My First Marathon - Mahesh Krishnamurthy

by Mahesh Krishnamurthy

Someone has rightly said that it is all in the mind and attitude. Well After running the mid night marathon in Bangalore in May 2007 I decided that it is time for me to attempt a full marathon. By May I had completed three half marathons of 21 km. All averaged between 2 hr 15 min and 2 hr and 25 min. It was a decision carefully taken by self and of course as usual letting to know one and all about my aspiration. I set out to plan my running schedule.

In June averaging about 30 km a week had to plan to increase it to 55 km a week; my max distance in a week was 16 km which needs to be doubled and that was a challenge. I had been running four days a week and needed to continue.

Nothing like hitting the road at 5 am with dark sky around, watching the first milk man cycling to deliver your daily milk, regular morning walkers slowing setting the streets with people and then the amazing scene of the sky becoming white/blue and then orange until the first rays of sun hits you. As one runs through streets of Chennai it is a wonderful experience to run when all is silent and you have the whole road literally to oneself.

Well by august my longest single runs where coming closer to 21 km but that was not the target. One fine day I read a mail from Chennai runners mentioning about a 26 km run in ECR. I participated but failed miserably after 22 km took an auto to the finish point. Learning had run my first 16 km in one and half hours, too fast by my standards. The second chance came again two months later a 30km run in ECR, courtesy Chennai runners. The same I completed in 3 hrs and 45 minutes. It was in Oct and that week overall did a 55km of running. Two weeks later did a 28km single run and overall hit 48 km. This was followed by 26km ultra in Bangalore on 16^th Dec and started the New Year with another 32km run in ECR with Chennai runners.

Well by 1^st week of Jan wasn’t sure about a full 42.2 km. My Brother Bhaskar kept saying one 32km is good enough, pace yourself though it is preferred to do couple of 32km-35km prior to the big event but it will take your through. My wife kept saying plan to finish, don’t look at the time and she seemed to be more confident than me about the finish (some also say the better half knows more about you than yourself!).

Well the big day arrived, reached Mumbai and had a pasta lunch with RFL friends. With who so ever I discussed the only comment was go slow the first half, it will be very warm, drink plenty of water and aim to finish. Quite a few well wishers had already sent an SMS wishing me all the best (which I needed most). I took off on time at 7.40 am and was among the last 100 runners. Keeping a slow steady pace, Mr Rajesh from RFL kept slowing down for me but eventually gave up and went ahead at around 3km mark. At around 14 km which took me 1 hr 55 min felt ok and was going strong. At around 23km the heat was taking its toll, it had taken me 3 hrs. Took a spray in my calf muscle which was beginning to hurt and a pain killer for my arms which I learnt later that once in a while need to swing my hands, keeping hands in one position could lead you to severe pain in your hands. I touched 30 km in 4 hr and 20 min, I passed Rajesh at 32 km by then I had slowed down quite a bit but doing fine. The flyover at around 36 km put breaks on me. Coming down the slope tried to speed up and paid for it as I pulled up my calf muscle. I slowed down my pace further and completed the marathon in 6 hrs and 1 minute. I was all along targeting a sub 6 hr run since I had run only a few 30 plus runs. Overall a great experience and enjoyed every bit of it. My special thanks to my brother and my mentor. It has been a great experience running with the Chennai runners, though I wish it could be more often. Definite thanks to my wife lakshmi and my daughters who have always stood beside me. Well have set my next goal to be sub 5 hr 45 min my next marathon. Plan to take few weeks lightly before I set my eyes to the next big event.

Hope all will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!!

Mahesh: Congratulations.. We are all proud of you.. you stuck to your dream and got there..