TCS Open 10k – 2011

Its been ages since I wrote my last post in Dec 2009. Since the arrival of Siddharth in Jan 2010, life has been hectic enough to keep me away from whatever blogging I used to do.  Now that life is slowly getting back to normal (I wish, but no harm in telling myself that!), and the fact that I am getting into a lot of activities, it seems like a good time to get back at blogging.  And so here I am, back from the break, on my TCS 10k experience.

The popular annual 10k event got a new sponsor this time around and hence a new name. What was known as the Sunfeast Open 10k last two years, is now christened as the TCS 10k event. This is my 3rd open 10k, and by far one of the best in terms of experience. It was special too because it was Shamala’s first major running event (she earlier did a 5k as part of the annual Midnight marathon event) and the fact that we were running together. It was Deepa’s (Shamala’s sister) first running event too. We now seemed to have a nice running trio:).

Before the race

The training as usual was again erratic. I have not been able to master this bit and it shows in the final day run. Though we managed several 5k-6k runs, I did only one 10k before the event. But the fact that I have been running for sometime now helped matters. Sham on the other hand did manage to get a couple of 10k runs in before the event.

We landed up at the venue well ahead of time around 7:15 ish AM.  The weather was gorgeous, perfect for a running day. The Kanteerva stadium was brimming with people. Over the last few years, the event has gained tremendous popularity, with the number of registrations exploding each year. This year I am given to believe close to 15000 people participated. The numbers were quite obvious looking at the sea of people standing at the running gates, waiting for it to open. This is one aspect though, I wish would improve going forward. There is too much of pushing and prodding which happens at the running gates, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it leads to a stampede-like situation in the future events. The organizers need to take note of this!

The run commenced at 8:10 am, soon after the international event ended. We somehow managed to make it through the running gates unhurt and proceeded to the start line. The first few minutes of a run are always tough as you try and ease into a rhythm. In events like these, its only made tougher with so many people running around you and you being cramped for space. Its only around the half way mark that you get adequate space to run comfortably. Shamala and I started slow and steady.  Given this was our first real “event” run together, I wanted to run with her from start to finish, even though it would mean that I would clock a significantly slower time than the last two editions. The weather continued to be gorgeous all through. The route ran from Kanteerva stadium till Ulsoor junction via Gen. carriappa road, and then making its way back through the Cubbon park to end back at Kanteerva. Sham and I struck an amazing rhythm right from the start, ensuring that we never had to stop even once. Sham did stop, but they were like a 2-3 sec breathers rather than a real stop. That in my opinion is a huge achievement for Sham. We ended with a time of around 1 hr 29 mins, which is a good time for first 10k run.

Other than the initial starting chaos, the arrangements pre-event, in-event and post event were fabulous as always. The bib collection this time had an additional centre in the Koramangla national games stadium, thereby making it very easy for us to pick it up. Plus it was much less crowded.  The refreshment stations during the run were plenty in number and well stocked. Though, I thought it might have been a good idea to have some bananas and biscuits at the stations in addition to the liquids.  But, at least for me there is nothing to complain as I can run a 10k pretty easily without fluids or food.  Arrangement for medal distribution and refreshments collection post run was also well organized.

All in all a wonderful experience; infact there was a moment during the run when I thought that this was one the best things which could have happened to Bangalore!

Next year, gotta target a sub -60 run! Till then, keep running!

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