Practice makes perfect

The past few days were disheartening for me. This despite the fact that I had reason to be cheerful after my podium finish at the Bangalore Ultra 50K, held on Sunday. There were spoilsports for me and I have relegated the experience to the garbage dump, where it has always belonged. There is one good reason to smile though:-) And that is that Bryan was able to pass the IITian Pace entrance test. This brought a lot of relief to Monsoon who agonizes a lot over Bryan' carefree attitude. I can immodestly state that his success is attributable to yours truly:-)

Bryan has a home tutor for Math, a mistake we made, thinking that he would do better if he did not attend tuition classes. Well, he has been displaying a lackadaisical attitude to his studies and the result was a mediocre performance in his first terminal exams in Xth std. The panic button was now pressed and we had to move quickly. If he has to attend classes next year, it had better be a reputed one. IITian Pace is one of the elite ones and realizing his math knowledge was less than average, thanks to his tutor (or maybe Bryan is more to blame), I had to spend several evenings pacing up and down the living room, with a stern expression while he worked furiously on a tough question set I had specially purchased. It worked! He was able to tackle difficult problems on trignometry, co-ordinate geometry, P & L, linear equations etc, with elan.

On the day he gave his test, I was running the Bangalore Ultra. When he finished his test he told me it was good but he was afraid about his being in the list of selected students. I told him that he had practiced enough and that this is all that was required to succeed. I drew out an analogy and told him that I wake up at dawn just to wear my shoes and go out for a run while most people are asleep. He understood that this had brought me several successful marathon finishes. He got his answer that practice makes perfect, when he was informed the result of his selection by IITan Pace. He was so happy, he ordered Chinese food with his own allowance and promised Dojo a full chicken. Unfortunately, he has not kept his promise to Dojo and when I reminded him last night about it, he said, "Arey yaar, I said it in my excitement"!!! I have now to teach him that promises such as these are not made to be broken. Dojo, poor chap is clueless about all the excitement but he is happy when Bryan is happy because he is the first to be at teh receiving end of Bryan' ire, should Bryan be in a foul mood.

Marathon Man

Dojo our Daschund, the only unconditional lover, yelped as I reached home from tour, today. He rolled over for his regular tickle on the belly and told me, in his own way that I have been travelling too often over the last four days. I was suffering from a bout of melancholy brought about by revelations of dark hearts and thoughts in some people that I know. My despair over the "it takes all sorts to make the world" evaporated with Dojo' canine love. I held him and hummed my favorite tune with my own touch to the lyrics;


Who draws the crowd and runs so proud,
Baby it's the marathon man.
Who's gonna steal the show, you know
Baby it's the marathon man,

He can make you love, he can make you cry
He will bring you down, then he'll get you high
Somethin' keeps him goin', miles and miles a day
To find another race to slay.

Night after night who treats you right,
Baby it's the marathon man
Who's on the radio, you go listen
Its the marathon man

Then he comes to town, and you see his face,
And you think you might like to take his place
Somethin' keeps him driftin' miles and miles away
Searchin' for some races to slay.

Then you listen to the music and you like to sing along,
You want to get the meaning out of each and ev'ry song
Then you find yourself a message and some words to call your own
And take them home.

He can make you love, he can get you high
He will bring you down, then he'll make you cry
Somethin' keeps him movin', but no one seems to know
What it is that makes him go.

Then the lights begin to flicker and the sound is getting dim
The stride begins to falter and the crowds are getting thin
But he never seems to notice he's just got to find
Another race to slay,
Fade Away. Got to Play.
Fade Away. Got to Play.

The Marathon and beyond

Ever since my friend Raj ran the Bangalore Ultra last year and some of the other runners finished the Comrades this year, I have had this desire to run beyond the extremely testing distance (so far) of the standard marathon. While most of my fellow runners were planning distances of 75K and 100K, I thought, given my obnoxious training regimen, that I should just test myself for a 50K.

There were about 10 - 12 of us from our closely knit running group and the meet up at the airport was reminiscient of a school picnic. I enjoyed our flight and the jokes that were traded. Bangalore felt fresh and cool, and our transport to the apartment complex, where we were put up, was swift. The rooms were clean and freshly made up and there was a nice restaurant that dished out fare appropriate for our carbo-loading binge. I was not in the best of conditions and in fact, had often dwelled on cancelling my visit. I was afflicted with a chest cold that seemed to be tenacious and even an antibiotic course did not help in dislodging the phlegm in my lungs. I decided to play it by ear and run the race as best I could. Monsoon was extremely worried, fully aware that a 50K distance is something you don't screw with, especially when you are incapacitated with a cold.

Race day arrived with a 3am wake up call and a flurry of activity to use the bathroom and get ready. The drive to the race venue brought a rather disturbing sight for me. I saw that someone had run over a puppy in the pre-dawn darkness and I choked on my emotions as I saw that the poor fellow was actually trying to get away from the vehicle. There were four other puppies that seemed lost and despite my best effort they kept wandering below the tyres of my parked car. There were impatient honks from other cars that were now lined up because I was holding up traffic. Finally I caught each puppy and kept them as far away from the road as was possible and drove off. I think it worked because on the return after the race, I saw the same cute little fellows playing around.

The race venue was a beehive of activity with registrations and the 100K / 75K runners having already started their races. I took my bib and then a groan from my innards made me realize that I needed to visit the washroom. We got a big cheer from the organizers for Mumbai runners and the race began without too much of a fuss. Right from the word go I felt the exertions winding me and I had premonitions of not finishing. But then I am an experienced distance runner and have a finely tuned inner GPS. I adjusted pace and worried about hanging on without any care for my finishing time. I was more concerned about wearing the Tee given to me, which said, "BANGALORE ULTRA, ITS TOUGH. ARE YOU?". It reminded me of a "tank top" I once purchased when I used to strength train, which said, "DON'T WEAR IT, IF YOU DON'T MEAN IT". I intended to wear this one - and mean it!

The race is a loop of 12.5K to be run four times. I ran the first three loops keeping a close watch on my heart rate and realized I was now maxing out and in danger of deep exhaustion. The fourth loop arrived to my relief and I then allowed myself a brief walk to regain some strength in my legs. I caught up with most of the runners that had gone way ahead. This is the benefit of wisdom in distance running:-) I met Amit and perhaps it was not so good an idea to run together because we lost our seriousness about finishing in sub 6 hrs and instead made the last 6K into a walker' club, with Mahesh in tow. I do not regret it one bit because it was the best part of the race. The course was a trail that was full of deceptive inclines and uneven surfaces that tested your talo-calcanear joint' flexibility and strength. The sun was blazing mercilessly but we were a threesome of jocund runners that had nary a care in the world and ran - walked - danced our way to the finish line - holding hands, for good measure, just before we stepped onto the timing mat at the finish:-)

I unwound and paced around while my fellow runners went for lunch and decided to wait for Roshni and Madhu. Each of them came in completely exhausted and beat up. Madhu was the braveheart that ran this race despite a serious injury to her tibia, showing degeneration in places. I was amazed that she lasted the 37.5K that she ran before I convinced her that pushing for 50K was not worth it. Our entire group from Mumbai rocked at the Ultra and we got accolades for it. To my surprise I got the third position in the men' senior category and Roshni got a similar position in the female open category. We returned to our rooms at the apartment and had a brief but fun-filled tipple. Our flight back to Mumbai was delayed by more than an hour and we reached Mumbai at 1am, realizing that we had been on our feet for 22 hrs!! Amit commented that most people that do not understand us runners would wonder as to what it is that drives us to flog ourselves in this manner. Only a real runner will understand this:-)