Vibha's Dream Mile 10K

Wow!! I finished first in overall male category, what a feeling! I have never dreamed of finishing first in any race, even the small local races. Okay, this is a small race with only about 30-40 people in 10K, but still, first is first, right :)

About 10 of Team Asha runners participated in Vibha's 10th Annual Dream Mile 5K/10K race at Whiterock Lake. After spending some 10 minutes trying to find a way to reach start point, I saw a fellow Asha member and finally reached the start. I actually wanted to warm up for about 2-3 miles, but I was actually happy to reach the start line before the race started. My goal was not to run faster than 8:00 pace. The start felt fast and my first mile of 7:22 confirmed it. I tried to slow down a little, but boy it is tough to slow down with all the adrenaline of a race. I was running in good rhythm and miles 2 and 3 were about 7:40 pace. I realized that I was currently second to a lady few seconds ahead of me at the turn point. I had a feeling that if I finish strong, I can even pass that lady, but at the same time I did not want to push too much and remember that this is part of training for a marathon. I still maintained my 7:40 pace for miles 4 and 5, but it was getting tougher and my heart rate was creeping up slowly. In the last mile I have decided not to really sprint and just run my pace. As I approach the finish line, I again could not help but sprint and I almost passed the other lady, but just managed to finish right behind her for overall second position. Wow! and my stop watch read 47:16 and that a PR by a few minutes. Sravanthi ran the 5K in 43:00, he first race and she looked great after the finish. She was very happy to have run a good race herself and more happy for my finish. My HR stats for the race are here.

Vibha did a great job in conducting the race and I got a 1-hr free "Discovery" flight ride over Dallas with Indus Aviation.

Big-D 5K: First race of 2008

This is the race that got us all started with Team Asha Dallas. Last year on April 1st, ~15 of us trained and ran 5K/Half at Big-D race along with a bunch of Asha Austin runners. People were excited after this run and they never looked back. To keep the tradition going ~10 of us ran 5K on April 6th.
Luckily this year there was no traffic and we all were able to reach the start in time. I have never raced a 5K before and I wanted to give it all and see how fast can i go. I have warmed up well for about 10mins and was ready to start. I started off the first mile pretty strong and soon realized that I did a 7:11 min pace. I was happy about the pace but also worried that I will not be able to keep the pace as it felt hard. I managed to do the second mile in 7:24 but had to slow down to 7:40 for the third and ended up with 22:58 for 5K. I was really happy with the time, given that I hardly trained for a time.
It was nice to see newbies finish 5K in style including my good friend Sreenivas. He was not sure if he would finish this distance and now after 2 months he already ran 9 miles. he is currently training for half marathon. There were several new runners Sri, Laxmi, Divi apart from Sreenivas.

Big-D Half: My best race to date

I got my PR today and beat my old time by a mile, literally! I shaved off ~8mins from 1:53 to 1:44:40. It was an interesting day with a few ups and downs. The "up" was the fact that I could a few PRs for 5K, 10K and Half. The "down" was all the mess that was created due to the traffic jam at the start and also due to the fact that my car battery died soon after the race. Also, my official race time is ~2:20. as there was no chip timing anymore at the start when we started, approx 35mins late.

It all started when I woke up at 6:06am. I set the alarm but somehow forgot to turn it on, duh! I quickly got ready and went to pick up Avani and Viswanath. We almost reach the Cotton Bowl area at 6:50am and about 1/2 mile from the exit to the race area, there was a big traffic jam and we were stuck. We saw people walking off the freeway and I followed as the Half start is at 7:30. I came to know that many of the other ADR folks and also Asha Austin folks were also stuck in the other direction of I-30. The race was officially delayed by15mins and we waited for all the folks to show up and started finally at 8:20am. We were all disappointed to find out that the chip timing system at the start line was switched off by the time we started, which means that our chip times won't be accurate and will be the same as gun time, which is the official clock. We started Half roughly 35mins behind the official start. I am not sure when the 5Kers started.

There were about 10 of us who started the Half, 3 from Dallas and the rest from Austin. Ramesh and myself started off at a good pace and took off. I was pacing and before I knew it, the first mile marker came by and we were on a blazing pace of 7:45, wow! I felt good but at the same time was worried whether I can sustain that pace. I slowed a little but was still doing roughly 8 min pace. I saw that Ramesh was taking it a little easy, but I did not want to change my pace as I felt a good rhythm. I maintained that pace and 5K went by in 24:50 (which is a PR since I never ran a 5K) and then next up was 10K in 49:52 (another PR by 3 mins!). I still felt good and was decently confident that I can maintain that pace for the second half as well. Then I realized, that if I maintain an even split, I have a shot at 1:45!! (5 mins faster than my stretch goal of 1:50). I was drinking at every aid station and was pouring water on myself which felt so good. Miles 9-11 had the best scenery as we were passing through the multi-million dollar homes of Highland park, which is the most expensive area in Dallas. To my surprise, I was still doing better than 8:00min pace and I was on pace for a 1:45 finish. In mile 13, about quarter mile from the finish I saw ADR folks, including Deepa, Kavitha, Viswanath et al and I just took off and before I knew it the saw the finish line and finished strong which is something I always love in a race. When I stopped my watch at the finish line, it read 1:44:40!! yes, I did it, it was an amazing feeling. I believe this is the first time I not only met my time goal but indeed beat it. I guess it helps to be ~6-7 lbs lighter :)

I got my medal and got some fluids and came back to see others finish. Ramesh had a strong finish and did 1:51, which is the same as his PR. I saw few of the Austin folks finish the next 10-15 mins. Then I met up with other ADR folks and we were cheering and waiting for the rest of folks to showup. Ravi had a strong finish and made it in 2:32. The whole group took some pictures and it was fun. All the 5Kers had a good race and some even did 10K as they were lost on the course:) Many of us decided to have lunch and just when you think the day has gotten better, I realize that my car battery was down and it does not start. Luckily, there was a gentleman in his truck who helped us out and we reached Roti Grill and had good food. It was almost 3pm by the time we reached home. In effect, it was a mixed day for me, but I had a great race, in fact the best race to date! I cannot wait for my next race, which may not happen for another couple of months.

I am off to India for couple of months, on business. I will be working from Bangalore and hopefully I can do couple of races over there. I am hoping that I will have some running experiences in B'lore that I would write here, from time to time. I shall write the next time from India in about a week's time.