My first Half Marathon , Hyd Aug 2008

On August 16th morning , I ran the Hyderabad 10k's half marathon(21.1km). This was the longest race I have ever done. The timing is 2:24:27. Actually my target is 2hrs(which is 4min less than the Full marathon WR). But I felt an immense pleasure after finishing the race.

There were about 500 participants in half marathon and I ended up finishing 190. From IIIT, saladi rahul , avinesh, aniketh, prasanth, sriram also participated. Avinesh and Aniketh finshed in about 2hr 13 min. I and saladi finished in about 2hr 24 min. The winner completed in 1:10min (12 min more than the world record). He is from the Artillery centre, Hyderabad. He's too fast. I prepared for 4 days running 6-8 every day.

The race started from KBR park (banjara hills) and then the route is hitech city,cyber pearl,telecom nagar,kothaguda,hcu,iiit, and stadium. It was very nicely organized that there were water points for every 1km distance, special volunteers to take care of old people, and motivate runners by giving certificates to every participant who finishes the race. We arrived at the KBR park at 4:30a.m. in the morning and it was very beautiful seeing all the runners of Hyderabad, some people from Bangalore,U.S. etc., gathered at one place. A theme was played 'Run , Run, Run' to encourage all the runners and a girl(physical trainer) made us do the warm up exercises. The marathon race started at sharp 5a.m and the half marathon started 10 min later.

The race started and I started jogging slowly for 15 min. I missed my frns and later I started running with few people who were police academy students. I started conversation with them and they found that my district is East Godavari by my language. They very happy because they too belonged to the same district. They encouraged me by telling me how to breathe,excel and various other techniques. They ran slowly encouraging each and every participant in the race. Actually it is just like an assignment for them by their boss. They should run atleast 10-15km everyday at the training center. I felt very happy running with them. What I thought at that time was to complete the race along with them. But it's far beyond from my strength. For one and half hour I ran 14 km with them and after that started the real problem for me. They left me by saying 'come on tuni , come on tuni' (tuni is my native place) and then I started sensing the real pain in my calf muscles. Then I started running with a girl(a bit fat) and I started encouraging her forgetting my pain. But it lasted only for 15 min as I really felt tired at 1hr 50 min that I stopped for the first time. I walked for 5 min and she crossed me. I felt a great pain in my calf musles that I thought of putting an end to my running career after finishing the race. I started running again and I met saladi(running behind me) at the front of the stadium. The finishing line is the track inside the stadium and we both finished the race in the same time.


By the time we finished avinesh and aniketh were relaxing. At the finishing line every participant is honoured with a medal and certificates were distributed later. The police people whom I met were at the finishing line and they started again shouting 'come on tuni , come on tuni'. They congratulated me for my success. Prasanth and sriram came after 10-20 min. The 'marathon(42.195km) winner' completed the race in just 2hrs 22min(18min less than WR) and he is also from artillery center. Snacks were distributed and the prizes to all the winners were given. A 13 year old girl participated in half marathon and she completed the race. That was awsome.

At the end I felt a great pleasure and it was such a great experience in my life. I made a lot of friends on that day and I can't forget the day in my life. I set a target of less than 1hr 50min in my next half marathon, which may be on Nov. conducted by the same. Let's see what happens.

Overall, the races were organized well. The traffic was kept under control during the entire course of the marathon.

Thanks for all the support from 10k foundation and other runners.!

I was really looking forward to writing this blog to let you all know how it went.