Time

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Wasting the hours in an off-hand way-e-yay
The sun is the same in the relative way but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain
Plans that either come to nought or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
I thought I'd something more to say :-(

That was the "dark side of the moon". The bright side for me is that I have made "running" a constant in my life, so far. It has also been my only and constant companion in times of inner strife; helping me sift thru' the confusion of thoughts. A companion like Dojo; who came up to me when I lay awake last night and curled near my feet. As if in silent communion with and compassionate to my situation. I pray that the almighty give me the good health to keep running. Its going to be a new year soon and it will bring good tidings - I'm sure. The resolve is even stronger to get up and run - everytime I fall.

Dilip is headed for Antarctica

Today was the first speed work out after a rather long lay off from my Marathon in Lausanne. I had just completed it and was sipping water while feeling the nip in the air when Dilip came by with a jovial "Hi Daniel". We shook hands and talked about life in general. I then told him about my ex-boss who I'd met up with in Switzerland and the information I had about his trip to Antarctica. I realized with a pleasant surprise that Dilip had already firmed up his plans and was headed there on Jan 19, 2009! It also happened that the details he shared with me exactly matched with the information I had from my ex-boss ie fly to Sau Paulo, spend 4 days, Buenos Aires, spend 2 days, Chile, Peru and then with an "ice breaker" head out for Antarctica with a team of Zoologists, Biologists, Doctors and food rations for the entire trip.

I envied Dilip for this but it seems he envied me more for the fact that I ran a Marathon in Switzerland while on holiday! He complimented me on making his day with some "healthy news":-)) We waved off with a promise to meet up for a drink one of these days:-)

Heart-breaking run

Sunday, 23rd Nov was a depressing day for me and a new low in my life. The previous day, I had returned from an exhausting tour to Bangalore, where I'd eaten junk food, tippled daily and the only time I exercized was when I had to climb the stairs one day at the hotel, when the lift was under repair. Not a very healthy state of affairs for a fitness-freak (not in terms of diet, please :-)) like me. So, I was looking forward to this long run at Kharghar with the Colpal team. I needed to run for my physical and psychological (my work life, as usual, was getting more dreadful) well-being, as also to connect with friends at Colpal.

We arrived at Kharghar to be met by Shailendra (at whose instance we were invited to run) and Saurabh. No sooner had we eased into a warm-up, Shailendra stopped and sat on the side-walk. When I queried him in alarm, he replied that he had a dizzy spell and would rest a bit. I advised him not to run and that he could go to where I'd parked my car. As I went ahead with my routine of running a 3K loop that Shailendra had shown me, I realized that he was not at the spot that I'd last seen him and assumed that he was waiting by the car. Towards the end of a 2 hr run, I egged on Saurabh for an additional 3K, which worked out well for both of us. We both jogged back to the parking lot and caught up with Madhu and Roshni on the way. When we found just T R Ravindran (our enthusiastic run-walker) but didn't find Shailendra waiting for us, we realized something was amiss and went about contacting his home.

There was bad news waiting for us; Shailendra was taken to hospital for a possible heart condition. I felt a shiver up my spine as I realized what this would mean for me as the "coach" and for my possible alternative (ahem...:-).. post-retirement coach) plans. I wasn't to blame for this situation as it wasn't as if we had gone on a "speed work-out" and I'd taken his heart rate over the brink. This incident occured during a bloody warm up! We went over to the hospital to check on him and got all kinds of discouraging news about a heart-attack, clot etc, which I mentally discounted as I know Indian doctors to get defensive on such matters.

As it turned out (based on a recent mail sent by Madhu), Shailendra has apparently no heart-condition from the 2D-echo-cardiography that was done. This brings us to the puzzling question as to what caused him to feel dizzy and uneasy?? I am awaiting that bit of news so that I can add it to my repertoire of experience in coaching; but meanwhile, the Colpal people were very kind to clear my name internally and in fact thought the world of me; especially some of the runners I train. So much for a depressing Sunday:-))))))))