Short weekend getaway..

As decided earlier, I was able to put in two good morning runs in some really pleasant weather (least you would expect at a hill station), did 6.2kms and 6kms in a little over 36minutes each. The best part is the effort involved in doing slopes.

Its difficult getting used to the hot weather in Bombay after two days of pure bliss. I hope to post some pictures in the next few days, from my trip.

No Sunday long run this week..

I managed to run thrice this week, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, did 6km,6km & 7.5km respectively. Will not be able to run on Sunday as am traveling, hope to make up for it by running on Monday and Tuesday, plus hopefully three more runs during the week, before the next Sunday. Next month is going to be a little hectic as there is lot of traveling happening, so will need to focus more, to ensure that I do 40+km every week.

Am currently planing for my Great Tibetan marathon as the organisers seem to be willing to make it affordable for Indian participants to participate in it, to make it a more broad based and popular event within India. A very encouraging move on their part. I am trying to explore a few travel ideas, I hope to get to Leh, via Delhi or Pathankot, followed by a 1.5day bus journey from Manali to Leb on a Himachal tourism bus (with tents and stuff bundled in the package as its not safe to travel in the night). Am also scouting for lodging options, Himachal tourism hotel seems like a good option, and am trying to find out more details from their local office in Bombay. Basically working on the logistics of the trip, as its going to be a long one, I am hoping to return from Leh to Dehi by Air, but am not geting any fares on any of the travel sites (is it too early to book???, maybe). Incase any of you have any suggestions do let me know.

21k run.. & my 200th posting

This is my 200th post on the blog. So I decided to celebrate it by doing a 21km run (you could call it coincidence!!) today. This was my first really long run after the Mumbai marathon in January. It felt really good doing it in exactly 2hours. My legs are slowly getting used to long runs now.

It was nice running the last 8km around Shivaji Park (it has a radius of about 1.2km and I do it in about 6.10 - 6.20mins), which is a lot better and easier then running on the road all the way, especially with the sun and traffic. This is a lot better, as I am running with people who are seriously exercising & seem familiar as they run regularly. But, the sad part is that there are very few people who run out there, most of them are into brisk walk. There are a few runners, but they jog and usually use the outer radius (which is actually the road & has traffic).

I hope to continue running half marathons on sundays and will slowly increase in depending on which marathon I plan to run next. This should be enough for the time being. Will try to step up my weekday runs and be more regular with them, which should help improve my overall endurance & fitness. If I have to do the Great Tibetan marathon in July, I really need to work hard and improve my overall fitness, esp. breathing - I wish I could have a test to check on my ablity to run in high altitude (right here in Bombay).

Its been one year since I started to blog and am happy that I have been able to update it regularly..... (200 post in about 365days is not a bad average!)

Bombay Kala Ghoda festival 2007

Kala Ghoda festival is a culture festival of Bombay. It primarily takes place in Town in Kala Ghoda area. Its a 15day festival, which is promoted heavily in the local media (thanks to Times of India - India's leading English language newspaper, having high jacked the event, sometimes it feels as if TOI is actually organising the culture festival, but when your promotion budgets are small these are some necessary evils that one has to live with). The culture fest is full of life, lotsa art - pottery, puppetry, sketching, exhibition of paintings, other works of art, street plays, tons of music, shows and everything else imaginable. Plus it also has an amazing food court, from the very best of street food to the top of line independent restaurants having small stall to promote their brand (multi-cuisine food in the true sense of the word). In addition there are lots of stall selling everything possible, including NGO having their independent stall promoting their cause and selling stuff to raise money. A great way to experience Bombay both for international and domestic tourists. A must go event.... for every Bombayite as well!


This is a modified Auto (Tuk Tuk) at the Kala Ghoda festival. Its Bombay's biggest culture festival, which takes place in the last week of Jan or Early Feb. This was the third year of the festival (its timed along with the Mumbai Marathon and other similar events, to get more tourists & travellers to Bombay, so you should read about it in the next edition of Lonely Planet)


A fighter Jet made out of POP, not sure about the model, but it looked really beautiful (don't think my photograph does justice to the work put in by the craftsmen)


I happened to see the elephant on my Sunday morning running route, this was the third sighting. I just love elephants and its great to see them in Bombay.




These are pictures clicked close to Juhu Beach. The Vintage car rally was also a part of the Bombay festival (the organisers are trying to have multiple events and activities, to that some day it could be made into a truly big festival on the lines of Dubai shopping festival or the visit Malaysia/Singapore kind of thing.

Mumbai Marathon pictures

This was the lead bunch, I caught them around the 15km mark, they were on their return. The eventual winner was present in the bunch.




One of the many Cheer leading groups at the holding areas for the marathon.


Pictures clicked at the start line. As you will notice there was a good number of foreign participants for the marathon, so I guess the marathon organisers are doing something right! Hope to see more Indian participants coming for the full marathon next year.

Vadodara trip pictures

I am finally posting the long over due pictures which I had clicked recently. All the pictures below have been clicked in Kamati Garden at Fatehgunj, Vadodara.

I had a good run today, did a little over 14km in about 1hr 22min (there is no way for me to know the exact distance run as my mobile phone distance calculator is not very accurate). The initial 5km was a little difficult but after that I got into a good rythmn and could have done a lot more kms today. So I think I am getting back to normal and should be able to do about 20km next Sunday.

There was a recent news item about Shivaji park Dadar (the place around my coffee shop stopover) having a special running track around it. I hope its true as this would ensure that there are lot more serious runners coming there (which is quite rare in Bombay) and would also help me run more kms on Sundays with less damage to my joints!

Am yet to download and post my recent pics, hope to do it without fail early next week.

Another regular week..

I managed to run on Monday, Thursday and Saturday. I did 6km on all the three days in around 33min each. The 1.5week break after the Bombay marathon was not good for my legs, they are not used to such breaks and its difficult to get them back to the pre-marathon state after the break. If I run continuously my legs seem to recover in a way which is suitable for running, but if I take a break the leg muscles heal in a way which is not very suitable for running. So I am now suffering from the aches, pains in my shins & calves, which accompany whenever one begins running.

I have decided not to take any such breaks in future, as they end up doing more harm than good, I need to run regularly (though i will wary the distance during the potential break time), just like I have breakfast everyday.

Now am just waiting for my legs to feel as good as they should.

Getting back to running regularly again..

It feels good to get back to running. I ran on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, did 6km, 6km and 12kms respectively. Did today's 12km in about 1hr 08minutes, there was a little stiffness in the legs, but it seems to be getting back to normal quite well. Hope to run again on Monday. Hope to get to 20km on Sundays quite quickly, so that I can maintain a weekly average of over 40kms.

I also found one of the guys who ran the marathon with me today while running, it was such a pleasent surprise, hope to meet more in the future.

Overall position in the Mumbai marathon

I forgot to mention that I finished in the top 150 in the Mumbai marathon (can't recollect the exact position, given in the timing certificate), but this includes only those who ran with a chip (there are a decent number of people who run without a chip), but I can safely say that I finished in the top 200.

This position sounds very impressive, but I finished in the top 1100 in Singapore, with a time which was higher by 7 minutes. All this clearly explains the level of competition at the two marathons (Mumbai attracts only 1800 full marathon runners and this number was lower than previous year, compared to about 7000 in Singapore). I hope the organisers of Mumbai marathon realise this and start working towards making the full marathon an attractive event at Bombay, so that we can atleast double the full marathon participants next year.