The trail was virtually empty but very beautiful early in the morning with the overnight rain. I was enjoying the run taking in the sight of fresh green colored new leaves and the occasional red cardinals and blue jays darting thru the trail when I thought I spotted two known beasts on the other end of the trail. As they started approaching me very fast, I had no difficulty guessing that two svelte guys with short shorts and no shirt on and overgrown lock of hair running very fast could mean only one thing – Dan and Greg were on the trail too. I later found out that they were doing 800m splits – which means they absolutely had their beast mode on.

As we got closer, they recognized me too (apparently a wet running shirt camouflages me no better than a dry running shirt :-)). Not wanting to break our rhythm, we did not stop but did start yelling at each other to greet and check on each other as long as we could be heard. I also raised my left hand to hand slap them as they passed me.

Now, let me remind you again – they had their beast mode on. They were clipping at no slower than 5 min/mile probably at that point of time. I was plodding on with my 10 min/mile. So, we basically handslapped each other – as the harmonic-meanly-inclined would point out – at a resultant speed of 3min 20 sec per mile. Had I not had a last minute flashback of old Resnick Halliday chapters on conservation of momentum (being of heavier mass, I had that part going in my favor :-)) and center of gravity and therefore leaned forward on my left foot, I am sure I would have pirouetted there on my right foot in a way that would have made a pro ballerina proud. Might have even drilled a hole in the trail wood softened by the overnight rain 🙂

It was a great run. The trail was beautiful. Running into Dan and Greg was priceless.

[On my return leg, I did see them again and stopped them to pick up some tips on treating the sore IT Band]

After a two month gap, ran with the Chalupa group. Put in a 3 mile warmup run by myself first to get ready to keep up with speedster Puja. Inspite of that, I could barely keep up with her on the first mile – 7:53 min. She slowed down a little after that for me. We finished 4 miles at 8:19 min/mile pace.

It was great to see Mrinalda, Seemitadi, Sreerupa, Indrani, Gita, Baisakhi, Sharmila, Malobika, Samaresh, Ashok and Sudipta (and of course Puja) in good old Fowler park.

7 miles for seven “pherey-s” – which is actually a custom for Bengali traditional weddings. That is not what Sharmila and I went thru (ours was a court marriage – there is a hilarious story of how the judge divided some cattle among two feuding brothers before taking up the case to get us married).

Instead, it was 7 miles today because the trail ended after 3.5 miles and I had no option but to turn back…

Ran into good old Sridhar on the trail. He has just started running and is gearing to run his first 5K race in May. If I can open up the morning on that day, I might go and run with him just to support him on his maiden race!!

I like to think that they are “appropriately” late. For example, I think their flight to Atlanta being 15 minutes late makes total sense to me. Otherwise, I had no chance at all to make it to the flight 🙂 When I ran into the plane, I had already violated the 10 minute rule. Fortunately, I had called in Delta from the rental car center and requested them not to give the seat away.

Everything had gone swimmingly well per the plan after I pulled over from the highway. It was a great park and the Delaware River views were beautiful. Managed to even run into some interesting fellow runners – okay, maybe they were just strolling around.

Finding the LA Fitness near the airport though took quite some time (it was on the second floor). And my plans hit a big hitch when I realized that I was about one towel short!! Had to make do with yesterday’s shirt!!

But I am in the plane now and the views and the run was totally worth it!! Maybe I should have put in a couple of miles more… The way the thunderstorms are rolling in, I don’t think we are getting out in a hurry…