In which I plod through ADHM with a little help from non-running fitness

[NB: I started writing this post almost two months ago, and then somehow never got around to completing it until now. My thoughts may appear disjointed as a result.]

I did ADHM in November 2015.  If you are not a runner in Delhi, it will probably sound to you like I'm talking about being afflicted by an attention deficit disorder. But if you are, you'll know that I'm talking about having participated in the biggest running event of the year in the NCR.

Airtel Delhi Half Marathon is what runners here anticipate and train for the entire year round. It's a great event to set your personal best timing in the hallowed 21.1 distance category, because it typically takes place during the best weather Delhi has - not hot, and not freezing either. Plus it helps that the course is more or less flat. The other attractions include running through Lutyen's Delhi and much of the clean and green pin code 110001, and taking in iconic sights such as India Gate.

Runners toil through the year - setting alarm clocks for bizarre hours in the morning, running through heat, dust, humidity, and often injury - just to be able to shine on this day. The lead up to the event also sees the organization of many "long runs on the ADHM route", a piece of which pie all the major sporting brands have tried to acquire of late.

ADHM 2013
I first ran ADHM in December 2013. I was suffering from a tailbone injury, and had not been running regularly for many weeks prior to the event on account of a niggling knee injury. But it was ADHM! The thought of missing out was obviously too much to bear, and ill-advised as my decision may have been, I decided to reach the start line anyway. This decision was aided in part by the fitness I had gained by training for a brevet (a 200km cycling event that took place just 7 days before ADHM) and the advice of another injured-but-determined-to-run runner to take a painkiller before starting. I was a novice to painkillers, and wasn't actually planning to complete the event. My thinking was that since I had registered for the event, I may as well turn up, walk a little, soak in the atmosphere and take a u-turn from India Gate and go home.

Unfortunately that's not quite how things panned out. I got bored after walking the first two kilometres and thought I would try to run just a little bit. I remember feeling quite numb on that day (physically and mentally), with my judgment clearly hazy because of the painkiller! (A painkiller was a real novelty to me, and I wasn't quite sure what it was going to do to my mind and body.) At one point, one of the pacers for the event, Sanjeev, passed me by with words of encouragement. I responded saying I'm on a painkiller (I don't know why this was the only thought playing on my mind at the time!) and he replied, "You're on drugs! That's all the better!"

Rahul Varghese happened to be pacing the 3:00 hour group that year. His pacing strategy involved walking for 10 seconds at the end of every kilometre. Throughout the run, I kept his "bus" in my line of sight, and religiously followed the 10 second rule. This was an excellent and balanced pacing strategy, and Rahul's bus was definitely one of the funnest clusters of the event.

Much to my surprise, I managed to run the remainder of the 19.1 kilometres with the help of those 10 second walking breaks. I didn't, however, finish within the cut-off time of 3 hours, ending just outside it at 3:04. Perhaps if I hadn't walked the first two kilometres...

ADHM 2014
ADHM 2014 took place in November 2014. This was a time in my life when I had decided to treat my injuries with a little bit of maturity and circumspection. The niggling knee injury that prevented me from training in 2013 was finally diagnosed correctly in April 2014, and I had resolved to fix it completely before getting back to running. I lost weight and continued to exercise a lot (mainly by swimming and cycling). When my knee got a lot better, I started running from scratch again using the Couch to 5K programme. By the time ADHM 2014 came around the corner, I could run 5 or 6 kilometres.

To cheer myself up for not being able to participate in ADHM 2014, I decided to do a self-supported triathlon. An Olympic Triathlon involves swimming 1.5km, cycling 40km and running 10km. I was not yet fit enough to run 10km, so I did a truncated version of an Olympic Triathlon that day - 1.5km swimming, 41km cycling and 5km running. I missed out on ADHM, but I did have a lot of fun that day! I did my own little self-created event - no bibs, no timing chips, no pressure. But enough endorphins to keep me happy for the rest of the day.

ADHM 2015
I really had my sights set on ADHM 2015. By the beginning of the year, I had been running regularly and was injury-free, largely thanks to becoming serious about strength training. I even started following a half marathon plan. For several weeks, I had been disciplined enough to wake up at absurd pre-dawn hours and drag myself out for a run - interval/tempo/accelerated/longandslow, as the case may be.

About halfway through this plan, just when I had gotten into the groove of things and was having a fantastic stretch of consistent running, I began to get afflicted with some exotic injuries. Metatarsalgia and Pes Anserine Bursitis, to be precise. I'm pretty sure the cause of my metatarsalgia is a fractured second toe in my right leg which I just never did anything about (and realized only in retrospect, and after suffering much pain, that it must have been a fracture). The cause of Pes Anserine Bursitis also remains a mystery, and I'm inclined to think it's probably more attributable to excessive swimming rather than running.

With just a couple of months to go for ADHM 2015, I pretty much stopped running. I continued to swim (still not sure whether this was good or bad for my inflamed bursa) and cycle. I also incorporated long walks, and after some time, started experimenting with run-walks in varying ratios. Strength training continued as usual, with about 3-4 short sessions a week.

The day finally arrived: November 29, 2015. People I knew who had been training for the event were nervous and excited, counting on race day magic to get them to their desired targets. Many others were performing the more selfless task of pacing people to assist them in reaching the said desired targets. I, on the other hand, decided to go for the event with zero expectations (because I had forked out and registered after all, and because I was keen to not miss The Biggest Running Event in Delhi yet another time). And I should add that I managed to sleep very well the night before the race!

I woke up on November 29 and checked the AQI figures on my phone. While racing today, Delhi would be inhaling smoggy air with a particulate matter rating of over 350. I cringed at these numbers, and then told myself to suck it up (quite literally) and proceeded to Enclosure C of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. It was nice to see many familiar faces around, and the atmosphere was charged with a combination of people's nervous anticipation and the exhilaration to finally be able to seek the culmination of their hard work through the year. As dawn broke, friends were encountered, excited pleasantries were exchanged, selfies were clicked, port-a-pottys were queued up for.

And at last, the event was flagged off.

Unlike many others, I was running without music. The only sounds that could be heard were the orchestra of the pitter patter of thousands of feet - varied by cadence, speed, weight and inclination to run - punctuated by the unmistakable coughing noise emanating periodically from just about every corner of the road. Our lungs pay a price for running in the world's most polluted city, and it could not have been more evident than on this morning.

I completed the half marathon in just under 2 hours and 30 minutes, and to be very honest, I found the whole experience to be rather anti-climactic. I felt pretty indifferent about my timing - given the abrupt halt in my training, I hadn't gone in with any target. On the whole, it was interesting to have been a part of something so huge in my city, but it was certainly not earth shattering or mind blowing. After the race, the stadium witnessed emotions ranging from ecstacy to tears, but I felt strangely detached from it all. I did wolf down more than my share of post-race upma, and that was pretty yummy!

About an hour after the race I experienced a freak injury to a ligament in my knee - a sprained Anterior Cruciate Ligament. I still have no idea what caused this. This is typically an 'impact-based' injury, and so I am certain (as is my doctor) that it was not caused by running on a flat surface. But suffice it to say, it was not the most happy ending to an event. It had me limping very painfully for the next ten days, constrained me to take the medicines I have come to hate the most (painkillers), and I'm still not sure it has completely healed.

But here is my takeaway from winging it at ADHM 2015:

Non-running fitness helps running. 

In the lead up to ADHM 2015, I was barely running. But I managed to maintain some degree of cardiovascular fitness through a number of sessions of swimming and cycling through the week. I think they went a long way in ensuring I could finish the 21.1 km distance. Non-running fitness may not help you ace the race and get a fabulous timing, but you can count on non-running fitness like you would on a solid friend.

Walking really helps running. 

Before ADHM, in lieu of running, I would often go for long walks ranging from 10 to 15 kilometres. I would be lying if I said these walks weren't mind numbingly boring. But if you can get yourself an engaging podcast to listen to, and a park big enough to not feel mentally exhausted walking around in, you're set. These slow kilometres will help tremendously in retaining the conditioning in your legs. There is also no shame in using the strategy of "run/walk" (i.e. a few minutes of running interspersed with walking), and it may be surprising to some that this may indeed boost your overall running speed rather than decrease it. The frequent walking breaks ensures easier recovery and lowers the chances of injury. The beauty of a run/walk programme is also how customizable it is. You can alter the running and walking periods to suit your personal fitness and comfort level.

Strength, strength, strength! 

Do not compromise on a strength training regimen. It is imperative to spend some time working on your core and lower body strength every week to be able to run with better form and fewer injuries. It doesn't take long - just 10 or 20 minutes at a time, a few times a week. If I hadn't focussed on strength, I would have crashed and burnt well before the finish line at ADHM.

There isn't much joy in running in severe pollution. 

One of the reasons I wasn't feeling like a rainbow after finishing ADHM was because I felt totally choked up after running twenty one point one kilometres through the terrible air in Delhi. I felt like ripping my lungs out. The undesirable after-effects of running a half marathon stayed in my respiratory tract long after I crossed the finishing line.

Doing every single event in your city is a recipe for disaster.

The constantly expanding running community, and also those who want to mint money from the said running community, has ensured that there is a running event practically every weekend in Delhi NCR. The prevailing sentiment among many runners seems to be that maximizing the number of races run in a year will yield maximum results in speed and performance. In fact, I think the reality is quite contrary to this belief. Pushing yourself to target your race pace at such frequent intervals puts an undesirable amount of stress on your muscles. I suspect that my own running injuries were attributable at least in part to running too many of these "events", in my excitement at having gotten back to consistent running. Wisdom will prevail henceforth and I will be far more selective about which events to run.

I'm not that enamoured by the 21.1km distance anymore. 

Since 2013, the chief attraction on the running calendar for me has been the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon. I pushed myself to run it in 2013 and 2015 just because I was overwhelmed by what a big deal it was. After having run this distance in the conditions described above, I think I am no longer that crazy about either this event or the distance of 21.1km (let's see if I feel differently in November 2016, though!). If you're a fanatical runner, this may sound like sour grapes to you, but hear me out on my disillusionment. 

Training for a half marathon comes with its own baggage: a proclivity to get injured, adherence to a tight training schedule, unreasonable demands on time, the crankiness that comes from being fatigued due to overtraining (which comes with its own social costs!), and enormous pressure to perform and improve your timings. While I think I enjoy running, I find it difficult to envision it as an endgame. For example, I think I enjoyed my self-supported triathlon in 2014 much more than winging a half marathon in 2015. I think I can live with running shorter distances, and prioritizing having fun, being fit (including through means other than running) and remaining injury-free over running longer distances. Not to mention trying to pursue other (non-athletic) hobbies that I seem to have increasingly scarce time for, between the vagaries of work and the time consumed by the demands of being an endorphin junkie.

***

During the time that training for ADHM 2015 was going well, I had my sights set on the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2016 (SCMM). Participating in SCMM required a timing certificate as a pre-requisite for registration. Due to my absence from the running scene in the preceding year, I didn't have a timing certificate, but I did have the option of writing an inspirational story to try to enter the race instead. I wrote that, and I did get selected (yay!). But my freak ACL injury coupled with the diminished enthusiasm described above ensured that I never ended up making that trip to Bombay. But more on that later.