16 runners and a traffic cone showed up for our Bengali Group run today 🙂 Note out new tradition of shoe-huddling 🙂

10K run in the sun – sweated out all the salt from my early morning coffee 🙂 Now sipping strawberry smoothie at a Starbucks and soaking in some more Vitamin D from the sun….

Sunday morning run. We has two more first timers – Jasmine and Ronit today. It was a little chilly. Later, on our way to Starbucks ran into this huge hot air balloon taking off…

The effects of trying to run 5 miles at my 5K speed is showing. The shins are terribly sore. Had to cut down my run to 4 miles in the drizzling rain this morning.
The light mist and constant drizzle made the streetlights look like somebody is searching for something on the roads with a flashlight!!

Another great turnout from Chalupa running group. 20 folks showed up. Which is commendable since many participated in the Vibha race yesterday.
Hats off to the new leaders of the group – Malobika, Sudakshina and Samaresh for successfully roping Debjyoti in. Last time he showed up was over four years back!!
There is a certain Jasmine that has been threatening to show up for quite a few weeks… Ahem… 🙂

Went to run Vibha Dream Mile 5K with quite a few Sunday morning running group friends this morning. The organizers were very inept. As a result most of us in the front were sent the wrong way after completing a couple of miles. A lot of aspiring kids and regular runners wanting to put in a well-timed run were totally disappointed when they realized that they were sent the wrong way. I was really upset to see a dejected kid pull out of the run and start walking when he realized he has much longer to go.

After doing two rounds instead of one, when we all finally got to the right direction, a bunch of us asked the organizers “What happened?”. The organizers immediately threw the city under the bus citing restrictions that the city evidently put.What that has got to do with a team of volunteers – not at one turn – but at two different turns – when specifically asked for directions – guiding a whole bunch of runners in the wrong way, we could not understand. So much for grace from the organizers.

This is certainly my last Vibha Dream Mile run 🙁  If I want to get lost in my running route, I can do that by myself 🙂 If I am going to give my money and time to an ill-organized run, I would rather give it to the smaller runs where the local parents and kids organizing runs for school and church are a lot more graceful.

On the plus side, in my quest to find the 5K end line, I kept on running at 5K pace and then realized that I actually did my personal best 5 mile run at 41 mins 26 seconds 🙂 Sometimes, I can be tricked into my best performances 🙂

Chalupa’s organizing leaders – Sudakshina, Malobika and Samaresh outdid themselves again!! Today we had 25 participants!! For the first time, kids outnumbered the ladies in the group!!
Great start to this Sunday!!!

Trying to heal my left knee, I have been alternating between the Merrel barefoot shoes and the Nike Frees. To test the knee, put in a non-stop 10 mile (16K) run in 95 minutes. 17,500 steps and 1550 calories later, the knee is holding up strong. The lungs, on the other hand, are not amused 🙂
After the run, made friends with a fellow runner, Karen – who is training for her half marathon. She took this picture of me taking rest after the run.
There is a Bengali word to describe my condition – “biddhhosto” 🙂

(The title of this blog was inspired by a terrible cross-language pun by my friend Narayan – who co-authored the Wall Street Journal crossword thus Friday)