Running Slow
A great deal has
been written about athletes who come in the first 10 for a marathon .What about
the pathetic stragglers who need every ounce of strength and determination to
make it to the final mat?
3:45 for my first
half marathon. Not too bad I thought. I finished way ahead of some people and
since I already knew that I was a slow
runner it did not bother me too much.
After all, I was 58 and was terribly overweight. All I wanted to do was reach
the finish line.
In the Hyderabad
marathon two years later, I could see the finish line in
the distance – but we had to go another 500m around the stadium before we could actually cross the
mat. Pure torture! I though that I would never make it.
As I run more
half’s my timing is becoming an embarrassment. How on earth was I supposed to
improve my timing?
I was unable to
train as per any schedule--- Hal Higdon, Macmillan etc. I have to run in a very
restricted time window. I have a choice
of two routes—paddy fields, villages with cows, men with sickles and iron rods ( like in the KVT) –or
the highway with speeding vehicles! The sun comes up by 5:45. If I run in the
paddy fields near my house in the dark, there are snakes. I cannot run on the
highway because of trucks. I have to get to work by 8 am. In the evening the
same problem occurs in reverse—I reach home by 6:30, and it is dark.
So no long runs,
split times, fartleks, or tempos. No matter what I think I am doing, or try to
do, I wind up just doing the same distance at the same steady pathetic pace of
17-18 minutes per mile.
Then one day I realized
that I finished the half marathon in the
same time that it took fitter athletes to finish the full! That was why there
was always a crowd around when I finished. Some actually (in the Kaveri trail marathon)
actually reached before me! True, they started a half hour before I did, but
that is really not an excuse. It is after all double the distance.
It became
positively embarrassing. The worst part was that I ran every day or thought I
did.
One day one of my
daughter’s friends said “We all really admire the way your mother signs up for half
marathons persists and walks 21 km.
“Walks?” said my
daughter, “She thinks she is sprinting!”
I subscribed to a
website which helped to run half marathons. It had several days off (3 per
week) 2 days of XT (I think that means
cross train) and one long run.
I was doing
more (3-4 ) miles a day when I trained
on my own. The more followed the schedule the less I ran. I never
made it for long runs. The only consistent feature was a feeling of relief for
a rest day! I put on another 3 kilos and became slower than ever.
I have a friend, a
thin vegetarian who runs full marathons. “The only way,” he said is to lose
weight. Eat just one meal a day. I stopped eating and I lost weight. Now I am
fast. “
He was too. He ran
a full marathon in 3 hours.
I ate oats for
breakfast, had a dosai and 2 vegetables for lunch, I ate two fruits at 4 o’clock.
I then went home by 6:30 and devoured everything I could get my hands on like a
maniac. Another week of this and my weight went up another kilo.
This was not going
to work.
I have self
control in every field. I exercise regularly, I never miss a day of work n my
clinic , nor do I miss my newspaper deadline.
Food—That is
another story. There is absolutely no self control there!
Do speed drills
advised a cousin. They were available on the internet. It involved running fast
for 100 meters, then normal pace, running at your 10 k pace , running at 5 k
pace. All I know is that that all pace
for me is the same. 5 k , 10 k, makes little difference. I run them all at to 17 -18 minutes a mile!
I wrote desperately
to the runner’s world forum. “please help! Cannot improve my pace.”
“Try getting on a
treadmill and pacing yourself” .
I did. There was
something different about the treadmill. My feet seem to move oddly. The pace
worked out to 18:40 minutes a mile.
I wrote back to
the forum.
“Dude cane the
prompt reply, “I think your treadmill is broken. I walk faster than that !”
Now that he
mentioned it, I do get overtaken by walkers when I am “sprinting along.”
Depressed and
dejected, I kept reading the forums. No one seemed to have any practical applicable advice for what to do when legs don't move!
For XT I went back
to swimming. I found that they had master’s meets in Chennai.
I signed up and
found there were very few participants in 60-65 women. Despite the paunch and a tendency to land
flat in the water for the diving start I got 4 golds and 1 silver! (photo
attached). In the individual medley (50X4) I did not even have any competition!
Perhaps I should
change sports?
Dr. Gita Mathai
The writer is a
paediatrician with a family practice at Vellore.
If you have any
questions on health issues please write to
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