Mumbai Marathon 2011 - End of My Mediocre Running

Mumbai Marathon has been very special and close to my heart for multiple reasons. This is the place where I started running a few years back. My first distance run was a 7 KM dream run in 2006. I remember keeping my legs in a bucket with salty hot water for an hour for relief, after finishing the run :). Even after experiencing the fun at The Mecca of Running (Athens) and San Francisco, I couldn't help looking forward to 3rd Sunday of January, when entire south Bombay takes a few hours off to give way for runners, and to cheer them in every possible way. And, this year was no different.

As usual, before reaching Mumbai, I spent a day in Pune and met a few friends and had a great time. One has got an infant son, and another one has a 2 year old , and yet another is expecting one in a month. Now-a-days, the gifts I carry for my friends are mostly books like What to Expect When You Are Expecting, teethers, soft-toys, infant gift-sets etc., :) So, I aptly landed in Pune with my backpack full of them.

The day spent in Pune had been great. Lunch with Anjali, a student-turned-friend, after meeting her adorable infant son Anay, Dinner with Nihar and a couple of others preceded by an elaborate session with some delicious de-hydrants (if you know what I mean), and post-dinner late-night mischief in apartment complex etc., allowed us to get to sleep only in the wee hours of the following day.

Marathon day started innocuously, as usual. Woke up at 3 AM to catch the first train from Kharghar at 4:10. Train has already a few people with Marathon bibs and we started our usual chat about our previous timings, temperature prediction for the day, heat on the new Bandra-Worli Sea-Link, our target time etc., I mentioned that my aim would be a 5:20 finish. The first half of the run (till 21 KM) was not much different from last year, both in terms of my speed and temperature. At around 22 KM, we reached Mahim Causeway and were about to enter Bandra Reclamation and the new Sea-Link. That's where I started feeling the heat and felt that, it was just going to be a repetition of last year, and will lead to a 6 hour finish. But, once we entered the bridge proper, we were welcomed with Lucozade energy drinks (unlike last year, where we had this 8 KM stretch of the Sea-Link with out water and energy drinks). That revived the spirits and I took to running at my pace and never stopped after that, except for the preplanned walk breaks around water stations. Last 5-6 KM were memorable, as I could run at the same pace as I ran the first 5-6 KM, which I could never manage to do in the earlier runs. And, those little kids offering Parle biscuits, chocolate candies, water bottles shouting 'uncle...! run', whenever I thought of a walk break, really helped. At around 4 KM from finish line, a 3-4 year old beautiful little girl (yes, I know that's redundant. How can a 3-4 year old girl be not beautiful) saw me running towards her and opened the wrapper of an orange candy she was holding and held it up for me, right when I was crossing her (Just imagine !). Oh ! My ! How can I not go to Mumbai Marathon again ? At least for that little candy after a 38 KM run :) Emotion really did hit me for a moment and I thought, I should get married at least to have someone like that little angel at home. Of course, it didn't last long :)

I touched the finish line at 5:13:25, well with in my budget. And I bid a heartfelt good-bye to the mediocre runner in me. Running the whole distance (21KM in Half or 42 KM in full-marathon) at a stable pace is what makes one a distance runner(of course, I mean recreational runners, not to confuse with those deadly Kenyans). And, I am finally there. Now, will work on improving the pace.

Split times at various timing-chip readers:

Distance (KM)	15.1	24.2	29.9	42.195
Time (Hr:Min)	1:48	2:53	3:36	5:13

The evening too was well spent. A bunch of ex-colleagues from CDAC met at one of our favorite restaurants in New Bombay, Bhagat Tara Chand, Sanpada. I regained all those lost calories with Ghee Chapatis, followed by generous helpings of sinfully sweet Moongdal Sheera, a specialty dessert at that restaurant.

Book Review: More Salt Than Pepper

--- Karan Thapar

More Salt Than Pepper is a collection of newspaper articles, that one typically finds in editorial page on Sundays, written by Karan Thapar, an acclaimed journalist, over the years.

The author was born in a high-profile family. Romila Thapar, a distinguished historian (or an infamous historian according to Sangh Pariwar) is his cousin, and a close relative of him was married to a niece of Nehru. That would naturally have given him access to several things, right since he was a child. The topics include his childhood memories (being son of a high ranking Indian defense official and relative of Gandhi family, a rich childhood in many ways), his journalistic journey, experiences in London as a student and journalist, his interviews with the who-is-who of India for the last 20 years etc., Though one can find a clear bias towards congress and aversion towards BJP and Sangh Pariwar, most of the articles bring out interesting perspectives that one can be identified with.

There are several silly articles too, about neckties, e-mail forwards of poor jokes that are not in good taste etc., But, those can be overlooked considering that it is a compilation of articles written over many years. So, if one is a fan of those witty articles in Sunday newspapers in editorial sections, this book comes with around a 50 of them and makes a good quick read.

One of my fastest reads in the recent past.

Year 2010 - Year of Travel & Fun

Year 2010 turned out to be a much more fun filled one, than what I would have thought in wildest of my dreams. I could easily name it 'Year of Travel and Fun'.

The start was not so great, with me seriously contemplating on switching to a different workplace. But, that confusion ended in a month and I was on next lap of my journey. A week gap before joining the new workplace gave me an opportunity to do a solo 2000 KM long ride (Bangalore -> Tirupathi -> Guntur -> Hyderabad -> Bangalore) on my Beastly Beauty: Enfield Classic-350, and keep me fresh for the new assignment.

The new workplace had a lot to offer, and soon packed me for my maiden overseas visit to Austin, Texas. Thanks to friendly colleagues and my friends, I could pack a lot of stuff in just 12 days that I spent in Austin. Got lost while cycling in Austin on the very first day, spent the only weekend I had there in the best possible way trekking, canoeing and camping.

Soon, I was asked to spend 3 months in California. And, I guess, I could make most of my time there. Started playing with a 4-wheeler, yet another first this year. Drove weekend after weekend, thousands of miles, visiting places and making every weekend a perfect break. Also got an opportunity to attend a couple of world class Information Security conferences (Black Hat and Def Con) at Las Vegas. And, nothing can be an exaggeration about those conferences and Vegas.

In the running front... Wow ! What an year !! I could realize my Athens Dream. Ran the 2500 years commemorative run, the Athens Classic Marathon and San Francisco Marathon, timed with my stay in California along with my domestic runs at Auroville, Pondicherry and Mumbai. Extended my Athens trip to visit Santorini (A Greek Island), Madrid, Barcelona, Zurich, Swiss Alps and Paris, which will remain a memorable one for a long time.

Cycling... Got hold of this sleek Trek 7.2 Fx in California and brought it back home (as I had to part ways with Merida SUB 40 MD). Retraced the Marathon route on cycle in San Francisco and did quite a few rides in the local parks there. Apart from cycle-to-work, Nandi Hills ride is the memorable one that I could do this year in Bangalore.

The year ended in the wilds, while I spent the last three days of the year in TopSlip and Parambikulam forests in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, spotting a lot of wild life and wandering lazily in the serene forests, with some of my friends.

That's quite a list. I definitely couldn't have asked for more.