I had faithfully showed up at the Starbucks to meet the Chalupa (Bengali runners) group this morning. What I did not know is that there is a baby shower in the community (I am woefully unaware of these things) – and therefore nobody was going to show up for the run.

As I was waiting, I saw somebody enter the Starbucks who reminded me a lot about my old running buddy from 15 years back – Russell Shaw. He has moved to Durham ever since and we keep in touch once a year on his birthday in April.

My first reaction was to see if I could take a picture of the gentleman and send it to Russell telling him that I had met his doppelgänger. My second reaction (fairly stupid, now that I think about it) was to approach the gentleman and ask “Are you not supposed to be in North Carolina?”

Well, turns out it was indeed Russell!!! He was in the area to sell off his house!!

Eventually, Mrinal-da – who realized that I must have been sitting at Starbucks by myself – decided to show up and give me company too!!

So there you go – two of my runners friends from two different groups … and me – in one frame!

The idea was to put in a quick 5K (3 miles) run. The problem was instead of listening to songs while running, I made the mistake of listening to some Youtube videos on Time. (basically, is time a fundamental thing or have human beings simply conjured it up? Is entropy a real thing – the only time we need time to explain a physical equation – or is it how our brains process it? ).

In the confusion, I completely lost track of time. By the time the talk ended, I was nearly 2.5 miles away from my starting point. ergo, was forced to complete a 5 mile run.

Absolutely made sure that I listened to music on my run back. Else, I was afraid I might have breezed past my starting point!!