40g, with caffeine) right after 10K. Slowing down at the aid station cost me a few more seconds than I had hoped, and the twists and turns in that kilometre did not help. This is also the section where I saw some familiar faces. I picked the pace up again and tried to hold it, and I could see India Gate in the distance through the haze.
Around 15K I was debating whether to take another gel, an experiment to reach 90g of carbs an hour. At the last minute I decided to slow down at the aid station and drink water instead. Whether it was fatigue or lack of focus, that kilometre (4:17) was the second slowest of the race. Maybe I was also bracing for the hard final 5km.
16K to the finish
Checking the watch in the final kilometre.
I tried to pick up the pace in the 16th km, but it was hard. The rest felt like a hard 5K race. My form was off, the cadence dropped and I was overstriding. I was counting breaths down to the finish.
I crossed the line in 1:27:56, a dream finish and much better than I expected.
After the finish, with the medals.
Chole bhature and lassi.
The pace plan did not survive the first three kilometres, and it still worked out. Most kilometres in the middle of the race were 4:03 to 4:10, faster than the 4:15 I planned, and the last 5K (4:07 a km) was quicker than the first 5K (4:13 a km, with the crowded first km in it). Apart from the first kilometre, the two slowest stretches were the aid stations just after 10K and 15K. Drinking and taking a gel without losing rhythm is something to practise before the next long race.
The crowd at the stadium gate made the first kilometre 4:34 against a plan of 4:20, much like the start at TCS. Better wave management would fix most of it.
A personal best and a new set of race paces set the stage for my Boston marathon cycle. Next up is the marathon build for TMM, on the way to Boston in April.
RunStrong Get the plan behind this PB for your next half See the training plans →
