After being done with the Mumbai Marathon, there is no holding back for the runner in me. This running season is going to be one crazy journey, with events coming thick and fast. Here’s what my schedule looks like for Jan-Feb 2010:
- Jan 17 – Mumbai Marathon (Done)
- Jan 31 – Chandigarh Marathon
- Feb 7 – Mawana Sugars Indian Open Marathon (doing the half marathon)
- Feb 14 – Noida Half Marathon
- Feb 21 – IIT Kanpur 50K
The 50K at IIT Kanpur event will be my first run beyond the standard marathon distance, and though it is officially classified as an “ultra“, but my feeling of an event being a real ultra is nothing less than a 50 miler. Nevertheless, it would be an experience I am really looking forward to. The people at IIT Kanpur are really working hard on organizing this, and it would be fun in breaking some barriers at India’s premier technology learning center.
This will also be the first time I will be doing two marathons within 2 weeks of each other. Mumbai done on Jan 17th, and Chandigarh on Jan 31st. Running Coach Hal Higdon has a separate training schedule for the in between days for such a double trouble marathon, under the section Multiple Marathons. Curiously, he has no plans for marathons on two consecutive weekends, so I guess I am still on the partially sane side of running. But doing back-to-back marathons is surely on my mind (just to see if I can do it), but I will leave that insanity for some other day, not now.
I guess there will be no more events for me after this till the Comrades Marathon (89K) on May 30th. There is a dedicated program to be followed for that as well, and it would not be prudent to keep doing events which essentially disrupt the training flow.
I have not yet decided on what I will be doing in the second half of the year. I guess it would leave that planning to a later time, once I am done with Comrades. I guess I might do one more marathon, and maybe an ultra at Bangalore, which will set me up nicely for my 10th marathon at Mumbai in 2011.
