Thursday, July 25, 2013

My first 1000 miles

185lbs, 226, 136 and 219. That was my weight & my lipid profile on 4/25/2011.

On one of the evenings, in June, 2011, I was walking back home from a trip to the mailbox, when I stopped and got into a casual discussion with Stanley who lives a few doors away from me. One thing led to the other and we decided to run a route of about 3.69 miles around our neighborhood at 7pm. It felt good!

3.69 miles (Kronos Run)

 I had never run a single mile or 0.1 miles anywhere on the road. The entire concept of running was different to me. I thought running was a form of exercise and not a sport. I thought why "road" when a treadmill can do the same thing. That run changed all that...

But we realized that it was not safe to run that late in the evening. Dark roads and runners are a bad combination. We decided to run again,  but this time around, in the morning at 5:30am. I was never a morning person. Getting up at 5:30am was at least 2 hours of less sleep for me in the morning. I was used to staying up late and getting up right before I absolutely had to get up for anything. That morning, I got up at 5:25am and was outside in about 5 minutes. Stanley was also outside at 5:30am. We went for a quick run. It felt good!

So, we started running early in the morning, every other day. We were running between 7-10 miles every week. After a month of running,  I started to notice pain around my knees, every time I crossed the 2 mile threshold. After googling a bit, I realized that running in a pair of 10 year old shoes is not a good idea. It turns out that if you run in old worn-out shoes, you are causing your skeletal system to be mis-aligned in the same way that your car suffers from jitters when you drive with mis-aligned tires. Something had to give. For me, my knees were giving up and thus the pain around the knees. I found plenty of recommendations on the Internet. I settled with asics GEL-Kayano. It was love at first wear. It felt good!

There was no stopping me now. I could run as long as my body allowed me to run. I started running a little more than 10 miles a week, every week. The runs during the weekdays were averaging between 2-3.5 miles/day while the weekend run (on Sundays) were between 4-6 miles. We built up strength and perfected our running form during these runs. Rahul, also my neighbor, started to join us for our Sunday long runs. We started to challenge ourselves with longer distances and faster paces every Sunday. What started out as a casual run of 3.5 mile on an evening in May, soon became 6.07 miles...7.18 miles...9.86 miles over a period of 3-4 months. Longer distances were always on a Sunday. After much trying, we finally broke the 10mile threshold, 10 months later on May 28, 2012. That was BIG! If felt good!

Our long Sunday runs were now averaging 8-10 miles. Rahul's friend Pavan also started joining us for long runs. We were now four strong every Sunday morning. During one of the Sunday runs, Rahul asked if we wanted to run the Baystate Half Marathon. For me, it was breaking new grounds. 10 miles was not easy for me. How could I run 13.1 miles? I decided to give it a try but with a very real risk of not bieng able to make the 13.1 miles unless I seriously ramped up my training. I signed up for Baystate half marathon on August 30, 2012. Stanley, Rahul and Pavan also signed up.  On October 21, 2012, we ran our first Half Marathon. My new PR was 1.52.00. It felt good!

We kept running. Our long runs were always on a Sunday. Every once in a while, a marathoner would cross us on the road/trail and we would be in awe of this person that actually ran a marathon (26.2 miles). I knew that I could never run a marathon. 13.1miles itself was very tiring. What would 26.2 miles feel? I could not comprehend that distance and its running.

We decided to push ourselves to see how far we could run before exhausting ourselves. On December 15,2012, We ran 19.42 miles. That was BIG! It felt good!


19.42 miles (Nashua Mall Run)

On Dec 31, 2012, Rahul emailed us and said that the price for Hyannis Marathon was going up by 5 dollars on January 1, 2013. After a lot of virtual debate, we all signed up for Hyannis Marathon on January 1, 2013. We signed up to save $5 dollars but did not fully think it through. Hyannis Marathon was scheduled for February 24, 2013. We had less than 2 months to train for a marathon. It is generally recommended that any normal person should spend at least 4-6 months training for a marathon. We decided that we would train in less than 2 months. To make things even more exciting, we were in the middle of a cold winter with random snowfalls and random days of freezing or negative windchill temperatures. We kept running shorter distances during the weekdays and longer distances on weekends. Snow or cold did not have enough to stop us.

On February 24, 2013, I ran my first full Marathon. Hyannis Marathon, 2013. My PR was 4:54:49. It was 20 degrees (single digit windchill), high cold winds, freezing rain, cold puddles and no one to cheer us on for the last 13.1 miles. Some would consider this marathon to be one heck of a challenge. For me, it was my first marathon. Running with my buddies (Stanley, Rahul and Pavan) made it even more memorable. It felt good.

I kept running all winter craving for another marathon. Running a marathon is a drug that needs constant feeding. Once you run one, it is hard to think of not running one. The challenge of running a marathon is more than just physical readiness, it is mental preparation, breaking the limits and the constant push to discover new limits. These challenges don't mean much when compared to the overwhelming sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing a marathon. It is hard to explain in writing. It just feels good!!

On March 20, 2013, we signed up for our second marathon. KeyBank Vermont City Marathon. I ran the Hyannis Marathon to test if my body could run a marathon. Now that I knew that my body could run a marathon, it was time to run a faster marathon. My goal was to beat my PR of 4:54:49. I trained hard. Training meant running weekdays between 6-6:30am and long runs on Sundays morning at 7am.

On May 26, 2013, I ran the KeyBank Vermont City Marathon. My PR was 4:14:41. It felt good.

On June 5, 2013, my Runtastic app displayed 1004.92 total miles. That felt really good!!!

It took 169:48:42 hours and 30 lbs to run 1004.92 miles. On August 27, 2012, my lipid profile was 180, 117 and 79.

My first road run was an attempt to stay healthy. Now, I run to feed my addiction of running. Running is a lot of fun. It feels good!

Photo

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