My running life has been spectacular lately, though it’s on hold right now for health reasons. I’ve had two great runs that are totally worth talking about. The first one was the Faridabad Cross Country Race on March 22nd. Souvik convinced me to run this one and I signed up for the 5 miles race (8 km or so). Souvik picked me up from my place around 0415 and we reached the venue at 0500. We were the first people there apart from the organizers. Over the course of the next hour, people slowly started trickling in and it was becoming light as well. I had only restarted running that week so I wasn’t fully in control of my pace. As soon as the race started, I rushed off a bit too fast. I knew what I was doing wrong, but the conditioning to slow down wasn’t just there. I need to race more often and particularly practice running by feel. The route was very scenic, especially as the run was rising as we started our run. We’d been warned of a drop at the end of the course, but the warning didn’t really prepare me for the real thing.
It was impossible to run down and I struggled to run back up. I tried, but failed. My legs were too fatigued., I walked quite a bit on the way back and when I finally reached the finish point, the person who was the winner of the 10-mile race finished just ahead of me! Despite all this, at an average of 7:59 min/km, it was my best 5K+ pace. This is a route I’d like to go back on my own or with friends and run again. The route is very pretty and the climb is a nice challenge. If it weren’t so far away, I’d even think of doing hill repeats there.
On April 5, I did a 10K with Souvik and Bhavya. This run was during the end of Week 6 of C25K and Day 3 involves running continuously for 20 minutes. I wasn’t sure if I could do it, but I ran for 20 minutes without stopping and then alternated between running and walking. It was glorious. Bhavya is fairly fast and I nearly kept up with him for 20 full minutes after which I gave it a break and then alternated between running and walking. I read a few conversations on r/c25k about the 20-minute stretch of running and they were very encouraging. Everyone who had finished it pointed out that while it’s scary to think about, it’s not very scary to actually do. After having done that, I can confirm that it is true. I finished the entire run with a pace of 7:33 min/km, a new personal record! Speed isn’t one of my goals at the moment, but it’s nice to see that I can indeed do a pretty decent speed compared to what I used to do a year ago.
Sadly, I have to stop running for a bit. I had a repeat episode of seizure recently and my meds have been changed. Until that is all settled in, I’ve been advised to avoid running due to the risk of having a repeat seizure while my old meds are tapered off. Another 4 weeks and I’ll be back to running. It’s become something I look forward to every week.
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