Another year, another Sunfeast 10K run and another disappointing timing. This year too, like the previous year, I wasn’t able to cross the one hour barrier. But there is some comfort that at least I did better than last year (even though the margin was a meager 23 sec). Overall my net completion time was 01:02:23 this time around.
Now that the detail timing is available online @ http://timingindia.com/
The most disappointing fact is that I crossed the 9Km marked at 55:30 but still didn’t put any extra effort to finish it within 1 hr. Somehow at that point of time I felt that I would easily overcome the one hour barrier and got relaxed and ended up taking 7 mins to cover the last 1 Km. Maybe the lack of any watch/stopwatch seriously hurt my timing.
Even before the start of the run, things didn’t go well. I was supposed to meet Varun near Marathalli at around 6:00AM. Reached there at 6:20 to find no one. Tried calling him but he had left his mobile at home. Around 6:45 left for the stadium in a Volvo, picking up Quaiyum near Domlur. Luckily, Varun was already there at the gate when we reached the stadium. After standing in a long queue for a pee, we entered the holding area just around 8:00AM. It was already congested with thousands of people. Before the start of the run, they only opened one small gate for a segment of the holding area. The over-eager participants in the other holding areas started jumping the wire-frame walls into the running zone. We too followed the crowd, jumping the wall.
Because of the over-crowding, it took almost 3 mins to cross the starting line from the time the whistle was blown. The situation remained the same for initial 2-3 Km where the crowd running in front of me governed my speed. I was targeting a 25 min 5Km but took around 30 mins. At around 6Km mark, I got a painful stomach stitches and to make the things worse, there was a uphill and hence I lost further 3-4 mins. But even then I was confident of completion within an hour. A gross over-estimation, I guess. Anyway, there is always a next time….
