A wonderful trail run ...

Its been a while a since I posted - things are quite hectic at work and I have not been able to make time. This is a short post about last weekend's long run. In preparation for the Auroville marathon on 15th February, Deepak and I had planned on doing a 25K run on 1st February. We took up the long standing offer from Partha Roy to run in a trail near his house in Chaitanya Samarpan in Whitefield. I had been wanting to do this for a while and last week end was good timing considering that the Auroville route is mostly trail. We were joined by Sridhar who lives in the same community.

Around 6:35am we set off on a trail going along acres of agricultural land in which various vegetables were being cultivated. It was a fairly easy trail with even pathway and few gradients. Deepak and I did two loops of about 10Km each - 5Km out and back. It was quite cold during the first loop and we hardly saw a soul. During the second loop there was quite some activity as the farmers were starting to get to work. We then did another 5Km or so by running part of the loop and returning through a villahe to the Whitefield-Hoskote main road. It was a very enjoyable 25Km/2hrs 35 mintues run - Partha did about 15Km or so. Its quite amazing that there are so many nice trails within 25-30Km of Bangalore.

After the run we had a great Idli/chutney/sambar/Kheer/Watermelon breakfast at Partha's (thanx Urmi!) place before returning home after warning Partha and Urmi that they might see us quite often! For now I am quite looking forward to the run in Auroville on 15th Febraury. My understanding is that its not a very easy trail so I am planning to enjoy the nature and not push myself too much - targetting a finish between 4:30 and 4:45.