Thursday 27 October 2016

Of puppy love and other mundane matters


As a rule i am very faithful to Biscuit and do not flirt, but, there is this cute puppy I cross every day near the Marina swimming pool (where the kids train under coach Sharad!). This puppy first started wooing me by running along for a little distance. Few days back it progressed to cutely asking for a pat on his head. Yesterday he demanded back rub and introduced his entire family to me. Since I started finding it difficult to get away from them I ran on the road near the median from Anna square police station itself to circumvent them. To my surprise and horror I found this guy lying in wait for me near the median when I came for my second loop. I had to escort him through the thick vehicular traffic to his family. Biscuit even with his acute sense of smell has not been able to catch on to my temporary infidelity. I must find a way of getting out of this affair before the puppy gets hurt in traffic or Biscuit senses something!
Yesterday was my three weeks of continuous running without a break and just when my mind had nearly succeeded in convincing me that it was time to take a break, I saw this article about a guy in USA who had run continuously for a period of 42 days and a distance of 70 miles every day. Though comparisons are odious, it is sobering to stay grounded by seeing such posts!
Knee pain continues its low intensity war, but, the good news is that it gets beaten into submission within the first few kilometers into the run. I was propounding this theory to my young runner friend Shreyas that the pains which start during the run and gets worse progressively into the run are dangerous while the ones of my knee pain kind must be strengthening the part each day. Interestingly, one of the regular walkers stooped me a few days back and asked what he should do about his knee pain which he gets when he tries running. I told him to run softly, mindfully and without competing. I myself am still to conquer the last mentioned sin completely and usually pay for getting tempted to compete particularly when the challenger is of the fairer sex!
People I meet in my morning runs have different ways of showing that they are watching me regularly. Take this trio on a scooter today who addressed me endearingly as Thata (Tamil for Grandpa!, I am getting used to this appellation) and asked me for a selfie on the TTK flyover. They were on the way to Beach after their night shift. Then there is this group of old ladies who sit chatting under the MRTS flyover (I call them the three witches of Macbeth!), one of them said you can hear the 4.30AM chime when this old man crosses this bridge (gladdening to hear Hubli passenger’s punctuality!). A guy with a pony and a pillion pulled over as I had just descended from the TTK flyover on my way back a few days back and asked me why I was running late (I was on time give or take a quarter of an hour, but, this is their way of claiming familiarity!). The icing on the cake was a loud voice from one of a group of youngsters from under the portico of the building ‘Thata, see you at 7 near RBI’, it was heartening even if at 7 AM Hubli passenger would most likely be near Gandhi statue than RBI, still the claimed familiarity gladdens the heart!
IMD has predicted that the monsoons would arrive in Chennai tomorrow and going by the humidity today, a run in the rain is a distinct possibility tomorrow. Fingers and toes crossed!

No comments:

Post a Comment