Wishing All Great Running Success in 2009!

I ended the year with a nice 10K/59 minutes run on 30th December with old buddy Vijay Ramakrishnan visiting from Pune. The hour went by quickly as we caught up on work, running scene, the economy, Bangalore vs Pune etc. 2008 has been a great year running wise with 6 marathons(including a ultra) and a total of 1850Kms of running. I have been fortunate enough to have been mostly injury-free this year. Except for a short break in October when I had a strained lower back and had to stay off running for a few days, I have been able to run consistently 3 times a week through the year. And put in hard, long hours on work!. Looking forward to 2009 it looks like I can run 12 months in the calendar year if I wanted to. To complete my goal of 12 in 12 I plan on running one marathon a month till July 2009(including Mumbai in January and Pondicherry in February). With Hyderabad, KTM09 and Ultra09 scheduled for August, September and November the only 'open' months in 2009 are September and December!

2009 has also started fairly well. Did my January 1 run at EGL - a 14Km run with Udaya Kumar. We had both done the same route on January 1, 2008 as well. Only this time we started from the Airport road end, ran past Logica and then along the old aiport boundary wall merging into the RFL route. Since January 2003 I have been starting the year with a 10Km+ on the 1st. Due to this I go to sleep by 1030PM or so on 31st. My New Year celebration usually happens on January 1st evening with a glass(or two) of some Indian wine.

I ended the 1st week of the year with a 31K/3hrs 11 minutes run(yet again at EGL!) with Deepak on 4rth January. It was a pretty decent run considering it became quite warm towards the end of the run and also a blister in my left foot(due to the new shoe) bothered me a bit.

There is always a spurt in the number of joggers/walkers in the first few weeks of January - I notice this every year. No wonder as 'Fitness or excercising regularly' is one of the most popular New Year resolutions! Wishing everyone a Healthy, Peaceful and Safe 2009!