Today, it was just Samaresh and myself. The kids stayed home and Amitesh was busy hosting guests… Great 5K run and Starbucks after that. Coffee with Samaresh is always enlightening. Today I got some good tips about perspectives in life. (including why running is important 🙂 )

Uncharacteristically, overslept till 8:15 🙁 Almost by three hours! I guess I was tired and needed the sleep. Drinking a few glasses of wine more than usual with Raj the previous night helped 🙂 🙂 Since I missed the normal window of running before the family woke up, I had to wait till I had take my daughter to her classes.
The sun was up, it was cool and there was some breeze. That was not the problem. The problem was that the roads had filled up with cars already (like they are supposed to 🙂 ) – leaving me with no option but to get off the asphalt and run on the sidewalks.
10K of concrete run. That hurt 🙁 Took almost an hour to finish. A heavy lunch later, I am ready to start snoring! Wait, time to take the other daughter for her classes now 🙂

So there I was running on Alpharetta roads on a nice cool dark October morning – and out of nowhere suddenly it started raining! Well, strictly speaking, it was out of the overcast skies, but my point is I got totally drenched 🙂 Speeded up and in about six minutes found a shelter – just in time for the rains to stop!! Arghhh! I don’t think that extra hot Starbucks coffee will stop me from sneezing and coughing all day long 🙂 It was a nice run all the same…

One more cool crisp morning. Quick 5K run at 9 minute/mile pace in Atlantic Station – Georgia Tech area. Funny moment of this morning: as I came to the intersection of State Rd and whatever the cross street was, there was this black cat standing on one side of the road – looking at the other side. I am not saying it was purposefully waiting for the traffic light to turn green, but it did look like it was hesitating to cross the road.
Here is what I did – I crossed the road from the other side 🙂
Guess who is going to have bad luck today? 🙂

Tables totally turned on the proverbial – and in this case, a particular midtown black cat!! 🙂 🙂

Or at least the windbreaker and ear protection was on. It was cold and dark this morning. Fortunately, it will warm up from now on. A quick 5K run in the Atlantic Station area. Nothing particularly interesting to report back other than two barking dogs. (I think they were barking at each other and not me – unfortunately, I do not do dogspeak 🙂 ). Now I can go back to sleep 🙂

Amitesh and I celebrated his big half century today with a 27 minute 5K run. We missed the other leg of the stool – Samaresh. It was really cool – mid 50s and light breeze. Made it easy for a fast run. Now, all I need to do is run like him when I am 50 years old!!
The Starbucks coffee followed with the usual discussion of the Falcons and the hapless Saints (not to speak of the LSU team 🙂 )
Here is to another half century of running with Amitesh…

It is not the calories, it is not the endorphins….
It is all about the Starbucks coffee and the “adda” 🙂

Second run with the WWRR group in two weeks. The last one was after two years. I am nothing if not unpredictable 🙂 Ran with good old Bill Smith for 5.5 miles early in the morning. And then joined the group for another 4 miles. It was great to see some of the old friends – Jeremy, Alan after a long time. Also made new friends – Eric, Carol, Claire…. Hope I will not have to wait for another two years for the next group run 🙂

All my Bengali friends took a deserved day off since they ran in the 5K Vibha race yesterday. However, over dinner at a friend’s place last night, I met this really nice young Bengali gentleman from Shanghai who is visiting Atlanta and we agreed to run this morning. So, I will still consider it a Sunday morning Bengali Run for the record 🙂

We put in a 6.2 mile (10K) run at 8:44 min/mile pace. Dipanjan was kind enough to slow down for me. It was awesome weather (55 degrees).

Today’s records include:

1. First time ever I ran with somebody who lives in China. (Clearly, my running career is “peaking” – ha ha 🙂 )

2. Personal record of shortest time between befriending somebody and running with him/her – 13 hours flat (which is faster than I run :- ) and I am so going to get a lecture from Nikita on “stranger danger” today 🙂 )

3. First time I ever ran with an adult that does not have a Facebook account 🙂

Great start to a Sunday!!

Ran the 5K Vibha Dream Mile Race today. Our Sunday morning Bengali crowd was there – Samaresh and Paroma, Amitesh and Sharmila joined in the 5K race. As did Gouranga and Sudipta ! Youngster Paroma ranked high enough to win a award (I missed the ceremony though). Esha, Sreya, Mistu and Anusuya did the 5K walk.

That was one hilly route. Made the mistake of starting fast (7:31min/mile pace). Had to slow down to finish off at 8:02 min/mile pace average. (24 min 29 secs).