Krishna Prakash (Photo: Shyam G Menon)

An Inspector General who is also Ultraman – that is a rarity. This is the story of Krishna Prakash, IPS. It is also window to the change a city marathon can spark.

The Mumbai Marathon, long sponsored by Standard Chartered bank and now Tata, has been a life-changer for many people. In 2013 it changed the life of Krishna Prakash, at that time heading the police force in South Mumbai and thereby tasked with overseeing security arrangements for a host of sporting events ranging from cricket matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL) to the city’s annual marathon.

A second generation police officer, he hails from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand. Located roughly 2000 feet above sea level, Hazaribagh – the name means land of a thousand gardens – features a landscape of hills and forests. On a more somber note, it is also home to the second highest coal reserves in Jharkhand. Krishna Prakash’s father served in the police, retiring as a Deputy Superintendent. One of five siblings, Krishna Prakash – born 1971 – attended St Robert’s school and later St Columba’s College, from where he majored in history.  During all this time, his interest in sports was never exceptional. In his free time as a child, he ran around in the local hills, swam in the local river and the reservoir of a nearby dam – like many children do. At school, an institution blessed with adequate playgrounds and providing room for sports in the curriculum itself (there was time specifically allotted for sports), he stayed as active as anyone growing up in such circumstances would. “ I played but I was not a sports person per se,’’ he said, outlining his nature from those days.

Following college, he spent two years with the Nehru Yuva Kendra (NYK) doing social work. In 1995, he decided to appear for his civil services exam. The exam has a three tier selection process. His first two attempts took him past the first two stages of selection. On both occasions he lost out in the third, the interview stage. On his third attempt, he cleared all three stages and placed second among candidates qualifying from Jharkhand. Selected for the Indian Police Service (IPS) and awarded the Maharashtra cadre, he trained over 1998-99 at the Sardar Vallabhbhai National Police Academy in Hyderabad. In 1999, he moved to Maharashtra with his first posting at Gadchiroli. The second least populous district of Maharashtra, Gadchiroli is partly hilly terrain and has a strong tribal component to its population. It is also among districts affected by the extreme left movement. In the following years, he worked at Nanded, Malegaon, Buldhana, Amaravati, Sangli and Ahmednagar before shifting to Mumbai as officer in charge of South Mumbai’s police. Through these postings and transfers on work, he maintained interest in sports but as at school and college long ago, it stayed in the background. “ I used to play football and badminton regularly. I also participated in work-outs with my team from the police, to stay fit. But that was it,’’ Krishna Prakash said. Posted to South Mumbai, sports drew closer. The bulk of the Mumbai Marathon route, including its start and finish lines, are in South Mumbai. Given charge of security arrangements for the Mumbai Marathon, the IPS officer found it hard to keep his curiosity for the event and the experience it offered, under check. It was tough to merely watch from the sidelines and not run. Especially given an instance from the past that hinted he had what it takes to be in endurance sports – during his training days, at a competition at the police academy in Hyderabad, he had been runner up in cross country running, swimming and yoga. Knowing that, how do you keep the attraction of the Mumbai Marathon at bay? He succumbed.

Cycling at Ultraman Australia (Photo: courtesy Krishna Prakash)

In 2013, Krishna Prakash’s superiors approved his request to participate in the event on one condition – his running should not affect the duties expected of him at the Mumbai Marathon. That year Krishna Prakash ran the half marathon segment of the event without any prior training. “ I ran it because I wanted to. There was the wish to run the half marathon. There was no preparation,’’ he said. He covered the 21 kilometer-distance in two hours, seven minutes. Immediately on completion, he changed his attire and resumed his work monitoring security arrangements; it is typically around the time the half marathoners finish that the Mumbai Marathon’s seven kilometer-Dream Run segment featuring the largest chunk of participants, commences. The switch over from half marathon to official duties, worked neatly. Krishna Prakash has participated in the Mumbai Marathon every year since that debut in 2013.Not just that, like many in the city bitten by the bug, he began running at half marathons elsewhere – in Delhi, Pune, Kolkata and Satara. “ This was how things were; till 2016, then everything changed,’’ Krishna Prakash said.

Thanks to Mumbai attracting people from all over India and thanks in part to the Hindi film industry locating many of its stories in the city, some of Mumbai’s suburbs are as well-known in India as the city itself. Dadar is one of them. More than a century ago it had gained distinction as the city’s first planned suburb. In the years that followed, it has been a popular backdrop for Mumbai life in media and conversation. Today Dadar is a busy and noisy convergence of people, shopping, rail and road transport. Its bylanes are comparatively quiet. It was late May 2018. We were at Krishna Prakash’s office in one of the bylanes of Dadar. He was now Inspector General of Police, overseeing VIP security. The change of 2016 he referred to, had happened some 260 kilometers away in an altogether different city and district – Satara. Surrounded by hills, Satara is home to the annual Satara Hill Marathon. The route features gradients. By then, a regular runner of the half marathon, Krishna Prakash ran the half marathon at the event. He ended up with severe pain in the knees. The doctor he consulted painted a gloomy picture – surgery appeared solution and running seemed finished. “ It was October-November 2016,’’ Krishna Prakash said of the incident.

Like many searching for more views than one on life’s troubles, he looked up the Internet to see what it had to say on knees made painful through running. He came across information indicating that problems with knees could be overcome by strengthening muscles directly and indirectly related to their functioning. He also came across information that highlighted the importance of food and food habits for runners.  There was a third angle he required to address. His uric acid level was up; that had to be brought down. According to Krishna Prakash he is largely self-taught in matters of training for sport. He proceeded to address the new options discovered. A longstanding practitioner of yoga, he also worked out regularly at a gym near Churchgate. Should he go with the medical assessment of his knees or should he go with what he felt about himself? – That was the question. Notwithstanding the doctor’s verdict, Krishna Prakash continued his running. “ I kept running despite the knee pain. Slowly I recovered,’’ he said. At the Mumbai Marathon of January 2017, he ran and completed the full marathon.

From the Vichy Ironman (This photo was downloaded from the Facebook page of Krishna Prakash)

As the crow flies, the forests and hills at the tri-junction of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are some 1600 kilometers away from Hazaribagh. For two decades this region was backdrop for the activities of Koose Munisamy Veerappa Gounder aka Veerappan, notorious forest brigand. By the time Krishna Prakash was training at the national police academy, the infamous Palar blast in which Veerappan used landmines to kill 22 members of a team of police and forest officials – his single biggest mass killing – had already occurred. Through the 1990s and into the early 2000s, Veerappan stayed elusive, even hogging media attention with the kidnaping of Kannada film star Rajkumar. The bandit was eventually shot dead in October 2004, by the Tamil Nadu Special Task Force headed by IPS officer, K Vijay Kumar. In 2017, Vijay Kumar’s book on the rise and fall of Veerappan – Veerappan: Chasing the Brigand – was published. There was a book release function in Mumbai and among those who attended was, Krishna Prakash. The last chapter of the book is titled ` Shootout at Padi.’ In it Vijay Kumar wrote of the bandit, “ Even at fifty two, he was sinewy and extremely fit. Forensic specialist Dr Vallinayagam, who later examined his body, told me he was in the shape of a twenty five year-old, apart from the problem with his eyes.’’ The observation set Krishna Prakash thinking – if that is the fitness level of a bandit evading the law, then police officers tasked with the job of bringing such people to justice have to be as fit, if not better.

Among the places Krishna Prakash had served at, was Malegaon. It is a city that has had phases of communal unrest. Three to four days after the book release function, Krishna Prakash attended a ` Peace Run’ in Malegaon. At this run, he met a young doctor who spoke to him of the half Ironman. Spurred by his recent thoughts on the subject of fitness and its relevance for the police, Krishna Prakash resolved to do a full Ironman. That’s a big leap; four years into distance running, the full marathon just done for the first time, no dedicated training had in swimming and cycling and here he was, planning full Ironman! Asked if he was taking a chance, he replied with an emphatic “ no.’’ According to him, once he takes up something, he gives it his all. In Mumbai, those who heard of his plan advised him that the route to full Ironman lay through patient training – first triathlons at home, then the half Ironman and eventually the full. Krishna Prakash chose to overlook the suggestions. “ I believe that if a person is confident then he can do what he applies his mind to,’’ he said. A triathlon involving distances greater than what is used for the discipline at the Olympics, Ironman events are held overseas. As yet, India has no Ironman event.

Soon after that introduction to Ironman at Malegaon, Krishna Prakash registered for the full Ironman scheduled for August 2017 at Vichy in central France. Vichy is located on the banks of the Allier River. He chose this event partly because the dates were convenient for his family – wife and daughter – to go along. From registration to event, he had roughly two and a half months to prepare. While he had graduated to running the full marathon in January 2017, his swimming was strictly functional in style and in cycling, he hadn’t ever endured long hours in the saddle. To guide him, Krishna Prakash contacted Pune’s well known triathlete and coach, Kaustubh Radkar. The triathlon – which is what Ironman is – has three disciplines: swimming, cycling and running. Radkar provided the police officer his training schedules and also told him that cycling is 50 per cent of Ironman; swimming and running together constitute the balance 50 per cent. That latter remark, encapsulating the effort and energy cycling takes up in the mix of disciplines that is Ironman, was a gentle reminder of how much work needed to be done.

With wife Sanjana and daughter Shaurya at Ultraman Australia (Photo: courtesy Krishna Prakash)

A full Ironman entails 3.86 kilometers of swimming, 180.25 kilometers of cycling and 42.20 kilometers of running – raced in that order. The rules of service for IPS officers provide you leave to participate in sports. What is difficult for a top cop is finding time to train for a city like Mumbai and a state like Maharashtra are never short of issues to keep the police engaged. Post his Ironman resolution, Krishna Prakash’s day commenced at 3-3.30 AM. By 4 AM he would start training. Being a senior police officer must have helped. To swim, he had access to the swimming pool at Garware Club House at Wankhede Stadium, the Mafatlal Swimming Pool on Marine Drive and the pool at the Police Gymkhana, also on Marine Drive. At all these places, the management was kind enough to open the premises very early for Krishna Prakash to train. In the pool though, he was soon battling his own swimming style. His old survival swimming was a composite of several styles, none of it capable of efficient, sustained passage through water. He gradually nudged himself towards freestyle and focused on acquiring strength in it. His running was usually done on Marine Drive with interval training either at the city’s University Stadium or Mahalakshmi Race Course. Much of his cycling happened on the Eastern Express Highway, which still retains a fairly long stretch of service road used by walkers, runners and cyclists. He also acquired a Fuji road bike. While the triathlon’s three disciplines could be worked on separately, the triathlon itself challenges because they are done one after the other, almost seamlessly. Krishna Prakash earmarked his Sundays to get a feel of that. Some of his training sessions for open water swimming were at Pune’s Manas Lake. Early Sunday morning, he would drive to Pune; in the vehicle would also be his cycle. Reaching Pune by around 7 AM, he would spend the next two hours swimming. Swimming done, he would get on his bike and cycle from Pune to Navi Mumbai, reaching there by evening. Then he would run for about one and a half hours in Navi Mumbai; among the places he frequented so was the jogging track at Jewel of Navi Mumbai in the Seawoods-Nerul area. With most amateur athletes, time spent training is usually time borrowed from family. Krishna Prakash’s daughter Shaurya had to accommodate the reduced time she got to spend with her father. The reality of official life is such that a senior police officer like Krishna Prasad can’t always be left alone. His bodyguards had the option to tag along while he trained. On many occasions, they did.

For Krishna Prakash, the full Ironman at Vichy went off well except for one mishap. To cycle, he had brought along his trusted Fuji. Ironman rules, Krishna Prakash said, don’t allow a cyclist to ride close to another for long. The reason is simple and in a different context – that of the peloton; used exactly for the advantages it offers. When you ride close to another (typically behind), it is called `drafting’ or `slipstreaming.’ The practice reduces drag considerably. Krishna Prakash found himself riding close to another and to escape staying so for long (thus inviting disqualification at Ironman), he tried to overtake. Doing so, he courted a smooth patch of green by the road side. What he didn’t know was that lurking below that green was a small ditch. The cycle’s wheel hit the ditch and he fell. This episode aside, Vichy was an encouraging experience. He completed the full Ironman in 14 hours, eight minutes.

The Ultraman memento (This photo was downloaded from the Facebook page of Krishna Prakash)

According to Krishna Prakash, in the days following the Vichy Ironman, his sole wish was to try and improve the time he took to complete the event. At a minor level, beside the fall while cycling there had also been another mistake, this one likely fallout of his newness to the whole Ironman format. In the marathon segment which was run in loops with each loop marked by a wrist band given to the runner, he had ended up running four kilometers extra because he thought the run concluded at the place where the band was being distributed. All this required to be smoothed out and a clearer picture of performance had. So he registered for the half Ironman in Bahrain. But in the background there were other pulls and comments seeking to influence. One of it was the observation that his timing at Vichy was actually better than what some famous folks who did the Ultraman, got in their Ironman. Why not then, Ultraman next? – So went that line of reasoning. “ Somehow it came to my mind that I should attempt Ultraman,’’ Krishna Prakash said of his eventual drift towards Ultraman. As before, he wasn’t graduating gently in his goals. He was leaping. According to Wikipedia, the first Ultraman was held in Hawaii in 1983. This was followed by similar events in Canada, UK and Florida in the US. In May 2015, Australia commenced its edition of Ultraman; the first edition was staged at Noosa on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and saw 37 participants. Krishna Prasad signed up for the May 2018 edition of Ultraman Australia. Unlike Ironman, which is over in a day, Ultraman spans three days. Each day’s activity has a cut-off time of 12 hours. On the first day, triathlete does 10 kilometers of swimming and 146 kilometers of cycling. On the second day, it is 275 kilometers of cycling. The event concludes with a double marathon; 84 kilometers of running. As with Vichy, the IPS officer’s choice of Ultraman Australia was partly driven by the fact that it coincided with school vacation in India; it meant his wife and daughter could go along.

At the cycling event in Ahmednagar where Krishna Prakash marked his return to cycling after the accident he suffered during the 2017 Deccan Cliffhanger (Photo: courtesy Krishna Prakash)

Given he had registered for the Bahrain Half Ironman Krishna Prakash initially visualized his progression to Noosa via Bahrain. Then disaster struck. To get stronger at cycling, he had enrolled for the Deccan Cliffhanger scheduled for November 2017. It is an annual 643 kilometer cycle race from Pune to Goa. During the race, Krishna Prakash collided with his support car and crashed. Apart from cuts and bruises, he fractured three bones in his left shoulder. It was bad enough for him to be briefly hospitalized. “ I was left quite frustrated. It upset my plans. I had planned to do sea swimming near Palghar to get ready for the open water swimming due at Noosa,’’ he said. Yet again, surgery was recommended as an option. Krishna Prakash chose the normal, natural course of healing instead. December 2017 and a part of January 2018 went by without any training. Meanwhile the main sponsorship of the Mumbai Marathon had changed from Standard Chartered bank to Tata; the 2018 edition of the event was called Tata Mumbai Marathon (TMM). On January 20, 2018, his injured shoulder and arm wrapped in bandage to restrict movement, Krishna Prakash ran the TMM full marathon. He completed it in four hours, twenty six minutes. “ That gave me some confidence,’’ he said. With that, one third of prospective triathlon had stirred alive again. In March, there was a 100 kilometer cycling event in Ahmednagar. Krishna Prakash was supposed to inaugurate it. He decided to cycle the distance. Once that was done, he knew he could commence distance cycling as training for Ultraman. Regular bicycle trips from Mumbai to Pune and Nashik started. Not surprisingly, sea swimming followed. That latter bit couldn’t be ignored for the swimming at Vichy had been in a river while at Noosa, it would be the Pacific Ocean. For guide to Ultraman, he had Deepak Raj, Australia-based triathlete and coach. Sunil Menon, Hyderabad based-triathlete and coach, also offered helpful advice. Amid accident, the Bahrain Half Ironman had to be however given a miss. It was now straight from accident to Ultraman.

At the finish line of Ultraman Australia (Photo: courtesy Krishna Prakash)

For Krishna Prakash, the three days of May chasing Ultraman in Noosa, were challenging. The quantum of activity each day was sizable and draining and it had to be repeated back to back. But he persevered. He finished the 10 kilometer-swim in four hours, fifty four minutes. The full component of 421 kilometers cycling – first day’s 146 kilometers and second day’s 275 kilometers, combined – was done in 18 hours, seven minutes. He wrapped up the double marathon in 11 hours, 20 minutes; Shaurya ran the last two kilometers with him encouraging him on. In total, he took 34 hours, 21 minutes to complete Ultraman Australia. According to the event’s website, he placed 43 on the finishers’ list. Vichy’s shadow made its presence felt down under too. Krishna Prakash chose to leave his trusted Fuji behind in Mumbai and use a borrowed time trial bike in Noosa. In retrospect, that was a bad decision. The bike fit was far from perfect; the aerobars were short for his arms and although he adjusted the seat as best as he could, he found himself bunched up. Further, the cycle’s brakes decided to play spoil sport; they ran tad lose. Result – on a portion of road close to the city, he swerved to avoid a vehicle and crashed into a wooden fence. His left shin was cut and it swelled up. The area around his right toe also swelled up. The remaining part of the bike ride was therefore cautiously executed. Worse, the injured legs affected his performance in the double marathon. We asked him if he had fully recovered from the fracture to his shoulder before he left for Australia. “ Yes. After all I was swimming,’’ Krishna Prakash said. Then he moved his left shoulder as though to be surer. “ There is some stiffness still, you know,’’ he said smiling. On plans ahead, he preferred to stay quiet, except for a general resolve mentioned to attempt more triathlons.

(The authors, Latha Venkatraman and Shyam G Menon, are independent journalists based in Mumbai.)    

Joby Paul (Photo: Shyam G Menon)

Triathlon is challenging. You have to work hard at three disciplines and be motivated to sustain yourself from training stage to executing the project successfully. Aspiration to try Ironman events follow. This is the story of Kochi’s Joby Paul; woven into it are the experiences of others too, who did the triathlon.

At the café we walked into, Joby Paul seemed known from previous reports about him in the local media. Well-built and driving a Skoda SUV, he was considered the first person from Kochi (based in Kochi, that is) to complete an Ironman event. It was late summer evening and a drizzle graced the road leading to the cafe near Thrikkakara. It reminded me of how similar and yet dissimilar, places on the Indian west coast are. Both Kochi and Mumbai are port cities. That’s all the similarity there is. As ecosystem, I suspect, Kochi is closer to the sweep of green, coastal ambiance that terminates at Goa and southern Maharashtra. You sense it in the setting of these new cafes – motifs of modern lifestyle tucked into what are otherwise longstanding, residential neighborhoods. Closer to Mumbai the greenery and intimacy vanish. How long, Kerala’s greenery and ecosystem? – I often wonder.  Freelance journalist drew out note pad and pen and settled for a cup of his regular – coffee.

Triathlete on the move; with bike bag at Port Elizabeth airport in South Africa (Photo: courtesy Joby Paul)

Joby was born 1982 at Onakkoor, a village tad south east of Kochi, some 35 kilometers away from the state’s commercial capital.  He hailed from a well to do family; his father owned land with rubber trees on it. Kerala accounts for the bulk of India’s rubber production with the district of Kottayam, adjacent to Ernakulam in which Onakkoor is, contributing the most within the state. In terms of geographical positioning, rubber is usually grown in the lower hills. Joby was an only child. Active at sports in school, from the eighth standard onward was into martial arts. Moving on, at BPC College, Piravom, he was “ Mr BPC’’ for three years. “ I was conscious of physical fitness,’’ Joby said recalling his days in school and college. He didn’t smoke or drink. Following MSc from a college in Tamil Nadu, he took up his first job at OCL Informatics (at that time, part of OEN Connectors; since taken over by Ideonics) in Kochi. After seven years there and a MS (Software Systems) done as off-campus corporate program from BITS Pilani, he commenced his own company – Reference Point Technology Services. Building his company, Joby used to travel to the US on work assignments. On one occasion he was there for a month, based in Puerto Rico, which is an unincorporated territory of the US. “ That was the first time I became aware of a culture of endurance sports,’’ Joby said. The idea of localities and communities supporting endurance sport was not only new to him; it also lingered in mind, a growing fascination.

Joby with Milind Soman (Photo: courtesy Joby Paul)

On return to Kochi, Joby started to run. To sustain the effort, he asked around for a group. He found Soles of Cochin. He joined them around November-December 2014. When he was in the US, Joby weighted approximately 90 kilos. Around the time he joined Soles, he was in the region of 80-85 kilos. Soles introduced him to the finer aspects of running. It wasn’t just getting up and going off for a run, there was the stretching, training, handling of injury, cross-training. There was a world around running. It opened up. Then, there is the never ending debate if which is better – running with shoes or without? Joby got into barefoot running. To cross-train, he got into cycling. “ Soles has groups for all this,’’ Joby said. In 2015, at a barefoot marathon in Coorg, Joby met Milind Soman, a versatile individual who has been model, actor, swimmer, triathlete and ultramarathon runner. The latter spoke about Ironman. Joby got hooked to the idea. On return to Kochi, he commenced collecting information on the triathlon and therein, Ironman. He had working knowledge of running and cycling. Swimming was weak spot. The swimming he was used to was learnt in the pools, ponds and rivers of Kerala. It was strictly functional and had no elegance to it. Kicking and splashing water all around was integral to this style. Elegance may smack of avoidable embellishment but in swimming, good style is what reduces friction and makes you hydrodynamic. His old swimming technique took Joby a maximum of 50-100 meters. When you have to swim long distance as you do in a triathlon, evolving a good style that cuts drag, saves energy and helps you keep going, is important. The first challenge in swimming therefore was to unlearn whatever he had picked up so far.

With fellow runners from Soles of Cochin (Photo: courtesy Joby Paul)

In the time that lapsed since he joined Soles of Cochin, Joby began identifying more and more with the group. “ Crazy’’ – he used that word often to describe Soles; another word being “ hyperactive.’’ It appeared to paint the image of a group that was dynamic, wanting to attempt things, supportive of its members and encouraging them in what they wished to do. Joby’s first half marathon happened roughly a year after he joined Soles. It was the half marathon segment of Spice Coast Marathon, an event commenced by Soles and since grown into one of South India’s major marathons and a Boston qualifier to boot. He completed this run with a timing of 2:06. His first full marathon was the 2016 edition of TROT (The Run of Raramuri Tribe) Marathon in Bengaluru, which he completed in 4:50. In India, land based sports have always enjoyed upper hand. For various reasons, affinity for water and certainly the sea therein, has been less. Thus while many people readily take to running and cycling, fewer numbers embrace water and sea. It is a puzzling scenario for geographically, India has a seacoast that is 7500 kilometers long. That’s nearly three times longer than the mountains up north dominating the subcontinent’s imagination. There is also one aspect about swimming, which strikes you as you behold it in Indian context, where the tendency of people to be in groups is very high. Swimming, even when practised in the restricted confines of a pool, envelops you in a private cocoon. In contrast, it is very common to find runners out in groups; often running and talking at once.

Swimming at the Bahrain Half Ironman (Photo: courtesy Joby Paul)

In January 2016, Naushad Asanar, who is a longstanding member of Soles of Cochin, completed a triathlon in Goa. It was the first time somebody from Soles did a triathlon. Naushad grew up in Thiruvananthapuram. His house there was close to the local swimming pool. While in the fourth or fifth standard at school, he had been packed off to attend coaching classes (they happen during the summer vacation period) offered by the Kerala State Sports Council at the pool. That and living in proximity to the pool enabling frequent swims, laid a strong foundation to his competence at swimming. However, as an adult – now working in Kochi – his interest in swimming hibernated. Till; his daughter enrolled to learn swimming. The venue for instruction was the Periyar River and with parents expected to accompany their children, Naushad went along. It was opportunity to brush up his old skills. In due course he accomplished a crossing of the river. It made him confident to do open water swimming. That was how Naushad’s journey to the triathlon in Goa, commenced. Following that triathlon, Naushad became Joby’s initial tutor on how to tackle swimming. To practise, they chose Thirumuppam kulam, a large public pond, in Varapuzha, some 15 kilometers away from Ernakulam.  “ It is a fairly large pond. Thanks to the interest of local authorities, it is also well maintained,’’ Naushad said. A perimeter swim here is roughly 350 meters long. Becoming competent to swim those 350 meters was Joby’s first target. For company, he had Naushad and other runners from Soles who had embraced swimming to cross-train. Naushad remembered Joby from those days. “ Joby was physically strong. But his swimming technique was inefficient. What works in his favor is that once he sets his mind on doing something, he goes after it systematically. He worked on dismantling his old style of swimming and acquiring a better one. He works hard,’’ Naushad said.

With finisher’s medal at the Bahrain Half Ironman (Photo: courtesy Joby Paul)

During this phase, Joby had a client in Bahrain. He used to travel to Bahrain on and off on work. Bahrain had a half Ironman event – it entailed swimming 1.9 kilometers, cycling 90 kilometers and doing a half marathon. Naushad suggested that Joby attempt it. The event was in December 2016. In one of those unexpected supportive twists of life, the Bahrain-based client, upon learning of Joby’s plan to attempt the local half Ironman and consequent need to train for it, offered to buy him a road bike so that he could train while in Bahrain on work. Joby registered for the event. “ Once you register for an event, there is no turning back. You are committed,’’ he said of the approach he has since come to believe in. However, that predicament of no turning back wasn’t something he intentionally did. Fact is – after he registered, his friends at Soles started talking about it. “ Now there was genuinely no going back,’’ Joby said laughing. The registration also made him more focused during his swim sessions at Varapuzha. In a month’s time, he managed the 350 meter-circuit of the pond. Still, swimming was what he required to work on. “ I was confident I will somehow manage the running and cycling. Swimming – I had no option but to train and improve,’’ Joby said. Meanwhile, every month for four to five days, he was in Bahrain. There, he cycled in the morning and evening on the Scott road bike that the client – Vin Technologies – got him. In Kochi, he trained on a Scott hybrid. Two to three months after registering for the Bahrain Half Ironman, Joby was managing 1-1.5 kilometers nonstop at swimming. “ It made me confident,’’ he said.

Working at the specific disciplines – running, cycling and swimming – which triathlon entails, wasn’t the only thing Joby had to do. Broadly speaking, 50 per cent of emphasis went into training volume to build up endurance with the balance 50 per cent, divided equally between strength training (including gym, yoga and stretching) and nutrition. Joby cut out junk foods and sugar. For the morning half of his day, he made his food intake carbohydrate-rich. The evening half, he made it protein-rich. He also took vitamin supplements. The Bahrain Half Ironman was scheduled for December 10, 2016. That day, it was relatively cold and windy. Minor details in preparation started to worry. For instance, all of Joby’s training – including swimming – had been in warm conditions. He had acquired a wet suit specifically for the event; it was bought by a client in the US and dispatched to him. He had tried it out at the pond in Varapuzha. But in the warm weather of Kerala he couldn’t wear it for more than ten minutes. So the wet suit was also in many ways, an unfamiliar quantum. Mercifully, the 1.9 kilometer-swim at the half Ironman went off alright. It was in cycling that Joby suffered setback. He came down a bridge fast. There was tailwind and as he turned right, the wind knocked him off balance. He crashed. The front wheel of the bike was bent, a tyre was punctured and one of the aerobars broke. He suffered injuries. It was kilometer 45. He rested for ten minutes.

Cycling at the Bahrain Half Ironman (Photo: courtesy Joby Paul)

The quickest way to inflate a punctured tyre is to use a carbon dioxide cartridge. They are small and easily carried by rider. However, the procedure has to be managed carefully. Since the gas is stored under high pressure in the cartridge, when released, it fills the tube fast. If the tube has been stuffed back in improperly, chances of rupture are high. There is also the need to handle the cartridge carefully. As the gas escapes from cartridge to tube, the cartridge can turn painfully cold. Joby inflated the tyre afresh with the carbon dioxide cartridge he had and fixed the wheel back. Because it was still slightly bent, the rim kept rubbing against the brake pad. To overcome the problem, he removed the front brake. The rest of the ride was therefore slow. The running that followed the cycling was painful because sweat kept pouring into all the scrapes and skin abrasion he had suffered in the crash. He finished the half marathon in two hours, four minutes. On finishing, his friends from Vin Technologies took him straight to hospital to get his injuries addressed. Overall, Joby completed the Bahrain Half Ironman in six hours, 40 minutes. The half Ironman boosted Joby’s confidence. “ At Soles people started encouraging me to attempt a full Ironman,’’ he said.

At the Florida Ironman (Photo: courtesy Joby Paul)

2016 saw Joby run full marathons in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Next year he did the same in Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai. Not long after the half Ironman in Bahrain, Joby acquired a new road bike – a Focus. He complemented the purchase with accessories sent him by supportive clients in the US (in his narrative, clients supportive of his interest in the triathlon are a fortunate occurrence, more than once). It was time to try a full Ironman. He set his eyes on the Florida Ironman of November 8, 2017. For the full Ironman distances are longer. The swimming spanned 3.86 kilometers, cycling – 180.2 kilometers and running – a full marathon. Training commenced six months in advance. This time, Joby had Ironman focused-company for training. Shiva Subramanian is an IT engineer, who as of 2018, worked with Cognizant Technology Solutions at their Kochi office. He hails from Kalloorani, a village in Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar district. In his school and college days, Shiva was a keen swimmer. He was good enough at the sport to represent Madurai Division at state level swimming competitions. After becoming an IT engineer, Shiva joined Wipro, eventually moving to Kochi. In 2015, at a ten kilometer-run organized by Wipro, he discovered his running legs; thanks to other runners he met, he also discovered Soles of Cochin. He started going out with the group. When Joby’s half Ironman journey unfolded at Soles, it inspired Shiva and provoked his curiosity. He was a good swimmer but in the years gone by when he had been a competitive swimmer, all focus had been on speed. Endurance; how good can I be at it? – That ate his curiosity. Shiva decided to embark on his own journey to Ironman.

Shiva Subramanian and Joby (Photo: courtesy Joby Paul)

When the Florida Ironman set in as Joby’s next goal, Shiva became his training partner. “ A training partner is important. Having someone along helps break the mental inertia,’’ Joby said. Training started at 4 AM. Monday was reserved for long bicycle rides from Edappally in Kochi to Alappuzha and back; a distance of 100-110 kilometers. Tuesday featured a 60 kilometer-bike ride and a 10 kilometer-run. Wednesday saw the duo swimming (one Wednesday they swam long distance; the next Wednesday, they did interval training in swimming). Thursday was spent running; usually hill runs with Soles of Cochin around the campus of Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) in Thrikkakara. Friday saw them back to long rides on the bike (here too variation with interval training prevailed). Saturday was dedicated to sea swimming; the Florida Ironman entailed open water swimming in the sea.

Joby with his wife, Sweety who is a runner. Their daughter also runs (Photo: courtesy Joby Paul)

Given its proximity to backwaters and the sea, swimming may seem commonplace and easily done in Kerala. Fact is – it was, when pressure on land was less, the water of its backwaters and rivers was cleaner and many traditional homes had access to sizable ponds that served as captive swimming pools. Kerala is a narrow state. It may have successfully contained population growth rate. But that doesn’t mean population in absolute terms has remained stagnant. Growing population, high density of population and impact of human activity has affected the quality of water in Kerala’s rivers and lagoons. Hunger for real estate has also meant hundreds of those old ponds covered up and lost; it has even meant loss of traditional farm land. Today, beneath that canopy of green which still graces the state, Kerala is consumerist and largely urban; quite different from how it must have felt like 50 or 60 years ago. For their Wednesday swim, Joby and Shiva first tried the backwaters of Poothotta, approximately 20 kilometers from Ernakulam. But they found the water quality to be bad. So they shifted to swimming in the Periyar River; the spot they chose was Manappuram in Aluva. In a big river, the water is at least flowing; effluents – if any – don’t linger. They identified a half kilometer-stretch which they could repeat as laps. One advantage of swimming in a major river that is flowing to meet the sea is that if you do your swimming as laps, on the return lap you are swimming against the current adding thus to overall work out. Still, neither river nor backwater can fully substitute conditions at sea. To become good at sea swimming one has to do just that. In the transition from the Bahrain Half Ironman to the full Ironman in Florida, there was a change in character to the component of open water swimming happening. In Bahrain, the swimming had been in a protected bay; in Florida, it would be sea. This couldn’t be ignored. Given they were not expert at sea swimming, Shiva and Joby decided to be careful in their training at Kochi. They reasoned that one of the angles to address while learning sea swimming, would be – how to handle an emergency should there be one. After all, you are some distance from land. Someone who knows the sea, alongside, would be helpful.

Joby with Prakashan (center) and Naushad Asanar (Photo: courtesy Joby Paul)

It is now ten years since Prakashan, who hails from Varapuzha, has been a lifeguard at Cherai beach. Cherai is some 25 kilometers away from Kochi’s city center. Prakashan has taught others to swim although never for a project like an Ironman event. According to him, Joby and Shiva heard of him through a common friend; they first met at Munambam. The duo apprised Prakashan of their need to be good at sea swimming for the Ironman event. “ They used to come to Cherai every Saturday morning by 6 AM. Then we would go about a kilometer out to sea and swim laps. The training would usually go on for three hours; we would wind up by 9 AM,’’ Prakashan recalled. While the duo swam, the lifeguard kept watch, moving alongside the swimmers on his surf board; he would lie on it and paddle with his hands. The surf board also served to carry a couple of bottles of water for hydration at sea. According to Joby, Kerala’s warm and humid conditions caused dehydration pretty fast. When monsoon arrived and Kochi disappeared behind the season’s veil of rain, Joby resorted to training at home. For cycling, he had special trainers – dispatched from the US by his clients – installed. Typically, for Joby, cycling is the most challenging discipline. He attributes that to Kochi not being a great place to train in cycling given the city’s narrow roads, traffic and inadequate street lights. “ If you are out cycling very early in the morning, then the hours till sunrise can be difficult for want of street lights. Once the sun is up, your next problem is growing traffic,’’ he said.

Running at the Florida Ironman (Photo: courtesy Joby Paul)

As the Ironman event drew close, his clients in the US came forward to book Joby’s accommodation. November 2017, in Florida, both swimming and cycling went off well. Unexpectedly, the challenge happened in running. At the 25 kilometer-mark of the full marathon, Joby felt quite tired. The last 10-12 kilometers went off very slowly. He completed the full marathon in 4:44. Overall, he took 13 hours and 43 minutes to complete the Florida Ironman. A momentum had now set in. Joby started looking around for his next Ironman event. He decided on the one at Nelson Mandela Bay in South Africa; the decision was partly influenced by a Kochi based-IT company called Litmus Seven seeking visibility in South Africa and therefore agreeing to sponsor Joby. Training for the South Africa event required a strong component of hill training. He did that on the home trainer. “ It was a busy period at work. So overall preparations weren’t as structured as I would have liked it to be,’’ Joby said. The Ironman event, which happened on April 15, 2018, was fantastic. “ The course in South Africa was spectacular, especially in the biking segment’’ Joby said. He completed the full marathon part in 4:10 and the Ironman event overall, in 14 hours, 16 minutes.

Cycling in South Africa (Photo: courtesy Joby Paul)

In the time since he started training for the triathlon, Shiva has steadily gained experience in the sport. In 2016, he finished a triathlon featuring half Ironman distances in Chennai. In 2017, he completed a similar event in Mysore. Then, over that year and 2018, he completed two events in Goa featuring distances equivalent to the Olympic triathlon. For his next Ironman, Joby has selected the event at Langkawi, Malaysia. It is scheduled for November 2018. Shiva will also be there for it; he said that people at Soles have been very supportive of his desire to attempt an Ironman. Training began in May. Additionally, at the time of our chat, Joby had registered for full marathons in Hyderabad and Delhi. “ I would like to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Running is my strongest discipline,’’ he said.

(The author, Shyam G. Menon, is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai. Timings at races are as mentioned by interviewee.)                 

Illustration: Shyam G Menon

For some time now, the emergent norm in weather worldwide has been – unpredictable. April 2018 hosted two well-known marathons. The events at Boston and London were separated by less than a week. The contrast was sharp. Boston featured one of its coldest race days while London offered one of its warmest. This year too, there were runners from India participating at both these events. We spoke to some of them about their experience.   

2018 BOSTON MARATHON

The world’s oldest annual marathon provided much to think about with its 2018 edition. The weather on race day was terribly cold and damp. Boston this year became a proposition to know running in the context of its weather as opposed to merely viewing running as methodical execution of race strategy under ideal circumstances. Yuki Kawauchi of Japan finished first among men; Geoffrey Kirui of Kenya finished second. Desiree Linden of US was top finisher among women. The 2018 Boston Marathon triggered an interesting debate on whether women handle adversity better than men. According to a report in The New York Times, the winning times for both men and women were the slowest since the 1970s and mid-race drop-out rate was up 50 per cent from what it was last year. But significantly, the drop-out rate for men was up 80 per cent from 2017, while it was up only about 12 per cent for women. Similarly, overall, five per cent of men dropped out during the 2018 edition of the race while only 3.8 per cent of women did the same. While it would be tempting to attribute this trend amid cold weather to the thicker layer of sub-cutaneous fat women have, fact is, in 2012 when the Boston Marathon was run in very warm weather, the finishing rate for women had been higher than for men.   

Kavitha Reddy, at an event in Pune (Photo: courtesy Kavitha Reddy)

Kavitha Reddy

On race day as runners scrambled to board the bus taking them to the start point of the 2018 Boston Marathon, the mood was not one of celebration.

The weather was dreary with howling winds accompanied by rain and snow. It was a depressing scenario for Kavitha Reddy. Doubts began to creep into her mind if she would complete the marathon she had come all the way from India to attempt.

“ I was confused. I was unsure whether I should run in light clothing or add warm layers. Finally I just followed the herd and added some more layers of clothing. So there I was, ready for my most awaited marathon, dressed more like a resident of the Arctic than a runner,’’ she said. Kavitha had hand warmers, three layers of clothing, tights and a plastic wrap on top. Despite all this she felt frozen to the bone when she stepped off the bus. At the race venue, runners huddled together, clad in layers of clothing.

Near the four kilometer-mark, she threw away her zipper jacket. At the seventh kilometer, Kavitha is used to taking salt tablets. At Boston she was unable to do that as her fingers were too numb to open the zip of her waist pouch. “ For the first time in my running career, I ran an entire marathon without any salts or energy gels,’’ she said adding that she picked up a bottle of Gatorade from a volunteer, but could not drink as it was too cold.

As she continued her run, the weather got progressively worse and many runners quit the race.

After Heartbreak Hill, at the 34^th kilometer, she took a sip of water and threw away her hand bottle. The worst was yet to come. Over the last seven kilometers the weather deteriorated further. “ The wind and the rain were so bad that I felt I was running in the same place and not moving forward. The last mile felt like a marathon in itself. Even though I could see the finish line, it felt like the wind was pushing me away,’’ she said.

Kavitha finished the race with a timing of 3:34:26, a little over a minute more than her personal best of 3:33:05 at the New York City Marathon of November 2017.

In 2015, Kavitha ran the Bangalore Marathon completing it with a sub-four hour timing of 3:53 hours. That was when she learnt about the possibility of qualifying for Boston Marathon; she also realized that she was quite close to the qualifying timing required for the iconic race.

In November 2017 she completed the New York City Marathon and followed it up with half marathon at the 2018 Mumbai Marathon where she finished first in the age group of 40-44 years among women.

For Boston, her coach added some more mileage and tweaked the workouts to make her stronger to tackle the marathon’s route. “ He prescribed undulating routes for my training runs. I did my tempo runs on roads that went up and down. I also included some hills in the second half of my long runs and did some fast finish-runs,” she said.

Going ahead, she will be attempting the Berlin Marathon in November 2018.

Mahesh Londhe (Photo: courtesy Mahesh Londhe)

Mahesh Londhe

A couple of days ahead of the Boston Marathon, the weather turned bad. The run ended up being extremely challenging for Mahesh Londhe. “ We are not used to running in such weather conditions where temperatures are at zero and sub-zero levels. Nevertheless this race taught me that as runners we have to be prepared for any eventuality,’’ Mahesh said.

At the race expo, Mahesh had to buy a whole range of running clothes that he would have to get into if the weather failed to improve. He had to buy thermals, gloves and raincoat. “I have never run wearing a raincoat,” he said.

According to Mahesh, many of the American runners also found the weather quite challenging.

The night before the race was terrible as it rained through the night. At the start point at Hopkinston Village, runners were milling around under tents attempting to protect themselves from cold winds and rains.

“Up until the 13^th mile, I was able to keep up my pace of sub-3 hour finish. But the cold started to get to me and I had to slow down,” said Mahesh.

By the 19^th mile, Mahesh had to slow down and was almost on the verge of giving up. However he decided to continue.

“The most amazing thing was the number of people who came to cheer the runners in such atrocious weather. There were children too among them, handing out hydration. People had come with raincoats for the runners. It was such a heart-warming sight,” Mahesh said.

Along the route, Mahesh could see that runners were quitting. At the finish line, Mahesh was in quite a bad shape with fever. He was rushed to the medical center. He finished the run in 3:59:17 hours.

Born in Mangalore, Mahesh was into cricket in his early years. He moved into running later and then got into triathlons. He has completed several triathlons including two Ironman competitions in Australia and France and a half Ironman in Sri Lanka.

A certified coach for Ironman, Mahesh was aiming for a sub-three hour finish at Boston. But what Mahesh ended up with was an experience that will be forever etched in his memory – running an iconic marathon amid severe cold, howling winds and lashing rain. “ It was the experience of a lifetime,’’ he said.

Karthik with K.C. Kothandapani (Photo: courtesy Karthik Anand)

Karthik Anand

Bangalore-based runner Karthik Anand kept an eye on weather reports in the run up to the Boston Marathon. He was mentally prepared for hostile weather.

Still it was extremely tough. “ I did not expect it to rain so heavily for the entire distance. I was hoping that the rain would taper but it just kept getting worse,’’ he said adding that strong winds made things really bad.

On race day, for the 11:15 AM race-start, Karthik left his hotel at 9 AM. “ That meant I was drenched for two hours even before the race started,’’ he said. He started his race much slower than planned. With heavy rains and winds, maintaining constant pace was important.

“ My hands were numb and I could hardly remove any gels from my pockets. The toes of my feet were all numb. I was shivering and my jaws were quivering from the cold. Because of wet clothes I also had to experience lot of chaffing,’’ Karthik said. He had to use extra jackets and track pants for protection from the cold weather. The jacket and track pants were thrown away before the start of the race. He used gloves to keep his hands warm but discarded them after the fifth kilometer.

Race Day, 2018 Boston Marathon; Karthik all layered up (Photo: courtesy Karthik Anand)

Karthik finished the race in 3:57 hours. “ The happiness of finishing Boston marathon under such tough conditions gives me immense pleasure,’’ he said.

Karthik’s training for Boston Marathon was under K.C. Kothandapani, among Bengaluru’s best known coaches. The training featured mileages of 90-100 kilometers every week, incorporating speed workout, tempo runs, hill runs, recovery runs and long runs apart from strength training.

Karthik started running in 2008. “ I had enrolled at a local gym. One of my friends who used to often run on the road forced me to join him. There has been no stopping since,’’ he said.

After some years of running, Karthik decided to attempt the world’s major marathons. He has already completed Berlin, Tokyo and Chicago apart from Boston. “ I will be running the New York Marathon in November 2018 followed by the London Marathon in April 2019. If I get an opportunity I will surely do Boston once more. It’s a beautiful course with a lot of crowd support,’’ he said.

Ramesh Kanjilimadhom (Photo: Shyam G Menon)

Ramesh Kanjilimadhom

Ramesh has run before at Boston, he has also run the Chicago Marathon. The third big marathon of North America – New York – has evaded him because its dates are very close to Kochi’s Spice Coast Marathon, which is managed by Soles of Cochin, the running group Ramesh identifies with.

This April, the Boston Marathon happened in very cold conditions. “ The weather in New England is dynamic. There is a saying there that if you don’t like the weather, you should wait for five minutes. That’s how fickle it is. Seasoned runners from Boston tell you of it,’’ Ramesh said. The marathon’s 2018 edition witnessed one of the worst weather conditions in its history.

“ I reached the US a week earlier. I ran a half marathon in Virginia, near where I used to live. It was cold but the run went off well. I could handle the cold. Until about two days before the Boston Marathon, the weather forecast spoke of mildly windy and wet conditions. Then it suddenly changed to strong wind and rain,’’ Ramesh said.

Three years earlier, in 2015, he had experienced near similar conditions in Boston, although not as bad as it was manifesting now. Running the race’s 2015 edition, he had slipped into hypothermia. He had then walked randomly into a building, where people took good care of him, covering him in a warm blanket and feeding him hot soup. Cold and Ramesh don’t seem a great combination; in 2010 too, he had ended up shivering and experiencing hypothermia after a marathon in upstate New York.

Luckily in 2018, while in the US to run the Boston Marathon, Ramesh stayed with a friend whose son was into rowing. The son had a collection of warm clothes Ramesh could borrow to layer himself for the race. Additionally, his friend offered to be at the finish line with more warm clothes, just in case that was needed.

Ramesh reached the start line of the Boston Marathon wearing four layers of warm clothing. “ Still it wasn’t enough for me, given the wind,’’ he said. The running was miserable; he took it slow and easy. Playing in his mind were memories of previous runs in cold weather. “ I was cautious. I was dreading what lay in store at the end,’’ Ramesh said.

He knows the Boston race route well. He knows how to strategize his passage; what objective difficulties to anticipate on the course and how to tackle it. Yet none of that past experience helped to elevate his spirits. All through, the bleak weather lingered in mind, a persistent annoyance.

“ The beauty of Boston is its crowds. This time the crowd was thinner than usual. But those who came cheered and supported the race as best as they could. The event’s volunteers also went out of their way to encourage runners,’’ Ramesh said. Despite the encouragement, runners pulling out of the race, electing not to finish – were many.

Ramesh finished the marathon in three hours, forty minutes; he last saw such timing was in 2013 or so. That was how much the weather slowed him down. On the bright side, he completed with no shivering or hypothermia. The multiple layers he wore helped. Thermal blankets were distributed and this year, the blankets were better than before. His friends who met him at the finish line brought hot chocolate.

Ramesh said that he wasn’t surprised at all by the race results dominated by North American runners. Given the weather, he had an inkling that such outcome lay in store. “ Having said that, Yuki Kawauchi of Japan finishing first among men shouldn’t seem out of place. He is known to do well in cold weather,’’ Ramesh said, adding, “ one thing did surprise me – notwithstanding the cold weather, the timing returned by some of the podium finishers is really good.’’

Looking ahead, Ramesh said he would like to run the London and Berlin marathons.

Brijesh Gajera (Photo: courtesy Brijesh Gajera)

Brijesh Gajera

Brijesh Gajera has been running for the past ten years.

About four years ago he realized that it was possible for him to qualify for one of the world’s most competitive marathons – Boston Marathon. He was edging close to the qualifying time of 3:10 hours assigned for his age category.

At the 2017 edition of Mumbai Marathon, he finished the full marathon in 3:03 hours, thereby qualifying for Boston.

Brijesh – he works with Cisco – commenced his training for Boston in November 2017. “ I trained as per my plan,’’ he said. After training under Bengaluru-based coach K.C. Kothandapani for several years, he spun off on his own; he evolved both his own training plan and group.

At Boston, he found the expo well organised.

On race day, the holding area where runners were milling around was slushy as it had been raining since early morning. “ I had four layers of clothing until the start of the race. Once the race began I discarded the top two layers,’’ he said.

Despite the weather conditions, for about 24-25 kilometres, Brijesh’s run progressed in tune with his target of bettering his personal best of 3:03 hours. “ At that point there was heavy downpour. We are not used to such conditions. I was quite cold and shivering,’’ he said.

Even though the weather kept deteriorating, the thought of quitting the race did not cross his mind. “ This was my first run overseas. So, there was no question of quitting. I wanted to complete it at any cost,’’ he said.

Brijesh realized that timing and similar other personal targets would have to be chucked out of the window; the focus had to be on completing the race.

(From left) Brijesh, Gurudev Nagaraja and K. C. Kothandapani (Photo: courtesy Brijesh Gajera)

“ At the 38 kilometer-mark, a runner from Peru asked me to run with him as he was also finding the going tough. This was his first run overseas. We ran the rest of the distance together,’’ Brijesh said.

He completed Boston Marathon in 3:40 hours.

Brijesh then went on to run the Big Sur International Marathon, held annually along the Pacific Coast. He completed that event with a timing of 3:55:59 hours. “ This marathon was spectacularly scenic. It was fun with people singing and dancing along the route. I took it easy as I wanted to stop and take pictures. Along the way, it did rain and that brought some worry,’’ he said.

Back from his running and hiking sojourn, Brijesh intends to rest a while and then focus on filling his running calendar with suitable events.

2018 LONDON MARATHON

For UK, the winter of 2017-2018 was unusually cold; the media named the cold spell: The Beast from the East after the causative weather pattern spanning from the Russian Far East to the British Isles. By April 2018, it appears to have been another story. Held annually since 1981, the London Marathon witnessed its hottest race day ever for the 2018 edition. According to reports, extra water was provided and more cooling showers added along the route to combat the heat. The organizers told runners to leash in their appetite to push themselves for improved timing; they were also advised to avoid fancy dress clothing, which could lead to over-heating. The results at warm London were a sharp contrast to Boston. Of the top ten finishers among men, barring one runner – Mo Farah, the rest are all from Africa. In the women’s segment, six of the top ten hailed from Africa, while one person was from Bahrain. Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya topped among men; Vivian Cheruiyot also from Kenya, topped among women.  

Pervin and her husband Kushru, at the 2018 London Marathon (Photo: courtesy Pervin Batliwala)

Pervin Batliwala

Standing at the start line of the 2018 London Marathon, all Pervin Batliwala could see was a sea of humanity. “ There were people and more people,’’ she said.

For her, the race was not easy for two reasons. First, it was very warm. The race day of 2018 was the warmest in the event’s history with temperatures touching 24.1 degrees. “ The sun was very strong. It hit you really hard,’’ she said, adding that unlike in India where races start early, in London the start was around 10:30 AM. This meant the average marathoner is running through late morning hours and into the afternoon hours.

The second factor that bothered Pervin was the crowd. There were far too many runners and it was very difficult to make one’s way through the crowd.

Nevertheless, Pervin’s outing at her second world marathon major – her first was Boston Marathon in 2017 – went off well. She finished in 4:16, largely within her expectations.

“ I achieved what I had planned and trained for,’’ Pervin said, adding that her GPS device showed that she had run about 500 meters more as she had to wind her way through gaps in the crowd of runners on her path.

“I worked very hard for this run. I have not taken a break at all starting with the race in Delhi late last year followed by Mumbai Marathon in January this year, Thane Hiranandani Half Marathon in February, Navi Mumbai Half Marathon, also in February and now the London Marathon,” she said.

The London Marathon, according to her, starts at three points and converges at the 5 km-point. “ The roads are narrow. Over and above that many runners kept throwing bottles,’’ Pervin said.

Following a holiday overseas, Pervin’s next race will be her third from the world marathon majors – the 2018 New York City Marathon scheduled for November. Following that, she will be doing her fourth major at Tokyo in February 2019.

“ I now want to focus on strength training, where I have shortfall to bridge,’’ she said. Pervin does not plan to do London or Boston in the immediate future. Her focus is now on completing all the six marathon majors.

Kiran (orange T-shirt) at one of the editions of the Chicago Marathon (Photo: courtesy Kiran Kapadia)

Kiran Kapadia

For Kiran, running the London Marathon was an awesome experience despite the downsides of 2018 race day. “ It was quite hot and because the race starts late we had to bear the brunt of the sun,’’ Kiran said.

Kiran finished the marathon in 3:50 hours, tad outside his target of around 3:40 hours. “ After the 12^th kilometre or so, my legs started to feel very heavy probably because of the heat. I immediately slowed down my pace so as to help myself to go the entire distance of 42.2 kilometers,” Kiran said.

He had a fairly good training season ahead of London Marathon although the unusually warm temperatures of March in Mumbai did impact some of his Sunday long runs.

Kiran, 58, has been running for the past ten years. “ I did my first full marathon at the age of 52,’’ he said, adding that he has run many of the marathons at overseas destinations including New York, Chicago, Prague, Rotterdam and twice at Berlin.

He was involved in sporting activities through his school and college years but his foray into running happened much later. “ When I hit my mid-40s I realised that I was leading a sedentary lifestyle and with it came demons in the form of cholesterol and triglycerides edging above acceptable levels,’’ he said. This was his wake-up call and he immediately plunged into walk-run activity graduating to running.

All in all, the London Marathon was a great experience with awesome crowd support. It was a well-executed race, he said.

Mehlam at the 2018 London Marathon (Photo: courtesy Mehlam Faizullabhoy)

Mehlam Faizullabhoy

Record high temperatures on race day at London probably hit the targeted timing of many runners. But Mehlam Faizullabhoy ended up with a new personal best of 3:38 hours.

He attributes it to his strength training.

In training, Mehlam’s mileage also fell short because he travels on work very often. “I travel a lot and therefore miss out running days. But I do a lot of strength training. Wherever I travel to, I use the gym seriously,” he said. Mehlam believes that strength training is what helps runners get through the last 10 kilometers of a marathon.

London marathon was an enjoyable experience for Mehlam. “ It is a very well organised race with great atmosphere and fantastic crowd support,’’ he said.

Mehlam has had an active sporty life through school and college and the years after that with sports such as rugby, cricket and badminton being his preferred choice. Knee injury forced him to give up badminton and move to spinning. Eventually he moved to running.

He did his first half marathon at the 2009 edition of Mumbai Marathon. The very next year, he graduated to the full marathon and from then on has run a total of 12 full marathons, two of them overseas in Barcelona and Rotterdam.

“ My training this time was quite good. Actually, I had started way back in July 2017 as I was scheduled to run a race in Tokyo in October 2017. But the run there got cancelled because of a typhoon,’’ he said. That training came in good stead for the Mumbai Marathon in January 2018 where Mehlam scored a personal best of 3:42:53.

Mehlam is due to participate in the Chicago Marathon later this year.

(The authors, Latha Venkatraman and Shyam G Menon, are independent journalists based in Mumbai.)