(Rajesh after his First 50 M Run)
(Anuradha singh after her First halt Ironman)
In Past couple of weeks 2 of my friends completed Triathlons. They have been tremendous inspiration to whole range of athletes in Silicon Valley.
Whats special about it?
Rajesh Agwaral:
He started learning swimming in Winter 2003 and by Fall 2006 he completed Ironman Canada swimming 2.4 milesm 114 mi bike and a marathon in 16 hours!!. And completed his first ultra marathon 50 M as a casual long run.
Anuradha Singh:
She learnt biking in may 2006 and open water swimming around the same time and Nov 12th she swam 1.2 miles, biked 56 miles and ran 13.1 miles under 7 hours at half-Ironman, Florida. On top of that she is a mom of 2 sons. scheduling training for such distances is a incredible effort.
Hats of to their determination, they are constant source of inspiration. Ofcourse great support from their respective families ensured dedicated training.
Congrats you folks. you Rock.
Helen Klein 50 mile race,
Nov 3rd, 2006
Granite Bay, CA
I was waiting for this day for quite sometime this year, mainly because of my hope of qualifying for Western States 2007 lottery. After 24 hr run on track, I decided to do HK 50 specific training so as to do it within 11 hours.
Towards the end of my training in Oct, a sub 10 hr race seemed possible. As in 2006 myself and Rajeev started the race about couple of minutes late apparently my watch (and rest) was out of sync with RD's. Anyways we were off on our 50 mile journey at 7:00am
myself and Rajeev ran very comfortably till mile 10, those miles seem to fly by quite fast, mainly talking to Barbara Elia who was pacing her friend Dale for his first 50 miler. She had completed 3 ultra's on 3 consecutive weeks (RDL 100, Tahoe triple, Firetrail 50 M).. one heck of a athelete!
By mile 13 we decided to take some walk breaks consiciously, by mile 15 I was in my own rythm so carried on, Rashmi was supposed to meet me at mile 18 but missed her by few minutes, I met Chihping who seemed to be cruising at his comfy pace, I reached turn-around at 4:27, about 35 mins faster than last year, I had mixed feeling about my time, wasnt sure if I would be able to maintain this pace, but a sub 10 goal seemed possible.
Met Padma and Rajesh at mile 28, who were fighting the cutoff's but would eventually make it comfortably. I was looking fwd to mile 31 as Rashmi and parents were waiting for me, but before 31 I had some stomach upsets, resulted in some visits to "Porta John", finally reached at 5:38 and was thrilled to see all my support crew, after a short stop, continued with my easy run walk, all seemed fine untill mile 35, when I had some stomach upsets again, by mile 37 I took another ensure, which turned out to be a mistake, by mile 40 I was too nauseating, realized that I had too much of lactose in my stomach, some long walks really did help recover.
Once I recoveted from nausea, last few miles flew by easily, Luckily met Rush and Sarita at mile 44, were I had chocolate soy milk, a amazing drink different from ensure and all trail food, that carried me towards the finish.
once the levy begins you can smell the finish line, as I was turning towards the school, 9:45 finish was certain and all my training for the past 2-3 months felt so fruitful. As I entered the school my Ipod played "Zindagi Aa Raha hoon mein" From Mashaal. Finally I saw my parents and rashmi waiting at the finish, I was the most satisfied person that day.. hadnt felt in a while!!
Couple of minutes later Rajeev completed his race within 50 miler in 9:49hr, what a performance after a marathon a week before! Thanks Rajeev for all the fun runs this year. We waited for sometime for another strong finish by Padma and Rajesh. Congrats Rajesh on your 50 M finish!!
Thanks to Norm, Helen and All volunteers who make this run such a pleasant experience, I am sure to go back for one of the races next year again, thanks folks.
(Rajeev and my family with legend Helen Klien)
Ofcourse I couldnt spend all the time in training without support from my buddy and wifey Rashmi.
(she supported all of us!!)
It was a pleasure to see my parents on the course.. I could see their eyes with a concerned look mixed with happiness of me finishing 50 Miles.
(pleasure to see parents)
This race got me entry into WS 100 2007 lottery, lets see how the lottery goes on Dec 2nd.
(Asha Alumni: Rajesh, Rajeev, Anil, Padma)
Lessons learnt:
- need to be watchful about ensure intake.
Listing race report of Aaron, 11 yr old boy who completed his first 50k at SF 12 hour race.
A Hard Goal to Reach
In the weeks leading up to the San Francisco One Day 12 and 24
Hour Events, I thought I could run fifty miles in twelve hours. After all,
it is only a little more than 15 minute miles. But, now that I was about to
start, I pondered how tough that really was. I remembered my mom suggesting
that my primary goal should be 50 kilometers or 31 miles, and I tried to
readjust my own thinking to make this my new goal for the day.
When there was just 5 minutes until the start, I had a knot in my
stomach, knowing that I would not be able to be totally relaxed until I was
done at 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. It seemed a long way off. My nervousness had at
first kept me from hearing what one of the race directors, who was also my
dad, was saying. Luckily, I didn't need to hear his instructions anyway,
because the course was a one mile loop and I knew that I wouldn't get lost.
"We're going to start in ten seconds," announced my dad, "5, 4, 3,
2, 1, start!" As soon as I heard 'start' I immediately took off. At first,
I sustained the leaders' speed, keeping pace with the elite runners who had
come from all over for this race. But, after awhile, I slowed a bit and
tried to run relaxed. My first lap was 7:37, my second was 8:48, and then I
gradually slowed even more, trying to conserve my energy for the long day
ahead. However, my mini-goal of ten miles in less than two hours stayed in
my head - I wanted to be able to tell Mrs. Longua, my P.E. teacher, about it
on Monday. I achieved that goal with almost 10 minutes to spare.
Even with ten hours left, I knew that I hadn't gotten to the hard
part yet. I walked the whole eleventh lap, by then knowing that my socks
had holes in them and my shoes were rubbing up and down against my heels, so
I felt as if I was starting to get blisters. As I came into the aid
station, I immediately notified my mom that the shoes I was wearing were
hurting. She said that we were lucky that Sports Basement was just across
the street from the far side of the loop. She then went with me as I
started my twelfth lap. When we reached Sports Basement, we picked out a
pair of new shoes and socks to buy. It was then, when I was trying on the
shoes, that I noticed a blister was actually forming on my left heel. My
mom and I waited in line, paid for the new shoes and socks, threw away my
old ones, and sat down to put on the new ones. My mom and I walked out the
door minutes later with me wearing my new shoes and socks, feeling much
better.
Back to the course I went, continuing to run and walk my laps. On
my eighteenth lap, I had realized how hard going even 50 kilometers was
going to be. I also started to think about stopping at twenty miles,
because my previous record was 19 miles, set when I was 7 years old. I told
my mom that I was having doubts and mentioned once again about stopping at
20 miles. And she told me that, instead of stopping for good at 20 laps, I
should take a break at 20 and "see how you feel".
At the 20 mile mark, I decided to take that break. My stomach was
bothering me - I hadn't been eating much during the run, and I was starting
to feel low on energy. After 45 minutes and eating a sandwich, I decided to
go for a marathon, which was only 6 more laps. I got to 'rest' and chat
with my friends who walked with me while I did these 6 laps. As I was
completing the marathon, my mom asked if I thought I wanted to try for the
50 kilometer mark, the goal that we'd talked about so many days ago. I told
her, "Now I do! At 18 miles I didn't, but now I do!" From this point on, I
had no more thoughts of stopping until I reached my goal of 50 kilometers.
This time through the aid station, I ate some pizza and headed
back out on the course. It seemed much easier now that I only had to finish
5 more laps to reach my goal. I counted down the number of laps that I had
left. It got gradually darker, now that it was after 7:00, until I finally
needed a flashlight. With just two laps left, I started running again. I
ran most of the 30th and 31st loops, crossing the finish line for the last
time to the cheers of my family and friends.
Now that I was done, I had all the time I wanted to play with my
friends.
