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individuals & small businesses - RBI relief

2021-06-07T08:35:00.003+05:30

https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=12104&Mode=0

RBI has given relief to individuals and small borrowers having credit exposure upto Rs.25 crores to be given covid relief. The limit has been enhanced to Rs.50 crores. Whatever resolution has to be done by the banks for them has to be as per the earlier RBI circular dated 5th May, 2021. Read on.

A reference is invited to circular DOR.STR.REC.11/21.04.048/2021-22 on “Resolution Framework – 2.0: Resolution of Covid-19 related stress of Individuals and Small Businesses” dated May 5, 2021.

2. Clause 5 of the above circular specifies the eligible borrowers who may be considered for resolution under the framework and includes the following sub-clauses:

(b) Individuals who have availed of loans and advances for business purposes and to whom the lending institutions have aggregate exposure of not more than ₹25 crore as on March 31, 2021.
(c) Small businesses, including those engaged in retail and wholesale trade, other than those classified as MSME as on March 31, 2021, and to whom the lending institutions have aggregate exposure of not more than ₹25 crore as on March 31, 2021.

3. Based on a review, it has been decided to enhance the above limits from ₹25 crore to ₹50 crore.

Few photographs from Eastern Express Highway Half marathon - 4th August 2013

2013-08-06T09:29:00.000+05:30

Another barrier falls!!

2013-02-13T10:15:00.000+05:30

Who says marathon is all about running. It’s all bloody mind games buddy, there is no physical activity involved in it, at least after 30 kms, But that is for everybody, for me it is the 22 to 30 kms that plays havoc with my brain. Post 30 kms i get stronger and more determined like a demon, well not exactly like Ravana but more like Ram possessed!!

Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2013 was my fourth full marathon and the 2013 edition was the 9^th year in succession that i was participating in. A journey which started in 2004 with a bludgeoning, bedraggled 3.45 hours in the first ever half marathon with barely any practise and not having any concept of what a distance of 21 kms entails. Well 21 kms was daunting those days.

2012 was a relatively quiet year for me in terms of the number of events that i took part in, Auroville was more fun and adventure, while Ladakh was challenging in brutally tough conditions. A couple of smaller distances like 5K, 10K took place in between and there was a training run of 42 kms while Mumtaz Qureshi was attempting his first 100 kilometers and the first Ultra distance of 50 kms along with the Navi Mumbai runners but that was again spaced out throughout the day and not a continuous effort. But Vasai Virar Marathon was the game changer during the year. Last minute entry with barely any preparation for a full marathon to speak about, i still managed to carve out a huge 27 minutes slice off my previous best from SCMM 2012 to return in 5.07 hours when the conditions on the return leg of the marathon was brutal with sun beating down hard and massive traffic snarls along the route. It was a tough marathon to conquer.

Training for the SCMM 2013 was going as per schedule with the last long run of 31.74 kms on the last Sunday of December followed by a fast 21 kms on the first Sunday of the new year and a PB fast 10 kms on the second Saturday followed by a ferocious 5km on the Tuesday of the week before the marathon. All i had to do was another fast 4kms or so on Thursday but a debilitating back ache on Tuesday morning almost put paid my hopes of even starting the marathon. This had happened earlier also during the week before the Bangalore Ultra 2010 and i had recovered by Sunday morning, but there i had almost collapsed after doing 25 kms of the scheduled 37.5 kms. So there was apprehension in the mind and therefore i consulted a couple of my friends urgently soliciting their advice. Reema Agarwal and Raj Vadgama were the saviours as they immediately texted a few stretches to be done which i immediately set upon doing for the remaining days. But not much relief upto Thursday morning had me worried. The back was getting better but there were doubts in the mind as to whether i could survive the entire 42 kms without it giving away. Friday and Saturday were supposed to be complete rest days but i was out on my feet both days and standing for a couple of hours and more. The back was straining all the time. So the hydrating and carbo loading plan also went out of the window. But meeting friends especially upcountry runners on both days was a cathartic relief from the anxiety so i decided to start the marathon and see how the back holds as the kilometres unfolds before me.

So there we were, i.e. Bhasker, Raj, Aishorjyo and myself in the cab from Goregaon to Azad maidan, to meet and greet a few more thousands of like minded insane persons daring to run 42 kms in an unusually cold Sunday morning. The atmosphere at Azad Maidan was electric as usual with runners nervous with anticipation. All set we trotted to the holding area meeting more runners on the way and waiting impatiently for the gates to open. When the gates opened and we started proceeding towards the starting mat, Amar Sundar met me and we started discussing the music concerts in India. Imagine on a marathon morning with a few seconds to go for the start, we were talking about GunsNRoses, Deep Purple and all that rock bands.

It was 5.42 when i crossed the start mat and gingerly proceeded towards Flora Fountain. While it was cold before the start it took only a few kilometres for the body to get warmed up and i started feeling the sweat around my neck. On the way to NCPA i saw the 4.30 hour bus and thought of sticking with them but a few minutes later impatiently left the bus because i thought their pace was too slow. I wanted to put maximum miles in the bank before my back gave away or cramps started affecting me which was on the back of my brain based on previous year’s experience. On the marine drive i again chatted with a few runners while observing that only a couple of music bands were up and playing. There was one music band which was just setting up and to them i hollered “c’mon start the music”. Overall i thought the crowd mobilisation in the early hours and at the start was very poor compared to what we observed during the Vasai Virar Marathon which of course started late at 7.00 a.m. Probably the bitter cold was making marathon friendly Mumbaikars sleep a wee bit longer. The return leg of the Mumbai Marathon was reverberating with the multitude of Mumbaikars out in large numbers, wildly cheering, applauding, shouting, giving various things in neat order. People were out not only in tony Pedder road but also beside the slums of Worli and the bylanes of Mahim. It was a magnificent display of affection that Mumbaikars have for the marathoners in their maximum city.

Kemps Corner flyover and Pedder road incline was the first test for my back but thankfully it held together so i started ripping through to Haji ali but slowed down towards Worli by which time the half marathoners started appearing on the opposite side of the road. This year as compared to last year i decided to focus only on the road and not to look out for my friends mainly because most of my friends had graduated to the full marathon and also to conserve my energy. Reaching the Worli sea link, i went into a zone with pure adrenaline coasting me through. Srivatsan crossed me at the beginning of sea link and gently inquired whether i was on schedule to which i replied that i was ahead of schedule because the 4.30 hour bus was still behind me.

A couple of toilet breaks at the Sea Link behind the hoardings looking out into the Arabian Sea gave the much needed relief to the bladder because i knew there was no toilet until Worli sea face on the return leg. The sun was rising on my right under a mask of mist with the high rises on the background and the lolling fishing boats in the foreground. It was surreal Mumbai which we don’t see often. But running on the Sea Link is also boring because there was no crowd to cheer us and the photographers looked completely bored and were interested more in taking photographs of the sun rather than of us. There was one photographer who had lined up his tripod and to which i had beautifully balanced in the centre hoping to get clicked when at the last moment, he swerved the tripod in the opposite direction to catch a departing runner. Damn!!

20 kms done in 2.00 hours compared to 21 done in 1.59.32 at Vasai Virar marathon. At the Mahim Causeway i met Dr. Sharma whom i had met exactly at the same spot last year also when he had quit the race but this day he was looking strong. My weak zone begins from 21 kms onwards, but the back was holding good so i decided to take it kilometre by kilometre from there onwards. Upto 26 kms i did not realise that i was carrying three sachets of G.U. gel in my pocket and therefore immediately gulped one sachet. Last year the elite marathoners streamed past me by 25 kilometres and this day i had gone past 28 kilometres before they arrived and were gone in a few seconds. I could catch only a few names Kiprop, Kemboi, Ramaala, Tota and the women winner arrived in an absolutely fast pace followed by the others. In between Binning arrived with his Indian contingent. Their drinks station was separately arranged with their water bottles numbered containing their favourite drinks but unfortunately one volunteer fell badly while delivering the bottle to the elite runner. Fortunately the elite runner was not in the lead pack, otherwise it would have been Breaking News of the Day.

On the return leg of the Worli Sea Face i espied the 5.00 hour bus and was completely determined to not allow them to overtake me. From there it was a tough run with the back giving jolts of pain once in a while but i took only a few seconds’ break each time and started again on my journey. On reaching Haji Ali i saw Anand who should have finished the race by then, but he had pain in his right leg. He urged me not to stop and carry on to beat the 5 hour mark which gave me a much needed impetus to give it a mighty push to the finish!!

Pedder Road was conquered in a better shape than last year and so was the rest of the route. Another gel at 32 kms and at 35 kms the cramps started slowly on my right and left calf muscles. But a quick check on my garmin showed that if i did not take much walking breaks i was in with a chance to break the 5 hour barrier. So despite the cramps getting stronger and the calves pulsating more often, I started getting stronger and determined. By the time i turned into M.K. Road the cramps were badly taking a toll. At 41 kms i still had 11 minutes to reach the finish line so i said to myself, damn, come what may, i am going to succeed. At 500 metres to go banner, the right leg was twisting inside even as the left calf muscle was twitching in pain. Fortunately the back was okay and so was the upper body with no pain in the shoulders and arms. At 300 metres i again checked the watch and was sure to reach before 5 hours and in fact predicted would reach by 4.58 and it was 4.58.39 hours when i crossed the finish mat to be hugged by my oldest runner dear friend Veera. It was such a joy to see him at the finish line. So i completed my first sub- 5 hour marathon in another Personal Best time. Year on year i had carved out 36 minutes which co-incidently was the same margin last year as well.

Few observations – the cramping is getting delayed every year and hopefully in a few years’ time i should not cramp until the 45^th kms mark. So there ends another edition of Mumbai marathon and every year i think this will be my last full marathon, but you bet i shall be back next year as well!!

Running on Empty

2013-01-29T19:36:00.001+05:30

Just finished reading Marshall Ulrich's book "Running on Empty" - his story of love, loss and a record setting run across America. This guy is a true ultra marathoner nut in the sense that he has incredible feats under his belt like finishing Badwater Marathon 18 times, winning it four times, and then doing the Badwater route solo i.e. without any team, but only with all his supplies in a cart that weighed 200 pounds, Badwater Quad which is like utter crazy - doing badwater four times back to back. Who can attempt such crazy ultra running feats. His ultra running or rather his running started with the loss of his first wife to cancer when he used to run to escape the depression and thereafter running became a lifelong passion. He has also some mountaineering feats up his sleeve like summiting the tallest summit in each continent and also ascending the Mount Everest.

So it was to be a culmination of his running career by running across America, starting from San francisco to New York a total distance of 3063 miles in 46 days at the age of 57. The previous person to have covered America thus was a 27 year old Frank Gianino about 28 years ago. It involved Marshall running 2 marathons plus 10K every day across terrain and weather that varied from state to state from heat to cold, snow, rains and all. It led to a process of discovery within himself and brought his family close together. The daily travails of running coupled with diet, nutrition, injury, illness, exhaustion, plus the logistics of daily runs are not given in much detail but the reader can very comprehend what it must have taken for the crew to get this runner across America. At the beginning Charlie Engle who ran across the Sahara desert accompanied Marshall during his run but somewhere approximately half way through a fight broke out between the two and Charlie quit and then came to crew and there were recriminations with the original crew which included Marshall's wife. So it is a kind of an eye-opener as to what really transpires in all these multi day ultra marathons. Read it to see whether he manages to break the record of Frank Gianino. Nice read for running fans. There was a movie made out of it “Running America” but could only find a trailer on youtube for it.

MUSTRun 10K

2013-01-10T10:41:00.000+05:30

Ran the last event of 2012 the MUSTRun 10K in December which was organised by the Bandra H West Federation. They had quite a few sponsors but the inside knowledge was that big sponsors were shying away from the event, probably due to economic recession. Anyway, the event is being held for the 2^ndyear and this year they added a half marathon to the 10K which started last year. The route was to pass through the western suburbs of Mumbai, starting from Bandra and going all the way to Santacruz before winding back to Bandra. The start and finish points were at different locations.

The added significance for me was that i had somehow coaxed my daughter Nikita to take part in the 10K race and she had agreed to come for the event. The race was to start at 6.10 a.m. but when we reached the venue we were informed that the start has been delayed by 30 minutes due to late arrival of the volunteers.

That was fine because much shouting, encouraging, back slapping followed with most of the Mumbai runners descending on the venue. The 5Kers started first and then we set off. The race started at Bandra Hill road, went to S.V. Road all the way to Khira Nagar in Santacruz went back to the Link Road all the way back to Bandra via Carter Road Promenade.

Since it was her first race, we started slowly and got into a run-walk-run mode early on itself and kept at it all along the route, walking for exactly 30 seconds and taking off again. i was not sure if Nikita would complete the entire 10K, but she started showing strength and determination to go the distance so i kept on encouraging her all the way. By around 6K i knew that she needed pushing and would definitely make it to the finish line. We kept at it but by 9K or so, she started showing signs of immense fatigue and was repeatedly asking me “how much more to go”. Finally we reached the finish line together in 1.21 hours but there was chaos as usual at the finish line. Later on we came to know that the distance was more by 1.6 kms so we had run 11.6 kms instead of 10 kms. Her 10K timing was 1.15 hours approximately.

The organisation of the race was chaotic with the distances mismatch for both the 10K and 21k categories. But it was a satisfying day for me and Nikita, although she was quite nonchalant about the whole thing and was probably wondering what the fuss was all about!!

Vasai Virar Marathon - a tough one to conquer

2012-10-29T16:28:00.000+05:30

Vasai Virar Marathon – a tough one to conquer

It was a late decision to run the Vasai Virar Marathon on October 14^th. There were a few other commitments coming my way and by the time those commitments were cleared and i was free to run the Vasai Virar marathon, i guess the entries were closed. But thanks to Anand and Bruno Goveas who is the main organiser of the race, i got a late entry.

There were no butterflies in the stomach at the prospect of running a 42 kms race because i was intending to take this as a practise long run for the marquee event in January i.e. the Mumbai Marathon.

So bibs received the previous day we went by Raj’s car to the Viva College in Virar which was the starting point for the race. Alongside me were legends of running like Bhasker Desai and Raj Vadgama and young upcoming marathon runner Sandesh Shukla. Sitaram Meena another young and refreshing marathon runner was in another car.

Mani had arranged with his friend for a room near the starting point which was a blessing in disguise for us because we could refresh ourselves before starting off for the race as well as relax afterwards. The starting point arena was agog with activity befitting a city marathon with pandals, police barricades, scores of volunteers, announcements galore.

The race was to be flagged off at 7.00 a.m. but almost got off three minutes before itself in the enthusiastic melee surrounding the event. Ultimately it got flagged off at the right time and off were at 7.00 a.m. along the roads of Virar.

The first five kms wound through a village and it was amazing to see the number of people out on the streets cheering and rooting for us with all their might. People of all walks of life and all ages and many school children were cheering, rooting, shouting, exhorting the runners amidst a cacophony of live music, drum beats, bugles et al. The adrenaline rush was tremendous and never before in all the races have i encountered such a cheering enthusiastic crowd. The non-stop cheering just lifted our tempo and myself along with Sandesh were going at a fine clip of 6 minutes per kilometre with nary a struggle or effort. There were plenty of water stations along the road and the two flyovers were encountered on the way up was dismissed with the contempt that regular hill runners give to such flyovers.

Sandesh had set a target of 2.15 for the first half but we were well within that time limit passing through 21 kms in 1.59.32 seconds, a personal best for me and a first time that i had run that distance in under 2 hours. So one achievement already under the belt.

From 22 kms onwards the pace started dropping for me but Sandesh was going strong so i advised him to carry on nevertheless. A combination of heat and traffic started affecting the runners later on exacerbated by lack of water and medical aid in the latter part of the race. There was only sporadic cheering from now on, but whatever cheering brigade was there they were very enthusiastic and rooting for even one runner. It was very enervating to the tired legs. The traffic started getting denser and the heat was affecting the runners more at this juncture. I had one gu-gel with me which i thought i will take only at 37 kms when i need it the most. There was one gentleman who was providing glucon-d powder and it was like a manna from heaven. I got one small packet of parle-g biscuits at around 24 kms which gave me tremendous strength to push through another 3 to 4 kms comfortably. I was looking for a banana vendor along the way but looks like Vasai Virar is not a banana country because i could not espie even one such vendor along the route. But the people on the street were very friendly and encouraging and clapping for the runners along the way.

At around 35 kms i got talking with a young guy all of 16 who had run the 7 kms race and had come 22^nd in the event. He was pretty enthusiastic about long distance running but i advised him not to overdo the stuff. The toughest part was between 23 to 30 kms but after crossing that milestone i was pretty damned sure that i am gonna finish and from the time on my watch, with a decent personal best. After 37 kms we again enter the village belt but this time the sun was beating down mercilessly though the traffic was negligible along this route. The only worry was water getting over but thankfully there were many good Samaritans along the way providing water at exactly the right stage. Mulraj Gala came at around 38 kms and gave some cold water which was a great relief. Finally the end was in sight and ran down to the finish in a personal best time of 5.07.00 hours.

I would say it was a gruelling tough marathon due to a late start and not sufficient water on the return leg. More volunteers on the return leg and especially when the runners were finishing would have been great but i guess the organisers would improve upon it next year. Their heart was in the right place though and the sincerity was evident along the route. This is one marathon which i feel is going to grow by leaps and bounds in the future. . .

So that concludes my racing calendar for the year having run 4 events only during the year, three of which were first timers.

Ultra Marathon Man

2012-09-20T17:39:00.001+05:30

Just finished reading "Ultra Marathon Man - Confessions of an All-Night Runner" by Dean Karnazes - an absorbing and overwhelming story of his early athletic prowess, loss of his sister to accident, his subsequent forays away from running for 15 years and rediscovery of running to running ultra marathons to running crazy distances and impossible feats like running the south pole marathon, running 199 miles non stop etc. His heroic attempt at running the Western States 100 miler and succeeding first time and the Badwater Marathon and failing first time have been very poignantly told. A very nice inspirational story with dollops of quotable quotes for keeping in one's mirror or desktop. The paperback edition has given details of his training plan, nutrition, strategy etc. at the end so that helps in people who are planning to run short distances like the marathon instead of crazy distances like ultra marathon and beyond. A must read for all running addicts.

Mumtaz Qureshi conquers the distance - 100 kms

2012-04-29T17:03:00.002+05:30

Mumtaz Qureshi and Apurba Dass two runners from Mumbai completed an arduous feat of running 100 kilometres across Mumbai and parts of Thane on Sunday, 8^th April 2012.

Starting off on Saturday at 11.00 p.m. from the Bisleri junction at Andheri east on the western express highway, the duo started with Kavin, Atul Tuli for company alongwith Mahesh Gune on the bicycle. Mayank and Aishorjyo were on a car which was carrying supplies like water, Gatorade, bananas, oranges, wafers, boiled eggs, chikkoos along with ice. They ran the whole night upto NCPA in South Mumbai where they were joined by Anand. There was a brief half at NCPA for recouping supplies of water, refreshments etc. and then they started running back along the same route back to Sidhivinayak Mandir. At the Mandir, Mumtaz got the divine presence of his coach Giles Drego who joined him at Prabhadevi along with Mehamood Anwar. From the Mandir, they took a right turn to go past Plaza cinema, Tilak Bridge and Dadar T.T.

At Dadar T.T. which they reached in the early morning on Sunday, they were joined by Mani Iyer, P.V. Subramanyam, Jitendra and Kartik Suresh and here the second car with Mohan Kumar gave company. The second car was also similarly stocked with supplies. By this time the team were running at least 90 minutes late as per the scheduled chart and route map which was carefully planned and made into a nice little booklet by Vikas.

Running down the Eastern Express highway now, they went past Sion and Chembur where they were joined at Chembur by Kshitij Sharma, Sunil Gwalani, Haridasan Nair and a couple of their friends. Giles Drego was running barefoot on that day and being his coach, was constantly encouraging him and guiding Mumtaz. Apurba of course was an old hand at running 100 kms and this was to be his 4^th 100 kms run.

I joined at Chedda Nagar, Chembur at around 6.30 a.m. when the weather was still okay and the sun was not out yet. By then the duo had already completed 50 kms and looking fresh as ever. Mani’s mother had got up at 3.00 a.m. on a Sunday morning to prepare a big tinful of delicious idlis with chutnies. This was savoured by the runners at this junction. There were also vadas, wafers, boiled eggs to carbo load for the runners.

Mani had arranged with few of his office friends to come at specified venues at specified timings with fresh supplies of lime juice, water, dates, Gatorade etc., and the first of his friends Pandarinath Savanur and Satyadev Singh came at Kanjur marg junction with fresh & cool lime juice.

The sun was out by then and early morning highway was replete with Sunday cyclists who were puzzled to see a bunch of runners determinedly running – one of them enquired what this was all about and when told that a 100 kms run was on, he said he would have joined the run for 20 kms but not for 100 kms. Mumtaz was looking good at this stage while Apurba was going strong with a good pace.

The lead vehicles were stopping at every 2 kms to give the runners refreshment which was required at this stage because of the heat and humidity. Mayank who was driving the car all night long expressed and got his wish fulfilled of cycling a while on Mahesh Gune’s cycle which refreshed him a lot from the all night stress. It was a good team work going all around.

When we entered Thane, Dinesh Langauni had come with a photographer from Thane Plus to click some pictures and he enquired whether we needed anything specific in terms of supplies and quickly went round and bought a block of ice. The pace had dropped by then because of longish stretches of road with very little tree cover or shade whatsoever along the highway.

When we entered the dreaded Ghodbunder road it was choc-a-bloc with traffic and the space for running was very less what with lots of construction activity going on in the beginning portion of the GB road. By then Varun Joshi had joined us on his bicycle after doing an arduous 60 kms the previous day at Kharghar. Swami joined somewhere along the GB road with Venkat Krishnan for company and he had fresh supplies in his car. So now we had three cars going along and Swami decided to keep the cars at 1 kms distance each because the conditions for running at GB were very tough to impossible. But impossible is not a word which runners understand so there they were running along at slowish pace but the breaks at each water station were getting shorter. There were again few gentle enquiries from people and stares from few others because it was past mid-day and people were probably wondering what we were upto.

Sridhar B came on GB road with lime juice water, dates and brought his mother along for blessings, which was very kind of him. GB road took its toll on the runners because coupled with the hot noonday sun, there was no tree cover anywhere along the road and the road was brutally climbing at few places and to top it all, macadam work was being carried out on one section of the road which was emitting hot fumes from the tar being burnt.

When the runners finally hit the Western Express highway there was relief all round but it was another 16 kms to go for the finish line. W.E. highway again teeming with traffic on a Sunday afternoon but the going was okay at this stage. There was a determination to complete the distance against all odds which prompted both Mumtaz & Apurba to keep going on their feet by taking short breaks.

Pramod Pai appeared somewhere along the Mira Road with fresh supplies of water and most importantly beer cans which was for savouring after the run. So now we had four cars along with the runners. Another of Mani’s friend Nitin More and his brother came at BNP gate with orange Gatorade. There was only 7 kms to go for the finish line and the urgency of the runners were apparent in the determined looks on their faces.

Finally at 4.30 p.m. Mumtaz Qureshi and Apurba Dass reached Aarey check naka at distance of 100 kms from the starting point at Andheri, a staggering 17 ½ hours on their feet. It was a feat of endurance of unparalleled proportions in the deadly heat of April in Mumbai. Both the guys had showed that they were made of steel and the grit, composure and determination showed by both the runners was worth emulating.

The support for this run was magnificient right from the planning stage to vehicles, supplies, co-runners, friends, well wishers etc. coming out to support them. It was a daring plan to run across Mumbai and parts of Thane, so the logistics were to be meticulous, which it was. Exemplary efforts by the entire team of support runners for this event.

Rink football at Malad

2012-04-28T11:16:00.003+05:30

Auroville Marathon 2012 – nature’s fury, runners’ determination

2012-02-13T19:32:00.000+05:30

Auroville Marathon 2012 – nature’s fury, runners’ determination

For a brief while after Cyclone Thane devastated Pondicherry in December, I had brief apprehensions regarding travelling to Pondicherry because I had received tales of the massive amount of damage that had happened due to the cyclone and how the homes, business etc. were all ravaged. I made few enquiries with friends who were going to Pondicherry to participate in the Auroville marathon 2012 and they suggested a wait and watch approach.

So, there I was on morning of Saturday, 11^th February 2012 on a flight to Chennai enroute to Pondicherry. Unmesh had already reached Chennai the day before and had arranged vehicle for us from Chennai to Pondi and back and Jo & Pramod were to join me from Chennai. For a 6 a.m. flight, I had to wake up at 3.00 a.m. and a brief peek out of my window to check the weather suggested it was normal cold winter morning unlike the totally abnormal cold winter mornings that Bombay had been witnessing the past one month or so.

Chennai was misty when the flight landed at 7.55 a.m. We first had a hearty breakfast at near the Chennai airport and set off for Pondi which was a 3 hour drive from Chennai. On reaching Pondi found out that the hotel where I had booked my accommodation had inadvertently cancelled my booking, so there I was in Pondi without any hotel reservation whatsoever. Luckily the same hotel booked another room for us the International Guest House which was a basic room only kind of place with unbelievable room tariff of Rs.250/- per night.

Room having found and bags settled in, we set out for lunch at the promenade at Pondi which was a beautiful strip of smooth concrete road adjacent to the Bay of Bengal which with alluring blue waters was inviting us for a swim, but luckily I did’nt know swimming, so that part was left for others to accomplish on a later day.

We decided to have lunch at an exotic chic open air restaurant called La Café which was veritably situated on the rocks so to speak. But they did not have anything worthwhile to eat especially for marathoners looking to carbo-load on the day before the race. So, off we went to the famous Saravana Bhavan on M.G. Road for a sumptuous meal at Rs.60/-. The meal consisted of a large portion of rice fit for 6 hungry people plus sambhar, rasam, curry &papad. Meals done we rested for a while in our rooms before deciding to head out to Auroville in the evening for collecting our bibs and listening to Barefoot Ted McDonald and meeting friends.

Auroville is a sleepy little commune created by French speaking people who believed in the principles of Mother – so they have a kind of holistic peaceful living – a kind of heaven on earth. Auroville is 13 kms from the main Pondi town of which 8 kms is a sleepy village which leads to Auroville. It is from here that we could see the kind of destruction that the cyclone had wreaked on the city. Mighty trees were uprooted and temple walls were broken down exposing the gods to the cruelty of nature.

Upon reaching Auroville, we immediately headed for the hall where Barefoot Ted McDonald was about to commence his talk. Since the hall was packed to the rafters, the venue of his talk was shifted to an open air auditorium which again filled up faster than one could say Barefoot Ted McDonald. When asked by one runner during his talk as to which roads in India were the best for barefoot running, BFT categorically said it was the Mumbai roads – smooth as a baby bum!!

Bibs collected from the venue, we waited for the pasta dinner at 7.00 p.m. It was the most delicious pasta dinner that I have ever had – a super round off to carbo-loading. Since the marathon was starting at 5.00 a.m. and half at 6.00 a.m. and since Unmesh, Jo & Mahesh from our travelling party were scheduled to run the full, we decided to start out the next day morning at 3.45 a.m. to reach the starting point venue.

On peaking of the window on Sunday morning at 3.45 a.m. I thought it was not cold at all – definitely not to worry about the chill factor. But the mosquito factor was a worry for sure because the previous night while sitting on the lawns waiting for the pasta dinner queue to subside, the mosquitoes surely sucked away copious quantities of my blood – probably one of the factors for my laggardly performance in the second loop!!

The Auroville marathon is a lesson in marathon organization. Everything precisely co-ordinated and neatly arranged in a low key manner – from the baggage counters, to the pre-race warm-ups to the beat of music, the announcements, water & aid stations, direction markers et al. The full marathon started at 5.00 a.m. in utter darkness but with all the runners going with a torch or a headlamp which the organizers insisted upon each runner to take as a necessity. The half marathon was to start at 6.00 a.m. but they deferred the start to 6.15 a.m. in order for some of the daylight to filter in and help the runners navigate the way in the early morning light, without falling over.

The half marathon starts on a tar road but quickly veers off into a trail road which is a kind of soft mud with loose top soil on it. There are gentle bumps on the road it is a pleasure to navigate these bumps because you are able to accelerate on the downside part of the bump. There are numerous twists and turns to the route but essentially major part of the route is on the mud track with loose soil. At one patch I thought the soil was like beach sand. There are gentle stones jutting out from track, but nothing treacherous to make one fall. There is also a small patch on paver blocks, after the 7 kms mark. But what hits you as you run along the route is the extent of devastation and damage that cyclone thane has wreaked on this forest. Entire trees had been uprooted and at many places the trees had fallen on the roads, but the people of the community had done a magnificent job of clearing the path by cutting those trees and so you have those neatly cut trees staring at you at several places.

For half marathoners, the route was two loops of 10.5 kms each, but the kms markings were way off the mark. I did not get to see the 10K and the 20K markers at all. Since it was not an out and back route like the Kaveri trail and the Bangalore Ultra you did not have people coming back on the same route. But there was certain paths where the road was narrow and you had to say “excuse me” to the slow runners or walkers ahead of you. It was a beautiful route and the organizers had taken pains in charting a different path for the full marathoners and half marathoners by creating some additional loops for the full marathoners here and there.

I was enjoying the scenery and holding myself back until the half way mark. From 12 kms onwards, I started struggling so I slowed down the pace for a few kilometers and thought I should concentrate on the last 5 to 6 kilometres. Unfortunately that could not happen because of the humidity and my shoes were not giving me the grip to accelerate on the track – I took water breaks at all water stations after 12 kms mark and stopped by to pour water on my head and neck. I took electoral replenishment at one water station and one quarter banana. Since I was not able to force the pace, I thought next best thing to do is to stay the course and complete comfortably. 19kms went by and I thought last kms was mine so while I was waiting for the 20 kms the volunteers told me to take a left turn which immediately announced “200 metres to finish”. I was surprised because I had not espied the 20 kms mark. I immediately jacked up the pace and finished strongly in 2.11.13 hours a personal best in Trail half marathon and just 2 minutes off the absolute personal best in a half marathon. But I was devastated with my second loop performance and so i was not in a celebratory mood at all.

Somebody put a medal around my neck, but on close examination it was not a medal but two doll figurines strung around a strap. How innovative!!

The announcer was constantly asking runners to collect their free t-shirts and have refreshments at the snacks counter, but I took a while to recover my breath and sauntered around the arena while drinking water. Both the t-shirt and snacks queue was long so decided to wait awhile before venturing into one of them.

The breakfast was pongal vada with delicious sambhar and hot coffee to boot, so had a double helping of the pongal and double offering of coffee. Hunger and thirst quenched, I picked up my free t-shirt and bought few things for back home – some locally made sweets and a t-shirt for my daughter. Looked around for the massage stall, but found it too crowded, so decided to wait for my colleagues and one by one they started to trickle in. It seemed the humidity had troubled many runners, so almost all the runners were way off their mark which they had achieved at Mumbai marathon a month ago.

I thought that loss of tree cover and the canopy that goes with it had a major impact on this year’s Auroville Marathon – humidity is always there at Auroville, but the pleasantness that comes from running in a forest was probably missing. For us Mumbaikars, coming from an unusually extreme winter – 8.8 degrees on Wednesday before the race was a dampener for running in the extreme humidity of Auroville – the hydrating went for a toss in the run up to the marathon. While the trail itself was not difficult, the loose soil was making gripping difficult putting lot of pressure on the calf muscles – so trail shoes were a must for running in such a track.

While we were waiting in the tent for our friends to come in, Nikhil of Olympic Gold Quest, started giving post run stretches to Unmesh which was really helpful to him, so others started queuing up for his Olympic style stretches – it was a treat to watch!!

By the time Jo came in at 6.45 hours and his post run carbo loading and stretching, we were late for the planned lunch of the Mumbai runners party at Satsanga Hotel with Venkat, so we quickly came back to the hotel for a quick wash before leaving for the Chennai airport.

Reminiscing the day’s events, we i.e. myself, Unmesh & Jo decided to come back to Auroville next year with better travel arrangements so we don’t end up rushing up from one venue to another with barely any time for rest and recuperation.

Mumbai Marathon 2012

2012-02-10T18:10:00.000+05:30

Mumbai Marathon 2012:

2011 was a hectic year for me in terms of running – I did my first ever full marathon, graduating to the ranks of a marathoner, although I took little over 6 hours to complete the distance – latter in February, I broke my personal best for the half marathon in Thane and then in August, I broke a sub-one hour for 10K. During 2011, I also redeemed myself at the Kaveri Trail Marathon and Bangalore Ultra in between tackling a tough and grueling Hyderabad half marathon in August and a tough, humid half marathon in goa in December. In all, 9 nine events during 2011 was a busy year in terms of running events, the most that I have done in a year.

But during all these events, there was only one thought that permeated my brains and that was my second full marathon in Bombay in January 2012 for which I wanted to come under 6 hours. I believe in laying modest goals for myself so that when I achieve these achievable targets I am mentally satisfied.

During 2011, I also started doing core strengthening exercises believing that a strong core is required for a long distance runner. I focused on one core workout day per week and usually it was a Thursday or Friday that I used to do at least 45 minutes core workout. I became quite religious about my core workouts not missing them except perhaps on a few occasions, when travelling. It was also during this period that I started doing a lot of hill workouts and focused hill repeats of the dreaded Aarey Forest and Borivli National Park taking especial delight in conquering the hills and doing as many repeats as possible sometimes taking in 4 to 5 hill repeats.

I wanted to do as much thing as perfect as possible and that is why I kept probing and questioning the experts offline and online – some of my best running buddies are in both spheres. It was during one such exercise that Bobby from Bangalore recommended that my tapering be very focused and intensive rather than slow long runs – a complete antithesis to what I had read and known about marathon tapering – yet there I was doing a brisk 21k on two Sundays before the marathon (it was cold winter morning and an absolutely beautiful day to run) and a fast 10K at the hills at Borivli National Forest the Sunday before the marathon race day and followed it up with two fast 5ks and 7ks respectively during the week preceding the race.

I was in as best shape as possible and eager to throw the gauntlet so to speak at the 42kms of superhuman effort. I was also determined to do as perfect carbo-loading and hydrating as possible during the 2 days before the race day and therefore ended up drinking 3.5 litres each of water/ Gatorade on Friday and Saturday before the race day. Carbo-loading done, hydrating done, bibs pinned and ready, chips tied and ready, GU-gels, water bottle, cap, socks, shoes all kept in readiness for the morning of the race, I went to sleep at 10.00 p.m. half expecting any sound sleep. I was to get up at 2.45 a.m. to get ready for the marathon journey. But since I had a comfortable siesta on Saturday, I was not unduly worried about lack of sleep.

2.45 a.m. – I am up and started getting ready for the race – had my usual oats milk with one teaspoon each of honey and chia seeds and one banana, took a shower, did my usual quota of 10 surya namaskars and got out at 3.45 a.m. for Bhasker to pick me up from outside my house. We were to latter meet Aishorjyo Ghosh, Vaishali Mane & Mithika D’Cruz, the four of us cramped comfortably in the back seat of the cool cab and joking as if we were going for a picnic rather than to run a dreaded 42 kms on the roads of Bombay.

Azad Maidan was abuzz with activity at the unearthly hour (well, no time is unearthly in Bombay) of 5.00 a.m. with police around and V.T. station foyer witnessing more runners than passengers. We walked under the V.T. station subway to the holding area at Azad Maidan passing through numerous police barricades who were asking us to show our “pass”, which was pinned to the t-shirts.

The number of my friends has increased vastly in the last couple of years due to my running activity and due to the inter-actions on the numerous social networking sites and so when I reached Azad Maidan there were numerous hand clasps and hi-5s to be given to RFL, FB, DM friends et al. There we were at Azad Maidan on the morning of the most important day in 365 days casually joking and chatting and guffawing aloud with nary a care in the world of the enormous task at hand that of running a grueling 42 kms. I was completely relaxed and not thinking about the finish line but of enjoying the race. I was planning to run at my easy pace for a couple of kms and then see how it goes. I am not the kind of runner to constantly peek at my watch to see what pace I am running at.

So off we go at 5.40 a.m. from V.T. station, the first thing I noticed is that the number of runners doing the full marathon had increased, nay almost doubled from last year. In every one there was an intensity, a religiousness which meant that these guys were into serious training!! At the Marine Drive going into first of the loops at near the Trident Hotel, I was still behind the venerable Giles Drego who was chugging along looking at his watch time and again!! I passed a few people at this stage but latter on more people started passing me along the Marine drive. I was happy that the 5 hour bus was behind me, so I was doing good so far. The weather was beautiful a nice gentle breeze blowing across from the Arabian Sea.

The going was good until the start of the sea link, which was 15 kms when I had my first GU gel as planned. The pace dropped in the sea link but I was still before the 5 hour bus. I picked up some Gatorade at the only stop where it was available i.e. at the end of the sea link just before the bandra causeway. When I turned into bandra causeway I saw Dr. G.B. Sharma coming back. When queried he gesticulated that he was puking and therefore quitting the race. Natasha gently inquired about my progress at near the Mahim masjid and a little after that the 5 hour bus went by, singing raucuously. Well, anyway, I thought a sub 5 hour marathon would have been a dream so I thought the next best strategy – don’t allow th3 5.30 hour bus to overtake you!! By that time 22 kms had passed and it came to my knowledge with consternation that Gatorade were simply not available at any water station. Everywhere you inquire Gatorade was “no Sir, not available here”. From here onwards I started taking walking breaks of 30 seconds at each kilometer board/ mark and that way I reached Worli Sea Face into kilometers 27, 28 & 29. Somewhere around kilometer 28 i mixed plain water with the Gatorade that I had in my water bottle since Gatorade was anyway not available, the next best strategy was to have sufficient water. The humidity and heat were still not an issue at this stage. Subsequently i was to realise that even relispray was not available save at a few places during the run.

From kilometer 29 onwards i.e. just before the old passport office turnabout, I started feeling cramps in my left calf muscles – from then onwards it was a struggle and I resorted to run/walk/run with as little walk as possible. Soon the cramps spread to right calf musle, ITBS on my right knee started hurting, then more cramps. Like this I kept going ticking off one kilometer mark after another. At Pedder road hill, I tried to climb it without stopping but could not do so due to cramps. But for the cramps I was okay physically and also mentally. It was at Marine Drive that I started feeling the heat of the early morning sun but at the end of the Marine Drive before the turn to Veer Nariman Road was delighted to see my daughter standing in the middle of the road and clicking photographs – that was indeed a moment of satisfaction and glory – she got a good number of photographs of me as well as other runners from that vantage point.

Turning into D.N. Road from Flora fountain I was determined to finish strongly, but the damn cramps were severely impeding me now. Every time I was trying to accelerate to finish sprint style, my leg was hurting, still a good run in the last 100 metres to finish in 5.34 hours a whopping 36 minutes better than last year. I was happy with the timing and the result on my body as I was not fatigued or completely exhausted like last year. Met with Madhu, Vignesh Easwar who were at the finish point cheering the runners and thereafter walked slowly to the finish holding area, collected my medal, refreshments and wanted to lie down for a few minutes, but the damn cramps attack was severe this time. Luckily Abhijit Shome who finished in 3.28 hours was there to help me with stretching. Later on met with friends from Bangalore – Bobby, Pani sir, Suresh, Gerald (from Shillong) and enjoyed the post marathon party with beer and food and friends.

Goa River Half Marathon – River soothes while Vasco fumes

2011-12-26T19:07:00.003+05:30

Goa River Half Marathon – River soothes while Vasco fumes

The second edition of Goa River Half marathon was eagerly awaited because of the wonderful experience that we had last year – scenic road, beautiful weather, excellent organization, post run party in fun filled Goa.

This year many of us decided to spend a couple of days extra in Goa after the marathon to laze around in the beaches enjoying the excellent Goa weather, drinks, foods et al, a kind of resurgence of mind and soul before the wind down to the much awaited and dreaded Mumbai marathon in mid-January.

The fact that GRM is gaining popularity in its second year itself was evident when the bib distribution venue was shifted to the Municipal Ground near Vasco market, a much larger space compared to last year and with few stands as well selling t-shirts etc.

We landed in Vasco-da-Gama on Saturday morning and collected our bibs etc. from the venue after dumping our luggages in the hotel. What followed during lunch on Saturday was something defying all laws of marathon practice as enumerated and codified by the gurus world over. Here were a bunch of enthusiastic runners merrily gulping one glass of beer after another much to the amusement of a few non-drinkers and to the chagrin of the purists. It was a sight to behold – few would have to dared to guess that we were going to run 21.097 kilometres early next day after barely sleeping for a few hours during the night.

The evening pasta party was an event to forget because there were hardly any pasta and fruit salad available in the trays, such was the demand from the runners.

If the previous evening was pleasant, early morning on the race day was a different weather altogether. It was warm in the morning itself before the race portending a difficult day for the runners. The race route was exactly the same as previous year, so those of us who had run the previous year were confident knowing the route and its uphills and downhills. The race starts near the Baina beach and loops the Vasco railway station coming to a railway flyover within the first kms itself. Then it hits Vasco town for about four kms, before coming to the river front, where the road opens out to a scenic beauty and greenery all around. But until we reached the river front, it was sheer torture for the runners because of the intense humidity which was killing the runners. At about 3 kms there is a small uphill and then at 4 kms, the largest climb which is about 500 metres in length and twisting and winding, which was a real beauty. Around 6 kms there is a small climb and at around 7 kms another small climb. Last year when the weather was pleasant we barely noticed the three small climbs, although we did come across and navigated the largest one at 4 kms. But this year the humidity humbled the runners to the point of desperation.

Only when we came to the river front, we could experience good breeze blowing across and the humidity had lessened here. It was very pleasant to run along the river front enjoying the scenic beauty of the place. The first of the Africans returned when I was in the 8^thkm while the first of our friends Dnyanesh went by after my 9 km mark, gliding smoothly like a Rolls Royce. The cheering and hollering had started. Every few metres there was one runner who was familiar and it was this cheering and hollering that kept us going as there was hardly any local residents of Vasco on the road to cheer us. There were about four spectators at around 18 kms clapping for us. I feel the organizers need to build more local sport by involving a local sportsperson as the brand ambassador instead of a film star. They should drum up support by using the radio, television and local newspapers.

Last year I was battling ITBS in my left knee which was my first serious running injury so I was very cautious in the first half. This year I took off in the first half at a good pace. Upto 15 kms I was doing good pace and in line to break my personal best at the distance, but after that the humidity again hit the runners severely slowing me down considerably. I took all the uphills on the return leg albeit slowly and realizing at this point that a personal best would be difficult concentrated on staying the course comfortably. I sprinted down the last 200 metres to finish in a time of 2.15.48, lopping off 9 minutes from my last year’s finish time.

The unwinding started pronto and for the next two days, we enjoyed Goa tremendously and ran on the beach on Tuesday – a recovery run deemed as such more to recover from the after effects of the beers on Sunday evening and Monday full day, rather than from the Goa River half Marathon.

Bangalore Ultra – Experience the Beast

2011-11-16T19:27:00.001+05:30

About little more than 2 weeks ago, we came to know that the Bangalore Ultra edition of 2011 is having a brand new route – few who had done a dry run there said that it was a tough course with lots of twists and ups and downs with no tree cover at all and that if it rains, it could be treacherous because the mud was softer than last year. A2 told me the previous day that the course has less gradient compared to last year. Mid-week before the event date, I checked the weather forecast for Bangalore for the weekends and there was a prediction of a nice and sunny day.

Having done two very tough half marathons in August (at Hyderabad) and Kaveri trail half in September and taken part in the Raj’s 100 kms event in the hot afternoon sun, I was like ready to tackle the toughest marathon event in India. There were few niggles here and there but I guess that is part of a runner’s life.

Last year’s Bangalore Ultra trail was tough in itself but had some little forest cover, but no straight patches of road at all. It was tough on the legs and though I had registered for 37.5 kms I could manage only 25 kms in the end having to throw in the towel due to a double strike of itbs in the left knee plus a back pain. The back pain had in fact surfaced early in the week itself due to running at Juhu beach only a week before the ultra – a monumental folly that. This year also I ran at juhu beach, albeit two weeks before the event and picked up a shin trouble. Well, two weeks was enough time to set things right. But last year’s failure was perennially at the back of my mind and that made me nervous. But one thing I was determined to do and that was to turn around at the end of the second loop.

Well, there I was at 6.00 a.m. at the start of the 37.5 kms event all set and raring to go, it was cold and chilly and there was enough of sunlight to go full blast on a new track and riding my early luck I started at quite a brisk pace keeping only such distance behind the runner ahead of me to see the track for any lurking dangers. I was surprised at the gentle nature of the track because there were quite a few patches that was straight though the soil was loose kicking up some dust. Little after 1.5 kms the route veers off to the left where the road undulates severely before turning left again to the second water station on the route.

Thereafter the route meanders through twists and turns but from 3 to 4 kms it is a straight path until it reaches a gravel path just after 4 kms mark for about 150 metres. Immediately after the gravel path the route turns sharply to the left to a monstrous triple pit which has the hallmark of an ankle breaker and then the water stop is situated. From this point onwards the ultra beast rears its ugly head and it is the most difficult part of the entire route. There are numerous twists and turns at this section for about 2 kms until the 6.25 kms turnaround. There are straight paths interspersed with stones, heavy grass and on a few places monstrous cactus plants that juts out onto the runners’ path threatening to sever the arms of the runner. It is this section of 4 kms to and fro that I consider the most difficult part of the entire ultra. Runners were falling regularly like Windies wickets at the Eden Gardens and there were bruises, cuts, sprains galore. The Ultra was again going to test my will and nerves.

By the time we were returning to the starting point on the first loop the 25 kms and 12.5 kms runners were let loose and veritably they were on a treasure hunt coming in hordes, occupying both sides of the road and threatening to bulldoze everybody else in their path. It was nerve wracking to keep your eyes on the road as well as look up at the runners trying to wrestle and knock you down. I had to holler out to the runners to keep to their side of the road. This went on for about half a kms until there was relative safety.

By the time we had come back to the start point after the first loop the sun was out, so the second loop was going to be difficult, which indeed it proved to be. The demons in the mind started rearing again and tough as it became on the second stretch, negative thoughts started occurring. Doubts whether I can come back for the 3rd loop, whether I should come back, why am I doing this thing, all sorts of negative thoughts started appearing in the brain. I started making a plan – that I would surely cross for the 3rd loop and then start a run-walk-run routine and take it further from there. I remembered that this was a long run practice run for the Mumbai marathon in January and if I miss this one, then surely I am on the backfoot. Plus with the glorious sun at your back, what better practice can you get for the Mumbai marathon. Slowly the demons started disappearing and crushing the negative thoughts from my brain, I turned for the 3rd loop with my left fist pumped up.

By this time, my groins were paining, shins and arms were hurting and by adopting a run-walk-run routine I managed to reach the last cut-off point from where it was only another 6.25 kms to the finish. The distances loomed huge though I was reminding myself that it was only 6 kms to the finish. I was running at all the straight paths and taking it easy at the treacherous ones thereby slowly whittling down the distance. It gave me immense pleasure to see the distances at the billboard mounting from 30.5 to 34.5 etc.

Normally I do not look at my watch at all during any race but here at 36.5 kms I looked at my watch which showed 5.04 hours. I reckoned last kms to take about 10 mins so I should be home by 5.15 hours which was fair enough considering that I had given myself 5 hours to finish this one. Last few metres people were shouting encouragement – “finish strong”. At the entrance to the finish arena there is a small bump so I waited until I crossed that bump and then slowly picked up pace for a few metres and with fists pumping in the air finished my 37.5 kms Bangalore Ultra in a time of 5.14.56 hours. A big leap of faith for me.

This year’s Bangalore Ultra is a tough demanding course and my title says it all – you have to experience the beast in this course – difficult to compare whether this year was tougher than last year but it brings out the best in you. The intensity of my effort was evident in the immediate aftermath of the event, when I could barely walk to the lunch counter, the bus, the hotel and for the next two days was in excruciating pain and discomfort. I had to travel to Chennai by the Shatabdi train that same afternoon and it was a considerable effort to climb the railway steps at Bangalore railway station and even more difficult to get down to the platform.

So, that ends my 8th event of the year and three back to back tough events.

3 hours feet on the street

2011-10-02T19:59:00.000+05:30

Three House feet on the street

As part of the ramp up in mileages, I had decided to do a 3 hour run today, 2nd October 2011 along with the monthly bandra-ncpa group training run. With me I had Hemant for company for he was a absolutely steady runner, good rhthym, steady pace and unflagging and he remains all the time with you. So we were about 6 of us starting from Khar Road station on the west side and going towards the town side in South Bombay. Along the way, some runners were coming in from Bandra carter road, so in order to do more mileages, we decided to venture into Carter road and meet them and run alongside with them. Barely had we gone 50 metres into carter road, then that group started streaming in at full blast as if they were to catch a train and they were already late.

Anyway, we were going at our steady pace, myself, Hemant and Sharan. The humidity was a bit high in the early mornings but the weather was holding good. When we reached Shivaji Park, we decided to do one loop of the Park, but the moment we entered the Park loop, the wind dried down and we were caught up in a dry air. So, one loop was enough for the day.

We took our first toilet break at Worli sea face and a little after that we met Venkat who was coming from Bandra MIG club. Sharan went along with Venkat so myself and Hemant were then going steady towards Haji Ali, when we came across a huge line of devotees standing early in the morning itself to pay a visit to the famous Mahalaxmi temple. The line was long running half way past the Haji Ali, but it was very orderly and disciplined.

We decided to take a water break at Haji Ali juice centre and ordered one bottle water and one glass of mosambi juice. Unfortunately the juice took long time in coming so we must have taken about 5 minutes break there. Climbing up the pedder road, we saw Sejal Sheth going along so she joined us before the Kemps Corner flyover. There was a huge temptation to do the Cumballa hill and come down from Marine Drive side, but we were already 2.08 hours into the run, so we estimated that we should reach marine drive by 2.20 hours and then take it from there to NCPA. But we reached at about 2.17 hours so decided to go along the Malabar Hill road, but since it was a climber, and the legs were protesting, decided to turn back and head towards NCPA.

The weather was still holding good, the sun was behind the clouds, so running on the Marine Drive was not difficult. Sejal came for company for a while and said it was her first group run and thoroughly enjoyed it. Finished 3.00 hours somewhere near the air india building so decided to walk a bit before running down the last 50 metres or so to finish a good day of running in 3.04 hours.

Marathon Man Feat of Endurance

2011-09-27T20:00:00.000+05:30

7.09 p.m. 25th September 2011 will forever be etched in the memory of Rajesh Vadgama a.k.a Raj, because that is the precise moment when he crossed 100 kms at Marine Drive, Mumbai. His friends and supporters running alongside him and waiting for him at NCPA erupted in a thunderous applause reserved for the high and mighty sportsmen – people who have won the world or Olympics titles or achieved monumental feats of endurance. There was no sign of exultation from him, just a casual walk down to the end of NCPA inwardly soaking in the pleasure and joy of having completed a mammoth 100 kilometres in 15 hours.

The last lap of 5.1 kilometres was a joyful one as all his supporters had decided to run alongside him on that last lap. The lap started casually as were the previous ones, but since it was late evening, the Marine Drive promenade was packed to the rafters with families and children and elderly people all coming down for a casual stroll down the Marine Drive. Since he had to run in a straight line in order not to cramp badly, we had Sameer, Roshni, Ganesh, Milton and others shouting and waving to people to step aside for a few seconds for the running cavalcade to pass through. It was a majestic and magnificent feeling to be running alongside him that last lap as it was in the previous laps. Since he had to run 5 kms in the last lap, it was decided to run upto 2.5 kms and make the return leg to NCPA the home stretch to glory. Taking few walking breaks in between as advised by Dr. Ashish Contractor of the Asian Heart Institute, the final stretch of running started somewhere after the Jazz by the Bay restaurant. With barely 500 metres to go, Raj upped the pace to about 6.5 minutes per kilometer making all of us running behind him to suddenly scramble up for pace amazed at the man’s endurance, mental strength and determination. It was a moment of pure joy and triumph for him and all of his supporters. Triumph of mind over matter, man over the elements of scorching heat, humidity, tiredness, pain and sheer distance. A distance that will daunt an ordinary human being, running 100 kilometres in the sultry climate of Mumbai is no mean feat. Originally it was planned to do the distance in 12 hours, but as the day wore on and the sun beat down mercilessly, it was evident that running 100 kilometres in 12 hours would have been a daunting task in the humid climate of coastal Mumbai. But neither Raj nor any one of us had even an iota of doubt that the man will not finish the distance that he had set out to cover in the early hours of that Sunday.

The quest for glory started at 4.00 a.m. outside the Borivli National Park gate in Borivli east where about 10 runners had doggedly woken up at unearthly hours of 3.00 a.m. or thereabouts and travelled to Borivli to start the tryst with destiny alongside Raj. The run started precisely at 4.00 a.m. along the Western Express Highway and the plan was that runners could come in and join along the route. The route that was chosen for this event was the western express highway upto Bandra causeway and then via Cadell Road, Shivaji Park, Prabhadevi, Worli Sea Face, Haji Ali, Babulnath, Marine Drive upto NCPA and thereafter multiple of NCPA to Mafatlal Swimming Pool and back until the 100 kilometres were over.

So we had the indefatigable Bhasker Desai starting alongside Raj at BNP along with Hemant, Milan, Gayatri, Dr. Sharma, Unmesh, Nachiket, Sanjay Kasle and few other runners. Running at an earmarked pace of 7.30 minutes per kilometer, the group reached Goregaon check naka at 5.05 a.m. where they were joined by Sunil, Priyankar, Beena, Anjali, Atul Tuli and Milind Soman. The early morning motorists were probably bemused to see this crazy lunatic bunch of people getting up at unearthly hours on a Sunday morning to hit the roads running. It was decided not to take any of the flyovers, so running along the highway, the group ticked off one milestone after another along the highway, places we remember only as auto or cab destinations, such as Chakala, Airport, Vakola, Kalanagar etc. Alongside the runners there was a support vehicle laden with water, Gatorade and refreshments like bananas, chikkies, dates etc. Since it was a humid morning the runners were consuming water regularly. Ashok joined on the highway in order to take photographs along the route. His vehicle and the support vehicle was driving along in tandem with each other.

The first set of runners from Borivli were to get off at Mahim, a distance of 23 kilometres for a fresh set of legs to take over from there upto NCPA. It was decided that the fresh set of runners will wait at outside the St. Michael’s Church at Mahim at around 6.30 a.m. The running group was expected to reach Mahim around 6.40 a.m. and a 5 minute halt was scheduled here. The running group reached about 6.42 a.m. and instead of waiting immediately left via the Cadell Road. The runners waiting at St. Michael’s Church scrambled up to join him and the running group which took him to Mahim then left for their respective homes, satisfied with their morning accomplishments. However there were a few runners who continued running even beyond Mahim. There were more than 10 runners who joined from Mahim – Kavin, Zubin, Kaushik, Dhanraj, Apurva, Apurba, Ashwin Jain, Sripad, Suresh Negi, Qureshi, Amit & Neepa Sheth etc.

The wait which was scheduled for Mahim was taken at Shivaji Park. The ambulance from Asian Heart Institute also joined at Mahim. Also joining at Mahim were the duo of Varun Joshi on his bike and Mike behind him taking photographs along the way. Manish Rahul, Bijay Nair, Unnikrishnan Nair & Francis joined in at Sidhivinayak Mandir bringing in divine intervention of the Gods to bless the runners.

The support vehicle was stopping every 2 kms in order for the runners to refresh themselves. By the time the group had reached Haji Ali the sun was in and already streaming down though it was not very difficult at this stage.

The group reached NCPA at the expected time of 9.00 a.m. by which time 40 kms was done with. Few of the runners who came from Mahim exited at this stage while few such as Kaushik, Zubin continued their spree in marine drive also.

The idea was to do multiple loops of Marine Drive from NCPA to Mafatlal Swimming pool and back along the Marine Drive promenade which was a distance of 6 kilometres. However, it turned out to be more than 6 kilometres and slightly less than 7 kilometres.

Meanwhile, Puneet Chawla, Mani, Srinivas & Rohit had also arrived at NCPA with fresh supplies of water and refreshments, A water stall was placed at the Mafatlal Swimming Pool end with Ganesh and Shyam T as the initial set of volunteers. The water stall at under the marine drive flyover could not be set up immediately because we did not have enough volunteers. Luckily by the 3rd loop or so, Mrs. Raj and her family friends decided to set up the stall at beneath the flyover. Before the event, hectic preparations were on to procure the supplies and co-ordinate and here people like Puneet Chawla, Pramila Pai, Mani, Srinivas & Rohit Bansal were of immense help in arranging for ice-box, ice, water & refreshments.

Fresh set of legs were coming in at each loop with Sunder, Aishorjyo, Rohit, Srinivas joined in the loops as it was increasingly getting hotter and brutal as the sun kept climbing up. Milton, Giles, Varun, Venkat & Usha came in later loops as did Anand, Ashwini, Vikas and his friend. Manish Rahul & Kavin who completed the leg from Mahim to NCPA came in later for a second round of running along with Manish’s wife Ami. Khushro Patel came in at Mahim and also at NCPA during late evening in order to provide cheer and support to Raj. Ganesh, Chetan, Subra Shyam, Swami & Jitendra were doubling as runners as well as volunteers manning the counter at Mafatlal Swimming Pool. Abbasi did a couple of loops in the morning session and then came back to an evening session as well. He was of great help in procuring items from nearby places for Raj. Venkat brought in the weighing machine and immediately started weighing Raj and some other runners at the end of each loop to determine weight loss, if any. He also brought in a delightful sprayer which was used to spray cold water on their return to NCPA. Scientific, methodical and innovative approach to running.

If the afternoon session was proving to be brutal, Savio de Souza, the renowned marathoner and now came on the scene like a messiah and immediately took charge of Raj and helped him with proper stretching routines at every stop. Meanwhile Dr. Ashish Contractor of the Asian Heart Institute was at the site early itself and constantly taking care of Raj and exhorting him with the proper pace, right time to take a walk, encouragement etc. He was on a bicycle throughout the day as were a couple of other volunteers.

As the day wore on, and the loops kept getting completed one after another and the sun beating down relentlessly on the marine drive promenade which had no tree cover whatsoever, the determination of Raj never relented even for a second. There was never a thought that this was an impossible task. Raj never had a grimace on his face even for a second. In fact all throughout the run from BNP onwards there was a perpetual smile on his face as if he was relishing this challenge all through.

The volunteers at both ends i.e. NCPA and Mafatlal Swimming Pool were keeping track of the times and keeping the water bottles filled in with Gatorade, putting them inside the ice, peeling off the oranges, slicing the water melons etc. all to ensure that minimal time is lost in the turnaround at the loop ends.

As the evening wore on, the sun started setting down into the Arabian Sea, it was certain that he was going to miss the 12 hour deadline that was set for completion of this mammoth event. The crowds started swelling on the Marine Drive promenade for evening stroll It was around 6.30 p.m. when he embarked on his last loop of 5.1 kms, this time accompanied by all the runner friends. Since the crowd had by now risen to alarming proportions, and it was absolutely essential that he be given space to run and that too in a straight path, Sameer, Roshni, Ganesh, Milton and few others took it upon themselves to clear the path ahead, shouting and beseeching pedestrians to stay on the sides. The crowds thronging the Marine Drive were witness to a grand spectacle of a marathon man completing a feat which very few Indians have achieved so far.

What was heart-warming and endearing was the best efforts put in by everybody that day to make Raj’s 100 kms run possible. From the people who co-ordinated and helped with the logistics such as Puneet Chawla, Pramila Pai, Srinivas, Rohit, Mani to all the runners who ran alongside him, many of whom completed their longest ever mileages ever that day, to volunteers like Ganesh, Shyam, Jitu, Swami, Giles to front runners like Sameer, Roshni etc., coach Savio de Souza, Dr. Ashish Contractor, Venkat etc., everybody put their best feet forward to make this event a success – all this reflects on the love and affection that people in the running community of Mumbai have for Raj. There were a couple of runners who had completed their early morning mileages, yet were there during the evening hours to lend support for this event. Ashok and Ganesh were to leave after a three hour sojourn, yet they remained until the very last lending full support to the group. Even the few drivers who had come with the runners assisted in the group event.

Meanwhile another story was being played on the same day at the same route: that of Apurba Dass, the man whom we affectionately call as Marathon Monk. He started from Mahim with the group, but before that he had already run a few kilometers from his house to Mahim. He was going through the entire route from Mahim onwards alongside Raj, which was to somewhere around 90 kilometres. Somewhere during the day, he probably decided that he would also notch up 100 kilometres run that day by adding another 10 kilometres. Since he was planning to run the Navi Mumbai barefoot half marathon scheduled for 6th November 2011 he also decided to do a barefoot running on the hot pavement of Marine Drive which he did with no pain whatsoever. All though the day, Apurba kept the pace for which he is famous for and not showing any signs of tiredness whatsoever, he completed 100 kilometres a little before 8.00 p.m.

Monumental feat of endurance by two of our best running buddies in one day – Raj & Apurba.

Kaveri Trail Marathon 2011 - Weather Benign

2011-09-21T18:01:00.001+05:30

Well, Kaveri Trail Half Marathon bloodied me last year, since it was my first ever trail marathon and I cramped badly from 13 kms onwards and came home battled and bruised in 2.35 hours. That was last year, 2010. So I was determined to go back to the Kaveri trail and do a better performance than last year. It was not a revenge but this is what all marathoners do, I believe, when they don’t get a good performance in a particular track, they go back and try to do better.

With that intention in mind of doing better this year, I dutifully registered for the Kaveri trail marathon as soon as it opened. But before the registrations itself, we had done the group train bookings for more than 10 persons from Mumbai There is a great camaraderie in travelling together for marathons, as I have experienced since last year. We get to exchange notes with other runners during the journey and believe me all we runners talk about during the train and air journeys is nothing but running all the time. In Hyderabad, we had Kavin as our official host being a telugu spokesman for the group. In Bangalore and Mysore we were lucky to have Srivatsan and Vikas as our language hosts. More of that later.

In August, I had done the Hyderabad half marathon in a time of 2.27 hours in a beast of a course. Since I knew the Kaveri trail I was sort of mentally prepared as to what to expect this year from the trail. The trail remained the same, only the weather behaved better this year compared to last year. I wanted to do better than last year’s time of 2.35 hours, no other expectations of a personal best half marathon.

The train group dwindled to about five members being myself, Anand, Milton, Hari & Manoj. Srivatsan & Bhasker were flying separately. The 24 hour train journey took its toll on us despite having a third a/c accommodation. The train from Bangalore to Mysore however was a beautiful journey, only 2 hours, comfortable seating and quality food was served in the Shatabdi. Srivatsan joined us at Bangalore and immediately made us comfortable with his language skills in Kannada, talking and negotiating everywhere. At Bangalore station, we also met facebooker Panneer Selvam, he was doing a full marathon.

Since we were arriving into Mysore by mid-day on Saturday and the bib collection was at the Young Island resort that day itself, I had requested Ashwin to help us out somehow and he graciously agreed to keep our bibs at the resort on the race day itself. However, Vikas, a local Mysore boy was also travelling to Mysore from his work arrangements that day and he readily agreed to collect our bibs from the resort. He was also running a 10km at Kaveri, so that was indeed a great help as we were saved the tiring journey to the resort on the Saturday. It was a great help to have the bibs and chips on Saturday itself as we were able to pin the bibs on the tees and also fix the chips on our running shoes, saving last minute botheration at the race venue. He also invited us to his house to be his guest. Later that evening, we went to the famous Dasaprakash restaurant and gorged on some delicious local snacks. Besides, Anand & Bhasker made provisions for post race tipple. The dinner at Ginger hotel was also quite sumptuous and delicious.

We had, again through the help of Vikas, arranged a vehicle to pick us from the Ginger in the early hours on Sunday in order to take us to the venue and bring us after the run and also ferry us to the Mysore railway station. So everything was in place for the race day.

Since all of us had already tied the bibs to the tees and fixed the chips on our shoes, we decided to leave the hotel for the race venue at 5.00 a.m. The race venue was about 12 kms from the hotel. Bhasker’s event the full marathon was to start at 6.15 a.m. followed by the half marathon at 6.45 a.m. We reached the venue comfortably ahead of the race time and set about meeting other runners from Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and other places, notable being Ashok Nath, Suneela Katikala, Suresh KP, Sujit Kolke, Pramod Pai, Rupal Shah etc.

Bhasker set off with other full marathoners exactly at 6.15 a.m. to the sound of a conch horn. While the half marathoners gathered nervously at the start, many eyes were looking upwards at the skies to detect any signs of impending harsh sun and also probably seeking the blessings from the upper reaches for a safe and comfortable marathon. The half marathon started exactly at 6.45 a.m. with the sub-2 hour runners positioned ahead of the others.

I started cautiously by ensuring proper footing at the start and also not stumbling upon other runners. A couple of runners badly twisted their ankles in their anxiety to get going which made me nervous. I was coming out a bad ankle week with only one run during the week on Wednesday, a gingerly done 4 kms and so was testing the ankles to gauge their performance. Feeling comfortable I upped the pace after the initial kilometer. Saw Srivatsan surge ahead as also Unmesh & Sujit who was wearing a VFF. Around 3 kms I started developing stomach cramps which was unusual because I had never experienced this before and that too so early in the race. I thought back to what I had eaten, whether it was too much and started weighing the reasons for abdominal cramps. Then I immediately cut the pace and started breathing deeply and kept at it for about 3 kilometers during which time the cramps slowly went away.

The sun mercifully kept away during the initial stages and feeling the cap which I was wearing to be more of a hindrance to me, I immediately removed the cap and hooked it around my right hand which was also holding the water bottle. I was taking a swig of water at each kilometer and more also in between because there were plenty of water stations provided by RFL along the route. Each station was also equipped with bananas, oranges, biscuits, and medical aid.

I reached 9 kilometers comfortably during which time the water canal was on the left side of the runners. At 9 kilometers, there was a short bridge and a gradual climb but with full of gravel stones so one had to be careful at this stage because the full marathoners and also some of the half marathoners were returning back from the 10.55 kilometers mark. After 9 kilometers the canal came on the right hand side of the runners, but it was shorter in width than on the left hand side.

I reached the turn off point at 10.55 kilometers comfortably and turned without any stoppage whatsoever feeling strong. Started the return journey feeling strong and navigated the downhill at after 11.0 kilometers carefully. From 11.0 to about 14.0 kilometers I was going very strong by overtaking other runners and getting into a ritual of reining in the runner just ahead of me and so on I overtook many runners. Also during this stage, I was careful because last year at this point, the calf cramps started hurting me badly. Luckily the sun was still behind the clouds though the humidity was a factor. For Mumbai runners humidity was not a threat as we are used to running in extreme humidity.

In the meantime came across runners from RFL, DM & Facebook on the opposite sides so hollered out to Sahine, Gopal, Bhasker, Milton, Panneer Selvam and others. Srivatsan was pacing himself just behind Milton, so I thought there is going to be an interesting battle between the two.

From 14.0 kilometers onwards, I thought I should take it easy until 18.0 kilometers and then give it all out effort. In hindsight I feel that I should have kept the momentum going at this stage. The sun started peeping out at around 18 kilometers but would immediately go away behind the clouds probably doing recompense for its last year’s brutality. At 14 kilometers Bhasker passed me on his second leg and despite my hollering out, he was in a trance like state, determination furiously writ large on his face. So much was his focus that he missed out all our cheering and encouragement at the second lap.

The going became slow and steady in the last 3 kilometers and started pushing it through in the last couple of kilometers to come home in a time of 2.25.22 hours. The time was an improvement of 10 minutes over last year’s time.

Met Ashwin Bala at the mat followed by Arvind Bharati who was doing the announcements. Gracefully acknowledged the medal hung around my neck by a volunteer.

Before me the stalwarts Milton Frank, Srivatsan, Anand, Unmesh had already arrived. So we waited for Bhasker to arrive and since we were expecting him to come in less than four hours, Srivatsan & Anand took off their shoes and Milton with his shoes went into the track to bring him home. They met him at 500 metres distance, a little disoriented from his fall at 41 kilometers due to wrong direction given by a local. But the champ that he is, Bhasker immediately put stride in his legs and sprinted down to a first position in the veteran category in a time of 3.57.58 hours. Earlier Milton frank was declared the third place winner in the men’s veteran half marathon. Later on, Rupal Shah came in fourth in the women’s half marathon in veteran category.

So, RFL Mumbai runners again struck gold at a running event and this is becoming like a welcome habit these days. After the fantastic show at Hyderabad, this was another superlative performance at Kaveri Trail Marathon.

After tending to Bhasker’s bruises, we all dutifully went to the Young Island resort to have our post race carbo loading as well as collect the prizes for the podium finishers. Prize collected to a tumultuous applause and brunch taken, we headed back to the Ginger to refresh ourselves and indulge in the post race tipple.

All of us were travelling to Bangalore in the same Shatabdi train before dispersing our different ways by air or train or staying back. Bhasker was in his elements during the train journey and provided ample entertainment to the passengers as well as the ticket checkers who were in splits at his repartees.

Myself and Milton travelled together in the Udyan Express accompanied by a brick kiln distributor and a garment trader. While the brick guy was in shudh Hindi, the garment trader improved his English and Milton his Hindi by conversing with each other.

The most crucial element in this year’s event was the benign weather at least for the half marathoners. The full marathoners did bear the brunt of sun’s fury for some time, but then again it was playing hide and seek behind the clouds.

The arrangements by RFL were fantastic as usual with ample food & water counters, timely on the dot start, timely prize distribution etc. Kudos to A3 gang of Arvind Krishnan, Arvind Bharati, Ashwin Bala along with Nikhil and his team for this superb organization.

2.45 hours Feet on the Street

2011-09-10T17:56:00.000+05:30

Had been doing 2.30 hours run on two consecutive sundays - 2.27 being the half marathon race at Hyderabad on August 28 followed by a 2.30 hour run last sunday at the Bandra-NCPA group run. So, decided this run today would be a 2.15 hour run in preparation for next sunday i.e september 18, kaveri trail half marathon. There are so many group runs going on nowadays in Mumbai that it is getting difficult to say no to friends. That being the case set out on a 2.15 hour feet on the street run today at Aarey Forest. The weather was quite good in the early morning with some welcome showers also in between. Navigated the hill first itself and thereafter it was rolling hills all the way. Found Hemant at about 3 kms into the run and he decided to stick with me. True friend that he is, we both stayed together until almost the very last. He was doing a 3 hour run and going very steady, neither too fast or too slow, good rhythmic pace! We decided to stick to the flats rather than go for the hills so set about discovering new routes. We did find one towards the Aarey Diary which was a good road, nice overflowing tree cover and latter part it sloped downwards. Once we hit the main road, the roads were pathetic. 1.30 hour done i took a 5 min walking break and then around 2 hour mark,we came across a shop - quickly purchased one litre of cold water and refilled our bottles as well as drank some and splashed some on the head, face. 2.20 hours done the sun was out now, but not too difficult to run. Hemant left me at this stage as his car was parked up the hill and his route to the top would take him to 3 hours. I decided to go uptp 2.45 hours, but the last 20 minutes was like difficult. Perhaps running alone at this stage was the factor. Took about 3 minutes walk here and crawled to the 2.45 hours mark. Did not get a rickshaw so had to walk another 1.8 kms before i got another bottle of water, took rickshaw and went home.

medial chain

2011-09-09T20:07:00.002+05:30

Heel Cord

2011-09-08T16:51:00.003+05:30

Dr. Ruth Heidrich

2011-09-08T16:38:00.000+05:30

Amazing story of 76 year old Dr. Ruth Heidrich, cancer survivor for nearly 30 years, a triathlete, senior olympian and also most importantly a vegan athlete. She recommends a full vegan diet is sufficient for runners and also triathletes. Having survived cancer without undergoing chemotherapy and being cancer free for nearly 30 years and also multiple winner in marathon, triathlon including ironman events, that does bring some major credibility to having a vegan diet plan. Her story is told here

Lower Leg Mobility

2011-09-07T18:24:00.003+05:30

Recovering your jumping calves

2011-09-06T18:03:00.002+05:30

Bandra-NCPA run - Sunday, 4th September 2011

2011-09-04T17:01:00.000+05:30

About 30 runners turned up today as against 43 that had confirmed both on RFL and FB. It was a very windy run today throughout the run and at some places the winds were very strong. I don’t remember such a windy run ever on this route, despite the route almost skirting along the coast. The humidity was not such a factor today because the winds were drying you up but at the same time forcing you to work harder. As usual we started in batches with the slower runners moving up ahead before the faster ones. Varun Joshi & Kavin were planning a 30kms run today in preparation for the Vasai-Virar marathon on 18th September and they along with Ronak did an extra loop of the Carter Road before joining us. Few runners started from Khar road – Kaushik, Unmesh, Dhanraj, Santosh, Sanjay etc. This run was falling in the middle of Ganesha festival – so we expected to see many Ganesh pandals along the way – the one opposite Bandra talab had so many trophies kept there, probably won by them as prizes in the best pandal competition, but everywhere we could see only the ad hoardings, not the idols themselves. Only at one place i.e. opposite Shivaji Park could we see the pretty looking Ganesha smiling at us from inside.

Giles Drego was going slow to ensure that all the runners from behind were taken care of in terms of knowing the route etc. Only when he was sure that they were all okay and knew the route that he sped ahead somewhere around Worli. We went through the Annie Beasant road instead of taking the Worli sea face road because of the huge winds. Stopped for taking a water refill at Haji Ali juice centre. By then the flow of runners from the opposite had already started – saw Sameer coming that way. Navigated the Pedder road incline comfortably – yesterday I had done the dreaded killer at Aarey forest comfortably, so was feeling doubly happy for that. Mani and myself had thought of taking the diversion i.e. the hill after the Kemps Corner flyover and come out of Malabar Hill, but he went ahead as he was to do only 15 kms and so that project awaits another day.

I had planned to do a 2 hour run today since I had already done a 2.30 hour (well, almost) run at Hyderabad last Sunday, but decided to finish the course at NCPA which became about 2.30 hours. At Marine Drive, it rained heavily for precisely 2 minutes, after which the winds increased its intensity as if angry at the rain gods’ intrusion at what was its day today morning. We could see lot of muck thrown up at the Marine Drive promenade from the sea – there could have been high winds at the bay, perhaps a couple of days earlier.

The Mumbai marathon training season is fully with us as many runners did 20+ runs today – Ashok, Sameer, Manoj, Varun, Kavin, Ronak etc.

Thanks to everybody for coming today and welcome to the newcomers today – Sanjay Padmanabhan, Shyam, Kshitij Sharma, Sebastian Schuller (whom we will be sorry to miss as he is leaving for Germany in a couple of weeks).

Next run on Sunday, 2nd October 2011.

runner split/ jerk mobility

2011-09-03T17:50:00.002+05:30

Quads or spine - mobility exercises

2011-09-03T17:32:00.002+05:30