In a resounding thumbing of the nose to the proverbial Bengali fear of “Thanda legey jaabey”, nine of the Chalupa runners – including the high schooler Pooja – showed up for the below freezing point run this morning. Manas, who already had put in a 5K run before starting for another 5K with us was a visual proof of the frosty temperatures. When he started with us, all the small sweat beads at the edge of his hair on the head had frozen and in the glisten of the morning light, he looked like one of those Christmas lights you pay money to buy. (or as Bengalis might put it, “kadamphool” 🙂 ).

Anyways, it was a great run in the morning. Apologies for the poor quality of the pictures. While fiddling with my iPhone with my numb fingertips trying to set it up on the trash can, I accidentally set one of the filter modes on.

Ran into old running buddies and ultra runners – Lia and Samantha on the trail. Lia had to withdraw from a 100 mile run because of her back. So, it was good to see her on the running trail again. As I explained to her, there was something that made me withdraw from the 100 mile run too. It was the thought of having to run 100 miles 🙂

Finally, as always, the highlight was the coffee session (“adda”) at Starbucks. We discovered a budding poet in Samaresh today. And got a Sylheti 101 course from Arup, Sheuli and Malobika. The hapless students – Sharmila, Sanjib, Manas and myself were none for the worse at the end. And I also got my old Starbucks moniker “Hey You” back on my cup!!

And finally, also ran into Heidi – the manager of that Starbucks and another old running buddy!!!

… when the Bengali crowd at Chalupa herd starts thinning … 🙂

Of the three founding leaders of Chalupa group, Sudakshina has broken a leg and Malobika has broken an arm. We noticed the third – as of yet untouched – leader, Samaresh ran very very carefully today 🙂
We welcomed today another new runner – Subhankar to the group. And Nachiketa showed up too – without any instigating poem, whatsoever 🙂
Ran into my good old friends – Dan and Tom on the trail. Initially I did not recognize them. Figured it was Doppler effect. They were approaching me at very high speed (both do 5Ks in 16 mins and change), so, I must have been seeing a distorted picture of them. Then, I realized it was simply because this is the first time I saw them running with their shirts on 🙂

It was cold for sure (below freezing). But we kept trying to forget it by constantly talking as we ran in the woods by the river…

It is 27 Fahrenheit. That would be -3 Centigrade. Brrrrr… Got a few more miles left for the week… One cup of really hot coffee first… and off we go to the river…

As I said in my previous post, I suddenly took an exit off I-95 to run by river Susquehanna. Initially I tried running along the railway track from civil war era that ran by the river. Except that there were parts of it simply hanging in air (see the lower picture) since over the years the river had eroded the land. Eventually, started running on the road that snaked alongside the river…

After finishing up my meetings around lunchtime in Philly, I hit the road to get to DC (about 3 hour drive) for some dinner meetings. I was cruising along I-95 when I crossed this beautiful river. I did not know the name – all I knew was I crossed state line (PA to MD) on the bridge. Out of a whim, took an exit immediately and found myself a state park by the river. Found out the name of the river is Susquehanna. Supposed to be a historic river in the context of the Civil war. In any case, quickly changed into running clothes and put in a 5K along the river stopping many times, to take in its beauty…