Run in the Hail

Its about 3 weeks since I last wrote here, but that doesnt mean I have stopped running. I dint go run for about a week starting my birthday, but then I went back to the Thursday Track on a rainy day and set it right.

March 3:
Track work out. I think we did like 4 laps - the rule was to do the second one little faster than the first and so forth. And then another mile which will be same or less time than the first mile - which I faltered - I was late by like 30 seconds.

March 5:
Whisman Park in Mountain View: I kind of accepted that i am a slow runner and wanted to go into the track by 7:30 but I was lost when searching for Whisman park. Somehow, my GPS dint know Whismnan park and I dint expect such a big trail in the middle of residential and office area in Mountain View. When I found the park, I was ontime for the 8:00 AM runners. I did this 8 mile course and surprisingly in 2 hours. It was the first time I did 8 miles and every part of the body was aching for the next day or two, but it felt good.

March 8:
Buddy Run with Chris Walker. I was all charged up for the walk, but no one else turned out on this tuesday and me and Chris ended up walking for 3.5 miles. We did it very slow - about 1 hour for the whole thing, but it was worth it.

March 10:
Track and hang with the gang. Track started late due to some school event, but it was good. I somehow forgot to prep my running clothes bag with my sports bra and ended up with a bad upper back ache on Thursday night. I felt it difficult to breath or sleep and had to sleep on two advil. The next day, I had a nice hot bath and got myself ready for Saturday's long run.

March 12:
It was the day before the "Go Green" Event and hence our Rivermark Plaza run was cancelled. I had to go to Campbell Park - late as usual but I caught up with the sisters Sheetal and Shalin and did 6 miles - 2 hours this time. I introduced the hobees brunch to Shalin and Sheetal and then went to buy a good sports bra at Running Revolution.

March 15:
Buddy run at Rivermark. I tried the 6-2 interval with Chris Walker and surprisingly, it turned out that I can do it!

March 17:
Track again. Today, we were asked to do a full 4 miles with a buddy - from fast running team, and guess the time we would take and see if we reach it. I bumped into Shyam whom I had met only once during the first few days and he is just coming back to the running group. Shyam was a fast runner and can do a mile under 10 minutes. My pace was about 13-15 mins /mile and we did some calculations and put 48 min as our total time. We did 2 miles each and finished in about 38 minutes - well before our prediction- dint win though!

March 19:
I was a bit excited when i heard the run is at Santa Cruz, CA. It turned out to be a very rough weather day with rain all day. Myself, Shalin and Sheetal car pooled to the Natural Bridges, Santa Cruz. Very beautiful trail -as it was - was also full of rain. When we started walking, it slowly drizzled, and slowly it became a rain and then we saw hail storms... I have never seen such ice rain. ஆலங்கட்டி மழை (aalangatti mazhai) as we say in Tamil, is a very rare happening in Chennai, my home town. The ice particles that fell here, did not become ice for a long time. I first thought its probably salt crystals, since we are so close to Ocean. The ice crystals fell down and on us and everywhere, like about 3 or 4 times in the whole 2 hours that we ran. The weather was as is freezing and the rain made it worse. All the layers of cloth that I had worn to secure myself, had already drenched. I felt numb on my legs, hand and cheeks. My new wind shielding gloves were wet by the time we covered the 3 miles and when I was walking back, I was feeling numb with or without the gloves.
We did only 6 miles in 2 hours and that too mostly walking and chatting with Sheetal. This was probably my first long run where I brought back my water bottle almost full. After we finished the run, we came back to join Shalin where she was selling her sandwiches for the fund raising and helped her. After a brunch in Santa Cruz Ideal Bar, we headed back to San Jose - all exhausted, but feeling good since even the hail was unable to stop us!

Oct 23 2018
I want to just write down how this all ended. I did the biggest run - one week before the original date -May 1st, I did the half marathon here in San Jose in the last week fo April 2, 2011. Half the usual runners were absent since it was the day the cricket world cup finals. As I came back from the 13 mile run - i heard that India won.

I went home - and after that we dint do any big runs until the May 1st. But the week before - on April 23, I was about to go to the run, I did a pregnancy test and found out I was pregnant with my first baby - Vaasan. That ended my Half marathon stint. I tried registering for another half marathon in 2013 only to find out this time I had Guhan in my tummy :-). So that stopped any half-marathons for me for a while. Lets see if i can get back after Nandhini is 2 year old :-)

Long time!

I dint write for a long time.. not a very eventful week..

Tuesday:
Went to the rivermark again with Aaron's team. I met a honoree- Theresa. It was inspiring to hear about her cancer and how she came out of it.. These people are really inspirations - First Ron and now Theresa. They easily say that they had cancer about a year or two ago and then they are able to do whatever they are doing - Run or walk and going on with life as if its all a simple cold! And here I am who complains when I have a small cut on my finger while cooking..

Thursday : Track Workout
Wanted to do some car pooling, but dint find anyone to do it, so went out on my own.. long way to Los Gatos High School. I just thought of accompanying the walking sisters - Shalin and Sheetal and missed what the coach said. I started my first lap very late and finished as the last even in walk team :(.. we did 2 miles in all - running and walking.

Made new friends - Suresh who works in my own building - ready for a car pool on Thursdays and met Ashoken and Ritu.

Saturday : OYO at Rivermark
We had a small group for the OYO runs. Chris was there with his dogs - Sasha and Timber. I was tempted to adopt a dog after seeing them.. I started off with the group but ended up being the slowest again and finished as the last. It was a 3.5 miles and i was also playing with my GPS watch.

Water pouch, GPS Watch, head band - I am getting bulky with all my accessories. I need to see how I can really speed up.

I should also start with all my cross training. My fundraising has hit a plateau. I need to see if i can find more people to ask money from.. I think the enthusiasm is slowing down a bit - except for the energy I have when I come back from my runs! I think i can motivate myself to run all along even in next seasons!