Delhi Half marathon November 1, 2009

I had stopped participating in the Airtel Delhi Half marathons for the last 2 years as its just way too much effort to run just 21kms. This year it so happened that I was scheduled to attend a wedding in Delhi, in the last week of October (and I had booked for it 3 months in advance). During the second week of November when i actually got down to writing to friends in Delhi, about catching up with them, I realised that I would be in Delhi during the Delhi marathon.

Once I realised this, it would be stupid and impossible for me not to participate. I had to pull a few strings to get my registration done, as the last date for online registration was already over.

I did a 20k run two weeks before the delhi half marathon and was reasonably sure that i should be able to do a decent time at Delhi (ie a sub 2hr time).

I reached Delhi on a Thursday morning and was having a blast attending a traditional Indian wedding which takes place over 3-4 days, which means lotsa food and wine. But I did take the tough decision of going on a healthy high carb diet on Saturday evening to ensure that I have enough good calories for the run but could not manage enough sleep (barely had 3hrs of sleep that night before the run, as we were attending the marriage reception till 2am).

Sunday started well, the weather was good and I was able to find my way to the start point quite easily (Nehru Park), met up with lotsa old colleagues at the start as well as post finish in the holding area. I also met some runners from Bombay who recognised me, esp. one of them who runs regularly at Shivaji park.

Organiser Procam had done a decent job, much better than the what I had experienced 2yrs back, but it was nothing exceptional. I wish they do a lot more to make things better and special for the real runners, instead of worrying purely about the sponsors, TV partners and celebs.

My 21k went exactly as per plan, i did the first 10k in about 55mins and after that I was quite sure about doing a sub 2hr time. I kept the same pace and tried to accelerate during the last few kms and managed a decent time of 1hr 56min 53secs.

Split @ 7.5K 00:41:02
Split @ 10K 00:54:52
Split @ 19.35K 01:47:07
Split @ 20K 01:50:58
Finish Time 01:56:53
http://www.timingindia.com/results_page.php?keyword=8948

Managed to click just two pics from the marathon