Vacation time Running..

Am off work for 10 days in the last fortnight of the year in order to deplete my vacation balance to within allowable limit. I have met runners who do little running during their vacations and come back from their holiday saying 'I need to catch up with my training as I hardly ran the last ten days'. While its a challenge to get up early and run during vacations, I usually ensure that I run at least once in 3 days. This is important not only to keep the training momentum but also to offset the increase in calorie intake that is inevitable during a vacation. In any case one key factor that motivated to take up running as a habit is so that I can eat and drink without too much care. Also, I enjoy running in new places and being an addict am unable to stay off it even while on vacation.

The first part of this vacation was spent at the ancestral home in my birthplace Tiruchi(Tiruchirapalli or Trichinapoly). I am not a very religous guy(though a believer)- but Tiruchi, with numerous well known temples around it, brings out the religous instinct in me. During the four days there, we visited several magnificent temples: Ranganathaswamy temple in Srirangam, Samayapuram Mariamman Temple , Thiruvanaikaval Shiva temple, Rockfort Ganesha temple, Vayalur Murugan temple and the Brihadishwara temple in Tanjavur. Despite some of these temples being very crowded I enjoyed their architecural and cultural ambience. We also visited Saraswati Mahal Library in Tanjavur - one among the few medieval libraries existing in the world. This library has palm leaf based manuscripts written by my forefathers.

At the same time I also managed two decent runs of 10.5Km and 9Km respectively starting around 630am. The roads in the Tennur area, Sivaprakasa road and Sastry road, were broad and traffic light. The weather was moderate - by Tiruchi standards it was winter with a morning low of around 20 Celsius. Surprisingly I saw very few walkers or joggers on the streets and there were hardly any stray dogs around. Did see lots of goats wandering around in the roads. I capped the week with a nice 24Km/2hrs 26 minutes run as part of the RFL run in EGL on 28th December clocking a total of 44Km for the week. Despite this, I have put on a couple of Kilos since the last marathon few weeks ago - I guess the calorie intake (specially in the form of fried stuff and desserts) has been greater than the expenditure.

Am looking forward to the last run of the year on 30th morning and then starting the New Year with a nice long (25Km+ ) run before gettting back to work.

Breaking in a new pair of Addidas Supernova Cushion

A week after last Sunday’s marathon I completed a nice comfortable 12K run today at my usual CV Raman Nagar route. That by itself is normal – I have usually been doing a 10 to 12K run a week after finishing a Full Marathon. However, today’s run is also the longest I have done with my new pair of shoes – my seventh pair of Addidas Supernova Cushion in six years(hope someone from Addidas is reading this!) . Yes I have pretty much been a ‘one shoe brand’ runner since I took to distance running in 2002. When I searched for my first pair of running shoes in early 2002 I neither knew much about running shoes nor did I know any other marathon runner in Bangalore to seek guidance from. I think at that time Addidas was probably the only brand that was selling a range of sports shoes in Bangalore. I stumbled upon the supernova cushion, it worked for me during my first runs beyond 20 Km and 30Km and of course my first full marathon. I have never considered looking at any other running shoe except once. In 2007 , influenced by comments from other runners and literature about ASICS being the ‘best’ shoe brand for distance runners I bought a pair of ASICS Gel Kayano 13 during one of trips to the US on work. Unfortunately, the shoe did not work for me. The heel started hurting during long runs. I run one Full Marathon with this pair of shoes and then disposed it off and went back to my Supernova Cushion. From this experience I learnt that no brand/make of shoe will fit all runners and it does not make sense to change the shoe brand if the existing one works for you. Its good to consult either the resources on the Internet or better still get advice from experts at the Manipal Hospital’s Department of sports and exercise medicine or Back 2 Fitness. As far as I am concerned Supernova cushion is a lifer. This article sums up my views about this shoe.

Unlike many runners I know who use multiple pairs of shoes on a rotational basis I am a ‘one shoe at a time’ runner. That is, I use one pair of shoes and only after it is worn out I move to a new pair. It is generally recommended that distance runners replace their shoes after every 500Km to 600Km of running.( Running in old or worn-out shoes is one of the most common causes of running injuries). Though my shoe did not look worn out, I have done over 700Kms in it since July 2008 including 4 marathons and an ultramarathon. Therefore, it was time to change the shoes. Trying to do a marathon every month poses a challenge in terms of breaking in a new pair of shoes. It is recommended that one runs about 100Km in a new pair of shoes before using it on a long run or a race. Since the gap between my 5th marathon on 14th December and the 6th one in Mumbai on 18th January is 5 weeks this is a good period to switch to a new pair of shoes. If all goes well I will run the next few marathons starting with Mumbai in this new pair of shoes. However, I don't think I will ditch my previous pair as yet - will probably do a few more long runs and probably the Auroville marthon in it.

Running for a Thousand Dreams!

I have been involved with Dream A Dream for over 2 years now and have seen first hand how much of a difference this organization makes in the lives of vulnerable children. Thanks to Dream A Dream nearly 1,000 orphans, street children and children in slum communities are participating in programs such as team sports, creative arts, learnIT and civic awareness – helping them to develop crucial life skills such as confidence, problem-solving, communication and leadership, skills that will empower them to achieve their dreams!

Running for a charity is common in most international marathons. In a big marathon like Flora London marathon if one is not running for a cause then one is in a minority- nearly everyone is running for someone else and their joy is in knowing that their efforts will be rewarded in measures beyond medals or personal records.

Once again this year, I have a personal goal of running marathons and raising substantial funds for Dream A Dream. My next marathon will be the Standard Chartered Mumbai marathon on 18th January 2009 - I will be running this event for the sixth year in a row with several thousands of runners many of whom will be raising money for some cause . If you would you like to make a tax-deductible pledge and help support Dream A Dream please make out a check in favour of 'Dream A Dream' or donate online so that I can do as much as possible to support this noble cause. You can dontate in INR or any other currency.

Remember, every single rupee counts and together we can make a huge impact!

Great Full Marathon run at Bellandur Today

With the new date for the Bangalore Midnight marathon rumoured to be 10th January 2008, Deepak and I decided to do our December Full marathon as part of the RFL run at Bellandur on 14th December 2008. After duly informing the RFL run organisers Arvind and Nikhil, we decided to start our run an hour earlier ie at 530AM. Even though early mornings are quite nippy the day gets quite warm if and when the sun comes out. Also, starting an hour early also meant that we would finish our marathon with the 30K+ runners by 10:15 or so(with a 4:45 finish). I parked my car at the Mformation office and hopped into Deepak's car at AMand we reached the run site by 5:20AM. Arvind, Nikhil and the other RFL volunteers had just got there to mark the route.

It was cold, dark and foggy when Deepak and I set off on the dot at 5:30. Fortunately I had the foresight to carry a pocket torch with me which came in handy as we ran through the forest area. As a result of the rains the bushes were overgrown in many areas. On top of that the grass and the bushes were quite wet with dew. We made our way through the trail area a bit slowly covering the 2Kms in a little over 15 minutes. While doing so, we spoke about how difficult it must have been for Doc Rajat, Shumit and Santosh to run in the night at the ultra. We reached the RFL water point at 3.8Km before the point was set up and continued on. Not being able to locate the turn around point we made a U turn at 5.3Km. With daylight breaking through we picked up pace a bit on the return leg. I wanted to get back to the starting point in time to start the 2nd loop with the RFL runners. It was nice to get a cheering from the 40+ runners gathered at the starting point. We had done the 1st loop of 10.6Km in about 68 minutes.

Took off for the second loop around 6:42AM. I happened to be in the front and led the runners astray due to an incorrect white arrow mark put by A2 inadvertantly (while marking in the dark). We ran through a different section of the forest and got lost a bit and eventually came out on the road at a different point. Deepak went ahead with faster runners like Hari Bharadwaj and Ravi Balasubramnya while I ran with Rahul for a large portion of this loop. It was great chatting with Rahul. And before I knew it the second loop was done. I had covered about 21.6K in 2 hours 15 minutes. I had Navdeep Singh for company in the 3rd and 4rth loop. Navdeep is a fast Half Marathon runner and long distance cycling enthusiast. Running with him helped me keep a decent pace though of course it was slower than his normal pace. I greatly enjoyed running with Navdeep who is moving out of Bangalore -so it is unlikely I would be running with him again anytime soon. Usually, I find the last 4-5 Km of a marathon (post 37Km) quite tough. Surprisingly, today I felt great towards the end and was able to pick up pace a bit and complete 42.2Km in 4 hours 29 Minutes. I felt so good that I could have continued on for another 3-4Kms.

This was probably my best run in the current series after the first one in Hyderabad in August. I even had sufficient energy in the evening to drive across town to Jayanagar to attend a colleague's wedding reception. My only regret in today's run is that I forgot to take photos after the finish. Deepak and I were FILO (First In Last Out) today. The Bangalore weather was, once again, ideal for running - partly cloudy with a light breeze. The run route at Bellandur is quite nice with a mix of trail and road except that the 100 metres or so towards the end of the trail part is terrible - the garbage and the stench seems to have increased - this spoils the fun and beauty of this route. Overall I am very satisfied with my run today and am now looking forward to my first sub 4:30 finish in Mumbai in January 2009!

Bangalore Midnight Marathon announced ..and postponed..

In the last week, within a space of 5 days, the Bangalore midnight marathon was announced and postponed. The Bangalore Midnight marathon to be held on 14th December was finally announced on 1st December. However, due to the incomprehensible and dastardly Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 26th, as a precautionary measure and based on government advice the event has been postponed, probably indefinitely. I have mixed feelings about this. Of course, what happened in Mumbai was terrible! However, one of the goals of this act is to disrupt normal life - postponement of public events such as the midnight marathon is clearly a step that helps achieve that goal. Also this means, I now do not have an event for my December marathon - unless the midnight marathon is confirmed to happen on 23rd December by end of next week. Otherwise, I will just go ahead and do a full marathon during the RFL run on 14th December. I need to do a full marathon in December definitely by the 23rd December so that I have 4 weeks before the January run in Mumbai.