Fire, Manoj Bhatt, 7.5k

The alarm was set at 5:30 am and after several snoozes and a shower, I was at Cubbon park by 6:45 am. The run began at 6:55 am and I wanted to bust out a hard 10k. However, after 2.5k, things did not go right. I suspect that the speed was higher than usual and my body heated up faster than expected.

It was great to bump into Manoj Bhatt and we spoke about a few runners in Chennai, the Hyderabad marathon, plans before the marathon etc for about a minute. Then we bid farewell and I took off again. The 5k was done in 23 minutes.

I wanted to just stop. Luckily, I managed to bump into a few athletes from the Karnataka Athletic Association and the video "Why do I run" played in my head. It was great to bust a few 800 meter loops with them. They glided effortlessly while I had to pant and weep through the 4 loops. Finally, it was somewhere between a 7.5 km and 9k run.

The Hyd marathon is going to be clearly be a mental game. There is absolutely no physical strength to run a hard half marathon but the need and the want to do it has set a fire in my belly. I hope this fire gets converted to a good race