Year 2025

I do a 'reflections' and 'next year plan' blog end of the year. You can read the 2024 one here. Some years, I also do a mid-year check-in to see how I'm trending on my goals/plans, the 2025 mid-year one is here.

When I started out the year, I had Boston Marathon in Apr and Malnad Ultra 50 km in Nov on the horizon, race-wise. As with everything, plans change, whilst I ran Boston Marathon and Malnad Ultra, I also ran Sydney Marathon and two other half marathons which weren't in the plan. 

I was very fortunate to have had a decent training block building up to Boston Marathon and a decent race too which I have covered here. In Boston, I also got my Abbott World Marathon Major Six stars medal at the finish line for successfully completing all the Six World Marathon Major races around the world, a journey I started in Chicago back in Oct of 2017. The original six races are Chicago, Berlin, NYC, London, Tokyo and Boston. I have listed them in the order I ran them over a duration of seven and a half years, however one can run these races in any order, so when one finishes the 6th one, you additionally get the 6 Stars medal for successfully completing all the races in the series. In the meantime, Abbott World Marathon Majors is expanding to include three additional races, Sydney (7th Star), Cape Town (8th Star - candidate race) and Shanghai (9th Star - candidate race), more on that here. As runners finish these three additional races, they'll get the 9 Star medal perhaps similar to the 6 Stars medal. In Aug 2025, Sydney officially became the 7th World Marathon Major race, I along with a bunch of my friends were again fortunate to train and complete Sydney Marathon end of Aug, I have blogged about that race and it's prep here. Having completed 7 out of the 7 Abbott World Marathon Majors, it's only fair to go run Cape Town and Shanghai Marathons to complete all the 9, but that's 2026 and beyond as these 'candidate' races qualify to become World Marathon Majors after a strict evaluation process.

Races I ran in 2025,
  • Sat Apr 19: Boston 5 km
  • Mon, Apr 21: Boston Marathon
  • Sun, Aug 31: Sydney Marathon
  • Sun, Oct 12: Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon
  • Sun, Nov 9: Runveer 7.0 Saluting Op Sindoor, Mhow Half Marathon
  • Sat, Nov 22: Malnad Ultra 50 km, Chikkamagaluru
If I look back 2020 through 2024 (5 year period), I ran a total of six races, none in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid. This year, I have participated in as many races as 2022, 2023 and 2024 combined. Which I find excessive, which I'll fix in 2026.

Here are some 2025 stats,
  • 1892.25 mi (3,045.28 km), 157 mi/month (253.7 km/month), 36.3 mi/week (58.5 km/week)
  • 103 strength training sessions,  ~8.5 sessions/month
  • 373h56m40s - Time spent being active, running/walking/strength training, which is 1h01m28s per day
  • Averaged 15,840 steps/day, ~550 steps/day more compared to 2024
  • Averaged 6h21m sleep, compared to 6h03m in 2024 and 5h42m in 2023
  • Weight has mostly hovered between 69-71 kg, pretty much consistent over the last 3-4 years
  • Portion control continues to be a challenge, need to consciously watch what and how much I eat :(
2026 goals (listed in priority order),
  • Remain injury-free
  • Consistent training volume: ~2,000 mi (3218.68 km) running and 100-110 strength training sessions
  • Stricter diet/portion control
  • Not more than three races: Cape Town Marathon, Ladakh Marathon and Malnad Ultra 50 km
  • Run a sub ~8:00/mi (~4:59/km) or run a sub 1:45:00 half marathon in training

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