The woods are lovely, dark and deep...

Hokahey 5K

2009-11-14T15:05:00.000-08:00

The Texas Team before the Big Horn 50 miler - 2007
(L:R - Dano, Leah, Mike, Santhosh, Clarence, Ganesh, Gaurav, Vinod)

Writing after a really long time!!

Today morning I had a chance to run in the Hokahey 5K Run . This was a fundraiser to support an Austin runner - Dan McKeitz - known to all as Dano. Dano is truly an Austin legend and with his quirky (most times bizarre) sense of humor he has entertained all who have met him :) You cannot be around Dano and not be laughing till your sides hurt. An amazing guy!! Sometime back Dano was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and this event was organized to support him. Please do consider supporting him by making a contribution here.

The run today was a spectacular event. Close to 400 runners showed up and a much larger group of supporters. It was like a big ol' community get-together with friends all around and there was laughter and great camaraderie. I guess something about the event today made me want to write again after such a long time. Some pictures from today's run can be seen here - Photos

Siddamma's visit to Austin

2007-10-27T10:05:00.000-07:00

Day 1

Siddamma had come here to the US to interact with volunteers/activists who were working for the rights of the Katrina victims in New Orleans. Siddamma had experience in disaster relief and rehabilitation after the tsunami had affected the communities along the Tamil Nadu coast. A group of volunteers from New Orleans had visited her in Chennai during the early part of the year, to learn from her work. She was invited to New Orleans to teach the people, how to organize themselves to make themselves heard by the government.

I had met Siddamma on her previous visit to Austin in February 2006 (actually she had stayed at my place during that visit :D ) and her enthusiasm and passion for her work really inspired all of us. Last time she spent two days in Austin, and all of us barely slept an hour or two each day. We were all amazed by her energy and we were all eager to learn as much as we could from her - about her experiences. On that trip she exerted herself too much and we did not know to stop her, and thus as a result she fell ill because of too much traveling and too much exertion. So this trip was more carefully planned with fewer stops and longer breaks in between.

Her trip to Austin this time was from Sept 1st to Sept 3rd during the Labor Day Weekend. She was to stay in Santhosh's new apartment and I decided to setup camp there too. After some last minute grocery shopping, Santhosh and I picked up Siddamma from the airport in the afternoon. She was very excited about her trip to New Orleans and she told us about her experiences there - There was a conference organized in the New Orleans and Mississippi area, but she told the organizers that she would rather spend time on the ground, meeting the affected people, than spend time closed up in hotel conference rooms. So over the period of a week, she went and met a lot of local people and activists.

It had been the second anniversary of the Katrina storm but not much was being done for the affected people. One of the biggest concerns seemed to be the new plans of development for the city of New Orleans. The public housing which was in pretty good condition after the storm, was fenced off and people were not allowed to enter the area. The city was planning to tear down the housing and come up with something else, so the former residents were asked not to return for another 3 years. Most people felt that this was done to drive out the under-privileged, primarily black, population. The city officials felt that the poor neighborhood did not fit in with the image they wanted to create for New Orleans.

She met an individual (of Indian origin) working for the rights of the immigrant laborers in that area.There are agents in cities like Bombay who collect large sums of money on the promise of good work and money in US. When many of these laborers get here, they realize that there is no work for them, but since they have already paid such large amounts to get here, they cannot go back. These people are then exploited by being lower than minimum wages and being made to work long hours. Their living conditions are deplorable. This was almost the same as the problems faced by the laborers in the Middle East. This particular individual was trying to organize the people working in these conditions so that they could demand their rights and would not be exploited. I think this is an article about an incident in the Gulf Coast - http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2007/03/9865.php and another article about the abuse of guest workers in the US - http://www.splcenter.org/legal/guestreport/index.jsp
After resting for sometime, Siddamma spoke to a couple of volunteers/activists from Austin, whom she had met at the conference. One of them told her of organizations she should visit in Austin. One of them was the Rhizome Collective - http://www.rhizomecollective.org . We called to check if they were open and then we left to visit them. From their website - the Rhizome Collective is a non-profit group and "an Educational Center for Urban Sustainability and a Center for Community Organizing."

We met someone working the land and went up to speak to him. He had joined the collective very recently and was happy to show us around. Siddamma spoke about her experience with working on the land and trying organic agriculture. At this place the land was very small and was meant to be a place where people could experiment and try out things.

We saw a polycutlure pond - http://archive.rhizomecollective.org/Images2/Photos/Tour/polyPond.jpg . Here the idea being to build a small water-based eco-system - with some regular plants, water plants growing there, fish, frogs, dragonflies living in the water tanks.
Next we saw a bicycle shop called Bikes Across Borders (http://www.bikesacrossborders.org ) - "a non-profit bike shop that repairs salvaged bikes & offers bicycle & bike trailer workshops". Since 2001, they have sent over 500 bicycles to Cuba, Mexico, and Central America. The bike shop is open to all and I think they even have a program where you can make your own bike from donated parts, after you have volunteered for a certain number of hours. (There was another similar program in Houston called the Workshop Houston: http://www.workshophouston.org/programs/bike_shop.php . It was even covered by PBS - http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/320/earn-a-bike.html)
As a part of the bike shop, they had built something like a stationary bike to which one could attach a grinder. They had an attachment which could be used to remove corn from the cob. All this had been built from scrap metal or old bicycle parts. (Siddamma thought that this application was very unique and that it could be used in the village to extract oil)
They had some rain-water harvesting structures, another structure to treat the household waste-water,
There was the garden as mentioned before where several fruits, vegetables and herbs were being organically grown. They also carried out vermi-composting.

(Please check their website to read more about their efforts or even better, go and visit them)

We spent some time speaking to more volunteers and from one of them we learnt about another organization close by called Casa Marianella - http://www.casamarianella.org . It is a shelter and home for immigrant laborers. Having nothing planned for the evening we decided to go there. So within six hours of being in Austin, Siddamma had shown us places we had never heard of or seen.

There was only one volunteer that evening and he was busy taking in a new resident. There were lots of residents around but most of them only spoke Spanish and other Latin American languages. So we waited for a while outside and then sat in the living area. While we were sitting there waiting we saw a number of residents walk through the living area. All of them took the time to smile and greet us. It was fun communicating with one lady - she was saying something in Spanish and we were talking in English and all of us were using hand gestures to try to explain what we were saying. We finally managed to introduce ourselves. I was amazed by the strong feeling of affection and sense of community I felt in that group there. I have never felt so comfortable in a group of strangers in this country.

After the volunteer had registered the new resident, we spoke to him about the organization and the program they had there. They help immigrants by providing them with food, shelter, clothes for at least a month. There are English classes held, contacts of lawyers for legal counseling, some over the counter medicines for the residents. At this facility nightly occupancy is 21-30 people, and the average length of stay is 30 days. The majority of persons leaving the shelter are able to find stable housing when they leave. A short video tour of the house can be seen at - http://www.casamarianella.org/video/CasaMarianellaTour.wmv

The new resident they had taken in Ravi*, was from Nepal. There was another girl Aarti* who was acting as the translator. Aarti was also a Nepali and had in fact she had lived at Casa Marianella when she had come to the US. Ravi had been held at a detention center while his background was checked and once Casa Marianella heard about it, they paid for Ravi's bond to be released and he was brought to Austin. Aarti helped Ravi get settled and made sure he had everything he needed. Aarti was comfortable in talking in English and Hindi, and we spoke to her at length about the place.
(* - names have been changed )

She said that when she had come to the US and Casa Marianella, she neither know English nor Spanish, but she managed to pick up both these languages very soon. She was very grateful for the help she received here and ever since she had found a job, she paid a small amount to Casa Marianella every month and she also volunteered there. She said that all the residents after securing jobs, paid a small amount to support the house - something like $10/month. Aarti spoke about how she wanted to learn nursing and she was planning to join a school for nursing. She was currently living with her family and she got health-care through Medicaid and collected Food Stamps from the government.

While we had been waiting to talk to the volunteer, I was wondering how we could volunteer to help here. Language seemed to be a barrier to me and I wondered how useful I would be without the knowledge of Spanish. I was surprised to see Nepali residents and at the same time I realized that I really could volunteer and help out. Nepali citizens most times understand Hindi and this was one way we could help. I soon realized that if the will to volunteer is there, I could definitely find some way to make myself useful. I also learned that once a week, they collected old clothes and sorted them out for use by the residents.

Siddamma was very excited to meet Aarti and she wanted to put her in touch with the person she had met in New Orleans who was working with immigrant labor. After this we got home and made dinner, while we discussed what we had seen during the day. There were so many opportunities to volunteer locally and learn. I guess we just needed someone to show us the way.

Day 2

Next morning Siddamma made some amazing breakfast and lunch. (Seems like she did not trust our cooking). The Asha volunteers came for an early meeting to meet with Siddamma and learn about her work. First we saw a documentary she had got from New Orleans. It described the struggle of the people who had been displaced and were now trying to return to the city and their homes in the public housing project. The documentary can be seen online - http://www.advancementproject.org/ourwork/other-initiatives/hurricane-katrina/video1.php . Siddamma spoke about what she learned in New Orleans and drew parallels to what she had seen in India after the tsunami. As an example, the fishermen community which had lived along the sea-shore were not allowed to return on the pretext of their safety. Now the sea-front properties were being given to developers for the construction of resorts and hotels.

Siddamma spoke about her work in India, especially related to the projects supported from Asha Austin. She spoke at length about the Resource Center and was even carrying a whole bunch of photographs. She said that she was from a farmer family and she could see how things had changed in the last few years. Agriculture has now become a very risky business with high input costs which forces the farmer to take loans at very high interest rates. It has been this debt which has been the cause of most farmer suicides in the last decade. The high input costs come from buying - GM (Genetically modified) seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides - all of which are very expensive. For example when a farmer buys GM seeds, they have to buy a certain brand of fertilizer and pesticide along with it, each of which is very expensive. At the end of the year the farmer cannot even save the seeds for next year as the seeds from GM plants are engineered not to work. So in case everything goes well, the farmer will make some money and pay back his loans. But in case something goes wrong, say, the rains fail, the farmer has a lot to lose. Another problem over the last few years has been a shift from food crops to cash crops. Most farmers have started growing cash crops and nothing else, based on the promise of greater returns. This, according to Siddamma, is a big problem as the farmers are now dependent on the sale of their cash crop for the food. In case of food grains, even if the farmer cant sell them in the market, the family at least has something to eat.

This is where the resource center comes in. It was with the idea to show the farmers nearby, how traditional means of agriculture had lesser risk and was more suited for small land-holdings. Siddamma spoke of how one needed just a pair of cows on the land to make the whole system sustainable. Apart from providing milk, the cow urine and cow dung have numerous uses on the farm. Cow-dung can be used for manure and also as a fuel for cooking. The cow urine mixed with cow-dung, buttermilk and some other secret ingredients (:D) can be used for making a natural pesticide. Food for the cows - you can provide the paddy and other organic waste that is generated on the farm. By adding cows to the farm, makes it almost a self-sustaining eco-system.

Siddamma showed a bunch of photographs from the Resource Center. The photographs helped us visualize what we had been talking about all along - the check dams, the bunds, the cow shed, the raised platform for the paddy, etc. Over the last year they have had a very good crop of groundnuts and sunflower. Siddamma told us how their work, was raising the interest of the neighboring farmers and many of them had dropped by to see what was going on there. Many of them even decided to try out some of the techniques on their own land. This was exactly the objective of starting the Resource Center and slowly but surely the results can be seen. The next step is to try to get the "Organic" certification and make their produce available in the local market.

After the Asha meeting, we all went to the university for a talk organized for Siddamma's visit. Siddamma spoke about her various projects and her experiences and there was a good discussion about the resource center. There was a video recording of most of the talk which will be put up online at some point. (Contact Santhosh or me if you want a copy of the video). After the talk a bunch of us met up again at Santhosh's place, where the discussions continued. Siddamma finally trusted us to make dinner.

Siddamma spent a good amount of time talking about the tsunami housing project. They had worked on low-cost housing for the families who had been affected. We saw a whole bunch of pictures of the houses and they were quite impressive. It was a one-room house with a kitchen and it was a pucca house built with bricks. The bricks used were compressed bricks which were made in the countryside and were much cheaper than the bricks from the kilns. So not only was it cheaper but it also provided work to people in the community. Most of the construction of the house was done by the family for whom the house was being built. This way the labor cost was substantially reduced. In many of the houses the roofs were made of cement/brick and this was the most expensive part. In the future Siddamma was thinking of using earthen tiles for the roofing. This would not only provide employment to the rural potter families but would also save a lot of money. Another unique feature about this project was that - the house was in the name of the woman of the house.

During the discussion Siddamma came up with the idea of "Build a Home" just like the "support a child" programs we have. She estimated that a pucca house could be built for as low as Rs 50,000 or about $1250. She said that people could support the whole construction costs or part of it and they could provide the donor with updates and pictures. As we were discussing this Siddamma and all the volunteers became more and more convinced and excited about this idea for low cost housing. There was some talk of including the government at some stage. (A more detailed proposal of the same will be drawn up and you could contact Santhosh or me if you are interested in this).

After this we decided to call it a day, as Siddamma had an early morning flight to Seattle. We packed everything at night and got to the airport on time. It was difficult to believe how the last two days had flown by and I wished Siddamma had a longer stay in Austin but I guess that also would not have been enough. She invited everybody to visit the resource center and stay for atleast a couple of days. There is only rule there - you have to work to get food :D

The pictures from the visit can be seen here -
http://data.ashanet.org/datastore/data/Chapters/Austin/Projectpics/siddamma/Siddamma_US_tour_07/album/Austin/index.html

How the last year ran by...

2007-10-02T15:51:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted about running (or much else) since last years Chicago marathon and as this years race draws near, it is time for an update.

Last December I ran my first 50 miler at the Sunmart race. We had awesome support at the race from friends in Austin and I think that was what made it so memorable. This was followed by a long trip to India in which I had a chance to visit the projects supported by Asha Austin in the Varanasi area. It was a great learning experience for me and you can learn more about it in the site visit reports and pictures on the project pages. Feel free to email me if you want more information about any of our projects - www.ashanet.org/austin/projects. I would like to thank all those who supported me in the fundraising.

In February this year, one of the Team Asha Silicon Valley runners - Padma, came to run a 100 miler near Austin and thus became the first Indian lady to run such a distance. Padma spoke of doing a Grand Canyon run at some time and she recruited us for the adventure. It was time for us to start thinking of our next race and since Joe and the gang were already training for the Big Horn race, we decided to jump in. I wanted to run the Pikes Peak marathon but before I knew it Santhosh and Vinod convinced (conned) me into signing up for the Pikes Peak Double.

Santhosh was speaking of moving to India and he wanted to do a 100 miler before he left. So Santhosh and Vinod started talking about doing the Cactus Rose 100 miler in November. It was a rugged 100 miler in Bandera with no aid stations, and they wanted to do it as their first 100 miler? These guys were crazy and I was not convinced I wanted to do it. But as usual they made the decisions, and I was left feebly protesting on the sidelines. The Grand Canyon plan moved from the earlier April-May timeframe to Sep-Oct. So the four races were decided - and Joe named it the Indian Slam. The Indian Slammers were - Ganesh, Santhosh, Vinod and me.

The Indian Slam
Big Horn 50 miler - June 15th
Pikes Peak Double - August 18th, 19th
Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim - Sep 30th
Cactus Rose 100 miler - Nov 2nd-3rd

Big Horn
I remember discussing with Vinod at the start of the training, how the Big Horn 50 miler should not be a big deal - "It has a long downhill, followed by a sharp climb and then it levels off for a bit before another downhill to the finish. So it was only the climb that would be difficult. " Luckily, during the training, Joe scared us enough about running in the mountains. But race day had a lot more in store to teach each of us. The course had received snow the week before and the whole course was a mud bog with the result that all of us struggled to make cutoffs. I was so beat from the race, that it took me more than a week to recover.

Pikes Peak Double - Ascent and Marathon
This was the race I was really scared about. On the first day we had the Ascent - climbing up 7800 feet over 13.1 miles, going up to an altitude of over 14000ft. On the next day we had the Marathon - climbing up the mountain again but this time we would be running back down too. After the Big Horn race, I was burnt out and was not able to train very hard for this race. Altitude did begin to affect me after about 12000ft but I survived and the races went off fine.

Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim
If there was a run I was looking forward to, it was this. I have been to the Grand Canyon twice before and done all the touristy things. On my last visit (in times before I had started running), I had decided that the next time I return here - I would definitely hike down to the river and back. So when the chance came to go from the South Rim to the North Rim and back to the South Rim, I jumped at the offer. I was super excited about this run, and at the same time I thought it should be relatively easy after the Pikes Peak Double. This time too, Joe warned us about the terrain and desert and how it would really beat us down. The difficulty in this venture was the fact that it was like an inverted mountain - you go down first and climb up at the end when you are most tired. We were out there for 23 hours and 23 minutes and it was a great fun. [I will write a separate post about this run.]

Cactus Rose
I am glad to say that the first three are done and now it is time to prepare for the big one. Each of us has pledged to raise $100/mile or $10,000 towards efforts supported by Asha Austin. See the team blog - 4 runners, 4 races, 400 miles, and $40K - http://ashaultra-fourrunners.blogspot.com/

2007-09-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

Not so green

I like to think of myself as a person who cares for the environment. But then, have I done anything different to show that it is true?

I do ask for paper bags when I checkout my grocery, but is that enough? There is also a debate whether paper bags are any better than plastic bags. (The paper bags come from a renewable resource, are easy to recycle, and are biodegradable. Plastic bags are none of those; but on the other hand, their manufacturing process creates less pollution and waste, and they take up less room in landfills. The best answer is to "carry your own bag".)

Recently I have made a switch to organic food. Once upon a time, I bought a few things that were organic but I sometimes felt that organic food was way more expensive. But reading Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma", had me convinced that organic and local was the way to go. But most times I did end up shopping at Whole Foods Market, buying "naturally grown"/ "organic" produce from as far as South America and Central America. Organic food being shipped for thousands of miles, is far worse for the environment than growing food conventionally (chemical farming) in a local farm.
In the last two and half years here, I havent used public transport even once. To get anywhere, I rely on my gas-guzzling car. One could use the excuse that public transportation in America is horrible. I know it is not that great, but not getting a chance to use it in two and a half years, is a stretch. Even while I was in India, I didnt have a long history of using public transportation.

I live a little over a mile from work, but I have never gone there on foot in spite of all the running I do. There is also a trail that starts behind the house and goes very close to to work. But the excuse is the time - I can barely get to work on time.

Over the years I have fallen prey to the consumeristic lifestyle - buy, use, throw and then buy again. Not to say everything can be re-used, but I am guilty of generating a whole lot more waste than I used to. There are a whole lot of things that can be re-used or recycled that I throw away in the garbage. In fact a couple of years back, my parents were visiting, and my mom was shocked at the amount of waste we generated. Then my excuse had been - things are cheap, we can always buy more. (I think in India I used to be a whole lot more careful about the way I took care of and used things. )

So what got me started on this post?

Few months back, a couple of my friends (Ani and Sanjeev) moved to Bangalore and they decided to try live without a refrigerator. (Reason being - simple living) It was sacrilegious to hear that. All my life I have seen a refrigerator in my house and I could not and still cant imagine living without one. Then I had another conversation about the amount of electricity we consume and I was pointed to this book on the feasibility of alternate energy - http://www.withouthotair.com/. (I have read part of it and it is quite interesting)
Recently I came across an article about the "No Impact Man" - a person who has decided to live a year with zero or minimal impact on the environment. Living with his family in New York - they gave up electricity in their house, started buying local and organic food, using bikes for commuting, started composting their waste, stopped using plastic and a bunch of other things trying to go green. I really like the blog and I would encourage you to read it too- http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/ . There is a ton of information available through the links and posts.

Recently I received my electricity bill and this time I decided to actually read it and see how much electricity I consumed. I logged into my account and started looking at my usage history. So this is what I found - over the last two years my average electricity usage - 494 KWh/ month. (1KWh is same as one unit of energy on the electricity bill). Googling some more, I found the figure for the average US household electricity consumption - 938 KWh/ month. One could say that I am much lower than the average, but one also needs to account for the fact that mine is a single member household.

So what am I going to do about this all? I am not courageous enough, like the people cited above, to try something radical yet. So the changes I am thinking of will be small things to start with. I do not claim that my making these small changes will save the world, but I think it is important to me and hopefully somebody will be inspired to make some changes in their life. Though, I do believe that there needs to be a radical change in the way we live our lives today, but more on that at some other time. I would like to quote the NoImpactMan here - "I believe strongly that individual action is important, but I don't believe it replaces political action. I believe the two are complimentary and strongest when they come together."

Start using public transport at least once a month
Go to work on foot by the trails
Buy more local food, go to the farmers market or the coop
Carry bags/boxes to grocery store
Cut down unnecessary electricity usage - unplug devices that are not being used, change to compact florescent lamps,
Cut down usage of disposables
May try composting the organic waste - need to find out more about this.

I know what I am listing above is not great and many of the things are currently not even quantifiable. Hopefully things get more defined as I am able to experiment with this. I may be able to add more to the list based on other's experiences. So please do write in.

Blogs/Websites which might help me be more green

No Impact Man - http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/
Simplify & Reduce - http://simplereduce.wordpress.com/
Small is Beautiful - http://smallisbeautiful.blogspot.com/
Grist - http://www.grist.org
Local transit - http://www.google.com/transit

(There are a whole bunch of other blogs you could go to from the above blogs)

Guru Purnima

2007-07-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

Today being Guru Poornima, I wanted to post this doha (couplet) I really like.

"Guru Govind dono khade, kiske laagu paay,
Balihari Gurudevaki jinhe Govind diyo bataay"

and this...

"Gurubrahma Guruvishnu Gururdevo Maheshwaraha |
Guruhu sakshaat Parambrahman tasmai Shrigurave namaha ||"

The only dream worth living...

2007-07-07T20:46:00.000-07:00

...is to dream that you will live while you're alive and die only when you're dead.

To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget.

- Arundhati Roy in her essay The End of Imagination

Completed another 26 today

2006-10-23T21:59:00.000-07:00

I am not talking about completing another marathon...but about turning 26. Yes, 23rd Oct is my "Happy Birthday" and this time I have turned 26. In running terms, I have completed a marathon getting here. I can claim I have done two twenty-sixes back to back.

It has taken me a long time getting here ;)

Quick summary of the last 26 years
Year 1 : part of it in Calcutta and part of it in Bangalore as a crying kid
Year 2-3 : cute pre-schooler ;)
Year 4-25 : schooling in Bangalore, engineering in Pilani, masters in the US
Year 25-26 : working, running and volunteering with Asha Austin

I think the last year and a half I have volunteered with Asha Austin have been very interesting. Before that I was in school studying something or the other, writing exams, and in general busy working for a career for myself. I never stopped to think or question what was happening around me, why it was happening or anything that did not concern my immediate needs/future. Once I started working, I found more time to think. My association with the volunteers at Asha Austin has been a channel for me to learn about some of the issues and problems being faced by a majority of people in our country. It has been a good learning experience so far and I hope I continue to learn. I think this is a very interesting article to read - A critique on the modern education system.

I did like running before but it was 2-3 miles at the most. With the marathon program I got the chance to raise money for projects we supported. All my posts till now speak only about running and the training involved, but in all this, I should not forget why I am running. I liked this post by Santhosh which puts things into perspective. You could learn about the various projects that would be supported through this fundraising. Please email me if you want more information.

Back to the present day -

Spent the morning flying from Chicago to Austin. Was quite tired because of the previous day but had to go straight to work from the Airport. It was a slow day at work and I just wanted to get home and relax for a while.

I felt that people were not very enthued about the birthday though they did remember it :( Its not like I wasnt super excited about my birthday but I was sure hoping to do something, but there was no mention of any plans from anyone...that was quite depressing.

At work, I knew a bunch of people knew of my birthday, but strangely no one wished me. Thats when the Sherlock Holmes in me woke up :D This all must be part of some surprise plan. Slept in the evening for a while and then Ani came over to give me some company. I was sure she was planning the surprise party, so I kept bugging her and asking her all about it. She pleaded innocence, and said that I was going to be very disappointed that evening for she had planned no such thing. In fact she was apologetic for not having planned anything and said that we could go for dinner. But I was quite certain that she was upto something. Later she tried to take me to her apartment on a flimsy excuse, and then I pounced on her and asked her if the party was at her place. After two hours of constant badgering, she was unable to keep a straight face and I knew I had gotten the secret out.

We walk into her apartment and as expected there were a bunch of people all there to surprise me. I am sorry for spoiling the surprise but it was good fun. It would have been such a disaster if there was no party in reality but I was counting on Ani and her enthu for organising parties. We open the cake and it is this huge chocolate cake from mom, dad and sis.

Awesome cake it was!!

Now that was a big surprise!! How did they manage that? And then it all came together. Just the week before mom had asked me for Ani's number so that she could talk to me in Chicago, in case my phone did not work. I did not expect mom to plan all this and it was an awesome awesome surprise. My Sherlock Holmes' skills totally failed me in front of mom, dad and sis. This was so much fun. For food there was pudina chutney sandwiches and pizzas. It was a lot of fun and thanks to all who made the day so memorable.

Check out the photos from the party.

Twenty Six Point Two in Chicago

2006-10-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

The day began very early at 4:45 am and in an hour we (Ani, Anurag, Ganesh and I) were all ready to leave for the race start. We were planning to take the train to Grant Park and were hoping to get there by around 6:30 am so that we could take care of our drop-off bags, visit the Team Asha tent in the charity village and get a chance to use the restrooms.

Ten minutes after we started walking towards the train station, Anurag realised that he was not carrying his train pass and none of us had any money on us. So he rushed back to bring the train pass while we were waiting on the sidewalk, seeing other runners making their way to the train station. By the time Anurag returned, we saw that the runners who were earlier heading towards the train station were now coming back as the train station was closed. We decided to take the bus to the race start. We followed a few other runners to the bus-stop and found the place to be deserted. We soon realised that it was past 6:30 am and the buses on that route were not running anymore because the marathon course was along the bus-route. I was almost hitting the panic button now. We then went to Anurag's apartment to pick up money for a cab. Luckily Sanjeev had money on him and that saved the day. The race start was more than five miles away and we had no way to get there!!

There was hardly anyone on the streets and no sign of any cabs. Ani actually ran up to two cars and asked them if they could give us a ride but they happened to be going elsewhere. Here I was getting all tensed, doing nothing useful. I was so glad Ani was keeping her cool and atleast trying something. And just when we all were getting desperate, our prayers were answered and a cab turned up. All along I had been suggesting that we should start moving towards the race start, though I knew that it was not a feasible solution to run/walk 5 miles before running the marathon. It was only after we got into the cab, that we all breathed a sigh of relief and then the excitement of running such a big marathon began to sink in. Finally smiles began to appear on people's faces, especially mine :D

The start/finish area was one huge carnival with over 40,000 people running the marathon. We had forty five minutes to drop off our bags and get to the restrooms. One can essentially drop off their extra clothes, food, wallet, cell-phone, etc (all in a bag) and then pick it up at the end of the race. Considering the fact that there were 40,000 runners, everything was very well organised. We were joined by Vinod and Anurag, Ganesh and Vinod decided to run together and I was planning to run with Ani. By the time we were done with the restroom lines, it was a few minutes before the start. We got into the starting corral and moved up within the crowd till the five hour pace group. The atmosphere at the race start was electric with people screaming, shouting, talking animatedly, that it was impossible for me to stay still and I could not help but jump about a bit ;)

To give you an idea of how large the crowd was - it took us twenty whole minutes to get to the starting line. In the Austin marathon it had taken me about four minutes. As soon as we started there was a very gradual uphill and when you looked up, all you could see was thousands and thousands of people running on the streets ahead. It was one of the most beautiful sights I had seen. We passed under two bridges and both of them were filled with supporters and photographers. There were so many cameras flashing, that one felt like a celebrity :D It was impossible to run at any pace but at the pace of the crowd.

Throughout the training, Ani had been running at about 15min/mile pace. This meant that it would take us about six and a half hours to complete the marathon but I was sure the cold weather would help. The only concern was that the course support was guaranteed only for six and a half hours and we were already starting twenty minutes behind. But the finish was yet 26 miles away and further away in our thoughts. We were just enjoying the race atmosphere : 40,000+ runners and an expected 1.5 million spectators cheering the runners, trying to soak in every bit of it. I think it is fun running on an unfamiliar route as you dont know whats coming up and everything that comes up is new and exciting.

We ran through the downtown district of Chicago and then headed north towards Anurag's house. We would pass right next to Anurag's house at mile 7 and 9 and Sanjeev was supposed to meet us there. The first few miles went by real quickly and we were running an even 12 min/mile pace. We were both feeling good, but we were afraid of starting out too fast. Every mile, we consciously decided to slow down for that particular mile, but when the mile marker came we saw that we were yet running at the same speed. Finally we decided that we were feeling good and what the heck, let us run well while we feel good.

It was good to see Sanjeev at mile 7 and mile 9 and we were yet running strong at 12 min miles. We passed the very bus-stop where we had been waiting less than three hours ago. A lot had changed since then and now all of us were having the time of our lives. It was at around mile 11 when Ani's IT band started acting up and we decided that we should slow down and Ani decided to stretch every one and a half miles. We crossed the half way point in about 2 hours and 45 mins and I began to hope for a sub-six hour finish.

But the tough part of the marathon was just starting. The course from mile 13 to mile 17 was in a boring part of town with hardly any crowd support. We were supposed to meet Sanjeev after mile 13 but he was unable to get there in time because of the traffic. Our target then was to make it to mile 20, where there was the Team Asha cheering group. At mile 20 we come upon a pretty large group cheering for Team Asha. It was at this point that Sanjeev joined us for the remaining 6.2 miles.

Ani's leg was hurting a bit but regular stretching seemed to be helping her. We ran through China-town which was quite nice. After that the next section was on the feeder road of a freeway which was again very boring, but things got better as we entered the university campus around mile 23. It was five hours up and I was quite confident of a sub-six finish. The next three miles were quite tough as we were feeling the strain of having been on the road for over five hours. The crowd support was also disappearing but with Sanjeev, full of energy and cheering us on, we made it to the finish line in 5 hours and 47 minutes. I was quite cold once we had finished and was so glad for the change of clothes in the drop bag.

After picking our medals we went towards the Team Asha tent in the charity village. The arrangement by Asha Chicago was awesome - there were samosas, mango drinks and other goodies. There were loads of Asha runners excitedly exchanging race stories and showing of their newly earned medals. It was great seeing Ankur and Neha there. It had been a while since we had met but we did not get much time to catch up. We decided to meet for the Asha party that night. The Austin gang went in search for some lunch and we finally settled on some Thai place after driving around for a while. It was fun exchanging stories over lunch. By the time we had lunch, all of us were very tired, and we decided to skip the Asha party as it was very far from Anurag's place.

We got home, lazed around for a while and finally I took an ice bath though it was freezing outside. Once we were all done we decided to go the Indian part of town in Chicago - Devon street. This street is lined with South-Asian stores and restaurants and it is quite easy for one to believe that they are in India. There are saree stores, jewellery shops, Indian grocery stores, variety of Indian restaurants and the crowd there is so highly South Asian, that it looks exactly like India. There had been plans to party that night, but we were all totally out of energy. We retired after dinner as we had an early morning flight back to Austin.

Check out some of the photos from Chicago.

Diwali at Chicago

2006-10-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

On Friday evening Ganesh, Santhosh and I flew out of Austin for Chicago. I could barely believe that I was travelling all the way to Chicago, just to run a marathon, being fully aware that I would not have the time to go sightseeing. A lot of people find it strange that you have to pay to run races, and I may have believed the same a year and a half ago. But here I was flying close to a thousand miles to go run in another city. It is a different matter that it was to run in one of the biggest marathons in the world. I sure have come a long way since I started training with Team Asha in the fall of 2005.

I normally hate flying and can barely pass my time on flights. I consider myself lucky if I can fall asleep for even a short while. After sleeping fitfully for about an hour, I woke up to the announcement that we may have to return to Austin because one of the runways in Chicago O'Hare Airport was not operational. We were low on fuel, and thus were asked to proceed towards the Chicago area. After another agonising hour we were told that we had been given permission to land on an alternate runway. Yay! I would have the chance to run the Chicago marathon. It was too painful to think of going back home when you had just started on your holiday.

We finally made it half an hour late to Chicago, and as a result I was unable to meet Ankur, who had flown in earlier from San Jose. Ganesh and I were going to stay with Ani's brother Anurag. We took the train and then the bus towards home. We met up with Ani and Anurag near the bus-stop and proceeded for some Ethiopian food. Sanjeev joined us a little later. I had heard so much about Ethiopian food from Ani and I must say that I really loved it. I ate like I had never seen food before.

Look at the yummy food in the thali!!

The next day Ganesh and I had to put in a 10-12 mile run as part of the back-to-back training. Sanjeev wanted to run longer and Ani decided to do a 3 mile run. Ani took us to Lakeshore Drive for a run on the banks of Lake Michigan. Lake Michigan is so huge that it alsmost looks like the sea and the trail was really beautiful. You could see the fall colors on the trees, bunches of leaves on the ground, feel the cool wind blowing on your face, see the lake lapping at the shore beside you, feel the energy of the city flowing in the roads beside the trail, as you ran on the banks of the lake. The run filled me with eager anticipation for the race the next day. Ganesh and I ran about 10 miles, figuring that the marathon expo would be tiring and would account for the rest of the miles :D

It also happened to be Diwali that day. In order to celebrate the occasion, we had ordered some sweets (motichoor laddu, kaju katli and plain burfi) and some namkeen from Haldiram's. So you can guess what we had for breakfast!!

Mithai for Diwali

Rest of the morning, all of us were on the phone, wishing people in India/US a happy Diwali. By the time we were ready to leave for the expo it was past 1pm. We reached the expo around 2:30pm and spent two hours there, wandering from one booth to another. Steve (our coach for the Austin marathon) always said that you should just go to the expo, pick up the race packet and get out of there as soon as possible. Instead we spent two hours on our feet trying to gather some goodies, tiring our legs before the race next day.

At the Chicago Marathon Expo

We did not have time for lunch and by four all of us were extremely hungry and tired. Pizza available at the expo was good but we wanted to carb-load for the race. Thus we found ourselves at the Hilton for the Pasta dinner at 5 in the evening. It was simple and filling - plain boiled pastas, boiled veggies, marinara and alfredo sauce, breads, garden salad, bananas and dessert. I really liked the spearmint tea as it got rid of my headache. We got home and made preparations for race day. Ani made some aloo-shadobath (rice with potatoes and butter) for a late dinner.

Tapering for Chicago

2006-10-20T06:07:00.000-07:00

Before a big race (like a marathon) runners significantly reduce the amount of training in the final two weeks, so that the body is in prime condition for the race. This is called the 'tapering' and it normally lasts 2-3 weeks before the event. The training for the Chicago marathon was just entering the taper phase, when the distances started jumping up for the Sunmart training. So the weekend before the Chicago marathon I find myself at Bastrop State Park for my long run.

To remind you - this was the first long run I was attempting with the 50Miler folks. So if I was planning to train for the 50 miler, I had to try to put in atleast 20 miles and if possible 24 miles. Bastrop is about 30-40 miles east of Austin and I was surprised there was such a beautiful park so close to Austin. The park is part of a pines forest, which seems to have cropped up in the middle of nowhere. The trail is on a bed of pines and mulch and the surface is supposed to be very similar to Sunmart.

So we were going to do three loops of 8 miles each. Santhosh, Ganesh, Vinod and I were planning to run together. It was a fun run overall, more of a picnic between each loop. At the end of each loop, we landed up at Joe's truck and spent some time refuelling and chit chatting with other runners taking a break. Santhosh had brought Daal and rice, Vinod had brought banana chips. I had brought channa and bread but we left that for the finish. We were experimenting with real food during the runs. For a smaller run (like a marathon ;) ) one can survive on energy gels and sports drinks but for runs lasting 10-12 hours, the body begins rejecting food it is not used to. Took a few bites after the first loop but after the after the second loop we positively overate. I was feeling stuffed as we started out on our third loop. Third loop was quite tough for me as my calves started twitching and going into a cramp around mile 20. The electrolytes and hajmola saw me through to mile 24. Finally I was going to switch to the 50 miler :D (Dont know what I am so happy about... )

The Desi Trail Runner Gang with Coach Joe @ Bastrop SP [L->R:Santhosh, yours truly, Ani, Joe, Ganesh, Sanjeev and Vinod]

For the last few miles we had debated if there would be any channa (chick peas) left for us....and we all concluded that Anita would definitely save some for us. But on getting to the finish, our confidence in Anita was rewarded with a spoonful of channa each :D We did not join the rest of the gang for burgers at the "Road House" as Anita's friend Atrei was visiting from New York and the fact that the burgers were quite average last time. (Flashback - Most of the desi junta being vegetarian had ordered the black bean burger which was supposed to be a cool home-made patty, but what we got was a big clump of mashed black beans between a bun. But then we had been so hungry, that it did not taste bad at all.)

Next day (Sunday) we were supposed to do a 10 miler, as our back-to-back run. Ganesh, Santhosh and I ran the 6 mile Powerline Loop and then the Vibha 5K race. We started the Powerline Loop at the Hill-of-Life (HOL) at 6:00 am in absolute darkness, aided by Santhosh's new headlamp and my old dying headlamp. Vinod was supposed to join us and he was to bring a light for Ganesh, but in his usual style, he ditched us. Going down the HOL in daylight can be a scary experience, and doing it while it was dark makes it so much more difficult. We were not helped by the fact that Santhosh decided to help us out by "showing us the path". He would run ahead a few steps and turn around to show the way, but his lamp was as bright as a truck light and it completely blinded us. He kept insisting on helping us out even after all our protests.

We land up at UT for the Vibha 5K. I was running quite hard and was hoping to complete under 24 minutes, but it was a very hilly route and I could feel the effect of having run 31 miles in the last 25 hours. I completed in 25:01 and I could have sworn that the course was longer than the 5K it was supposed to be. Overall it was a fun run with a huge bunch of Team Asha runners participating.

Team Asha at Vibha 5K Run - 2006

For the Quality Workout on Wednesday (Oct 18th) we had to do 6-8 HOL repeats i.e., climb down and up the HOL (Reminder: this is the "killer hill" with an elevation gain of 350 feet over 0.4 miles) . I managed to to do 7 repeats but I was walking both up and down and did not have the enthusiasm or energy to try and run any of the sections. I was sure I had messed up my quads for the Chicago marathon on Oct 22nd....and as you can see there was no tapering for us!!

How the 50K became 50M...

2006-10-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

The summer, or rather spring, started with a few of us thinking of training for the Chicago Marathon. All of us comtemplating this had completed atleast one marathon, but the most daunting task aspect of this was the summer training, which I have spoken about before. Somewhere during the summer Santhosh, Vinod and Ganesh started speaking about training for a 50 Miler and they narrowed it down to the Sunmart race. Seeing all their enthusiasm Anita, Sanjeev and I decided to try out the 50K race.

We had finished three weeks of training for the 50K, but because of the preparation for Chicago, we were all running a little more than schedule. Just this week I was comparing the training programs for the 50K and the 50M. The quality wirkouts were the same, the easy runs were only a mile or two different, and the distances on the long run were about 6 miles greater. I suddenly felt a great urge to push myself more, and the more I looked at the schedules, the more I was tempted to attempt the 50 miler.

I was having a nice long conversation with dad, when I casually mentioned that I was considering running the 50 miler. He was all excited about it and said that I should definitely go ahead and do it. I was pleasantly surprised by his reaction, for I wasn't expecting support for a crazy thing as a 50 miler race (Yes! I do think it is a crazy idea...but we will find out). At that time mom and sister were not at home, so I spoke to mom about it later. Both mom and sis love walking, and they had been going on walks for quite long distances recently. She gave me permission to go ahead and train for it. A few days later when I was talking to sis, we were talking about the 50 mile race, I told her that it was equivalent to 80 kms. When mom heard 80 kms she was not so enthusiastic about this venture. She told me that 50 miles dont sound as bad as 80kms (thats why I had not mentioned that before ;) ). Finally she gave in.

Next it was time to speak to CJ. Two weekends ago, I had run 16 miles at Bastrop SP while the 50Milers had run 22 miles. And the coming weekend the distances were going to be 16 and 24 miles for the the two groups. Joe said that it was not late to attempt the 50 miler and suggested I first try running 20 miles and then take it from there. So finally with all the approvals in place, the target race has now become the 50 Miler :D

One in the windy city

2006-10-13T12:02:00.000-07:00

Next weekend I will be flying to Chicago to run the famous Chicago Marathon (Oct 22nd 2006). It is one of the biggest marathons in the world and it does not have a qualifying time (like Boston) nor does it have a lottery system (like New York). In Boston for my age category (18-34) I need a qualifying time of 3:10:59 or less (which I think is impossible for me) and if I keep running as fast as I managed to run in the Austin marathon 2006, I will be able to qualify to run Boston in another 35 years....so maybe not impossible! For New York only 50% of all applicants get in through the lottery system, so if I plan to run New York, I will have to rely on Lady Luck.

Coming back to the Chicago marathon, I had registered for this race around the third week of May. The number of people running the marathon this year is 40,000 and the registration was closed as early as the end of May. There are expected to be 1.5 million spectators cheering along the course. 40,000 runners and 1.5 million people cheering you....now you why I am running it.

There will be a big group of Asha runners from different chapters at Chicago – Silicon Valley, DC, Boston, Chicago and Austin. Ankur is coming as part of the SV team, and it is too bad that Srikant and Neha cant run this year because of injuries. Though Neha is coming to Chicago in support of the team.

Back here in Austin – Anita, Vinod, Santhosh and I trained for this through the heat of a Texas summer. The worst part of running a fall marathon, while training in Austin, is that your long long runs come right in the peak of summer. We normally planned our long runs at 4:30 or 5 in the morning to avoid the heat, though we could not escape the sultry weather. And guess what....it is going to be super cold in Chicago. Just yesterday (Oct 12th) Chicago received its first snowfall with wind chill in the lower 20s. The weather could only get colder...brrrr!!! Looks like an interesting time ahead. It was this piece of news that got me all excited about the race next week, and hence you get to read about it.

Team Asha is listed as an official charity for the Chicago Marathon and we even have a booth at the Marathon Expo. Team Asha plans to have a huge support team at mile 20 to cheer on the runners. All of us at Austin have heard numerous stories about Chicago from our coachji Vinod...and we are all looking forward to some lassi (provided by someone last time) at the finish line.

I am definitely looking forward to the race and all the festivities.

Flashback - Week 1 of Training

2006-10-11T20:01:00.000-07:00

For the first run (Sep 16th) Ganesh and I turned up at the 'Hill of Life' on the Barton Creek Greenbelt. Most of the other runners assembled there, seemed to be veterans of trail-running and most of them seemed to be talking of 50 milers or 100 milers. I felt a little out of place there, with my target race being only 50kms ;)

One thing needs to be mentioned about trail runners. They seem to be a group of hippies!! Trail runners wear bright colored clothing, their shoes are normally fluorescent colored, they have a camel-bak, hand-held water bottles, a few tattoos, they are always wearing a few bandanas and distance does not seem to matter to them. So it was perfectly normal that I was feeling out of place then. Since then I have moved towards acquiring some of the stuff mentioned above but the ultimate test will be the tattoos. And we have concluded that, we should all get tattoos after the Sunmart race to become true trail runners :D Maybe I took to trail running because some part of me wants to be a hippie!!

Now getting back to the first run....the run was called the Powerline Loop and it was 6.5 miles but it felt much longer.....and that is what trail running does to distances. I was used to running at a steady pace, trying to take on the hills at about the same speed. Right in the beginning Ganesh and I passed Maria while she was walking up a huge hill. By mile 4 (water stop), I was quite tired and Maria caught up with me then. She had realised we were beginners and wanted to call out to us to take it easy on the hills. We ran the remaining distance together and it went off much faster. At the end of the workout was my first real encounter with the 'Hill of Life'. I tried to be macho and all, and started running up the HOL but my heart rate shot through the roof and I had to walk the rest of the way. After the run I was feeling pretty good and nobody there seemed to care about stretching.

Next day I was supposed to run 14 miles as part of my training for the Chicago marathon. I could barely move in the morning. My quads were killing me, the sides of my legs were real sore. My legs seemed to be made of lead and I barely managed to complete the run. It took two to three days for my legs to recover, just in time for the quality workout.

We met again at the HOL and we were supposed to run 20 mins, alternating 1min hard with 1min easy. Vinod and I set off together and since none of us had a stop-watch, we tried to count and keep track of time. We finished 5 hard intervals, then 10 and yet the end was not in sight. We even went beyond 15 repeats and we could neither see the end nor any of the ribbons on the trail. We were lost! We had very limited water, cytomax(an energy drink) and one gu (energy gel). We decided to run/walk to conserve our limited resources, since we were definitely going to be spending a long time on trails. To add to the excitement, it was also getting dark. During the next 30-45 mins, we never saw any trail markers and we often contemplated turning around to find the last trail marker. Out of the blue we came upon some trail markers and we felt that the route felt familiar. So we must have got lost and finally come back around. We did not know which direction we were running on the trail. After another half an hour we reach our beloved HOL and we see Joe along with a bunch of other runners. Joe told us that the time for this workout was 1.5 - 2 hours and the 40 mins mentioned on the forum was wrong. This was because one coach (Steve) wrote the workout and another one (Joe) mapped it. Joe seemed to be pretty amused with this. His motto is - " The best way to learn trails is to get lost on them".

Trail Running

2006-10-10T15:07:00.000-07:00

Before this I had done only one trail run – The Loop – a 10K trail race. This race was in the middle of summer and it was really tough. Running on the trails is a different ball-game altogether. You need to constantly look at the trail to get your footing right and the terrain rapidly and constantly keeps changing. My arches were hurting for almost a week after this run. I was very sure that trail running was not for me!

At the same time, I really liked running in the middle of nature, through woods, across creeks, zig-zagging through the trails. The trail runners seemed to be a close-knit community and everybody seemed to know everybody else. I really liked this community feeling and the friendship/camaraderie they shared and wanted to be a part of it. This is what brought me to the info-session and to the first run.

Before I start talking about the training, I need to first introduce the other characters who will constantly be mentioned in my running blogs. Anita, Ganesh, Sanjeev, Santhosh and Vinod are the other runners from Team Asha training for the Sunmart race and our coach is Joe (also known as CJ).

The training began on Sep 16th and our race is on Dec 9th and in this period people we will be trained to run from a starting distance of 13 miles to 50Kms/50Miles depending on the target race. We have two weekly coached workouts - Long Run on Saturday mornings and a Quality Workout on Wednesday evenings.

So it begins...

2006-10-09T16:35:00.000-07:00

My first shot at Blogging! I have often considered blogging in the past but I was always too lazy or uninspired. Recently (3 weeks ago) I started training for the Sunmart 50K/50M race. The race is going to be on trails in Hunstsville State Park, north of Houston. It was the experience/thrill/joy of running on trails that inspired me to start this blog. Till the race on Dec 9th, a lot of the blogs may be runnning related, but I shall try and include other random musings and thoughts.

Why 'Hill of Life'? 'Hill of Life' is a an extremely huge hill on the Barton Creek Greenbelt and most of our training runs start there. The hill gains an elevation of 350 feet over a distance on 0.4 miles. It is one the toughest, meanest hills I have seen or run. Since I wanted to talk about trail running, what better name than the 'Hill of Life'. It also has a nice philosophical ring to it.

I will try and summarise my experience of the last three weeks in future blogs.