2010 Archives
Running a marathon is all about endurance and strong will power. For me, it was a lifetime experience.
I took up serious running less than 18 months ago. Completed a 10K , thanks to Coach Beedu and Reeth of the Nike Run Club fame. Did multiple 10Ks and a 25K at the ultra last year. I wanted to do a full marathon, one of my bucket list items. The next couple of weekends, I did a 25k+ and a 30K+. That gave a little bit of confidence but I was still not very sure if I would be able to do the full in the stipulated 6.5 hours in trying conditions. Vasu and Gopal nudged me to go for the full and I thought, "Let me attempt it. If I finish, well and good, else I would know my limits". One thing was clear, I was not going to get tensed and freak myself out over it. I was just going to get through the day and take it 1Km at a time.
We drove to Mysore on Sep 18th, along with a couple of friends. After dropping them at their hotel, we checked into Dasaprakash Paradise. Found out a place called Olio, serving Pasta nearby. The ambience was nice and the food was delicious but pricey. Packed a sandwich at CCD, bought some bananas and retired to bed early in a desperate attempt to get some sleep. But then, I ended up tossing and turning.
Woke up next morning and landed at the run site by 6am. The run site was buzzing with activity. Met a lot of folks from Nike Run club, Hashers and RFLers. Arvind from RFL warned us that even though the sky looked clear and the water calm, it is going to be a difficult terrain and advised runners not to attempt their personal best. I caught up with Gopal and we decided to run together maintaining a decent pace.
At the stroke of 6:30, what I call now, as the run of my life, was flagged off. Gopal and me started in the last group and were doing about 6 mins per KM. The first couple of KMs was nice and easy but the uneven terrain was making life difficult. I had to really concentrate on the path to avoid tripping. Around the 7KM mark, Gopal had a minor fall and he started slowing down. One of my biggest problems in running has been that, if I stop for a while, I find it hard to resume at the same pace. Found another group doing between 6-7mins per KM and joined them.
Around the 10K mark, there was a really bad patch and I struggled crossing that. Met a bunch of half marathoners and ran the next few comfortably. I started tiring a bit around the 16-18K mark and was doing slow. I saw Vasu and K cheering everyone.
The route was a 10.55K out and back. For the full the marathon, we had to do this loop twice. I had completed the first half around 2hrs 20 mins and started the second. Around the 23KM I was completely tired. I was not used to the sports drink and had a feeling it was just making me feel thirstier. By now, started doing a run-walk, with fellow full marathoners, and was drinking a lot of water. Got completely exhausted and started having doubts if I would be able to finish.
There were 3 people whom we all saw during the run - A man running without shoes, a woman doing a half with her kid on a pram and another man running a half with a fracture, wearing a sling. If these people could do it, I better be able to do it, said my mind voice. My motto throughout the run was, If I could not run, I would walk. If I could not walk, I will crawl, but I will finish.
I was mostly walking from 23rd till 28th Km. Then got a sudden bout of energy and pushed myself till 32K in 4 hours. Saw a lot of folks, tired and with cramps but with the never say die spirit. We were joking that we all have run a 10K under an hour, and we would do it today too. But easier said than done, after the 32k. Despite the scorching sun, tired legs, thirsty throat and about 6 miles between me and the finish line, the only comforting feeling was the confidence that I would be a finisher today..
Around the 38KM mark, saw Vasu. Started a walk-run back with her to the finish. Every beep on my Garmin watch was cheered since I was one step closer to the finish. I was about 500m away from the finish when someone said, "You are less than 500m from the finish and you should be sprinting now". I have no idea where I got the energy but I started running, counting every step, pushing myself till I could cross the finish line. And finally was home. A full in 6 hours and 7 minutes. This moment will be etched in my memory for ever!
After the run, the limp on my feet left me in a few days, but the grin on my face remains.
In the last few months I would have spent atleast a few thousands on books for S. Most of the books she was reading were all pulp fiction. I decided that it was no longer fun coughing up money for books which would never be touched after they are read once. This was the same time when I stumbled upon Just Books.
A couple of weeks back we walked up to their branch and figured they have an impressive collection of books. The library is well lit, and well maintained. The different plans that they had to offer were also attractive. They have a section of books for children with small chairs neatly arranged to encourage reading habit.
They have also put technology to good use. Books are tagged with RFID and each member is issued an RFID card for issue / return of books. We signed up immediately and the experience so far has been fantastic. If you have branch around your area, do check it out.
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Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.
-- Mark Twain.
Since school days learning to swim was a fascination to me but never had the opportunity to learn. I thought I would learn this once I joined college since river Cauvery was nearby. But that too never happened thanks to the sound reprimand I received when my parents discovered about it. The wish remained as one of the top priority bucket list items for a long time. I had tried on and off venturing into the pool but never learnt the nuances.
A couple of months back when I was talking my running coach Beedu, he suggested me to go and learn swimming. The nonchalant yet firm way he talks pushed me into signing up. I signed up with a lot of apprehension and much against the approval of my parents but S pushed for it. With July feeling as if it is peak winter and with the rains, I was not very sure but decided to put my best foot forward.
I finally made it to 19 of the 20 sessions. After completing the course, I am confident that atleast I know the nuances and can swim the breadth of the pool with confidence. Needs practice and I will get to once I am done with KTM.
KTM, here I come.
Last year, since I was regular at the NRC, I had trained well. However, this year, I was neither regular nor well trained. I wanted to do atleast 200K before the actual race and atleast 4-5 10Ks but I managed about 100K with not a single race distance. However, one good thing I noticed was that my overall pace had increased and I was able to do the small distances that I was running with ease. I was thinking that I would be able to do 52-54 mins for the 10k.
Once I completed, I took a few minutes break and went back looking for Vasu. She was near the Hudson circle gate and I pushed her to run the last 700 odd metres. This was her first 10K and I am glad she completed it under 1:30:00.
After the race, we went to the Nike Lounge for foot massage, photo session and a sumptuous breakfast. I also ran into Dr.Rajat at the lounge. He was cheerful and all smiles as always. When I approached him with a couple of questions, he was happy to provide me inputs on the spot. So bad that he does not consult in Bangalore anymore.
The lunch was at Ragoos, on Kanakpura road, a vegetarian place for pizzas, pastas and rice. More about it later.
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It is a fight between your body and mind. The body says it cant go any further but the mind is trying to push. When you achieve this harmony, then you can breeze.
-- Balaji, 2010
Since I see lot of hits on my blog looking for the concert details, here is the link to the mandali's website with the concert list.
It has been hectic and have not been to a single concert yet. Hope to listen to a few concerts in April
I have a convoluted synchronization setup.
- I use Thunderbird as my primary mail client.
- Lightning is my calendar application and is configured to synchronize with Yahoo! Calendar.
- I also have iCal synchronized with Yahoo! Calendar.
- Finally using Nokia's iSync plugin, I synchronize my calendar to my Nokia E75 phone.
- Also at times, I synchronize my phone with Ovi.com and with Nokia Ovi PC suite.
A few weeks back when I was upgrading the phone firmware, the calendar synchronization broke. I got this error message.
[Y man] There was an error getting data from the phone. The synchronization may have been canceled on the phone.
Device “Y man” synchronization failed.
This seems to be a common problem but nobody seems to have found a working solution. I tried to locate the calendar database on the phone to see if deleting it would help. But could not locate the same. Was contemplating a hard reset and restore from backup when I accidentally discovered a working solution.
Calander -> Select Any date -> Options -> Delete -> Before Date. This cleans up the calendar. A synchronization after this worked. Now you know what do when your calendar sync screws up.
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I'd love to go out with you, but I'm converting my calendar watch from Julian to Gregorian.
Why does drug dealers still live with their moms? What makes a perfect parent? With data and analysis, this book tries to answer some unrelated random questions.
Freakonomics is divided into six chapters, each starting off with a question. On initial thoughts, the answers look obvious. Using tools to reliably asses tonnes of data, this books comes with interesting and often surprising answers. Rather than being a dull subject, economics here is applied to a variety of common topics with amusing results.
The book drives on a set of fundamental ideas:
- Incentives are the cornerstone of modern life.
- Conventional wisdom is often wrong
- Dramatic effects often have distant, even subtle causes.
- Experts use their informational advantage to serve their own agenda.
- Knowing what to measure and how to measure it makes a complicated world much less so.
A must read if you are a curious cat and interested in knowing where have all the criminals gone.
One day I wandered into The Forum Mall and listened to Worldspace. They were playing a Haridas bhajan which was one of my favourites. Immediately decided to pick it up. My parents enjoyed having Shruthi for company. Especially my mother, who is an avid carnatic music rasika. Though I had mostly listened to only Shruthi, I would occasionally listen to other channels as well. KL Radio had some fantastic programmes on Saturdays and Sundays.
We got back from vacation and figured Worldspace was not working. On reading the news and talking to a few people, we got to know that the India Operations is shutdown for good. It has been almost a week now and the house is so quiet, having a haunted feel. Hope a miracle happens and Shruthi is heard again in our home entertaining, educating and soothing me with its collection of carnatic music.
It gave me company for almost 3 years.
It helped me listen to some good quality music.
It helped me in learning and identifying Raagas.
It brought me some good interviews with stalwarts,
It helped me in staying away from the idiot box.
It was good while it lasted.
Bye Bye Worldspace.
Wish you and your family a very happy and prosperous new year 2010.
