Trail race: 2xdipsea
doubledipsea.com

Finally, a trail race; I have been meaning to get onto something with significant elevation ever since the Big Sur. 2010, the year started off busy with the Om Run, so didn't get much by way of training.
When I started looking and found the Dipsea - it was already too late to register.
So double-dipsea it had to be :); the elevation chart looked intimidating, 4300' net elevation.
Training is key, started about 6 weeks ago. that was mostly true except for the stairs - all 900+ of them.
The race starts on a foggy Stinson Beach  and immediately there is a climb to "Insult Hill ".
The thing about the race is there are shortcuts and early on found a group of former runners, so just followed them for the first mile. What goes up must come down and that was joy to go down on; I surprised myself on the descent, passing some of the earlier handicap runners in the process.
In sequence the points along the way,

• Insult Hill, el:600'
• Stepp Ravine, el:520'
• Swoop Hollow
• Cardiac Hill, el:1360'
• Hogsback Rise
• Dynamite Hill
• Muir Creek, el: 130'
• Suicide Hill, el: 440'
• Windy Gap, el: 760'
• 671 steps down to Mill Valley turnaround

The turnaround point was when everything slowed down for me. The steps were just brutal on the knees. And after Muir Creek, I felt like the cramps would get the better of me. Slowed down and walked for a substantial portion up to Cardiac Hill. Sachin came up with cramps too and so we both walked for a bit more.
The awesome volunteers all along were the backbone of the race. Made a challenging run very do-able. Got a taste of the special treats, like PB cliff bar, potato chips that I had heard of on trail runs.
Close to 4hours after the start, Sachin and I made it back to beach. It was great race, that will require a lot more disciplined elevation training.
The handicap system makes for a very interesting mix - since we started in the penultimate group, within the first mile the faster scratch runners were passing us.
Around mile 4.5, I saw the 68-year old Melody Schulz, who came in 2nd in the Dipsea 2010 - she was running up the stairs.

Very happy to have done it; a unique experience for sure.
MK Balaji pointed out the slowness of my run, "the first runner came back an hour and a half ago, where were you?". He did wonder aloud in the morning, "what again is the point of driving 2 hours early saturday? to  run in the hills !"

Om Run 2010
A long hiatus and then Om Run 2010
After the marathon in July; no running on the calendar. missed all the fall marathons. Kept cheering the likes of Ganesh for completing his 2nd run for the year, the guy's on a roll here.
Then the fall started the planning for Om Run 2010.

The training
Started on January 16, 2010 and by the end of February we had begun to see a collection another determined bunch of runners. This was nothing new, having followed the TeamAsha tried and experienced model and mentors - getting here was not a surprise, the pleasant surprise gift basket was whole set of new runners who were saying things like,

it's just 4 miles today!

Week in and out, Radesh kept sending out the oft-repeated

Rain or shine, be there to train

Everyone came, warmed up, stretched and then broke into different pace groups. It was quite a joy to watch this come together. We improvised on things from water stations, to after-the-run snacks, electrolytes. The assembled crowd was quite understanding and that made for a fulfilling experience.
Starting on February 20, 2010 - Lochan assembled a set of kids for a 5K boot camp; the enthusiasm of the likes of Shashank, Shivum, and many others I can't recollect names of was infectious. Before I knew it we were looking at mileages of double digits.
By this time the first timers were already in the zone; charting their own course in a manner of speaking. First time for organization meant a lot of learning on the job,
water station were limited in the city of campbell - didn't mean that the runners couldn't go past city limits
too little, too much gatorade needed at stations 2, 3
in time runners had their preferred bars - not enough fruit and nut bars at finish line

mentors
Ranga, a new acquaintance through Om Run carried the sway with the runners; he is the Zen of running for Om Run, calm, composed, answers for all. He helped balance the load with Ganesh, Meyyappan in carrying the training load. Then there were VP Shenoy, Ram who led the Fremont group together.

walkers
There was a quite a following for the walking group. Rohini did well to hold them together and instilled a sense that walking is not inferior to running; it is. It was interesting to me how the walkers in particular paired together and would be walking briskly and holding interesting conversation; not that i was party to the conversation, the fact that they came back together week after week, led me to label it as such.

Races
The day arrived - the races started and it seems a lot of fun was had. I was on top of the world when several of the finishers in the final stretch waved back to say,
we must do this again
we had a great time

And my response all along,

you just made my day, right here, right now.

the smiles and the sense of accomplishment was a joy to watch. You had to be there and if you missed it, here are some pictures that I think tell a great story. Thanks to Mark Lin for some wonderful finish line pictures. I wasn't at Helm Field for the 3 hour period during the races and the pictures told quite the story.

Artichoke Half Marathon
Team Om Run fielded 55 runners and walkers at this event. The conditions were trying - wind gusts of 25mph and constant downpour and the highlight was freshly minted marathoners, all finishing strong and with a smile.

here's a few pictures to tell the story,
their mentors truly proud of the team
the Narayanan - who made it even more memorable with Tiruamal bus services with Annapoorna's idli-vadas to boot.
the finishing bunch
the walkers

the honor roll

more picture links

• flickr
• picasa - thanks to Smitha

The San Francisco Marathon July 26, 2009
Once again, another 26 miles - started out like staring up a mountain, literally up from Chrissy Field to the Golden Gate Bridge.
several firsts for the day,

• first timers [any distance] - Raju Mama[Manju's Dad], Thatte Uncle[Sachin's Dad], Kalpana, Piyush
• repeating and loving it - Sachin, Ganesh, Rohini, yours-truly

The Run

Once again started the race a little too fast, got carried away and started feeling the follies of the move around mile 17. Crossing the Golden Gate continues to be a fascinating moment. Only place on this race where there is a turning to meet the people ahead and behind me. On the bridge, as I was approaching the vista point (turnaround), Piyush was already headed back and looking strong. Saw several more acquaintances at the turn -  must be a combination of being at such a popular race and having been at this running thing for a few years, i was feeling good. On the climb up after the bridge, came across JayashreeM, sweating out the climb. Reminder to self - got to go all the 26 miles and point 2 miles after; slow down. During the phase when there's energy in the limbs and the crowds exist, i have a tough time not to get carried away and give it all i got. On one of the climbs saw
The run through the park was quite exhilerating, and somewhere in there the 2nd half runners started trickling in.


The Finish

First finish with Sachin, and a good one at that.
drove around san francisco's 1-way streets to get back to golden gate park; that's where Kalpana's car was parked. dropped of Uncle, Sachin and Kalpana there after what seemed to take about as long by auto that it took us on our legs.

The celebration...
Walked into the house to a yummy chocolate cake, thanks to Prajakta and Sujata. This was a day where the icing came before the cake and both tasted like awesome!

• Team Name: Runtime Exceptions
• Team Captains: Vivek Kumar, Chakri Gulipalli
  
• The exceptional mates on this journey...

van1: Praveen Jaini, Sapna Kothari, Sachin Thatte, Vivek Kumar, Gurpreet Singh, Coach Raman Rajpal

van2 : Ganesh Iyer, Chethan Channappa, Asif Pathan, Gargi Nalawade, Chakri Gulapalli and yours-truly

the structure
the team was split into 2 vans - 6 runners in each, v1 and v2. runners in v1 run legs1-6, 13-18, 25-30 and v2 runners cover legs, 7-12, 19-24, 31-36 . the map of the 36 legs.

the journey starts...
van1 reached Calistoga at 6:30 am on May 2 to start the race; due to a scheduling issue start was delayed from 7am to 7:30. the starts are staggered based on team estimates for finishing the run to have all teams finish within a 2 hour window at the end.

legs 7-12...
van 2 took the baton [an organsrus green life band] at Napa - starting leg7; at handoff the team was 30 minutes ahead of schedule.

leg 7, our first runner on deck, Ganesh took the baton from Coach Raman, and started off in the drizzle. And soon after his departure van2 runners started our part of the relay. this was the beginning of our adventure - knowing how to read a map is important and our van was hurtling towards exchange 13 instead of exchange 8! after a detour, many thanks to Gargi's iphone and map reading skills + calm and Asif-the-driver being unperturbed through all this, we found our way back to exchange 8 and fortunately just ahead of our runner Ganesh.

leg8: Chethan took the baton from Ganesh and started leg 8. the first 3 miles was a run through the winery and Chethan along with some 15 runners took a wrong turn and went off the relay path. some earlier runner had busted a marked area and as a result they ended up going off for a 2-3 mile detour off the main track. by the time they found their way back to exchange 9, we think Chethan had covered an additional 5 miles! he was quite the trooper still managed to keep a healthy pace of sub 10minutes.

leg 9 was Gargi's and she was anxious perhaps from the extra wait and the (mis)adventures of the previous legs. Fortunately her leg was all along the road and the van could keep up with her. and do its part - i.e. support the runner. we found every shoulder along the way to start the cheering and supporting function, a first for all of us so far on the relay. so at this point i decide to offer peeled tangerines to the passing runners [hey, i loved it when cut strawberries were offered at mile 22 during big sur marathon], no takers other than our runner Gargi. In this day of N1H1 i guess it wasn't surprising that there weren't any takers :). Gargi made good time and galloped into exchange 10.

leg 10, this was my turn and the drizzle started; armed with a the poncho on my back, fuel belt and the baton i was off on leg 10. dubbed as a hard leg, i wasn't exactly sure what to expect. in a 0.5 miles i was to find out the climb of this relay started. the next 3 miles was a continuous climb on paved road. i was roadkilled by several runners on this climb. met a lady who was the captain of her team and was last minute fill in for the leg after running the big sur the week before. she was a trooper about it and it was her birthday , happy birthday i said and kept swinging my arms and making progress [albeit slooooow] up the hill. at one ramp i ventured a peek at the garmin, my pace was showing 20m15s!. at that moment captain vivek line flashed in front of me;

"dude, are you sure 13:30, that's slooow!"

I of course, continued the climb on Grove avenue and was greeted by a friendly resident who had come out to check us out. i will take any cheerleader and i found one in him - his words of solace,

"just another 400meters to go, you have already come up a 1000 feet".

yay, another 100feet to go according to the math Asif had done on the net-elevation in the van. one last surprise after 400meters there is turn on Viewcrest drive and another .3 miles of climbing to the entrance of the ranch. And oh, what a ranch - muddy doesn't begin to accurately describe it.
But before that, as i run up the final incline, i can see the fog on the horizon and that made my day right there. all the slowness etc, forgotten. I did check the time at the summit, i had covered 3.5 miles in 49minutes [14min/mile, not bad for me].
the rain made the ranch mud treacherous to run on - slippery, slushy and required careful stepping around. all runners got their medallions of mud on the backs all over. i was just trying to stay from flying downhill. the grass on the sides of the mud had too many rocks, but venturing there every so often seemed to help a bit.
ran a small segment with Suresh of the ILP team and that's when we encountered a set of grunting cows. at first it seemed like they were just going to cross over from the meadow on the right to the other side, but pretty quickly it was evident they didn't like the sight of us [or perhaps my red shorts, doh!]. went over to the left hand side of the mud path, and just kept running not exactly sure how else to react. must be poor-cow-vision, but once we had a put a little distance the grunting and the hoof sounds stopped; didn't look back, just kept on going....
ran through several [4-5] cattle guards and there was a pleasant volunteer at 2 more turning points along the way - for an open trail run, this was a pleasant sight. focus, keep going...
after the 3rd volunteer i was out of the ranch and onto paved road again - found my footing and kept up a steady downhill pace. this time there was a sheep dog [thankfully behind a fence] who was offended/intimidated/confused by my presence and he kept me company of about 200 meters and then gave up. after taking the left on the Adobe Road almost missed the right turn on casa grande - thanks to an oncoming van's pointer i found my way back. that's just when van2 showed up - shed my poncho to ganesh who came out to take pictures. another mile and handoff to Chakri for leg 11. leg 10 time 99minutes.

leg 11, Chakri went off to a flying start on leg 11. then he had time to find another runner's green band along the way, stops along the way to talk directions/weather/health with another - he's a through and through good samaritan - the runner who had lost her baton was oblivious to the loss until Chethan handed her band back. Chakri had to navigate rolling hills and he just kept going and sights were pretty all along. van1 had reached exchange 12 and their advise was no cell coverage at the exchange point.

leg 12, our last leg for this set - Asif took the baton and kept charging downhill and uphill - by this time it was getting dark. we reached the cheese factory for the handoff to van 1. now it was their turn to go for the next 6 legs.

And we rested - found a sign for "clean, dry sleeping quarters @ the Marin French cheese company.

Will try to complete the rest of the race in a 2nd post.

SV Marathon completed

Yay! finished the version 11.0 (that's what the medal said) of the silicon valley marathon. thanks to all the cheering and onground TeamASHA volunteers support, made for another memorable experience.

It was a beautiful day and the supporting crew was phenomenal. thanks to several fellow runners, TeamASHA and friends like Raj, Sanjay, Sachin, Ganesh and Piyush i finished the race in 5h 10m. thank you all for your words of support, financial support for the cause, and encouragement; couldn't have done it without all that.

Highlights of this run-ning effort,

• Ran alongside a 66year old runner - 16 time Western States 100 miler, 1 time Death valley [135miler] - what an inspiration; he was warming up to go for a 50 miler@Sacramento next week; good luck!
  
• Special congratulations to Sachin for having finished a very first and special marathon - he was all perseverance after mile 15 and inspite of cramps, finished strong and most importantly with a smile :)
• Funds raised : $3402 for literacy
  

THANK YOU !

Ready for Silicon Valley Marathon - me thinks...

• completed the 22 miler @ hellyer park on 10/4 - played sweeper role in the last 4 miles. met up with Narender and Partha on that stretch. Finished in 4h35m, and the recovery after was low on pain. feeling good about this now.
• Walked the RocknRoll half Marathon with rohini on Sunday - 10/5 - she's such a trooper, maintained a steady 16:30 pace throughout and even galloped into the finish line at the end ! All this with her zeal for navarathri!

fundraising in on pace to exceed basic target of 2400$

Taiko Drums

Taiko Drums, originally uploaded by Prasana.

Wonderful rythmic launch off to Hurricane Point. Picture was thanks to runner from Florida who offered to take mine and we exchanged favors for a few more stops along the way.

made it to hurricane point

made it to hurricane point, originally uploaded by Prasana.

Yea, feeling good at Hurricane Point

Oh! what a run ; 3 years of putting it off and finally having the resolve to train for it, Big Sur International Marathon turned out to be worth the wait and definitely measured up to all the superlatives.

• the best marathon there is; if you run only one, run this one
• the best organized marathon
  
• beautiful course - bring a camera.

The run
Picture perfect conditions started off the run; even the early morning waiting time was spent in very pleasant condition - 50F @ 5:15 AM [compared to lows of 30F in years past is what we'd been warned].
The send off from the start line included a beautiful release of white doves, stars and stripes rendition and a bagpiper; need I say more. now it gets personal... :)
part 1
Talked to Ganesh before the start and we had decided to keep a pace of 12minutes for the first half and take it from there. Found myself with Sathya after the first mile and we stayed together for the next 6 or so miles. I wanted to fall back with the rest of the folks - but he pointed out that there will be other meeting points and the order of march for now was forward, didn't argue with that (and he was right). The first few miles flowed by easily through the valley's shade and felt quite a bit cooler than at the start.
Saw a runner going backwards and barefeet. He's run the course earlier; going forward wasn't challenging enough, that's all ! (just crazy, me thinks)
There were downhills initially and then some easy climbs; the noticeable thing from mile 1 was the mile markers and volunteers shouting out pace and expected finish times. I was hearing 11:20 / 5:05 miles 4,5,6 . Thought in my mind, "yea, let's see what the pace is at mile 22".
At mile 7 on the uphill, Sathya started to slow down and had his head phones on by now - he insisted that he was ok and that i shouldn't be waiting on top of the hill. I was of course bracing myself for Hurricane point at that point. Watching the scenery was a good distraction, and the ocean was visible after we got out of the valley.
By mile 8 I had started alternating water and gatorade at the water stops.Feeling quite good about the conditions and said so to any runner that would listen.
The relay runners changed over around this time - just before Hurricane point. and I could see the long steady climb that was coming up.

• The Taiko drums were there to launch off the climb

Head down, swinging arms started the climb - running on asphalt there are no rocks to watch for - but there were some colorful feet - saw a lady pass me wearing green shoes, turns out there is a reason they are green; they are her trail running shoes to match the geckos :)
The head wind was a quite strong [read the paper next day to find out 30mph!], figured that's where the name hurricane hill came from. Rounded one corner - seemed like a small plateau around mile 11. By this time it was all about getting to the top of this hill. focus, focus...

• Reached the top - took some pics to show for it.

Waited for a few to see if I could find any of the familiar TeamASHA runners, no luck :(

part 2: miles 14-22 [picking up this thread after 2 months; just have to get this entry done today 7/22/08 ]
This was going to be go it alone stage; at this point it was about getting into a mindset to postpone breakdown. I guess I had heard over the last 2 years about how the coaches talk about splitting the run into parts and i was seeing my own need to do this. The scenery was awesome and the number of people at every stage was really a key to keeping up the mental momentum going. 

Kept a talking pace for this entire section - had Ali of Walnut creek for company. We both kept each other's pace for about a 4-6 mile stretch. thank you, Ali.

part 3: mile 22+

Saw Anthony coming up on the downhill after mile 22; i had arrived earlier than estimated thanks to Ali-the-runner. At that point a new surge of energy. Huge help that Anthony was there for a pep talk,

"prasana, keep moving or running; you can walk uphill, if you want"

As it turned out we never did take a walk break though I had thought the last few climbs would be best to do it that way! He had the last 4 miles completely mapped out and was doing a running commentary of next climb, next downhill all this time...

Grabbed a bunch of cold strawberries - i don't think i have enjoyed fresh cut strawberries soooo much as @ mile 25!

The last mile Anthony was preparing me for one last climb that never came - thankfully and i was thrilled to see the finish line. The last 200 meters were as before [sv 05] to hurtle down that stretch and finish in 5h 9m! 

Special Mention

1. a special shout out to Chakri - fellow runner from TeamASHA05, and a superlative mentor, sweeper coach and support personality - all rolled into one. Hats off Chakri.
   
2. Then there were all the runners that were there for the long runs, Arun Desigan salt tablets and smile, Sathya of-patti-fame, Bharath - intense trainer and headed for Boston, Madhavi anxious about everything around the 08 program, Medha -I-am-right :), Krishna+Deepu - the calm smiles, Arun Sharma, Coach Martina, Asif, Rajesh, Ganesh no-distance-is-long-enough !
   
3. Anthony - you were incredible to come out and help me finish strong. I owe you the finish - strongest finish for me so far. Thank you, thank you.
   
4. Rohini, prajakta and  subbu - special thanks for putting up with my mood swings and helping me see this milestone, thank you.
5. Thank you to Aai, Baba for showing up on this special day.
6. Reliable Piyush - shows up in Monterey - at least i had to run 26 miles, he drove down 70 miles to just be there, thank you!
7. ganesh, manju, shivum - thank you for always being there.

In closing a wonderful experience worth reliving again !

Gone are the days of lonesome running; it felt good to be back with the team. Thanks to Chakri's unpaved_routes group.

2/23/08 - Stanford Dish

First week out was to meet at the Stanford Dish - beautiful rainbow out to page mill. As warned parking was a scarce found the first spot. The plan was to loop around Campus drive - I ran with Madhavi and Arun, both 2007 runners; quite a strong group. At the start there were Chakri, Padma, Satya and then we got separated as Chakri was bringing up the rear for Mouli and Veena. After the 5 mile loop the plan was to go upto the Dish. There joined up with Arun and Satya and went around anti-clockwise. It was quite windy up at the top - the windcheater was helpful. It was great to have company and this week's 13+ mile was easier than last week. Thanks to Satya and Arun for keeping the spirit up.

1. Total distance: 16.5miles
2. Average pace : 13:46 min
3. Elevation : 2921 ft ascent
4. Team: Chakri, Padma, Madhavi, Satya, Gargi, Arun, Mouli, Veena
   

3/1/08 - Rancho run

This week the group was much larger; started out a little late; met up with Coach Martina, Bharat, Satya and Veena at the Barn [1 mile from the parking lot]. The plan was to loop back from fallen tree and then go to Black Mountain. Bharat and Coach Martina have done this section earlier and are strong runners. I tried keeping up with Bharat until the first of the climb it was possible and then was left in the dust :)
Saw the ultra group at the Barn before starting up on the Black Mountain charge; they have a down week so only 10 miles or something ! just sounds crazy. Vivek [of the hat throw fame @ SV @2007] decided he hadn't had enough of a run and started running with us going to Black Mountain. Rajesh and Bharat lead most of the way up to the top. The up slope was quite arduous - I slowed down substantially and focused on swinging my arms and keeping up the run [pace in parts down to 3 mph!]. There were a few adventures going down 1-way on some steep descents; there were a total of 3 such and each time it was a steep climb back. the saving grace was the narrow pathways - that seems to help the climb at least for me.

1. Total distance: 18.49miles
2. Average pace : 13:50 min
3. Elevation : 4527 ft ascent
4. Team: Chakri, Satya, Martina, Bharat, Arun, Rajesh
5. Lesson learnt: 1 gu pack not a good idea
   

3/8/08 - Bulls Run

Lone run; a repeat attempt to get to Bulls run. This time stayed focused on the original path. it helped that the weather was consistent throughout the run; was bright and sunny when I started; so just one layer was good. The climbs were as I remembered them, hard. Saw some galloping high schoolers on the trail - what a way to realize that I started running 25 years too late.
Started around 7:45am and was done before 11am. The initial distance from home was just under 2 miles, stretched at the entrance and then started the anti-clockwise loop to the reservoir.
Notes: Saw this couple who started about the same time and were done with Bulls run and I was about 3.5miles behind; wow!

1. Total distance: 13.86miles
2. Average pace : 13:01 min
3. Elevation : 3154 ft ascent
4. Team: No-shows

Bull's Run - did it

Its been on the cards for such a long time ; since the hiking days with Han and team at Almaden Quicksilver I've always admired those that ran past us when we were hiking to the the prize that was known as Bull's run.
On Saturday, I figured that had to be in the path to get to the 13 miles I planned to run [still preparing for big sur].
The highlights:

• beautiful fog covered morning, cold to the point that I started with 2 layers and gloves
• some equestrian event was in progress - so there were a great many horses and riders on the trail. Didn't pass a horse that was shorted than seven feet!
• Made good time on the way up - 5.09 in 0:59.

Then the not-so-fun part, when I figured on the fly with my propensity for not wanting to loop that I could go down to English camp and come back on the Mine hill trail - that should be 3 miles right?
Wrong, turned out to be a 5.67 mile loop and it didn't help that I got confused between Mine hill trail, April Trail and Castillero trails. All in all when I came back to Bull's run I had clocked 10 miles and it was 2h 43m into the run.
Anyways after reaching summit and knowing the way back was going to be downhill most of the ways I was faced with the challenge of conserving the big muscles because I felt the cramps coming. Fortunately for me I managed to keep them at bay until I got to the reservoir [mile 13]. After another 0.25miles I decided that pushing it further might be debilitating. So ended up walking the last 1.75 miles @ 2.8mph.

1. Distance: 14.99miles
2. Elapsed time: 3:57
3. Average pace: 15:49/mi [last 2 miles were at 21:40 pace]
   
4. Ascent : 4261 ft [2 times from 200ft to 1638ft]
5. Descent: 4223 ft

Lesson learnt, make a plan and stick to it. I think I will have to do 2 more Bull runs to figure out if I am in shape to embark on Big Sur.

Yippee! the MRI's clear; Dr. Bhuva says, "you are clear to continue your training". Best news for running yet this year!

ASHA (hope) for Education

This is the contents archived from the TeamASHA 07 site. Find a purpose, I found TeamASHA marathon effort as my cause.

1. To learn more about Asha For Education and the projects it undertakes, please visit: http://www.ashanet.org
2. To learn more about TeamAsha and its marathon program, please visit: http://sv.teamasha.org

Thanks TEAM (especially Ganesh & Ravi), originally uploaded by b_ananthan.

Snagged the TeamASHA page that was key towards fundraising.

Thanks to all for contributing to ASHA. Tally: $3678.40 [as of 10/21/07] Chicago Marathon NOTICE 10/19/07 If you are reading this and can support this project, please do as they have some urgent needs on account of a fire. Fire accident after having survived the Tsunami! A long-time Asha project partner in Tamil Nadu, had a fire accident which has resulted in about 40 families losing their livelihood means (These are families who had earlier been displaced by the Tsunami). They are looking at raising about Rs 4 lakhs for resettling them and asking for individual donations. Doing my part (albeit small) to contribute to the literacy of these kids. It is a noble thing that ASHA is trying to do ; join the effort for a better tomorrow for all of us. My nominal running experience diary. Running Log: prev I ran my first Marathon thanks to this Team in 2005; it was an exhilarating experience. I am back and hope to raise a awareness and monies for the cause. For record the last fundraising effort yielded close to $3000. That can help run a small school in rural India for a year; imagine that. How Asha helps:Asha for Education is a secular organization dedicated to change in India by focusing on basic education in the belief that education is a critical requisite for socio-economic change. Till date, Asha has supported more than 385 different child education projects spanning 24 states in India. In terms of project funding, almost $4,000,000 has been disbursed to these projects since Asha's inception. In 2002 alone, Asha chapters raised and disbursed more than $1,000,000 to over 200 projects. To learn more about Asha For Education and the projects it undertakes, please visit: http://www.ashanet.org To learn more about TeamAsha and its marathon program, please visit: http://sv.teamasha.org How you can help: You can help by contributing towards my fund raising. Every dollar you donate will help a child learn. Please donate generously. All donations are 100% tax deductible (Tax Id 770 45 9884) Contact me: pananthan AT yahoo.com Donate via: Credit Card

Starting 2008 on the run...

Actually I signed up for the Big Sur International Marathon in 2007. Just started training in earnest in the new year. Found the path up on Camden avenue as a good starting slope. The Garmin GPS has definitely helped motivate raking in the miles.
So far runs have included:

1. home loop around Camden-coleman - 5 miles
   
2. quicksilver to the guadalupe reservoir - 8 miles
   

Looking ahead to increasing and hoping to have fun doing it.

Athimber and Rajendra

DSCF0497, originally uploaded by b_ananthan.

Support across the generations made this even more special. Athimber is one that has probably seen me before I walked to have him and Athai be there for the run, very special.
And Ramendra Bhaisaab was our first running coach in front of Balmandir and this is a far cry from that.

DSCF0495, originally uploaded by b_ananthan.

From l->r deepali, hubby, ramya/ravi, yourstruly, Man Ganesh

This was part 1 of 3; support all around. The friends-n-family honor roll went all around from,

1. Ohio contingent: Ravi, Ramya, Athai, Athimber, Raj
   
2. Minnesota represented by Rajendra Pandey
   
3. Iowa family from Cedar Rapids - Mihir, Rupal, Kinnari, Ashna
   
4. Local - Ketan and Gatha, Deepali from Naperville
   
5. And the wonderful TeamASHA teams from SV, Austin, NJ, Chicago..
   

Rajendra and I

My man from LakeWoeBegone !

Another very special participant at this marathon effort; and poor man had to do the 100m dash to make his flight back. My apologies. :(

Chicago Marathon-fun-run

Highlights

• Crowd support
• Participants - single goal: finish the marathon - no shorter versions available.
• 30th anniversary - huge scale of everything
• Course : flat, flat, flat
• Live music

Ganesh and I started out with the 5:15 group; at the tail of the faster race groups. The idea being to conserve for a strong finish. This was going to be a hot "feels like 95F" day and humid. The temperature was something we were used to from training runs, the start-time of 8 AM was an hour later.

Early Miles...

Conservation was the name of the game and we were doing a 11:30 at mile 2 and it felt good that I had not repeated my past follies of starting fast and feeling it later. Right after that we got our personal cheer group comprising of Ravi and Ramya seeing us off around Mile 3 :) and some other ASHA-Chicago folks.
At this point we were only seeing some water at the aid stations, and mostly empty tables. Ganesh was experiencing a sugar+salt low and was looking for gatorade; I suggested that it might not be until after 15 miles (little did I realize then that he was in need) that there would be electrolyte. He suggested a potty stop and we spotted a couple of porta-potties and decided to stop there; turned out to be a long line and 10 minutes later we started again. By this time we were seeing the tail of the walkers and the 5:45 pace groups. Decided to start navigating ahead of the walkers but that was proving to be difficult even with the roads being completely opened up because of the frenzy to the water stations [which were totally out by mile 3!]

We saw Vivek Rai that time [Mile 3] and that re-invigorated Ganesh - then spotted residents out with garden hoses to feed us water - that was a welcome sight. filled up the one bottle I had carried in my fuel belt and we were now beginning to pace well. At mile 3 I had also turned on the interval timer [11/1]. We had a few good miles in there - still no gatorade. Took a gu break along the way in the hope of making up for the lack of gatorade; that helped for a while. After that it was everyone for themselves as far as water and cooling down went; stopped at a fountain near the Zoo to wet my hat in the dipping pond; repeated the same at a pond/fountain near the apartments along the water front. At this point we were in the midst of runners and started seeing a mix of pacers who were wearing 5:00, 5:15, 5:45 ; it was clear that everyone was running way astray off their expected pace - the water stops were like a fish-market; I almost lost Ganesh at the 10K as he had sprinted ahead. We rejoined at the sign and were at a reasonable pace. As we turned a corner there was another couple of performers egging the runners on; this is a huge deal to have so many live performers and crowd support and personally I have to say it helped me get away from dwelling on the weather and lack of water and gatorade.
Did I mention the Chicago resident support, it was phenomenal in more ways than one,

Mile 7 and beyond...

We passed a few senior assisted living buildings; seniors on the streets, in their windows kids with their parents cheering the runners on.
Local business people [at least i think they were] with coolers and buckets of water with ice handing them out in styrofoam cups/bowls, residents in the neighborhood brought our bottled water - sealed packs to hand out folks running their garden hoses to spray runners with water

For a while I was just caught up in the crowds and the music - didn't really pay attention to all the mile markers along the way; was eagerly awaiting the half-way mark. And especially because at Mile 15, Ravi was going to come to the Charity Mile. Just before mile 13 we came across a fire hydrant that the Chicago FD had opened and put up a hose to create a downpour; ran through it and was happy to drenched through to my shoes. By the time we got to the next dousing station I was quite dry already though! I don't recall much by way of fatigue at the 15 mile point. Saw Ravi and Ramya and few other Chicago Asha folks; got a few pictures there with them; most importantly got a gatorade fill-up and a couple of water bottles - God Bless Ravi the savior. As we went past the charity mile aid station, the girl there said there isn't another one for the next 3 miles, so fill up; something about Grant park. Later [after the finish line] it became evident this was referring to re-routing. Somewhere along the way we saw Rahul Pandey with an ice pack on his head; I was enquiring after him and he was quite finalistic in his judgement that the race is off, so just walk it off. Not exactly sure if walking the rest of the 10miles was better than running it, we decided to continue running it. And then we ran into more and more walkers - it was evident that something was re-miss.

At some point the rerouting put us back on Congress Boulevard [at least I think that was the name of the street] and eventually back to the starting area. They routed us back from the start area to past the finish line in the wrong direction - then a U turn ad cross the finish line.

End of race: 4h 0m 31s

Fastest time ever for us - except for the minor detail that this was not the full distance.
This run dedicated to my buddy, the one and only, Mr. Ganesh Iyer.

Lessons learnt

1. carry a fully loaded fuel belt, ALWAYS on a run
2. water stops can be out and pretty dangerous in the melee at a large race [ ~36,000 runners]
3. crowd support is everything

The after...
Came back to find the TeamASHA coaches, Rajeev Char, Tony Fong - big Thank yous to them

1. Ravi, Ramya
2. Rajendra , Athai, Athimber
3. Walked Rajendra to the fountain so he could locate Raj and his bag; as it turned out he had a personal dash to make his flight.

Dash to the hotel in a slow bus - Ravi carried me [literally!] to the bus.
Talked to Jennifer - CONGRATULATIONS to a real gritty finisher - she was howling about her worst time and also reported that she had heard there were 4 fatalities ! [actually it was ONE death - sad :(]

The hotel and later...

Reached the hotel and ran into the shower - it was already 4 PM and the flight was in 2 hours ; had experienced Chicago traffic enough to realize that the 20 mile distance from the hotel might become a challenge. Thankfully Mihir offered to drop me off ; the ride with Ashna was memorable in more ways than one. The conversation with her and she has such finality to her statements was ultimately refreshing,

• No, you are not a girl - this was at my suggestion that I was 5 years old and if I had to be a girl to go with her so be it.
• No, you can't come to my school - this was in response to my wanting to meet her teacher who is a good singer
• My doll doesn't have a name and you cannot change that - this was to my suggestions to baptize her favorite dolly

Finally Rupal [bless her soul] packed me off with Theplas and that became my belated lunch at 6:30 PM for the day.


It was a great trip, an unmarathon and a bunch of great meetings; I will remember Ashna for a long time and thanks to all for coming out!


And in closing this comment I heard from Alan Alda captures it all,
Live in the moment - these 5 seconds are not going to be back anytime again.

The run with Ganesh, the meetings, the support - all made for a very memorable Chicago Marathon outing.

The SF Marathon - July 29, 2007
Here's the honor roll of runners I feel even more honored know, CONGRATULATIONS!

• Jagi and Nomita Shahani - first Half Marathon! Model of grit and will-power. I have had the privilege of knowing them for a few years and I am so happy to see them add another feather to the proverbial hat. Nomita in her own words, "... perseverance personified", truly so!
  
• Mark Lin - the man rolls out of bed, runs on sandals for 13.1 miles at a sub 9:45m pace. And a quoteable quote, "really serious, I had to chug one of them beer to pay respect for those who carry that beer keg to the park"
• Jason - the Product Czar at AdMob and his alter-ego, El Scrapeo - both legends continue to grow...
  
• Jennifer - another AdMob-ster - go Jen, go ! an hour faster in 6 months; wow! Congratulations on 2 marathons in the first year of running the distance.
• Arun - Assistant Coach and an inspiration from TeamASHA. Congratulations on another wonderful Marathon!
  
• And there was the entire TeamASHA 07 contingent!

Hats Off to all these Champions!