So i’ve been hobbling the past few days. Which is an indirect reference that I finished my first full marathon at Auroville on 12th feb. The official certificates are out and my time says 4hrs 38minutes.

And, i’m not happy about it at all (with my performance that day). Over the last 4 months, the training had almost taken over my life. I’d followed the FIRST – run less, run fast program and had been acing the training sessions too. My aggressive target of a 3:50 finish seemed achievable too – had missed very few of the targets set in the program. But race day was a completely different story. Was half destroyed by 21k and fell behind Manoj (my running partner) by 23k. After that, I walked most of the remaining distance. Although it was humid and hot, it was not unexpected – I have run two halfs in Auroville before and the weather is always like that in mid february. I think I really have to improve is mental fitness. You know running’s going to hurt, but how much pain can you take – that defines how well you do. Friends were saying I shouldn’t be hard on myself, but then if I don’t, who else will?

In the meanwhile, I am still trying to shake off the habit of waking up at 5am everyday, letting my shins heal and getting involved in other sports. Gapp introduced me to bouldering in Hampi and I want to do more of it.� Also plan to bike to work everyday – this way i will be able to save a lot of workout time too. And need to look for a smaller house closer to work to save on commute time. There are a ton of things I want to – gounesco challenge, learn spanish, tripnaksha 2.0, build blinking lights for the cycle and so on. Who has time to get bored?

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