Been there, Run that

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!!

Auro Mara 2010

Picture Post of the Auroville Marathon 2010
14 Feb 2010
Finish Time - 4:08:31

Will return to this post to fill in details.

The Giants Ride

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

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

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

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

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

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

... 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

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

Run, walk and cycle weekend

"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

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.

Addendum: Fast forward 22nd May 2016
Did a near repeat of this, ran from home (add 4-5km), minus support (self supported), replace Ath with Navin. Finished the distance in about 6h:45min, started at 4:45ish, finished by 11:30.

The Hyderabad Hi-Tech Marathon Report

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

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

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

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

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

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