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.

Official timings at Mumbai marathon....

I finally received the timing certificate from the Mumbai marathon organisers.

My final official finish time was 4hr 22min 13 seconds. The splits were as follows -
14.1km - 1:14:24 @ 11.22km/hr
23.2km - 2:05:12 @ 10.44km/hr
32.5km - 3.07:57 @ 8.53km/hr
Finish - 4:22:13 @ 7.47km/hr

So as you can see the final leg is what killed the excellent pace set during the first half of the run. The pattern is quite similar to the way I ran the Singapore run (it was aconscious decision and with the Bombay heat this was the only option). So had I been able to run the last stretch (beyond 32.5km at the earlier pace of about 9km per hour, I could have easily finished with a time of sub 4hr 10mins (only if that silly knee pain had not happened). But, there is always a next time and I plan to make the most of it.

All good things come to an end...

And so does my weekend holiday. Though I did manage to restart running after the Mumbai Marathon on Saturday. Did about 7km run in a little over 35minutes, it felt good, thought my calf muscles felt a little strained. Was planning to go for another run on Sunday but decided against it, as I wanted to be lazy.... on a pleasant Sunday morning.

Had a very relaxed and chilled out relaxed weekend and am now refreshed to get back to the fast pace of Bombay. But the tough part will actually start before the weekend ends. As I need to take a train at 3.30am in the morning so that I can get to work before 9am, all thanks to the fact that most Bombay also wanted to have a relaxed weekend in Baroda over the Republic day holidays (and this was despite the fact that I had booked my tickets 2 months in advance, and this was the only option available).

Republic day weekend

Its been quite a few hectic days after the Bombay marathon, but now am enjoying my long awaited break away from Bombay in Vadodara (Baroda). I have not been running all week, first few days I had some really sore muscles and later on I was either traveling or just unable to get enough sleep. I am all refreshed now and hope to go for my first, fresh run tomorrow morning at Kamati Garden in Baroda, this is the most happening parks, its full of fitness enthusiasts who get up early in the morning for a walk/run.

Its always fun running in a new city, as its a welcome change from the usual route, I take on a regular running day. The weather here is quite pleasant, and not cold as I would have liked it to have been, but definitely a lot better than Bombay.

The city has changed a lot since the last time I visited, and that was about a year back. Lotsa malls and new eating joints coming up now, guess the retail boom has finally caught on in tier 2 cities as well (esp. my favorite coffee shops, they seem to have sprung up all over the place!).

I will be taking some interesting pictures in Vadodara and will be posting them on my blog after my return, along with Mumbai marathon pictures. I only wish I had clicked more pictures during the actual race - Mumbai marathon, but I got some good pics pre event, which try to capture the spirit and scale of the marathon.

4hr 22min in Mumbai Marathon 2007

I had a decent run in the 4th Standard Chartered Mumbai marathon (2007). I did a time of 4hr 22min 12seconds and was able to shave off about 7minutes of my Singapore time, but it was higher than my target time of 4hr 15mins.

On the face of it, it looks like a good effort, but what makes it a little disappointing is the fact that I did my best half marathon time of about 1hr 53min during the run, which should have meant a comfortable finish of under 4.15hrs. Only if my left knee had held up, it started troubling me from the 25km mark, which ensured that I could not run continiously and had to mix it up with some walking & stopping. The only other thing that i had to contend with was the heat, it was hot and that is putting it mildly (the computer systems of the organisers collaped due to the heat and they could not give the timing certificate after finish - this was the first time they were unable to give it immediately, that should give you a good idea of our (runners) plight!!).

I managed the weather quite well, my body was behaving perfectly (even after the run, there was not one sore muscle and no back pain which happened after the Singapore marathon), I was feeling metally tough, the gatorade (was carrying two to start) and Power bar energy gels (they are the best) were giving me good nourishment, only if my knee had not troubled me (this was the first time when it had given trouble) I could have easily done a time of 4hr 10mins.

I need to thank a couple of people, one was a very young international pariticipant (must be barely 18, as that was the minimum age) who was continiously running at the same pace for a 4hr 30min finish from start (was a perfect pacer, not official though - Though i wish they start having official pacers for Mumbai marathon from next year), I kept pace with her (though I sprinted toward the end) and ensured that I did not slip too much due to the injury, actually i would start running hard as soon as she would catch up and without her the 4hr 22min would not have been possible. Second was a friend of mine who got me a cold gatorade at Pedder Road at the right time - while returning - 3hr 30min mark (It was timed perfectly), this along with the Powerbar gels ensured that the nutrition bit was just perfect.

My preparation ensured that I had the physical ablity to run well (though intermetantly in second half) through the pain in the second half and the mental toughness after the Singapore marathon, helped me do a 4hr 22min despite the injury which occured mid way.

I will be aiming for a sub 4hr 10min time in the next Mumbai marathon, might revise it further (downwards), closer to the date next year.

Oganisation of Procam sucked....

I think this was the worst attempt of Procam in the last four years. Starting from the goodie bag pilferage, people who went on the second and third day just got 2 things in their bag, the late start (7.40am in a hot and humid Bombay) for the full marathon thanks to their commitment to make it tv live telecast friendly (we will need to start a online movement now to force them to have the full marathon start at 6.30am next year) - the heat today was killing, the water stations where present towards the end (but not sure what the experience of the 5+ hour finishers was), for the first time they were not able to give timing certificates (as the heat had killed their computer systems, can't imagine the plight of runners!!!), they had cut lot of corners or had become more greedy - the medal is not as good as last year, they did not give simple things like safety pins with the bibs, the marathon expo stalls were the worst in 4 years, there were very few mobile toilets on the route, and especially around the holding area (I could not find a single one, Singapore marathon as endless rows of loos at holding area).

I had a good run as I was carrying my own Gatorade and power bar gels which are a must (electrol is not good enough). But the biggest horror was the Rs.1000 deposit for the chip, how many people coming from smaller cities in the interiors of Maharashtra can afford this sort of deposit (if they can, then they can also afford to pay a higher entrance fee, and in return the organisers can give a finishers T-shirt, which is given in most marathons).

Hope to see a well organised marathon from Procam next year, the sponsors should pull them up!!

24hrs to go...

I did manage to get to World Trade Center yesterday (the marathon Expo), to collect my race bib and goodie bag. But the marathon Expo was a disappointment and that is an understatement.

The registration process took longer than even last time, and this was when I was the only person in the queue, at that time. But the biggest disappointment was the so called goodie bag which contained a sipper and (the bag) and nothing else, I am sure the orgaisers have been greedy and would have asked for a lot of money from companies which wanted to be a part of the goodie bag initiative. Also the quality of stalls, esp. the official clothes sponsor - Switcher, they had only one marathon t-shirt or mumbai marathon memorabilia, even those that were available were not available in all sizes and the quality of the material used also disappointed. The profile of stalls was more like a consumer fair instead of a sports carnival.

Overall in my opinion, the organisation and the experience was a lot better in the second year compared to the fourth one. So instead of going up the ladder the organisers seem to have gone downhill. Hope this does not extend to the actual marathon.......

I did finally go for a 6km easy run on Friday morning, just to check on my left calf and it seems to have returned back to normal. I am feeling good and am now focusing on just having a good run on Sunday. Will try to give by legs as much rest as possible for Saturday, so that they are fresh for Sunday.

Half marathon starts before full marathon in Mumbai Marathon

I believe the organisers continue to make the blunder second year in a row, by starting the half marathon at 6.40am and the full marathon an hour later at 7.40am. This must be the only marathon in the world where the half starts before the full (and definately the only run which takes place in a tropical country). I am sure the decision makers are not running in the marathon and don't know how it feels to run in bombay after 11am.

I actually tried to find out the reason for this decision (i originally thought it must be sponsor pressure or something like that), but I was horrified to hear the reason from one of the organisers - The inaguration ceremony has to take place along with the full marathon, and the chief guests can make it only by 7.30 (plus the factor that there will be natural sunlight at 7.30am), who the hell is interested in the inaguration ceremony and this definately should not be the reason for punishing serious runners.

The singapore marathon starts at 6am in the morning with the full marathon, incl. the inaguration ceremony drill or whatever that is and they do not seem to have any problems with organising that.
When will our organisers learn.

Two more days to go...

My legs are still not feeling perfect but am sure they will be ready just in time for the marathon. Am following a ideal food and sleep routine, accumulating all the calories (sounds strange, doesn't it!!)

I will be going tomorrow to pickup my race bib and to check the marathon Expo, hope its better than what its been in the previous years. I only wish they had a true sports apparal & footwear company as a sponsor instead of Switcher who are more into fashion than fitness. The Delhi marathon expo is a lot better than the Bombay one, hope they decide to prove me wrong.

I need to take a much deserved break after the marathon, so will be taking off over the Republic day weekend for a well deserved 3.5day break. Badly need it to recharge my batteries.

Countdown for Bombay marathon begins..

Its just three more days to go before the start of Mumbai marathon - Sunday Jan 21, 2007.

I am trying to do all the right things in the last week before the marathon, including getting 7-8hr of good sleep (thankfully the cable operator has decided not to repair my connection, in spite of repeated reminders from Sunday afternoon onwards, am I positive or what!). Just waiting for the day when I could have access to DTH and I don't ever have to see the cable operators face, but in a democracy good things take time. Since I am unable to get the DTH signal from my window, I am now at the mercy of the collective wisdom of the governing body of my building society (who want to take their own sweet time to arrive at the right decision and they are not allowing individual households to install their own dish on the building terrace). So like all good thing things in life even this will have to wait.

I have also ensured that I do not skip any meals and that I am eating continuously during the day, especially high carb food. Plus all the multi-vitamins and food supplements to ensure that I don't catch a cold or something before the marathon.

The only thing that troubling me is the stiffness in my left calf, which is not feeling normal. The stiffness still continues, though it will not really affect my run in any way after the first 6odd kilometers, but am a little concerned as I don't want it to play any tricks after the 30km mark on the day of the marathon. So I ran yesterday for only 6kms at a easy pace and have decided to rest today and depending on how it feels tomorrow I might go for my one last run before the Marathon, else will not run before the marathon. In the meantime I am using some pain relief spray and cream to make it feel better.

Sunday run & a festival called Makar Sankranti

Did about 14kms today in a about 1hr 22mins. The weather was quite good even though I started at around 8.30 in the morning, as I wanted to catchup on some sleep and also get a first hand understanding of the weather I could expect next Sunday, as the marathon start quite late in the morning (7.30am to be precise). Based on today's run, I need to run hard the first two hours hard and complete 21kms in that time(before the Sun starts hitting hard), if I have any hope of doing a under 4hr 15min time. The weather was pleasant while running in the shade, but when I was directly under the Sun it was quite hot.

Today was a festive day - Makar Sankranti, its basically the harvest festival, celebrated under different names all over India (Bhiu in Assam, Pongal in Tamilnadu, Lohri in Punjab, and Makar Sankranti or just Sankranti in most other parts of India). I noticed two new aspects of this festival during my Sunday run, first one was very surprising, as I saw some families dressed in Black today while celebrating the festival (black is usually a mourning and inauspicious colour in India, a friend of mine has never worn anything completely black ever in his life as its considered inauspicious in his family). I did some homework and found out that this was one of the rare occasions when Maharashtrians wear black, as its suppose to make you warm on a cold winter day (Makar Sankaranti is a winter festival) & spread the cheer and warmth to people close to you, along with a special sweet made of til (white sesame seeds) & jaggery. Another surprising fact was that I did not see a single kite in the sky (this is also the kite flying festival which is very big in Gujarat), it was sad to see that now the kite flying was restricted to certain small pockets of South Bombay which had a strong Gujarati population. Its disappointing to see that the rest of Bombay has moved away from it.