Lessons from Vasai-Virar Marathon 2015

[Madhur Kotharay]

First, the Executive Summary about Sunday's (22nd Nov 2015) race:

A very high quality race. Well managed. Buses to get the runners to the starting points (Vasai and Virar, for half and full M, respectively). Even special trains early in the morning from Churchgate.

The course was good, going through nice neighbourhoods, quaint villages of fisherfolk and christian natives, a veritable mini-Goa. Ample greenery -difficult to believe you are so close to Mumbai. Mostly flat, with a 3-4 bridges. Good attendance by cheering, encouraging spectators. Ample water and energy drinks supply.

Excellent post-race management, medical tents. Traffic held back properly by cops. No political speeches at the start of the race - the participants were the only celebrities, as it should be. As a runner, you were made to feel welcome. And apparently, very good prize money, too, though I did not get even a whiff of it. :-)

Also, a good set of participants. These were not untrained, time-pass, local runners, who turn up when goodie bags become attractive. Many runners were well-trained, well-behaved participants, even better than Mumbai Marathon crowd (half of whom, I think, are just a show-off bunch of runners; a part of the reason for which, I guess, is the early registration cut-off date. Most people believe in July that they can train for a Jan marathon. Vasai-Virar Marathon cut-off was just two weeks before the actual race, close enough for a reality check). The numbers were manageable, too. You would get your running space, without getting lost in a phalanx of runners.

All in all, a race worthy of participation, even for people from Thane-Pune area. On a scale of 0 (avoid) - 10 (must do), I would rank this at 7, as against marathons in Mumbai (6), Pune (3), New York (7), San Francisco (5), Boston (7), Atlantic City (6), etc.
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Now, about my race experience and lessons learned:

When you think you know it all, a marathon, just like the stock market (!), has its own way of humbling and teaching you. For some of you running veterans, this will be an interesting case study. See if you can diagnose the problem before you get the answer at the end.

For me, this was a time trial, a first one in 24 years, as a stepping stone to my Jan 2017 goal. So I registered for a half marathon, instead of the full one. A time trial is the one where you run the distance at peak ability, without partaking the race fun and camaraderie.

At the 6:30 am start itself, the signs were ominous. There was no morning chill; too muggy and somewhat hot. But if it is bad for you, it is bad for all the runners. So I thought one has to live with these vicissitudes of race day drama.

The start was clean, albeit it taking 2 min to the actual starting point due to running crowds. I started comfortably at my 5 min/km pace. Winding through the roads of Vasai, heading towards the railway station, it was a pleasant journey. I crossed 6 km in 32 min (2 before start + 30). So I was right on track.

My tuneup to the race was near perfect. I was feeling great and legs were feeling rested, too. So I was expecting a good finish. After all, I know how my body responds, with ample marathon experience over the last 26 years. What more was there to learn? Apparently, plenty.

Around that time, I started noticing that it was becoming a bit hard to run. Yet, the course was quite flat. I also noticed that my breathing was a bit too fast. So I blamed it on the humidity.

I put on my thinking hat. I checked whether I was dehydrating. After P Venkat & Dr Aashish Contractor's landmark study on hydration, I knew I was hydrating correctly. Still, just to be sure, I decided to drink extra water at 8 km. Suddenly, I had this strong urge to walk and I justified it by saying that it is better to walk while drinking water, lest I swallow too much air.

8 km and I was taking a walking break! This was supposed to be a time trial, which is an all-out dash for 21 km. The legs were feeling sluggish. I thought it was humidity, once again. But I missed that my arms swing was also feeling very weak, as if it was rebelling to perform.

When you are really, really tired towards the end of the race, they tell you to swing your arms. Your arm-swing an carry your leg turnover. And your arms should not fatigue out like your legs, as they are not the performing muscles. But I still did not get the hint.

I had slowed down a lot. I was going with the 2:15 bus now. I reached the 10 km in 1:00. So I had taken 28 min for 4 km, a lousy speed of 7 per km, nearly 40% slower than my first 6 km. This should have told me something but I just could not connect the dots.

Then came the Vasai bridge, where the marathon crossed from West to East of the railway line. Often runners do not like elevation changes like that. But scientifically, they are better than the flat courses. Running up the bridge needs a slightly different set of muscles than running on a flat course. Unfortunately, your stored muscle glycogen cannot shift between the working muscles, i.e. an adjacent muscle with plentiful stores will not provide its depleted neighbour any juice. So a slightly hilly course is better, energy consumption-wise, than a flat course for a long race.

As I started going up the bridge, I realised I was just not strong enough to power up. Normally, you drop the stride length but not change the footfall tempo. Personally, I follow 180 foot steps per minute tempo. But I could not keep up that tempo while going up the bridge. I had to walk up, totally breathless. I still could not guess the problem.

Traditionally, runners assume that an exercise-related muscle fatigue causes them to slow down. However, slowly there is evidence creeping that exercise-related muscle fatigue comes only if you go too fast and that too, in the form of lactic acid build up. That is because the anaerobic form of glycogen burning is 19 times more inefficient than the aerobic form: inefficient in terms of the muscle glycogen use. You are burning fuel too fast to last. But I was going too slow, not too fast - even for a humid day.

Consensus is still building that exercise-related muscle fatigue, which happens due to muscle glycogen depletion, will not slow you down. Something else takes place before that stage; something called a Central Nervous (CNS) Fatigue. During this, your brain takes over the fatigue control from your muscles. A neurotransmitter in your brain called Serotonin starts increasing. High serotonin levels cause you to feel tired and lethargic.

I was sure this Serotonin thing could not be happening to me. I gulped more water thinking dehydration was the cause but with water sloshing around in my stomach, I felt it was highly unlikely.

Serotonin levels increase because of an increase in the levels of a protein (amino acid) called tryptophan in the brain. Why should tryptophan go up in the brain so early in the race? Nature was giving me a hint but I just could not connect the dots.

I crossed 14 km. Whenever I would pick up the pace, my heart rate raced up and my breathing rate would accelerate from 2 in-2 (tempo run) out to 1 in-1 out (sprints). It started looking hopeless. I was convinced it was not worth the effort to push. After all, what was the use? The pace was already slower than my practice runs.

Suddenly, I realised that I was thinking very negatively; 'I Can't Do It' was the refrain. I am not a runner who chickens out when things get tough. So this could not have been me; but it was very much me, a voice inside me saying this crap.

Nature was giving me hints: this was a classic sign of dopamine, another brain neurotransmitter, going down. Dopamine is your brain's reward-, motivation-, goal-seeking chemical. When dopamine goes down, your willpower to fight goes down.

Why was dopamine going down so early, at 14 km? It just did not make sense. A few days ago, I saw a Whatsapp clip from Spain where they dressed Christiano Ronaldo, the famous footballer, as a homeless beggar and made him do some exquisite football moves in a giant townhall. The clip showed that nobody stopped to watch him, until he removed his make-up.

The conclusion: Human mind cannot make sense of any data, however clear, if not presented in the proper context. And in the context of a half-marathon, I could not make sense of all these signs, though they were telling something absolutely concrete.

I was really struggling with the distance, cruising barely at 7-8 min per km. So I mentally gave up on the time trial and started enjoying the crowds, the spectators and even the fanfare and arrangements.

When running gets tough, runners employ four different cognitive strategies: inward association, outward association, inward dissociation and outward dissociation. Inward stands for inside your body or mind; outward stands for crowds, scenary, race splits, etc. Association stands what matters for the race: your breathing, elevation change, etc. Dissociation stands for what does not matter for the race: spectators, music bands, your favourite song.

The best way to perform in tough times is being in inward association: focus on your breathing, running form, tempo, etc. The worst way is the external dissociation: course scenary, runners' costumes.

I waved to Daniel Vaz and his fellow runners, coming from the opposite direction. I started watching the runners on the other side of the road: the full marathon participants: I was indulging in external dissociation.

I was surprised to see the lead marathon runners coming from the opposite side of the road and later, passing us on our side of the road. I thought it was an O-shaped route for full marathoners. But the politics in India has a way of overriding sports and this marathon was not immune to it. They had to change the route at the last minute because of some agitations:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Last-minute-route-change-for-runners-of-Sundays-Vasai-Virarmarathon-as-villagers-protest/articleshow/49872889.cms

Eventually, at the 18 km, the 2:30 bus (for novices: it is a designated runner carrying a special flag, whose job is to give correct pacing for runners to complete the race in that time) caught up with me.

I got fairly angry. 2:30 bus passing me was downright insulting: I do that time in my LSD (long, slow distance) training runs. "No way they are going to pass me", I said and I picked up my stride. Another 300-400 meters and I let them go ahead. I just had no fight left in me. Deep Dopamine Depletion and I still could not guess what was wrong.

Finally, on seeing the finish line, I decided to kick hard. It was astonishing that I was 'dashing' at barely about 7 min / km and I was completely out of breath like in an anaerobic sprint. I saw the clock ahead showing 2:29:43 and I had to clench my teeth to finish in 2:29:50. They gave me the net time of 2:27:57, adjusting for the lost time at the start.


I thought the race was over but the drama was yet to begin. In the resting area, I could not even stand properly in the line to get the breakfast, a sumptuous mix of upma, poha and sheera with banana. After breakfast, I was still very hungry but could not ask for more, as they had ticked my bib for breakfast.

I was feeling uncomfortable, too tired to do anything. I rested on the floor for 20 min thinking I would feel better and then leave for home. Finally, I decided it was time to get up and go. As I got up, an absolutely dizzying feeling came over me. I gave a big, deep yawn and smelt acetone on my breath. I almost fainted.

As the world blanked out all around me, a bulb went on in the head. I finally cracked the problem:

The Wall.

All dots connected instantly. I was in severe glycogen depletion.

A human body has about 100 gm of glycogen in liver and another 300 gm in the skeletal muscles. If you are well trained, you can have another 200 gm of glycogen stored in the muscles (400 gm more for elite athletes). 600 gm of glycogen is 2400 calories. For a runner of 80 kg like me, it is enough fuel to go for 30 km (1 cal / kg of body weight / km). After that, the glycogen as the primary fuel for energy gets depleted and fatty acids (or fats) are used for energy.

Fatty acids need 30% more oxygen for producing the same amount of energy as the glycogen (carbohydrates). So, given the same breathing rate, you slow down by 30%. I slowed down by 30% after 6 km, suddenly. It should have given me a hint.

As the fatty acid mobilisation increases, it pushes tryptophan into the brain, which is the precursor (raw material) for serotonin. As the brain increases serotonin production, you start feeling tired and lethargic.

Your brain, the central governor, now starts controlling your performance through the CNS fatigue mechanism. The protective mechanism for body homeostasis (maintenance of equilibrium) kicks in. It decreases the dopamine production, which in turn reduces muscular coordination and endurance performance. Low dopamine reduces your motivation- and reward-seeking mechanism, making you feel you should give up, or at least slow down.

The brain's temperature regulator, Hypothalamus, has many nerve endings that are stimulated by Dopamine and Serotonin. So running performance in hot temperature is even more affected by dopamine and serotonin.

Why would I 'hit the wall' at 6 km of a half-marathon? It can never happen in a 21.1 km half-marathon, a phenomenon reserved for the 30 km mark of a full marathon. Human mind cannot make sense of any data out of context. In the context of half-marathon, I could never even think of having 'hit the wall', though all the signs were right there.

At that point, I remembered that the day before, I had hardly had any carbs. I had a lot of proteins but almost no carbs. I had tried to go light on food as I get crapping tensions the morning of the race. Also, I had been following a 5:2 diet, where you eat normally for 5 days a week and have 600 calories on two non-consecutive days in between. One of those days happened to be the day before the half-marathon.

I have always been respectful of the marathon distance, but I treated half-marathon carelessly, preparing in training but not in proper diet. Probably, as a result, I had 2000 calorie deficit the day before. 2400-2000 = 400 calories of glycogen was left in my body, which saw me through the first 5-6 km. And after that, it was the wall, making me struggle through the whole distance.

The solution would have been a proper Carbo-Loading Routine:

Three Days Before the Race: The right way would have been to eat a normal calorie but 75% carb diet for 2-3 days before the race (8.5 gm of carbohydrates per day per kg of body weight!!!).

The Day Before: Avoid any high-glycemic index food as it could raise the insulin levels rapidly causing the sugar cravings later, giving a low level of sugar. You are better off having a complex carbohydrate meal such as pasta, bread or rice, which releases sugar slowly in your blood, allowing the muscles to soak it in.

The Night Before: Bread can give you bloating due to the fermentation. Now you are too close to the race.

The Hour Before: You do not want to eat sweet fruits before the race as they mainly contain fructose, which can be accumulated only in the liver, but not in muscles as glycogen. An Apple might be OK. You want muscle fuel. Also, avoid high glycemic index foods, as they may give an insulin kick, which will give a sugar low.

During the Race: You are better off taking energy drinks instead of just plain water. You want simple carbs, which can be quickly absorbed by the body and possibly even give an insulin surge. High insulin levels can push sugars into working muscles, which is fine when the muscles are working at peak intensity. You actually want high insulin now. It reduces the stress hormone Cortisol and increases the blood supply to the muscles.

Incidentally, diluted protein ingestion, if your body can handle it (drinking protein can stimulate release of a peptide enzyme that can cause gastric upset), can also give the insulin push at this stage. Also, if you have certain amino acids in your protein like valine, they can reduce the uptake of tryptophan by the brain, reducing serotonin increase and concomitant fatigue.

After I started blanking out, I sheepishly requested the runner sitting next to me for help. He turned out to be Ashok Someshwar from Powai. He played the role of a good samaritan, and called Dr Pratibha Wankhede, who along with a couple of other people from their group, helped me stabilise with bananas and leg elevation (if you keep the legs elevated against a wall, more blood flows to your brain by gravity, bringing precious glucose). If any of you knows these runners, kindly convey them a big 'thank you' from me.

A trip to the medical tent and I was in safe hands of a bunch of local doctors. I was given two bottles of Dextrose 25% and 3-4 tetrapacks of Energy Drink. After I rested for a couple of hours in the medical tent, I was back on my feet again, wobbly but wiser.

Madhur Kotharay

[P. Venkatraman]

Madhur,

Very nice report and thanks for taking the time and writing it in the wee hours of the morning. As if often your wont!!!

I will respond on two aspects.

1. You said you had not carb loaded well enough the previous day. But even without carb loading there should be sufficient carbs for you to not hit the wall  in a HM.

2. You mention that your brain was fatigued due to a combination of hormones. Quite true that..but was the underlying cause the lack of glycogen or was it the lack of adequate brain training / preparation before the run? What was your emotional mind state before the run in the past few days leading to the run?

3. You mentioned that you were drinking water and it was sloshing around. Did your postural hypotension result from hyponatremia? Did you have adequate salts?

Venkat

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[daniel vaz]

Thanks for the exhaustive report Madhur. I have just two comments;

Glycogen can be very low ONLY IF you have gone thru' Glycogen depletion phase (part of the strategy for 'Super-compensation' followed by some elites) which happens by running on low carb diet for 3 days before suddenly increasing carb intake. Not having carbs just one day before is unlikely to cause you the problem you encountered.

The more likely scenario is that there was an intake of high-glycemic carbs (you have not stated anything about a pre-race meal...or I missed in speed reading your report) before the race. Science shows that a high glycemic meal before the start can cause Insulin levels to go up in the blood thus taking away blood sugar and more or less shutting down the 'Glycolysis pathway'. This means that you end up running on fat metabolism and your run brings increasing fatigue since you haven't trained for this like an Ultra Runner would. The end result is that on finishing, you would feel hypoglycemic......a sure sign of which is to feel extremely hungry. Your report says you felt hungry even after the meal. The sugar from the meal had not kicked in yet and so your body was still giving out signals for intake of sugar. Perhaps a Coca Cola would have set you right in a jiffy. My thoughts on this.

Dan

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[Madhur Kotharay]

Venkat,

1. You said you had not carb loaded well enough the previous day. But even without carb loading there should be sufficient carbs for you to not hit the wall  in a HM.

My day before the race was practically of fasting, barely 600 cal (realised in retrospect as had not paid attention thinking it hardly matters in Half M).

2. You mention that your brain was fatigued due to a combination of hormones. Quite true that..but was the underlying cause the lack of glycogen or was it the lack of adequate brain training / preparation before the run? What was your emotional mind state before the run in the past few days leading to the run?

Very well trained going into this race.
Long runs: on an average one per 10 days. Ramped up as 15, 18, 18, 21, 23, 25, 28, 30 kms. Average speed for LSD: 8.4 km/hour. Last one about 15 days before the race.

Did a tempo run a week before at 11.6 km/hr.

Did a Yasso 800 at 12.6 km/hr 10 days before the race.

Mentally, was quite excited about the race and was very positive going into it. No work pressures, nor health problems before the race.

3. You mentioned that you were drinking water and it was sloshing around. Did your postural hypotension result from hyponatremia? Did you have adequate salts?

This sloshing around happened around 14-15 km when I took nearly 500 ml of water extra thinking humidity was taking its toll on me. But before that was comfortable. 200 ml before race, 200 ml at 8 km, 200 ml at 11 km, 200 ml at 13 km, 200 ml at 14 km. Normally, I would take 200 ml every 4 km.

Daniel, I did not eat anything before the race. The last 'meal' was a 500 ml glass of buttermilk with protein at 7 pm the night before. So it was unlikely that there was any insulin high and sugar low before the race. I had a glass of warm water 3 hours before the race, to cleanse the belly.

Dr Ashish Contractor feels I started out too fast. 5 km/hr. Probably, that may also be the reason, especially given the humidity.

​Madhur

[P. Venkatraman]

Dan,

Well put..totally agree.

Let Madhur surface post lunch and we can then await his response later in the day :-)

Venkat