Journey of a Thousand miles…

When the Hubli Passenger took off the top tied around waist at the finish point outside Railway Officers Quarters at Nungambakkam, a milestone, to be precise, 1000^th mile since 8^th September had been clocked uninterrupted. There is another reason to recognize this as this unbroken trend is to end after tomorrow!

My worthy seniors in the service want to prove the adage, ‘An old dog cannot be taught new tricks’, on its head. I am being sent for a week to Trump_land. To say that I have a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach and am pensive would not be far from truth as the rendezvous is at CMU, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The biggest concern is losing the freedom to run topless in the middle of the road in Namma Chennai, I am sure the weather and sensibilities of my hosts would not permit this liberty. To get bound by shoes and embrace dri-fit gear for the joy of running would be sacrilege to me.

I have decided to prove my wife wrong in her thinking that I am a hardcore addict to running by abstaining from running till get back to India on 5^th night. Please pass the word around the Hubli passenger would be off Chennai roads from this coming Sunday to the next. I shall make do with longer sessions of spinning on my charkha (hope it passes through the security check in US!).

Next major worry in the order of preference after running is food, would I be able to remain Vegan? Having put a stop to calorie guzzling running, guess I could experiment on a frugivorous diet for the duration in US of A!

In the last fifty days of running two articles, one in English and one in the vernacular press, about my running has increased the acceptance of people around to my, till now considered a little unorthodox to say the least, morning ritual of running 32K. Media’s great power was brought home to me recently. When I reached the US consulate for the Visa interview and was told that mobiles were not allowed I did not know where to keep it. An auto driver agreed to hold it for me for Rs. 500/- and when I said it was not worth Rs. 500/-, he asked me to go to the nearby Tea stall where the going rate was Rs. 200/-, even this was not acceptable to me. I approached a policeman who took me to his boss, he not only offered to hold my phone for me, but, also said to my pleasant surprise that he had seen me running regularly and he had read the article about me in the vernacular the previous Sunday and knows that I still keep a push button conventional phone. It pays to be in the News!

I am planning to relish my run every step of the way tomorrow knowing that I have to be off running for the next 8 days, it would be like starting at square one of the Snake and Ladder game when my pedometer will start with KM0 on 6^th November morning again! So wish me Bon Voyage!!!

Attempting a Mini-Sameerathon- a milestone today!

Today when I passed by the Lord Venkateswara temple on the Beach road in my first loop at around 4:30 AM, I said a silent prayer. For one having decided to not keep a count of mileage, it was a milestone requiring acknowledgement. It was 8KM into my run today, the 32^nd day running totaling to a 1000KM uninterrupted. I know after what Sameer Singh, the faith runner, has done, all runners gloating about 10*21KM etc., has stopped. He did the unthinkable of 100*100KM. After, reading about it, I made a pact with myself. I would replace his 100K per day with a more manageable 32K and instead of aiming for 100 days, I planned to go on as long as possible unbroken. I compare it to Snooker where each visit/break is counted by the number of points scored. My last attempt ended tantalizingly close to 1000K on the 29^th day. The idea is to continue uninterrupted the daily diet of 32K and silently prepare for the 100K attempt after retirement, Insha-Allah, Knees willing!