The 31.66 K Christmas Sunday

Finally, I crossed the half marathon barrier !!

Ran a 31.66 KM today morning, in preparation of the StanChart Mumbai Marathon. This is the single longest distance I ave ever run.

I was fine till about 27 th KM but then I slowed and walked for a bit and started my running again. It was more of a shuffle than running but let's just call it running. eventually I was on my feet for abt 4 hrs 10 mins. Mighty proud of it.

Shiv, luckily for me, shared his magic elixir of Tang + electoral. The mistake I was about to commit was that I was gonna drink only water, no sodium, potash or salts of any kind. My future long runs will see me carrying salt replenishment as well.

The experiment of sandwich worked well. 2 pieces of bread with butter & German homemade strawberry jam cut into quarters and individually wrapped in cling film made it easy to eat on the run without my sweat mixed in my food. This way I could share my foods well with the good fellow runners.

More on the route of the run with maps later.

The devilish angel - Rudra

The last two days our sonny boy has been sunny. He does not realize that when the sun goes down so must our heads and we must sleep. For him night time is paaartey time, so he's up showing us all facets of emotions, lying quietly, smiling, chortling, crying, howling, bawling, poopy face, hungry face, cry face etc.

Here is a pic of him finally asleep in mommy's lap looking angelic :

Running & Living 4th Gurgaon marathon & More

What a run ! The energy of the runners gathered was so infectious that I felt all energized inspite of no training ! Sunday runs (Only running on Sundays) with an average weekly average of 8 kms cannot count as training. But man it was good.

Wifey Sue was always helpful in getting me out of bed early in the morning to go run, and I was creative with new excuses to continue enjoying the warm bed.

Awesomely, my big bro & wife Ravi & Sheetal were there to cheer me on. Him with his Leica and she with the Tea (and holding onto my jacket, phone, car keys and Heart Monitor chest strap since the Garmin gave in. (you'll read abt it below)

The run started on time as every R & L event. About a km down when I found my pace about 6.30-6.45 min per KM by my Garmin Forerunner 210 . Of course the Garmin was not charged as there must have been a loose charger connection and the Garmin died out after 3-4 KMs. Now I have nearly always tried to pace myself with a digital assistant and now I had none. This is where Akila helped.



Akila was running an easy, fun untimed pace. My pace was around the same and hoped that her company and steady pace will pull me through. And it did. The first loop of 10.5 KMs went super smooth without noticing the multiple curves and bends in the route which we noticed only on the 2nd loop. On the way we got Sanjeev Chabara and some new inputs into our chat.




On the end of the 1st loop Akila complained of cramps and slowed down urging me to continue at my pace. Did nt make much of a difference as she caught up at nearly every water / food point. This was another good thing Rahul (founder of R & L ) did - food on the run. I had biscuits, wafers, oranges, butter & jam sandwiches on the way not counting the energy drinks & water.

Several times on the 2nd loop I was thinking, Man, I am tired let me walk a bit.. but then another thought would walk in and shout - Hey HAVE YOU USED UP YOUR WEAK ? NO- THEN KEEP RUNNING !! And just like that I was off running again.



Towards the end at 500 mins to go I started into a faster pace, and at 21 K point with 0.097 Ks to go I lauched into a full sprint. Oh it was so much fun. Fun to run, to fly and fun to know I still had some energy to sprint ! Had a good finish !

Finished in 2 hrs 23 min - 4 min faster than the ADHM 3 weeks ago.

Thanks to Running & Living for the excellent run

The running grand plan

During my talk with the veteran runners I learnt about the long term and short term plans and realized I had made one too a couple of years ago.

2011 - run a half marathon under 2.00 hrs ( far from it)
2012 - run a full marathon (on track, atleast with booking my spot for the run and carrying my loyal supporter(s) with me)

These plans are going to expire pretty soon, next month in fact. So while running and talking I made out an outlining of my future target :

2012 - Mumbai Marathon

2013 - Bangalore Ultra 50 K

2014 - Bangalore Ultra 75 K

2015 - full marathon under 5 hr + Bangalore Ultra 75 K

2016 - Comrades 89 K South Africa

New learnings for marathon training

Had a good steady run yesterday for about 15 + KM in preparation for the R & L half marathon next Sunday on 18.12.2011.

Got some tips from the running veterans Amit Ojha, Venkat & Param. These guys have not only multiple HM, FM but a few Ultras as well.

1. Keep a steady pace through out the run. managing and mastering Reverse splits is a tough job and may not consider variables like weather, temperature trail.

2. Eat. Oranges, biscuits, sandwiches during the run for your energy replenishment.

3. Bombay marathon (2012) is tough and I must have minimum 35 K non stop under my belt before even trying the full.

4. Carrying your own water is a must ! as the water stations can run out of water nearing the ned, specially if you are a slow runner.

5. Beware of DOMS - Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness syndrome which can appear after 2-3 days.

6. Run the marathon with only one target. To Finish safe, healthy.

Daddy on Diaper Duty !

Ever since friends and family learnt about us having a baby, they have been teasing me that I too will now be part of the diaper dads club. Its the municipal duty.

The first 40 days were breezy as I did not have to change a single one as my wife had help, only assisting once. However then came the day the help was gone and it became my solid duty to change my sons nappy / diaper whenever I was home from work.

I never gagged. Why ? I had dogs in the past who would once in a while poop or pee in the house and it would my job to clean up the mess. Compared to that this was a piece of cake. (pun intended. what pun ?)

Then on Sunday when we planned our baby's first day out, it happened. The horror of baby poop !

I was home and on Diaper Duty. I opened sonny boy's diaper and peeked in a saw a small speck of poo. wife said to do some gentle leg movements / exercises to make sure all is out. The babys leg movements, not mine. I had already pooped in the morning. I clean myself and do not need any additional help. Back to the topic on hand. So I did some gentle exercises with him. Nothing else came.

I started cleaning him up. That is when he decided to poop some more and out came a dribble which turned into a muddy waterfall. Panic. This was just before I had placed the diaper so some of the gooey stuff was on the changing mat and his blanket (dont ask) and expecting some more I placed the diaper under his soft butt and over the poop. He was done. And so was I. Poop was everywhere on the diaper, under the diaper on the sheet, blankets, legs.

I waited a few moments more, no movement no precursors or anything so I started cleaning him up again. And then came the shower, the golden shower and he peed and peed and peed - all over the bed, the blanket, his clothes, his socks, his clean change of clothes, his grandmommy (who was there by now)and of course his dad, me. By this time to damage control, I had started moving the changing sheet and the blanket and the daper and lo behold all was covered in a fine layer of my sonny boys finest gooey stuff on tap. I ended up getting poo and pee in all areas it shouldnt.

I finally managed to get him changed. Mommy and Grandma were in splits over my handling of the situation. No harm done. We could go out on a incident free day out. Thanks to me, I saved the day !

Credit of the sketch to Anitta Hiekkanen

ADHM 11 results

SO as psyched as I was, I finished in roughly the same time as my last years ADHM. The fact that it was without any reasonable amount of sufficient training make me happy. Probably helped by the fact that this was a particularly flat course. I was helped on the way by encouraging cheers from a few of my mates (Rahul, Ankur, Ankush and a couple of others). The run finish was injury free though a bit of throbbing on the right ankle which went away and a dull ache (sweet pain) in the thighs.

At India Gate, still with a smile...



My finish timings...



My split timings as per the the timing chip



The route as per my Garmin 205 Forerunner