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Put your Heart into that Run...

2012-01-16T21:53:00.000+05:30

...and you will be surprised with the results, as I discovered on 5th Nov, 2011 - my second wedding anniversary.

For more details visit - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/126475977

Shades of Turquoise at Havelock

2012-01-10T15:39:00.000+05:30

4th – 8th Dec 2011

Life was a riot of colors for a few weeks before this trip – there was the Greenness of health amidst the Gray of confusion and ambivalence; the Orange fun and the Olive drab at work splashed across in various shades. The canvas of life was a riot of colors.

This 5-day vacation infused so much of Turquoise; it soothed the emotions, recharged and invigorated us, true to what the color really symbolizes. (Source: Color Psychology)

In a crazy way there was everything going wrong till days before the vacation. My work load increase, Kingfisher’s cash flow problems, Shreya’s acidity were wrecking havoc. On the day of our departure from Bangalore, the weather added to our growing list of woes and we had fog delay our departure and hence miss our connecting flight from Chennai!

The picture cleared somewhat and we were booked on the first flight (a 4am one!) from Chennai for the following day. My hotel in Andaman was kind enough to book us tickets on the Makruzz catamaran to Havelock. In effect we lost one night in Port Blair but luckily our Havelock plans were not disturbed.

Day 1 – Preparing the Palette at Symphony Palms

We made it to the 8am cruise from Port Blair to Havelock Jetty in the high speed catamaran, caged inside our A/c ‘Royal’ seats. Royalty is not allowed on the deck to experience the spray and will be subject to ample swaying inside the boat.

Havelock is a quaint little island with only 2 roads – Jetty to Beach #7 (Radhanagar Beach) and Jetty to Beach #3/5 (Kalapattar Beach), the similarity to South Goa is inescapable. Our resort – Symphony palms, was on beach #5. Barefoot Scuba was a stone’s throw from the resort and it was easy to book ourselves on the first boat to South Button and Tamarind camp for the next morning. The package included the 1.5hour boat ride to South Button, lunch at Tamarind camp 30mins from South Button and snorkeling at South Button and Tamarind Camp. We were both first time snorkelers and we evidently excited.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing at the resort, in the cozy room and lazing on the beach, looking forward for the dash of Turquoise.

Day 2 - Sun, Skin, Sand, Snorkel & Surprise

Penned down my lovely guest writer and wife – Shreya
5th December 2011, it was my 26th birthday and I was very excited about the snorkeling trip to South Button. We gathered at the Barefoot Diving Resort at 7 am and were asked to fill couple of forms stating that no one is to be held responsible if we do not return. 15 of us were registered that day and I was the only one who did not know swimming. We got into the boat and traveled for couple of hours to reach South Button. We got into our snorkeling gear (masks, life jacket and life buoy for me and life jacket & fins for Manoj) and jumped into the sea. I had imagined how a sea life would be, but nothing can beat watching them for real in the sea. The first few minutes was an experience by itself and it was indeed a different world out there. The different types of fishes and corals with different colors were a feast to the eyes. They were zooming past us from all directions and I just could not get enough watching them. One and half hours of complete discovery and I wished I could swim.

We boarded the ship and were off to Tamarind Camp for another snorkeling adventure. Our instructor somehow felt that I could manage on my own in the sea. This time he made me wear a pair of fins and let me all alone to snorkel. Manoj and I were on our own expedition and this time it was better than the first. After an hour and fifteen minutes we went to the shore for lunch. As I was moving to the shack, my co-snorkelers started singing Happy Birthday and to my surprise there was a cake coming from behind the shack. Got to know later that Manoj had arranged all of this the day before and the Barefoot guys were more than happy to work this out. After lunch and cake cutting, we were taken back to our resort with pleasant memories and lots of colors to rejoice.

Day 3 – Mixed bag
My day began with a barefoot run 10k run on the white sands on the un-spoilt unbroken Havelock beach. It was a bit of an obstacle race in someplace, but my best beach run to date.

After having seen the best that Havelock had to offer, it was time to explore the extremes. The plan was to catch the last Government ferry from the jetty to Port Blair. We reached the ticket counter near the Jetty on a rental Hero Honda Splendor at quarter to 9, after having checked out. The counter was straight out of that Indian Tourism ad, where this travel agent is spitting all over the place. Only in this case, there was also an irate government clerk issuing tickets who for some reason refused to hand over tickets quoting ‘system problem’. It took us a forgettable 2 hours to get ourselves booked on the 4PM ferry.

The next stop was the highly acclaimed Radhanagar beach (or its nondescript alias, Beach #7) arguably the best beach in Asia. It was the farthest point on the island, all of 14k ride from the jetty. I don’t know about being the best, it sure was beautiful – pristine white sands, shallow clam waters, arching shoreline. As we strolled along to find ourselves some shade to dig into our books (Shreya, Time traveler’s wife and me, The girl with the dragon tattoo) we came across some fine sand art! Tiny little crabs would dig a little hole and then make little balls made out of sand all around - super cool sand art.
The return trip on the government ferry was way better than the Makruzz. The “Royal cabin A/c” was replaced by strong winds and salty spray on the deck of the ferry. We checked into the Hotel and after waiting like forever to be server dinner, we crashed for the night.

Day 4 – Best of Port Blair
We were to visit the best snorkeling site in Port Blair – Jolly Buoy. To get there, first we took a rickshaw to the bus station and then a State Transport (ST) bus to go some 40km to Wandoor. The contrast between this and the South Button trip were already surfacing. First, there were 3 boats, each carrying some 75 tourists each. The 45min boat ride had some great visuals of the Andaman Archipelago, islands strewn around carelessly, each with own distinctive vegetation. When the boat finally anchored close to the beach of the island, a glass bottom boat was used to ferry us to the island, in turns. This was also as an opportunity by the ‘guides’ to market the coral reefs.

Snorkeling was a huge difference. The ‘guides’ slide-in a life buoy and help you into a coral-infested snorkeling mask. Lo and behold, he then drags you around, while mercilessly stepping on the corals! The only credit that I could give is that he points out to each fish / coral and calls out its name. Shreya’s guide also got her out of her buoy and helped her skin dive to the floor of the sea! We fell for the “if you pay us more, we can show you more” line and ended up paying 300 bucks each for an extra 10mins!

The Jolly Buoy trip left us with just enough time to catch a rickety bus back to the city. We bought tickets to the much acclaimed ‘sound n light’ show at the Andaman Jail. We were more entertained by the audience than the show itself. Just as the show was warming up, at the slightest hint of rain, the audience (inspired by the Vir Savarkar story being narrated) marched towards the enclosure at the back. It was a sound and light 4-D show for us. Mercifully, the crowd, did not cry “Inquilab zindabad”, there was every other flavor of a freedom movement.

Day 5 – Turquoise in a box?

With just a few hours left of our trip, after a heavy breakfast, Shreya and I shopped around Sagarika emporium. We bought some beautiful coral jewelry in various pleasing hues of blue, green and red. We packed up and brought back much more than just bright colorful corals, we brought back a canvas full of colorful memories…

Addendum

Some of the corals and fishes we spotted:

Fresh water Jelly, Giant Moray (peeping out of a rock), Lion fish, Parrot fish, Giant clam, crown of thorns starfish (big purple one with many tentacles), sea star (cute one that we held in South button), Indian cushion sea star (held in Jolly buoy), Blue sea star (in Jolly Buoy), boring clam, brain coral, Tube coral (with the Nemo-like clown fish), Bubble anemone (with Clown fish), Blue green damsel, Angelfish, schools of powder blue surgeon fish, striped surgeonfish (orange one with stripes), Anemone fish

Location of the snorkeling sites captured by GPS, the satellite images looks unreal. Click on Satellite on the map:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/133508748 - Tamarind Camp

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/133508753 - South Button

Coasting on East Coast Road again

2011-11-20T22:48:00.000+05:30

One of the motivations to be keep myself fit is that it provides multiple opportunities to be alive to all those places I travel. In yet another cases, a chance chat with Dr. Subash at a Chennai hospital and before long I knew his biking pace and he my PR on a marathon! A few text messages later, I was frantically looking for a bike to join Doc & his friend, Nav on their Sunday morning ride to Mahabalipuram.

Thanks to Venkat, who put me on to Suresh who owns the Cycle mart near Kodambakkam. Suresh was kind enough to lend me a Bianchi Camaleonte Uno Sport Hybrid bike for the ride. All that was required now to get on saddle up, at 4AM on 13th Nov, Sunday.

The plan was to begin riding from Thiruvanmiyur, Nav’s place at 5AM. Doc offered to give me a ride from his place to Nav’s place.

We started a little late at quarter past 5, hit the highway soon and fell into a steady 26kmph on ECR. We hit into some cycling traffic from Reaxion, an organized ride on ECR. Doc was on a BSA kruze and Nav was on a GTR, road bikes both.

We stopped to munch on our snack bars just after passing the bridge across the river Vettar, having covered the first 20k in about 50mins. The next break was a quick one too, at the U-turn point at Mahabs. The road is flat and we stuck to the left shoulder of the road and pace-lined each other right through.

It was on these breaks that I was told (and nonchalantly) that my co-riders were erstwhile, part of the state pro-rowing team! That explained the brisk pace we were pushing.

Nav reminded us to keep focus and average 25kmph for the return leg. We did just that for the last leg, finishing the 82km distance in about 3h:17m, just as the sun was casting these shadows down!

Well, it was not close to an Ultra effort (I was missing the Bangalore ultra this year), but was a truly refreshing experience. This continues my thirst with the lovely ECR, following the relay run to Pondy. Details of the ride here.

Spirit of Wipro Half Marathon 2011 - Race report

2011-10-26T13:50:00.000+05:30

Within 2 weeks of testing waters at Mysore Celebration Half Marathon, I ran the Spirit of Wipro (SoW) Half marathon. I had been training for the SoW 10k, but Wipro decided to host a Half Marathon for the first time and the response was encouraging. There were 125 registrations in all, and arguably 115 at the start line.

Over the years Wipro has been adding to this event and making it bigger. Last year had a coach help employees train for the run, this was the first time Wipro was taking at stab at the Half marathon distance. There was a medical test – Blood, ECG and Peak Flow test. I scored 85% of predicted values on the Spirometry Flow-Volume test (anyone knows how to interpret these results?)

I knew the course till half way mark, having run this race the last 3 years and finishing on the podium in the previous 2 editions. I did a recce of the other half of the route. It is a out-and-back course, starting on Sarjapur road, Karmalaram, Gear School, Varthur road. The course was nearly flat with a 1-2% gradients in the first couple of kms and similar gradients in the 12-18kms.

This run was also special because my sister Madhu and nephews – Rishabh and Aryan were also taking part in the 4k run.

The run was flagged off by Anurag Beher who then jumped off the podium to join the runners (that’s the first time I have seen that happen). I was soon in the lead making my way into the fog headed out on Sarjapur road. It was after 5k that I was challenged first – 2 guys (Dilip, the eventual winner & another, a 20 year old) just strolled past me, or so it seemed. They were in the zone – matching strides and running in rhythm, effortlessly. I was myself beginning to warm-up and was able to hold the 4:30 pace.

My plan was to hold on to 4:30 min/km pace till the U-turn point and then to slow down slightly to keep the next 10k in 4:53 min/km pace. This would take me to my Personal best and I would finish under 1h:39m. I was on target till the U-turn point. By this time, Dilip was way ahead and building the lead and the young man had stopped – I was in second position now.

With about 3k to go, I ran into the 10k lead pack and with 2k to go, the entire populace of the 4k runners crowded the road. There was no stepping up the pace, I was barely able to stick to a sub-5 pace. I passed the boys – Rishabh and Aryan.

I finished in 1h:39m:06s to claim the second spot. Dilip finished 3mins ahead in 1:36 and Sanjeev came in 3rd in 1:42
The post-race event was not as great as last year’s, the drum jam of Roberto was cut before it reached its crescendo and Vasundhara Das’s performance was uninspiring.

I took the opportunity to show the kids around the campus and my workplace, overall it was fun.
In the end, this was how the pacing chart compared against the actual:

I now have 3 Half marathons close to 1h:40m
 The Midnight Half Marathon in Dec 2010 in 1:38:58
 The Mysore Celebration Half Marathon in Oct 2011 in 1:40:28 and

 The Spirit of Wipro Half Marathon in Oct 2011 in 1:39:06

(Analysis inspired by sportsscientist.com)

The comparison chart for the 5k splits is an interesting chart – the Mysore HM is the closest I have come to a negative split. Clearly, the last 5k needs to be worked upon. Let me know what you think.

Mysore Celebration Half Marathon

2011-10-12T10:01:00.000+05:30

In keeping with my goal of training to run faster this year, I have forced myself out of the regular marathon circuit. An opportunity like this one for a Half marathon, I grabbed with both hands. While most marathons now have the basic hygiene (registrations, timing chips and support), they rate low on fresh courses/routes and providing value for money.

This inaugural Mysore Celebration half marathon as a part of the Dasara celebrations coming at a registration of 700 bucks, took care of both.

I am having mixed results with the speed training, the mile repeats are stuck between 4min/km to 4:18mins/km pace and there is no significant improvement in the 400 – 1200m repeats either. I am sure like most things, this will take time coming.
But, completely agreeing with Amit Seth, that the interval training is like falling in love with each bit in isolation and hoping that the parts will add up to a beautiful whole.

Pre-race and Mysore Dasara
In a sudden turn of events, Shreya and I decided on Friday evening, to visit her aunt in Mysore for the weekend. And as luck would have it, Mysore was hosting its inaugural half marathon as a part of the Dasara celebrations. Some worming through websites and a few phone calls later, I knew I had a small window to register on Saturday. So, that’s how I turned up on 2nd October, Sunday in front of Mysore Palace with Neera, Bhasker and other running buddies from BHUKMP for the half marathon.

Registrations
The registration for the race was well handled. The t-shirt was smart and “life is calling” did a very good job of handling the last minute registration too. I only took about 15mins from filling forms to picking up the goody bag.

The Start
6:45AM in front of the Mysore Palace was the perfect location. What was not perfect was the flag-off. The runners were asked to get into the pen from 6:15 and were restless by 6:45. The chief guests were minister Ramdass and actress Nivedita, who arrive about 15mins late, then there is a speech by the minister while the runners were ignored. When the speech was done, the minister and his team of touts and guards had to do a mock run for the press. When we finally thought the drama was done with, there was still the climax – with the press & photographers’ blocking one side of the start area and the politician’s gang on the other, a nonchalant puppy was spotted at the start and the actress had to rush and pick up the puppy, much to the delight of the waiting press. They had their breaking news!

It finally got underway at 7:10 or so, the elites scampering for their 3 feet of space. Bhasker, Neera, Nitin, Siddesha, Ravi and Richard were at the starting line, having driven from Bangalore that morning.

The race
The rest of the race made up for the goof-up at the start. It was a good course through Devaraj Urs road, Hunsur road and then into the Kukkarahalli lake and Manasagangotri. Traffic was managed well, with cops and volunteers and intersection keeping the somewhat-more-patient-Mysore traffic out of the runners’ way.

I started well and was keeping under 4:40 min/km pace with the elite women athletes, running along Devraj Urs road with the sun beating on our necks. But I lost tempo in a couple of kms and had to slow down. The 1-2% gradients of Hunsur road also kept my pace under check – I was struggling. After the first 5k or so, I managed to regain my rhythm. When I looked up my pace again, I incorrectly read 13k in 1:06, which was way off my target. I held on through the lake bund trail and then the elevation loss in the last 5k helped keep the pace. When I heard a volunteer say I had 500m to go, I looked at my watch, which, to my surprise read 1h:37m. I sprinted to the finish line to clock 1h:40m:16s

I had reasonably good splits. My 5k splits were 23:06, 23:38, 24:39 and 24:52. Timingplanet that did the timing for the race recorded the 7k splits at 30:22, 35:26 and 34:28. I came in 23rd overall and 19th in the men’s category. Almost all of my RFL pals came in at 1:43, with Neera bagging the 5th position in the women's category.

Shreya and I rode back on the bullet with her brother and cousin on another bike putting the ghosts of Coorg to rest. Confidence was restored on the bike and the biker…

Photo courtesy - Bala

Coorg to Coast Ride – Cycling and More

2011-08-10T16:22:00.000+05:30

When Shreya and I signed up for the CAM ride, we knew the cycling part. When the weekend was over we knew that “more” meant incessant rains, insane descents, falls, water falls, hills, rubber, awesome roads, aweful roads and lots more.

Cycling and more (CAM) organizes rides in the Malnad area and manage transport of bikes, food, accommodation & support. All you need to do is saddle up and ride. It was a full bus load of cycling enthusiasts boarding the bus from Bangalore to Bhagamandala in Madikeri on Friday night. The plan was to start the ride on 6th Saturday morning and ride about 100kms on day 1. Then to rest at Kasargod for the night and ride another 50kms on day 2 to Jalsoor, Sulya and then board the bus back to Bangalore on Sunday.

I was suitably warned by Vikrath & SriHarsha from CAM that the first section of the road, well, is not road really. I decided to push ahead with my road bike for this trip. I did read the instructions and changed my brake pads, thankfully.

Day 1: 6th Aug 2011 Bhagamandala to Kasargod

There was one constant throughout the ride – that was rain, heavy drizzle to downpour. So while you read the ride report, unless otherwise mentioned, it was raining!

The bikes were un-loaded from the Cantor at the KSTDC guest house in Bhagamandala, while we had breakfast and geared up for the ride. Yes, it was raining steadily. The initial couple of kms was an uphill – about 100mts in 5kms. The downhills and patchy roads began as we entered the Talakaveri wild life sanctuary. The route was brilliant, water falls, dense forests and rains of course. But I couldn’t take my eyes off the road or relax those fingers off the brakes, one moment.

I thought of this ride as an answer to “God, I need a break”. But, He had other plans and said, “Take two brakes – front and back & hold on to it like you hold on to your dear life.”

Shreya was doing well till she pulled the brakes and noticed they were not responding! So skkidd she went, into a pile of bamboo shoots and thorns. Luckily she walked away with no serious bruises or broken bones. Vikrant, in the support car, helped fix her a new pair of brake pads and she was on her way. It was laudable that she continued to ride despite the fall till the lunch break.

For me, it was how long I could push without a puncture. And sure enough, after 28kms, just as I was taking off after a photo break, I noticed the flat. I had a spare tube, found a reasonably dry spot under a massive tree and began the routine of fixing the puncture. It took me about 15-20mins to fix the tube, by which time, my veins had 3 punctures! Those wormy leaches had hunted down my warm blood and I was bleeding profusely from my feet.

Since I wore those ‘Hawai chappals’ for the ride, I was easily able to spot the bright pink, as the oozing blood mixed with the rain drops. The punctures fixed, the leaches taken care of, I resumed the ride from behind the pack, with the sweep cantor breathing down my neck.

Lunch was near the Udayapuram turn, after we had done about 55kms. Shreya decided to ride in the Cantor for the rest of the day. After a short lunch break, I decided to up the pace and attack the hills. The first one was a 200m climb in 4kms and then the hills began rolling and the roads much better. I averaged 20kmph for the 28k distance till Bekal fort via Kanhangad. Shreya soon reached there and we spent some quality time in walking around the fort. In case you forgot, it was still raining!

Photo courtesy: Srinidhi

The ride from Bekal fort to Kasargod (our overnight halt) was on patchy, scaled roads and right along the coastline. I reached Speedway Inn with 97kms done for the day. After parking the bikes safely, it took us nearly an hour before we could park ourselves in the rooms. Dinner was at a modest Udupi hotel and the room served as a drier to salvage whatever we could from the wet monsoon day ride.

My lower back was sore or what!

Day 2: 7th Aug 2011 Kasargod to Jalsoor

We started from Speedway Inn at 7:45AM, the plan was to ride East towards Jalsoor, Sulya. I started out ahead of most of the MTBs and stayed up in front right through on fantastic roads right up to the breakfast point after Cherkala. After the Uppit-Kesaribath breakfast I managed to keep good pace, again on fantastic roads. Today I had done away with my raincoat and was enjoying the light drizzle.

Photo courtesy: Ganesh

Somewhere after the Adhoor temple, on that empty speedy road, amidst the din of the crickets, I was suddenly aware of forceful companion riding alongside. When the canopy cleared, I almost fell off the bike when I first saw her. The Payaswini river was flowing alongside in its full glory, the recent monsoons having filled her wide course to the seams.

With about 4kms to Jalsoor, I rode past the suspension bridge across the river. I reached Jalsoor right behind the Cantor to the applause of the ‘cheerleaders’ riding in the Cantor. I had averaged 22kmph for this superb stretch of 32kms, which was the best of the entire tour.

I had a quick bath by an open well and got into dry clothes. While we waited for the others to trickle in and the bikes to be loaded into the Cantor, I got a big lesson in Customer Service from the tea-stall owner Venkatarama Bhat. In the middle of this little rubber growing town, this barista had more wisdom than many managers in large corporations back in the city. Well, that is a story for another day perhaps.

We were treated to lunch and Gudbud at Sulya. The return trip was sprinkled with movies, bakras, mafia and wild jokes. It was past the mid-night hour when we crashed for the night at home – High & Dry!!!

Photo courtesy: Venkat

The Garmin log of my ride (for all the dirty details) visit the activity log here

Year 1 - Trip Summary Report

2011-02-08T15:58:00.004+05:30

The Great Wall of Mumbai – The marathon report 2011

2011-01-22T17:25:00.006+05:30

It was to be third time lucky for me at the Mumbai marathon…

I have family in Mumbai now with my sis moving there last year - Rest, Pasta, positive feeling taken care of. I had trained less and rested more since my last marathon at Singapore – a technique that had produced good results at Auroville in 2009. I had the perfect pacing partner in Dharam, an experienced campaigner, who knew the course like the back of his tanned sweaty palm. The weather Gods were behaving themselves – Mumbai was 8 deg cooler than usual. The organizers, Procam had paid heed – the race start was advanced to 6:15AM and there were 2 water stations in the previously arid Sea-link…
So, I must have run a flawless marathon, right?

But as Coach JoeEnglish puts it in his “The (non-)Mythical Flawless Marathon”, “It isn’t that marathons don’t go well all of the time. They do. But for a marathon to go flawlessly is a rare happening. When the weather is perfect and the course is great and the people are awesome. And when the pacing is done just right and the nutrition works and the hydration is spot on. And and and. . . when it all works, it is an almost mythical experience.”

On this occasion, I was deprived of this mythical experience. After having run the first 30k in 2h:38m averaging 11.5kmph, I had to take nearly 8 massage breaks to ease cramps in the last 12k. A distance that would normally taken 60mins, took me well over 100mins to cover. I finished with my shoulders drooping, my head hung low.

My 5k splits give the full picture:

Shreya had a great story. The run-up to the race day was not the best for her too. She had severe stomach pains on the evening before the race. She had more than made up her mind to get into an ambulance after the 10k mark. I was prepared to hear the worse when I received her call first thing post-race. That, she was sitting someplace near the exit / toilets and refused to talk about the race over phone, made me fear a dreaded DNF against her name.

… but Voila!!! She completed her half marathon in just under 3hours. Oh, and how she enjoyed it. She made friends with a couple, who were brisk walking their way through every km mark. And while she jogged along (& sometimes danced to the live bands playing), she obliged many Samaritans & kids who were offering chocolates, cool drinks, chikkies to the runners. One cute kid with outstretched palms into the blazing sun pleaded, “Just take one candy Aunty, Please, it’s good for health.”

There were plenty of positives as far as the marathon itself was concerned. What Procam missed in execution they made up with intent at least. There seemed to be more water stations this time round. I saw a volunteer also hand over sponges (that it was dry was another story). There was a water spray zone, but was rendered ineffective by Mumbai’s heat.
I am proud of my running friends from RFL. All (yes, every single one of them), had a fantastic race, if not a Personal Best. Sunil, Anjana, Bhasker easily beat my expectations, Dharam, Nitin, Rishi, Amrita, Meher, Shantanu, Jaggi, Nari, Vasu, Chandra… the list is endless.

Quoting again from JoeEnglish:
There is a problem with all of this in that running the perfect marathon includes both internal and external components. The runner can put together an absolutely perfect training program and then show up to a 100 degree broiler and have their hopes dashed before they begin. But that’s why the occurrence of a nearly flawless marathon is even so much more rare. Because all of the stars really do have to align to produce one. The external factors, such as weather and crowds and jet-lag and the theft of your running shoes the night before the race, all of have to themselves work out — and all of this is in addition to you executing the race properly.
As for me, the Great Wall of Mumbai still remains to be conquered; will someone get those stars to line up, please...

PB @ Bengaluru Midnight Half-Marathon 2010

2010-12-13T20:11:00.009+05:30

The Bangalore Midnight marathon has found its way into the Indian running calendar. The run is organized by Crossroads – an event management company with support from the local Rotract Club and some wannabe local politicians.

My last year’s experience of the run was good (report here) and didn’t want to miss this edition. Shreya had a tough time waiting sleepily in the cold last year and decided to give it a miss.

It was only a week after the Singapore marathon, but I landed up at the Registration counter by 10pm. The spot registration were badly managed and a long line greeted the runners. The organizers ran out of bibs and we had to settle with the ‘highly unreliable’ timing chips in place of bibs. With a few minutes before the start of race, the melee at the registration posed a threat of a first DNS (Did Not Start) for me. But it did provide me lots of time to show-off my new shiny Singapore marathon medal to all my running pals.

I managed to stay ahead of the crowd when the race flagged off (after some misplaced speeches) and was speeding right from the word Go! It was a boring 5loops of 2.2k and back. There were enough water stations and the traffic was blocked for this 2k stretch. I was focused to keep under an average pace of 4:30 mins/km. I clocked my best time for 5k (21m:25s) for the first 5k. I knew I was on the way for a Personal Best when I saw Athreya overtake me only on the 4th loop.

I finished 21.1k in 1h:39m.

The accumulation of the loop error of 100m, meant that half marathoners ran 1k more to the finish and a miserable 2k for the full marathoners. And one of the advantages of a fast finish is a less crowded medal / certificate counter. This is my Personal Best for a Half Marathon…

Route details here

Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2010 – Race Report

2010-12-13T20:10:00.007+05:30

Surreal Singapore
Singapore was the perfect start to the holiday. Shreya and I reached here on the 30th Nov, with 5 full days before the marathon. We were treated to royal hospitality by Shreya’s Aunt, Shirley. Over the next 3 days, we spent lots of time on foot, ambling in and out of the Metro, the buses and malls. We visited a few of the regular landmarks – Orchard Road, Singapore Flyer, the Zoo, Sentosa island, China town & Little India. With the marathon approaching, we put our legs up a couple of days.

From Preparation to Pasta:
Although the training plan (an ambitious one spanning 22weeks, targeting a 3:30h finish), was a fine mix of interval and tempo runs, it was marred by frequent bouts of illness, a broken arm taking a month to fix. A few notable training runs included a 13k in 1hour in Pune, a 2:40h 29k in North Goa in Oct, a 1:41h half marathon, a 2:47h 30k and a 3:07h 35k in Nov in HSR, Bangalore. The complete training log is available at the Garmin connect site here.
I had to scale down my target finish for the marathon from 3:30h to 3:45h.

Pasta Party was fantastic, thanks to my dear SJCC friends – Balu and Bharath, with Balu providing the kitchen and Bharath providing culinary advice.

Race Day, 05 Dec 2010:
It was Shreya’s birthday and we had a nice little sign pinned to the back of her running t-shirt that said “Happy Birthday to me”. And as the runners passed her during her race, some wished her, some made small talk, others even sang in chorus...

Shreya and I had different start times and starting points for the HM and FM. My race was to start from Orchard Road at 5AM and the HM was starting from Sentosa Gateway at 6AM. I had booked myself into the 3:15AM (yes, you are reading it right) bus from Yishun stadium. Shirley Aunty and Robert Uncle were kind enough to drop me off to the stadium at that unearthly hour (and then go back home, pick up Shreya and drop her off to the MRT!).

The scene of the marathon was vibrant as always. Runners were pouring like roaches from all crevices between the skyscrapers in the twilight. Orchard Road was in lit up for the Christmas extravaganza. Runners were moving around like Brownian particles – around toilets, information kiosks & the starting pens. Bibs were color coded by target finish times, my sub-4 target gave me the right to stay right behind the elite athletes at the start.

I sat down on Orchard Road leaning on the barricade, listening to the MC shout out many a encouragement and instructions over the microphone, silently running over my plan for the race. The pacers with the yellow balloons reading 3:45 were the ones that I had to stay ahead of. The quintessential marathon song – Chariots of fire was played and the race started at 5AM sharp.

The route was fantastic, winding through Orchard road, Marina Bay, the F1 course, up on the bridge to the East Coast Pathway. The sights of Marina Bay sands, flier and Esplanade against the river was a spectacular. The flat course helped me keep my rhythm and I clocked perfect timings for my first 20k. The 5k split timings read – 23m:40s, 23m:48s, 23m:57s, 24m:43s, finishing the HM distance in 1h:41m. This was also about the time when the sun was coming up over the ECP and beginning to make it nice and bright.

I managed to keep good focus on speed and discipline in water (and 100plus) intake. I also generously poured water over my head to keep me cool. Cheerleading groups, an occasional band, small talk with passing fellow runners helped me keep the positive momentum going till 30k which came in 2.5hours. All I had in mind was to keep the pace for the next 5k and I would then be sure of a sub-4 finish. I did just that.

I distinctly remember running through the construction site, with the sun beating down, the casino in the distant skyline, I looked down at my watch, it was wonderful to see the 2 meters change readings – as the clock ticked to 3:00:00, the distance changed to 35k. What a sight!

I slowed down a bit and began to use the tiger balm a lot more to soothe the cramps, but kept it at bay right till the 40k. At 35k the FM course merges with the half marathoners and the 10k runners. It was a delight to see the ocean of runners take the flyover towards the finish.

I stumbled 200mts before the finish and stopped again for more massaging and that much was enough for me to miss my Personal Best. I finished strong in 3:50:08, 7 secs slower than my PB at Hyderabad in 2009.

The 5k splits for the race were - 23m:40s, 23m:48s, 23m:57s, 24m:43s, 26m:28s, 26m:48s, 30m:48s, 33m:59s.

Post race:
The finish area was well organized too. The finishers walked into the Padang park were handed out medals, finishers tees and refreshments.
I met Balu, who had finished his 10k in 70mins and we called Shreya. My heroine limped towards the Asics tent in sometime, having finished her maiden HM in 2h:45m. We got our complimentary massages and an Osim foot massage in the massage chair. That evening we were treated to some fine Indian cuisine by Shirley aunty and Mathew uncle and drove around Orchard road & Clarke Quay bidding our good-byes to this wonderful city…

Some interesting stats of my run from Runpix:
(All results based on NET finish time - 3h:50m:08s)
1. Result in the entire field – 303rd place
14564 finishers behind; about 2% of finishers ahead
2. Result in Gender (Men) – 275th place
12331 finishers behind; about 2% of finishers ahead
3. Result in Division (M 30-39) – 106th place
3442 finishers behind; about 3% of finishers ahead
4. Of the 14859 who finished, 15% were women and 85% were men
5. For the record, you were ahead of about 99% of women finishers
6. Over Final 12km: You passed 7 runners; And 111 passed you
7. Average Speed 11kmph

Shreya’s Half Marathon statistics:
(All results based on NET finish time - 2h:45m:36s)
1. Result in the entire field – 4346th place
6469 finishers behind; about 43% of finishers ahead
2. Result in Gender (Women) – 1065th place
2867 finishers behind; about 31% of finishers ahead
3. Result in Division (F 20-29) – 422nd place
1541 finishers behind; about 21% of finishers ahead
4. Of the 11274 who finished, 37% were women and 63% were men
5. For the record, you were ahead of about 51% of men finishers
6. Average Speed 7.6kmph

Spirit of Wipro 2010

2010-10-14T12:07:00.006+05:30

We had a fab race – Shreya came in second in the women’s category and I came in first in the 10k race in the Spirit of Wipro Run last weekend. The race was flagged off by Premji and we received our medals from Anurag Behar and Suresh Vaswani – ROI was very high for a 10K run!!!

Pre-Race:
We would have missed this year’s edition of Wipro’s Run if it were not for the Ayodhya verdict, which postponed the run by a week.
I had a good idea of the course, which was unchanged from last year, gradual gradient in the first 2km, then nearly flat to the U-turn point and a fast last couple of kms. I had used the last stretch well last year, to finish second piping competition by 1sec. Read the report of last year here.

But, the build up to the run was not the most ideal – late night meetings, low morale at work did not help energy levels. In fact, I had to work well past midnight on Friday and could barely sleep for a couple of hours when I rolled in bed. Pre-race butterflies – maybe, maybe not.
Later during the week, I read Danny Dreyer’s book where he talks about the importance of visualization. I those sleepless hours, I’d run the entire course in my head and had pushed myself to finish on the top.

It was Shreya’s first race after she had started to train for the half marathon and she now runs those 10ks comfortably. It would be good to see how she fared in a race.

Race-Day:
Come race day, I did not need waking up from the 4hrs of light sleep. We reached the venue, registered, picked up our free tee-shirts, and met regular RFLers at the start line. The run was flagged off by none other than Azim Premji and the Jt. CEOs were in attendance.

Race Analysis:
Here’s how it compared to the last year’s race.

The field was much less competitive this year, which accounts for the slack in the last few kms. Last year round, I had to push myself hard (under 4mins for the last km) to cling the second place. This year, I didn’t have any contest – the second runner finished a good 1.5mins behind.

I took lead right at the 2k mark and held steady around 4:30min/km pace for most of the run. After the U-turn, I noted that the next runner was a good minute or so behind. I passed Naina Lal in second and Shreya trailing a few secs behind her in third place. She was looking good.

I went into cruise mode on the downhill and managed to put a lot of distance between me and the next runner. It also helped that I had a police escort (a un-uniformed policeman on a bike) to keep the walkers out of my way. With no competition around, I didn’t need to push the last few kms and ended up somewhat similar timing as last year, the official timing put me at 44:30mins for the 10k, as against 44:11mins last year!
I pushed aside the melee of reporters (yes, really ;) ) at the finish and got back on the road so I could accompany Shreya in her last km or so. I saw her in second place with 1-1.5k to go and she had about 30sec lead over Naina in third. She held pace and finished in 60:11mins, ahead of Naina by about 20secs or so. She did extremely well for someone who started distance running not so long ago.

Roberto Narain’s Drum-jam kept the crowd engaged till the start of the medal distribution. Shreya and I were, of course, the star couple on the podium, yaay!!
In the photo (from right): Suresh Vaswani, Anurag Behar and the star couple!
Some media here.

Get Wild in Wilderness Weekend

2010-10-06T20:39:00.004+05:30

The Bangalore Hash was in Masanagudi, the Elephant territory for the Independence Day weekend… We were hosted by Mahindra resorts, a beautiful forest property in the foot of magnificent Nilgiri hills.

Day 1 - Run No. 534 – Jumbo screw-up run
Three Hash Booses full of Hashers were smuggled across the Karnataka border to get “Wild in the Wilderness”. The hares had plans to get us high and the evening run took us high up nearby hills for some spectacular views. The herds did chase the hashers on many occasions, but they were herds of cattle and not Pachyderms and the hashers survived the Jumbo screw-up.
Circle Points:
· Hares – Beep Beep, Flame thrower, Sky High & Pervert Producer iced for laying the wild trail in the Masanagudi wilderness, even as Half moon gave a demonstration of the jumbo sized latex umbrella covers
· Rigor Mortis was charged for stiffening up early in the morning and getting everyone late
· Hybrid was charged for being competitive at the Urban Stampede; he complained that “Unintended Acceleration” was the cause. However, the charge was not ‘recalled’. Vinnie the Pooh also joined Hybrid on the ice for making the legal charge
· Our dear Sponsors - Flame thrower, Sky High & Hybrid were iced for their generosity
· Loan Shark & Roopa were iced for not being able to hide their curiosity regarding Beep Beep’s perfectly shaped blobs. Beep Beep cooled himself on the ice as he explained these damsels, how he used certain ‘un-used assets’ for marking the trail
· Virgins – Roopasree, Anshu, Anup , Suresh, Roopa were iced for having turned up at the Hash
· Pox Docs – Roshan, Dinesh, Suresh & Manjunath were given the Rx-only Hash medicine – the amber syrup
· Beep Beep welcomed the Bangalore hashers on behalf of the first family of Chennai. CM Karunanidhi look-a-like ‘No H2O no Hair’, Stalin look-alike ‘wrong circle’, Azhagiri look-a-like He-Ma and Kanimozhi look-alike Kate were iced as Beep Beep walked the hashers through the history of the polygamous CM and his kin
Live Junglee beats over barbeque got us out of our cottages to dancing, beers, party and dinner in the eerie settings…

Day 2 - Run No. 535 – Jumbo Jumbo Jumbo Ass run
On this Independence day, the hashers were packed into Booses and driven up Kalhatti in search of the hares for the recovery run. Some ran, others ambled, while few others rolled down the Nilgiri hills, till they chanced upon loud trumpets and 3 elephants!!! On seeing the BH3 hashers, the Jumbos did a quick hair-pin turn and scurried into the bushes!!

Circle Points:

· Hares – Half moon, Vinnie the Pooh & Crushed Nuts were iced for surviving the Elephants and the Elephant dung while laying the wild trail
· Amit joined them for complimenting the run
· Dinesh, Roopa and yet another Roopa were invited on the ice for ‘not coming’
· There were some British who stayed back in India after Independence and 63 years on, He-Ma, Wrong circle, Vaseline, Friction Nipples were iced for not ‘Quitting India’
· Michael Muthuraj Richard was given a well deserved down down, for hosting us at Casa Deep Woods. He was christened “Squirrel Heart” by all and sundry. Raju & Suresh joined him for more down downs
· Half moon and Jingle balls were iced for using their bikes to look for the tigers in the jungle
· Flame Thrower,Sky High, Pervert Producer, Jingle balls, Vaseline & Push Mush were iced for mis-managing the Wild weekend
· Ex-GMs led the circle to sing the national anthem in chorus to celebrate the 63rd Independence day!

On On

Scaling newer peaks at Kodaikanal - Part II Trek

2010-07-24T14:12:00.007+05:30

I had contacted one Kodai Mani, who had lots of recommendations on the net. With no intention of spending any more time than required in the filthy room, we desperately agreed to his high rates for a day trek. He promised us it would be worth the money (2200 or so).

So we were picked up from our hotel and were surprised when Mani picked up a garland and some lemons to add to the supplies of packed food, sleeping bags, mattresses & other trekking equipment. We found out later the garland was to worship his mother nature, quite a character the guide was!

At the Berijam forest check-post, we joined another team of 7-8guys, of varying sizes from Chennai who we would accompany for the trek. While Shreya & I would head back that evening, the other team had plans to camp in the forest for the night.

At a little past noon, we started the trek from Cap’s Fly view point. (true to its name, caps thrown down the cliff fly back up because of the gusty winds that make their way through the hills). When the mist allowed us, we could see endless hills with dense forests, some exposed peaks and very deep valleys. We trekked along on the edge of these hills in the ‘mimosa’ forest. These Shola forests were rich in Bamboo, Eucalyptus & Pine.

Shreya & I stayed in the front of the pack while we crawled up a nearby peak. At the peak, we refueled over some home-made chocolates, while we waited for the heavier team-mates to join us.
As we left this hill, we entered a forest of medicinal trees. This stretch was no less dense than the forest we had left behind, but just the air you inhaled told you there was a difference. About 100acres are apparently maintained by the forest department for medicinal plants here. Mani took some time here to pray to a stone that symbolized the forest for him. This ‘idol’ was garlanded and lemons were offered.

We got some fantastic pictures, Shreya had a liking for the lavender Neela-Kurinji flowers. At about 3, we stopped for lunch (packed lunch of chapatis which we had carried) by a creek. Great photo-op once again!

It seemed like it was lunch time for the leeches too and they were busy feasting on my blood.
It was a short walk to the forest road after lunch, it was around 4-4:30 when we reached the car that was to take us back to Kodai.

And just when we thought we had enough adventure for a day, the next one began. We reached the forest check-post at 5pm. The check-post is manned by forest guards and the only way out of the forest is via the check-post. When we reached there, the barricade was locked securely, with no sign of the guards. A chai waala (the only other human around) told us that they had ‘just’ left.

Our over reliance on mobile phones gives us this wrong notion of security, we quickly dived to our devices, only to realize there was no signal! The next hour or so was spent in pacing up and down the path trying to ‘catch’ mobile signal, in panic, in weighing out the few options. There was also threat of a thunderstorm, dark clouds were fast approaching and so was darkness.
We were able to get to talk to the forest officials for 30 secs or so before we lost signal once more.

Just as Shreya and I were readying ourselves to walk the 10kms to town to get help, the forest guards came to our rescue. We were let out of the forest after paying a small ‘penalty’. Even as we were driving back, the skies opened and down came the thunderstorm. What a day!

Scaling newer peaks at Kodaikanal – Part 1 Cycling

2010-07-13T22:21:00.008+05:30

The hills and valleys of Kodai were quite like our own mental state, as we swung from sheer disappointment to speechless awe in Kodai. And whether it was the cycle ride, the trek or the jog, whether it was the hills, the lakes, the pine forests or the gardens – we scaled newer heights of our relationship.

The highs and lows of Day 1 (9th June 2010):
Train, Taxi, Cycle
We took the overnight train, Tuticorn Express from Bangalore to Kodai Road and then found ourselves in a taxi (very outside of our frugal budget limits) to Kodai. The contrast of the beauty of the hills and the insides of our hotel was evident even without having to enter the ‘Guru Priya’ hotel where Artha Options had booked us. The hotel was pathetic, but we decided to stay on, in one of their better (less stained) rooms. The idea was to spend as little time indoors as possible.

By lunch time, we took a bus to the city center – the Kodai lake. I had a single minded focus to look for a place where we could rent decent cycles or motorbikes. Renting motorbikes in Kodai is out of question, we were told, by an old man renting BSA cycles, who seemed to have all day to dispense such information!
We finally found a bike rental, near the TTDC Boat house who had Hercules Act 110 bikes and was renting them for Rs.30 per hour. (Highly recommended if you are looking to ride around Kodai). We had a quick lunch at Woodlands and hurried to get ourselves on the bikes.

The standard biking route in Kodai is to ride the 5k around the Kodai lake. But, that is not what we had in mind. We started from Kodai Lake at 3pm, the idea was to take the ‘Valley tour’ (as the tour operators call it) and see how far we could go.

The Valley Tour: This loop covers many sightseeing points – the Coaker’s Walk, Upper Lake view, Pambar falls, Pillar rocks, Guna caves, Moier Point amongst others. This is one big loops in the hills bringing you back to the Lake.

Shreya and I had no idea how far we would be able to cycle. We were welcomed by killer uphills that tested the granny gears of the Act110 right away. We huffed and puffed our way to the first sightseeing point – Upper Lake View.
(if you have started to notice how these places are named, wait till you get to Cap’s Fly Point!!).

The ride was out of the world; the dense forests, the misty roads flooded me with memories of my ride to Ooty in 2008. We continued up and down the rolling hills, following the signage from one view point to the other, making our way through villages, Fairy falls without water, roads filled with ankle deep water at places, slush, curious locals & noisy tourists.
The valley tour took us right through the Golf course and up to Pillar rocks.

We had covered nearly 11k riding by the time we reached Pillar rocks. By this time, we had already climbed 250m or so, from 6900ft to about 7300ft. The mist completely covered the view of the rocks. Moreover, the place was packed with tourists who had thronged the place in buses. We chose to enjoy the nature’s beauty like we had done so far, we got back on our saddles to conquer the next uphill...

With some 14k left to get back to the lake, it seemed like we had a task on our hands. The distance was made easy, thanks to some breathtaking views. There were Pine forests growing right into the clouds and at many points, the mist brought down visibility to near zero, albeit for a few seconds. As Shreya rightly remarked on one of those killer up-hills, you really need to endure the up-hills to enjoy the down-hill cruising. Well, it is easy to endure those, when you have a husband who pushes the bike up for you ;)

We were soon blessed with a slight drizzle and more importantly, the milestone that said “6k to Kodaikanal”. It was all downhill from there, right down to the Kodai Lake, offering some more views of the star-shaped lake.

When we were back, we had covered 23k in 3hours, starting at 6900ft to 7550ft, climbing 550m or so! It was yet another celebration of my marriage to Shreya.

The details of the ride are here. Part II & III coming up shortly.

Scenic Sarjapur - 30k family ride

2010-07-13T22:20:00.006+05:30

Shreya joins the Guest writers Band wagon with this narration of the 3rd July 30k ride around Sarjapur. Read on...

We not only have places for our cycles in our hall but we have enough for them in our car too. Hollywood is now a member of our family and we gave him his first ride in the city of Bangalore on the 3rd of July 2010. Well, Hollywood is the bike rack Manoj got from the US and we customized it to hold the Giant and the Schwinn.

July 3rd-4th was one of those rare weekends which had no pre-laid plans. We always wanted to go to some nice place, park the car and cycle. The Bike rack made it possible! On Saturday morning Manoj, Tima and I decided to cycle 30 kms close to Sarjapur Road. But something must go wrong in any plan and in our case it was Tima’s health. He was down with fever and his “kick start to cycling” was further delayed. So Manoj and I put our cycles in the rack, drove up to Decathlon, parked the car there, got into our cycling gears and pushed off.

It was a pleasant morning with a slight drizzle. We went across fields, rose gardens, ponds, villages, clubs and International Schools. We were discussing that there are such beautiful places so close by and all we have to do to enjoy them is just get off the bed in the morning. I was also telling Manoj that I would love to cycle in one of the Hash trails as it has its own flavor.

We deliberately took a 5 min break after 10 kms because we wanted to drink the tang we prepared early in the morning that day and to take some profile pictures. To my surprise, after 5 kms or so we came across the hash trail we laid a month back…yaay I said and pedaled with excitement. It was only 25kms when we reached Decathlon and so we went ahead on Sarjapur Road to make it 30. Thus we would not worry if our weekend is not planned as long as we have our cycles and Hollywood with us.
Ride details here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/39257384

Manoj Comments: Overheard while climbing an uphill - "Guess what, I am on 3-6". Giggling somewhat "Ha ha, really! I am on 1-2" comes the reply. A very high quality discussion that only cyclists can appreciate. I guess we have arrived as the cycling couple!

3 Idiots on bikes - Sesquehanna River Trail

2010-06-24T01:37:00.017+05:30

It was a very memorable weekend, meeting up with my childhood pals and spending a lot of time talking about highways and fairways. It's the season of guest writers on my blog. Introducing my childhood pal and dear friend, Vijay who has this report of the ride in Harrisburg...

The weekend was a hoot and will go in as a fun filled memorable one in my personal history book. It’ll remain etched in my mind for years to come. It was a series of firsts for me. If meeting my chaddi dosts Manoj and Uday, whom I have already known for more than 25 years in my 30 years of life in a foreign land was exciting enough, golfing, biking, playing cricket together in a little known city called Harrisburg in the northern hemisphere was an icing on the cake. Stitching all the events spread over the weekend made a fantastic panoramic mental picture.

It was Sunday afternoon. Manoj, Uday and I were treated with some good food (Thanks to Kalpana et al) at a friend’s baby shower party. After filling our bellies we escaped from the scene to bike the Green belt around Susquehanna.
After a siesta, we left my place in Camp Hill, PA to City Island (a small island in Susquehanna in Harrisburg downtown). We mounted my Giant Cypress hybrid onto the bike rack of my grey Honda Accord and off we went. Just the previous day Manoj had poured in lots of technical details on bikes, tire pressure, psi, cadence, how to mount a bike, how to dress for a bike ride and lots of good stuff. Driving to City Island, I felt the pressure to perform. I was determined to show the Iron man, that I am not a couch potato :)

We reached Susquehanna Outfitters, a bike rental company in City Island around 4 PM, quickly introduced my buddies Manoj and Uday to Steve who owns the rental company. Manoj, was excited and It didn’t take us too long to notice that he was in his comfort zone. It was gonna be a routine drill for him. We rented two bikes; Uday picked up a larger frame Trek and Manoj knew what he wanted. We quickly headed out of the Island to hit the Green belt trail. We biked on the iron bridge, made a steep descent to the trail around the river. It was an exciting moment. While Manoj and I have biked together many times (2 years from Sanjayanagar to Malleswaram) in the past, it was the first time the three of us were biking together. We started nice and easy, clicking some pictures, and headed towards the PennDOT. I picked up a map of the Green belt, as it can be a little confusing in certain parts.

We quickly saw ourselves pretty comfortable on the bikes and headed towards the Cameroon street, under a thick canopy of trees into the Five Senses garden (Uday, would begin to feel his rear sense here). There was one spot where Manoj instinctively was biking on the left hand side of the trail and had to remind himself that he was in the US. As we biked along the trail, we talked. Can’t really remember what we talked about, but I know we were laughing and yelling at each other and we definitely had fun.

We biked past Paxton street, waiting for quite some time for the traffic light to turn green for us pass through. When we reached the Reservoir Park, it was the first of the many uphills we would bike. I was glad that Manoj was around to help me and Uday with the technicalities of gears and we gradually but steadily conquered the first uphill of the day utilizing the granny gears to the fullest…hurrah! Delighted I sure was.

It’s the downhill that makes that salty drop of sweat running down your forehead, those aching muscles that scream at you on the uphill so much worth it. “Don’t be afraid of the uphill, there’s surely a downhill”, I am trying to apply this principle to every aspect of life. So far seems to be working.
We soon hit the State Street, crossed the street to get on to Herr Street, and hit the trail again. Now we were on some 8% -10% grade inclines. Slowly, I was getting comfortable with the bike and the gears. Manoj kept Uday company and encouraged him to push harder. We learnt that of the three of us Manoj is the most patient and I am the least. Soon, we made it Lower field, the Mecca of cricket buffs in Harrisburg. “Whackers” vs “HACC” cricket match was in action. We stopped and caught a glimpse of the match and gulped down a bottle of water.

We continued to pedal, and made our way through HACC (Harrisburg Area Community College). Uday seemed amazed at how I had discovered the biking trail. It was just talking to folks in my office that I came to know about the Green belt.
When we entered the Wildwood lake area, I could feel that Uday was pushing himself harder than ever. After a few steep uphill climbs, we saw ourselves biking on a thrilling downhill trail. Manoj went ahead of us and captured a video of us biking downhill. Finally, we came onto the Front street area, which reminded Manoj and me of Jayanagar, Jayamahal areas of Bangalore. We biked passed the Governor’s mansion (Governor Ed Rendell) and took a few pictures along the way and finally came back to City Island. It was close to 20 miles and 2 something hours of biking. Burnt loads of calories, thanks to Manoj’s fancy GPS watch.
We returned the cycles and thanked Steve and headed back to the car. The experience was priceless. Blessed we were for the wonderful day!

Some boring stats as usual:
Date: 20/06/2010
Time: 02:39:46
Distance: 32.40 km
Elevation Gain: 174 m
Calories: 1,010 C
Time: 02:39:46
Moving Time: 02:21:17
Elapsed Time: 02:39:46
Avg Speed: 12.2 km/h
Avg Moving Speed: 13.8 km/h
Max Speed: 42.7 km/h
More details from my ‘fancy GPS watch’ here http://connect.garmin.com/activity/37737263

Cycling in NYC

2010-06-15T22:42:00.006+05:30

An official visit to the East coast provided an excellent opportunity to bike in the US. The next 3 posts are about my latest exploits from the mouth of guest writers on my blog. Keep Visiting!!

Introducing Srikanth, my cousin from New Jersey, who kept me fantastic company as we cycled on the biking trails and the one-way streets of NYC. Here’s the report straight from Srikanth!!

It’s has been on my mind for quite some time but thanks to Manoj's NYC visit, my bike trip on NY streets became a reality and a pleasant one too. I had bought my Trek7.3 FX just a few days back and was wondering what would be the best way to satisfy the desire to play with a newly bought toy. Right then Manoj called me and said he was planning to visit the city over the weekend. From then on the trip just happened.

Started morning 7 o'clock from home riding on my bike to the NJ transit station. Blame it on my stiff muscles or the early morning chillness during spring, that 10kms turned out to be the toughest stretch of the day!! God I had to do that wearing my jeans, which would eventually end up half way across the globe in Shreya's washing machine in a few days :D. Taking my bike in the train was the part I was most uncomfortable with. Mainly because I had never done it before and I was very skeptical about carrying it on the narrow escalators in Penn station. Escalators that would cramp and suffocate commuters even without a bike. Thankfully I had no horror stories to share with Manoj. 90 minutes gone and I was out on 32nd street, New York, the concrete jungle where dreams are made of!!

In no time I was there at Bops place and in even less time was out of there too. On FDR drive towards Brooklyn Bridge and a ride across it. Then on to Little Italy where we stopped over for lunch.

This is where I first heard about these weird breed of homo-sapiens who first appeared in the SE Asia region and quickly migrated to different parts of the world. I believe they are referred to as hashers and their religion called hashing. I still remember Manoj's purchase of a unique dress which was designed according to hash traditions. A dress that he was hoping would get him better acceptance within that community ;-)

From there on we cycled across lower Manhattan, along Hudson bay went past USS Intrepid and all the way to George Washington Bridge. We could have gone even further but I had a train to catch back home and we had to plan for that. On our way back we went into Central Park and then on to Times Square. This is where we had to go different ways as I had train on my mind and he had Asics shoes on his.

On my way back in train I shared the coach with a group of Puerto Ricans. Drunk yet sober after their annual Puerto Rican day celebration (it was actually the day before). Some of them were bikers and we traveled talking about our trips. Once at Long Branch it was 14kms ride back home. Back from what would be my best visit to the city, I've visited NYC at-least 10 times before and never have I remembered my trip to such details even after a month. I also realized the best way for me to explore any city. Hopefully, more such bike trips in the US.

Some stats from the ride
Date: 12/06/2010
Time: 04:38:55
Distance: 44.25 km
Moving Time: 03:23:49
Elapsed Time: 07:32:45
Avg Speed: 9.5 km/h
Avg Moving Speed: 13.0 km/h
Max Speed: 37.4 km/h

For the maps, statistics of the ride, visit http://connect.garmin.com/activity/36674990

Times Cycle to Work - Green Championship

2010-06-06T12:40:00.004+05:30

5th June 2010: Times Cycle to Work
We had to be really crazy to get ourselves (yes, it’s two of us now) out of bed on what was otherwise a fantastic holiday to lie under those comforters. The rains from the previous night had left behind a hangover of a light drizzle and chill. We had registered for the ‘Times Cycle to Work’ initiative, to bike the distance of 60k for men and 40k for women.

It was Shreya’s first ride for that distance and we were both excited. Leaving behind her cousin at home, we both rode 5kms to the start point, off Sarjapur road. It was not pretty getting there, the roads were in a bad shape and there were earth movers at the venue causing more confusion. To add to it, the organizers initially refused to allow participation without photocopies of ID proofs. It was perfect, I wouldn’t care much if I had a bib or otherwise. In the end, it really didn’t matter much.

It was a rolling start and the starting line was a good 3k from the venue. From the start line, we were to ride on Sarjapur road and then towards Varthur and back completing a 20k loop. 3 laps of that for the 60k and 2 for the 40k was how it was supposed to total up. Sarjapur road was not a great choice and the traffic picked up towards the end.

I kept steady pace right from the word go and although, I didn’t team up with anyone in particular, I spent nearly 30k either pulling or drafting behind Yohan & Abhi. I managed to hit the 50k in 1:40hrs and 60k in 2:01hrs. Personal best for both distances.

Shreya was very impressive on her Schwinn hybrid. I caught up with her on my third lap as she was comfortably cruising at her own pace. She herself finished the 47k (back to the venue) and then the 5k back home, to clock a 57k for the day.

She finished the 47k in 3:15hrs and sure looked like she could do more. Am I proud or what!

Cloud Valley - A trip that took my trip

2010-06-02T14:03:00.008+05:30

The title borrowed from Haren’s ride report, borrowed because, I deserve it more than anyone else.
Life is always about squeezing a little more. No, no I don’t mean to sound like your boss, but hey, my wife is not a HR Manager for nothing. Anyway, what I was getting at is that, there was a helluva lot of traveling happening in the last 10days Bangalore-Cochin-Alleppey-Chennai-Bangalore and then I was off to Coorg again!
But the annual RTMC pilgrimage to Cloud Valley in Coorg is a guaranteed un-winder, I needed a strong dose of that one!

It would also be Shreya’s first overnighter with the bullet club and we started the Saturday, 29th May with gusto. We are both sufficiently cramster-ed now – mutually gifted riding jackets, saddle bags and waist pouch to carry everything from nail polish, comb (new additions to the luggage, or was it eye liner) and the usual – running shoes, sunscreen and spares.
The getting there:
We joined about 25 bullets at Bangalore Univ campus at 6:30 or so. Just so there is no serious problem, I had given my bullet for service last week. First puncture in 20km from the start. In about 30mins with help from Horny, Tampon, Conrod and Dicso we replaced the punctured tube with a new one from Conrod.
The rear shocks creaked like an old iron cot that creaks when you ‘sleep’ on it as you went up and down even on a slight bump.

Group rides do provide a fair amount of insurance against break downs, accidents and other variables on the highways. The entire band of bulleters waited at McD for us to catch up, a quick breakfast later, we were highway bound again towards Srirangapatana.
I totally enjoyed the good roads to Madikeri, cruising at 80-90kmph. We reached Cloud Valley at 1pm and welcomed by Uday and his family. The inevitable pandi curry meal happened over ride stories and some poor jokes.
Those of us who weren’t high yet, made our way to the Cauvery river bed at 5, bathed and rode back. Some more ride stories and papad mama jokes kept us entertained around the camp fire right through the night.
The place:
Cloud Valley itself is awesome. You should see my earlier report on this here. It is a nice report, go read!
Apparently, the best time to visit is when the flowering season when the coffee seeds come into bloom and look like snow! The Jasmine-like aroma also fills up the entire region.

The run:
So, I made quick enquiries in the evening with Uday ‘where can I go for a jog in the morning?’. I have become some kind of a fan of these runs - where you have no clue what’s in store, no idea of how long you are going to take to get back, where (if ever) you will find some water, civilization, etc. But I headed out on the path that had taken us to the river the previous evening. It was 6:30 and it was perfect for a long run. The trail took me on some serious uphills along winding coffee estates. There was not a single soul to ask for directions, you knew you were trespassing when the dogs barked louder. After about 4.5km, the path brought me back close to where I had started. Nice! I ran into the trail again, so I could finish a perfect 10!

The story of a Tired Tire:
One-a-puncture, two-a-puncture, three-a-puncture, four!
I am the rear tire of KA04-EM 1983, you have seen how I was born, right. It is here if you want a flashback. I have nearly done 15000kms on road now and my predecessor had taken care of the rear for about 40000kms. My owner is a nice guy (yes!) and he takes care to ‘fill me up’ with 30psi always. He likes to take me on good roads, bumpy roads and very very bumpy roads, but I like adventure too.

I have been very loyal and have not disappointed him on any of his long rides… so far.
So yesterday, just as I was warming up, something happened and suddenly there was air all inside me and in another moment the wheel was hurting me. That local tube inside me had a puncture. My owner should have known better not to buy a local tube from the “Aslam Bhai” mechs on the road side.
Anyways, my owner, a big fan of DIY, fitted a new tube (Original!!) inside me, and I was happy again.

My owner’s missus is a light lady and I have usually no problems with carrying both of them. But they stopped at this place where the milestone said ‘Hunsur 10’. There were people selling jackfruits. They are those big, heavy, thorny (I hate thorns) things that people like to eat.
My owner should have put this in the front and the that lazy front tire should have taken some load. I must add that front tire is a senior one (55k kms), but had not worn out at all, because he does not do any work. He only takes the load of my owner’s arms and has good suspension to pass on the shocks from bad roads. If you ask me, the jackfruit should have been showed right through his valve.
But, we hard workers are always made to ‘squeeze a little more’. That is life – as my owner says it.
So the jackfruit came into one side of the saddle bag and the rest of the stuff was rearranged.

Now when the owner started to ride, the mud guard started to flirt with me. It started to come so close and rub me in the wrong places. I started getting hot.
Even the original rubber was able to withstand this and our safety was compromised near Bidadi. I tried to hold on as much longer as I could (I am very conscientious tire, you see), so it a while for my owner to realize the puncture. Luckily, I went fully flat near a ‘pancher’ shop. But the pancher guy was drunk and sleepy and despite taking all care, he patched the not-original rubber tube (remember the old one that punctured yesterday) very carelessly.
I anyway didn’t like this duplicate rubber tube.

So far it was still ok. It was still about 4pm in the evening. But we had just started the motions again, some 20k and then bam, one more flat. By this time, the wheel had started to bang me from the other side and it was slightly bent I think. I was feeling wobbly also. This time was terrible. My owner left his wife on the side of the road (very unsafe place) and put all his weight on the tank, standing on the foot peg and leaning in front and road me without air for 2km to get a puncture shop.
This guy was ok, he put the puncture and in about 30mins, owner went back and picked up his wife. There were dark clouds and I am sure he wanted to get home before it rain. But, I like rain!
So we started off again, the jack fruit load was still on me and I think I was dizzy because of the bent wheel. Anyways, it was now dark and we went another 20k and came to the NICE road. It is a very nice road and I was happy because there are no thorns, potholes or nails on this road.

But just after the toll was paid, I went flat again. Promise, this was not my fault. It was the duplicate tube. I was focusing on my job and not paying attention to the mud guard also.
This time there was more problem, it was raining, there were no puncture or pancher shops open (it was a Sunday) and my owner had to do his circus stunt again for 2km. But he was getting good at it, I didn’t feel too much load at all.
I over-heard him tell his missus afterwards that he had only 260 bucks and the tube cost him 270!

Four is too much, I say. But, there was one good thing, that jackfruit went off to the front in the end. That lazy front tire also took load. Then he rode me very very slowly, the last 30kms to his home. I felt very ashamed of myself. I will not do this again. I will not do this again. I will not do this again.

200k Giant Ride

2010-05-17T14:51:00.006+05:30

Date: 15th May 2010

Distance: 200.13kms / Avg moving speed: 23.1kmph

Garmin report on the ride:

The Garmin didn't record the first 9k. The splits with the first lap added read as below:

I know I am not going to be at my modest best when I make this post. Yes, it was 200kms, but no, it was not so much an achievement. Yes, it was tough, there were moments, but no, it was not tooouugghhh tough. Yes, it was a hot day, so? Yes, there were some uphills, so?

I always believe we kid ourselves too much and build some strong mental boundaries around us. When you put these efforts in perspective, you know what I mean – a 200k is about when you start to warm up in a race like the RAAM where you ride some 5000kms in about 10days. Our own Samim qualified for the RAAM 2010, with the 701k in 24hrs! So what we did yesterday is about 10% of that effort.

We talked about the RAAM a lot during the ride. You can read all about it here and follow Samim’s quest for a podium finish this year on his website here.
I guess, it all comes down really to a quote that I wrote about in my Hyderabad marathon review, “it all depends on how badly you want to do it”.
And the last time, Yes, we were on decent road bikes, gears, toe clips, cleats. But, the sun didn’t make any concessions, the road didn’t give us any discounts, ‘we’ did the riding :)
Venkat had done some serious hard-selling of Hessaraghatta as the most ideal place to ride in this world. He had picked this loop of 33km and we were to do it multiple times. On Saturday, I figured it was not so much of a loop, but a 17km out and back. And when I mentioned the soaring temperatures these days and quipped if there was any cover, I got an honest but discouraging “No, none at all”.

The only thing I could bargain for, was the start time and my behest we started the ride at 5:20am. The route passed the Horticulture University and out at Nandini Sperm Station which was where we refueled after every lap. There were 2 wings – the left one was relatively flat towards Madhure, there were a couple of long uphills on the section towards Rajankunte.

The roads were fantastic, with little traffic and perfect for a long road bike ride. Despite a ride-sabotaging puncture in the second loop (which cost us about 15mins), we were consistently over 25kmph. We were on target when we were done 110km by 10:15am or so. It was the much needed “Frankie” break.
Venkat’s in-laws were fantastic, his father-in-law brought us “Frankies” (aka chapattis), his brother-in-law, Anil joined us for the first 4hrs on his bike.

From there on, till we hit past the 140k mark, it was tough. We felt nearly every bit of the 37deg heat of Bangalore. I made an effort to keep myself hydrated – nearly 1-1.5 liter of water / electral / tang every loop of 33kms. And from my past experiences with cramps, I stayed off the cramps with constant massages. With cycling, unlike running, you do get the odd downhill where you can relax and give the thighs a gentle squeeze.
I put my head down, the dividing line moving in slow motion, only the shadow of the feet moving front and back, and sweat dripping off from the helmet. We stuck to the job.

The end phase was not easy either. We shifted nearer home for the last 25km after a last break of Savige and curd at Venkat’s place we took off to finish the 200km. No endurance ride is complete in Hessarghatta till you ride towards Our Native Village – the red earth of the Bangalore Ultra. We rode, up the Bangalore Ultra route, to Taj Kuteeram. The shadows were getting longer once again but Venkat’s resolve was getting shorter. We changed course once again and decided to ride in short 2km loops for the last 15k or so.

Venkat was great company and kept me entertained with all his goals for the year. It started with B2C1D (Bangalore to Chennai in 1Day) in the morning, by 10am he was chanting the RAAM mantra, by evening he had switched from cycling to running to get rid of his extra kilos! More important that those swaying goals, was the enthusiasm about everything he was saying, I am sure he would at least get to one of these soon.
There were no trophies, no cheering crowd waiting as we finished – just some serious sun tan and sore muscles (you know where) to show off…

Copy Paste Weekend

2010-04-27T19:12:00.006+05:30

If I were given a chance to Copy-Paste, I would copy-paste the last weekend to a lot of upcoming weekends. There were runs, rides and long drives; hills and trails, rains and sun. There was sweat, slush, shivers and spasms. There was mom’s food, chats and Beer. There were friends, family, near ones and very near ones. We were extravagant and we were thrifty.

It was complete on most measures; on the measure of time - 'was 23rd April to 25th April.
Friday evening started with the actor screaming ‘sweet leaping Jesus’. This was followed by a quick trial and buying a new Schwinn Searcher Sport – a hybrid bike for Shreya from Track and Trail. Shreya immediately felt comfortable enough to ride it back home in peak traffic!

We answered Sabine’s call to run at Nandi and woke up at 4am to drive to Nandi hills. It was a pretty bunch – Sunil, Sabine, Sindhu, Shreya and Jaggi. We ran up, in short sprint bursts to the top and jogged our way down.

The evening rains in Bangalore are making the early mornings very pleasant indeed. Shreya and I cycled about 16k inside and around the GKVK campus. We snaked around the gravel roads, the fields, the new roads around the campus – was beautiful.
The perfect finish – a hash run at Hoskote, joined by Raghu, Shreya and the rain gods came down visiting. The Beers and the drive, set a perfect stage for the IPL finals.
Ctrl+C… Ctrl+V??

Bangalore Bicycing Championship 2010

2010-04-19T20:27:00.015+05:30

This is my second race with BBCh – the Bangalore Bicycling Championship and first this year. The call from Ventak informing me of the road race came bang in the middle of shit loads of work and grabbed it with both hands. I needed this dose of adrenaline.

Come the race day, Venkat picked me up at 6, we strapped the 2 Giants together on the race (Guess what happens when 2 Giants strap in, you get a Baby-Giant. Ha ha ha). Anyways, we got there at 7 and boy-o-boy what a spectacle it was.

The starting point was vibrant with multitudes of hues of bright jerseys, spandex (all black!), bikes, helmets, bike racks (all black again), trees, tender coconuts, blue skies and green grass (yes, it was vibrant with multitudes of hues!!!)

(*photo credit - someone in BBC, forget the link from when I pulled this off)

What a Quantum leap the biking scene has taken since the last time I raced at BBCh. The field has completely changed now – there are teams of riders training for speed and endurance, there’s an wide assortment of bikes –Giants, Cannodales, Ordeas, Bianchis, Btwins and the Treks. Whatever happened to the Firefox that used to rule to roost a couple of years back!

Everyone’s talking about ‘components’, the slicks, shifters, oz (added so that I can quickly put an etcetera), etc, etc – and a whole lot of tech jargon. And you can draw up an NxN grid with hybrid, road, MTB on one of the axes; Price of the bikes starting from 10K to 2lakhs on one; Sex on the other; age, height, weight, nationality, hair color, eye color on the other and while you confuse the hell out of everyone, you will still have one guy/gurl on each cell of the NxN matrix. (you get the drift, right)

Okie fine, now let’s start riding, its 7:30AM. And we started by turning around. It was a rolling start (I hadn’t trained just for this bit and it cost me the race, can you believe that!!!) we went back to the highway and rode together as a pack till the starting line and then the pack took off.
We rode from the Nandi turn-off point on the NH7 to the Base of the hill and then continued around the hill. Nandi turn-off point to the Idly point is 8k and the loop around the hill was 17km. So we did 2 loops around the hill and back to the starting point making a 51k in all.

The route was excellent and ideal for the road race. It included a climb that lasted nearly 3km (from 960m to 1055m altitude) and getting to about 12% gradient (50m climb in 420m) before it fell rapidly. I managed to go from 9kmph to 57kmph in a matter of 90sec on the downhill… The granny gears were tested and tested again during the second loop as well.

I finished in a modest 1:59hours, about 6mins behind Venkat. And since then I have simply been raving about the transformation of the Bangalore Biking Scene… what a lovely scene, I say...

Been there, Run that

2010-04-19T20:27:00.010+05:30

In case you were wondering where I have been for so long, let me assure you I have been running around.
Two runs to cover the small East European town of Timisoara, a run around Car street to Kunjara Giri in Udupi and a couple of runs in the humid Chennai summed up the past one month for me.

Date & Place: Timisoara, Romania. 25-Mar-2010.
Notes: Covered one half of the city center on a 5k run, armed with a 3D map and my favorite running shoes, stray dog chases & ghosty children's parks notwithstanding.

Date & Place: Timisoara, Romania. 26-Mar-2010. The other half

Place & Date: Udupi, 11-Apr-2010. My birth town was the perfect place to run, even as I passed a major milestone in life, which took 30yrs to get cross!! I ran from the Krishna temple, Car street along the highway to Kunjaragiri, to Shreya's tulabara pooja at the Kujnaragiri temple. Lost buckets-full of sweat.

Place & Date: Kodambakkam, Chennai. 13-Apr-2010 - The first time Shreya ran around her own neighbourhood (have you??). We made some nice circles and squares!

Place & Date: Marina Beach. 12-Apr-2010. The unusually high sea levels were traced to sweat glands of one insane running trying a interval training along the beach!!

The Giants Ride

2010-02-03T09:37:00.011+05:30

Sample this summary sheet:

Activity Type: Cycling

Time: 10:14:34hours

Distance: 181.12km

Elevation Gain: 1311m

Calories: 6089C

The splits tell a nice story too:

Let me take it split-wise:

Split 1:
Distance travelled from home to Hebbal, 20k, averaging 22kmph, starting from home at 6:15am.

Split 2:
Joined Venkat, also on his Giant road bike and headed straight out at 23kmph to the Nandi Base in 1:53hrs, including a 4-5min break at the Nandi Base - a distance of 43k.

Split 3:
The Nandi climb, start to finish in 43mins, taking exactly the same time as I did in the BBCh2 last year, refresher here. Elevation gain on that section alone was 426mts over 7.2kms!

Split 4:
This may look like the slowest stretch, but it did include a couple of breaks – tender coconuts and Idly breakfast, also one while Venkat rode back up to the top to retrieve his forgotten helmet.

Split 5:
The real story was, we were cruising on most stretches at 25-30kmph, that after having done 80-100k. The average was brought down by the lunch break. After Venkat branched off near Mekhri circle, I pressed on, stopped at my dear sister’s place for a mini lunch.

Split 7:
This was the best part. How often do you get to ride at speeds over 20kmph after having done 150k! The last stretch was a beauty – 4 breaks in 20k, one to refill water, one more for some water melons and the last 2 to stretch out some cramps that were beginning to appear. I cycled towards Sarjapur and then took the deviation towards Whitefield to complete the 20k before turning back towards home.
This was the second time I rode over 150k in a day. The 10 hour ordeal including the Nandi climb was worth every minute.

If you have read this far, you deserve to read the learnings (disclaimer: used for the lack of a better word)

No matter how strong you are, how fast you go or what distances you cover, every ride (and run) has an innate ability to leave you humbled.

On this ride, the moment came in the form of a Vinod P. While in the middle of those numbers & miles, somewhere after we had posted 90k and passed the Airport Interchange, we passed a guy on a cycle (the Hercules Atlas types) complete with a basket in front with 2 bottles of water. I completely ignored him and Venkat’s comment on his pace at first.

But I was surprised when the boy in torn clothes came up from behind and said in immaculate English, “It’s good to see other cyclist on the road”. Then we got talking, Vinod works at the Airport and rides 30k to work and back each day, 6 days a week, week after week for nearly 4yrs now! Little wonder the champ kept pace with us for about 20kms. He seemed to know more about Giant bikes than I did and was thrilled when I offered him a ride on my bike for a short distance. He ends up changing his tyres every 3 months, but saves every little he can to buy a road bike that “rides like a motorcycle”.
…and then when you look at yourself, it makes you challenge a whole bunch of benchmarks – of speeds, distances and of happiness.

Rehashing Nash Hash at Araku - as it unfolds

2010-01-23T12:02:00.016+05:30

Day 1 - 23rd Jan, '10: Sun n Sands at Vizag

Savoring in, the view from the hotel room, overlooking the beach, the pier, the speed boats from the luxury of a perched up, A/c room at Rishikonda Beach Resort at Vizag.

Run1: In true mismanagement style, the rego happened an hour late and it did take a while before the 150+ (no one knows the actual numbers) got into yellow tees. The run was laid by the Hyderabad hashers. It was a bloody run, right over some hills we could see from our resort. The trail was thorny, rocky, slippery and marked somewhat. Shreya and I stuck to the runners trail. After we had survived the first 7k or so, the trail ended at the shore. We ran towards the distant lights of the resort, in fading twilight, along the shore. Check this trail hugging the shore-line. It was awesome!

Well, if you thought the run was mismanaged, you should have seen the circle!! Can the hashers be civilized to queue-up? Yes, they do anything for Beer. So there was, this never-ending line in front of this one Beer keg! The circle was a quick one - the Malaysians were iced (they were a bunch), the hares were given down downs over the announcement of the 5am (yes, 5am) start the next morning. The theme for the pardee was 'the 60s'. People didn't party much back then, I suppose. There wasn't much of a party.

Day2 - On On to Araku...but first the 'rail check'

Rail Check - Sunday, 4am!

Wake-up call, so we could get packed to leave by 5:20, to catch the train to Araku at 6:50. Ok, so on on we went in 'booses' to the station.

We march into the railway platform like kids on a school excursion - in a single line, in pairs, in uniform, with no luggage/money, packed lunch in hand and in total nonchalance. But hey, make no mistake, we weren't kids (atleast kids have some brains) we are Hashers who don't.

Well, the plan was for the AP tourism guys to save two unreserved compartments for us. That didn’t happen and the hashers settled down (albeit noisily) in the reserved compartments. The problem was it was not reserved for us. So, when the guys with the reservations came in, there was high drama – some were elbowed, others were reasoned with, most were ‘adjusted’. All was well, till there was a railway announcement for all people without tickets to move out of that Kirandul passenger. Ha ha ha, and we stormed out of the train, making a lot of noise. The song and dance continued outside the station too, till we waited for the booses to take us to Borra caves.

Borra Caves & Run 2:

We strolled into through the Borra caves – stuffy with all the limestone, stalactites, stalagmites and the bleaching powder (to keep away the bats). After spending an hour or so in the caves, we were ready for the run, which started at 11.
The trail took us up and down the hills of Araku. The runners looped some extra, while the walkers ambled along. We climbed hills, some steep ones, crossed little streams, walked on field bunds, through a 300mt railway tunnel, along across a railway bridge, a water stop, before we climbed and climbed a never-ending uphill trail taking us to the Ananthagiri hill resort for lunch and the sacred juice.

It was a tough one for Shreya I would think – the walkers also stuck to most of the runners’ trail. She did have a lot of Tamil MH3 hashers for company. It must have been an 8k for the walkers, I took 2hrs for the 12.5k!!

The circle was very entertaining – first Hyderabad hashers Venki Charade, Obelix & Chicken shit took turns with the horn. But the honors should go to the Malaysian hasher with his ‘Engineer song’ that went “Ah-hum titty-bum titty-bum titty-bum”. Shreya was iced & given a down down with the “She’s alright” song.

A 30km drive took us all weary hashers to our Haritha hotels at Araku for some much-needed rest. We were ready to rock at dinner time – the Mr. & Miss. Nash Hash titles, the Hash skits and the party.

Day 3 – The Ball breaker
The ball breaker is a very long run in tough hash trails usually in the range of about 20kms. Jugy & Navin wanted to do a 35k as a part of the training for the Auroville marathon next month, and I decided to join them. So we ran a 15k in the valley on the road towards Orrisa border and then did the Ball breaker. The BB was about 15k or so, taking a good 2.5hrs up and down steep hills. We completed another 3.5k and back to finish our quota of 37k for the day. It sure was good time-on-feet training, nearly 5.5hrs (1:45+2:30+0:57) at the end of which I had begun to cramp.
Pick a spot in a map, land there, pick a direction and run. While we ran the first 15, I saw this hill with a patch of bare earth and wondered how it would be to run up that. In less than a couple of hours, we were actually doing just that on the ball breaker. At the end of the ordeal, I had 2 bruises, one wet and muddy right shoe to show off as trophies!!

And while I was busy with all the mileage, Mrs. Phatphatia was baptized “loan shark” at the circle (her 5th hash run). It was a Hyderabadi cusine with biryani, dahi vada, puliyogare, gongura chutney, etc, etc.

The tribal dance show replaced the Dance hash and the party, we hit the sack early after a continental dinner. We missed the recovery runs to catch the early flight out of Vizag. On On

Countryside Overdose

2010-01-13T13:51:00.012+05:30

Saturday Northern Loop

9th Jan 2010: This was 'my' virgin route. I was always wanting to ride up this loop from Hebbal > Devanahalli > right on to the Devanahalli Hospet road > Gummanahalli > Bagalur > Hebbal.
This loop is about 80kms and we took 4:05hours to do it. 'We' on this ride were me, Venkat and Dinesh; the bikes were 2 Giants and a Rockrider 8.2.

The route is fantastic, ideally one should cover the distance to Devanahalli on the Airport road in the wee hours to avoid traffic. Once in Devanahalli and off the highway into NH207, towards Singahalli, you get into some neat countryside - fields, villages, good rolling roads and limited traffic and with it the fresh air, the visuals, the sun.

The route offers multiple possibilities for loops of different distances. Roads have been freshly laid right upto Bagalur, the rest is a fast highway anyway.
We stopped on the way back, at Yelahanka for breakfast and I rode right back home for a shower and well deserved lunch.

Sunday South-East Loop

Some lovely countryside trails off Sarjapur road at the Run No. 518 of the Bangalore Hash, hared by the Sarjapur Sultan (Ravi a.k.a private soreass), Navin and BFG.
Run report copied straight out of the Hash trash and pasted below:

The first run of the year namely ‘the prickly aunty run’ started with a remarkable 55 hashers along the country side near Sarjapur road. Pleasant weather as compared to the snow in various less fortunate places around the world; we enjoyed a very bright and a beautiful afternoon.

As usual we commenced with a false trail which nearly resulted in the entire pack heading out of the in-trail. Awesome. But BFG somehow guided us correctly back and in no time we were off into open landscape with lots of bushes and tree cover to confound the hounds.

Some excellent false trails - but by now of course, most people had twigged that it would be a right-hander, so only the extreme dimwitted (of which there were many) hounds went chasing off in the wrong directions at the checks.

Nice water stop on the edge of a field after which those with more energy than sense went off on a long loop and the smart ones amongst us headed directly back to the beer - only to find it missing somewhere in the bundu. Luckily it reappeared before a full riot got underway and all was well.

A well laid trail by BFG and gang, and pasta and cake by Mamma Mia to celebrate the New Year. Well we really had a very good time indeed.

The circle led by the GM went on as follows:
-Hares BFG, Private Soreass, Vinie the Pooh and Crushed Nuts were cooled off on the ice first for laying a really horny… oops thorny run
-Finger-In was very pro-active to flash her new shoes and very keen to drink beer from them and so she got a down down as well along with Cheap Dyke for not wearing his cheap old shirt to the hash
-A few harriots namely Sticky Sex, Pyramids and Take Your Pick demonstrated that they were hottie harriettes by wearing really warm jumpers in the sun so were officially chilled and brought down to the normal temperature by the beer.
-Virgins Smita, Chandan, Dinesh, Manish, Romilla and Ayub were given a taste of ice as well
Sushila (who was implausibly, in view of her full head of hair) accused of being Halfmoons big sister enjoyed a beer along with Halfmoon for trying to mislead us
-Arvind was given a down down for being in his best girly attire and arriving at the hash on a girly bike too
-Few returners Useless Prick, Red Hot Chilly Peppers and Discount were reminded that they cannot get off so easily without getting iced
-Mamma Mia was iced for serving up such excellent Hash Food along with along with Take Your Pick who was celebrating her 25th birthday (again)
-And last but not the least Private Soreass was promoted to Sergeant Soreass for participating in a really long (don’t remember the miles but really long) biking event but for not completing it. Also for quitting his job for another really long biking event.

Wipro Eco EYE

2010-01-12T13:55:00.005+05:30

Reproduced from the article that appeared in an internal Wirpo webzine

Left to right: Gangadhar, Balaji, Chitra, Arnab, Kiran, Vijay Kumar, Purinder, Manoj, Winston George, Karthik

On the 11th of January, 2010 a group of 10 Wiproites started off the first bicycle commute to Wipro EC at 7:20 am from Silk board. The group consisted of some regular cyclists and a few newbies who choose to burn fat over petrol. The ride lasted 40 minutes and went a long way in shattering myths, proving many points and started a new journey.

The myths we shattered:

• Cycling on Bangalore roads is dangerous: No it not, just stick to the left and take the service roads wherever possible.
• Cyclists are bottom feeders: No, you aren’t. When in proper outfit and on a decent cycle you get enough if not more respect than motorists.
• Pollution: Yes, roads are polluted but you can overcome that by cycling during off-peak hours.
• Physically demanding: Absolutely not, rather it’s physically rejuvenating. You don’t yawn or doze off in the bus or cab; hence you are at your peak when you reach office, the most energetic guy ready to take on the challenges of the day.

The points we proved:

• Cycling is fun: It’s not a stressful activity like driving. It rejuvenates you and does not tire you like driving. And when you ride in a group it’s even more fun.
• Traffic congestion is a non-issue: You always find space to ride your cycle through. When things get worse you just start walking with you cycle, carry it over the divider and in the worst case lift your cycle and negotiate through the congestion.
• Social exposure: You meet many new people which you don’t when you commute in an enclosed car.

The journey we started: Promote cycling as a sustainable means of commuting.

• Organize this group commute every month.
• Organize workshops across Wipro campuses on this theme.
• Form a cycling club within Wipro.
• Promote Electronic city as a cycling zone.

All those who have missed the fun this time, please do join us with your bicycles next time onwards. Let’s all have fun and do our bit to save Mother Earth. To get involved, drop a line to either arnab.rakshit@wipro.com or chitra.sharma@wipro.com.

Run like a roach - Bengaluru Midnight Marathon 09

2009-12-29T13:39:00.009+05:30

Date: 12th Dec 09

Why run like a cockroach? Apparently we runners have a new role model. Read the story here. And that’s what happened on that cold Saturday night in Bangalore. Runners came out like roaches at the stroke of midnight to take part in the marathon.

A cockroach doesn’t think much about running, it just runs!

Neither did we!! Crossover, who were organizing the marathon, did not have a good track record, the rains were not relenting in Bangalore and it was a 8loops x 5.2k run. I did no running myself between the Ultra and the midnight marathon. But naah, we didn’t think of all that, we just turned up and ran.

The run was much better organized this time around. The water stations remained stocked (with water!) till about 4-5am. The traffic was definitely much better managed, the entire 2.1k stretch (yes, even that is a lot!) was cordoned off, well lit, freshly laid and almost flat. Registration was hassle free, maybe because there were no goodies to hand over! Ambulances stayed on the course, but by 3:30am when I had begun to cramp I had to run around to get some medical aid.

Roaches are social animals:
It was fantastic to see the support from RFL and fellow runners. My wife, Shreya braved the midnight chill and patiently waited at the start point while the husband (me!) ran round in loops. It was refreshing to see the entire BHUKMP team, led by captian Rishi cruising along the course. Chandra was god-send, after his half marathon, he hung around helping the runners with sprays and massages. To do this between 3am-5am, was truly fantastic. RFL also played its part – being there for the full marathoners when most needed. At about 3am, they set up a stall near mid way on the course, well stocked with water, electral, sprays & biscuits. They ran this counter till 6am.

Roaches have sore points too:
Timing Planet: Next time I hear this, I will scurry away into a dark corner and stay there. Timing Chip allowed you to rent for Rs.250. At the counter, we were promised that there would be timings & certificates provided. The Chip reader at the U-turn point ran out of power after about 3hrs! The timings were published a week after the event. They were based on RFID (?) nos. and not on Bib/running nos. There was no way of saying which timing belonged to you. Certificates? Since when did roaches get certificates?

My run:
I managed a good run myself. Considering that I had no specific training for this one, I ran the entire distance in 4:20hrs. Since it was a 4.2k loop to be done 10times, it provided a good chance to analyze the split timings – a variation of 23mins to 32mins for the lap timings, was not too much of a variance. Well, the curve is not bell-shaped, but I am still happy that my fastest was not the first, and my slowest was not the last!

Got to run now, damn that cockroach, where’s that HIT ;)
Photo courtesy: RFL
For a better run report visit Bhasker here

Bangalore Ultra 09 - A Successful failure

2009-12-29T13:36:00.020+05:30

Pain is temporary, quitting is forever

The true meaning of this quote is becoming apparent to me, now even after close to a month after finishing the Bangalore Ultra 09.

I have been lucky to have other things to keep myself occupied, in the meantime – a lot of Shreya, first visit to in-laws, apartment search, rejoin work, more house hunting, getting a place, moving out of home, setting up the new place, cutting vegetables, etc. But occasionally, the devil pops its head out. At the changing room, after a short workout at the office gym, I look at myself in the mirror. My thoughts go racing back to Oct, when I used the same changing room, after a 12k run & 13k cycle ride to get to work. And a smirk comes on the lips; I didn’t complete what I started out to do…
“I only did a 75k at the Ultra…”

The Training:
Run October Run – the 100km weeks, the adrenaline highs, the residual fatigue had taken over my non-working life. I was following this schedule, where I ran 12k and cycled 13k to reach office and repeated this in the evening. This gave me mileage of 24k by run & 26k by bike each day. 4 days of this and a weekend long run and I was running 130k & 135k on 2 weeks and well over 100k for the other weeks. Heady stuff, but I knew I needed this training to do the run-a-ton. I had also managed a 60k run in under 7hrs on 24th Oct, running in GKVK with the BHUKMP brothers.

The Honeymoon runs – My wedding on the 5th Nov, 10days before the Ultra didn’t hamper the tapering much. I also ended up packing my running shoes into the honeymoon luggage and ran twice in Rajasthan.

Pre-race:
My paranoia during the week leading to the Ultra was justified, when a feverish malaise crept up. My return from Mumbai was delayed and I landed in Bangalore on midnight Friday. I didn’t have a great Saturday before the run, either. My sis was kind enough to make some yummy pasta for me for lunch. With requests for an early start, RFL had provided the 50k+ runners to start at 5am.

Although it meant that I had to wake up at 2:30am, I thought it was worth the effort. Mahesh gave me the lift to Hesarghatta. The plan was that my folks and Shreya would join me at about 3:30pm and drive me back home. Despite the slight feverishness, I was confident of sticking to my plan – 10kmph pace for as long as I can (50k?, 60k?)

The Bangalore Ultra ‘09:
Do the means justify the end? I wish the answer was yes, we would have indeed found that short-cut to success. I clocked my personal best for a 75k; I finished the Ultra in 10:40hrs. This was better than the 12:07hrs 78k in ‘07 & the 11:06hr 75k in ’08. But hard facts have soft underbellies.

The splits say the entire story:

The second loop with an average speed of 6min/km proved expensive. I cramped at the start of the third. I almost never cramp that early and the pace was nowhere close to fast! I struggled between the 30k and the 50k and had to overcome a huge urge to stop at 50k.

I stopped at every water station (esp. the 2nd and the 4th) where the medicos from Wockhardt, iced my stiff thigh muscles and loosen them up. I had to spend nearly 10-15mins at every stop before I could get back on trail. It was tough and very very disheartening.

I was walking most of the distance but surprising, I was beginning to feel better after about 4 loops. But in my mind, I had given up well before the 50k mark. I had good company through the run – Athreya initially and Chandrasekhar towards the end. Ramesh Palani was a great help, riding on his bike on the course and offering ice & water.

I also saw far greater no. of runners on the course than the previous two occasions. My friends from L – Venkat & Kamal pulled off good finishes for the 50k. Sunil stuck to the job with a 15hr effort for his 100k, Athreya yet again proved how strong he is – a 12:30hr for his 100k. I had timed the finish so that Shreya could join me for the last km or so. My parents were cheering as I neared the finish line. It was success in many ways, but I can never erase the dejection when I see myself in that mirror. I quit.

The First Run

2009-12-18T15:56:00.007+05:30

... and admist the Bangalore Ultra, the Bangalore Midnight marathon, the First Hash Run, "we" have now starting to train as a couple :)

Yesterday, Shreya and I ran a modest 3km around Agara Lake, close to our new home. If you had doubts if I would be able to run post-marriage, well, do you still have those doubts!!

Three run reports coming up... come back soon!!

Traffic Diversion

2009-11-03T22:45:00.001+05:30

ALL TRAFFIC DIVERTED TO http://manoj-weds-shreya.blogspot.com/
CYA THERE!!

Run, walk and cycle weekend

2009-10-23T14:45:00.009+05:30

"Run, walk, cycle this weekend?", if you are asking, "what's new?” scroll down, the pictures tell a decent story.

Oct 10:
Spirit of Wipro 09 - My third podium finish this year, after the 7th at Auroville marathon & 4th at Hyderabad. My 44:11min 10k earned me this shining medal.

The Spirit of Wipro saw hundreds of wiproites out in the Sarjapur road to celebrate with families. For me it felt good to finish off in the second place, coming from behind and taking the last guy with less than 200mts to the finish line. It was the perfect photo finish (ironically, without the photo).

Some press coverage here.

The Diwali Hash:
There was no time for celebration after the SoW (I still managed to do a bow-and-arrow Bolt style on the presentation dias), I had to leave immediately to join Sunil, Meher & the David couple to hare the Diwali Hash at Chandy’s farm, off Kanakapura Road. Sunil had managed this to perfection and there was not much haring left when I reached the farm. I did help with the Beer, burp!!
In the middle of the holiday season, the runners were on a holiday too and decided to walk the trail. In keeping with the Diwali spirit, the hares had devised interesting check cards, with instructions to the hashers to hop, oink, dance – all in the Diwali spirit.

(pics courtesy: Abnash. More pics here)

The spirits were kept high with Sangria at the water stop. The evening was spent with crackers, sweets, yummy food, lots of amber liquids & banter with the running buddies.

Oct 11:
Bengaluru Cyclothon 09 – Bangalore was the chosen city to host the 50k event. The BIEC was perfect to dock the cyclists. My nephew Rishabh (the 7yr old is my inspiration, has more medals than I can ever get) also participated in the 2k event. Although the amateur race was reduced to a mere 27k (from the 50k to the 36k first), it was worth the effort for a chance to ride on the otherwise busy NICE road. It was a shame that, just as I was getting into rhythm on the undulating course, I sighted the finish line.
The kids event was chaotic, with children speeding on not so safe exhibition grounds. Long wait before the start, unregulated people on the tracks, and the authorities clueless on the route, etc added to the pitiable state of affairs. We were lucky to have gotten off without major incidents.
I finished my 27k in 50mins wishing it had lasted longer.

In the pic: Aryan, me, Venkat, Rishabh

More pics here.

Chasing the Bull in Bengaluru's Backyard - 50k run to Nandi

2009-10-20T15:28:00.010+05:30

Date: 26th Sep '09
The first time I rode a bike from Hebbal to Nandi hills in Sep 06, with almost no clue even about the distance from Hebbal to Nandi. Between then and now, I have biked from Hebbal to Nandi a no. of times, ran up the hills from the Base quite regularly. There was just one more tribute to pay to the “Bull in Bengaluru’s Backyard”– run from Bangalore to Nandi.

I toyed with the idea & the options available for sometime – take a bus, run downhill and then all the way back to Hebbal. The other option was to start from Hebbal and run up to the hill. There are also various other non-highway routes that could be taken. I finally settled on running from Hebbal along the NH7 towards Devanahalli keeping to the NH & the SH to the Base. It offered easy quitting options (hop on to a bus) in case something went wrong & it is littered with shops all along if we needed a drink or so.

The support team: Tima, Giri, Mahesh’s driver. Tima (Sorry Chandra, its not Tina!!) volunteered to drive his car and act as a mobile water stop for us. Mahesh’s driver also got into the act, putting his head out of the car and checking if we were fine as he drove past us.

The runners: Athreya & I ran the distance from Hebbal to Nandi (51k) in 6:49hrs. Chandra (39k), Nari (35k), Vasu (30k), Mahesh (31k), Anjana (20k), Reena & Anita (7k uphill + 4k) kept us company in various stages... (Ps: Anita promised me Beer to raise her mileage, I promptly refused!!)

Chasing the Bull: Nari, Vasu, Chandra, Athreya & I started from Columbia Asia hospital at 5:20am, after a delay in scouting for a place to park. We eventually parked inside Esteem Mall. We were immediately passed by Monica & her friends who were biking to Nandi. She was kind enough to take this pic for us.

And so, we started running… keeping steady pace of about 9-10kmph. Mahesh spotted us near the Yelahanka junction and he joined us ahead of plan near the Jakkur airforce station.

Some important milestones:
Café Coffee Day 11k (1:15hrs) 3mins break
ITC Factory 16.5k (1:54hrs)
Friends Dhaba (just after airport interchange) 20.5k (2:25hrs) 7mins break
Devanahalli turn-off point 25.8k (3:10hrs) 10min tender coconut break

Nandi Hills turn-off into SH104 29.3k (3:40hrs) 10min break
Idly Point SH74 turn-off point 39.9k (5hrs) 10min break
Nandi Base 43.4k (5:54hrs) 18min break
Nandi Climb 47.4k (6:27hrs) 8min break
Nandi Top 51k (6:58hrs)

We ran the last 3.5k in 25mins at nearly 7min per km, which goes to show we did finish pretty strong, considering that the ascent was the steepest in this section of about 250mts!!
So, that is your benchmark for the “Chasing the Bull” Ultra – 51k in 6:57hrs.
Took lots of breaks for tender coconuts & water stops, it was a fun experience overall and a fantastic training for the Bangalore Ultra

Many thanks to all the runners from BHUKMP – Vasu, Nari & Giri, to Mahesh, Athreya, Reena, Anjana & Anita. Big hug and thanks (in XXXL size) to Tima for the support. I had to overcome a huge urge to hug and kiss the 1k milestone as we were running up the hill and just that was worth all the effort!!

Athreya was kind enough to present tee shirts to finishers (him n me!!) and Reena had organized beer and lunch at the Silver Oak Farm.

The Hyderabad Hi-Tech Marathon Report

2009-10-14T19:22:00.007+05:30

Reproduced verbatim from my own race report, what was supposed to make to the RFL newsletter, but didn’t. Did the weight of engagement ring add any extra to the timing?? Find out in the analysis of my own race in the section “Another Chest No. 25 – another Personal Best” at the end.

The Hyderabad Hi-Tech marathon featured in the coveted list of ‘new’ marathons along with the likes of Auroville, The Great Tibet & Coorg marathons. Some pioneering RFLers (Bhasker, Shyam, et al) had run the last year’s edition, and the feedback was very promising. (Bhasker’s best Indian marathon timing in his 12-marathons-in-12-months was at Hyd). With Rajesh Vetcha (a passionate runner & ex-RFLer) at the helm of organizing, my expectations were naturally, right up there.

My training goals for the year filtered out just 2 runs – the Hi-tech marathon and the Ultra. With so much at stake, I was delighted to see the dates for the marathon announced about a month in advance.

Pre-Race:
Right from the registration process, there were signs of meticulous planning (the site accepted ‘Mastercard’ credit cards ). In the days leading to the race day, Rajesh confirmed our stay in the dorm of the Gachibowli Stadium, the race route was published on the event website, emails with instructions on how to reach Gachibowli had reached us.

There was a loud & noisy gang that landed at Hyderabad on 29th Aug taking the Kachebowli Exp or the Gareeb Rath – BHUKMP team (Rishi, Amrita, Vasu, Nari), Deepak, ANS, Ram, Manmohan, Shumit & Rahul. We received fantastic support from Ganesh, from the organizing team who ensured (as Rishi put it) we were treated like the elite athletes.

A few of us got to test the conditions with a short 5k run in the synthetic tracks of Gachibowli stadium. Ganesh ensured that we focused on rest & carb loading – he took down names and t-shirt sizes and saved us the trouble of travelling for registrations.
Carb-loading was at Paradise in the evening over late lunch. Heaps of Hyderabadi Biryani disappeared & some more was packed for dinner.

The Race Day:
The Route: The race was a A to B run, starting at KBR Park in Jubilee hills via Hi-Tex City to ISB campus, then into the Hyderabad University & ending in Gachibowli Stadium. The entire route is undulating, with an overall gain in elevation of 850m. There was no shade cover for nearly 75% of the route and there are some uphills that last for a couple of kms. It’s definitely not the easiest course, but what made it memorable was the way it was managed.

• A High-Tech bus to take the outstation runners to the start
• An early 5:30am start
• Well stocked aid stations every 2km (water, electrolytes, bananas, oranges, biscuits, muscle relaxant sprays, sponges dipped in cold water). All of this was available right through the route, the sponges make a lot of difference of a hot day
• Good support from Hyderabad Police & Athletic Association. The Police riding motorbikes alongside runners towards the end of the race. Although there was sparse traffic, the Police made sure that they manned every intersection. There was no single incident that I faced where there was traffic hindrance
• Fantastic route – the organizers had worked on feedback from last year and had made subtle modifications to the route to avoid boring sections towards the end of the race.
• At the finish, medals were given as the runners finished and timings & names were recorded accurately to avoid mistakes
• Warm food was available at the finish is sufficient numbers (I cleaned 3 packets myself). The Pongal (Khichidi) was way better than the sandwiches that are provided at the finish of some races. I could see a Rajesh Vetcha chapa in most of this nuances.

Little wonder then, that, the BHUKMP / RFL team from Bangalore bagged 5 out of 10 positions in the amateur category (and RFLers came 11th in both full & half marathon). We had 3 out of the first 5 – a majority, whichever way you slice it. ANS had a lot of answering to do after his 3:32hr finish. Deepak & I stuck to plan – finishing in 3:43 & 3:50 respectively. Vasu came in 5th at 4:01hrs. It was a PB for all of us. Chandru was 10th at 4:23hr.

As was claimed by the organizers, it was truly “A run for the runners, by the runners”, one that should definitely be added to your running calendars.
And… time to take me out for a by-two filter coffee, Mr. Arvind Krishnan!!

“Another Chest No. 25 – another Personal Best”
Coincidentally, the last time I got a personal best was with Chest No. 25 at Auroville. I was pleased when the number was handed to me again.

On the eve of the marathon, while Deepak & I were discussing strategy on how we should pace ourselves for the run, Nari who stopped to listen in, dropped this pearl. He said “(In spite of all strategies)…finally it comes down to how badly you want it”. Take a moment to think, doesn’t it all come down to that, wow!

So I decided to go for it… might as well try and fail, than not try and fail – Try and fail, but don’t fail to try. So Deepak & I decided to keep 11kmph pace for as long as we could, my own personal goal was also to keep running for the entire race duration.

And this is what we did, we ran at steady pace including the climbs. But we made sure we increased the strides on the down-hills throughout the undulating course. Vasu remarked after the race about how we nearly blasted away on the long down-hill after ISB (at the 28k mark or so). The Gramin charts shows the fantastic co-relation between elevation and our pace!
The Result: A personal best at 3:50:01 for me, 4th position in the amateur category, Rs. 2000 in prize money – truly, the extra weight of the engagement ring did not affect the result. Perhaps, as Rishi pointed out, it only add the weight of responsibility on the shoulder…

Nandi Fartleks

2009-10-06T11:27:00.003+05:30

Ever done a speed training on a hill?
Nandi hills has been a boon to Bangalore. Runners, bikers, photographers, motorcyclists, bird watchers regularly frequent the hills over the weekend. Runners use the 7.3k climb to the top for some hill training, running up and down to the base, usually twice – takes us about 3-3.5hrs for the 2 loops.
On the 23rd Aug, it was only Sunil & I who turned up for the hill training (I messed up the post on the RFL club site and got no responses).
We did the usual on the first loop in 51mins, averaging 7:15mins/km.
Sunil got this idea of trying to do speed interval training on the uphill. So we paired up – he started running and I took the wheel of his car. I drove up 400m, stopped and waited for him to catch-up. When he did, he took the wheel and I powered up the hill, 400m to the waiting car. We continued this pattern right up to the top. The second lap was run in 39mins, averaging 5:22mins/km.
Notice the pattern in the graph??

Urban Stampede - Jungle mein Mangal

2009-10-01T22:45:00.013+05:30

Date: Aug 22nd '09
Venue: Olde Bangalore (same as last year)

Registration fee for the Urban Stampede, incl. run support, buffet breakfast, tee shirt, goody bag & an opportunity to run with your colleagues – Rs. 5000
Fresh fruit juice, Pasta and salads for breakfast & an entire spread of South Indian tindis – Rs. 300
Driving to the venue, the Olde Bangalore some 20k from the city – Rs. 150

A chance to run with your Fiancée, with the hope of beginning a very long run with her – Priceless. There are some things money can buy, for everything else you need to be blessed…

The Good:
· For the first time, I was sponsored. The closest I have come to being sponsored before this, was a beer or two after the runs on a couple of occasions. Thanks Wipro!
· There were 147 teams that participated, that’s a whopping 600 people running the 5kms.
· The starting area was actually inside the resort (last year it was in the parking lot).
· The tees were excellent (esp. the ones that came in the delayed lot). All participants (Note: deliberately avoiding use of the word ‘finishers’) were given shining Gold Medals.
· There were stronger runners, the entire Toyota team put up an excellent show, an average of 20.5mins for the 5k each.
· Good opportunity to interact with colleagues – Neetesh, Aman & Bryant from my team & Subba, Jai, Santosh & Naresh from the second Wipro team.

The Bad:
· Food was good, but you would have to think twice to offer your non-running family member breakfast. It was a whopping Rs.300 per person for the buffet breakfast. Quite a pinch if you were thinking of a stay-cation for the weekend in the countryside with your family of 4!
· The course was unchanged from last year. It’s a 2.5k and back, I’m sure we can have more variety for such a short distance.
· The bibs were clumsy, with the company name needing to be sprawled across on a second bib pinned on top of the first one.

The Bestest:
· Being the first runner in my group, I grunted my way through the pack and passed the baton in 4th position (our team finished a respectable 27th out of 95 teams in the Open category)
· With a timing of 22:20mins for the 5k, I came in 18th overall, out of the near 600 runners – top 3 percentile!!· Accompanied my fiancée, Shreya who was running the second leg for Ujjivan. The 40mins were special. Reena & Athreya perched themselves strategically along the course to make sure we don’t get ‘lost’ in the bushes.
You know I did some goal setting at the Sunfeast 10k last year. This year it is the Mission Accomplished, bwuhahhaha...hahahaha

Chennai Pondi Relay ver 3.0

2009-09-29T11:38:00.007+05:30

Date: Aug 14-16th 2009
Total personal effort in 3days: ~10k run in Chennai on 14th, 2pints, 10x200m sprints with the baton, 50k bike ride on OMR & ECR, 15k noon run to Pondy, 4pints, 8k Heritage run at Pondy, more pints.

Key Highlights:
Red Dress Run: 14th Aug, 5pm
* Late start, fading light, bloody long for a run without a water stop
* Run on streets, along crowded beaches was not pretty
* With the light dropping the trail was barely visible. Jugy, Zach and I ran back on our own having lost the trail
* Yours truly iced for representing BH3 filling in for the absent BH3 GM
* The party at Green Meadows was high on decibel levels & low on IQ levels, as teams tried to figure out what the team captains were strategizing

Chennai – Pondy Relay Run ver3.0: 15th Aug, 6am
* Horror start – First, Horror Zubin actually started the race at sharp 6, the hard, long baton in hand. Second, the Hyderabad runners van with Obelix and some 10 other runners ended up in the ECR toll booth and not the OMR toll booth!!
* Arun, Sunil, Jugy & I ran our guts out in short bursts; Arun ran out of turn a few times too.
* The Obelix van joined us about 5k later and we finally got some more time between turns to catch some breath.
* Our team finished our 10.4k in some 43mins or so.
* Amidst a lot of attention from team mates, Jugy & I put our bikes together, changed to spandex, changed shoes and were off on our bikes
* The bike ride was excellent. OMR has some flat stretches, it was an overcast day & the breeze was light.
* We made good progress, stopping only once during the entire 50k stretch. Except for a stray incident of a tractor trying to mow us off the road, ECR was friendly too.
* Reached Radha’s farm at Kalpakkam in about 2hours for some fab breakfast of omelet, idly, pongal, watermelon juice
* Packed the bikes back in and sprinted the second leg when our turn came. This time more organized, less frequent, but nevertheless as lung bursting as the first one.
* Then we hopped on to the car, with Vinod at the helm and headed to the last toll bridge on ECR as we entered Pondy, with an estimated 12-15k left to the finish.
* Jugy, Sunil & I started running (at 12:30, it was blazing heat) the last leg, Jugy dropped out & hopped on to Abnash’s car after 5k or so, Sunil dropped pace after about 7-8k or so. I finished the agonizing run at Nalla beach.
* Met some very snobbish hashers who were very reluctant to offer a lift in their car (to the adj St. James Court) for the fear that my sweat would stink worse than their beers. I farted in the car for good measure – phat phatia
* The baton reached to the awaiting hashers in 8:20hrs – jerking at an average of 4:11mins per km for all of the 120km!!!
* BBQ, dinner, party, football on tele, dance floor, KF pint at Nalla beach resort and back to Ginger well after midnight

Pondy Heritage Run: 16th Aug, 9:30am
* This was where the hashers were given treatment they are not used to
* Run started near the Gandhi statue. It was to be flagged off by the CM of Pondy himself!!
* The police made great efforts to clear the roads for us. The trail was very well marked with chalk, but the FRBs just couldn’t get the police van out of the way
* And yet again, Zac, Jugy & I lost the trail and ended up running the last few kms off the trail
* It sure was a hot day and a long trail for the recovery run
* The circle was at a beach resort, the cherry on the top was the Ballad by Mike(?) – the One of Each reproduced at the end of this post
* Lunch was served with the amber fluids at the Mahindra Zest Big Beach Resort. What a lovely place that was!
* The drive back from Pondy was a blinding one – first by the heavy downpour, then by the headlamps and finally as we neared Sarjapur by the lack of street lights

Reported in the press on the 18th. Linked via the MH3 site here
More pics here
Sing the Ballad Chorus before signing off… (full Ballad here)
Zac started filming – “Which way do we go?”
Leather Coater said “It’s this way.”
Red Stud answered “Where”
Arul said “That’s a long one, the longest one I know”

On On…

Bheemeshwari Ride

2009-09-28T08:21:00.004+05:30

Little did I know that in 2 weeks of testing my bullet on the Kanankpura highway, I would attempt a similar ride on the same road on a different set of wheels.
On 2nd Aug, BBC planned a ride to Bheemeshwari with Georg at the helm of affairs. With the amount of enthu in the forum & now a good bike, there was no excuse to not do this one.

I know the report has taken a long time to get here, but I will jot down the key highlights (from somewhere deep down the folds of my not-so-great memory).

The ride was to start at 6, some 40 odd bikers had joined the list. When I landed at the Family Mart junction, there was a mere fraction of that no. It seemed to take me forever to find a decent place to park my car. I tried an apartment complex – visitors parking, the Metro (which opens only at 6!) to no avail, then chose a by-lane, parked quickly, picked up the bike and was off before suspicious questions could be asked.

I rode back to the Family Mart junction, met Georg, topped up the air on my tyres and was off by about 6:20 or so. Many bikers were already on their way & I joined Prashant also on a road bike. We were settling down into a decent pace when we hit the first of the riders from the earlier pack.

We caught up with Annjuu on her Hercules wow & we decided to keep her company till she was safely in the company of slower riders. The only pack that sped past was that of Samim, Dipanker & Georg and Prashant slid into that pack. I don’t think I missed any of the put-your-head-down-and-ride section and Annjuu was fantastic company. She was quite slow, but made up for the lack of pace with sheer determination. She had only done a 40k before this and was challenging herself to do a 100 on this ride. Tagging along with Annjuu ensured that I conserved enough for the ride back, plus Annju was excellent company and we chatted on hordes of topics from motorcycling to parenting to spirituality.

We reached Sathnur (about 60k from Metro) and by then the rest of the bikers were way ahead. Annjuu wasn’t feeling great and was trying in vain to reach the support vehicle to pick her up. The mini snack at Sathnur, my persistent cajoling did not help and we talked to a few villagers at the next village. The were very willing to take care of the bike (without a lock) while I flagged down a tractor to take her down to Bheemeshwari.

I rode down to an awaiting Jeep where bikers were making their way back after having spent close to an hour in the Cauvery waters. I was quite fresh myself and after a quick refilling of supplies, I started back with Murthy, Nelly and Prashant. We stopped for a some chai, curd rice at a tea stall outside Sathnur.

The return on Kanakapura road was great – Samim, Georg, Prashant and I rode in a single file, pace lining a long distance. Outside of Kanakpura, Samim joined Dipanker shot ahead. I fell behind somewhat, managed to reach the Venki store at Family Mart junction at 5pm for some stretches and chilled beer with the rest of the bikers.

Of Clutch Plates, Laal Ghoda & Mavathur lake

2009-09-02T11:48:00.007+05:30

Date: 18th - 19th July 09
The 5in5 routine of the previous week had left a slight bad aftertaste. My silver bullet (all of 49000kms now) was not responding normally when I opened the throttle. There were also incidents when it would take me forever to start the bike, the kicker offering no resistance to the kick. I was determined to get it back into business on Saturday and hopefully make it to the RTMC announce ride on Sunday to Kabaldurga.

Early on Saturday I called Gurunandan to get it fixed. With Nandan nursing a collar bone injury and Tiger, his Man-Friday off on his monthly drinking binge, I had to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty (literally) and provide the much needed TLC for the clutches.
Nandan immediately pointed out that it was a case of smoothened clutch plates and that it was straight forward repair job. I got some gyan over the phone and waited till the brats (my nephews - Rishabh and Aryan) were at home to begin to remove the nuts and bolts.

Symptoms:
· The first sign of clutch-slip is, not being able to reach the top-speed you earlier could. Frankly, I didn’t see this coming
· Kicker does not offer any resistance to the kick and goes through easily. I even tightened the kicker nut thinking that had come loose
· When you are in say, the third gear, upon turning the accelerator, the bike revs, the rpm shoots up, but there is no corresponding increase in speed, speed may sometimes kick-in after a lag

Likely problem area:
· Clear indication of the primary drive not transferring the power, suspect the clutch plates
· Clutch slip will be due to one of two causes - insufficient spring pressure or insufficientfriction between plates due to excessive slipperiness
· Worn out fiber-faced clutch plates (can be found by applying pressure on the fiber plates using fingernails, if it feels like a tile and not like rubber , it’s time for replacement)
· In my case, all the bolts holding the springs had come very loose

Solution:
· Roughen the steel clutch plates with sandpaper (emery paper) or a file
· Increase the spring pressure a bit by inserting washers under all three of them or by using stronger springs. In my case, one of the bolts had a shake despite tightening it (possibly because of wearing of the threads), I used Teflon tape before screwing it back
· The oil that needs to be filled is light weight oil to increase friction, the cheapest one available is Laal Ghoda

“Most motorcycle problems are caused by the nut that connects the handlebars to the saddle”

I put back the primary case & the footrest and all that remained to be done was to pour back the oil into the case through the nut. But try as I may, the nut would not budge. With the edges of the nut already well rounded, there was little hope even with my new acquired adjustable spanner. So this nut (read me!) in a sudden flash of brilliance, figured that the engine oil flows into the primary case and poured the oil from the clutch case to the engine!!

It took some undoing after a call to the bullet doctor, Nandan. I went out and bought the Laal Ghoda, took the bike to a mechanic (yes, I had to succumb) to loosen the nut and filled in the Laal Ghoda.

By evening, I had more oil & grease in my finger nails than between those clutch plates.

Ride to Mavathur lake:
The Laal Ghoda did it’s job, washing away the guilt of neglecting the bullet and on Sunday morning at 5:30AM, I was saddled up to join the newbies on the announce ride to Kabaladurga.
When I landed at Khoday’s at 6:30AM, I suddenly felt like an outsider. There were small groups where riders were socializing, but there were only new faces. This was not the RTMC that I had known at all. But what had not changed was the time keeping – Goop joined in sometime, the ride captain, Biscuit, came in at 7am.

We had an early breakfast stop just outside of town within 30mins of start and one pit stop later we were near Kanakpura. We were looking for Mavathur on the map which showed a pretty lake off the highway. With the confidence on my bullet growing, I took over as the point from here on. As we turned off the highway into Mavathur, into the narrow village roads, it was yet another of those freeze-frame-RTMC moments – in the rear view mirror, the entire roads seems on aglow with headlights of Bullets - the village roads, the fields adding to the view.
We reached the far end of the lake and after making a few enquiries found our way to the bund on the other side. The lake bund was build in the 80s and there is hill at one end of the bund. A few of us climbed up the hill to get a better view of the surrounding (quite spectacular) landscape.
After a round of introductions, we rode back via Kanakapura & Ramanagara to get on Mysore road. I continued to be the point till we hit Mysore road and broke away from the main group to get back home for lunch with a visiting cousin from UK.
Total distance covered: 180km
Pics courtesy: Ajai Kamath… more here, here and here
For more gyan on clutch plate maintenance visit here

Office commute – 5 days, 5 ways

2009-08-25T22:34:00.012+05:30

How many times have we felt, “damn, the traffic is so slow, I could easily be faster on foot”, but never dared to try. On one such Friday evening when it took me 1:45mins to cover the 26k home, I decided to try all modes of options to commute to work – Car, Bullet, Bus, Cycle and Run.

Although, I had the phone lines open for 165774hours for the entire country to vote in their favorites, all of 41people voted (blame the economy, H1N1 or both). And like any reality show, the results are being announced after a choti si break.

Summary of the results:
• The least one-way time to commute was recorded while I rode the cycle; 54mins for 26km
• The least average time (both ways) was recorded by the bullet - 61.5mins, the cycle was a close second at 62.5mins
• The time taken by the next three modes were Car (1:12hrs), Bus (assisted: 1:45hrs) and run (2:35hrs)

Terminologies used:
• Work-ability: The ability to work after one commutes to office. Yes, some morons like me work after getting to office.
• Health Equity: Health = health, Equity is used to use up the residual remnants from my Fin MBA
• Relaxation Index: The measure of relaxation during the commute

Caveats:
• Although, I tried to keep the start the commute at the same time each day, there were deviations. Even a 10-15min change can cause quite a difference in results in peak hour traffic. This variable could have been controlled further
• Same as above for the time to leave office too
• There was a significant loss of speed in transmission because of slipping clutch plates in the bullet. But then, we are not getting into muscle fatigue during the cycling phase either
• The experiment is not sensitized to the day of week as well. I also have only the luxury of sample size = 1. With multiple data points, with different modes being taken on different days, one could also account for the Monday morning, Friday evening traffic variations
• All parameters where I have arrived at objective results (viz., cost, time, carbon footprint) have been converted to a 5-point scale for measurement. All parameters where results are subjective (viz., work-ability, safety, health equity, relaxation index) have also been subject to my subjectivity
• The ‘Overall ratings’ is arrived at using weighted-average. The weights are provided by me (Health equity 25%, Work-ability 20%, Cost & Safety 15%, Time & relaxation 10%, Carbon footprint 5%). Of course, this could vary from person to person and the ‘Overall ratings’ are quite sensitive to the weights considered
• We are comparing superman legs with them machines

13th to 17th July 2009
Route taken: Boopsandra>Hebbal>Windsor Manor>Chalukya circle>Cubbon Park>Richmond circle>Divyasree Chambers>Hosur Road>Forum Mall>Krishna Cafe>Wipro Park K2>Agara jn>Iblur Jn>Wipro Corporate Office
Total Distance: 26km
Run
Make: Superman
Start time: 6:00AM onward, 6:40PM return
Total time taken: 2:32hrs onward, 2:39hrs return
Cost to commute: Nil

Notes: I wear high viz clothing, cap & reflective wristbands for safety. I run on the right side of the road (opp. to the direction of traffic). At the earliest opportunity, I jump onto the footpaths. Despite utmost care, I nearly zonked out when I rammed against a signpost (twice) & also got shown the finger by one impatient jackass on the ring road. I use my car (parked conveniently in the basement car park at work) as a makeshift cupboard for my change of clothes and laptop & shower and change at work.

Cycle
Make: Giant OCR Road bike
Start time: 7:30AM onward, 6:50PM return
Total time taken: 54mins onward, 71mins return
Cost to commute: Nil
Notes: I wear high viz clothing, helmet & gloves for safety. I alight from the bike if I need to take footpaths, maintain high alert if I need to jump signals and do not listen to music or answer the mobile while on the bike. The morning ride is a very pleasant experience indeed. The car, shower & change get me work ready in about 45mins or so.

Car
Make: Hyundai Elantra
Start time: 7:45AM onward, 7:20PM return
Total time taken: 64mins onward, 1:20hrs return
Cost to commute: Approx. Rs. 110
Bus
Make: BMTC Ring road bus
Start time: 8:30AM onward, 7:00PM return
Total time taken: 1:45hrs onward, 1:40hrs return
Cost to commute: Day pass Rs. 30
Notes: Last mile connectivity issues at both ends; had to hitch a lift from work to the ring road. A lot to be desired on the frequency and timelines of the Volvo buses. Heavily crowded bus on the return.

Motorcycle
Make: Royal Enfield Bullet
Start time: 8:45AM onward, 7:00PM return
Total time taken: 59mins onward, 1:04hrs return
Cost to commute: Approx. Rs. 75
Notes: Due to clutch pads smoothening out, the power was not transmitting from the primary drive. Therefore, even at high revs, the speed remained low. Also, I left a little later than usual to work on the bullet adding to the total time taken.

The NET RESULT:
• Saturday was spent in roughening the clutch plates
• More importantly, after another week of trying to keep with this schedule, I gave up mostly because the running was difficult to sustain
• I now run partly (12km) and cycle partly (13km) to work, parking the cycle at Madhu’s (my sis) place overnight and picking it up the next morning. I find this a perfect mix of commute, training, cross training & work-ability
• Thanks for participating in the survey, most of you got it right. Since this survey did not involve sending an SMS, you saved Rs.6!! Cheers!

Bangalore Bicycling Championship 2 –Race to Nandi

2009-08-22T17:22:00.015+05:30

…and within a few hours of landing in Bangalore, I was busy spreading word about the new Giant in town, when I was casually drawn into RSVPing an ‘yes’ to the second leg of the Bangalore Bicycling Championship (BBCh).
And that is how, one day before I was to be engaged to Shreya,
“Main Uske Upar Tha,
Woh Mere Neeche Thi,
Haathon Mein Haath The,
Pairon Mein Pair the,
Please bura maniye,
woh sirf meri cycle thi”
Wah wah!! And Wah wah!!

The plan was also to pass on my Firefox Roadpro to Bharath (who was recently won the duathlon & has a PB of 18:33mins for a 5k) & Samim picked me from Hebbal at 6AM.

The race was to start from the Coffee Day near Jakkur at 7am and I had never ridden with BBC before. Although I knew there were 60 registrations, it was another thing to actually see them on the service lane opp. to Coffee Day. Everyone was kicked about the event – there were last minute topping up of air, bikes being fitted together, pleasantries being exchanged, photos being taken and some even doing initial warm up laps. While all this was happening, instructions were given over a loudspeaker as we all piled up at the start line.

We started at 7am, I had no drafting or pacelining whatsoever, simply wanted to try the climb on my new baby and ride back home. There were race marshals (members volunteer to be out of the race to help organize the chaos) at the highway turn off point (17km) and at the base of Nandi hills (31km). I did fairly well on the flat stretches. I averaged 33kmph before the turn-off and 25kmph after the turn-off to the base.

But it’s really the climbs that separate the wheat from the sheaf. While I struggled after about 5k into the climb taking nearly 43mins to ride up, Dipanker who came in first, climbed in 25.5mins!! Nevertheless, it was the maximum I have been on saddle on the Nandi climb and I have happy to have had minimal running/walking stretches.

I averaged 23kmph over the entire distance. I came in 18th out of 70 finishers, with 3 bikers passing me in the last bend. With 11 points from this, I have made a grand entry into the points table of the Bangalore Bicycling Championships.

After relaxing for awhile, we rode down to the Idly point for some breakfast. Sudhir, Murthy and other cronies decided to pace line on the way back. It was soon apparent that drafting behind another takes a lot more than just knowing what needs to be done. It works well for bikes/bikers of similar capabilities. While the rest of the gang broke off at Coffee Day, Sudhir and I continued all the way back home.

Mahesh did a wonderful job (and a brave one, esp while perched on the jeep with his SLR) with the lens and gave us all those wonderful pics. I have splashed them all over this blog/facebook/orkut. More pics from this shutterbug at http://www.flickr.com/photos/purpwaltz/sets/72157620529487549/

Despite my “Haathon Mein Haath, Pairon Mein Pair” incident, the engagement went on peacefully and I am now engaged! Pics you can see at http://www.flickr.com/photos/manojbhat/sets/72157621333296046/

Stats, route elevation courtesy BBC members, Photos courtesy Mahesh.

The American Independence Outsourced Run

2009-08-08T16:03:00.007+05:30

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
And thus on the 5th day of July I jumped on my cycle to place claim to my ‘certain unalienable right’ to attend the Uncle Singh’s Not American Independence run in Bangalore’s countryside. Well, since the 4th July run was outsourced to Bangalore, someone had to goof up on delivery and it was one day late!
I have hared runs in the past in this territory and knew the approach from Devanahalli. But I dug the map out and figured that there was a much shorter way via Bagalur and decided to try it on my new set of wheels.

The roads are laid recently and there is very little traffic to worry about. So, if you want to do a 70k loop from Hebbal, you should try this. Head North from Hebbal towards BIAL. Take the right at Bagalur cross > Bagalur > You will hit a T-junction, take the road that goes towards Gummanahalli (2km) & Yediuru (5km) (not towards Kannur) and then take a left on the Hospet-Devanahalli road to Singanahalli. From here Devanahalli is about 10k.
The run site was near Singanahalli.

Reproducing the run report by Vikram (Illiterate) Ram for two reasons – one, such well written hash trash, two – me lazy.

...but we all, like, got these really cool t-shirts with this kinda neat pattern thing (ugh; can't believe I just said that; score).

Anyway, the Scribe is back from holiday but was distracted from the setting and specialities of this Run, first by a certain charming lady who is back from her holiday (with tigers), and then a certain other charming lady who fretted over what to pack (or not) for her impending travels, with FRB-spouse, to the Leh Marathon.

Still, it was observed that a record turn out – some 60 Hashers large and twee – made it to a trail muddled by many checks, checkbacks, falsies and fishhooks which kept the pack together across several acres of farmland and those ubiquitous eucalyptii. There was a vodka/melon stop.

Followed by Part 2 of what was, in fact, An Astonishingly Long Run...at the end of which, and courtesy a miscalculation of rations, many people perished of starvation.

Circle charges:

Hares Pervert Producer, Crushed Nuts and Crude Sick for what they accomplished by way of terrain and chalk.
The United Colours of Horrors, comprising of Idiot, Meghana, Eric, Simran, Rohan, Yohann, Siraj, Chilly Filly and Pygmy.
Queenfisher for voicing concern that she hadn't been iced in ages. As that situation was remedied, Raw Sex held forth on the 9th August Run and the dinner-do after, the Pondicherry relay run, and the so-on and so-forth. What Queenfisher did not melt down was given over to
Virgins on Ice For The very First Time: Satish, Fareed, Nikhil, John, Roopa, Durgaprasad, Lekha and Amit. Welcome!!!
Crude Slick was re-assigned to ice for introducing a self-confessed “marathon runner”. Disgraceful!
Idiot, Karin and Krish, and some others whose names elude us, were honoured for being Born in the USA...or something of the sort.
Mama Mia, Kumkum and Idiot were feted for the dubious distinction of being Three Generations of Hashers In The Same Family. Say...has anyone noticed just how much beer Idiot gets to guzzle?
Phatphatiya (me, me!!) and Lekha were congratulated for getting Engaged (not to one another)
Pervert Producer was acknowledged for Sponsoring Those Super Cool T-Shirts.

GM and RA led the hymn. Just as we thought thought it was over, Perv Prod set off a surprise display of fireworks. Must have been all that sulphur: the skies opened and everyone drove home in a massive downpour.

I did manage to hitch a ride back in the beer van and escaped almost all of the massive downpour. On On…

Run No. 878

2009-08-08T11:16:00.005+05:30

Run No. 878 starting from Obelix’s home in South Shields was like a tour around the suburban Cleadon. The trail took us to the Cleadon Mill – ruins of a haunted (?) windmill from the 1800s. And when we were tired looking for the flour in knee high grass, we were shepherded down the hill and back up again near the water tower. It was quite a bright sunny evening and the group was split with a few of us FRBs breaking away in front. But soon speedbump and I were lost and got back on trail after a few anxious minutes.
With all the historical sections done with, in the beginning, we jumped at the chance to short-cut when lubricunt offered the shorter route back to the circle.
Back at the circle, we were treated to some mushrooms and bell peppers BBQs. And while we were soaking in the amber liquid and barbeques, we were treated to some spectacle in the Obelix’s backyard – a near complete rainbow.
More pictures and colors at: http://picasaweb.google.co.in/manoj.bhat/ObelixNHHH
Ps: It happened on Jul 17th, which means I am in namma Bengaluru. So you can pick up the phone and call ;)

Totempole NH3 Run

2009-08-04T17:16:00.007+05:30

A day after the Blaydon race, was another treat – a fantastic run no. 877 with the NH3. It started from the Totem Pole’s backyard, into many hills in and around the Hetton park area.
Faceplant, speedbump and I managed to get to a few FRB checks. Back at the circle in Totem pole’s house, I was charged for sitting at the FRB checks which earned me my visiting hash name, Disposed Phatphatia.
The wheat beer, Schneider Weisse and lemon pickles brought back memories of home.The photos here: http://picasaweb.google.co.in/manoj.bhat/NHHHAtTotemPoles

Cyclone Challenge and the Giant Miracle

2009-07-28T16:09:00.008+05:30

I did have a busy ‘business’ trip this summer; sample this:
Monday 1st June – Landed at Newcastle
Wednesday 3rd – heard about the Blaydon race at the NH3 run
Friday 5th – saw a poster for the Cyclone Challenge at client office
Saturday 6th 4pm – push in a last minute postal entry into the Cyclone race
Monday 8th – Promised a spare number to the Blaydon race & a bike for the Cyclone challenge
Tuesday 9th – Run the Blaydon race
Wednesday 10th – Run with the NH3 at Totem pole’s
Thursday 11th – Pick up bike from client manager’s home
Friday 12th – Get bike serviced & register for the race
Saturday 13th – 62mi ride in the Northumbrian countryside on my Giant Bike
Sunday 14th – Reflect on the busy week that was ;)

Maybe it was nowhere close to being miraculous, but each piece fell so neatly in place and before I knew it, I had participated in a 100k race in what would, eventually be, my bike!!

I never have been a destiny’s child and always had to earn every reward, but this time around I couldn’t have made it without a lot of help.
I would have missed it, if it hadn’t been for a poster at cafeteria at work.
I would have missed it, if, after seeing that the online reg was closed, I did not write to the organizers.
I would have missed the postal registration, if the organizers office was a distance away (with some few hours, no postal service would have delivered the form that quick). It was a mile from my hotel.
I would have missed it, for the want of a bike and Newcastle didn’t have a store where I could hire one.
I would have missed it, if the only biker I knew at work – Tony was at work (he probably has a MTB not suitable for the race). But Tony was on a 2 week vacation.
I would have missed it, if had heard about Tony leave from anyone else but Tim, coz when Tim heard why, he said he could possibly have a bike at home that I could borrow!
I would have missed it, if it wasn’t one of “those bikes with thin tires, and funny way to change gears” (aka road bikes!)
I surely wouldn’t have brought it back with me, if Tim was a biker himself, or if his girlfriend insisted he become one or if British Airways didn’t allow free carriage for sporting equipment, or, most importantly, if Ananth hadn’t told me this 2yrs ago on a Nandi ride!

Presenting… The Bike
It was indeed a “bike with thin tires, and a funny way to change gears”. It was a 2006 Giant OCR3 series – a mid range, budget road racing bike, with triple chain rings in the front useful for climbing. It has an Allux frame, carbon fork, 24speed Shimano Sora shifters, Shimano Sora in the front and Shimano Tiagra at the rear derailleur’s. It’s a XL 58cm and at 10kgs it weighs close to nothing. I did have to spend a bit at Cyclogical to get it road worthy and a little more to pack it later for the air travel.

Pre-Race:
The pre-race Registration was at Leazus park on Friday evening. It was not quite the gala I had expected but was nevertheless buzzing with bikers participating in the Criterium races clocking those fast laps around the park. For an event that was touted as “one of UK biggest”, the lack of bike stalls was conspicuous. At the counter, a SI-card was strapped around the waist and was to be kept that way till the end of the race. I also got my first bike number - 1835

The Race (link):
I had gone through the Google maps directions using street map, a number of times to make sure I don’t get lost the following morning in getting to the Falcons Rugby Club. Even as I entered the stadium, I saw a peloton riding out of the stadium and immediately felt the adrenaline rush. The start was well organized – some 2000 bikers were starting either the 62mi or the 100mi races in a space of 2hrs. Some 20bikes were flagged off every 2mins after dipping the SI-card in the timing slots. It looked like I was the only Indian rookie around, also arguably the only one in non-skin-tight shorts, without cleats or water bottle, but still carrying a camera!

The plan was to stay with the peloton or paceline behind someone to catch the draft. But the group spaced out in no time. As Leadlegs says in his blog:
“Now and again the small group we started out riding with, …, was swamped by a faster group that zipped all around us like hungry piranha attacking a carcass, before moving on to the next victim. It was a bit intimidating at first but I soon got used to it.”
As soon as we were out of Ponteland we were left with beautiful countryside to deal with. I tried to make small talk with fellow bikers for awhile. There was also a nagging patter from the front of the bike that I attributed immediately to the only critical area in the front – the fork or the quick release. It was just the clattering noise and I hadn’t made up my mind to stop and look for the problem. An Irish biker came up quietly behind me and pointed out to the reflector tapping against the brake cable and welcomed me to the ‘noiseless world’.
And from then on, there were no problems with the bike whatsoever.

My first off-saddle point came as early as 22mi or so, just before the Forestburn timing station. I didn’t shift the gears at the right time and the cadence had dropped putting in too much strain on the quads on a steep incline.

The timing station (which I reached in 1:22hrs) was stocked well, and I gulped down lots of water, a chocolate bar and some bananas. I also pocketed a couple of bars to sustain me till the next station, which according to the map, was about the same distance as the first.

So I had started out expecting to be out of water for about 1.5 hrs. I also knew that this section had the most climbs and very undulating. The 62milers separated from the 100milers about here and there was a much lesser crowd from here on…

I took many of the climbs either very easy or off the saddle, jogging alongside like a loser. After 1.5hrs, I began to expect the aid station sometime and was tapping into the reserves of my body fluids. The combination of no water and jumping off the saddle expedited the incidence of cramps. I can manage calf cramps, but the cramps in the Quads are the worse and I dread them.

After about 2hrs, I had started to hallucinate, looking far ahead to spot any signs of colorful paraphernalia of the water stations. I had started to curse the organizers for not making this clear in the map. It was clearly mentioned that there would be 4. I had started to wonder how close the remaining timing stations would have to be, to accommodate 3 more. The other riders simply zipped by with customary “Are you alrites”, but didn’t wait enough to hear my “not really”s. By this time I had started to question my wisdom of entering into the 62mi event. And the lush green landscape? I didn’t notice much.

The Ryals:
So, in this state of desperation, I look around the bend in the road and there is this “the fearsome climb of the Ryals with its 30% middle gradient” as described by the organizers. There was no way in bloody hell I was going to get on top of that on my bike. My optimistic side was still expecting a water stop right on top like a reward. But barring some photographers (for whom I got on my bike again to get this pic) and some resting bikers, there were none. But I was surprised by the number of bikers who attacked the Ryals, to the top of the first one and then continued on to the top of the second!!

And finally when I had made up my mind to crash into the next pub that I saw, the tents of the timing station at Stamfordhm came to view. I had gone 2:53hrs, the toughest section of the race, without water!

I rested there for awhile and was also forced to rest someplace midway. Although this was the easiest section -12mi and downhill most of the way, I took about an hour to finish in 5:17:47hrs overall.

Post Race:
The final standing put me in position 520 among 825 finishers. Not great, but I must have won the “longest without fluid” category hands down, if ever there was one. I picked up the goody bag and a simple cotton tee, some chips, coffee and the timing certificate and sat down at the exit to enjoy the spoils.

Well, if you thought I did ok, you should check the blog link which I chanced upon… about how 10yr old (yeah 10yr old!!!) Josh finished just 11mins after me. Woah, lotsa catching up to do there, I am about 19years behind!
Time to get back to work now…

The Blaydon Race

2009-07-12T21:45:00.011+05:30

Aw went to Blaydon Races, 'twas on the ninth of Joon,twenty hundred an' nowt-nine, on a summer's efternoon;Aw tyuk the start frae Balmbra's, afore the light was fadin’,Away we went alang Collingwood Street, an’ in 42mins was in Blaydon.
(chorus)
Oh lads, ye shud only seen us gannin',We pass'd the foaks upon the road just as they wor stannin';Thor wes lots o' lads an' lasses there, all wi' smiling faces,Gawn alang the Scotswood Road, to see the Blaydon Races.

Disclaimer: I didn’t write that. This anthem of Tyneside was written by Geordie Ridley and
eIn keepin wiv da Blaydon spirit, I iz writin dis in Geordie English.
Read on… an' if yous don’t iz gona, try again whun yous iz well.

So, as hit turned hout, I wuz da third in line to get da spare dijits fe da race hat da Hash an' dere wuz 2. I wuz fe real sore to as missed on da fun-race. But, I iz not da one to borrow up easily, an' I had da well kind manageez hat wurk to put up da notice fe da spare runnin dijits.
So, as it turned out, I was the third in line to get a spare number for the race at the Hash and there were 2. I was really sore to have missed on what was promised to be a fun-race. But, I am not the one to give up easily, and I had a very kind Manager at work to put up a notice for a spare running number.

And lo an' behold, on 8th da monday, Steve walks up to me an' tells me dat e could as one an' dat da lad from da club iz gona brin hit on toosday durin grub. I didn’t mind da 10 poonds hat all.
And lo and behold, on 8th the Monday, Steve walks up to me and tells me that he could have one and that a lad from the club would bring it on Tuesday during lunch. I didn’t mind the 10 pounds at all.
And that’s how I came about wearin da bib dijits 682 in Groat market lookin fe hashers hat 5pm on da 9th hof june. da band wuz bein set up in front hof balmbras an' da marshals wuz gettin' ready to blok da traffic.
And that’s how I came about wearing the bib number 682 in Groat market looking for Hashers at 5pm on the 9th of June. A band was being set up in front of Balmbras and the marshals were getting ready to block the traffic.

met lhj, cf, nickerless, woohoo, face-plant, vic & claire not before I had fed meself wiv da six mile sub-way. da nek muscle wuz da only one wot wuz warmed up before da race, wiv all da lookin around (left, east side, up an' down) to do. bwoy oh bwoy.
I met LHJ, CF, Nickerless, woohoo, face-plant, Vic & Claire not before I had fed myself with a six inch sub-way. The neck muscle was the only one that was warmed up before the race, with all the looking around (left, right, up and down) to do. Boy oh boy.

the race started hat 7.15pm in broad daylight an' I fought I wuz ahead hof da pak, bein da club runna, but neva once seun da elite runners. I ran da heavy race, not pushin meself hat any point fe real, coz I had narr feel fe da terrain.
The race started at 7.15pm in broad daylight and I thought I was ahead of the pack, being a club runner, but never once saw the elite runners. I ran a good race, not pushing myself at any point really, because I had no feel for the terrain.

there wuz quite da racket hat da start an' dere wuz bands playin along da course…
“Oh lads, ye shud only seen us gannin',We pass'd the foaks upon the road just as they wor stannin';”
There was quite a racket at the start and there were bands playing along the course…
“Oh lads, ye shud only seen us gannin',We pass'd the foaks upon the road just as they wor stannin';”

Hit wuz da yorkie experience runnin wiv such da massiv pak hof strong runners. I held da pace an' sprinted da last few meters to da finish line in 42:11 mins.
It was a great experience running with such a huge pack of strong runners. I held the pace and sprinted the last few meters to the finish line in 42:11 mins.

there wuz quillions hof goodies hat da finish line – some luvly eye candy can-can gaals, blak puddin, coffee johnny tee, newcastle brown ale (all part hof da blaydon race tradition). i waited fe da chill fe hashers an' we headed to da blak bull inn fe some blak sheep bea. an' while we wuz re-hydratin, we wuz treated to clog jiggy withit an' sword jiggy withit by da local jiggy withit group. There were loads of goodies at the finish line – some lovely eye candy can-can girls, Black pudding, Coffee Johnny tee, Newcastle Brown Ale (all part of the Blaydon race tradition).
I waited for the rest for hashers and we headed to the Black Bull Inn for some Black Sheep Beer. And while we were re-hydrating, we were treated to Clog dance and sword dance by a local dance group.

Aal togetha hit wuz da dun evenin.
All together it was a beautiful evening.

Moe on Blaydon Race heer
Moe photus heer

The Causey Arch Run

2009-07-11T22:51:00.007+05:30

Maybe they didn’t mean it when NH3 bid me farewell at the circle on Run 859, ‘cause I was back to Newcastle, to New Kent Hotel and to NH3 for the first run in June, Run No. 876. The English Summer was in - a heady mix of cool breeze, bright sunshine and intermittent drizzle, near perfect for some long countryside runs.

The Bullocks family were setting the trail in the Durham countryside starting at the Causey Arch Inn & Keko’s Restorante & Pizzeria on Marley Hill. Counterfit offered a lift and we had enough time for some Guinness. It was quite a cold summer evening and I missed my windcheater.
We were about 15 runners and were rewarded right at the beginning – spare balls to pick up! I filled up my pockets with some dimpled balls scattered on the field close to a golf course. The lush green fields and the weather had also inspired some love making along the trail earlier during the day! We piled some miles till we reached the site of the Tanfield Waggonway station.
So there was this railway line that passing under us at the station. Little did I know the history of this line.

Here’s some trivia for you guys - Tanfield & Causey Arch:
The wooden tracks were built in the 18th century to carry coal from the Tanfield colliery to the Tyne side. The wooden wagons were pulled uphill by horses and then gravity carried them to the riverside, the speed being controlled by horses harnessed behind the wagons. Horses then carried the empty wagons back on the bye-way.
930 waggons passed everyday, that’s 1 in 20secs, with some 50yards between them.
Because of friction, the wagons often caught fire and had to be pulled out.
The Causey Arch is the oldest surviving Railway Bridge and was unprecedented when it was built in 1725.

We ran through FRB checks, Molly Pollys, checks, criss-crossing the tracks several times. It took us through some flowery fields to the BS (aka Beer Stop), where we polished off the last drops of some bitter pints.
We joined the walkers in the last stretch to the On-Inn. We warmed ourselves over some Pizzas, I went for the only veggie option – the Ortalano and some more Guinness. The discussions were around the upcoming Balydon race. With the lasses taking the 2 extra numbers that Nick had to spare, would I miss that race narrowly? Did the mountain bikers that we passed on the home stretch, have a prophetic implication? Only time would tell, Stay tuned!
On On
Pics here and more Causey Arch on wiki here.

Lepakshi

2009-07-04T22:16:00.003+05:30

I had visited this town on the way to Hampi last year and always wanted to take my parents there someday. It’s perfect for a one day trip from Bangalore, if all you want to do is drive a short distance and still be able to visit someplace significant.

There are 2 ways to get there – via Chikkabalapur on the NH7 and left at Bagepalli or on via Doddaballapur on SH9, through Gouribidanur and Hindupur. There’s nothing to choose between the two in terms of distance, I chose to drive on the NH7 hoping for better roads.

We left at around 9 in the morning after breakfast at home and headed out on NH7 towards Hyderabad. The roads were great in patches, the not-so-good sections were those where we had to move on the wrong side of the road to make way for road widening work. Managed to cover a lot of distance till we reached the Ananthpur check post, just as you enter AP. There are no restaurants on that stretch, if you are used to the likes of Mysore road, you will be in for a rude surprise. We had stocked up sufficiently at Chikkaballapur.

We reached Lepakshi at 11 or so, first visited the Veerabhadra temple, took the services of a guide who in broken Kannada / Telgu went through a lot of historical and mythological significance of the place. The main diety, the lingas, the mural paintings, the kalyana mantap and the suspended pillar depict some fine workmanship. Check the wiki link for more info.
We spent sometime also at the Nandi statue which is the largest in India, followed by Tanjore and Chamundi Hills (that makes 3/3 for me). We were told that the Nandi here was a calf really and from the expressions a timid one.
We drove straight back and were in time for late lunch and early coffee.

Warwick Castle Jog

2009-07-04T18:26:00.001+05:30

Work took me to Warwick near Birmingham, UK during the end of April. Workshops were lined up all day at work and the hotel was way outside of town. I managed to squeeze out time to jog the 6-7miles to see the Warwick castle.
I like the uncertainty and mystery around such runs – you have no idea how long you are going to run, what you are going to see, who you are going to meet.
It was a pleasant evening, the sun was out and the rabbits scurrying into the bushes as I passed them. There were just enough people on walks to ask for directions, one of them even letting me know the best place for a view of the castle. Without this bit of info, I would have run to the (closed!) castle gates and would have missed this spectacular view from over the bridge ahead of the castle.

Act of Random Kindness at Arkesh’s Mango Farm

2009-06-14T19:15:00.014+05:30

Date: 02-03 May 09
Something struck me when I saw the closing dialogue of the movie Evan Almighty; I got out of the writer’s block and started to finish this post.
It’s easy to imagine that the ‘Ark’ in the Arkesh’s name stands for Act of Random Kindness. I have known him for a sometime now – as Praks father, soft spoken and charming, he always made you feel good about yourself after you had met him. So when I met him last Dec and spoke with such fervor about his farm off Mysore road, I made a note to myself to visit sometime.

Melukote

We wanted to take the weekend at our pace – Raghu, Raji and Dhannya confirmed and Tima and Ragi dropped off. The only reason I wanted to detour to Melukote was because it looked like a beautiful place in Jani’s album. (yes, I see other parts of those pictures now, after I’ve finally moved on. In fact, I am now on the verge of the imminent. Well, the Noah's Ark was not a singles' cruise; was it?)
We started from Bangalore at around 7, Mysore road was expectedly busy, although it was second day of a long weekend. We drove in my Elantra, stopped at Kamath for the buffet breakfast. The drive after we got off the highway was the best, we rolled the windows down and let the countryside air fill our lungs. It was about 11 when we reached the Kalyani at the bottom of the Melukote hill.
After the must-do photo shoot at the pushkarni, we started to climb up the hill to the Yoga-narasimha temple. It was blazing hot and the climbing the all the steps up to the teimple was not easy. We also visited the Cheluvanarayana temple. It was packed with sweaty devotees and ‘devotion’ was definitely not top of mind when I got a glimpse of the deity.

Where it is:
Approach from Bangalore towards Mysore – Within 0.5k from Ramanagaram bus stop, turn left on Kanakpura road. Reach Railway over bridge within 0.5k, pass the bridge and turn right after the bridge on Bannikuppe road. Reach Bannikuppe in 8km, turn right at T-junction and an immediate left turn to reach Aralaalasandra
Approach from Bangalore towards Kanakapura – Reach Saatanur via Doddalahalli. Proceed on Channapatana road about 20k to reach Volagerehalli and 3km from there to Aralaalasandra
Approach from Mysore towards Bangalore – After Channapatna bus stop turn right towards Honganooru at Saatnur circle. At a fork about 4-5k later, stay on the tank bund and continue for about 5k to Volagerehalli and continue straight to Aralaalasandra
I never thought we could make it with those directions, but they were spot on and more accurate than the GPS (sloppy benchmark to start with).
It was right at the end, that we overshot the farm, thanks to Raghu’s misleading gut-feel and our not-so-local-language-conversant co-pilot, Dhannya. The Elantra was subject to a lot of abuse from the road (or the lack of it), but I was proud of the way it handled the terrain meant for the 4x4s.

What is it:
We had absolutely no idea what to expect when we reached the farmhouse. But as soon as parked there, we started to breathe, see and eat... Mangoes. It’s a 50acre farm – a 1000 mango tress and some delicious varieties – Alphonso (Badami), Raspuri, Totapuri, Kari raspuri and a few local ones. In the middle of the harvesting season, each tree had nearly about 100 mangoes to be picked.
Kenchegowda was the caretaker of the farm, was out to graze cattle. But his wife and kids and Chandrappa made sure we were comfortably settled in the rooms in the first floor of the farmhouse after a guided tour of the farm.

Mango Harvesting: Thanks to movies and beverages, we woke up late and plans of trekking to Devarabetta or Kabaaladurga had to put to shelved for another day. Arkesh uncle came there in the morning and everyone got on their feet (everyone, except Raaji). After a quick breakfast, the mango harvesting began. While Raghu and I joined the team and were soon finishing off an entire tree ourselves. The words - first time right, low hanging fruits and sap actually meant what they were and not some business jargon. Arkesh uncle taught us how to harvest, to keep the sap from burning our fingers or the fruit. It was a relaxing exercise – starting off with an empty carton and a full tree and finishing off with a full carton and an empty tree.
The repetitive act of picking the mango to go for next, carefully plucking it at the right spot, placing it gently in the carton and back till the entire tree is cleaned up, and just doing this over and over again, is what brings to it an element of relaxation.
Raghu and I got back to lunch after a while, but Arkesh and team kept to the task till we had some 60 odd cartons, all treated with Ethylene (?), loaded and ready to make it to Metro.
The girls were having a ball too, sharing the machaan (hammock) and some gossip, am guessing!!
All’s well, but it really didn’t end well. What with the traffic on Mysore road at the end of a long weekend!
The next trip to the farm is going to be on a different set of wheels and also looking to do those treks and maybe a run or two…
Want to leave you guys with this quote from the movie Evan Almighty:
“God: How do we change the world? Evan Baxter: One single act of random kindness at a time.
God: [spoken while writing A-R-K on ground with a stick] One Act, of, Random, Kindness.”
Photos from Raghu and me

Labor Day Labor

2009-06-06T17:35:00.002+05:30

While on my trip to UK, of the things that I had picked up were a pair of tail-lamps, a crank brothers hand pump, spiral cable coil lock and a high-viz vest. And all of this had joined my Firefox that had barely been tested.
Bangaloreans are lucky to have Nandi Hills at just the right biking distance in our backyard. The Bangalore Bikers Club rides out almost every weekend to Nandi and I planned to join a group of mountain bikers to ride to Nandi Hills and back – a distance of about 100km from Hebbal. I pulled out of that and decided instead to join Sriram (profiled here) to ride 2 loops from the Nandi turn-off point off the highway. With Sriram, it would mean a much faster pace. But since we were to start off the highway, it would mean I would do a shorter ride.
A 4:30am weekend
This is becoming a norm now, wake up at 4:30am on a weekend. What is unfortunately becoming increasing regular is how I have to wait for people to show up. I was about 10mins early and Sriram was about 30mins late.
We started at about 6:40 from the Nandi turn-off point (23k to Nandi) and rode together one loop of about 10k and back. Sriram took off then, the next thing I saw was as I was approaching the point where we had turned off, he was racing some motorcyclists and was overtaking a few of them. The guy’s a freak.
I continued on and was struggling up the slope, yet to reach the foot of the hill, but already low on cadence and in granny gears. It was then Ignatius Chen Chin Fa, aka Iggy, the Kannada-speaking-Chinese-guy passed me on this bike. I met the die-hard RFLers – Rishi, Amrita and team, they had finished one loop and were getting ready for one more.
I started the ride up the hill – 7k of hill riding, the last 3k pretty steep. I lost Iggy and his friend within the first km or so.
I kept pushing the pedals for about 4k. The pedal clips help a lot in the uphills. You can pull up with one leg and you push down with the other. I had to resort to a lot of walking, jogging in the last 2k and just made it ahead of the runners to the top. I would have to work hard and try and get to scale the hill in one go sometime soon.
Rode down and back to the car in good time. I joined the Rishi and others at the dhaba for breakfast. Lotsa labor on labor day, I should say!

The 'National Geographic' Charlaw Run

2009-03-06T03:20:00.008+05:30

The Charlaw Inn NH3 Run No. 859

The Newcastle H3 puts in an additional run out in the countryside on the first Sunday of every month and that gave me a chance to squeeze one more.
Billy was driving from Jesmond and offered me a ride. The run was to start from Charlaw Inn in Edmondsley on the way to Durham. Billy’s navigator, Marian was out in London and I, barely knowing how to read the signs and the map, was to step up and do the job. Little wonder then that we got lost on our way and on my advice (very indianish but effective) stopped at a post office to ask for directions.
The run was hared by knickerless, Bellox me & Talking B – the family hared run. There were the regulars of the NH3, but lots more walkers. It felt great at the start of the run - the cool breeze, the endless fields, the windmill on the horizon, the hash jokes lifted the spirits.
The run quickly took us off the road into the fields and woods. There were some steady uphill sections and the path in the woods ran along a creek for a while, we jumped up and over fences, cattle gates, fallen trees and floating timber. There was a Beer stop about mid way at a local inn, the Wardles Inn and we set off again after the hydration.
The Animal Farm
It wasn’t difficult to find the right trail – do not go in the direction if you hear the hounds barking or if the sign says “beware of the bull”. We passed some deer, rabbits, highland cattle and some wild hashers running all over the place. In many places the earth was soft and it was near impossible to keep the mud off the shoes. I had managed to save my shoes almost till the end, but was duped just once by some grass over a slushy patch and went in ankle deep into cold mud.
The Farewell
I was honored again at the circle, with a down down, a complimentary NH3 tee-shirt and cap. Thanks NH3 for those wonderful runs and for being such a shit-hot host. On On…
Rest of the photos here http://picasaweb.google.com/manoj.bhat/NH3CharlawRunNo859

Ps: The title of the post is inspired by someone who has made a few appearance on visorview in the past and made it to the finals of the NatGeo Misson Navy... hats off!!!

Run Kennedys

2009-03-06T03:13:00.006+05:30

Obelix, Watsarong, Lubri, Counterfit, Billy, Marian, Lubricunt, Speedbump, Inncontenance, LHJ, HJ, Knickerless, Yohoo Banger, Totempole, Phatphatia – that was the entry that went under Run No. 858 at Kennedy’s at 8:25 on Wednesday the 25th Feb '09 (that is 1day short of 3yrs since I started running with the BH3. It's in the archive here).

For me, it was one more run made easy by the Hashers. My directions were simple – walk 700mts to the Jesmond Metro station. Be there at 6:10, look for a pretty lady in running gear (read, Speedbump) and she will guide you to the run site.

The run did start off well – with cops stopping by to check if the flour was WMD and I saw off a pint of Guinness before the start. The run was in South Shields and close to the sea, but the hares – Obelix, Watsarong and Lubri made sure we saw none of it. We ran through many red houses shouting our on ons. Many “Molly Checks” (a U-turn sign, upon reaching it everyone turns back and goes right back to the hare, circles the hare and gets back on the trail) and Triple FRB checks (same as FRB check only done with 3 FRBs) kept the pack together. And then there were “three on ons” - 3 flour dots in a row to indicate the right trail where the FRBs shout on-on-on.
The closet we got to wildlife was a toad that was living dangerously. Thankfully none of the hariettes were looking for the Prince Charming!

Customary down down were given to the hares at the circle. I got a down down for being the flasher on the run. It was Spitfire in the circle and I got back into the on-inn and tried the NewCastle Brown Ale and the Johnsmith.

Many thanks to Speedbump and to Billy and Marian for driving me back to the hotel. Marian even got out of the car into the cold night hug me a goodbye. On On…
Photos here

The Bangalore Midnight Half Marathon 09

2009-03-04T03:09:00.009+05:30

It took me less than 2hours to run it, but 1248hours to write about it. It’s like when they ask you in interviews "what are your weaknesses?” (Well, it’s probably not like that, but wtf) As you can see the Bangalore midnight marathon did happen. Crossover didn't manage it screw it up totally, only they decided to have it one week before the Mumbai marathon (oh yeah, that’s pending too).

It was the Mumbai marathon that I had been training for and I didn't want anything to really come in the way of the best part of the training - the tapering. But with a marathon happening in Bangalore, was I going to miss it? No.
But unlike some brave hearts like Rishi and Amrita who decided to run two full marathons in 2 weeks, I decided to do the half.

Athreya picked me up (and Reena, omg!! oh!!) and we reached the school from where we were supposed to start. We had to walk a long way to the start line though.
We didn't have the fuss at the start like in the last edition of the midnight marathon and we may have started at 12 midnight too.

It was fun to run the first few kms with Leona who was 'jumpy' after she had won the 5k event and downed a few beers! I was running alone for most part of the run. It was very pleasant running in the night and the whole body cycle working aganist you didn't bother me. I was trying not to run too fast just saving up for Mumbai, I guess. We had to do 2 loops of A to B and B to A of nearly flat course.
I held the pace for the first loop and then caught up with Prateek who was also doing great on the prep for Mumbai. Infact, both of us were holding the pace down, so it would not affect our tapering :)

With about 2-3kms to go, we could hold it no more and sprinted for the finish. I finished in 1:57mins. This is my first recorded marathon under 2hours - PB!!

But the night was nowhere near over - we all waited in the cold night waiting for the RGI girls to finish their relay marathon. I ran the last few hundred meters with most of them, they finished on the podium. Meghana did the 10k, the first 10k for her young one she is still carrying.
So there! Not the greatest race to run, but it was good fun with all friends around.

Statutory warning: Be ready for some dated posts to come up here...

Hash Bash at New Lanark

2009-02-27T02:19:00.011+05:30

It was Run No. 1187 of the Hamilton Hash, Run No. 1465 of the Edinburgh Hash, 14th trail weekend for the Bras and Pants H3 on Sunday, 22nd Feb in the cotton mill village, New Lanark in southern Scotland.
No, the brasandpantsh3 is not a “consortium of pub-going loose forward women” but is the “Brewery Runs Around Scotland & Pants because you are panting for a beer” Hash House Harriers… Read on…

I missed the train to Edinburgh on a Saturday morning by 30secs and as I cursed the fat-b!%&#-behind-the-counter for issuing my tickets late, made my way out of the Metro trying to look for a cheaper than full-fare (44£) option. Not the best way to start the weekend you would say.
But Edinburgh changed it all – the train ride itself offered some wonderful views, on either side on the window ;) From the moment I stepped out of the Waverley station into Princess street, I was surrounded by historic spires, parks, castles and museums. Even a non-event like walking to the hotel turned to a memorable experience.

I took a tour bus in the evening and visited the castle and the Scottish Parliament. The locals were friendly and were more than willing to help a ‘slumdog millionaire’ find his way around. One couple even offered that I should try a Falafel and recommended an Israeli place for me to try one. All this while, though, I was still working under the assumption that I would somehow find my way to this little village of New Lanark the following morning for the run.

In hindsight, I would have never made it, if I hadn’t seen a mail from Sheryl Valentine (!!) from the Edinburgh Hash offering to drive me to Lanark. Without leaving anything to chance, she offered to pick me right from my hotel lobby all the way to Lanark. We stopped briefly at the Gillespie home to pick up Alan. While Sheena (aka Sheryl) treated me to some coffee, Alan showed me around his vintage car collection – a 1936 Talbot, 1960s MG, and a Jaguar – all tenderly housed in his garage. It turned out that they had visited India in 2004 and run with BH3 as a part of the prelude to the Goa Interhash. She fondly remembered how the cops had stopped the traffic for some 200 hashers who had turned up then.

We drove for nearly three quarters to reach New Lanark. The hashers were from all around the place – the EHHH, TNT Hash, Hamilton Hash and the Aberdeen Hash. The brewery run had left most of them in various state of sobriety and drunkenness and one with a black eye even.
The pics tell you the story of the run – fantastic trail along the Clyde walkway taking us through the World Heritage site - cotton mills, a hydroelectric power station, the spectacular falls of Corra Linn and the Corra Castle.
It was looking very touristy till we saw flour going right down a steep, slippery path, right into the river!! A few of us did try to work our way around it, but the Hamilton hares had made sure there were no shortcuts. With my shoes worn over my neck, I stepped into the freezing cold waters of the river Clyde. My feet frozen and shoes dry, I made it to the other side. We ran some more till we came to the Bonnington dam (?) passing a few more falls before heading back. It must have been about 7-8miles in all. It was teeth chattering cold in the circle. The GM Megasaurarse and the RA cuckoo ensured that we stayed there long enough for the cold to reach our bones. I was given a down down for being foolish enough to come to a hash run from half way around the globe. I did have my share of true ales – the Burton Bitter & the Biere Speciale while the RA with his bunny cap went on with his stories.
Sheryl Valentine led the circle to sing all the songs (incl. the nipples on the tits one for the harriettes). Many of them were new to me. We went on then to the On Inn in the village, a warm place called Clydesdale Wetherspoons Inn for some Guinness and lunch.
There were so many things that should have fallen in place for me to make it to the run, many thanks to Sue, the Speedbump for all the directions and to the Gillespie couple – Sheena and Alan for escorting me to and back. I had to really stretch out Alan hospitality to take a lift right back to Waverley.

Pics of the run are at http://picasaweb.google.com/manoj.bhat/EHHH

Videos of the circle are here, here, here and here...

On On...

Tale of two marathons

2009-02-24T03:26:00.009+05:30

I completed the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon ’09 in Jan this year and the Auroville marathon in Feb, within 5weeks of each other. The two races contrasted each other so well and the lessons so important, that even though this post is dated you may find it worth a read.

*click on the image to see a clearer view

The Stats:
SCMM 09
18th Jan 09
Time of start: 6:50AM
Time taken: 4:50:09hours

Auroville Marathon 09
15th Feb 09
Time of start: 5:01AM
Time taken: 4:01:06hours

The Training:
SCMM – Hard work
Unlike last year, when I had just 4weeks after the Ultra to train for SCMM, this year I had 2 full months to focus on recovery and put in some speed training. I started the training easy and was satisfied with the progress on the speed runs. I even managed a 30km run in 2:40mins during training. I planned the tapering very meticulously - loaded on carbs, increased my intake of salt and kept myself well hydrated. The train journey to Mumbai also ensured that I kept my feet up and rested well. I pretty much went by the book and was confident of a close to 4 hour finish. The slight fever didn’t seem like a big deal.

Auroville Marathon – No work!!
There was less than 4 weeks between SCMM and Auroville marathon. The recovery from SCMM was more mental than physical. It took me a full week to get out of depression and disappointment. On more than one occasion, thoughts of downgrading to a half marathon crossed my mind. The UK travel was hanging like the sword of Damocles threatening to prevent me from entering the race. The last thing that was on my mind was carb loading. The only training I did was to hare a Hash run the previous weekend with Shantanu and Prats, staying on my feet for nearly 8hours. I had no hopes of doing any better than 4:30hrs. But, with 3-4days to go, Athreya, my ‘running mate’ for most of this year, promised to pace me for a sub-4 finish. I agreed to stick with him for as long as I could, but it was more wishful thinking and prayer than practical.

Race day – 0-21.1km:
If you look at the graph above, you will see how close the timings were for the first 20km – 1:45hrs in SCMM and 1:47 in Auroville.

SCMM – 7am start
Having run the same course last year, I knew what to expect – both in terms of the route and the conditions. I borrowed Nitin’s Garmin once again this year and stuck to the average pace of 5:22min/km, having set the target finish time of 3:40hours.

Auroville – 5am start
I had to wake up as early as 3:30am to catch the taxi with Sriram and Ramya from French Villa in Pondi. It was a much smaller crowd than SCMM and still very dark when we assembled for the roll call. Among other things, the goodie bag contained (very thoughtfully) a torch to see our way for the first one hour during the run.
It was a winding and uneven trail, but mostly flat. Athreya and I started out at a steady pace. And with just a small two-dimensional circle of the torch light there were many moments when the ground was suddenly not where you expected it to be under your feet. It kept us slower than normal pace. And in between long pauses, Athreya told me about his marriage plans with Reena. It kept the mood upbeat. Suddenly, SCMM seemed like a thing of the past. By the time we completed one loop, 21k in 1:53hrs, Athreya was struggling to keep the pace (well, I thought he wanted to get rid of me to be able to run with Reena)

Race day – 21k to 38k
SCMM – Hitting the wall
I was running well, keeping a 5:40min/km pace. I had caught up with Prateek and was keeping company with one Roni from Finland for a few miles. It was then that Rachel overtook me, looking really strong. Rachel (who runs in Ooty) and I were on the same train from Mumabi. (Roni finished eventually in 3:49 a few minutes behind Rachel who finished in 3:40hrs). It was around the 22k mark that I began to slow down, somewhere near Shivaji Park. The virtual runner on the Garmin started to get ahead. I had taken nearly a full hour to run 9k - from 21 to 30k mark and I was struggling. I had hit the wall and was making all possible excuses to stop – to take endurolytes, at aid stations to nurse phantom, non-existent cramps & nature calls. I had finished 30k in 3hrs and was about 3k behind by then. My target was to finish atleast 33k in 3hrs and I was slowing, with little hopes of making up the lost time. And then I lost motivation to keep pace. I gave up and suddenly didn’t care about the finish time anymore. My Gramin stopped working at 33k and I failed to notice it till the 36k or so. My collar bone had started to hurt and my whole upper body felt weak, there was nothing wrong with my legs. But I had given up. I completed 38k in 4:10hrs with zero motivation to go on.

Auroville – Running through the wall
After the SCMM, my only target was try to run for as long as I could, if possible run right through the wall. (I have never really experience the wall as something prominent though, maybe that is what it is). I wanted to run for 33k atleast and then ease off the last few kms. By 22k, Athreya had dropped off and Deepak Mahasvade, who normally is ahead of me had caught up and was a few paces behind. I began to feel good enough to keep the pace going.

What happened then was magical. I started to see figures on my Garmin that I had only dreamt about - 30k in 2:45hrs, 32.5k in 3hrs, 35k in 3:16hrs. By this time, I was confident I had run through the wall, if ever there was one. I passed many half marathoners and stopped every time to tell me how this ‘other person’ was running, I still couldn’t believe that the ‘other person’ was me. Each time I looked at the Garmin, it was a personal best for me. The many volunteers starting from about the 30k mark egged me on shouting out that I was 5th, 6th overall, etc. I was so buoyant that I was asking how everyone else around me was feeling, getting surprised responses few volunteers at the last water station. It also helped that I had cut a lot of corners during the course of the run and had managed to save up a few hundred meters.

SCMM – The long last mile
As I turned into Marine drive, my Garmin had stopped working; I had no semblance of time. The sun was up and killing me, I was barely running. It was then that Sunil passed me, I tried to keep pace with him, but the distance only grew between us and I stopped yet again. But in a few mins, I passed him and we continued to do so nearly till the end. I was myself, stopping at all possible aid station and using the relaxants on those phantom cramps. But my upper body was giving up and I could feel my forearms cramp for real. Even with the finish line in sight, I was unable to motivate myself to try and shave off a few more secs, off the total. I was at such depths of my depression.

In the movie, Spirit of Marathon, one of the runners profiled Ryan says “You know it takes a certain level of training to hit that marathon and when you can’t do what you are used to doing it, it affects you mentally.”

I had reached a state of mind that was beyond numbers or targets. To me, I had run a terrible marathon and that was all that mattered.

Auroville – Magic, there is no last mile
As I ran the last few kms, I pictured the finish, a jubilant me running to my waiting friends – Raghu, Raji, Sriram, Ramya and Tima. Around the 38k, Ravi (Ravi had finished SCMM in 3:40) passed me and I managed to overtake a very tiring and severely cramping runner. I was happy that I had not started to cramp yet. I had taken lesser Endurolytes than normal which makes me wonder if taking too many salt tablets contribute to upsetting the salt-water balance. As I neared the finish, I was tempted to shoot for the sub-4 finish, but I had reached a state of mind that was beyond numbers or targets. To me I had run my best marathon and that was all that mattered.

… And the lessons
Enjoy running – there has been too much focus on time, pace and mileage, some where I have stopping looking for the joy in running
Back to drawing board – if I like to be faster I need to get back to those tempo 5-10k runs.
Lift some weights, get back some strength

Newcastle Hash House Harriers Run No. 857

2009-02-20T04:27:00.008+05:30

So I land in Newcastle upon Tyne on Tuesday evening after a 19hr flight – bored but excited. As I settle down in my small hotel room at Jesmond, I look up at the print out of important numbers that I had been carrying on me. Right down at the bottom of the list is a table which I had taken out of the Newcastle Hash House Harriers site. I walked up to a nearby public telephone put in recently exchanged 40pence and dialed for Keith “counterfit” Hudson only to reach his voice mail.
First day’s meetings got done early enough giving me sometime to check the distance and directions from Jesmond to The Victory at South Gorsforth. 1.3miles of walking distance, not too far at all. And with the Wednesday evening run starting at 7pm I had enough time to get running.
So off I go, asking around for directions to find the pub. I am dressed in a bright red Bangalore Hash Tee, black undershirt, shorts and complete with gloves and skull cap. But its not uncommon to see runners and bikers despite the 6-8deg temperatures.
There is no noise in The Victory when I enter and I check at the bar for a counterfit and receive a blank response. I walked out and waited. “you aren’t looking for the Hash, are you?” a bright young lady had walked up to me from inside the pub.
As I sat down chatting with Sue, the speedbump the hashers began to trickle in – counterfit, left hand job, incontinence, Obelix & Whatsarong. The run started at 10 past 7 with counterfit explaining the hash signs:
Circle is a running check, circle with a cross is a run-in check, square with a dot is a FRB check (the FRB strikes a pose as he waits till the last one passes!) and a T is a false trail. In 10mins time we were running along the river is some dense, dark, cold, slippery forest area with headlamps to help us spot the chalk. There were many checks along the way to keep us interested. In the 4-5mile run, we passed through four lanes, parks, the boulevard, a golf course, more dark, slippery forests and passed innumerable quiet, red-bricked houses with thatched roofs. Totem joined us mid-way during the run.

The circle was short and with so much cold around the butts needed no more ice and the Bud’s didn’t need no chilling. As I joined the circle in singing the down downs, I felt at home and already connected to the Newcastle hashers… So far but still so close…
I was treated to some fine pale Ale – the Timothy Taylor’s Landlord and the Pedigree at the Victory. The Landlord had an unmistakable mint herbal lingering taste, so different from the lagers of Bangalore!!
On On now to the Edinburgh Hash House Harriers…

Firefoxed

2008-12-24T15:15:00.003+05:30

What looked like an eternal search for a road bike finally ended and I bought a used Firefox Pro 2200 on 20th Nov from this guy called Ramesh from BBC.
Chikka ride to Chikka Tirupati
Chikka Tirupati happens to be a favorite with a lot of biking friends who like in the Kormanagala part of town. Some 20kms from Iblur junction, it’s the perfect get-your-bums-on-the-saddle ride.
Satish, Anil and I rode from home, started as early as 5 in the morning. The new bike responded very well and biking was easy. Anil turned back from Forum and Satish and I were joined by Satsang and Dharam at Agara lake, where we were hoping to meet a bigger (slower) crowd, but that was not to be.
We rode down Sarjapur road, stopping briefly at Sarjapur. The roads were decent – good in parts, but not so bad overall. We reached Chikka tirupati by 9 or so. Dharam cleaned up a Udupi restaurant on the way back. Satish and I decided to take an alternate route which took us to Varthur lake and then rode all the way back on Ol Airport road and back. Towards the end I had begun to cramp and we struggled through the traffic. It was not a bright idea to take this up immediately after the Ultra. The trip-o-meter read 104kms by the time we were back home by 1:30. It was not one of the memorable ones.
Bike Hash 08
14th December 2008 and Mysore farms off Sarjapur road was the lovely location for the last major run of the year at the Bangalore Hash.
Corollary to Murphy’s law:
If something has to go wrong, it will pick the last run of the year, the one that you will hare and all hell will break loose!!
I should have guessed something fishy, when the beautiful farm (some 50acres of coffee and palms) off Sarjapur road is called Mysore farm. When we have 20cycles from Firefox (the sponsor) plus 30 doodhwala bikes (Hercules, Atlas, etc) from a ‘Modern’ dukan in Shivajinagar and some 125 jobless hashers sign up!
It couldn’t have been easier to hare this though. (if you are still wondering what haring is, read this report of last year's bike hash). Jugy, Private soreass, Rekha and I were the hares and we did all of the haring still smugly in Jugy’s suv…
In the middle of nowherenagar, some 100cars pop up and park on all our chalk markings that was supposed to lead the walkers to the water hole…
The Beer van did not turn up in time for the start, lost its way and had to directed just in time before the bikers reached there.
We managed to lose a few walkers as the sun came blazing down and it was quite an effort to shepherd the pack. Our own Desi Santa came in with goodies for the horrors and lunch was breads, peas and cheese was washed down with the amber liquid…
Abnash did the shutter job, as usual. Click here for pics…

Firefox feedback and pics will be posted soon…

The Bangalore Midnight Marathon 2008

2008-12-01T09:10:00.005+05:30

The good news is The Bangalore Midnight Marathon 2008 seems to be happening (with just 2weeks to go, I dont think the organizers can screw up much).
You can register at http://www.toimidnightmarathon.in/ or call 08041126004
The last edition of the midnight marathon was in May last year. Report's here.

Update: Site will be up only by eveing on Monday (I spoke too soon, eh)
Update(02Dec): Site is up. Cheerz!
FInd the Route Map below:

Update 05/12/08

Bangalore Ultra 08 – Is the running getting dirty?

2008-11-28T18:11:00.010+05:30

*Legs, after the run Photos courtesy - Anita & Manjula
The Bangalore Ultra 08 happened on the 16th Nov. And for a second time, I ran a distance of 75kms finishing strong in 11:04:20. I was exhilarated at the finish – the finish was so much like the kinds that I had been dreaming about for the last few days.
I was left with some 26mins to finish the last 3.5kms to be able to come in under 11hours. I realized I could only do this if I ran most of the distance that was left, still trying not to think of a possible crampy finish. I ran the flat stretches, walked the only uphill and kept a steady slow pace till I saw the 1km mark. I walked a bit trying to muster strength to take me to the finish line. As I entered ONV, I stepped up the pace and sprinted to the finish. I was exhilarated.

And that is where the similarity ends between the Ultra this year and the Ultra last year. And before I get into the worry-beads let us talk some mundane matters.

Although I had trained much better this year, (including my own kanakpura marathon and a 50k at GKVK), it was not the best pre-marathon preparation. My cousin’s wedding on Friday ensured that I was kept on my feet all day and a college gang reunion of sorts on Saturday left no room for the resting rituals.

The Ultra long day
3:30am: Mom heated up some milk, while I frantically search for my heart rate monitor, in vain. Dharam offered to pick me up at 4 and I join Bhasker, Rajesh & D in trying not to get lost on our way to Our Native Village (ONV). We reached there with a good hour to go for the 6:30 start. Paid a quick visit to the ‘Asha tent’ just outside ONV – the tent was well stocked (all down to puliogere rice!) to support Santhosh who was on his way to complete a 24h run. Read his run report here and come back if you think what I did, still matters.

6:00am: My Super-nephews wish me luck
Extra dose of Vaseline – check
3 Gels on person, 3 more in the bag – check
15 Endurolytes in 3 packs – check
Water bottle – check
1 pack of sunscreen – check
All other stuff in the bag, stuffed and zipped up – check

Tring tring – damn, what timing. I cursed under my breath as I rummaged through my stuff for the darn phone. Damn, does it have to be in the pocket my jeans and does it have to be first thing that I put into the bag!
Its my sis, and I say “Hello”. At 6 in the morning and totally out of the blue, a very sweet sleepy voice replies; “Hi Manoj, All the best”. It is my champion nephew, Rishabh. He's only 6yrs old, but he already knows a thing or two about competition – last week he had won a Gold and Silver (and with that a Championship Shield half his size!) at the Karnataka State Roller Skating Competitions. Aryan, the younger brat also added his wishes to mama! When I was down, out and alone in the 5th lap, their wishes flashed in my mind and I ran with them, for them for awhile. I owe a lot to those brats!

6:29am: Lap 1, 12.5kms in 1:30:34h
I was still greeting many of the familiar faces in the 50k, 75k & above category in the semi-darkness and before I knew it, the race had started. I had set a personal target to finish each loop of 12.5k in 1:30hours, reaching the 75k in 9hrs. The plan was to walk the uphill and run the flat and the downhill sections at a steady pace.
I was tempted to begin to walk as soon as I was out of the resort, the path was an incline, technically. Athreya and Nischal were ahead right from the start and I made no effort to keep pace. Rajesh (of the Jaago re fame) had decided to stick with me since we were targeting similar lap times. We had reached the half way mark on time and finished the loop bang on target. Sabine was at the finish line, her usual shrilly scream egging us on.

8:00am: Lap 2, 12.5kms in 1:32:45h
I had started my regular intake of gels and endurolytes – alternating between the two every 5kms or so. Pretty uneventful lap this one, just that the distance was covered in about target time.

9:33am: Lap 3, 12.5kms in 1:36:18h
Loop 3&4 were the crucial ones; for me because I seem to have a cramp threshold around 30k, for Rajesh because we were approaching his max distance limit and it was important the weather remained as overcast as the early hours had been. There was still a possibility of the sun coming out with a vengeance.
We were accompanied by Anita Bhargava on this loop. Her partners from the previous loops having ditched her, she was looking for some slow runners to keep her company. She kept our mind off the running during that loop. She was strong, despite her nagging hamstring injury she went on to finish her 50k.
We had passed a struggling Nischal and a very upset Dharam. But Prats had taken off, she was on her way to the podium finish – 50k in 6:07h, way to go!!
With 3kms to go to finishing this one, we caught up with Santhosh. By this time, he had done nearly 17hrs of running. It is difficult to describe such tranquil. I passed him many times during the 11hrs, never once did I see the calm leave his face. It was as if he was above all pain and suffering, above anguish and agony. I don’t know about Godship, but am sure this came very close.
Santanu had gathered a mini army around him and we all ran together for a few kms. By the time we finished the third loop, Rajesh and I had built a slack of 10mins.

11:09am: Lap 4, 12.5kms in 1:58:32h
By the start of this lap, my big-toe nail had begun to throb, but I had settled well into a good rhythm of run-walk; perfect because the uphills were well spaced to give me long running stretches and well-timed walking breaks. I was with Jugy when we passed the 42k mark somewhere near waterstop3. Some 5:20h for a marathon distance, but with 33k still to go, 42.2k was just another milestone – it came and went. Rajesh was a minute behind me when he finished his 50k in 6:38hrs.

1:09pm: Lap 5, 12.5kms in 2:14:32h
I took a good 10min break before starting out again on the by-now lonely trail. I needed to put on my knee support and at the baggage counter, Shantanu was godsend. He helped me take off my shoes to put on the knee supports and helped them back on. Taking off shoes has the potential to jeopardize the rest of the run, you could pull anything. Thanks mate!
This was the slowest loop, intentionally so, if I may add. If I could get done with this, I knew there would be no looking back. And with more than 5hrs left, I had begun to feel more relaxed and lazy.
On the first walking break, I passed Nischal walking back on her 4th loop. She had a swollen foot, serious injury was suspected. She was heart-broken and understandably so, she had trained hard for this day.
At the U-turn, there was one man who was about a km behind me - Sunil. I have run with Sunil for a couple of years now mostly at the Bangalore Hash. Some girt that man has! Despite being nearly twice my age, he maintained pace with me right through till the very end.

3:22pm: Last Lap, 12.5kms in 2:11:39h
I briefly ran with Santhosh and Doc on this lap, but they were way too fast for me. Santhosh was into his 21st hour and he looked very strong! I turned around at the 6.25k mark, and met Sunil exactly where I had seen him on the previous loop – he was making the same pace as me! It was after the 4k waterstop that I got my nth wind. I looked at my watch with 3.5kms to go. I had 26mins to make it under 11hours. Only one way to make that possible – run most of the distance. Luckily the return leg has just one uphill, I could do it if I ran the flats and the downhills. I ignored the last water stop and ran a short way uphill (I had never done this in any of the loops so far). I took a walking break at the 1k to go mark, I needed to finish strong.

5:34pm: The Finish
I am proud of my finish. I picked up pace after the last water stop and kept it till I reached the entrance to ONV. As I turned in, into the resort I steadily stepped up pace and sprinted (well, almost) to the finish line. I have never finished any race that strong (SCMM 08 comes close thou)
A minute later I looked at my watch, I still had a minute to go to 5:30. I thought I ran it under 11hours and was delighted.
The official results had mysteriously added 4mins :(

Time to wash some dirty legs:
About why Ultra ’08 was a small step backwards
(some of this may be ‘doc’tored, rx with a handful of salt)

* Lack of enthu build up on the RFL site. Even during the last week, there was hardly any excitement on the site. A far cry from the training, diet, pacing discussions of last year.

* Running legends missing in action – Madhu was down with flu for a long time throwing suspicion on his participation. We missed Sabine’s shrieks on the trail, Doc was not running with RFL (&RFLers??). Meghana & Suds were absent. The whole volunteering ecosystem of last year was missing, where we had volunteers just pacing some runners in the last laps; how cool was that!!

* Manipal’s angels were missed a lot. Images of those volunteers in the 12th hour still cheering me as I passed the 3rd water stop near Kuteeram last year are once I still cherish. This year, the medics were not prepared for the runners to last that long.

* The results show that despite an increase in the no. of participants, the no. of runners who finished 50k+ distances – is it still the race “for the runners by the runners.”

But it certainly didn’t leave a bitter after-taste, thanks to:
Santhosh – who showed us that there are no limits
Team Asha – how to win a race without taking a single step
Sunil – who showed us what resilience is
DK – (finished 37.5k at his seventy, not seventeen!!!) who showed me how long one can run
Jugy – who showed us what a good trail can be
A large part of RFL who still make the best footrace in this part of the globe!!!
Links copied shamelessly from Anita’s site
~ Anita’s view thru a lens

~ Santhosh’s 156 km effort and his work for Team Asha - Must read!

~ Shumit does a 100K

~ Swaroop about his 25K

~ Jayadeep’s first effort

~ Sathish on the highs and lows of his 50

~ Venky on crossing the 25 k mark
~ Dharam’s disappointment

~ Vikram Chadaga - Must see the Video!

~ Bhasker’s 4/12 marathons

~ Kaushik's narration

Ps: Did I forget to mention I came in fourth in my category :)

Ultra Tense

2008-11-25T10:25:00.004+05:30

Two weeks before the Ultra, on the last long training run, at GKVK with Dharam and co., my half-size-too-tight shoes finally decided to bring the curtains down. I had to pop a pain killer to ease the numbing pain in my toe. My toe nails will stay colored for a long time to come. Eleventh hour change to running shoes?

That Friday, I woke up from sleep, trying to loosen a stiff calf, ramming the heel against the floor. I had a cramp. I looked at my mobile for time – it was 530. Damn, I must have been running in my sleep all night. I must not have had enough water – or was it the cold?

No. 9 on the To-Do list before an Ultra says “Be Positive”. Over the last week, things had been a mixed bag at work, and I have been returning to an empty home. I have now moved out of my parents’ home to sharing a 2bhk with Doc, closer to work.

Doc had not been keeping well. He had to pull out of his 24-hour run plan. Madhu, who brought the whole ultra running to Bangalore, was down with flu, Meghana had to pull out, Sabine was not running. No. 9 was not happening.

But, with one week to go, I would silently clench my fist, with more prayer than conviction, “I can, I will”.

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams.
- Paulo Coelho

Rocket Sparkles Bomb at Bangalore Hash

2008-10-27T10:00:00.008+05:30

Run No. 481, Diwali Hash – A Report

Disclaimers: If you got here looking for info on recent bomb blasts, I condemn the blasts, but you have come to the wrong place
If you are looking for the Bangalore Bomb shells, you need to go as far away from me as possible to be able to find them
The Hash is not what you thinking it is, read all about it here and get back.

The location was Chandy’s farm, off Kanakpura road. “If I only I could own a place like this”, was the common exclaim as you enter the farm. It’s got this nice lawn that leads up to the farmhouse on a hillock with a pool alongside.
The rains had been beating hard on Bangalore for the entire week and it was not only the market caps that were being eroded. The gloom suddenly cleared for the Diwali run and it was cloudless on Sunday evening as I drove with Athreya and Prats to the farm.

Raw sex, the GM and hare for this one, had promised the FRB (Front Running Bastards) are going to enjoy this one. The usual hash signs made way for Rocket-Sparklers-Bomb.
When you saw a rocket on the trail, all FRBs ahead of the lead hare had to turn around, retrace the trail and wish “Happy Diwali” to everyone else, right till the walkers sweep hare. We amended the rule to add a tight hug to the ever-so-smiling walking sweep hare, page3.
A Sparkler meant, wait and sparkle till every last one on the trail passes you while you sparkle. And a bomb was good news for all the horrors (aka kids) on the trail. The FRBs run to the sweep and pick up sweets for all the horrors on the way back.

It was a refreshing change from the usual hash runs, and yours truly was one of the first ones to turn around. The signs were timed to perfection and a few of us re-trailed n-no. of times and “Happy Diwali”ed the walkers many times over. The toffee incentive worked well for Chiku, perched firmly on pappa Ravi’s shoulder never once missed wishing “Happy Diwali”. It went from Happy Diwali to Ale Ale to Happy Christmas and New year’s by the time we finished.
The water stop was also refreshing - Sangria served with sliced apple and pine apple kept us high till we reached the circle. Chats, hot Jilebis, Pav Bhaji waited for us while the draught took precedence.

In the twilight, alongside the aqua-green pool, the stars twinkling again, with the aroma of the cuisine filling the air, we sang our hearts out to the hash hymn…

Swing low, sweet chariot
Coming for to carry me home
Swing low, sweet chariot
Coming for to carry me home
I looked over Jordan and what did I see
Coming for to carry me home
A band of angels coming after me
Coming for to carry me home…
ON ON…

Photos here

KTM 08 - Only one way to go - Down

2008-10-24T20:15:00.009+05:30

*note the salt deposited on the cap in the snap above!

The sun is beating down heavily – I can feel the burn on my shoulders, I pour some more water from my sipper over my back; I won’t be needed too much water from here on. Running is euphemism to describe what I was doing, I was barely running. I tired not to think of the cringing faces my running pals, 3 strong runners not being able to continue.
At a distance I could see a metal glitter through the hues of green. Am I hallucinating? Or is it really the last water stop. I looked at my watched, it read “12:00”, it had been 4:20hours on this blazing trail. As I approached the last bridge (or was it?), I am forced to ignore the “hello-how-are-you” screams from the kids who were enjoying their swim in the Kaveri canal. Even the mere thought of a dip would can aggravated the cramps now. I can’t wait to fill my lungs with the stench of the carcass that floated in the canal close to the finish.
A van comes into view and then the rest of the runners waiting at the finish. I can feel a sudden rush, a spring in my tired feet and almost immediately the lurking cramp. With every passing breath, I am telling my other self, “relax manoj, relax manoj”.
I can now hear the applause from Sindhu, Rishi and others at the finish. The finish line passed from under my legs and I stop. My weight shifts to my right leg and stiffens. I cramp hard, drop on my butt, level my back along the dirt road, cover my face with my starched cap to keep the brutal sun out and close my eyes.
Yet another 4:35 marathon was behind me…

"You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming." - Frank Shorter.
Goal: “I will run 60kms at KTM for 6hours, running at 10kmph pace for as long as I could.” – this was what I had announced. I had done a 51kms in 6 hours a fortnight before this, and a 4:29 Kanakpura marathon a month back.

Carb-loading: The pasta party was at ‘Herbs n Spice’, nice name, not so nice pasta. On Saturday, while I was at home resting, I decided to cook ‘some’ pasta myself, ended up cooking half a kilo of pasta – even the friendly neighborhood dog was carb loaded!!

Race-Day: I had crapped, packed and crashed by 830 in the evening on Saturday. The bus was to leave Queen’s park by 4am! At 130am I woke up with a start – I thought I had overslept and missed the bus. Ate some boiled sweet potatoes and bananas before I left home at 3, got chased by dogs as I picked up Nischal on the way to the park. The early dogs did not get Nischal’s sandwich, neither did the early runners get the bus!
And just when we decided to give up KTM and run in good ol cubbon, the bus came – 4:45!
Quiz time: How do slow down 30marathon runners?
Answer: Load them into a bus and tell the driver to hurry
Q: How do you slow them some more?
A: Don’t tell the driver the way and let him overshoot – twice!
Q: How do you slow them even more?
A: Don’t worry, the sun will take care of the rest

The Race:
The trail is beautiful, with the canal flowing on one side and paddy and sugarcane fields on the other. The clean air is a treat for the lungs and brings with it smells of paddy hay, moist mud and fresh sugarcane – so strong that a lung full will give you a few carbs.
Other runners who had not taken the bus had started at the stipulated 630am, thereabouts. We started at 7:45 and in about 10mins I started to feel the sun. Athreya and I had decided to keep the 10.5km per hour pace. We finished the first 10.5km on target in 1hour and made it to the half way point (21km) in 2hours. We passed some of the early-start runners in their last lap. Ashok was clearly ahead, some maths and he looked good for a 3:30 finish. He finished in 3:21hours. He was followed by a phirang girl running strong, Ravi and then Priyankar.

Athreya and I also noticed some others who we did not pass. We hadn’t seen Sunil, Jugy, Pradeep. We stopped when we saw Meghana, her 3/4ths pulled up half way, exposing a fresh bruise. She had fallen flat (eeiks!!) as she was finishing her 21km, and had begun to walk the second half.

The 10km runners passed us in a hurry. I saw many friends trying this for the first time – Meera, Vijay, Sriram, Ramya, Sumi. That was the only time I saw them, a few secs is the time I get to spend with friends? Unfair!

By 25km mark Athreya had suddenly fallen a couple of steps behind and silent –he was trying to keep himself from throwing up. We reached the water stop at 30km in exactly 3hours. It brought back memories of KTM’07, where I had done exactly the same pace for the first 30 and taken a good 2hours for the last 12!

Athreya could go no more, I joked if I could borrow his still fresh legs. By the time I went to the U-turn point and got back to the 4th water stop, it looked like a medical camp in a war front. Santanu was struggling with cramps in his back, Pradeep was in distress over his legs and Athreya with a stomach upset. The ambulance at the station was not carrying ‘common’ salt! I gave Shantanu a light massage and some endurolytes and got him to get back on his feet.

With another 9kms to go, I was looking at a 4:15hour finish. Running alone in the last leg is a such a drudgery and I wished I had company. I met Meghana walking up her last lap – bruised more in the mind than on the knee. It was so humbling to see all the training that we had done in months being charred by this heat. It was nearing noon now, it would only get worse from here.

I shared my salt tablets with Nischal and then had to borrow some from Meghana. But the cramps, I was not able to keep at bay. I struggled to the finish line.

Oh before I forget, did I tell you what happened after I cramped at the finish? As I lay there nursing the cramp, I stocked myself up with more endurolytes, gels and water – thanks to the RFL volunteer who helped me with my bag…up on my feet in 15mins and off back on the track to do 5kms more…

Links to other reports

Bhasker's 3 out of 12

Sudhir's lens got some fantastic pics

Prateek's 4:40hr effort

Anita recollects

Shantanu survives

Spirit of Wipro 2008

2008-10-11T18:57:00.007+05:30

Quick Stats

Distance: 10km

Time taken: 44:51mins

Overall Position: 5th

Avg. beats per min: 184

Max. beats per min: 197

I couldn’t have asked for a better welcome to the “Spirit of Wipro” than this. Within days of my joining Wipro, the registrations for the Spirit of Wipro were thrown open. My eyes lit up with the prospect of a podium finish and did a quick competition analysis. After some archival digging and emails, I learnt that the winner of the last year’s version was Sathiya who had finished in 42mins. ‘Doable’ was my first reaction, despite a 47:54min finish at the Sunfeast 10k run this year.

It was a challenge for two reasons. One, I hadn’t been running since the Tibetan marathon. And two, although they are both running (put the right foot in front of the left and then the left foot in front of the right story) there is a huge difference in running a marathon and running a 10K race. They are different sports altogether. While I can run 10k in 50mins and continue to hold that pace for another 10, I have no clue how I can pull off 5mins from the 50mins!

Wipro had got in reluctant drivers to ferry us runners to the corporate office on Sarjapur road. There were hundreds of wiproites - some of them for the spirit-of-the-tee-shirt. Chetak had decided to scale down his distance and picked up a bib for 4km.

The campus looked beautiful in the semi-darkness. The 4km marathon (how, how can a 4km run be a marathon. I write a lot of garbage, but this is something that is worth carving on any runners headstone, Marathon = 42.2kms)… The 4km ‘run’, started a few mins before the longer run (not the longer marathon!!).

There must have been about 100 of us running the 10km. It was heartening to see a lot of senior management in the crowd. I was lucky to be ahead of the pack, we still had to wade our way through oncoming 4km finishers for the first couple of kms. I maintained a sub-5min/km pace for the first 5kms – reaching the half way point in about 22mins. The idea was to save up till the last 3kms and pick up pace then. I was in the top-10 when I turned around. The last 2kms was a steady downhill and I knew I could pace well, if only I save up. When I crossed a railway line, with 3.5kms I over heard a race official talk into a walkie-talkie, “7 and 8 are in”. I was 8^th close on the heels of a strong, lanky, German marathoner (yes, the 42.2km runner).

I kept pace with the guy and moved up a few paces. With 2kms to go, I was 6^th still tailing him. I picked up pace steeply hoping to shake him off my back; the tactic didn’t work coz we were together again with a km to go.

I remembered Pre from the “without limits” movie to keep me running ahead and fast. I did manage to finish a few seconds ahead of my competition. I came in 5^th overall finishing completed used up and out of breadth in 44:51mins – a good 3mins off from my PB.

I met fellow RFLers - Anjali, Naina and Harsh after the run. Anjali and Naina had podium finishes… congrats congrats!!!

Saturday well spent, another Personal Best!! Cheerz!

Other SOW 2008 run reports:

http://www.wipro-campusarena.com/site/the-spirit-of-wipro-run-2008/

http://urswaroop.blogspot.com/2008/09/spirit-of-wipro-run.html

http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/environmental-services/2008090812804.htm

The GTM Journey

2008-08-12T08:45:00.001+05:30

GETTING THERE
Its official now… the trip happened so long ago, it is nearly making into history books of class II. I will only update what I can remember, snippets, fragments of my memory...

One fine day in March, I call up Nischal and over the next 15mins I had made up my mind – I was running the Great Tibetan Marathon. With Athreya, Sudarshan, Meghana and loads of other running buddies planning to make the trip, I almost automatically advanced my plans of running it next year.
The Getting LehD group happened and with it mileage discussions, high altitude training plans, ooty shooty, Sudarshan’s autocratic planning, Prats on-line inputs and my own go-with-the-flow involvement. With Meghana throwing a fab farewell party, we were ready to go.

The Great Tibetan Marathon

2008-07-29T15:46:00.002+05:30

Quick Update Had a whale of a time Getting LehD. Finished the marathon in 5:20:01 hours. Official Results here

Getting LehD

2008-07-09T16:13:00.002+05:30

Photo courtesy: Leona
I am off on a long break to particpate in The Great Tibetan Marathon
Participants in the photo (from L to R): Leona, Me, Sudarshan, Suresh, Anjana and Athreya
Others from Bangalore not in the photo: Ashok, Ravi, Chavvi and Nischal

Wish us Luck!!

Hampi Heritage Half Marathon

2008-06-27T16:35:00.009+05:30

I have been often accused of having a very predictable chronological narration, this time I break away from that… Let’s liken this ride to a mug and attempt to first this mug with the memories from this ride…

Step 1: Take the mug and proceed to fill it with some large pebbles
Mrugharajendra Mutt, Chitradurga:
The place had a pristine tranquility to it, one that is capable to absorbing large amounts of tumult.
I deposited my footwear in an unguarded pigeon hole and walked into the Mutt in my military cargos. At 7 in the evening, I was in no great hurry; I had traveled 300kms since morning – visited Lepakshi and Chitradurga fort. I took my time to read off the Kannada board “Sri Jagdguru Murugharajendra Bruhanmata Samsthana”.

The smell of incense and vibhudhi filled up the meditation hall. It looked more like a church with single large photo of Basavanna on an elevated platform at the far end of the hall. The Bridavan of the seer Mrigarajendra was the most peaceful – a bhajan played repeatedly and time seemed to tick in slow motion. I sat down in padmasan, closed my eyes and started to chant the Omkara, oblivious to the others walking in and out. I wanted to spend at least 10mins in meditation, when I opened my eyes again, nearly 25mins had passed.

I didn’t pray for anything in particular, but I was blessed with a very moving experience. The Mutt provides dinner as prasadam to all devotees and I was shown the way to the dinning hall. But even before I could enter, there were some hundred little kids who appeared out of nowhere and queued up in front of the entrance in gaiety.

A ‘teacher’, told me about how there were 170 orphan children residing and studying at the Mutt. I moved to the end of the queue, I was surely better fed than them not to queue up.
I sat down facing some 50 kids in the opposite row – the multitude of thoughts in their heads and the manifested reactions, gestures, actions, expressions was unbelievable. While we were served Ragi mudde, rice, sambar and butter milk, some kids envied the size of the ragi balls on the others’ plate, some played nudging games with their neighbors, some passed on excess rice to others (plus poured out sambar too), some stealthily examined the guests and some others simply gazed dreamily.

And in your own head you worry about seemingly important things – career moves and wooing woes, crude shocks, bottom fishing and bleeding portfolios, traffic jams and how-to-nudge-that-moron-off-the-road. This one experience was enough to absorb all that turbulence.
The meal not only filled my stomach, it filled my heart too!!

Step 2: Take some more large pebbles and fill drop them into the mug
TungaBhadra Dam Canal:
Where is this lady from? Where is Germany? Why are you running? Where are you from? What money do they use there? Is the ‘Gandhi’ money used in Bangalore also? Do foreigners have lots of money? How many rupees can you buy with one dollar? How much have you studied? Where do you work? How much money do you make in one month? Have you seen Indian cricketers? Is Dhoni better than Tendulkar?

Insatiable appetite of this 12 year old left me groping for answers. Chandrasekar and Dhoni (I could get his name inspite of asking twice, I called this cute kid “Dhoni”) joined Sabine, Athreya and I on the return leg of the TDB canal run. About a dozen RFLers ran along the TBD canal on the Saturday evening – the day before the Hampi Heritage Half Marathon, a distance of about 15kms, against some gusty, ballistic winds threatening to blow us off into the canal.
Chandrasekar and ‘Dhoni’ bombarded me with an endless battery of questions, left me diving for cover. I countered them with my own and learnt Chandra went to a village school, studied 9th std and wanted to take up science after his class X, but Dhoni dropped out in 5th std and worked at a quarry for the money. The lure of free lunches or even the free bicycles that they distributed this year was not incentive enough. Should this budding curiosity only be left to some random runner to satisfy? Surely there is more we can do…

Step 3: The Mug already seemed to be filled?? Time to pick some smaller pebbles and pour them into the mug; There is still more room here…
Ride to Lepakshi:
I set off on Friday, 17th morning, quickly getting off the highway, towards Doddaballapur – Hindupur SH9. The road opens into some spectacular landscape almost immediately. Riding alone into the breeze, the thump of the bullet fighting the howling winds to reach my ear drums, the familiarity had a strange home-coming feeling to it. It was only after some 100kms when I reached Maakalidurga where the road hugs the railway track like a DNA double helix, that I realized that the road was taken before – the penukonda ride!! Remember the 24 Karat Action??
I reached Lepakshi at 10:30 after passing through some rib-tickling places – TondeBhavi and Auto Nagara. By then all the pores had opened up and I was ready to soak in any amount of gyan, I took the services of a guide!
Perfect ingredients for a 1-day ride: Good roads, easy ride, lotsa history and biology (Padmini is described as the most perfect form of feminine excellence!!)
I offered my prayers to the deity, Veerabhadra and the 5 lingas, a more realistic form of Padmini was top of mind.

Chitradurga:

I took a longer route via Madakasira-Rolla-Agali-Sira-Chitradurga and was able to reach Chitradurga only by 4:30 after a brief stop at Ravi Bar and Restaurant outside Sira.
Had just enough time to visit the Chitradurga fort, where the guide Channabasapa built stor(e)y after stor(e)ys, the Palegaras who built the fort couldn’t have built more!
Riding around the Chitradurga fort in fading twilight is enough to send down some shivers and must have been truly impregnable in its times.

I also visited Chandravalli lake and Ankali Fort, walking down eerie steps into the subterranean dark chambers with a candle, being told about the swami’s who performed penance, was straight out of a Indiana Jones movie.

Step 4: More small pebbles to fill the mug, please
Cycling around the Hampi Ruins:
I reached the Hotel Mayura Bhuvaneshwari at Kamalapur outside Hospet on Saturday morning. Rajesh, Leona, Reena and I went around the ruins near the Krishna temple, Virupaksha temple to reach the over-hyped “Mango Tree” for lunch. While they had all kinds of cuisines – Chinese, Tibetan, Vietnamese (joking!!), they missed out on North Karnataka meal. How can one substitute Momos for some authentic Jolada Rotis (Jowar Rotis)??

Step 5: There is room for more small pebbles, right?
The First-Ever Hampi Heritage Half Marathon:
Thanks to Sabine, Sam and all of Sam’s relatives - Babu Mama, Santosh, Prashanth (and the phat-phati full of cheerleaders), we had a wonderful itinerary covering some 35 places!! We started at 6:15 from the hotel and spent a very memorable 5hours running, taking pictures, listening to Sam as he helped us with the history, marveling at some of the ruins. Our supplies phat-phati ensured that we did not run out of fluids. Upon Sabine’s insistence we managed to complete 21kms. How often do you run a 21km distance and manage to travel from 1 CE all the way to the 14th and 16th century? It was a fantastic experience.

The cherry on top was still to follow, we were treated to some finger-licking Jolada Roti and Badane Ennegai lunch at Sam’s house at Malapangudi after the run.

Step 6: Just when you think you nearly filled the mug, take a fistful of sand and pour it in… there is still room for more!!

The lone lush green tree rooted the red fields
The early morning air washed clean from overnight rains
The dump-all-luggage-in-hotel-lodge, visit the fort, lake, caves, mutt and then forget the name of the lodge at chitradurga
Race with the thunderstorm from Chitradurga to Tumkur
The inflation catching up with Lakshmi Tiffin Room, Chitradurga – Rs.3 for extra cup of sambar!!

Step 7: And when you finally agree with me that the mug (likened to the trip, you remember) is finally full, proceed to pour in some Kingfisher Beer. The Beer sizzles through the remaining spaces making the mug truly full.

In pouring rain and soaring spirits, we downed mugs and mugs of the bitter fermented fluid, making pretext of carb-loading (the quintessential pre-race ritual), making RFL jokes, polishing off pakodas and masala peanuts, cracking pjs, matching every pitter patter, the rains made outside.

Moral of the story: No matter how full the ride/run may seem, there’s always room for a few Beers!!

More poses here and here

Thalli Ho - A different High

2008-06-19T13:40:00.004+05:30

Bangalore has suddenly gotten into the grip of a ‘wow’ weather, it has this multiplier effect on the outdoor fun experience.
With the training for The Great Tibetan Marathon in full swing, I couldn’t have asked for more. I finished off a 35km run at 11am, last Saturday with the sun still behind the cloud canopy.
The Silver Bullet has been catching a thick layer of dust for awhile now (thanks also the oil leaks from all possible seals). With the Hampi ride right around the corner, a test ride with RTMC seemed like the best way to optimize (that’s Manoj, the consultant) the conditions.

Vodka aka Harish Shivaram had thrown open an invite to do a recce of the area to the south of Bangalore. There were 8 of us in all – vodka, Abhi n Kavita, Prateek, Santosh and others, started off from Shoppers Stop at 630 RTMC time.

As soon as we got off the Banerghatta road, I settled into a neat relaxed mode. It was a truly chillax ride, perfect for a lazy Sunday morning. We snaked through villages and wrong turnings taking breaks at will, stopping to relish the breezee countryside, slowing down till the goats cleared the roads, waving to wide-eyed kids, chai breaks, scaring cattle away, Abhi even giving a loving tick on one calf’s rear!!

The winding well paved roads opened frequently into some amazing greenery. Check the hues of green on this one.

We got back to Aishwarya Parkland (!) on Banerghatta road by 1pm to some Beer and lunch! Perfect weekend!

Directions (thanks Vodka):
Bannerghatta Circle - Anekal Entrance Fork – Anekal Bus stop - Thally Road (Right Turn) - Thally Outskirts (Left Turn before town) - followed shortly by a right turn - Hold steady course – Maralwadi town centre - Take "straight road" to Thattekere - Ride through Thattekere, and join highway to Jigani – turn right - Bannerghatta Circle.
If you tried following these directions, remember you didn’t read it here!! ;)
Photus here
An earlier FSR ride report here
Abhi’s version on bikeszone here

Two Hills - What thrills!!

2008-06-07T15:39:00.005+05:30

When I started off to Sabine's Birthday 'party', I thought I would simply have to ditto the previous Nandi Ride/Run, how mistaken I was.
With the International Airport opening that 24th morning, I was ready for some ill treatment on the Highway to Nandi. Ananth and I started off a 4:45 am from Hebbal Flyover and very closely followed my earlier timings to Nandi Hills.
Madhu had promised to take us on a virgin trail provided "as long as you keep the trail details only between people who respect the sanctity and cleanliness of the outdoors."

Ananth and I took the exact 2:02 hours or so to ride to the Nandi Base camp and as usual waited agonisingly for the others in their cars to turn up.

The run up the Nandi Hill twin, BrahmaGiri (according to a foundation stone on the top) was more like a power walk for the last couple of kms. Just standing there totally exposed to the strong, crisp morning breeze was refreshing. There is a temple with a pushkarni filled with croakers on top. Sabine couldn't have asked for a better birthday celebration as she cut lots of FitKit Biscuits (like 10 of them) and passed it around the 20 odd runners!!

Ananth and I left the group and made our way back to the parked bicycles. With the usual Ghanne ka Ras break at Chikkajala we reached Hebbal in a good 2.5hrs.

Camp Gee Dee

BH3 Run No. 468

Sunita describes the camp in her blog here.

“Tucked away, next to the Banerghatta Wildlife Sanctuary, far far from the madding crowd, is a small slice of heaven called Camp GeeDee. The topography is excellent and of course the human hand has helped to add a lake or two, making it one of the most exciting place to be, especially for the nature/bird loving brigade and solitude seekers.” – Sunita Raghu

What a place this one was, I was quite unprepared for it, the intention lost in all the Hash Humor. My already battered bullet took a serious beating on the rough roads leading to the place. When my mood is exuberant, I imagine my bullet to have wings or something... I had wings for sure, borrowed from my angels who are around me these days ;)

The ride took me right around Bannerghatta forest to the camp site. Pradeep, Athreya and I were the FRBs huffing and puffing on the false trails and uphill trails. The Beer flowing, the breeze cooling our soaked bodies, the sun going down under the dense forest, the Hashers playing to the Swing low hymn - What a thrill, I say

Check these links for more on Camp Gee Dee

http://www.wildventures.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=2089

http://www.getoffurass.com/trip_geedee.htm

Photo courtesy: Sabine, Sunita Raghu and Barbara

A Sun Feast Run and Paul Tergat

2008-05-26T17:46:00.004+05:30

If you thought Bangalore played host to another Marathon, you are in majority but wrong. It is nowhere close to a marathon distance that we ran, some 15times shorter. Only a long distance runner will tell you effort(20K) is not equal 2*effort(10K).

But as I ran up Kamaraj Road in scorching heat, I overheard a BMC worker lady telling her son, “neenu voodo marathonu”, “you too should run a marathon”.
This is what the 10K run really achieved. It got droves of people on the streets to run the 10K open or the 5.7km Majja Run. With Procam event managing, the hygiene factors were in place – sufficient water stations, medical aid, chip timings and media attention.
The running scene is fast changing in Bangalore, Nike joined with RFL to conduct running workshops to help runners train for the run.

Pre-run
Inspiration shot from Paul Tergat

Paul Tergat, the second fastest marathoner, the first man to go under 2:05 in a marathon, was in the city for the run. Thanks to RFL,a few of us got to meet Tergat in flesh and blood. I ran the distance of 15kms from home to Nike, Indranagar and got my sweaty tee autographed. He went on to answer many of our questions on running – why do you run? to what shoes you wear? to How we should train to be able to raise our running a few notches. It was fantastic – a great inspiration.
The pre-run pasta party was at Bangalore Bistro right after the Paul Tergat meet. I had managed to shoot myself in the foot setting an ambitious “40min finish” for the 10K, I had to alter it to “40s finish” to save face.

The run – A Sun Feast

The Bangalore Sunfeast Open started at 9am. I was there at Cubbon Park before 7 to see the start of the elite athletes’ category. they sped past within a few seconds. I also faintly noticed the rise in the temperature, by 9 when we gathered at the start line, it was scorching hot. And what a gathering it was… I had to use up all of my lane-changing skills to get past the crowd at the start. It was a full km before some sunlight started finding its way through the crowd.
By the time we reached Cubbon Road, it was a full 5 course Sun Feast only. With no cover for the next couple of kilometers till Ulsoor lake, I was melting away quickly. I poured water generously on my head in a desperate attempt to cool down.
I completed the first 6kms in 28mins, already 2mins behind plan. I was able to step up pace only at the 8th km mark and I was glad that I was totally out of breath by the time I crossed the finish line netting a total time of 47:54mins.

I did a la Virgin Mobile Ad (where this girl has a “Call Me” on her tee) to spice up the run. While it surely didn’t get the desired response, it sure did get a lot of laughs, comments and suggestions. More from Anita and Rajni.

But elsewhere, it looks like my prayers are finally being looked at!

Non-Stop Nandi

2008-05-13T11:51:00.002+05:30

3:30am hit snooze button, 4am on saddle, 6am Non-stop to Nandi, 45mins frustrating wait at the Nandi base camp, long convoy of cars at last, 6:45am start, picture-postcard scenery, 26 freakin runners, spectacular cloud covered peaks, easy-first-4-tough-last-3kms, U-turn, 53kms milestone to Bangalore – some day all the way, club talk – couch surfing and wwoofing gyan from Anupam, pass bird-watchers with bazooka lens, hi-hellos to Madhu, Rekha and others from BBC who were biking up Nandi, foreign bikes – treks / Merdias have taken over the base camp, hydrate and moov, steal biscuits from Leona, on saddle for return leg at 9, sugarcane juice at Chikkajala, tender-coconut at Jakkur, home by 1130.
95kms of cycling in 4.5hours, 15kms Nandi run in 1:50 hours – ‘die’athlon?

Time-Table!
Date: 26/04/2008

Full album here

Bala's narration and fotos hyperlinked.

Anniversary Ride - Horsley Hills

2008-05-09T14:07:00.007+05:30

Tarun Tejpal, in his Alchemy of desire, amongst many erotic scenes also finds space to discuss the ‘rat-race’ which he likens to a greased pole.

“The office is a well greased malkhamb pole, with everyone slithering up and down the shiny wooden pillar. Right at the top, as in a ship, was a crow’s nest, a comfortable cupola where one man sat. The idea, I gathered, was to get as close as you could to the cupola and the one man. What happened then I has still not figured out. Quite clearly the man was not going to pull you into the cupola. You stayed on the greased pole. But, going by the ceaseless frenzy, something did change.
Matters were not helped by the cupola man’s conduct. Every now and then he leaned out and slopped some more grease onto the pole. It had the immediate effect of sending the ones nearest to him into a panic of slipping and sliding. Boot-on-face, boot-on-face, boot-on-face. All the way down the pole the climbers went grinding boot-on-face.
Then the frantic climbing began again.
There were some very smart people slipsliding away on that pole. Their clothes were dirty, their hands stained, their faces shone with grease, but in their eyes was a fervour. Their sights were set firmly on the man in the cupola, and the more grease he slopped on the pole, the more boot-on-face he unleashed, the more they became convinced that up there – in the cupola – lay the answers to the riddles of their life and career.
Some very very smart people. Faces shining with grease. Slipsliding away. ”

My colleague and batch-mate, Ashwin’s wedding provided a break away from this greased pole and I was saddled up to Chennai on Friday, the 18th of April.
Before I leave the greased pole behind, albeit only figuratively, tell me… is philosophical musing simply an excuse for inaction or worse… incompetence?
(save the dil pe matt le for the comments section only!!)

I started at 5:45 on Saturday morning from my cousin’s house in Chennai (Porur-Guindy road) to meet the Madras Bulls’ Arul, to ride some 280kms with them to celebrate the MadBulls 6th Anniversary at Horsley Hills.

We stopped for breakfast at IOC Nandini Restaurant, near Chitoor Bypass, better than most I have seen on this highway. The MadBulls ride with far more discipline than my own club, RTMC, we rode in a staggered formation, maintaining constant pace for long stretches.

To reach Horsley Hills from Chennai, one needs to take a right off just after Palamner (196kms) and head to Madanpalli (+53kms) to Horsley Hills (+30kms). The hill itself comes from like nowhere and a short ride with 3-4hairpin bends take you to the top.

We were a large group of bullets, we had to pit stop a no. of times. After traveling some 280kms to reach the Hills, to reach a place called “Harita?” was pretty sadistic joke. Harita? in Kannada means “is it torn?”, use your imagination to figure out what body-part it refers to!! We were to stay at Harita Resorts on Horsley Hills.

I loved the place: Harita is the only resort on top of the only hill around the region. It’s not much of a hill station, but the resort makes up for the lack. There is a decent pool, play grounds, good party area and well stocked bar. There are enough cottages to accommodate last minute travel plans. There is nothing much to do there, but if that is your idea of a holiday, its just 160kms from Bangalore!

What was disappointing was that the only event that was ‘organized’ was the party. Tam item numbers provided lungi-clad sweaty guys enough motivation to gyrate like some belly dancers, some even looked choreographed!!! This song is a must hear, it captures most of the spirit. Click to hear music file Thanks Dosai.

We left Horsley hills on Sunday morning at about 9am. I rode mostly with Anil and Hosey… it was a fantastic route, that took us to Chintamani, H-cross, from where we took right to get to Devanahalli and were back home by 1130.

Now get back to the greased pole, will ya…

Anniversary '18 in a hole' Run

2008-05-02T14:06:00.004+05:30

It was a triple Birthday flavor this April - Mine at Coonoor, BH3 turned 18 at Eagle Ridge and MadBulls celebrated 6A at Horsley Hills.

I have ripped this report straight out of the HASH Newsletter, simply because it was so well written and comprehensive. (shades of laziness?)

Report on Run No 465 - 18 in a hole run at Eagle Ridge on 12th April 2008

Hares - BFG, K3C, Kamasutra and Raw sex

BH3 has finally come of age...and to celebrate our 18th Anniversary some of our most experienced hares laid a trail with 18 checkbacks!! In true mismanagement style, the beer van crew were not aware that the run was on Saturday...but they did land up in time for a slightly delayed circle and party.

We have had many runs at this resort, but this is the first time the run went over to the other side of the NICE road...it involved one crossing of the NICE road and thankfully the hashers did not damage any cars while getting across. The trail wound its way through a mango grove, skirted many fields, ran alongside a lake, went through eucalyptus trees and along the edge of a quarry...and in the process, runners often found themselves chasing the walkers. As the sun went down and sky changed colour, we managed to get everyone home and there was no need for a rescue party.

A short wait for the beer van was filled with time to munch some snacks and get the music going. The circle started as soon as the beer van arrived.

Hares were iced for mismanaging the run
This was followed by Dude, who is the 4th BH3 member to complete 300 runs - he was presented a collage by BFG
The many horrors were cooled down - great to have them here - and Nikhil even showed that he is a future Music mattress
Ex GMs were charged for volunteering to mismanage the SAIH 2009
Pushmush charged Kamasutra with guiding rather than misguiding the runners - a charge that got him to also cool his butt and get a special downdown
Virgins and visitors got their customary downdowns
Ex RA Duchess had sent a message for BH3 which was read out by BFG
Ronja of Eagle Ridge was acknowledged for agreeing to sponsor the dinner for the run
Shrieks was charged with annoying Ministers - and was christened 'Glorified Driver'
BFG then staged a 3 person 18th Anniversary skit which had Future suture enjoying a twosome of K3C and Kamasutra
Returners aphrodisiac, TFU and Dilip also got a chance to cool their butts as was OTR from Atlanta who stole someones shorts to use as headgear - we know where his brains are!!
The 18th anniversary cake was cut by our lovable hash aunt Meera, who has been hashing for more years than any of us
Rubher stamp and Perfect Asshole were iced for sartorial elegance
Athreya was also acknowledged for designing the T shirt at short notice - ON ON mate
BFG led us through the hash hymn and then the party rocked...was great to see ages from 5 to 70 plus rocking together!!
Here's to many more years of hashing...

Fotos here courtesy Abnash.