Shahid’s Ultra – a kick in the butt that I so needed

It’s almost a week since the Shahid’s Ultra (Dec 11, 2011 – last Sunday) – always wanted to write about it, but didn’t get around to it until now.

Anyway, it was a very sorry performance from me – I started with the 3:30 gang, trudged about and crawled until 30k (in a miserable 3:40 or so), walked for another 1.5 kms and just gave up. Plonked my sorry ass in Ramesh Seshadri’s support car and watched the others grit and grind their way through to Radisson.

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I ran a 30k inside IIT on Nov 26 – that was extremely tiring, but I had a reason excuse – that was my 5th consecutive day of doing something (3 quad days and 1 interval workout preceded that) – and I was actually very happy that I finished that 30k. A good run to push through pain. 

Then 2 weeks of doing shit happened. Munich happened – 5 days of eating out, 4 of them with alcohol, 0 runs, 0 workouts – and then I came back to Madras feeling lousy. I ran a 5k on Saturday just to see if I remember how to run. 2 weeks is long – long enough to add a couple of kilos, feel blah in general and feel rusty. Wasn’t feeling too good about the Sunday run. 50k was daunting enough and I was feeling crappy on top of it.

Ok, so as you can see, I have built the base and doled out my excuses for dnf’ing – but frankly, what I did on Sunday was just bullshit.

I was never in it – never looked like even wanting to finish 50k. I started out slowest and kept going slower. Almost just “waited” for the 5:1 to become 4:1 and then “waited” for it to be 3:1 and so on. Even on the 3:1, I was taking breaks midway – first at random, and then all the time – *within* that 3 min run period.

Looking back, I was this bloody jackass who went out there and just ambled along until it reached a “respectable” time and distance – where I assumed and estimated that I wouldn’t feel terrible – and just gave up. If someone described this as pathetic, I wouldn’t argue – that was exactly what it was.

At that time, I made peace with myself convincing myself with the same crap I doled out before, but the truth is – I was never in it – mentally not there and physically out of shape.

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Need to get back and the last week hasn’t been too bad. After that run, I have no problems in getting out of bed – I just think of that run and I jump out of bed. I ran on Tuesday and then again on Thursday. Both 10k something to Marina. I did decent stretch session on Mon and Wed, and after the bike ride today, I feel better.

But, we’ll see tomorrow. Exam coming up.