Marathon after a year

In 2006 at Delhi I stopped running Marathon after knee pain became unbearable. In 2007 due to emotions I start off at the same place. I did feel slightly emotional after crossing the finish line, since I had gone ahead with the run even tho many people advised me not to including the doctors. Am still not sure if my ligament tear has fully healed also.
The timing of finishing the half marathon was personally not my best but I had to keep in mind my injury so didnt exert too much. I was happy with finishing in 2hrs and 11mins. With a practise of just under 3 weeks I feel this effort was good and am looking forward to better it in Bangalore Marathon and Bangalore Ultra Marathon to beheld in December this year.
The run for half marathon started at 7:45am with some mannerless guys who just wanted to rush as soon the run was flagged off and halted after first 2-3kms. The worst part was these guys dont even care about other runners and which is why I dont call them runners. I took one end of the road so that others wouldnt trip me down or stamp my feet still some of these guys managed to almost trip me. The worst is when they run between me & another runner putting all the three in danger.
I was able to manage a steady pace of 6mins/km but during the end I started feeling some amount of pain due to lack of regular practise. I should mention that two weeks of running in Chennai did help to a large extent in completing the run.
The heat was slightly on the higher side but was not worse. The difficult section was when running from Parliment towards India Gate facing the sun at around 9:00am in the morning. Yeah, 1hr after the start and I was close to 11km mark.

Now that I was able to complete, now I should look forward to improve on timings with more practise and stamina building. Hopefully the rains in Bangalore would stop permitting me to cycle and run to work.

Tags: Half Marathon, Marathon, Vodafone, Delhi, India

Running ahead

There is no gain without pain!
Next 4 months I would be running on 4 occassions.

1. Vodafone Delhi Half Marathon On October 28th 2007
2. “Kavery Trail Marathon 2007” on November 18 2007 (Details to come soon)
3. Bangalore International Marathon (Only half) On December 9th 2007
4. Bangalore Ultra Marathon (Hoping to complete 52kms) On December 16th 2007
5. Mumbai Marathon (Should I aim for Full or Half??) On January 20th 2008

All in all this just means no partying for next 4 months and also no travel.

Tags: Marathon, Running, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, India

Back to basics

Last time I played I had to discontinue inbetween due to various reasons. This time I want to continue for long till I can hold on to it. Yeah, am talking about playing chess tournament online courtesy click here.
And am back to running. Well past two weeks I have been running almost regularly about 10-15kms without a break and I look to be fine as of now. Today I felt I was rushing a bit and I need to control this urge currently. Hopefully, my knees wont give up since 4 big runs are coming up almost one in each month, Vodafone Delhi Half Marathon, Bangalore Marathon, Bangalore Ultra Marathon, Mumbai Marathon.

Life is tough – 44

One bird in hand is better than two in the bush!! 🙂

Revenge does taste sweet

When Indian Cricket team won Twenty – Twenty World Cup, Australians were all pumped up to take their sweet revenge. Today they sealed it and showed to the entire world who the champions are!!
Indian Team definitely needs some changes. Yeah Ganguly & Sachin ensured wickets were not lost and so others can go all out to fight for a win which didnt happen. Both of them should have accelerated the scoring rate once they crossed 50. But they cant be blamed they did their job. Rahul Dravid is awfully out of form and he needs to be definitely rested for some matches.
Sreesanth, all talk and no action guy. As a new ball bowler you are expected to take wickets. Here is a burden for the captain. He was unfortunate but that was just one occassion in the first 3 overs he bowled today. Selectors should tell him that if he has to play in future be consistent. 3 balls are real nice ones and he makes up with the remaining 3 balls spraying them all over.

So many problems

1. Chennai corporation is digging all over the city that once the rains sets in another few weeks all the areas would become slippery with so much of mud (slush) on the roads.
2. If digging in some areas is for storm water drainage, how can the electricity & other departments be left behind?
3. Whether it is cement road or tar road digging is part & parcel of every department so they do their work. Who cares “Make hay wile the sun shines” is re-written to “Dig roads while sun shines”
4. If Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) bus jumps a signal its not a violation. Nor is it a violation when they dont follow lane discipline.
5. MTC has introduced automatic door closing deluxe buses and Volvo. Yes, I finally saw volvo buses on Chennai roads. But the only difference from Bangalore volvo is that in Chennai due to heat and humidity the air conditioner needs to be set higher so the profits need to be watched.
6. Helmets for two wheeler riders have been mandatory after High Court took strong note against the goverment. Yes, still one can find riders without them but there is atleast 80% people wearing it. Which also means only about 15 – 20% is the collection for police from non-adhering riders.
7. With so many vehicles on the road and to prevent situation like in Bangalore I think the Goverment has to act fast and make a new law that employees dont use private vehicles on weekedays between 7:00am to 9:00pm for travelling to office and use only office transport or public transport.

Tags: Chennai, India

Why cant every day be a Sunday?

In this maddening world of work and traffic and tension how wonderful it would be if few days in the week feels like Sunday. What so special about Sunday?? A day when you want to do nothing just sit & sit & sit & sit.
Well, I am almost there. Past few days and few more days to come am just relaxing by running early in the morning for 1hr. Then going around here and there. No thot of anything, I go where I feel like going. No questions asked no answers given even if any.
I run along the sea shore on the sand that had been made wet by the waters all through the night. Walk away from waters run on the road. I just do what I feel like doing.
Am allowing this to continue till this would please tho not for long since there are certain things waiting for me.

Weekend events

This weekend October 6th and 7th is a eventful weekend in Bangalore and Chennai. Tho I ruin the fact that am going to miss the event in Bangalore which seems to be more promising and eventful than the event in Chennai.
In Bangalore the event is FilmCamp where you meet short movie makers, script writers. And you also learn on how to fine tune your skills on these aspects and many more since there is going to be workshop’s also. And I would not be in Bangalore this weekend!!
In Chennai the event is SearchCamp. I would be in Chennai during the weekend but am not sure if I would be attending this. This sounds more geeky and scary!!

Tags: FilmCamp, SearchCamp, Bangalore, Chennai, India

RTMC 6A – Coorg

Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club gave a different experience during 5th anniversary at Yercaud and a whole complete difference over the weekend celebrating 6th anniversary.
On Satuday, 7 of us part of Royal Knights were invited by RTMC for the anniversary and 6 of us rode together as a group thru the journey at a speed of 60km/hr – 70km/hr. On the way of course there cant be a ride without some problems in the bike and the same bike had the same problem again. The soldering in the coil had come off and one of the bike’s dint start after that. With a little bit of push the bike was towed till the nearest village where there was a mechanic to fix it up, tho he was opening an Royal Enfield bike for first time ever!

We continued on the journey with few more stoppages and finally reached Capitol Village in Madikeri around 4:00pm. And of course driving in the rain.
(Everyone’s happy to be in focus)

(Wondering, what the hell is happening)

(Two vehicles which can take the load one with animal power and another on diesel)

Well this time there was just partying and no events unlike last time. Yeah, last year it was for 3 days but this time it was for 2 days and that made lot of difference plus Capitol Village couldnt accomodate all the people.
On Sunday after finishing brunch by around 2:00pm we started our journey back and this time we took the highway instead of Ghats and that was a big big mistake. While it was supposed to be highway there was actually no highway. After a point of time it wasnt making any sense to indicate potholes to others since there was no road at all, it was potholes all through. This was the condition of the highway till Kushalnagar or after the Monastery. This stretch made most of us tired.
Rains spared us on this stretch luckily but dint when we hit the Mysore Highway towards Bangalore. And me wearing spectacles it was all the more difficult. Twice I had to stop to wipe water from my glasses. It was getting difficult to ride with water on glasses and also helmet visor. After Maddur Cafe Coffee Day where we took a break I lost all the others in the group, but I managed to reach Bangalore safely and earlier than others since I didnt stop anywhere apart from cleaning my glasses.
The ride left me with some body pain and cold but not in a very bad condition. On the whole, the ride up and down was great.