Indian Runners at Comrades Marathon 2011 – Live Blog

After running the Comrades Marathon last year, and realizing how much fun my friends had following our run over the web, this year its my turn to do the same. Hope you all enjoy the live updates for all the Indian Runners at the 2011 Comrades Marathon.

And we have our first finisher – Satish Gujaran finishes in 10:15:41!

All results now available. 10 Indian runners finished. 4 unfortunately did not make it. It was a fantastic day following the runs of all these stalwarts. The power situation in my apartment block was testing my patience, and I was really edgy. I am glad to say that many of the runners I had marked in the “red” zone went on to finish, and finish really strong, congratulations to them. There were 3 Bronze medal winners (finishing between 9 to 11 hours):

• Satish Gujaran
• Sushant Karkera
• Abhijit Shome

and the rest of the finishers got the Vic Clapham medals (awarded for over 11 hour and under 12 hours finish).

So folks, it has been a great first 2 years for Indian Runners at Comrades, last year saw 7 finishers and this year we went to 10. I am sure in the years going ahead, we will see even greater interest in ultra running, and many more Comrades finishers from India.

Hope you all enjoyed the updates, till next time, Jai Ho!

Comrades Up Run Route

Comrades Track Your Runner 2011 | Watch Live Video of the Run

Satish Gujaran 29384 16.86 – 01:50:21 42.96 – 04:32:49 60.66 – 06:51:12 79.26 – 14:52:42 86.96 – 10:15:41 Jacob Boopalan 23490 16.86 – 01:32:47 42.96 – 04:34:43 60.66 – 07:13:35 79.26 – 10:03:56 86.96 – 11:12:46 Abhijit Shome 10796 16.86 – 02:01:17 42.96 – 05:11:46 60.66 – 07:36:36 79.26 –  10:00:30 86.96 – 10:51:54 Sunil Chainani 37415 16.86 – 02:03:37 42.96 – 05:16:34 60.66 – 07:51:06 79.26 – 10:43:14 86.96 – 11:53:20 Danny Carroll 58806 16.86 – 02:03:54 42.96 – 05:29:21 60.66 – 08:05:27 79.26 – 10:49:37 86.96 – 11:55:00 Amit B Sheth 21548 16.86 – 02:16:10 42.96 – 05:50 60.66 – 08:28:17 Neepa Sheth 33374 16.86K – 02:16:39 42.96 – 05:50 60.66 – 08:24:43 79.26 – 11:07:13 86.96 – 11:56:36

Sushant Karkera 13034 16.86 – 01:56:48 42.96 – 05:01:58 60.66 – 07:10:25 79.26 – 09:53:27 86.96 – 10:47:16 Pradeep Kadu 12137 16.86 – 02:04:15 42.96 – 05:18:38 60.66 – 07:38:48 79.26 – 10:21:05 86.96 – 11:23:00 Vishal Dua 12986 16.86 – 02:16:17 42.96 – 05:42:54 60.66 – 07:57:40 79.26 – 10:26:58 86.96 – 11:27:06 Ajit Oak – 12841 16.86 – 02:06:40 42.96 – 05:33:31 60.66 – 07:59:27 79.26 – 10:37:44 86.96 – 11:34:12 Devashish Chakravarty 12385 16.86 – 02:16:18 42.96 – 05:47:12 60.66 – 08:26:42 Ramdas Pulapaka 20963 16.86 – 02:08:17 42.96 – 05:39:26 60.66 – 08:28:09 Vivek Prasad 16.86 – 02:12:40 42.96 – 06:01:20 60.66 – 08:51:45

Note: Runners marked in Red above are in the danger zone. And running too close or above the required 8 mins/KM pace.

Tanvir Kazmi And the runner who surprised me the most – Neepa Sheth. In spite of her consistency and all that, I did not think she would finish, finish she did, in almost identical time as my last years time 11:56:36. My later analysis revealed that she ran at a 6:30/k pace for the last 7.7 KM. That is Amazing!

Tanvir Kazmi And I am back after a big power failure 🙂 Final results available for all runners on tanvirkazmi.com. Congratulations to the 10 Indians who finished, and better luck next time for the 4 who could not make it. All of you gave your best!

Tanvir Kazmi Super congratulations to Satish! He finishes in 10:15:41 to be India’s first finisher for a 2nd successive time!

Tanvir Kazmi And the award for most consistent pacing goes to Abhijit Shome. He has consistently paced in the low to high 7/km range and he is actually ahead of Jacob and looking at a Bronze medal now. Super run, Abhijit! Hardly any change in pace from 60 to 80K.

Tanvir Kazmi followed by Jacob Boopalan just 10 minutes behind at 10:03:56. Last 8 KM on for these guys, its home run now!

Tanvir Kazmi Sushant Karkera hits 79K at 09:53:27 . Looks good to get that bronze medal for a sub 11 finish. Jacob remains, he might be the only other Indian to have a chance at bronze, for rest it would be Vic Clapham medal for finishing after 11 hours.

Tanvir Kazmi: Breaking – Satish hits Polly Shorts (no I dont mean that literally) at 7:13! Which means he is on pace at the 79K mark to finish within 10:30! Super going Satish!

Tanvir: A few words about Jacob now. I have never met him, but have known him for about 6 years now. In fact, he is among my first running connections since I started running back in 2005.  He used to have a running blog called Dead Toes during those days, though he never wrote much. I think he has been around Chennai and Bangalore most of his years, works for a Social Welfare organization, and runs a lot, even outside India. He came overall second in the 2010 Bangalore ultramarathon, where a women runner overtook him at the 97th kilometer! He is known as Mile Muncher on his mail alias.

Tanvir Kazmi From the archives – last years Comrades had 8 runners from India, with 7 finishing in time limit of 12 hours. Check it out at here.

Tanvir Kazmi Okay, now we have details of every India runner (14 in all) being tracked on the blog. Not sure if I am missing anyone. 7 runners in Red zone, i.e. running too close or above the target pace of 8 min/km required to finish this in time.

Tanvir Kazmi: At Satish’s current pace of 6.83/km, he looks good for a stupendous sub 10 hours run. That would be amazing. Last year Satish did 10:58 and he is the first Indian finisher ever in Comrades 85 year history

Tanvir: Ok, let me share some experiences while we wait for the results. Starting with Satish Gujaran from Mumbai. “Heck of a runner, gem of a person”, he is the craziest and the most down to earth person I have ever met. Every day at 4:30 am, we don’t even known what that time is, and Satish is up to catch a local to Mahalakshmi for his usual daily half marathon training run. Under the guidance of former Mumbai champ Leelamma, he has become one hardcore runner running on the rock solid mud tracks of Mahalakshmi. Last year, he ran a super race to grab that Bronze medal with a 10:58 finish, in-spite of swellings the size of tennis balls in his calfs. He became the first ever Comrades finisher from India, and our hero!

Tanvir Kazmi: Still to see anyone else reach Camperdown… come on guys!

Tanvir Kazmi: And our last years top finisher Satish Gujaran has reached Camperdown, 61KM in 06:51:12. Keep the flag flying high Satish!

Tanvir Kazmi: Amit and Neepa hit 43K in 05:50. Dangerously close, hope they keep it going.

Tanvir Kazmi: And while we are at it, Stephen Muzhingi of Zimbabwe secured his third straight Comrades Marathon title.

Tanvir Kazmi: Danny too reaches Drummond. Good at 05:29:21

Tanvir Kazmi: Woohoo, Abhijit and Sunil hit 43K! Abhijit – 05:11:46. Sunil – 05:16:34! Hunting in packs, are they.

Tanvir Kazmi: Neepa hit 17K in 2:16. The most consistent runner I have ever seen. She will rock the second half of the race.

Tanvir Kazmi: Abhijit has hit 17K in 2:01. Good going boys!

Tanvir Kazmi: Okay, I think they are showing the 17K mark as 27K. Now makes sense.

Tanvir Kazmi: Jacob and Satish are leading the way, and looks like almost running together. 44KM in 4:35.

Danny, Sunil, Amit have crossed 27K within minutes of each other in about 2:05. That number doesnt make sense though. Lets wait for them to hit the 44K and see.Neeraj Rohilla: Good luck to Indian contingent running Comrades.

Neeraj Rohilla Good luck to Indian contingent running Comrades.