It had been more than 6 months since I had gone running, Yeah I know I do Walking Tours for a living but then Running is a totally different ball game. And the first day I went running I cursed myself for registering ! It felt like I was carrying a barrel all along. But then if entrepreneurship has ever thought this Walker anything it is to ‘Never Give up’ So there I was every morning doing about 5/6 kms whenever there wasnt a Walking tour to do !! And I found the amazing android app My Tracks on my Google Nexus one fone which uses GPS to track your route gives you some great stats on your running like speed, timing, plotting graphs on your performance etc etc !! So it really helped to show how much I sucked !! I know you must be thinking that did I need that app to tell me that ?? I know I know, but then having spent the cost of almost half my kidney on this fone I better use it in whichever way possible than just voice and text thts another thing biz teaches you, makes the most of your moolah , if you have any left thts is

Anyways getting back to the running, what really helped was running up Chamudi Hills, An 8 kms uphill track takes out all the juice out of you but then I would its still say its worth it, considering the amount of respect this atheist got on completion from the god fearing and the devout  near the temple  So doing this uphill track twice was a good test for my endurance. By now I had begun to enjoy the running and just a couple of days before the THE day, decided to run on the periphary on the Kukkarahalli lake (where the greatest Indian English writer, RK Narayan took his evening Walks cooking up stories of Malgudi) with my friend Suraj, who was also preparing for the run. Did two laps of the lake and was fortunate that Suraj dint beat by a lap, the man runs like a manic, his body gives him a better mileage than mine because it runs on fresh cane juice and not on Barley water But few tips from him surely helped, like for example start slow and then slowly build up speed and more importantly keep your mouth shut while running (some have advised me to do it all the time too !! )

Friends sporting Ts of the next Year's sponser apna Royal Mysore Walks

The run was on Sunday the 23rd, but was in Bangalore a coupla days before just catching up with friends and in the pretext of loading up carbs for the run ended up eating quite a bit. I must say, collection of the bib (your running number) and the goody bag was quite well organized at the Kanteerava Stadium unlike last year when there was a mayhem, where you could have easily mistaken it to be a sabji mandi with well dressed customers !!

The run began at around 8 am at the Kanteerava Stadium, with more than 7000 runner participating the atmosphere was electic ! It reminded me of one those Nazi Army procession held by Hitler !!  It was great to see so much energy together. The 10 km route was sketched in the heart of Bangalore and thanks to the number tress in our Garden City the blazing sun dint do much havoc. So morons in the corporation, Stop cutting Tress !! All along the route you had people cheering for you, right from Amry jawan to general public and trust me it really helps you pull up and with so many people running you tend to run a tad faster than you normally do, after all we all like to show off, dont we So I ended up finishing it in 70 mins, was hoping I would do a gone in 60 mins but looks like that movie is still under production

and the Winner is .... !!

In the end it was a great experience, considering one of my friends Raga came down from Singapore fir the race., No No, he dint come running from Singapore, the airfares now are so cheap that people might even come down for an haircut with our local hajam Anyways good to know that I’m still mobile !! Oh and yeah !! It sure is a great personal high !!

The track is a bit uneven making your run a little more challenging, especially the uneven stones begin to hurt you later on in the race. But what was quite amusing  was loads of people carry all sorts of gadgets while running, for people who couldnt stand their own breath you had the i-pod, there was also a bunch taking calls while running, wonder how busy a person can get ?? and then you had those who carried so many water bottles around their waist belt. Crazy I tell you. Given a chance I would run almost naked (just the bare essentials though) because the lighter the better. Aint it ? plus you had hydration points at regular intervals. Its not like you running on Pluto. There was one great soul who asked me while running, “I think my blood pressure had dropped, What about yours? ”  I wanted to ask him, Surprising you haven’t carried your BP kit huh? People i tell you.

Anyways for me, after having done two 10k runs, A half marathon would be the obvious next transition but with less then 2 weeks of preparation it turned out to be much tougher than I imagined. The first stretch was all fine but the last 4 kms was a real stretch. But thanks to the spirits around, with fellow runners pulling you and your morale up it wonderful how it makes your journey so much easier And in the end it all feels worth it for having finished the race and then diving into water to soak into your personal achievement.

Guess now am an inch closer to run a full marathon and strike it off my “to-do list”. But I’ll look at it only after a lot of preparation because 42 kms I personally feel is quite a distance for an earthly mortal . And hopefully I should have reduced my weight so that my knees are in a much better position to take it. This time I was practically immobile after the race and navigating a bunch of stairs seemed like a huge ordeal.

As of now I’m in great shape for walking , so on Royal Mysore Walks, Keep Walking should be fun, A lot of fun

Having gone to collect the Bib(running number), i must say it was a very well arranged. In fact it took more time for me to get a sandwich than to collect my running kit

Race day.. pumped up and charged we hit the ground running.. just seeing the sheer amount of people gathered in the stadium for participation was a spectacle by itself.. The race started off well.. The initial 2-3 kms there was a lot of crowding.. but by the time we hit the half mark it was more or less just the serious contender.. It was absolutely great the kind of cheering and encouragement we received from the public.. especially the bunch of kids wearing their Muslim caps with their hands out and shouting “doud re..daud re” definitely helped

The second half was more enjoyable.. once in the rhythm.. you feel you can just go on and on.. and finally when i saw the 9kms mark the feeling that you have almost made it crept it.. the last 100mts or so was a sprint.. and then we hit the finish line..

It was a great feeling.. when you get to experience the Runner’s high..words wouldn’t do justice.. you have to experience it for yourself.

Destination next.. kaveri trail half marathon  in Nov, supposedly by the river and people who have done it swear by the route.. and on the bucket list is to do a Full Marathon.. for now its just a bit a walking

Just got to know that I was among the top 1500 runner to finish,  so nike give me a T My only achievement in sports and athletics all my life