The Colgate-Palmolive team decided to meet at National Park (and about time too) for a long run to test the endurance developed so far, based on the training I'd prescribed for them. There were seven of them and we met at the NP entrance just as a grey dawn was breaking. They all had their target distance planned in advance and after some hand-shakes, greeting each other, we set off. Aalok, the fittest of the lot ran with me as I wanted to "push" his pace up a bit.
Aalok and I did the first 12K at an easy pace after which I stepped on the gas but he found it difficult to keep up. I advised him to slow down and fall back since he might not be able to complete the scheduled 24K at this pace. I wanted him to do this "extended long run" so that he could build up a "reserve" for the half marathon distance. As I went into my second lap, I waved to Saurabh, Gunjit and Roshni, who seemed very comfortable doing 12k. I looked out for Madhu but she was no where in sight. A lot of thoughts raced thru' my mind, some of them about her having given up due to a bad stomach, lack of sleep or plain, having paced too fast initially. I somehow had to fight off morbid thoughts of leopards and rapists, though these are not to be discounted as impossibilities in this particular forest. I am responsible for the safety of the team as their coach though my responsibility should, technically speaking, be limited to the training regime and the inherent risks built into it. Well, I brought them over to NP and I better get them back in one piece:-)
I was relieved to learn that Madhu had just taken a wrong turn somewhere and she was in fact on her way to completing, what to her, is a dream distance: 19K!! Roshni and Aalok too finished their target distances of 18K and 24K; though Aalok seemed to have found the last 3K rather exhausting. The rest of the team (Saurabh, Gunjit, Prabhu and Ravindran, who was on his first training run) did 12.5K; much more than they have done so far. When I met up with the group after the run, I saw bright beaming smiles which one need not attribute to the Colgate toothpaste that they are compelled to use:-))))))))
