Why I Lost Time in Run?

But didn’t lose faith

If you ever want to understand the value of time, talk to runners. For even 0.1% improvement in time, they will boast. For even slight decrease, they will crib. Here is my turn to crib. I added 9 minutes to my last half-marathon race timing — 1hr 54 min. That’s huge!

First of all, I blame the toe-nails

Why I didn’t clip my nails? I was thinking constantly in last 5 km. The trauma of top of shoe striking my nails at every step was eating my willpower reserve all along. This must have taken 0.1% time.

Still not convinced, I blame the temperature

While the mean temperature for Airtel Delhi Half Marathon in Delhi was 12 degree celsius, it was 23 in Mumbai. This temperature difference according to research can leads up 8.5% speed loss in marathon. Adjusting for half-marathon and considering lower side, it added around 5 minutes more in my case i.e. 900 m extra.

I also blame the route

I don’t blame the famous uphill that comes at 13th km, when you are struggling to find motivation. Thanks to the crowd standing there, you find some. What’s more dreadful is Worli Sea link! No offense to the beauty of this, but the loop of around 5 km with completely dry air, just sucks the energy out of you. For this 5 km, I kept my pace around 15 second slower throughout.

That’s a lot of blaming outside factor. The fact is I didn’t train enough. After injury in Airtel Delhi Half Marathon, I just did overall 20 km, with 15 km in second last week. I should be happy with my performance. But contentment is road to stability and death.

On a serious note, this failure to break the 2 hr barrier this time gave a lot of learning:

• Cut your toenails before the race, dude.
• Don’t miss the pre-race meal. I couldn’t have this time.
• I couldn’t find my pacer and started 4 minutes late from official timing. That’s a big no.
• Don’t try new thing in race. I tried energy gel for first time and was not comfortable.
• Just willpower is not enough, you have to train

As I didn’t train much, one of my goal in the race was not to walk. I did achieve that.

Like life, you decide your goal in running. Though I struggled. Though there was pain. Though I wanted to stop. Though I missed pre-race meal. I didn’t stop.

And like life you don’t fail till you don’t stop. You don’t fail till you say you are done.

It will always be tough. Tough is what makes it great! The last 1% is always difficult, and there you don’t have to doubt yourself. There you don’t have to listen to excuses.

Although, there is life after accepting failure. You will run even even after accepting failure. But you are a different person after that. A person who doubts himself. A person who listens to excuses. A person who can’t be outlier.

So just like life, in run, believe in yourself.