Vijayaraghavan (Vijay) Venugopal (Photo: Shyam G Menon)

The story behind a hat-trick of sub-three finishes over 2016-17 at the marathons in Paris, Berlin and Boston

Early May, 2017.

I had completely over-estimated the distance to my appointment from where I stayed. Bengaluru’s Vittal Mallya road ended up very much in the neighborhood. A lot had happened in the 34 years since the man in whose memory the road was named, passed away. Impressive brick and mortar constructions bearing the name of the company he was elected director of in the year of India’s independence, rose nearby. Vittal Mallya’s son, having defaulted on bank loans worth millions was now living in UK. Suddenly, the high flying life wasn’t what it seemed. It smacked of quicksand; a gooey mess that sucks you in if you are not watchful. With an hour to kill and the afternoon heat of an Indian summer to escape, I stepped into a luxury mall the son built. As with all malls, the shift in ambiance worked till the skin’s relief in trading heat for air conditioning wore off. Then, the monotony of synthetic world took over. I tried to think of what lay ahead. Closer to appointment, I reached the assigned office, an address for several businesses. In the reception they all shared, the lone copy of the Bengaluru Times returned me to faces that harked of mall left behind. It wasn’t difficult identifying Vijayaraghavan (Vijay) Venugopal when he walked in. He looked every bit, runner.

Approximately 700 km south-west of Bengaluru and less than 100 km from the tip of the Indian peninsula, is Thiruvananthapuram; erstwhile Trivandrum. It is the capital of Kerala, among early states in independent India to establish a reputation in games and athletics. Most educational institutions here – at least in the decades before Indian independence and in the decades immediately following it – had big campuses with playgrounds. Some colleges were well known for their teams in sport; talk to old timers and you realize, there even used to be an element of talent scouting. In years gone by, at several places in cities, towns and villages, it was common to see open space preserved as a volleyball court or badminton court. Post-harvest, fields devoid of crop served as venue for local football tournaments. In the 1970s and 1980s, a drive along the state’s national highway usually yielded the sight of local matches in progress. Rivers and large ponds at old houses on land yet to be divided into a hundred plots became swimming pools. Point is – the affection for the active life ran deep. It wasn’t cosmetic. Every day, the emphasis on academics grew. But in Kerala, until the recent epidemic of life by entrance tests and professional qualification, it was never deemed bad to indulge in sports.

Vijay was born in 1975 in Thiruvananthapuram. At that time C. Achutha Menon of the Communist Party of India (CPI) was chief minister of this paradox of a state, at once literate and conservative, ahead in social indices yet industrially barren, admiring arts and literature, politically volatile and sport loving. Arguably, the Malayali’s greatest strength and weakness was awareness exceeding what is best for his / her own good. It was a vibrant universe of interesting aspirations and potential self-entrapment. Amid this, through all the frequent processions by flag wielding political cadres and the occasional shut down in capital city, a fleet of buses painted grey plied without fail in the morning and in the evening. Ferrying people to work, they belonged to an organization begun 13 years before Vijay’s birth. Thumba in Thiruvananthapuram is very close to the Earth’s magnetic equator. That made it an ideal place for scientists to do atmospheric research. In 1962, the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) was established. Since then, sounding rockets have been regularly launched from Thumba. The growing organization became known as the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC). It is today the largest facility of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), doing work on everything from sounding rockets to ASLV, PSLV, GSLV and GSLV Mark III rockets. Vijay’s father worked at VSSC. The family – his parents continue to reside in Thiruvananthapuram – spoke Tamil at home.

From a 10 km race in Bengaluru (Photo: courtesy Vijay)

Every town in the country has an idea of the best schools around. In the Thiruvananthapuram of the 1970s, Loyola School, located just outside city limits and tad to the north, was among most sought after. That’s where Vijay studied. “ I was the typical school going child – good at studies and good at sports,’’ he said. Loyola had a reputation locally in sports; its basketball team was particularly respected. Vijay used to participate in the school’s athletics competitions finishing second or third but what he was genuinely interested in, was a sport the Kerala of that time wasn’t famous for – cricket. In an irony of sorts, despite cricket played in Thalassery in north Kerala in the early 19th century – much before it was played elsewhere in India – it had failed to excite Keralites as much as football, volleyball and basketball did. Vijay was a good cricketer. He became captain of the school team, played in the district under-12 team for Thiruvananthapuram and played in the under-13 and under-16 teams for Kerala. He dreamt of becoming a state level player competing in the Ranji Trophy, which is a domestic first class-cricket championship.

After school and pre-degree, Vijay joined the College of Engineering, Trivandrum (CET). He studied mechanical engineering. In this phase of life, studies took precedence. Yet he continued to play cricket, remaining good enough to be part of the college team. CET’s cricket team was strong; it has produced Ranji players. One of the years Vijay was at CET, they topped the university in cricket. To keep his interest in athletics alive, Vijay participated in track and field disciplines at college. However, there was a practical reason for his partiality to cricket. Vijay liked to excel at what he did and he knew that competition in track and field events in Kerala was tough. “ In athletics, you could win at your school or college and be the king of all you surveyed there. But step out and you got killed by competition. It was that competitive in Kerala,’’ he said, an observation speaking much of the breadth and depth of sporting activities in the state. By the time Vijay was at CET, Kerala’s fame as a powerhouse in Indian athletics was firmly established. In the 1970s, names like Suresh Babu and T.C. Yohannan were frequently mentioned in the media. Then, in 1976 – a year after Vijay was born – a young P.T. Usha was spotted by coach, O.M. Nambiar at a prize distribution ceremony. The rest is history.

While Vijay’s craze for cricket was strong enough for him to feel that getting a spot in a Ranji Trophy squad was greater achievement than securing entry to an Indian Institute of Management (IIM), what did happen after his B Tech in mechanical engineering was admission for MBA at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi. Here, they formed a cricket team and Vijay was part of it. But in a match he suffered serious head injury after being hit by a ball. Following IIFT, he joined the pharmaceutical company, Dr Reddy’s. In 2002, he shifted to Lupin Limited, another pharma company. He recalls wining a 100 m dash at a company sports meet. But once again, what assumed importance was cricket. Vijay became opening batsman for Lupin’s cricket team. Every year in Mumbai, pharmaceutical companies competed for the Merck Shield; it was a cricket tournament among pharma companies. When Vijay was at Lupin, the company won this shield once and finished second twice. “ Yet, a truly active life was eluding me,’’ Vijay said pointing out that in his view, the years between age 20 and 32-33 years of age were given to preparing for employment and then staying surrendered to employment. In 2004, while Vijay was based in Mumbai, the first Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon (SCMM) happened. Once or twice, he applied to run at the event but didn’t go. It did not excite him enough. Further, through school, college and subsequently corporate life, his fancy had remained with team sports. Distance running on the other hand, appeared an invitation to court and dwell in personal ecosystem. There is a certain solitude that comes with running. The impulse to embrace such sport wasn’t yet there in him.

In 2007, while still at Lupin, Vijay moved to Shanghai in China. He was there for the next three years. In China, he took to playing badminton. He also added the breast stroke to his repertoire of swimming styles picked up long ago at the Water Works Swimming Pool in Thiruvananthapuram. The year after he arrived in China, the Beijing Olympics took place. Seated among spectators at the stadium known worldwide as Bird’s Nest, he watched Usain Bolt in action. He also got an opportunity to see Formula One racing in Shanghai and see the likes of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic play at the Shanghai Masters. In 2010, Vijay returned to Mumbai with Lupin. A year later, he left the company and Mumbai. Alongside, he decided to look for a different sport to stay engaged in; cricket’s time was up. “ Looking back, I think this was also a product of the stage and age in life I found myself in. By nature I am not an extrovert. I don’t build friendships and relationships easily,’’ he said, illustrating the shift from an early romance in life with team based activities to pursuits truer to his nature. Besides, as he pointed out, emergent allegations of betting and match fixing had taken some of the sheen from cricket. In 2000, the Hansie Cronje episode surfaced, which also named former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin; in 2010 three Pakistani cricketers would be implicated on match fixing charges, by 2013 the Indian Premier League (IPL), which commenced the year after Vijay moved to Shanghai, would also run into turbulence over spot fixing. As the habits and tendencies of market seeped into a cricket becoming more commercial by the day, the game’s purity and standing took a beating. Those lost years – the age from 20 to 32-33, spent surrendered to career and cricket – would have been ideal for a physically demanding activity like running. Contemporary life is such that the mind wakes up to the loss, only later.

From a visit to New York; Vijay with his daughters Sharanya and Radhika (Photo: courtesy Vijay)

In 2011, Vijay moved to Pune with a company called Emcure Pharmaceuticals Ltd. The new job had less travel attached to it. Daily life swung between work and family. There was space available to be filled. Compared to Mumbai, Pune was a smaller place. Facebook had grown to be a popular tool to connect with people. The city had runners. Vijay spent his time running a bit, swimming and visiting the gym. He explained how his interest in running grew. “ In the amateur space in India, running is among the few activities that are goal driven. By nature I need some small goals to achieve. Looked that way, running is measurable and finite,’’ Vijay said. He started going out with running groups in Pune. In December 2011, he did a 10 km-run. Next year, he ran the TCS 10K. In 2013, he was back in Mumbai, this time for his first SCMM. Having found a sport that fit his nature, Vijay’s next priority was to ensure that he didn’t rush into it. His first half marathon was in 2012, in Pune; his first official half marathon was in Hyderabad, in August 2012. Registering for his first serious SCMM thereafter, he however didn’t follow any specific training plan. Nevertheless he completed the 2013 event’s full marathon in 4:02. Doing the full marathon in Hyderabad in August that year, he decided to attempt a sub-four. “ I was really humbled by the experience; it was miserable after 27 km. I finished in 4:07,’’ he said. He recalls asking Kochi-based runner, Ramesh Kanjilimadhom of what may have gone wrong. “ The first thing he asked was – which training plan did you follow?’’ Vijay said. That was the moment Vijay understood the importance of training plan. Looking around for a plan that fitted in with his nature and priorities, he zeroed in on the Run Less Run Faster program. Authored by Bill Pierce, Scott Mur and Ray Moss, it featured only three days of running per week and had much cross training thrown in. “ I have since tweaked it a bit but till date, that is essentially the running plan I follow,’’ Vijay said.

Vijay’s wife grew up in Bengaluru. In 2013, Vijay and family shifted from Pune to Bengaluru, where his wife commenced working while Vijay dabbled in some entrepreneurial ventures (by 2015, Vijay and his partners would launch Fast & Up, a sports nutrition brand, currently well-known to the Indian running community) . A challenge in Bengaluru was managing his susceptibility to asthma. The city has one of the highest incidences of the condition; a 2007 report available on pharmabiz.com said that Bengaluru accounted for an estimated 25 per cent of all asthma cases in India. Despite this, on the bright side, Vijay’s life in running was beginning to fall in place. Running the full marathon at the 2014 SCMM, Vijay breached the sub-four barrier by a wide margin. He completed the race in 3:34. That was a huge improvement. While his new training plan was definitely delivering results, his approach to improvement was also noteworthy. He wasn’t targeting improving in the age category he belonged to; he was targeting the best he could be. Next goal was to crack the 3:30 mark. However at the Spice Coast Marathon in Kochi later that year, Vijay could complete the full marathon in only 3:37. With it, his 2014 calendar concluded, for Vijay does not run more than two or three marathons a year. “ The decision to run only a few marathons is a combination of borrowed and personal wisdom. Elite athletes advise so. In my particular case, I need adequate time for training and recovery. So two to three full marathons a year appears optimum,’’ Vijay said.

A couple of months later at the 2015 SCMM, the 3:30 barrier fell; he finished the full marathon in 3:23. Why are his improvements in timing, sizable? Why are they not by small increments?  “ I don’t know the reason for that but that’s how it has been,’’ Vijay said. Same year, running the half marathon at the Bengaluru Marathon, he got his first podium finish with a timing of 1:29. According to Vijay, he values all distances in running between 5 km to 42 km. He does not foray into races exceeding 42 km. “ Eighty per cent of the time I am in training mode. It is only the balance 20 per cent that I compete,’’ he said. In November 2015, he returned to Kochi for the Spice Coast Marathon. It is a flat track. At the eighth kilometer, Vijay tripped and suspected he had injured himself. However, it seemed manageable. At 21 km, he actually took the lead. “ Suddenly I saw the police escort in front of me,’’ he said. That year, he won the full marathon at Spice Coast. His timing was 3:14. It was both satisfying and a turning point. As the gap with the three hour-barrier reduced, new goals loomed. Then at the 2016 SCMM, a setback occurred. Usually for the asthmatic Vijay, running at sea level is a better experience than running in Bengaluru. Unfortunately a week ahead of SCMM, he got an asthma attack. Its effects continued into race day in Mumbai. He was targeting timing below 3:10. He maintained the required pace till the 26 km-mark. Then he found he couldn’t sustain it. He pulled out. It was his first Did Not Finish (DNF).

After the Paris Marathon (Photo: courtesy Vijay)

1896 is a special year in the world of sports. That’s the year the modern Olympic Games made their debut in Athens, Greece. Less importantly, it was also the year the first Paris Marathon – the Tour De Paris Marathon – was held. According to Wikipedia, the current Paris Marathon traces its origin to 1976. The event is normally held on a Sunday in April and participation is limited to 50,000 runners. The route is attractive, passing as it does through the heart of Paris. Vijay had decided that once he breached the 3:30-mark, he would try running overseas. He applied for the Paris Marathon of April, 2016. After a couple of weeks spent putting the DNF at SCMM behind him, from February onward, he started training for the Paris run. That month there was a half marathon in Delhi; he finished it in 1:23. Back in Bengaluru, he mostly trained alone for Paris. Once, Soji Mathew – the half marathon specialist from the Indian Railways – joined the training run to pace him. Soji has been a podium finisher at major events in India, in his chosen discipline. “ I like running with better runners,’’ Vijay said. During these training runs he was reporting timings like 3:02 for the full marathon. He went to Paris with a plan for 3:10. One good thing about being in Europe and US is that Vijay’s respiratory system functions well. He finished the full marathon in Paris with a timing of 2:59:48. It was his first sub-three. “ I was genuinely happy for it,’’ he said.

The nature of a marathon course plays a role in the timings athletes can set. Flat courses are prized in this context. In the world of marathon running, the maximum number of world records has been reported from the Berlin Marathon. The current world record of 2:02:57 is in the name of Dennis Kimetto of Kenya; it was established on September 28, 2014 in Berlin. This city marathon was begun in 1974 and usually takes place in the last weekend of September. With the outcome in Paris, Vijay qualified to run at the 2017 Boston Marathon. But before that iconic race, there was Berlin. The 2016 race in Berlin saw altogether 46,950 entrants from 122 countries; among them, Vijay.  Running the full marathon, he completed the race in 2:55. That was his second official sub-three. Berlin done and with Boston due the next year, Vijay skipped the 2017 SCMM. It was important not to overdo. Meanwhile in Berlin, Vijay had developed a new goal. “ The charm of Berlin is that it offers the fastest course. For me, the challenge was to replicate the sub-three I earned in Paris. That I did. What I have seen in India is that people crack sub-three but then find it hard to sustain it. In the current running scenario, a lot of amateurs are knocking at the doors of the three hour-mark. Breaking it consistently is the responsibility of some people to show,’’ Vijay said. Can he make it a hat-trick in Boston? That was the challenge at hand.

Begun in 1897, the Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest annual marathon. In running, it is historically significant. For most people, to go and run in Boston is to be part of a great tradition. It typically ends at that. Vijay on the other hand had a concrete goal – a third sub-three. Given he ran few events every year, he planned for Boston carefully. Two things particularly bothered. First, Boston’s is not an easy course; there are plenty of ups and downs. For someone new to sub-three timing in the marathon, ensuring similar result in Boston won’t be easy. Second, the city experiences fluctuations in temperature with some race days being warm, some cold. Vijay’s careful approach paid off. He completed the 2017 Boston Marathon in 2:57, among best timings in recent years by an Indian who is a resident of India and traveling there to run the race. He had a hat-trick in the bag. Vijay does not look at his sub-three timings as licence to be apart. He wants more people cracking the sub-three barrier. “ When you have a mass of people doing better, then you will also do better. So it is important that you have a sizable population registering good timing in running,’’ he said.

From a 10 km race in Bengaluru (Photo: courtesy Vijay)

What is Vijay’s goal now?

The globe’s six leading marathon events – the races in Boston, London, Chicago, Berlin, New York and Tokyo – are part of the World Marathon Majors. “ I am now looking at getting sub-three at all the six major marathons. It will be challenging because you have to maintain timing and also stay injury-free. I am not getting younger. My next full marathon will probably be 2018 SCMM. Getting a sub-three in Mumbai would be nice,’’ he said. There is also another emergent angle. Several businessmen have put their capital behind sports they fancy or are synergic with their business; some do the least they can in terms of active participation in sport but leverage media to make it seem significant. Few actually excel at given sport. Vijay is now the CEO of Fast & Up. Although Vijay’s entry into running preceded the creation of Fast & Up by a few years, his subsequent excellence at running does make him among the few CEOs around who not only have hobbies synergic with their work but can also be taken seriously in the sport concerned. Asked if the combination of sports nutrition brand and its CEO, passionate about running, was conscious choice, he said the situation was coincidental. “ Running started in 2013 in right earnest and Fast & Up happened from late 2015. So it was purely co-incidental. But I do concede the synergies. I try to stay away from the brand as much as possible, when it comes to me as an individual in running. You would have never seen me promoting my runs / podium finishes and the brand together. Many a time when the internal team wants to portray my finishes from the official Fast & Up handle, I vigorously dissuade them. Fast & Up is promoted by other athletes who genuinely like the brand and a host of well-wishers. For me the brand should grow up as an institution. Individuals don’t matter,’’ he said. Does the combination others imagine in their head, put pressure on him to perform? “ No. I don’t see it as a combination. However I am aware of the fact that people may perceive a close association. As long as you are sincere to what you do, it does not matter,’’ he said.

(The author, Shyam G Menon, is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai. This article is based on a conversation with the subject.)

Illustration: Shyam G Menon

Given where I was headed, I had told myself that the camera would be a definite no-go. So it stayed behind in the hotel room. At the gate of the establishment I needed to be in, off went my cell phone and bag as well. They had to be surrendered. I was allowed to proceed like a scribe from journalism’s early days – two writing pads and two pens clutched in my hand for pursuit of profession. I liked that situation. It restored purity and simplicity. Like early morning run; time with oneself and nothing else before world by restless cell phone, breathless TV, exploding traffic and a thousand expectations take over. “ Careful,’’ Siddesha Hanumantappa said as I almost fell onto a nearby patch of carefully manicured green thanks to my shin splint of a leg giving away. We were at the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) in Bengaluru. Siddesha found a quiet conference room for the interview he had promised.

Nelamangala is a town in Bengaluru rural district. It is around 25 kilometers away from Karnataka’s capital city, towards Tumkur. This is where Siddesha was born in March 1959, one of nine siblings. His mother who was illiterate stayed a housewife. His father managed a job in the police for a while, then, he resigned and commenced a business in Nelamangala. The income generated was barely sufficient to support the family. “ Of the nine siblings, six survive. Now I am the youngest,’’ Siddesha said. Educated at a government school, he studied in Kannada medium up to the eighth standard. “ From fifth onward, I learnt English. I moved to English medium when I was in the eighth standard,’’ he said. Twelfth standard was a turning point for young Siddesha. His father, who had supported the family, passed away. His mother struggled to keep things going. Siddesha therefore decided to work. In May 1978, an opportunity emerged to join the Indian Air Force (IAF). He grabbed it. After initial training in Bengaluru, he was posted to Lucknow. There an incident happened that altered his fortunes in life. A colleague wished to desert the IAF and while doing so, he left the books he had purchased to do an engineering course, with Siddesha. It sparked an idea – why not study engineering? The IAF provided perfect room for continuing education. Alongside his regular work, Siddesha enlisted to study electrical engineering from Institution of Engineers, Kolkata. He was a dedicated student. He finished the AMIE engineering course in two and a half years. “ I gave my first exam in May 1980, the last one in December 1982,’’ he said. Next, he enlisted for M. Tech at Harcourt Butler Technical Institute (HBTI), Kanpur.  He was about to finish his first semester, when he got an offer from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to work at their Engine Division. “ Following my selection by HAL, IAF allowed me to leave,’’ Siddesha said. He joined HAL in March 1985. Two years later, seeking a change of scene, he shifted to ADA, a premier institution just established by the Government of India to design and develop the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). “ I am one of the oldest employees of ADA,’’ he said.

In his days at school decades ago, Siddesha was an active individual. He participated in any sport that entailed running. Football, kho-kho and kabaddi were his favorites. “ It wasn’t anything competitive; it was more of staying active,’’ he said. Things changed when he joined the IAF; the most significant shift perhaps being the early onset of responsibility given his father was no more by then. The young man needed to find a trajectory to move up in life. Despite the military being popularly associated with physical activity, Siddesha’s IAF days were quite different. Coming across those engineering books had rekindled the desire to study and with his joining the engineering course and completing it double quick in two and a half years, most days were spent studying. “ I would work eight hours and study up to twelve hours a day,’’ he said. During exam time, study hours increased further. Sleep wasn’t much. “ If I take up something, I become very serious about it,’’ Siddesha said. It was a trait that would show up in his running too.

Photo: courtesy Siddesha Hanumantappa

While he had all along been a sports loving person, it wasn’t until September 13, 1994 (he recalls the exact date) that running as the running it is these days for most of us, visited him. That day his wife who is an agricultural scientist and senior professor, went on outstation duty. The couple’s son, who was in nursery, was set to have an internal exam. Meanwhile, design work at office had also peaked leaving Siddesha a tired, exhausted man by the time he got home. “ The routine was to go home tired, eat and crash out,’’ he said. As alternative, he decided to seek time in the morning to spend with his son for his studies. Doing so, they woke up early and went for walk / jog together from 5.30 AM to 7.30 AM, from home to Cubbon Park and back. During this peaceful, private time, Siddesha, who would have prepared notes the previous night, taught his son what he required to know for his exams at school. The family stayed near Cubbon Park in Bengaluru. This early morning routine went on for a few years. As the days went by, the walking inched towards a mix of jogging and running. Siddesha’s son became fond of cricket. He ended up training at the Brijesh Patel Cricket Academy in 1998. When that happened, Siddesha’s daughter stepped in to fill the vacancy in the early morning walks. In due course she got selected to represent Karnataka in field hockey at the sub-junior level; she went on to play for the state at senior level too. According to Siddesha the drift to running from walking / jogging, happened mainly because of his fancy for return on investment. Running gave back much more than walking did. Even if he was teaching his children, he could jog or run alongside. “ Luckily my son and daughter were game to join me on those early morning walks. That was my biggest strength,’’ he said. From 2005 onward, with his children having made their own choice in sport, Siddesha started running solo. He would run from home to Cubbon Park and back. The distance run used to be six kilometers initially; that progressively increased to nine kilometers by 2009.

In 2009, while running at Cubbon Park, he met Rishikesh Basu and Amritha Mitra. They were part of the running group called BHUKMP. Said so, that abbreviation reminds of the Hindi word for earthquake. In the running world, it is expanded as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ultra, Kaveri Trail, Mumbai and Puducherry. Rishikesh and Amritha pulled Siddesha into BHUKMP. “ With that, my running became really serious. Even now I train with Rishikesh Basu and Amritha. Three days a week I run with them. The remaining four days, I run alone,’’ he said. In 2010, Siddesha participated in the Kaveri Trail Marathon; he ran the full marathon. He not only completed the race but to his utter surprise he also placed first in his category. “ I was stunned,’’ he said. Thereafter podium finishes have been regular for Siddesha. On the average, he participates in roughly six full marathons a year. “ By now I would have run 48-49 marathons,’’ he said early May 2017 at ADA, “ I am not too ambitious as regards targets in running. I don’t care much for timing. I worry only about distance and remaining injury-free. If you want to run injury-free, you must stay stress-free.’’

Siddesha’s commitment to running is absolute. He runs every day no matter what. If he doesn’t run, he said, he felt his day gets spoilt; the body becomes too stiff and lethargic. A day after I met him, he was due to travel on work; catch a flight at 6 AM. He said he would make sure he got up at 1.30 AM and log in his daily run. “ I can sleep in the aircraft. Sleep is not a priority. In my case, whatever sleep I put in, it is deep sleep’’ he said, adding he didn’t need an alarm to wake up at the hour he wished to. For his weekly long run, which starts at 4 AM, he wakes up at 2.30 AM. He ensures he warms up before the run and cools down after it. In 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 he used to additionally cycle up to 70-80 kilometers per week. But that old obsession with return on investment saw him revert to full time running for it felt like more calories burnt per unit of effort. “ End of the day I am looking for returns and certainly, that feeling called runner’s high. Cycling is side dish. Main course is running,’’ he said. Siddesha does not follow any popularly tracked training protocols. He has designed his regimen himself. “ Basically, your joints should be working well and for endurance, you need a strong core,’’ he said. From September 2009 to February-March 2010, for seven days a week, he ran 30 kilometers every day. Then he got fatigued and reduced it to 22 kilometers for about nine months. Tweaking it further, he reached the norm of about 100 kilometers per week. Over two days in a week therein, he does a long run and a medium run totaling 50 kilometers. The balance 50 kilometers from the total of 100 kilometers is spread across the remaining days of the week.  “Nowadays I run a minimum of 100 kilometers per week. At times it has gone up to 150-160 kilometers a week,’’ he said.

Siddesha likes the fact that he is designing his passage through running himself. There is an element of science in listening to one’s body and making the required adjustments to keep running. Early morning, his hours spent running are an oasis of peace during which, he consciously manages the activity and strategizes for the day ahead. In some vague fashion, this private time spent running with the body sensing the challenges it is pushed into, it sending messages to the brain and the brain processing the data and transmitting instructions, harks of modern aircraft technology. Many fighter aircraft, including India’s LCA, work on digital fly by wire technology. A team of computers instantly analyzes control inputs made by a pilot, evaluating the aircraft’s speed, weight, atmospheric conditions and other variables, arriving at the optimum control deflections to achieve what the pilot has requested – this is how NASA’s page on the subject describes fly-by-wire. Multiple computers eliminate the possibility of computer failure and many computers participating in the voting exercise to decide, means an optimum decision made.

Photo: courtesy Siddesha Hanumantappa

From a design standpoint, there is an interesting paradox here. In the earlier days of aircraft evolution, emphasis was on creating a stable aircraft. However a stable aircraft means difficulty in complex aerial maneuvers, most of which are an invitation for instability. With fly-by-wire, it doesn’t matter if the aircraft is unstable. The resultant superior maneuverability promised is delivered by unstable aircraft using multiple computers for doing the real time math to meet pilot’s request. It reduces the pilot’s workload with respect to flying and allows him to concentrate on his mission. This is what makes fly by wire aircraft versatile. The personal time one finds while running, Siddesha felt, is somewhere similar to this. The body as stable platform is something we make it by conditioning it to only limited circumstances. Like in aircraft, that conditioning reduces its maneuverability in dynamic environment. As we challenge the body and it becomes unstable, the brain and its network of neurons and nerves engage furiously to make the body adapt and perform in altered conditions. Did you fly by wire today? – might as well be another way to ask: did you go for a run? That said Siddesha is clear that running is not all about pushing one’s limits. For example, after the 2010 Kaveri Trail Marathon, he participated in the Bengaluru Ultra completing its 50 kilometer-category. He didn’t enjoy it and chooses to see distances beyond the full marathon as probably not his cup of tea.  The full marathon distance is his sweet spot in running. “ After 33-35 kilometers in a marathon I am really tired and hit a wall. From 35-36 kilometers onward, all hell breaks loose. That is where I enjoy the most,’’ he said laughing.

In April 2016 and 2017, Siddesha was among those who travelled from India to the US to run the Boston Marathon. “ It was not something planned, It just happened,’’ he said attributing the participation to the Boston Qualifier time he returned at the 2015 Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon (SCMM), where he had finished first in his age category. He had completed the Mumbai race in 3:29. Training systematically and doing it enjoyably, he reserves his best for events. His personal best so far in the full marathon was 3:24, clocked at an event in Delhi in February 2017. “ I am always content with whatever is my performance. I keep modest targets. That helps me enjoy my running. In running, you should not be over ambitious,’’ he said. At ADA, Siddesha Hanumantappa is Project Director (LCA-Mark 2) and Technology Director (Propulsion). “ I maybe a scientist by profession but running is my first choice,’’ he said.

(The author, Shyam G Menon, is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai.)

Samim Rizvi (Photo: Shyam G Menon)

It was early May 2017.

We were at a restaurant in Whitefield, Bengaluru.

Meeting Samim Rizvi had been in mind for quite some time. Putting it off to a more convenient instance wasn’t difficult. My job is to chronicle every subject’s past. The past doesn’t change if a meeting in the future is delayed – does it? That view changed on account of two developments. First, a chance perusal of a crowd funding website revealed that Samim was heading back to the US for another shot at Race across America (RAAM). Second, when I called him up to schedule a meeting, he seemed headed into the record books, albeit only `headed’ for the paperwork had been submitted and no official confirmation had been received yet. At the time of writing this article, the farthest distance cycled by anyone in a month was 6455 km by Janet Davison of UK. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, this was achieved over July 24 to August 22, 2015 with Janet daily cycling a 215 km circuit around Cheshire. The 2017 RAAM would be Samim’s fourth visit to the iconic race.  When he commenced preparations for it, his team felt he could make an attempt at breaking the above mentioned record as well, using the daily training sessions for the purpose. “ I managed to cover 7777 km in a month,’’ Samim said. He decided to stop at that figure for it seemed a tidy number.

Photo: courtesy Samim Rizvi

Although Bengaluru is home now, that isn’t where Samim’s story starts. His childhood was in Dongri, Central Mumbai, a suburb, infamous for its links to the Mumbai underworld. “ My father stuck to the right path,’’ Samim said. In his younger days, Samim’s father used to be active in the Scouts and the National Cadet Corps (NCC) but following an accident, which brought him to hospital, he was diagnosed with diabetes. His mother was a good shooter and Samim believes she used to run, for he has seen an old podium photo from her college days. Both parents were post graduates in organic chemistry. Samim’s father ran a perfumery business; his mother was a teacher and eventually principal of a school.  Born July 1969, Samim was the youngest of five siblings; three brothers and two sisters. While he didn’t delve much into it, he did say that growing up in Dongri was a testing experience. It was a tough neighborhood with potential to go astray lurking in every corner. By age four, he was learning martial arts, starting with karate. “ That brought discipline into my life,’’ he said. His first attempt at distance cycling happened when he was just ten years old. It was a trip from the Mumbai Central area to Borivali and back. As a school student, he read about leading sports personalities and dreamt of achieving something. He was also inspired by lines of poetry penned by Harivansh Rai Bachchan. Closer to cycling, he was in awe of some of his seniors at school who used to participate in the Mumbai-Pune cycle race. “ I don’t know why I liked distance cycling. Maybe it was the chance to be alone, no one to tell you anything, that feeling of being free. It was also perhaps closer to my personality; at home I was usually playing by myself. I was a loner – you could say,’’ he said. While that may have been perception at individual level, distance cycling has its teams. It is teams that make up the peloton of endurance races. Teams were prominent in sports magazines with articles on cycling. At age 16, Samim formed his first cycling team in Mumbai. In tune with the approximation of the entire exercise, the team was aptly called Errors. It was also occasion for Samim’s first pair of cycling shorts – it was made of satin; he had it stitched with sponge within for padding. “ Everything about Errors smacked of mistake. Thanks to what we read and saw in the media, it aspired for international but fell woefully short due to lack of gear, circumstances and experience,’’ Samim said.

Mumbai days; with the Flying Pigeon road bike (Photo courtesy: Samim Rizvi)

In the history of bicycles – indeed the history of personal transport –`Flying Pigeon’ is famous. On the Internet, it shows up as the name of a bicycle company located in Tianjin, China. Its Flying Pigeon PA-02 model (based on the Raleigh roadster) – Wikipedia says – sold more than 500 million units over 1950-2007. The next highest sold vehicle is the Honda Super Cub, which by 2008 had passed 60 million units in sales. So sought after and ubiquitous was the Flying Pigeon in China that Deng Xiaoping is reported to have once described prosperity as “ a Flying Pigeon in every household.’’ Samim’s elder brother was a strong cyclist and the brothers used to compete with others, cycling loops around Marine Lines in the city. Samim’s parents gifted his brother a Flying Pigeon road bike. Soon enough, the younger sibling took it over. Samim loved riding it fast. He obtained an eight speed gear set from a friend and for a brief while managed to make it work on the Flying Pigeon. When the gear set had to be returned, Samim converted the Flying Pigeon into a fixed wheel bike. “ Those days it was largely riders riding on tracks who used a fixie,’’Samim said. The absence of freewheel behind meant that both accelerating and decelerating the bike depended on one’s legs and cadence. It is not easy to master. Samim however adapted well to the fixie. “ Looking back, I suspect my bike handling skills and smooth peddling motion probably came from using that fixie,’’ he said. In 1986, Samim’s father and his elder brother shifted to Bengaluru. A year later, the whole family followed. Samim had his trusted Flying Pigeon along. “ It was an extension of my being that I couldn’t part with,’’ he said.

Photo: courtesy Samim Rizvi

In Bengaluru, Samim’s first memorable adventure in cycling was with his Indian-Chinese classmate from college, Yang Yen Thaw.  The latter had just taken delivery of a BSA Mach 1 bicycle and the two decided to head straight for Nandi Hills. It was to be a night ride. “ It was buying the cycle and heading out immediately. We had a torch but no money for the road, no food, no water,’’ Samim said. Lashed by rain, the duo were soon cold, hungry and shivering. An old lady, who took pity on them, shared some bananas. By 3 AM or so, they reached the top of Nandi Hills, where Yang ran to Nehru House and sought help. They got a warm bed and slept for two hours. Then they headed back to Bengaluru. The descent was particularly difficult for Samim, given his Flying Pigeon with a fixie. “ I was thrown all around on the road,’’ he said. That outing to Nandi Hills – nowadays the trip is a regular fixture for Bengaluru’s cycling community – was Samim’s first real taste of distance cycling. Following that first trip, he began to cycle to Nandi Hills frequently. “ I have this crazy bonding with that place,’’ he said. If you believe in the 10,000 hours-paradigm, then what followed must have contributed much to making Samim the endurance cyclist he is today.  Approximately 50 km south west of Bengaluru is the small town of Ramanagara, famous in India as the location where the block buster movie Sholay was shot in 1975. It is additionally well known as a destination for rock climbing. Samim’s father wanted him to be an engineer. In 1989, he joined an engineering college in Ramanagara. From where he stayed in Bengaluru to the college, it was a distance of 67 km. For the next four years, most working days, Samim cycled up and down logging 134 km daily. He soon became quite proficient at this commute. “ Sometimes I feel sad I passed my engineering course in four years,’’ Samim said laughing. In 1993, he joined Jet Airways on the engineering side, working there for the next two and a half years. During this period, he got side tracked into body building. “ That was the worst decision I made. My cycling suffered. I became top heavy and all that,’’ he said. A small group of men walked into the restaurant. “ My support team,’’ Samim said, introducing them. It included his son. They left agreeing to wait in the neighborhood till we finished our chat. There was a ride scheduled early next morning for which a team meeting was necessary that very evening.

Photo: courtesy Samim Rizvi

Pogostemon Cablin is the botanical name for patchouli, a bushy herb of the mint family. The heavy, strong scent of patchouli has been used for centuries in perfumes and more recently in the manufacturing of incense. Karnataka (of which state, Bengaluru is capital) is a major center of India’s agarbati (incense) industry. These were among reasons Samim’s father shifted his business to Bengaluru. Besides being a perfumer, he was also local agent for a French perfume company. In the early 1990s, there was a period when the price of patchouli oil ruled high and supply was low. Someone told Samim’s father of a container load of the highest quality available. The deal was almost finalized, when Samim took a sniff from the sample bottle and warned his father that it wasn’t top quality oil; he was being swindled. Alarmed his father sent the sample for testing. It turned out to be low grade oil. Samim seemed to have a nose for fragrances. His father suggested that the engineer move to France to do a formal course in perfumery sciences. He did so, spending time in Grasse in southern France for the purpose. Being in France meant something else too – cyclist side tracked into body building and regretting the decision, got back into cycling. No better country to make that homecoming, than France. On his return to India however, his family failed to use his newly acquired skills in the perfumery trade. They put him instead into the agarbati business, where Samim set himself up to make niche, high end products. Just as this enterprise was taking off, his father lost his longstanding business with the French. That restricted cash flow. Amid this, Samim’s mother was diagnosed with liver cancer. The large family, living together, was shaken up. They managed to find alternative accommodation. But debt started piling up. The agarbati business was shut down. Their original house was taken over by the bank. It was a desperate time. What helped Samim at this juncture was what he had learnt since age four – martial arts. In the years that followed, he had become a first degree black belt in karate and judo and a second degree black belt in taekwondo. He had also won a silver medal in boxing for Karnataka at one of the National Games. Plus he was into cycling. In 2005, putting all this together, he set himself up as a personal trainer. This was a turning point for the better. Clients seemed to like his work. Income was decent; Samim’s wife had also begun working by now.

Photo: courtesy Samim Rizvi

RAAM was started by John Marino in 1982, as the Great American Bike Race. The first race featuring four riders commenced at Santa Monica in California and concluded at the Empire State Building in New York. Lon Haldeman was the winner in 1982 cycling the distance in nine days twenty hours and two minutes. The race has always run from the US west coast to the east; it covers roughly 4800 km. Unlike the better known Tour de France, which is composed of multiple stages, RAAM proceeds as a single stage with an overall cut off time. Winners typically complete the length of the race in eight to nine days. Given near continuous cycling (very few breaks are taken), sleep deprivation has always been one of the major challenges on RAAM. As a result, riders may hallucinate. According to Wikipedia, in 2006, a solo enduro division was added to race categories, which requires racers to take rest at specified points for a total of forty hours. These changes were made to improve safety and shift the emphasis from fighting sleep deprivation to long distance cycling speed. Interestingly, affection for this format faded over time and it was eventually removed from RAAM. The official RAAM champion now is the winner in the traditional format. On the average, participants make do with around one and a half hours of sleep every day. In 2014, Austrian cyclist Christophe Strasser won his second RAAM cycling 4860.2 km in seven days, fifteen hours and fifty six minutes, translating to an average speed of 26.43 km per hour. A year after RAAM commenced its experiment with the now defunct enduro division; back in India, Samim was having a tryst with something different from cycling. Although committed cyclist and having sound endurance thereby, he hadn’t got into running in the real sense of the word. Yet in September 2007, at the prodding of his friend Arjun, he ran 1100 km from Bengaluru to Mumbai (some deviations en route included) over 22 days. Then, he cycled back to Bengaluru in three and a half days. It was at the end of this trip that Samim did an Internet search for the toughest race in the world. Among the results that popped up was: RAAM. It had a qualifying norm – you had to ride 675 km in 24 hours.

Training youngsters in martial arts (Photo: courtesy Samim Rizvi)

By now Samim was participating in cycle races in Bengaluru and long distance rides. Among popular distance trips from the city is the Bengaluru-Ooty-Bengaluru ride. Samim’s fastest time on this route, riding a Trek alloy road bike, was roughly 27 hours. Dinesh Reddy, owner of Red Rooster Racing, was among those who tracked Samim’s Bengaluru-Mumbai run. He offered to help out with RAAM. Samim shifted to racing with Red Rooster briefly. Although Red Rooster provided him with a Specialized Tarmac road bike, the arrangement didn’t last long. So it was with Bulldog Sports that Samim got through his RAAM qualifier. It was done on the Nandi Hills road (using the Specialized Tarmac); he notched up 701 km in 24 hours. According to Samim, he was the first Indian and the third Asian to qualify for RAAM. Of great assistance were folks from the local arm of Cisco. Some of them were his clients (as personal trainer) and they had come to cheer him on the qualification ride. Accepted for the 2010 RAAM, Samim estimated his total costs at Rs 30 lakhs (three million rupees). Cisco helped raise funds. For the race in the US, he bought a new bike using part of the resources Cisco provided – a Specialized S-Works Roubaix. To train for RAAM, besides his regular sessions, Samim spent 25 days cycling in Ooty.

Photo: courtesy Samim Rizvi

Samim’s first RAAM was a bad experience. The race commenced at Oceanside, California. Past Flagstaff in Arizona, on a long downhill section, his support vehicle came up alongside and inadvertently pushed him against the hill on one side of the road. As it did so, the front wheel of the spare bike mounted behind the vehicle, clipped against Samim’s shoulder. Given the incident was happening at speed, he flew off the bike. For about 15 minutes he was unconscious. Then he pulled himself up and resumed cycling. “ At that time I knew my RAAM was over. I had hit my head on the ground and my body was badly bruised. I kept going but the problem in RAAM is that just going on is not enough. For instance, there is enough uphill in this race that is equivalent to doing Everest thrice back to back,’’ he said. He somehow reached Mexican Hat, typically associated with nasty weather. When the rains hit and temperature dropped to two degrees, he found that the team hadn’t packed in rain gear. He was reduced to cycling wearing a plastic bag. “ I rode 100 miles like that,’’ he said. At Durango, Colorado when he got back on to the bike after a brief rest, he was seized by vertigo. Then he fell unconscious and was taken to hospital, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia. It was the end of the 2010 RAAM for Samim. Durango was roughly a third into the race. Returning to India, Samim busied himself with distance cycling on the local circuit; he kept doing Bengaluru-Ooty-Bengaluru and Bengaluru-Chamundy-Bengaluru.

Photo: courtesy Samim Rizvi

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to arise….

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these sunken eyes and learn to see

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to be free….

In 1968, the year before Samim was born, British rock group The Beatles released their ninth studio album named after the group. The album also came to be known as the White Album. Many of the songs in the album were written over March-April 1968 during the band’s time at a transcendental meditation program in Rishikesh. One of the songs therein was Blackbird; Samim liked this song. Samim returned to RAAM two more times, on both occasions supported by Globeracers. In 2011, by day four, his sleep deprivation was causing hallucinations. Among what he imagined was, a blackbird following him. That year, he completed RAAM’s entire distance. According to the write-up submitted for his 2017 crowd funding campaign, the finish was “ just outside the 12 day cut-off.” The completion however made him eligible for a permanent bib number; his is 400. It also spared him need to re-qualify for the race. “ That was my best year,’’ Samim said. The phone rang; a reminder of team meeting due. In situations like RAAM and preparing for RAAM, every cyclist’s team has as much say on matters, as cyclist himself.

Kick boxing (Photo: courtesy Samim Rizvi)

Grasse, the commune in southern France, where Samim went to do his course in perfumery sciences is often called the perfume capital of the world. Home to a prosperous perfume business since the 18th century, it is the center of the French perfume industry. Its microclimate is said to have been apt for flower farming, the place is sheltered from sea air and water availability is good thanks to its location in the hills. Several tonnes of jasmine, a flowering plant originally brought to these parts by the Moors in the 16th century, are now harvested annually in Grasse. Roughly 675 km north-west from Grasse is the French capital, Paris. This great European city is base for the oldest long distance road event in cycling; participants pedal some 600 km westward from Paris to Brest in Brittany and back. In the world of cycling, it is called Paris-Brest-Paris or PBP. In cycling parlance, it is a brevet event meaning the cyclist is unsupported. Riders can buy supplies along the route but support by motor vehicles is prohibited except at check points. There is a 90 hour-limit and the clock runs continuously. In 2011, three months after his successful completion of that year’s RAAM, Samim reached France to attempt PBP. He hadn’t trained specifically for the event, trusting things to work well after a good RAAM. It did. He completed PBP’s 1230 km-stretch in 72 hours, 15 minutes. As of May 2017, it was still the fastest time by an Indian. The 2011 event was topped by Christophe Bocquet of France, who zipped through the distance in 44 hours, 13 minutes. But one swallow does not a summer make. Two years later, it seemed 2010 all over again for Samim, albeit differently. Returning to RAAM in 2013, he was forced to give up half way through the race. This time, he acknowledged, his training had been quite inadequate. “ I wasn’t prepared at all,’’ he said.

Photo: courtesy Samim Rizvi

Getting ready for the 2017 RAAM, Samim and his team decided to include in preparations; that crack at breaking the record for maximum distance cycled in a month. He logged up 7777 km; according to him, the ratification process, which takes time, is underway. Samim feels he would have covered more distance were it not for the state of Indian roads and his bike giving up in between, forcing him to cycle a couple of days on a heavier, slower mountain bike. The preparations for RAAM haven’t been without challenges. While returning from an outing in Nandi Hills, Samim suffered a road accident. One of his Specialized bicycles was mounted on his car’s rear when it was rammed from behind. The bike was completely damaged. As replacement, the guilty party presented the RAAM cyclist with an ordinary Indian roadster. One day he arrived for work at a client’s house on the roadster. The client, who was supportive of Samim’s passion for cycling, offered to help. RAAM in mind, orders were placed for a Look 695 road bike. Further, a crowd funding campaign was underway to meet the expenses of the US trip. The support crew is drawn from friends he has known for long in Bengaluru. He was scheduled to leave for the US in June. “ The goal is to eventually complete RAAM in ten days,’’ Samim said. It had been a long chat. Bill paid; we stepped out of the mall in which the restaurant was located. A quick couple of photos and Samim took leave, hurrying off into a nearby lane to join his waiting team.

(The author, Shyam G Menon, is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai. This article is based on a conversation with the subject. Details are as provided by him. Except the first photo, the rest have been downloaded from the subject’s Facebook page and used with his permission.)     

Illustration: Shyam G Menon

In American history, the battles of Lexington and Concord are important being the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. These battles, which took place on April 19, 1775, marked the outbreak of armed conflict between Great Britain and 13 of its colonies in British America. Same day, 86 years later, the first bloodshed of the American Civil War occurred, courtesy the Baltimore riot of 1861. According to Wikipedia, thirty three years after the Baltimore riot, in 1894, Frederic T. Greenhalge, the 38^th governor of Massachusetts, proclaimed April 19 as Patriots’ Day to commemorate the battles of Lexington and Concord. Roughly two years since the practice of Patriots’ Day commenced in Massachusetts, the first modern Olympic Games were held over April 6-15 at Athens, Greece in 1896. The manager of the inaugural US Olympic team was John Graham, who was also a member of the Boston Athletic Association (BAA), founded in 1887. Inspired by the Olympic marathon, he, with the assistance of businessman Herbert H. Holton, moved to establish a similar race in Boston.

One of the sub-stories in the larger narrative of the battles of Lexington and Concord is that of Paul Revere, a prominent and prosperous Boston silversmith who helped organize an intelligence and alarm system to monitor the British military. A prominent episode therein is Revere’s `Midnight Run.’ On the night of April 18, 1775, Dr Joseph Warren told Revere and William Dawes of British troops about to embark on boats from Boston for Cambridge and the road to Lexington and Concord. Revere rode out that night warning patriots along his route of the impending British move. In his book on the Boston Marathon, Tom Derderian (excerpts from the book are available on the Internet) has noted that Graham and Holton considered Revere’s route for the marathon. The problem was it wasn’t just Revere who rode out to warn patriots that night in 1775. There were others, including those he tipped off, who helped courier the warning. Further, the layout of roads had changed in the intervening years, the exact routes the patriot-couriers rode wasn’t known in detail and many of the routes weren’t long enough to satisfy the needs of a marathon. However the rail road west led to Ashland station and ran parallel to a road back to Boston. This, Derderian writes, was a logical choice and thus became the route of the marathon. In his book, American Sports: A History of Icons, Idols and Ideas (excerpts available on the Internet), Murry R. Nelson says that the marathon’s original course ran from Metcalf’s Mill in Ashland to Irvington Oval in Boston.

The biggest celebration of Patriots’ Day has remained the Boston Marathon (according to Murry R. Nelson, it was initially called the American Marathon), which has been run every Patriots’ Day since April 19, 1897. An exception was if April 19 turned out to be a Sunday. Then, the race was run the following day, a Monday. Since 1969, the race has been held on a Monday. In the first Boston Marathon of 1897, John J. McDermott of New York triumphed, winning the race in 2:55:10. Among the longest running presence at the Boston Marathon was that of John A. “ The Elder’’ Kelley, who ran his first race in 1928 and the last in 1992. His name is bound up with the incident from the 1936 edition of the race, when he passed the leader Ellison “ Tarzan’’ Brown on one of the last of the Newton hills, only to lose to Brown in the end. Writing on that race, Boston Globe writer Jerry Nason coined the still-used phrase: ` Heartbreak Hill,’ Murry R. Nelson says.    

The Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest annual marathon. It is now a part of the six major marathons of the running world – the other city marathons being those of New York, Chicago, Berlin, London and Tokyo. Amateur runners worldwide aspire to run at these events and the attraction for Boston is particularly high. This year too Mumbai had its share of those who ran at Boston. We sought impressions from three of them. Excerpts:

Running in Boston (Photo: courtesy Pervin Batliwala)

PERVIN BATLIWALA

I am very, very happy with my Boston performance.  I got a personal best of 04:16:13, cutting off seven minutes from my previous best timing.

I had planned my race in three stages:  1-26 km (pace 5.55-6.00/Km), 27-34 km (pace 6.15-6.20/km) and remaining 8 km on best effort basis. My expected time of finish was 04:17:40. The weather in the first 26 km was very hot.  The sun hit directly as the race started at 11.15 AM.  This portion had a lot of downhill with some uphill.  Everyone had cautioned not to go too fast as there are four big hills to deal with after those 26 km.  I started off fast but then settled down at 5.51-5.53/km, going down a bit fast and slowing on the ups. At 27 km I started cramping badly in the calf and hamstring. I had to stop at least 5-6 times to stretch and start slowly.  The final pace from 27-34 km became slow – 6.30/km.  During the 34 km stage I stopped at every single water station as it was hot and my mouth was absolutely dry.  I wasted a lot of time.  But the good thing was, I had no idea when I got over the four hills, especially the much talked about ‘Heartbreak Hill’ as my full attention was on the cramps and thirst. 35-42 km was really good.  I regained my rhythm and the cramps stopped as I had a lot of salt.  Got a pace of 6.00/km and finished very strong.

I have always enjoyed the hills.  This was a perfect setting for me.  The cheering was really, really good.  Not a dull moment through the 42.2 km. All arrangements were just perfect; starting from the bus pick-up at Bolyston, the refreshments at the starting point, the toilet facilities (so many that one did not have to wait in queue), the miles and kilometer markers and finally the finish. It was a super experience.

Photo: courtesy Pervin Batliwala

Before I left for the US, there was a big hype about my doing the Boston marathon.  But, I did not feel so.  I thought it was another 42 km race.  I was hyper about the trip, the planning of warm clothes, the race day attire, the stay and the shopping and that I would have to travel alone in the bus to the starting point and run alone.  That I was to run the prestigious Boston race was secondary.  I slept well the night before the race. The memorable moment was when I took the first step at the starting point.  I was filled with emotion and tears rolled down.  That was the time it dawned on me that I was running `The Boston Marathon.’  I was very happy and felt strong.

My training for Boston started a week after the Mumbai Marathon.  My trainer Sandeep advised me to go to my physio and check out if I needed any help.  Mondays and Fridays were rest days, Saturdays, Sundays featured back to back runs and Wednesdays saw speed runs plus hills.  Even the Sunday long runs were easy, with speed in the last few kilometers.  Every Monday I got a deep-tissue massage.  My colleagues helped me a lot during my training.  On every run I had at least 4-5 friends giving me company.  On Sunday long runs, they would plan and join me at different points so that I would never run alone.

My training was perfect.  I am sure I would not have wanted to do my training any differently.

Photo: courtesy Chitra Nadkarni

CHITRA NADKARNI

I divide the race into two halves of 21 km each. The first half was fairly good. I was well within my pace. 27 km onward the race started unraveling for me. I really can’t pinpoint what went wrong; I was sapped of energy and couldn’t push myself to maintain my pace and my quads starting hurting. What hurts me most is that in the last 5 km my mind also gave up on me. I felt like walking…just finishing the race. For the last 2 km I took 16 minutes….my quads were painful and mentally I was tired. I could not conquer the hills; I feel the hills got the better of me.

I have run the Berlin Marathon. That was a flat course and the weather wasn’t this hot. Berlin I was in control of the race till 36 km and marginally slowed down post 36 km. The crowd at Boston is amazing. The cheering at both places was awesome and different. There were more people on the roads at Boston whereas there were more bands and more music on the Berlin track. The organization at Boston was flawless. The runners at both the events were fast and superbly fit.

Would I want to attempt Boston again to improve my performance? I think I would like to realize my wish of completing the six world majors first.

Photo: courtesy Kranti Salvi

KRANTI SALVI

In 2011, my son Chirag joined athletics training at PDP (Priyadarshini Park). I used to walk around till his training got over. That didn’t satisfy me. Looking at the tracks, I remembered my school days when I was a national level track athlete. I asked the coach whether I could join. He asked for which event. The Mumbai Marathon registrations were going on then. So I said, “ marathon!’’  I started training and registered for my first half marathon. I also attended the Nike Running Club (NRC) training session on Sundays at Marine Drive, that year.

My first half marathon at the 2012 Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon (SCMM) was a unique experience. For rookies, the starting position was way behind. I had to zip and weave through the crowd for the first 10 km. At the finish line I wasn’t tired and didn’t get the runner’s high. I decided to do the full marathon at that moment. Next year, 2013, I ran a full and to my surprise won a podium finish in my category. Every year since then I’ve been running the full marathon at SCMM and it has been either a podium finish (among the top three positions) or a PB (Personal Best).

I’m happy with my performance at Boston because the timing – I completed the race in 3:51 – is another BQ (Boston Qualifier).  Yet I feel I could have done much better if I wasn’t having an upset digestive system. I was in self-doubt at the start line, whether I would complete the race or not. I couldn’t eat or digest the food that’s necessary for race week.

I would divide this race into three sections- the first seven kilometers, the next 23 km and the last 12.2 km. The race has variable gradient throughout the route. However, these three sections are important for watching your pace. The first downhill makes you start very fast with fresh legs and race spirit. If you can control your pace and relax during this first section, you can use your energy in the last one. The middle 23 km are somewhat steady and can be maintained at a steady pace. The uphill made me slow but I saved time while going downhill. I let gravity take me down every hill I passed after this section.

Photo: courtesy Kranti Salvi

One has to experience Boston to believe it. I have no words to talk about the cheering! Thousands of people, families and kids coming out of their houses and pouring their heart out to cheer the runners; the Wellesley College girls and boys with their kisses near Heartbreak Hill…you don’t even realize when you passed that hill! I had many memorable instances from the race. I heard people cheering me by my name: “ great going Kranti” or “ hey TomTomSports,’’ hundreds of times on the route when I was just flowing with the river of runners. Getting special attention in a race like the Boston Marathon was so empowering!

In Mumbai, I train on the tracks at PDP. My long runs on the road are limited due to lack of sufficient time in the mornings. So, I enroll myself for the races which fit into my training schedule.  That way I get the benefit of race pace-runs, which I doubt I’d be able to do otherwise on busy Mumbai roads. A guaranteed podium finish is a bonus 🙂 I train all through the year as I go to PDP with my son for his athletics. There wasn’t any particular plan for the Boston Marathon. I had read about the hills, and the unique route of Boston Marathon. However, I couldn’t give much time for hill training. I just did two long runs in the neighborhood of Malabar Hill where I live. I didn’t do any 20 miler runs even for this race. May be it’s the time limit; I have to stop my run and go back home to prepare breakfast for the family. On my long run day, I do whatever distance I can for three hours. It goes to even 28 km on a hot humid day. I feel I can achieve better timing in any marathon if I do a couple of long runs. The body does not understand a route, whether its hills or flat; it understands the effort and the strength required. To be prepared for the challenges of race day, I would focus more on strength and endurance.

(The authors, Latha Venkatraman and Shyam G Menon, are independent journalists based in Mumbai. All the photos used along with this article are from the 2017 Boston Marathon.)