A long distance Runners Weblog [ Hari ]

Portland Marathon

My brother Lakshman just finished the Portland Marathon. This was his first marathon. He did it in 5 hrs 42 mins.
He ran till the 22 mile mark and then walked the rest of the distance.
Here's a guy who was just running 10k regularly not actually wanting to run a marathon, but then he signed up with a local club, and within 4 months finished a marathon.

Bib:	4355
Name:	LAKSHMAN KRISHNAMURTHY
Gender:	M
Age:	39
Hometown:	PORTLAND OR

Place Overall:	5625	out of 7724
Men:	3072	out of 3529
M 35-39:	568	out of 620

AgeGrade:

37.83%

Place: 6587

FINISH:

5:42:07

pace: 13:03

10k:	1:10:02	pace: 11:17
Turn-9.1Mi:	1:42:42	pace: 11:18
Half:	2:27:49	pace: 11:17
17.2 M:	3:32:36	pace: 12:22
20 Mile:	4:03:31	pace: 12:11
35K:	4:30:09	pace: 7:44

Chip Time:	5:42:07
Gun Time:	5:50:44

Congratulations Lakshman..

"GO BANANAS" Run

That's the name of the Run schedule for tomorrow. Runners get to eat unlimited supply of bananas at the end of the run. This i'm sure will have all the runners excited. That's the idea anyway.

The run starts off at 5.25 a.m from Dimensions Gym to besant nagar and then we "GO BANANAS"

This whole thing was thought by Shumit

India's First Ultramarathon

Runners for Life, a running club in Bangalore is organizing the first Ultra marathon in India on Dec 16th.
I guess, everyone is just tired of waiting for the Bangalore Marathon this year, as it is already postponed twice. So I'm sure guys in RFL decided to do an Ultra marathon on their own and I'm sure this will be a great run.

Check out Bangalore Ultra ..  I like the line " Its tough, Are you?"
You can download the registration form here

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Categories for the Ultra
Race Category	Age Criteria
78 Kilometers
Senior Men's	45+ years
Senior Women's	45+ years
Men's	18+ years
Women's	18+ years
52 Kilometers
Senior Men's	45+ years
Senior Women's	45+ years
Men's	18+ years
Women's	18+ years
26 Kilometers
Senior Men's	45+ years
Senior Women's	45+ years
Men's	18+ years
Women's	18+ years

Citizens Run On Sept 30th in Chennai

Happened to see a hoarding this morning about SS Music organizing a Citizen's Run in Chennai on Sept 30th. Caption says " If you can't Run, Walk on"

The run flags off at 4.00 p.m. Distance was not mentioned. Could not find anything on their official site though

Inspirations to Run

I missed today's midweek Long Slow Distance run schedule. Got up only at 5.30 a.m !!!!
Thought I'll skip the run. But while having coffee I realized I have a new dri-fit  t-shirt  given to me by a running buddy and was going through the latest Runners World magazine both which I got just yesterday.
That was it !!! I changed my mind!!!
Wearing a new tee or going through a Runners World magazine can get you going !!!

Knew that the group would have started their LSD. Nevertheless, I got in to my running gear and I was on road by 6.00 a.m running on the planned route hoping to meet the group runners whom I knew would be returning back.

Ran a 5kms distance today, Yes, I missed out on 13 kms schedule today. But I was pleased that I did run. Will make up for this another day.

Long Slow Distance Running

That's what my running buddy Shumit calls it , in short LSD. This is the run schedule for tomorrow morning. Will be doing a slow run of 13 kms

Had to repeat yesterday running schedule today for Shumit as he had missed out on yesterday's run. had a speed interval workout yesterday and today. I guess consecutive days of speed interval is bad, but I guess I have learnt to listen to my body and I did fine with two consecutive days of speed interval and fit enough to do a LSD tomorrow
Speed interval involved 1.5 kms warm up, 3 * 2 kms fast with 400 mts jog recoveries, end with 1.5 kms warm down

A special Thanks to KK

A special thanks to KK  for singlehandedly organizing the ECR Run. KK, you have all the leadership skills, energy, perseverance, knowledge to organize a Marathon on your own. I wish you do it.

For runners who ran the ECR Run including me are not aware of the effort to organize an event of this size. KK had taken care of almost everything and not once asked any one of us for help nor dumped anything on us, infact was the other way around. Shumit and I were in charge for water, but we goofed up. KK without any hesitation arranged that as well, even volunteers, vans for coming back, end point resort, breakfast for all.

KK , i have no words to explain your contribution. You are truly an Evangelist for chennairunners

Report on ECR Run - Sept 16th

Chennairunners Sept 16th the ECR Run turned out to be a good run with 34 participants and 6 volunteers. A special mention  of Mrs. & Mr. Ravishankar for their interest and enthusiasm as part of their support team. Mrs.Savithri Ravishankar , Yoga instructor, wants to run a marathon one day and I'm sure  she will.

All of us car pooled at Dimensions, Alwarpet and left the place at 4.00 a.m. reached the tool booth on East coast road at 4.30 a.m. Reflective stickers were distributed with emergency contact number written on it. Vidyuth, Ram and myself held a briefing about safety, water points, end point.

We started at exact 5.00 a.m to cover a distance of 25.2 kms. Rupert, Vidyuth, Shumit and myself led the pack. It was total darkness at 5.00 a.m, but aware that in a while the sun would come up and light our way. Though Rupert is much faster than us, he kept company till around 13kms, after which he just zoomed ahead. By then Shumit in his usual style was running bare chested..
I found it difficult keeping pace , after almost 3 weeks of non training. Vidyuth had slowed down for me, while shumit moved much ahead.

At around 17 kms, told Vidyuth to go ahead. from the 18th kms, i was all alone.
The supprt team had met us at 5 kms , 12 kms and at 18kms mark. At the 18th km mark, had asked the support team if there was anything to bite. Quickly Mrs.Savithri Ravikrishnan took out a cheese sandwich for me. I realised that was her breakfast pack. She insisted I have it.. Cannot forget this gesture as it really pulled me through.

Reached the end point , covered the distance in 2 hrs 35 mins slower than my target time of 2 hrs 20 mins.
Rupert, Shumit and Vidyuth reached ahead of me.. I never thought I could catch up with them. Vidyuth finally caught up with Shumit and they both finished together.

The end point was at Mamalla Beach resort. Had breakfast which consisted of Pongal, Vada, Dosa (2), Pipeapple,Watermelon, Pappaya, Omlette, toast and four glasses of Juice. Wow!! Never knew i can eat that much.

All the 34 participants finished and you could see the glow of achievement in everyone. Most of the Chennairunners wore the new Chennairunners T -shirt

All of us came back to the start point in a hired van. You can view some of the pictures at http://chennailiving.blogspot.com

Now back to regular weekday running. Our next big run will be on Nov 4th as a pre run to the Singapore Marathon

Toll Booth to Mahabalipuram ECR Run on Sept 16th

We have an important run / milestone coming up this Sunday..and look forward to participation and support.  This is our 3rd ECR run and looking forward to making it the largest ever of our nascent group.

This coming Sunday, Sep 16, 2007  we will do a 40x30 ECR to Mahapallipuram run.  The idea is to have at least 40 Chennai Runners participate in the approximately 30km trek from ECR toll booth to Mahabs. So far we have about 30 people signed up.

Pick up point - Dimension Gym , CP Ramaswamy Road, Alwarpet
We would assemble near Dimensions and car pool there.  We will leave Dimensions exactly at 4:00 AM with the assembled participants

Alternately, you come directly to the starting point...
Meeting Point:  Just BEFORE the ECR toll booth
Meeting Time : 4:30 AM (It is early but we must meet on time to ensure we get a head start against the onslaught of sun and the unrelenting traffic).

Parking: Ram is working with Ragas Dental College to park our vehicles in the college campus. If that doesn't come thru, we will have to park in one of the side lanes before the toll booth

Starting point:  ECR Toll Booth
Starting Time: 5:00 AM (This will give time for runners to do some warm up / distribution of reflective stickers with emergency contact info on them and get ready)

Route:  South on ECR all the way till Hotel Mamalla

Finish Line: Hotel Mamalla ( Hotel Mamallaa                     Heritage NO: 104, East Raja Street, Mamallapuram 603 104.  This Hotel is on the sea side with between Golden Sun Beach Resort and a Gas Station before Mahapallipuram).

Volunteers: We need volunteers to help with Water and generally provide first aid cover.  Request some of our members who are NOT running to pitch in and help the runners.

Safety First:  Please note that we do not have any safety net in terms of ambulance & insurance etc..  All of us running at our own volition and it is important to adhere to safety norms at all occasions.

1. Always run on 'right side of the Road' facing the      traffic.  In doubt, slow down, let the traffic pass.
2. DO NOT run abreast. Run in a single file or max TWO at any given time.
3. Runners on Chennai roads is relatively a new      phenomenon and Chennai drivers haven't  gotten used  to that      yet.
4. Do NOT run if you are not medically fit.      Stop running at anytime you feel uncomfortable and seek medical help.

Entry Fee: INR 200.  This is to defray the cost of water, snack, first aid and fuel cost and breakfast. (You can give the entry fee to Ram, KK, Karthik, Shumit, Vidyuth to me)

Chennairunners T-shirt

At last we have our own Chennairunners , T-shirts. Have seen a sample of the dri-fit and it's fabulous. Waiting to pick it up during the run schedule tomorrow morning