22 May 2013

Negative splits

Taking advantage of the cool morning, tried putting in negative splits. First mile at 9:08, second one at 8:48 and then gave everything for the third mile at 7:10. And soon I realized that it might be cool in Milton at 5:30 in the morning, but it is humid as heck. Was sweating bullets for 15 minutes before I even dared to go inside the Starbucks to order a coffee….

21 May 2013

Run in Georgia Tech but jackets were not quite yellow!

After a long time ran 5 miles in the Georgia Tech area. The campus looks beautiful in the early hours of the morning. I had my red shirt and red shoes on. If you think that is weird, listen to this. As I came up the hill on State Rd and pulled up at the intersection of 14th street, I ran into another runner coming up on my left with a red shirt and red shoes on!! And she had red earbuds for her iPod to match. As we waited for cross traffic to die down, to make polite chat, we almost simultaneously, landed up saying “Nice shoes” to each other!! Awkwardness soon gave way to levity and coincidence of the moment : we laughed out loud and continued running our own way… Funny start to a day…

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17 May 2013

10K

After a long time, put in a 10K run on a workday. Also, after years, listened to music all the way. I know there are strong supporters and equally strong detractors of listening to music and not being alert while running. It did keep me distracted though and the miles came be more easily than usual.

12 May 2013

Great start to a day

Sunday morning run with my Bengali friends – the old Faithfuls – Amitesh, Arup and Samaresh. And then, of course “coffee aar adda” (Starbucks and chatting). Although, Samaresh did bail out of the coffee. There is something to be said about that. For, as a community, we the Bengalis, are not exactly known for prioritizing running over “coffee aar adda” 🙂 In fact, we have a very famous Bengali song about a coffeehouse in Kolkata but none about running 🙂 [Strictly speaking, there is a famous song about Runner – but in Bengali in those days – it meant ‘the postman’ – when mail was delivered by human beings running from village to village]

9 May 2013

Double trouble! Actually double fun!!

Meeting up with old friends during business travel? Awesome!!
Running in different beautiful places during business travel? Super awesome!!!
Running with old friends that you don’t meet often in beautiful places during business travel – Priceless!!!

Realizing you have overbooked yourself by promising two different friends to meet up after a long time and run in the same morning? A little crazy 🙂

A very early morning 5K run with good old Neal near the Golden Bridge and then another 5K with Ananya at Crystal Springs trail. Both were unbelievably beautiful run!!

For all that craziness, I did keep up with both of them thru the whole run – each 12-15 years younger than me! I bet you though they have far lesser number of body parts hurting through the whole day 🙂

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4 May 2013

Fiesta 5K. “Eets Nacho Ordinary Run”

That was a great race in cold, rainy and very windy morning. I am glad that I showed up – else I would have missed the amazing spirit and resolution people demonstrated to fight back ALS. Beyond pale, it demonstrated that in running – nay, in life, it is not about the gold or silver or bronze… it is about SHOWING UP and then PUTTING UP. And I thank Amitesh for exhorting me to come out to race. Both of us have a couple of friends whose parents are patients of ALS. Our run today was dedicated to them. Ran into good old Melanie who walked with her friend the whole distance honoring her neighbor’s dad who had ALS.

In the race itself, Amitesh posted his career best 5K today. I have to wait for my official time (my Garmin promptly quit citing low battery before the race). Whatever it is, there were two kids – at best fourth graders – who started and finished before me!! There were three hills and they kept running like they were going downhill. That was a little humbling!!!

Today’s proceeds went to Emory ALS Center.

Update: Results are out. Posted  24:57 at a 8:02 clip. That would be 4th in my age group and 32nd overall out of 216 racers.

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4 May 2013

Heartwarming

As I said, it is cold, raining and very windy. I show up to run the race thinking not too many people will be there and this might be my chance to medal a race this year. And I find high school kids to sixty years olds warming up in the rain for the race. And little kids and adults alike in ponchos volunteering to set up the tents, organize food, water!!!
Ah! That indomitable human spirit…. If medicine can’t erase ALS, someday this human spirit will…
Now my turn to step into the rain to warm up…