5miles (8K) run this morning. It would appear that the flu aftereffects are gone!!! Admittedly, did not take a chance and ran slowly …

First 5K run after the flu. With Sunday morning Bengali group. Seemed to have survived it so far.
Today, we changed up our route a little. At one point, we were looking up a steep hill in front of us. As we all took a deep breath before charging up the hill, Samaresh captured our collective thoughts in a few words
“Se ki UP
Baapre baap” 🙂

5K run in Milton this morning. No getting lost, meeting an oncoming car halfway into the bridge today 🙂 It was tried and tested Highway 9 today! Starbucks time!!

Unintentional 7.5K run in Chateau Élan. The story is to “die for” 🙂 Originally, the idea was to run through the neighborhood behind the winery for 5K. Somewhere in the hills in the dark, I took a wrong turn and found myself on a State Highway and by now 5K away from where I needed to be. It was a single lane highway with no median and barely any shoulder to run on.
Throwing caution to the wind, I just ran on the highway (on the left side so I could see oncoming traffic). A ferocious looking dog that had greeted me about a mile back might have something to do with the decision 🙂 Judging by the reaction of the drivers, they are not used to seeing runners on that highway 🙂
At one point, after running downhill, I faced a long bridge with absolutely no side space to run on. So, I had to clear the bridge before any oncoming car could enter the bridge.
I summoned all my engineering skills – estimated the length of the bridge, knew my speed, estimated the vehicle’s speed, adjusted for the fact they will accelerate as they hurtled downhill on the other side of the bridge and estimated the point on the road other side of the bridge which was the cut off point (I had to make sure no car had crossed that point). Finally found an opportunity where the next car was beyond that point and I ran like the wind…
And met the car about half way into the bridge 🙂
She was kind enough to move over to the wrong side lane. And I ran the rest of the distance mumbling to myself “One minute is 60 seconds; not 100. One minute is 60 seconds…” 🙂

Sunday morning Bengali Gang of Six – ran to our own version of Walden Pond 🙂 We “Thoreau”ly enjoyed it 🙂

5K early morning with Karthik in Key Biscayne. It is a balmy 79 degrees!!!

5K in cool and crisp Milton. The sun now feels awesome on the shaved head 🙂 Extra hot latte time now!!!

5K on our Sunday morning Bengali run. Today, we almost doubled our team size with Arup Dhar and Manas Chatterjee joining us. The usual Amitesh Mukherjee and Samaresh Mukhopadhyay was there too. We missed Amitesh for the coffee though. It was a crisp cool morning with freezing temperatures but sun out in full glory…

After two days of running into and in rain, today, I waited for the rains to start heavily and then stepped out for a run! I am now convinced why I do such unintuitive things – I just like being an idiot :-). (or as my wife once said – “quirky”). Reminds me of a song by Nachiketa “Tobu ami boka-i hobo – seta-i amar Ambition” (‘I still want to be the foolish guy and that is my ambition in life’) 🙂

There is something extremely exhilarating to me about running in pouring rain. Not sure whether it is the feeling of being in Nature at its purest form or the sense of defying common sense or simply the subconscious making up for all those lost moments when my parents – of the “thanda legey jaabey” (you will catch a cold)” fame – did not let me go out and play in the rain 🙂
Anyhow, two consecutive days of running in rain. Best part was walking into the gym dripping and heading straight to the sauna and soak in 150 degrees of dryness!