Pune Marathon 2009 - 10 km

Prologue - Dec 2009 Pune

Finally the day was on me … was going to take part in this for the second time. Last year I had taken to running LSD (Long slow distance) to take part in this event. I had discovered that running was not so hard if done the right way, which is keeping a slow steady rhythm and not sprinting. The magic is to run to compete against oneself and not race, improving your own timings slowly and steadily.

Therefore taking part in such events serves as a goal towards which one practices some days in the week months before the event. In the absence of such events or goals, the practice sessions are aimless and not inspiring enough.
The event itself is not much to write home about with less said the better about the organization and the problems faced during registration which is all manual. Thankfully this year the forms were available online and Pravin Joshi, my friend and colleague opted to take all our forms and do the registration, collection of bib numbers, etc. Three cheers to him and Umesh.

During the run, the inspiration and additional adrenalin rushes come when you see the roads lined up with spectators waving at you, young children with their gleaming eyes watching the spectacle returning your smile and reaching out their hands to touch yours. Flags and music at certain road intersections make up for the registration nightmare.

Finally I finished the 10 km mark in 55:20:18 per my stop watch but continued ahead confused with another music band playing near the North road corner at Koregaon Park. Came back and waited for some our colleagues who had started later. Did a Photo session and returned back home by 10:00 AM for hot idlis as usual 

Am tempted to try for the elite Marathoner’s club for next year, but that means a full year of serious training and I am sure will be an addiction for years to come after that … like Einstein said “Insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results each time “


Epilogue - Jan 2010 Mumbai

Completed the Mumbai Half Marathon (21km) with a PR of 2:20:41
Ran under the psuedonym :-) of Vikas Nair who graciously offered his Registraton as he was planning to skip the run.

my pics - Bib 11233 are here

road bike the eternal search

Numerous forums, research, email queries and am still undecided on which Roadbike to buy.

the last two months on the borrowed hero hawk was an eye opener as i became more and more informed about tyre sizes, frame geometry, cadence et al. Half of me wants to go to the Phadke Haud dealer and settle for a Hero Hawk and the other half tells me to wait and check out the guys in Bombay.

the only downside to not having a road bike yet, is less practice rides over the weekend and i dread to try the long rides on the Firefox. It has become all the more unreliable because of the wobbly rear tyres last week and the discovery that the Hub had worn out. Can one believe a less than one year old bike having the hub worn out !!

And i have enrolled for the randonneurs event on cyclist.in. Watch this space on how my participation plan turns out ...