Hyderabad 10K Run

Real Marathon run is 42 odd kilometres and if I ever wanted to do that, it'd be on a car or, may be, a motorcycle! I can't believe what kind of freaks are those who run all the distance. And less said about the triathlon athletes the better.

I don't know why I'm taking this risk. I've signed up for the 10 kilometre run on the tank bund road (around the Hussain Sagar lake - http://www.hyderabad10k.com/route_map.htm). I signed up like 2 weeks ago. So, I wanted to check if I can ever run all the 10 kilometres despite this being a quarter-Marathon. On the first day of my test, I surprised myself by running 3 kilometres. And then took 2 or 3 days of rest. On the second day of my test, I did about 4.2 kms in half-an-hour. That's about an average speed of 8.4 kmph. I thought it was amazing until someone told me that marathon runners (freaks who run 42 kms) average an incredible 18 kmph. Yesterday was my last day of trial. I thought I'll run the 10K run only if I could do post a decent distance at a respectable speed. I made 2 mistakes. I played volley ball for about a couple of hours before this trial and ended up gulping down a Maaza, a Thums Up (inspired by the new Thums Up commercial), and about 3/4 litres of water. Just the right things to have before you run! I started my trial at around 10:30pm. I was posting decent speed until 25th minute when I felt a slight twist in my right abdomen followed by some sort of pain in my lower rib just below the sternum bone. My gym instructor asked me to stop running. The recent news of an Oracle employee losing his life at the treadmill flashed in my mind. Am I going to die?

But there was some supernatural force (too much for a simple jog, ain't it?) urged me to get going. I slowed down to 5.5 kmph and walked for about 2.5 minutes. Started to feel my abdomen and rib cage getting normal. Good news. Now, I tuned the mill to a more realistic 8.5 kmph to 9.5 kmph. Went on until 45 minutes and ended up doing 6.51 kms. This translates to around 8.7 kmph. I cooled down for 5 minutes and after 50 minutes and burning 590 Calories, my distance read 6.93 kms. The best thing was I still had energy to run more distance. But didn't want to overdo it and in the process hurt my knees. I want to leave the sweet shock for tomorrow. Let me see what my times I post during tomorrow's 10k run, that is, if I complete the race by foot! Keeping my fingers crossed and waiting anxiously...