Tuesday, January 23, 2007

My Bombay trip ...

Ahd (20/01/07 - 5 am ) - CST - Bandra Reclaimation - Andheri (W) - Matunga - Wadala - Azad Maidan - Dombivali - Dadar - Andheri - Bandra - Bandstand - Borivali - Kandivali - Andheri (E) - Santa Cruz - Mulund - Vile Parle - Ahd (23/01/07 - 2 pm)

These are the places i visited in the last four days... started from Ahd on 20th Jan returned on 23 rd Jan... tasting the delicacies of Mumbai. Started off with Dinner at Matunga, followed Shell fish food in Dombivali then the chicken biryani at the Hersche bakery , Dosa from Andheri ,then the gujju food in Mulund... It has been one of the big time hogging long weekends i ever had... i hogged like crazy.. hogged like mad... hogged whtevr i culd lay my hands on... blurp !!!

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Few more quotes on running ..

was browsing for some quotes on running, came across a few....

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or gazelle - when the sun comes up, you'd better be running." - Inspirational sign on a runner's office wall

"Out of the silver heat mirage he ran. The sky burned, and under him the paving was a black mirror reflecting sun-fire. Sweat sprayed his skin with each foot strike so that he ran in a hot mist of his own creation. With each slap on the softened asphalt, his soles absorbed heat that rose through his arches and ankles and the stems of his shins. It was acarnival of pain, but he loved each stride because running distilled him to his essence and the heat hastened this distillation." - James Tabor, from "The Runner," a short story

"I like running because it's a challenge. If you run hard, there's the pain - and you've got to work your way through the pain. You know, lately it seems all you hear is? Don't overdo it' and? Don't push yourself.' Well, I think that's a lot of bull. If you push the human body, it will respond." - Bob Clarke, Philadelphia Flyers general manager, NHL Hall of Fame.

"It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys." - Emil Zatopek

"It's elevating and humbling at the same time. Running along a beach at sunrise with no other footprints in the sand, you realize the vastness of creation, your own insignificant space in the plan, how tiny you really are, your own creatureliness and how much you owe to the supreme body, the God that brought all this beauty and harmony into being." - Sister Marion Irvine, 2:51 PR and 1984 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier

"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. When you were younger the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired...You've always got to make the mind take over and keep going." - George S. Patton, U.S. Army General and 1912 Olympian

"A lot of people run a race to see who's the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts." - Steve Prefontaine

"Once you're beat mentally, you might was well not even go to the starting line." -Todd Williams

"Marathoning is like cutting yourself unexpectedly. You dip into the pain so gradually that the damage is done before you are aware of it. Unfortunately, when the awareness comes, it is excruciating." - John Farrington, Australian marathoner

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

The week has come .....

After a gruelling four month long practise session, we have arrived at the last week of our training schedule. Three days from now we will be running the StanC mumbai marathon. We followed the training schedule religously for the first 3 months, then came the term break and all hell broke lose. We had injuries with our runners, thank god me and Paro were spared from it. Then we hit on our busy schedule and couldn't find time to carry on with our training. Its not just lack of time, at times we were lazy too. I remember myself frauding one day, so that i could get a couple of hrs of sleep. Eventually i was christened FFG for my act.

With ppl coming back from injuiry we resumed our marathon practise only to realise that our body had relaxed a bit too much. We had lost our running ways - the stamina was gone, the pace was lost and so was the morale. Fighters we are, we pushed ourselves more and more till couple of them got injuired. It forced us to reduce our training schedule to such an extent that we couldn't run the 32 kms part of training.

The maximum i have done is 27 kms at a stretch as of now. I need to carry this to 42.2 kms. A mere thought of it makes my mind go bonkers. Will i feel i will be able to do it, atleast crawling the last few kms :) . Not sure about the weather though, most of our runs were late in the night at around 1 am - 4 am. In the actual run we have to bear the Mumbai afternoon sun and the hard surface of the road.

All i hope is that we go in one piece and come back in one peace, completing the marathon.

Runnin post ..

got a couple of quotes on runnin...


" I ran and ran every day, and I acquired a sense of determination, this sense of spirit that I would never, never, give up, no matter what else happened."- Wilma Rudolph


Run with me, Run for the year
Run for the laughter, Run for the tear
Run with me, if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away
- Adapted from "Dream On" - Aerosmith

Saturday, January 06, 2007

India Poised

India Poised is a new initiative from the Times of India Group.

The campaign brings to light the happenings in India. They have a well written Anthem. It is as follows :