Chennai Half Marathon 2010

It has to start with Fr. Jagath Gaspar Raj’s wielding of the mike from sometime prior to the (scheduled) 6AM start to well after it. He orchestrated the oath like last year, in Tamil and English, like last year. The melodramatic promise of fair play in the oath indicated that he must think of distance running in the same breath as kabaddi. When Kanimozhi was (thankfully) brief in her wishing good luck to the participants, the Father pointed it out as the new progressive politician’s mojo, and then lectured on. Meanwhile 20 odd minutes of dawn were past and the sky brightened up. If not for the cloudy drizzly morning, on an average day in Chennai, the father’s speech could have spelt T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

He did, eventually, pass the baton – it was to the showman Mr. Shivamani, though. Everyone went through about 10 minutes of him belting out peppy beats. It was good, and could have been better if it was not holding up the start further. But clearly, not all were annoyed, not everyone was ruing the missed opportunity of an additional 30mins sleep. The showman was better than the preacher. This joyous celebration at dawn on one hand and mature patience on the other was a lesson in what good politics probably is – count the numbers, count on people’s patience.

My run was in four phases – first, running with Mr. Hariharan and Dr. Suresh, then the chase to catch up with my running group after a bio break, running the much feared 13-17k with the Bangalore businessman’s reassuring words (Mr. Ajay, not sure), and last couple of kms with the Navy submariner (Mr. Rohit/ Mr. Rohan – gosh, I am terrible remembering names).

Mr. Hariharan, the seasoned runner, who I have seen in a few earlier events, must be 50+, pretty effortlessly adjusts pace to accommodate his running group and achieve his time target. He and Dr. Suresh were running at 6-mins/km pace and I tagged along with them after starting out with Ashok. This went quite well for me until somewhere between MRC Nagar and Sathya studio; the bio break just had to be taken. On joining back, I expected Mr. Hariharan to be somewhere within sight and began to chase the tell tale black running jersey, clean shaven head and smooth running style. When I caught up just after Adayar bridge, it turned out to be someone else and there was only explanation – he had pulled away.

But thankfully, it remained a cloudy morning and entering Besant Avenue only made it better. When the aid station volunteer handed a lemon juice refreshment and pointed out to me that it was not water, it was good to enough to walk, to minimize spillage. Once the drink was done, it was back to running (or jogging). This year’s start was from Anna Square, the route included going past Madan’s house and going down the Elliots Beach road to the Church. Amongst watching and cheering along the Elliots stretch was Mrs. Dharani – and this was very cool! Call me biased; inclusion of the Elliots stretch made what was already a good route even better.

On the way back from the church, somewhere near Besant Avenue was where I met up with the Bangalore granite business man, Mr. Ajay who trains with the NRC at the Kanteerva stadium. He advised me to refrain from checking the parameters on my (new, as I repeatedly point out) Garmin watch so often. It was great advice and the pair of us managed to make it back past Adayar bridge. I was happy and nervous to note that this was +1 to 2km from the distance last year that I began walking a lot.

Closer to the Foreshore Estate bus stand Mr. Ajay began dropping off and my target for now was to get to the Lighthouse from where I hoped checking off the landmarks, taking in the expanse, and availing the “Free Hug” would make it easier. By now, the number of people needing to crisscross had grown with the day and the cops were doing a good job keeping the running path clear. By the time I passed the police commissioner’s office and lighthouse the average pace reading on the Garmin had slipped to 6:35 per kilometer. Some calculations on the way to Chennai in the train told me this: 2:06 finish if pace is 6 mins/ km, 2:27 finish if pace is 7 mins/km, 2:49 finish if pace is 8 mins/ km and 3:00 finish if pace is 8’30’’/ km (last year’s mark approx.). As far as I didn’t slow to a walk now, it looked good.

That got somewhat easier when I caught up with Mr.Rohit/ Rohan – submariner based near Chennai. This was his first long run he said, but at no point was the defense man anything but exuding confidence, including plotting to overtake someone 150 meters ahead! With a km or so to go, he was encouraging me to go faster but I asked him to carry on. Come to think of it, there was enough energy to push but I didn’t want to risk it.

By the time I crossed, the average pace over the course read 6’39’’ mins/ km. This time around a private hospital had set up a tent for first aid (you could see their ambulances up and down the course), and they whisked me away to it, after someone threw a medal around my neck. There I got Electral/ Glucose and water and a place to lie down. Soon enough, looking around at the folks in obvious distress, it became clear that this was not for all finishers and whoever ran the triage (if they did, indeed) had triaged me in. After convincing the first aid workers that I was okay, I stepped out into the post-finish milling zone and met up with Ashok and Vidya. Also, met up with Mr. Hariharan and saw Mr. Ajay stretching.

The splits – 65’36’’ for the first half, 2:20:10 overall – meant that the first half this year was faster by 15mins and the second half was better by 25mins – all compared to 2009! But the fact is that every subsequent km had me going slower and that is not very good and needs to be fixed. Overall, though, this Chennai Half Marathon turned out much better than the last one.

The weekend came with the sad news of Mr. Radhakrishnan passing away earlier this year. A scholar of a football coach (not sure if he got it from working with Der Kaiser himself, early in his career), the practice, tournaments and city walks with him constitute the best, and most constructive, of my college memories (’95 to ’97). His love for football, athletics too, sat comfortably with the concern for youngsters to have a well rounded education. Thousands, I am sure, are better off for having trained with/ played for/ played with/ administered by/ known him. RIP.

http://sportzunlimited.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21&Itemid=55.