153km in Coburg 24 hr

It has been over a month now since the 24-hr International Race in Coburg, Vic., Australia.  I could cover only 153 km. A total failure. I simply could not defeat the colder night. Daytime temperature was 25 Deg Celsius which dropped to 5 Deg Celsius at night. It was too cold for me. I should have reached Australia 4-5 days earlier to acclimatize with the nights. In my city of New Delhi here in India, temperatures in days was 40 Deg Cel and in nights was 20 Deg Cel. I had to lie down in front of a blower for two times in the race canteen to revive my body. Strange experience. This performance put me in 11th place out of 22 starters.  Now I start more hard practice.  I dont want to repeat it. The very good thing happened is I got a chance to rub my shouldere with Mr. Phil Essam, who is my mentor and very good friend from the beginning of my ultramarathon career.  Also I had a chance to exchange some thoughts with Brian Collings (four timer Westfield Sydney-Melbourne runner, 7 days AND one time Sydney-Melbourne-Sydney). He also suffered with the cold night and was not happy with is performance of less than 150 km.  It was a 24 hr walk also and two athelets (1 man 1 woman) crossed 100 mile mark to become Centurion Walkers.

Now I have to reschedule my 2008 calendar. My next run would be on National Highway No. 8, between Mumbai and Delhi in October.