Sunfeast 10K

One of the cool things about Bangalore is that it
at least gets a share of sporting events other than the IPL of course... and some that you can join in if you so fancy, such as the Sunfeast 10K.
For those of you I've bored in the past with tales

of woe, skip forward a couple of paragraphs, but
for anyone not up to date, the basic summary is
that about 8 or 9 years ago I had to quit all

sport that involved running or 'weight-bearing'

thanks to some hip issues.

(Clarky missed me coming but got this shot just after we left the stadium...at this stage it still seemed like a great idea!)

Not wanting to believe one
specialist I sought three different opinions: The
feedback from the three was that in 3 - 5 years (one guy said 3, one 5, and the third '3 - 5'!) they expected I would not be able to walk, at which point I could then get a hip replacement. At the time this was obviously not great news for someone who loved being involved in sport, even though I was never going to be the world's best (although the older I get the better I was if you listen to me reminiscing!) at anything. However, I learned to accept that I was pretty much restricted to swimming and cycling from now on in.

Nine years later I'm still walking pretty much without hindrance...which every now and then makes me wonder if I could go back to doing more; like running for a start perhaps...

And thus the plan hatched to take place in the Sunfeast 10K run here in B'lore. I had done a couple of 3 - 5 K jogs on treadmills over the last few years without too much pain... so I decided to give it a crack. Whilst things have been pretty busy, I managed to get a few 5 - 6 K jogs in over the last month since arriving, including a couple of 'real runs' off the treadmill.

( Almost 10K later not looking quite as flash! - don't be fooled, the blur is not speed, but just tricky-photo-business by Clarky.)

So whilst I knew I wasn't exactly in top shape, and the hip had certainly let it be known it wasn't great, I gathered this morning with a few thousand other runners in a stadium just 10 minutes walk from our current residence. I'll spare the step-by-step details, but the highlights (lowlights?) are probably best described with a distance indicator and the corresponding thoughts...

Start-line: OK so this is what about 7 thousand runners looks like...this is going to be fun to fight through surely...

1 klm mark: Yep, not much fun so far...weaving, shuffling hustling and at times walking through the throng...more than 6 and a half minutes for first klm as a result. This is going to make my ideal target of sub 50 minutes pretty tough already

just over 2klm: Almost finally getting a rhythm..but still a little too crowded. Not sure I should have swapped shoes this morning...has been at least 6 months since I've worn anything with these arch supports, should have stuck to the cross-trainers I've been using lately.

About 3klm: Geez this is feeling long already...had a good klm there but my arches are killing me, suspect there is some rubbing happening

5 klm: Strewth. Half-way. I now believe Dr. Dalzeil, Dr. Zimmerman and third-bloke-I-can't-remember... Definitely going to have blisters on the arches. Hip not great either...

6 klm: What?! That was just 1klm? You've got to be kidding! If I thought I could afford to speed up I would overtake you again mate-o in front of me...or just share some deodorant with you in the least.

8 klm: Ughhh. Hip...aching....arches feel like they're rubbed raw. Must have slowed to about 1 klm a year at the moment...

9 klm: OK...surely I can speed this last klm up?... Not really? OK fine, just don't walk and don't stop. Try to spot Clarky so you can at least pretend to be looking good!

Finish: Oh crikey that was harder than I expected. About 54 minutes, disappointing. But relieved...Geez my feet are killing me!

So at least I've now answered (yet again!) that little question that flirts with my ego in the back of my mind occasionally; 'could I ever run a marathon with these hips of mine'? If I want to avoid a replacement for a while longer the message coming from my body is pretty clear! But at least I finished this little stretch. I know for anyone who runs regularly or even just probably 'normally fit' my saga will be laughable - just for the record, the elite men's race this morning was won with a time of 27min 34sec... literally half my effort! I'm sure I'll be a lot better in the morning already, but hobbling around the room right now with two half nude arches and a dull ache in my hip I think training for and completing a full marathon may just be a stretch....

More to come soon on Mumbai trip(s), hopefully moving into an apartment soon (heard that before?), and anything else we can think of worth mentioning.