Hyderabad Half Marathon: My first Half Marathon experience

Hyderabad Full and Half Marathon were organized on the last Sunday (30th August, 2009) by Hyderabad 10K foundation. It was the first time I tried running in a marathon and I felt great after finishing. Nitin also accompanied me for the same.

If you are looking for motivation note that, this is the first time I ever tried running more than 10 KM (that too was 2 years back) and usually I just run about 5-6 KM on treadmill in one session (30-40 minutes).


The half marathon started on time at 5:30 AM at KBR park and following a long route of 21.1 KM concluded at the Gachibowli stadium. The full one has extra forks from the same route.


Met quite a few IIITian including Balu, Sesh and Naman and a few Googlers.

Experiences :
It was quite easy to run the first 7 KMs with almost minimal breaks and continuous running/jogging. After this point I started talking water more regularly almost once every 1 or 2 KM and eating Glucose buscuits (Parle G), Banana peices or Sugar cubes.

The weather was pretty good for most times but started getting hotter towards the end. I noted that I was doing good in speed as per my targets, completed 10 KM in about an hour, then 18 in 2 hrs.

At about 17 KM I thought of taking some rest and walking instead of running but soon figured out it was getting to hard and decided to run slowly again instead of walking, basically the muscle around knee were hurting more on walking or may be I wanted to keep my target of finishing in 2:15.

Ultimately I completed in about 2:20. I figured that the professional's best timing was 1:03 and amateurs was 1:35.

Seeing many ppl around doing it and also been told so I did stretch quite a bit after finishing. It turns out that you should definitely stretch within 30 minutes after finishing. http://www.therunningbug.co.uk/ArticleDetails.aspx?Title=Post+Half+Marathon+Recovery

After effects of the Marathon/Recovery:
1) I didn't quite collapse as I did after sprinting 2.5 KM earlier during the year. May be the slow pace which is usual to treadmill practice helped.
2) After some time I observed quite severe headache. Turns out many ppl feel so. It got much better after taking good amount of rest read 6-7 hrs.
3) As suggested I did follow good Hyderation measures drinking lots of water. As it turns out you should eat well, drink(non-alcohol :)) and rest well.
4) It turns out that by the end of the day I was walking pretty comfortably and by day 2 end (today) I am pretty much normal barring the pain the calf musceles.


Here is Balu's post about the same:
http://thisissucksman.blogspot.com/2009/08/hyderabad-marathon-and-old-pals.html


I am pretty satisfied with my experience and performance in this half marathon. Today I came to know of Half Iron man competition. I am looking forward to training myself for the same and participating in it.