Sunfeast World 10K Bangalore

The Sunfeast World 10K, the only road racing event in Bangalore is scheduled for 31 May, 2009 this year. I have registered for the run and also training formally this year with Runners High of Dr. Rajat and Santhosh. But I lost two weeks of training due to a flu, but luckily it was at the beginning of the training not near the race day. I need to do a 2-mile run that they use to predict my 10K time, but I am guessing I will be around 60 minutes for the 10K. I would like to do a sub 60 minute run this time, but a 65 minute looks a realistic target though.

I started running regularly since last Sunfeast 10K where I finished just seconds short of 80 minutes. Since then I did a half marathon and a 25K and been running all along except during couple of flu attacks. So the distance is not a challenge this time and hence would try to improve the timings a bit and hopefully the training would help me out.

Surely, I would like to collect some amount for those who can't run via my charity partners, Association of People with Disability(APD). I collected around 50K last time and I would like to collect more than that this time which is a tough task in these bad economic conditions.

I will keep you posted on my progress towards the run timing and charity collection targets! You can track my trainings also at dailymile.com.

Runners High

Runners High is a training program for runners by two of the best runners in town, Dr. Rajat Chauhan and Santhosh Padmanabhan. Dr. Rajat also runs a sports clinic, Back To Fitness(B2F) for the sports persons in town. Santhosh is also associated with a charity, Asha , for which he raises money while he runs. While it sounds funny to many people that you pay to get training on running, to be skillful at anything training from an expert helps. So for me Rs.2000/= for such a training was worth every paisa knowing their credentials in running. While there are running groups in Bangalore, there weren't may organized running trainings available and this looks pretty good.

Image via Wikipedia

It was kicked off with a short run this morning at Lalbagh Botanical Gardens, which is one of the biggest parks in Bangalore. We have good bus service from where I live to Lalbagh, which made it a car-free run. The rest of the sessions would be at Jayanagar 3rd Block at 6AM on a week day and Sunday. Santhosh explained the training details and what they have to offer and it looks pretty comprehensive. Our short term target is the Sunfeast 10K run on 10 May, 2009 in Bangalore. But I would definitely want to continue the training for a half marathon and potentially a full this year or the next year.

I am looking forward to the training though I have a sore throat to start with. I have been training mainly based out of reading "Galloway's book on running" and since Galloway doesn't run programs in this part of the world, this is as best it can get in Bangalore! The book really helped me go beyond 5K by using the Run-Walk-Run method of Galloway and to stay injury free throughout the year with a 10K, 21K and 25K runs. So this was a good time to really get some hands-on training from the experts instead of just reading books.

Feet on The Street 5K

Image via Wikipedia

Feet on the Street is a new running event from Runners for Life(RFL), Bangalore's vibrant running group - 5K for people to get started and may be join the longer runs that RFL organizes every fortnight(may be monthly now with a FOTS every month). May be the "Feet" should move around town and have this event at various locations to encourage running.

This run was at Cubbon Park, centrally located and the park is blocked for traffic till 8 in the morning. It was not a serious run, no timings and timing certificates which is the norm for RFL runs. I hopped on to a BMTC bus and got back in a Volvo(which was shared with just another passenger!) and made it a car-free run and I hope to make my runs greener by cycling to the venues sometime later.

This was also a charity event for Dream A Dream, a charity organization based out of Bangalore - I have been trying to contribute to their Dream Football program for sometime, but except for couple of visits to the play grounds, I haven't been able to make any serious contribution.

I finished the run in 32 minutes - I was hoping for a 30minute finish, but the general tempo was very easy. Next race in town is the Sunfeast 10K due in May - again there are some general elections that might come in the way like last year.