A week before the half-marathon

Blame it on the democratization of the mouse and the keyboard that all of us novices also get to write blogs on running!

This one is rather on the last week’s run-up to a half-marathon; and the ideas purely belong to the time spent with feet on street last night (on the practice run).

Here are 7 of my mantras that might work just fine in the last week before your run:

1.       Patience vs Practice: Have the patience to wait for the final run and not get carried away to go all out in practice run and also keep that practice going on, though taper it.

2.       Familiar roads: Running on the actual event route makes a lot of sense. You get a feel of the local conditions like road surface, bumps and twists & turns. In the case of Surat marathon, it’s the headwind you gotta get acclimatised with. Since it’s on VIP road, there’s reasonable headwind in one direction.

3.       The real rehearsal: Use the same gear and accessories planned out for the race day. Same clothes, shoes, hydration pack, etc. You would know what hampers and what compliments your run.

4.       Hydration: You already know hydration is mandatory. But what and how much are you going to carry? How often will you drink and hence need to refill? I’m sure there’ll be many like me who get tempted to not stop for hydration during the run and jeopardise the distance and stamina. Practice runs will also instil this discipline in you.

5.       Chaffing: Nipple chaffing is one of the most common physical discomforts (especially in men) when one runs long distance wearing a dry-fit t-shirt. (Add to it the humid climate of Surat in April and the prickly sweat it will give you.) If you’re running half-marathon or 10K, at least apply some lotion/ cream if not apply some taping on them.

6.       Run-tracker dilemma: Don’t get into the temptation of starting the run-tracker (watch/ phone) at the last time before the run. It’s a lot stressful and diverts attention. In the event, you’d anyway know the exact distance and also the time so chill out, start that tracker a little in advance and get over with it.

7.       Playlist: Ready that playlist well in advance and run with it too; you might be surprised how many of those songs on that list don’t make sense change it, change it again if the need be, and run with the final one to ensure it’s just the right music for your ears.

Mara-thon Tera-thon (part 1)

Just the 3^rd edition of Surat Night Marathon, and it hit a bump this year in form of the widely epidemic swine-flu. Though I’ve been just recently bitten by the running bug, I’ve had a more than a little company of some regular runners. And when it comes to marathon, my profession as an event manager enables me to see a probably-unseen side of it too!

It’s been just 5 hours the event has been officially postponed, thought will key in a blog about the top challenges from the marathon organizer’s point of view.

1.       The wagging tongue syndrome – Normally when an event of this scale is rescheduled, the tongues go wagging about the organizational capability and in some way gives the participants a dissonance.

2.       Domino effect of this one delay – A major event is but yet another professional project for the organizer. They want to do it in the best way possible and then move on to the next coz just 1 event doesn't pay all the bills! This might all the more be true for organizers here who are more into commercial rather than client-based events.

3.       Rescheduling the visitors – From elite runners to pre-booked international entertainers; all will have to reschedule their travel plans. usually there’re more drop-outs than add-ins in such cases; though let’s hope at least the elite runners will turn up on the next date!

4.       The increased ad-spend – A 2-month delay means to keep the visibility and hence the final impact as it is. It’s as simple as a monkey’s red ass that it is impossible. However, a second final-phase of ad-spend will have to be incurred in April to gain momentum and reach a shattering climax.

5.       Laxity in the revving event team – As an event reaches its final phase, the event team revs up and work at its peak. Such an event team has a lot of temps who come on-board just for that project; and go over to their studies or another project after that. A sudden trough like this will leave the team clueless at first, then worrying about the delay. Some attrition is bound to happen and organizers may have to re-train the new chaps.

6.       Dipping interest levels – It’s no rocket science that the success of an event is gauged by the participation levels. A lot of runners and enthusiastic junta were doing their last lag preparation and this cancellation will can it. Some might just not get in that mood again after 2 months.

7.       Loss of revenue – A lot of sponsors get on the bandwagon at the last moment – yes even in the last 1 week. (Just FYI, in case of Navratri, AT LEAST 30% sponsors are confirmed within the last 24 hours - before the 1^st of the 9 days.) I’m not sure if the same will happen in April also; considering that a lot of them may not have frozen their ad-spends for the next financial year and will take a while to decide (and miss the bus).

8.       The large looming shadow – Come next year, there’ll be a breed of stupidus-maximus who will nonetheless fill up the form; will also throw a jibe like – ‘aa vakhte pan tarikh padse ke shu?’ This one unavoidable rescheduling will remain in collective memory for around 5 years.