The sun struggled mightily this morning trying to penetrate the thick fog that had blanketed Milton this morning. It did make for a nice and cool run in the hills though…

Once again the Bengali ladies outnumbered the menfolk. Although, the men decidedly had the more colorful running shirts on 🙂

Went for a Chalupa run after a long time. Due to my India trip and solo runs on Sundays before that, I had not seen Chalupa group for over a month. It was good to see them. Also realized the womenfolk are far outnumbering the menfolk in Chalupa these days. If I have my stats right, in reality, women amateur runners (specially long distance) far outnumber men in this country. We had a newcomer in Sheuly today!!

Speaking of meeting old friends, after the run, just as we were getting in our cars to go to Starbucks, I thought I saw somebody at the water fountain that I knew. Sure enough, it was Valerie from my old running group. She is visiting Atlanta for a couple of weeks from Singapore. I think the last time I saw her was on a flight to DC about three years back.

And as if that was not enough, as we stood in the queue at Starbucks, ran into their new manager – Heidi – another old running group member!! I distinctly remember running with her and her dog on a Friday morning and I was the one left panting 🙂

Good to run into old running friends on the road…

Chalupa runners wanted to take advantage of a Labor Day holiday and put in an extra run at our normal trail. Except, when we showed up, everything was shut down for a scheduled race. We went to a different trail nearby. It was a nice trail but very hilly. In Samaresh’s words, “Se ki Up. Baap-re baap” 🙂
Put in 5K before the group showed up and another 5K with the group. Apart from our usual suspects, we had our visiting runner Arka from Alabama and quite a few of our youngsters – Uma, Niki, Raya and Pooja. Pooja, as always, pushed me hard. We clipped the first mile at abut 7:30 min/mile.

After going for a walk with the Chalu-pa runners every Sunday for a few months before he broke his hip, my father-in-law finally arrived at the last Sunday before he leaves for India. I skipped my run so that I could take him to join the rest of the Chalu-pa group for the customary coffee after run. He walked in hobbling with his stick just as the rest of the group settled down after the run… Was a good last Sunday “adda”!

After almost three months, put in a 10 mile (16 K) run. The most fun part was Nikita joined me in her bike for the first 3.1 miles (5K). At one point we raced going downhill. We both peaked at 5:30 min/mile on the dirt roads. As a result I had to slow down to 10:30 min/mile for the last seven miles. Very sultry day but the constant breeze made it enjoyable.

Now to settle down for a glass of water and a smoothie at Starbucks!!

10K run in 87 degrees and high humidity. Completely sapped me of all energy. Could not get up once I sat down for a few minutes…..