When I woke up on Saturday morning, I didn't think that the day would turn out to be beyond my initially depressing expectations. As I lay on my bed feeling unusual exhaustion, I wondered whether the long run I was to do was mis-timed. My office had declared a holiday in view of the tragic events in Mumbai and I thought it opportune to prepone my long run that is normally scheduled for a Sunday.
I drank my cup of Java and went out with the intention of returning home in case things turned out for the worse. 6K into the run and I felt the strain and wanted to quit and return the next day. Then I thought I'd visit the temple at Aarey but this would mean doing 10.4K - so what! Along the way I met Pankaj Sharma (I enquird, "long run?" and he said, "lets see!") and then Mahesh, and felt elated cause I was with my "brethren". Mahesh decided to join me and I welcomed it cause his pace would put a zip into my run (but it would also tire me quickly:-)).
We went together to the "Hanuman Temple" and decided that we'd do about 16K for the day and waddya know; we ended up doing 3 hrs of running. I don't know whether it was divine benediction or whether it was the fact that everytime we passed Pankaj, he told us that he would do "one more loop" (we were doing 8K loops), that we ended up testing our endurance. I marvelled at the motivation we provided each other for "stretching" our run. We all felt very happy when we were thru' and exchanged notes on our preparations. I like these guys that have been with me at Aarey since such a while.
When I reached home I called Shailendra from colpal and told him I'd visit him. We went as family and discussed his condition. He is doing fine and I pray that he gets a pleasant surprise when the second opinion, he has sought from "Wockhardt", pronounces him as fit to do the SCMM Half Marathon.
On my return from Kharghar, I stopped over at Som' place for beers and Khichdi with chicken cutlets:-) Trust Som to have plain Khichdi:-)))))))))) All in all, a nice morning, a "happy hours" afternoon and a happy day.
