Birthday Weekend Runs!

FRIDAY

Friday was my 38th birthday. I woke up early, ready to run. Much to my surprise, when I walked out of the bedroom, I saw that I had just received a message on my phone. It was a running buddy, checking to see if I was heading out for my usual 6am run. I quickly replied that I was and hurried downstairs, eager to have someone to accompany me on my birthday run.

After a warning that he didn't want to run one of my "quick runs," I proceeded to follow him for the duration of our three miler.

The route was the Statues 3 Miler, one of the first routes I created on my MapMyRun account. It leaves campus and passes what is alternately called the Salt March Statue, The Dandi March Statue or the Gyarah Murti. This image depicts Gandhi's march to the sea to protest the British tax on salt. From there, it progresses to Teen Murti, another statue that gives the name to the complex containing Jawaharlal Nehru's residence, now a museum. After that, the route turns back to school for a quick 3 mile loop.

Thanks Keir for the surprise and a great start to my birthday!

RUN STATS:
Distance - 3.02 miles
Time - 23:42 (my sixth fastest time on the route-must be out of shape!)
Soundtrack - The Beatles, Revolver






SATURDAY

Saturday morning I headed out for a group run at 6:30am. Over the last few years, several teachers at school have dropped in and out of our informal running group. Many parents have joined also. Saturday morning it was three parents, a local ultra runner and I.

I arrived to the gate in the dark with two different shoes on, one street shoe and one trail shoe. After establishing the fact that no, I wasn't gettting dressed in my sleep, I produced their partners and we decided whether we were hitting the pavement or hitting the woods. A six mile street route was decided upon and we headed out to Sarojini, a local market (in my street shoes, the trail runners stayed behind). It's a fun route, so I was excited to get started. See this post from last year for more info about the market and the route.

The first leg of the route had us cutting across Nehru Park. For the past five years, I have been running, playing ultimate frisbee and hanging out in this park. On Saturday morning, I came across something for the first time in the park. It was a suspension bridge! And it was painted in rasta colors. Each slat was painted red, yellow or green. I was so giddy upon finding the bridge that I actually let out a goofy scream! The five of us hit the bridge running and as you could expect, it was a bouncy trip. Our strides went crazy and the bridge was all over the place. We loved it. The guy that was walking across in the opposite direction though, he probably thought something else.

It was a cool start to a run that would continue along the theme of discovery. Instead of sticking exactly to the route, buoyed by the excitement of Thursday's run, I set out to find a secret back way to Lodhi Garden. We found two locked gates, a secret escape route from a plant nursery, a row of hidden shacks and ended up on railroad tracks. After dismissing the possibility (for now) of a secret way to Lodhi, we set back on track and finished up the route.

I love running with this group, everyone's really nice and of course, it's great to have company.

Also, this route usually looks like Marvin the Martian, but on this given Saturday, the lines were adjusted a bit.

RUN STATS:

Distance - 6.28 miles

Time - 54:10

Soundtrack - De la Soul, Buhloone Mindstate and the Clear Lake Auditorium EP (more goods from the Valentine's Day free download!)

SUNDAY

Damn Google Maps. Sometimes your run just gets 3 miles longer.

On Sunday, I decided to continue my exploration of Delhi and thought I'd try a new direction. There are relatively few options of "which way to go" due to the railroad tracks, the airport and the closed roads around the presidential palace. After studying the maps on Saturday night, I decided to try a new six mile route on new roads. I knew it would be a risk based on the fact that I didn't know what the road would yield and sure enough, as soon as I got there, I found that it was in fact a closed gate into military land. That's also typical for this part of town. I decided to keep going, but I knew that it would lengthen my route.

The adjustment route was supposed to be about six miles. I headed up through the ridge to a new section of Delhi that I've never seen. It was fun to be in a new part of town (Rajender Nagar) and I saw some cool new things. However, the route is along pretty busy roads so I'm not sure that it will become a regular feature.

Like I said, it was supposed to be about six miles. At one point during the route, I wasn't sure which way to go. I guessed, and guessed wrong. It added another three miles to my route. Like I said, sometimes your run just gets 3 miles longer.

In any case, it was nice to go for a long run and to know that I can do it. It's also fun to think about which parts of town I can explore when I start my longer runs (16, 18, 20 miles).

RUN STATS:

Distance - 9.33 miles

Time - 1:14:13

Soundtrack - Danny Brown, Old and CVRCHES, The Bones of What You Believe

Free Your Mind and The Rest Will Follow

Today's run was a lot of fun.

Usually I'm very strict about the routes I run. I meticulously plan the routes in advance, study them, memorize the turns, visualize lefts and rights and I usually don't stray from the path.  

This means that I don't often check things out along the way, nor do I do exploratory runs. Today, I changed that.

In the last two years that I've been digging into Google Maps, I've noticed a lot of things that seem interesting I and I've planned runs around them. The other day, I noticed something new. I saw a pedestrian bridge that crossed the railroad tracks at Safdarjung Railroad Station. Now this station is a part of the Railroad Six Miler. I've run that route at least six times since 2012. The route passes the front of the station, and I've never seen a bridge. I chalked it up to a mapping error.

When I woke up today, I was tired and didn't want to run. I didn't run yesterday so I forced myself to get up and run. To make it more interesting and fun, I decided to go off-route and explore the possibility of a "bridge" over the tracks. I started out on familiar, well-worn roads that have been part of many of my miles. However, after passing the Czech Embassy for the Nth time, instead of turning left as usual, I turned right. That right led me down a dead-end to a parking lot. The back side of Safdarjung Station was opening up before me. The only light shining in the early morning darkness was coming from a guard shack that stood before the open gate. I decided to play the "I belong here" angle and I ran right through. It worked! Or maybe, it wasn't my confidence that let me in, maybe the guard didn't care. Or was sleeping. Or wasn't there. As I said, it was dark.

Sure enough, as soon as I passed the gate, I saw the bridge. I ran up the staircase and crossed over three sets of tracks, looking at the train below me. People were milling about, getting on the train. I dodged several men carrying their baggage up the stairs as I headed down the far side of the bridge. It didn't take me long to figure out that the staircase was not landing outside of the station, but right on the platform!

Again, I decided the "I belong here" strategy was best as I continued running past the passengers, conductors and at least three policemen on the platform. Maybe it was my cool confidence, or the pure surprise of seeing a jogger on the platform, but nobody said or did anything. I ran past the exit, quickly hung a u-turn and ran out of the station through the metal detector.

Back on the street, it was more familiar roads and about 1.5 miles until I was home.

Now my mind is reeling, thinking about how funny it must have been for a jogger to suddenly appear, running across the platform. I'm also thinking about how soon before I try again, and just how many people to bring with me the next time. How about a group of 10 of us?

Run Stats:

Distance- 3.13 milesTime- 24:53Soundtrack- De La Soul-Three Feet High and Rising (Bonus CD downloaded on Valentine's Day along with their whole catalog. For free. From their website.)

Dancin in the Dark

And I'm off and running! Today was the first day of the official program. I'm doing the Grandma's Marathon training program designed by Dick Beardsley, the course record holder. Two years ago I used the program to run my first half marathon ever and I was impressed by the results, so I figure I'll use it again for the full. It's an intense program that will have me running 6 days a week and take me over 550 total miles in the next 18 weeks.

Today's run started like most of my runs. 5:45am wake up call, dressed and out the door by 6. These days it's still pretty dark at six in Delhi and it's cold. This morning it was 52 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm sure my training partners in Duluth wouldn't mind 52, but for here it bundle-ups weather. It's just a matter of time before I'll be complaining about the heat, so I suppose I should grin and bear it.

I started with a 3 miler to Nehru Park, still searching for the top of the leader board in MapMyRun land. It seems that I'm getting close, but the scoring is still a bit of a mystery to me. Maybe I'll hit the loop one more time tomorrow before I start searching out new locales.

As you can imagine, running in the dark presents its challenges. I trust that the path will be true, that nobody will suddenly appear out of the fog and the half light and power forward. There's something wonderfully liberating about shutting out my sense of vision and relying on sense of feel to run through the park. Taking away the visual distractions helps me to focus on my thoughts and my stride as I consider the long road ahead of me. I'm looking forward to running the marathon, but I know that it will take effort and hard work to get there.

Run Stats:
Distance- 3.08 miles
Time- 22:21
Soundtrack- Shuggie Otis-Freedom Flight

Training Starts Tomorrow!

This year I've made the commitment to run my first full marathon and I'm stoked!

Tomorrow is the first "official day" of my training program, so I thought I'd write a quick post about what I've been doing in my first two months of 2014 running.

I made a goal to run 800 miles this year after a humbling failure of last year's 1000 mile goal. With that in mind, I was out on the road trying to get some miles under my belt. In January I managed 45 miles and so far in February I've done 40 more.

What's keeping me running these days? A big part of it has been the "gamification" of running on MapMyRun. Through their "courses" feature, I created a course at Nehru Park and I've been hitting it often to push myself to the top of the leaderboard. I've let my friends here at school know about the course and now we're engaged in some healthy competition to have the fastest time in the Park Loop. Today I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out just how the scoring works. I'm a sucker for badges, leaderboards and the overall mind-control of gamification.

Also, I've managed two runs with progressively negative splits!

Week One is Done!

My first week of soft training is finished! I logged six miles last weekend and 18.5 miles this week.

It's great to be back running. I've already had lots of company and I can feel my spirits lifting.

Here's looking forward to a great year of running.

Pitter Patter, Let's Get At 'Er!

Back to blogging and back to running. Too many excuses have clouded my thoughts and mind. To help me get back on track, I've signed up to run my first marathon. On June 21st, instead of running the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon, I'll be going all the way up to Two Harbors, MN and running the entire 26.2 miles to Canal Park.

In that spirit, two goals for 2014:

1. Run 800 miles (lessened from my overly ambitious 1000 mile goal from last year)
2. Finish first marathon


Secret goal for 2014:
1. Actually run 1000 miles in spite of my newly expectation-lowered goal of 800 miles.

So far, I've been back in Delhi for four mornings and I've been for three runs. I've done the Nehru Park Loop three days strong.

9 miles down, 791 to go.

I've got this.

ps. Despite the lack of posts, I did run over 150 miles including 1 10-mile race since the last time I wrote anything. As you can imagine, they were all very interesting and anecdote-filled.

Two Days Worth of 5Ks!

Why not write a post that talks about what happened almost eight weeks ago?

My goal this summer was to run as many small-town 5Ks as possible, in the search of a sub-20 minute finish time. As I talked about in a previous post, I somehow managed to achieve this goal in my first race of the summer. I confess, after that happened, my desire to run tons of 5Ks decreased.

I did manage to run two other 5Ks over the summer and this is an abbreviated version of what happened.

The Kick Up the Dirt 5K, Bemidji, MN
A great excuse for a day trip, this 5K was about 2 1/2 hours from the house. On paper, it sounded like a great day out. I had vague childhood memories of Bemidji and figured it would provide for a day of entertainment followed by an exciting early evening trail run. The run was sponsored by the Bemidji Parks and Rec department and I was looking forward to a difficult, muddy run on the cross-country ski trails.

We arrived to Bemidji and it became clear that my childhood memories were worse than vague. I don't think I've ever been there. The highlight of any trip there is a photo in front of the Paul Bunyan statue, so we immediately did that.

 

Then we realized that this was the only thing to do in Bemidji.

We drove around the small downtown area looking for a cute cafe or restaurant and couldn't find anything. We eventually settled on the deli at the whole-foods co-op and ate at their picnic table. When we asked a recently arrived local for advice about shopping, she recommended Target and Wal-Mart. 

Commence "bad-ittude." Bummed out, we headed to the race and my negative attitude kept going. The race was on a manicured disc golf course and consisted of two laps. I almost cried when the woman explained the route to me. "Go all the way around the landfill, and ...(something)." I managed to convince myself that I wasn't going to do well. Then I didn't. The old adage about running being mostly mental is so true.I did however get a participant ribbon and the landfill was a beautiful, grass-covered hill in a beautiful park setting. So it wasn't that bad.

Good Neighbor Days Memorial 5K, Gordon, WI

One of the good things about running is the personal connections that are formed with running buddies. In 2012, during the Garry Bjorklund 1/2 Marathon, I was reunited with my best friend from High School. Since then, running has been a bond that has rekindled a cherished friendship. We ran the 2013 Bjorklund and met up to celebrate each others' achievements after the race. In that spirit, we coordinated to run this 5K.

It was a beautiful day in Gordon and the organizers assured the racers that last year's problems with the race distance (closer to 7K than 5K) wouldn't happen again.

Seth and I took off from the starting line and ran the first segment out of the parking lot. (See Map featuring "varied terraine(sic)" below).

From the parking lot, the race progressed almost straight uphill. I never run hills. This was tough. The hill plateaued for a second, then went back uphill. And turned to sand. Then we cut from the sand road to crushed gravel. I mean, this route was tough. It didn't help that an 11 or 12 year old passed me. Then another guy, then another and the first woman finisher passed me too. I kept going, but it was grueling. Then I looked at watch. Impossibly, a sub-20 minute was a possibility. I turned on the gas for the last bit, but came across in 20:01. I couldn't believe it. The course was crazy hard, and I almost PR'ed! Seth came in right after me and we celebrated a #1 and #2 spot for our age division. Then we looked at our GPS. Mine said 2.83 miles and his said about 2.9 miles. Oh well. At least it wasn't 7K. And I had fun with an old friend. And I got my first trophy. See what can happen when you don't have a "bad-ittude?"