Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2012

Completed the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2012 held yesterday. Was running with a bad back, without training (because of the back). No further injuries occurred except for a couple of blisters which have bandages on them now.

The run was good, the course flat & the weather bad. High humidity and a lot of sun. Kept myself well hydrated with lots of water and when I was lucky a couple of Gatorades. Met several runners before, during & after the run. All looking happy & chirpy.

There were a couple of downsides to the ADHM, but not worth recounting. It was a well organised run with plenty of water en-route, music (some of them playing highly motivational songs like Bhag DK Bose Bhag), some people on the road to cheer (more than the previous ADHMs).

Finished the run with a fantastic breakfast of tandoori aloo paranthas, an hour long massage, some sleep & beer.

Below are the race timings :

SCMM Full marathon report - V - Running route map

Though all the run reports had been posted post the Mumbai Marathon, the route map had not been posted. Here it is now :

The distance really looks mighty now ! I am surprised at myself. The Map is thanks to my   Garmin Forerunner 210.

A fun Sunday run on 25.03.2012

Gand Masti running on Sunday. (as said by running partner Sanjeev Chhabra).

Went where the heart went. stopped in small parks to play on the slides, get on the swings, follow BFF (beautiful from far) ladies who turned out to be FFB (far from Beautiful).
Went to our fav earth station again. Here's the route. Click for a larger view.

Went for a game of squash which also turned out to be awesome.

Running in Germany

This time when I was in Germany, I made it a point to take advantage of the cooler weather and run.

I ran thrice in the 5 days I was there , once near Hamburg and twice in Bremen. Maps below. Click on the image for a larger view.

The first image is the Uetersen Rosarium - In the summers the Rosarium is lush with roses of innumerable varities & names. The two small ponds make for a beautiful picturesque setting, making this a popular wedding location. Some pictures below.

Image 2 & 3 are from the Bremen Buergerpark  - The park is huge, simply huge. It houses a luxury hotel, couple of ponds, lakes, a small zoo with ducks, peacocks, elks, goats, cows, etc.,  restaurants. Running here was a lot of fun. My timings were way off as I would stop every now and then to take pictures.

Kanpur Central Railway Station Mobile Charging facility...

I was in Kanpur for a day on the 2nd March. On the way back, at the Kanpur Central railway station they had this huge board with a gazillion power sockets for mobile charging. Very traveler friendly. So there were all these guys with their red blinking chargers in the sockets charging their phone. And then there was this stray dog  passing by.  For some reason I found this picture worthy and here it is :

1st Rose Half Marathon

I hadnt run much in nearly a month, so when I got an email announcing a half marathon in 3 days time, i jumped on it. Now ever since completing the full marathon, i tend to think of HM as kid stuff.

In preperation of the 1st Rose Half Marathon, which was to start from Nehru Park and was going to be nowhere near the Rose Garden (why is it called the 1st Rose HM once again?) I took out my running gear :

1. Running T shirt
2. Running Shorts
3. Sweat wicking microfibre Undies
4. Five finger Socks
5. Running cap
6. Running glasses
7. Running Shoes (Nike Free 3.0)
8. Band Aids for the nips
9. Anti chafing cream
10. Water Bag (similar to Camelbak)


There were about 30 people registered for the half marathon starting from Nehru Park.  Maps were available to those who wanted one, water station placements were announced. We started up with a warm up session .

The run started on time. Both me and Sanjeev Chhabra were laggards trailing behind Alfredo and his friend. I was already tired at 2.5 KM (competently challenging my view that any run below a full marathon was now easy)

Sanjeev & Me (left)

Alfredo (right) & friend

We were in for an easy run with target to finish in 2.30 - 2.45. We ran upto India Gate and up to the presidents house.

On the way back on Rajpath we came across a huge group of abt 150 people dressed in black marching, beating drums, waving placards, and shouting some slogans in support of women and against sexual harassment.  The group was eclectic. It included some cyclists (the pro kind), some bikers (thinks Harleys, Enfields, Suzukis etc.) without the bikes , some runners like us. Yes. we dropped out of the formal run and walked with them back to the President's house. wore black arm bands, shouted a few slogans, signed a petition. That was abt 14 K ( a few U turn were thrown in between). 

 Heres a video I took loaded on you tube :

While waiting there we run into the Doc and the Honeyman. I complained to the Doc abt his impossible made possible run (www.thehigh.in) and placed an order with the Honeyman (excellent fresh & organic Honey from Preet Dodhani - preet.singh@dancing-bees.com)  some chatting later, sharing a couple of war stories, we decided to head back to Nehru Park with a mutual promise between Sanjeev and me that we will finish the Half marathon distance. So we headed back with the Doc and Preet. Doc making jokes of my recently acquired roundedness, until we had to finally send him off to run at his own pace (which was i think atleast double of ours).

To push us to finish the distance we described in excruciating details with recipes (even though I dont cook) the breakfasts we were gonna have. Me a Tomato-Cheese sandwich with diced cheese, tomatoes, green chillies, salt, pepper between two breads in a sandwich toaster made crisp, so that the crunchiness gives way to the melting better, the sour tomatoes and the spicy chillies. Sanjeev was going to make omlettes with 4 egg whites, onions, lots of garlic, cheese, salami, peppercorns, black salt OR chatmasala, every spice in the spice box).

With watering mouths we reached Nehru Park and realised that we had done only 19. Sanjeev's friend Harshad and his wife were waiting for Sanjeev (Sanjeev had Harshad's stuff in his car) and luckily for me and the kindness of Harshad's wife I got some orange slices which tasted like nectar.

Doc was waiting for us and told us to run away and finish 21 so me and sanjeev went on for 1 k and turned around to finish the 21. At this time we decided that we must climb every small hill we could on the way. I was dead tired (i was tired from 2nd KM onwards) and was aching in my calves but was happy to finish off 21 as planned.

Oh yeah - the 1st Rose marathon guys were all finished and gone before we returned so missed the stretches, refreshment & certificates. But fun was had by all.

SCMM Full marathon report - IV - Run report

Woke up at 3.30 AM to be able to reach the venue by 5.00 AM (Azad Maidan opposite Mumbai's famous Victoria Terminus).

Had slept great and woke up with a clear head WITHOUT a single of thought of  " I must be F***ing crazy to be on a holiday and waking up at 3.30AM to run 42.195 Ks in the heat and humidity of Mumbai. I should go back to sleep". Got dressed - I had kept my gear all ready the night before.

In my bottle I took Gatorade mixed with water.

As I came out of the hotel dressed in my gear and clutching my 3 bananas, I came across another marathoner (working with Microsoft, dressed in a Microsoft shirt, talking high of Microsoft Mango coming from Hyderabad, sorry mate, I forgot your name) getting into a taxi. So I ran upto him. He took one look and asked me to get in. We reached VT, crossed the VT and exited to the side of Azad Maidan and there he found his running group from Hyderabad and I found my 5.30 bus.


I joined Rahul's 5.30 bus and followed it till 20 K. The bus followed the programme of every KM marker we walked for 20 steps. Every water station, walk another 20 steps. The routine was awesome and had I trained better I should have been able to follow and finish with him. The Bandra Worli sea link came and went. It slowed me a bit but not much. But 20 K was when I started lagging and at one point had to get off as I was getting exhausted. I had remembered some good advise from fellow runners and had prepared some food for the run, some bread, butter, jam / marmalade with salt sprinkled on them.

I remembered various discussions on R&L forums about cramps and only remembered water & salts as the things to have to avoid cramps. I had started with Gatorade in my bottle and tried to refill as many times as I could get my hands on it at different watering points. At around 27 K there was no more Gatorade Was having watered down Gatorade till 35 K when I decided that I was going to be a candidate for cramps, so I switched to electoral as I thought it to be the next best thing.

The Mumbai citizens did what they always do, Cheered the runners ! They were awesome, out in big numbers armed with food, fruits, water, sprain sprays etc. I thanked as many as I could for turning out and they were thanking me in return ! What warmth !

On the return loop we were on that part of the route , marine drive I think, where there was direct sun  and no shade. That was killing. I was thankful for my dri-fit microfibre clothing, incl microfibre undies from R & L, my cap and sunglasses.

At around 38 K mark I cam across an angel. An angel with a bottle of cool water and a cool mist spray. I stopped in frot of her bowed to her. Took off my cap and glasses and said give it to me. She sprayed the cool water on my face which was heavenly. I then asked her to spray on my head as well. She, however, knew better. She poured the bottle on my head. I could feel the steam and the cold water trickling down the spine to my shorts my bums and I relished. relished the wonderful feeling. Most wonderful at the time.


I was tired now and couldnt run continuously for over a 100 mtrs at a go. I dint stop. I pushed myself to walk faster. Thanks to my   Garmin Forerunner 210.   I could keep track of my speed and therefore could convince myself to run / walk faster to be able to keep to my target.

Was very happy with my under 6 hrs first marathon. Couldnt stop smiling. No aches, pains or cramps. Decided to skip the beers at Leopold as Rahul told me to get a cold shower ASAP. I had not realized till then the aspect of over heating. Reached my hotel. Had 2 glasses of Glucose. Took a cold shower, got into a bath robe. Had a beer. Had a sandwich. And slept away !

However, the next day, I caught a cold and a cough. I read on it online and found that this is pretty common as the body has low immunity after being exerted too much.

Took me 10 days to recover from the cough and cold, but all is well.