May 10, 2017 - For Justin!

Today's run was sponsored by Justin! Thanks so much for continuing to help fund the Ty Taylor Memorial Campship Endowment. We're getting so close to fully funding the endowment, I appreciate your help! Soon, YMCA Camp Miller will be able to send a deserving camper to camp for free every year in honor of an amazing man.

Justin joined AES in August of this school year and has been a consistent running partner since. The thing you need to know about Justin, is that he's fast. And he runs far. You can check out his exploits on his blog - An Incondite Adventure. It's been good getting to know him and his wife Sarah, and the icing on the cake is that they'll be joining us in Minnesota this summer to run Grandma's and the Bjorklund with me, so the donation will personalize even more as they get a taste of Northern Minnesota and all it has to offer!

Since he is running the full, he's always looking for miles. I feel like I've been doing a good job of banking miles this training season, but I've neglected pace, speed and hills. So, when Justin started a Tuesday night text chain looking for a run, I figured it was as good of a time as any to recommit to some speed work. I promised a short, fast one and we took off at 5am.

Lately, I've been running miles that are over 9 minutes. When we left Gate 2 of the school Tuesday morning, the first thing that Justin noticed was our pace. The first mile was 8:04, but it felt even faster than that. I let him know that my plan was to run faster than normal and he pretended to feel like it was painful (but I know that he loved it). Mile two was even faster, 7:32. There was much grunting and groaning and even a "you know, we can slow down." But I refused. I had a few secrets. First, the route. I had planned a special route for Justin's run, one I'll talk about in a bit. Mile three was amazingly another negative split - 7:16. I was dying. I knew that I was going to conk soon, but my second secret kept me going. At the five mile mark, I was going to bail out and take an autorickshaw home. Mile four was finally a slow down and I had to walk. We had dropped to a 7:45 and as we started walking, Justin reached to pause his GPS. "Don't turn that off!" I yelled, potentially betraying the secret of the route. We had reached India Gate and we were making what Justin calls, "Jason Coleman lefts." I guess he thinks it's weird when I suddenly stop in front of him, or turn left at the last minute because I go the wrong way, or am about to make a wrong turn. Jeez. Anyway, as we ran from the center of the India Gate traffic circle back out and turned back in, he knew something was up. 

"The Shamrock!"

He was right, it was the run that I designed for him to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. As the officially crowned King of AES St. Patty's, he commissioned a run from me. I added it to my series of holiday runs, which I've included below. He hosted quite a fete on March 17 this year, but unfortunately, I was out of town and wasn't able to run it. The last mile and a half or the last two petals of the shamrock were significantly slower as we jumped fences, crashed through shrubs and tried our hardest to avoid standing "water" in the lawns of India Gate to complete the picture you see below.

Most of you have seen this, but if you haven't, these runs led to a feature the MapMyRun blog. Find it here - http://blog.mapmyrun.com/american-expat-maps-route-art-explore-new-countries/.

The Run, Run Rudolph Reindeer Race

The hard work and sacrifice ...

... yield great results. Turkey Trot 2016

I, as promised bailed out as soon as the shamrock was finished. Justin ran another 5 miles home. He swears to me that he slowed down, but I don't believe him for a second.

Riding home in style

RUN STATS

Distance: 5.55 miles

Duration: 42:18. Blistering 7:37 pace!

May 6, 2017 - The 4th Charge of the British History Half Marathon

Today's run was sponsored by Isaac, Adam, Brianne, Scott, Justin, Jacinta, Nathan and the other AES Runners! Thanks so much for continuing to help fund the Ty Taylor Memorial Campship Endowment. We're getting so close to fully funding the endowment, I appreciate your help! Soon, YMCA Camp Miller will be able to send a deserving camper to camp for free every year in honor of an amazing man.

It's not easy to write a sentence that can fully introduce the importance of my running group. Over the years, the AES Runners have challenged me, supported me, indulged me and more. They've trained me up for my first half marathon, my first marathon and more. They've (almost) always said yes to my crazy ideas for runs. And they've pushed me to create a monster - The British History Half Marathon. And they've consistently opened up their wallets to donate to my causes. This year alone, AES Runners past and present have donated over $600. Amazing.

The British Half Marathon was born in 2014, from a desire to do a long training run on new territory. It occurred to me that a point-to-point run could take us pretty far from home. A 13 mile line on a Google Map brought me to the Coronation Memorial and the BHHM quickly started taking shape.

You can read all about that inaugural version here. It's also referenced pretty heavily here. For various reasons, 2015 and 2016 never got write ups. Here's a quick look at last year's event.

If you're paying attention, you can see it all. A bus, over 20 runners, historical monuments, note cards with "fun facts." It's all there. The only photo missing is the one from the end. The one showing my stitches. I'll come back to that.

Here's a video of this year's event.

The British History Half Marathon has grown into something special around here. The preparation begins early, with runners of all abilities training and me writing emails. An excerpt:

Depending on your side of history, Mangal Pandey either bravely became the first martyr of Indian independence or foolishly presented himself as a bhang and opium-induced traitor and mutineer as he attacked Lieutenant Baugh, Adjutant of the 34th Bengal Native Infantry and later, Sergeant-Major Hewson with musket blasts and talwar blows.  

Either way, he turned his musket upon himself and discharged a round into his own chest. It wasn't enough to kill him though, and he was hanged without recourse. 

On 6 May 1857, the 34th was was disbanded "with disgrace" for failing to perform their duty in restraining a mutinous soldier and their officer. It's widely regarded as the start of the Indian Rebellion. Or, depending again on your side of the story: the Sepoy Mutiny, the Indian Mutiny, the Great Rebellion, the Revolt of 1857, the Indian Insurrection, or India's First War of Independence.
Almost 100 years later, on 6 May 1954 Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister, CH, CBE, became the first human being to break the sub-four minute mile. 

An auspicious day then, it would seem, for the Fourth Annual British History Half Marathon.
Save the date 6 May 2017, history buffs and runners. More information will be coming soon.


Early bird registration begins today.

Yours,
Rao Bahadur Jason Coleman, Receiver of 17 Gun Salutes, HEIC, Event Organizer

You see, indulgence. And support. This is what the AES Runners have allowed me to become. A fake running event organizer and armchair historian. But mostly, a writer of silly emails. Another excerpt:

InclusivenessThere will be at least 19 of us running! While not the largest fake running event that I have ever organized, it's still a big group! Please be mindful of the fact that there are many different people with different paces and abilities on the road. More than anything, everyone wants to participate. This is a slow-paced race with lots of built in stops. 

Water, First-Aid, Emergency TransportationAs we will be running through a city of almost 20 million inhabitants, we are never far from any of these things. That said, there is no official support. Make sure to bring a phone, camera, battery pack, water, money, energy gels or anything else that you might need to be on the road for 2 1/2- 3 hours.

Indeed the 4th charge was an inclusive and participatory event. 20 runners showed up at 5:45am to collect my ridiculous home-made bibs, Indian Tricolor wristbands and board the bus to the Coronation Memorial. The fact that the runners were now a captive audience allowed me to read some notecards and set the scene for today's run. The Mutiny of 1875, or the beginning of the War for Indian Independence. See the 2014 post for more details on the history, today I'll concentrate on the run. 

As always, our arrival at the Coronation Memorial attracted the attention of North Delhi's early birds. More surprising to me though, was the sheer number of people out and about at 6am. The park was full of people! And statues of old, dead British guys. Among them was King George. Another note card from me (think elaborate descriptions of Durbars) and we were off and running. For the 2017 edition, there were several veteran runners. Memories of years past were flowing as quickly as the water from my Camel Back the year it exploded at the beginning of our run.

The first two miles of the run are not pretty. There's a strip of junked out cars, some olfactory delights and once, a steam roller that was laying fresh blacktop that we had to dodge. The first real point of interest beyond the Memorial is Delhi University. Sneaking through the gates ("Entry Restricted"), there was talk of monkey attacks (looking at you Alexa) and a quick stop to pose with Gandhi (because, India).

The first scheduled stop occurs at the Flagstaff Tower. This windowless castellated tower was the hideout of the few surviving British once the mutineers tore through town. I grabbed this pic from my elevated vantage point. I love it and everyone in it. They inspire me.

They also allow me to read them notecards, so it was a quick summary and an quote from everyone's favorite British-Delhi-Historian, William Darlymple and we were off again. But not for long. I quickly spied a group of men doing laughing yoga and insisted we join in. It was simply wonderful. It was not the first time I've spied these hysterical yogis doing their thing on a run, but it was the first time I've joined in. I've been emboldened by my impending departure and want to catalogue as many memories as possible. Today would definitely allow me to do just that.

Next stop was an Ashoka pillar from the 3rd century BC. At this pillar, I turned over my docent role to Laura, an actual history teacher. She regaled the group with enthralling history and I made a joke about erection.

Continuing on toward the Mutiny Memorial, memories of years past began to creep in. Like the first year when we cajoled the guard to let us in. And the second, when we knew he would. And the third. It was like visiting an old friend. Here the history took a decidedly revisionist bent as the cards examined the very nature of history. Who's story is it to tell? Can it ever be told accurately? Had we really already run five miles?

The next section has historically been where my "half-marathon" gains notoriety and extra miles. This year, I was bound and determined to not get lost or add too much extra milage, so I kept tight track of our turns. By now though, the route was feeling pretty familiar.

Stops at an old city gate, a powder magazine and The Red Fort were the locations of the first goodbyes. Among the great things about city running is the ability to jump in an autorickshaw at any point and rest tired muscles and cruise home (reasonably) comfortably. The signage advertising a magician at The Red Fort was a source of much revelry and we were off again.

Our revelry was soon squelched when we passed what could only be understood as a dead body. Questions and curiosity sobered us all as a brave runner went back to check it out. After what seemed like an eternity, there was a twitch and a rise of the chest, assuring him enough that there was life left in that body, but how much and toward what future was uncertain. The next mile was a quiet one.

By now we had run almost nine miles, so a break for drinks and mental decompression was quickly organized. At a busy intersection in the alleys of Old Delhi, our drink stop allowed for a lot of gawking. And almost got us run over by motorbikes and chicken trucks. Oh, and don't forget the van full of goat heads.

From Old Delhi, the route almost runs out of Mutiny material.There's a mile long section in the hot sun over an overpass (re-included in this year's run due to last year's inability to cross the train tracks any other way, adding an extra mile). There's a stretch of the Janpath and things start to look familiar. It's our Delhi, the Delhi of India Gate runs, the Kessel Run and countless other pounded pavements from countless runs with the group.

The last (almost) scheduled stop comes at the Secretariat, center of operations for the Indian government. Although it was not created when the events of 1857 took place, I like to stop to look at the quote written over the entrance:

“Liberty will not descend to a people. A people must raise themselves to liberty. It is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.”

In seeming fully disrespect for the people of the country that they had violently overtaken, the British inscribed this scolding. However, it turned out that the people of India would get the last word. Not only did the overthrow the Raj and declare independence, but they left the inscription so we can still read it today.

The last last stop on the BHHM was added this year. It was a stop to commemorate the spot where I ran into a pole last year and almost broke my nose.

I stumbled for three steps, tried to keep running and continued staring at my GPS. Feeling like I had been punched by a prizefighter, my only thought was, “Get the group back home.” Then a more rational idea emerged. “You just ran into an iron street sign. Look up and take a moment to assess.”

Despite my efforts to plan a memorable day of running and learning, The Third Annual British History Half Marathon had taken a distinct change of course. What had started as a successful edition of a run that takes colleagues and parents on a guided history tour of one of the world’s most dynamic cities had turned into a dizzy, bloody mess. “Stitches?” I asked.

“Stitches,” came the reply. On my way to the hospital, I reflected on our running group.

I wrote those words as the introduction to my recruiting profile last year as my family made the difficult decision to leave Delhi. We've been here for nine years and it's been amazing. Our running group has been a major part of my life and I'm going to miss everyone in it beyond belief.

Thanks friends.

RUN STATS

Distance: 14.2 miles? 15.2 miles? Certainly not 13.1 miles.

Duration: 2:44:33? 3 hours?

My GPS Stopped half way, so I have two workouts for this run, and the stats are off.

May 3, 2017 - For Chico and the Gang!

Today's run was sponsored by Chico! Thanks so much for continuing to help fund the Ty Taylor Memorial Campship Endowment. We're getting so close to fully funding the endowment, I appreciate your help! Soon, YMCA Camp Miller will be able to send a deserving camper to camp for free every year in honor of an amazing man.

This dedicated run had to be this classic. It's the kind of run that needs to be run with a friend, so when I met Laura at the gate and she suggested the Back Door Five Miler, I couldn't have been happier. It's a classic route that sneaks its way through not one, not two or three, but four places that seem like you shouldn't be allowed to go. I last wrote about this route almost three years ago to the day!

The first back door is the best. We ran through the open gate on the back side of the Safdarjung Railway Station. "Just act like what you're doing is totally okay," is the mantra of this run. Unfortunately, the entrance was the easy part that day. A huge, fat mama monkey was with her baby on the stairs to the bridge that took us over the tracks. "What do we do here?" I asked. "Just go," was Laura's nervous reply, followed by, "Don't look at it." Obviously, I've written this post, so you know I made it. The bridge leads right to the platform and before we knew it, we were like the sultry muse of Prince's Raspberry Beret in reverse as we ran out through the in door. In door.

Running to the train station for Harry Potter themed 9 3/4km race

Back door number two is behind the Leela Hotel. Over the years, this has slowly turned from a small door, to a bigger door, to no door, to what I expect will soon become a full-fledged road. Can't stop progress I guess.

The third back door is the rear entrance to a sprawling government employee housing complex. Complete with bungalows, apartment towers, underground parking and their own park and shops, New Moti Bagh feels like it could easily be in Anytown, USA. It's always a trip running there, but today was special. The back door wasn't just the normal red and white barrier arm, but a full-fledged locked metal gate across the whole entrance. Having arrived to the seemingly impenetrable wall just behind a man on a bike, we decided to wait. He pounded on the door, we all waited. The gate was opened and we cruised past the guard, no questions asked. "Just act like you belong here."

The final back door is a door in the fence that opens to a private walkway between the Railroad Officer's Bungalows and a golf course. It parallels a public park and actually offers vertical rise in a mostly flat city. It ends at another bridge over the tracks to another government housing development.

RUN STATS

Distance: 6.24 miles

Duration: 57:49

April 25, 2017 - For Ted!

Today's run was sponsored by Ted! Thanks so much for continuing to help fund the Ty Taylor Memorial Campship Endowment. We're getting so close to fully funding the endowment, I appreciate your help! Soon, YMCA Camp Miller will be able to send a deserving camper to camp for free every year in honor of an amazing man.


Today's run is for a former AES Runner, secretive donor and all-around nice guy. My students might call him a lurker, because I haven't heard from him in forever, but he's checking the blog and making a donation - but they've given on the intricacies and nuances of our language. I call him a friend.

Here at school, we ask the following question a lot: What does the research say? Friend or lurker? Well, researchers have been trying to convince us that social media is fooling us into believing that having hundreds of friends is normal, let alone possible. British anthropologist Robin Dunbar suggested that humans ability to keep and maintain friendships was correlated to brain size. 150 was the number he suggested, but he divided that 150 into layers. The closest layer contained 5. A study conducted by Time-sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences suggested that the respondents to their study had only two. Research from 2016 reported on the Huffington Post confirmed Dunbar's findings.

All of that seems like bad news for those of us in the world of international teaching. Falling out of touch is easy as people move in and out of our schools and our lives. We follow each others' blogs (peep Ted's gap here sailing blog here!), see each others' photos on Instagram and Facebook, but it becomes easy to slip away from each other. Facebook can make us believe that we're keeping up on each other when snippets fly through our feeds, but it's not the same.

But do you know what?

I'm okay with it.

Because the friends that I've met since I made the decision to come abroad are the greatest people I've ever met. I know that they're there for me. That they'll help out. That they'll meet up in Bangkok, or Buenos Aires or Brooklyn. And more than anything, that we'll pick up exactly where we left off last time without skipping a beat.

I miss Ted, and Amie and the kids. I miss the time we spent chatting on our runs. Truthfully, I've been thinking about two of them a lot lately. Amie and I spent about 5 minutes one day running laps around a traffic circle near the American Embassy waiting for the group to catch up. I think about it almost every time I pass that circle. And Ted was always willing to join on long, hot runs. I saw a map of the 2014 edition of the British History Half Marathon (the first running, btw), and remembered how Ted joined me for an extra few miles to bump it up to a 20 mile training run despite the fact that it was blazing hot at the end of a really long run. Like I said earlier, an all-around nice guy.

As the school year winds down, I'm thinking a lot about how great it's been to have friends step up with no hesitation to run with me. In the dark, in the rain or on hot April Tuesdays after work. That's what I did today. It was Kate's morning to work out, so I squeezed in a run after school.

It was hot. It was hazy. It was Delhi on an April afternoon. But knowing that Ted had taken the time to donate was enough to motivate me. Thanks for helping to make the Ty Taylor Campship possible, friend. I appreciate you, no matter what my silly students might call you.

The route was a classic. School to the Salt March Statue, to Teen Murti. A loop around Kautilya Marg and a loop around Nehru Park.

RUN STATS:
Distance - 4.93 miles (I really should look at my distance before quitting my workout - .07 miles more!?)
Time - 41:22
Soundtrack - Ana Tijoux, Vengo

April 21, 2017 - For Dr. A!

Today's run was sponsored by Dr. A! Thanks so much for continuing to help fund the Ty Taylor Memorial Campship Endowment. We're getting so close to fully funding the endowment, I appreciate your help! Soon, YMCA Camp Miller will be able to send a deserving camper to camp for free every year in honor of an amazing man.

There was a request for a specific run from Dr. A after her generous donation to the Ty Taylor Memorial Campship - a run in the heat, or a run in the rain. Well, Dr. A, you get heat. You also get an international destination run, given the fact that you're the most well-traveled person I know!

Although I abandoned my running group in Delhi, and was away in Bangkok for the weekend, you can see that our temps were about the same. Of course, I had the luxury of almost two extra hours of sleep, but c'est la vie. So, Dr. A, here's your hot one.

As I write this year's posts, I'm ruminating on the fact that not only do I want to capture the experience of a run, but I'm also looking back on 8 years in India and 15 in Asia. On the first day of June, we'll say goodbye to #thisplace and head onward to Ghana. Surely new adventures await, but the awesome task of saying goodbye to what has become home looms.

In Bangkok for the weekend, knowing I had to dedicate a run, all other considerations (laziness, the pool, breakfast) were outweighed as I laced up, filled my Camelbak and headed out the door for a longish run. The route was easy. In 2015, Bangkok become something of a second (third?) home to our family as Kate moved into an apartment waiting for our son Amos to be born. I grew to know the streets. In reality, Bangkok has been a destination for us for years. Thailand is a go-to vacation spot, Bangkok, the closest spot for "big city-therapy." It's comfortable. It's predictable. It's always interesting.

So, Saturday morning, I took off from my hotel on Soi 11 and plied the early morning streets of Bangkok.

Up and over a pedestrian bridge across the lifeline of Bangkok, the Sukhimvit. Even at 7:45am, the famous Bangkok traffic was beginning. Today's route would take me across the busiest parts of town to the back alleys, the vast parks and the canals that make the city famous.

Skirting the edge of Chuvit Garden, I headed toward Benjakitti Park. The trip from Soi 10 alley takes you across this charming bridge to the park. No traffic, no noise, the city slipped away.

In all of my city running, I've always been amazed by just how quickly cities can dissolve to quietude and peaceful back alleys. I appreciate the opportunity to get to know this about them. I also was thinking about how confident I felt about today's route. It was known to me. I've done it before and I was able to just run. It got me thinking about how much I'll miss Bangkok after we leave. Benjakitti is a cool park in the center of the city. A large lake and running/biking paths all around.

It's an oasis of sorts, of course in the full sun, it was brutally hot. I tried my best to run in the shady spots.

Even at 8am, the sidewalks and streets of the city were busy.

Bangkok is a city that lives and breathes on its streets and as I ran past the various ice cream, chicken on a stick, pad thai vendors and other shops that were busy setting up, I was saddened to think about an article I had just read forecasting the demise of its street culture. It would seem that Bangkok is "cleaning up" its sidewalks and sidewalk woks in an attempt to "improve hygiene."

Pondering, I head to Lumphini Park. As I've written before, Lumphini Park was the  temporary home of anti-government protesters. Today though, all reminders of the conflict were gone as the park was replaced with joggers, tai-chi practitioners and a lovely man playing "When I'm Gone" on a harmonica connected to an amp as hids companion on the bench laughed and an old lady danced away.

When I'm Gone, indeed. The universe has a way of connecting to you when you're on a run. Luckily, I know that I have one more Bangkok trip in me before I head off and away to a new continent. For now, I'll keep my baht, I'll pack my shoes and I'll have at least one more run in my favorite urban playground. Pictures.

The thing about getting too nostalgic, of course, is the fact that one never knows what's going to happen in the future. Although it was 14 years ago that I left Northern Virginia for my around-the-world adventures, it wasn't long ago that Dr. A was sitting in my living room in New Delhi. The world works in mysterious ways.

RUN STATS:
Distance - 6.86 miles
Time - Around 70 minutes?

April 15, 2017 - For Heidi!

Today's run was sponsored by Heidi! Thanks so much for continuing to help fund the Ty Taylor Memorial Campship Endowment. We're getting so close to fully funding the endowment, I appreciate your help! Soon, YMCA Camp Miller will be able to send a deserving camper to camp for free every year in honor of an amazing man.

I'm so excited to write about this run! In most ways, it sums up exactly what running in Delhi has been all about for me over the past several years.

Heidi was kind enough to donate for the write up, thank you so much. It has been truly an honor getting to know her over the years. I'll confess though, when I first met her, I was a little intimidated and unsure about what it would be like hanging out with a parent and not just other teachers. I was bridging an unknown gap, going out of my comfort zone. Luckily, it was exceedingly easy to chat with her on runs and we've been doing it ever since. In fact, she's outlasted several teachers in our running group. If I'm not wrong, she holds the most seniority in the group! And she's by far the biggest recruiter of new runners. Due to her hard work, friendliness and ability to do what I can't, I've been able to meet several great people that didn't actually work with me. Chalk it up to another benefit of running. Thanks, friend.

Saturday's run had to have a theme, of course. Heidi has been along for all of the themed runs, the drawing routes, the (probably) dangerous runs and more. Always with a smile. So, it had to be the Round Buildings Run I put together in 2013.

Circles seem to be a theme in Delhi. Traffic circles are everywhere, markets are designed in circles, and several buildings in the heart of Lutyens' Delhi share the shape. To clarify, Edwin Lutyens along with Sir Hebert Baker, was the chief architect of the British Raj in the 1920s and 30s. He was responsible for shaping much of what is now known as New Delhi, the nerve center of the capital's government.

This eight mile route passes nearby to what is perhaps the most iconic round building in the capital - The Sansad Bhawan, or Parliament House. Lutyens' signature was combining local and traditional elements in his works. The Parliament is inspired by the Chakra Wheel, the symbol in the center of India's flag.

New Delhi's round post office, the Gole Dak Khanna, was built in 1934 by R.T. Russel, the same architect who later finished Connaught Place, Delhi's iconic round market. For an incredible glimpse into what the area was like, take the time to read this wonderful recounting of Lalit Nirula's growing up in CP.

The final round building inspired a bit of controversy during our excursion. Tempted to play tour guide, I talked about the main building of Gole Market. I mentioned its octagonal shape, making it in fact, not a round building. Quickly, Tim (a scientist!) piped up, "Are you sure? There seem to be more sides than that." Given that we could see four of them from our vantage point, I knew he was right.

 slyronit via Flickr

It was also designed by Lutyens and was the principal market area that served his Delhi. It was also the precursor to the more grandiose Connaught Place. Saturday's controversy isn't the only one surrounding this dodecagonal building, though. Over the years, tenants have fought and lost to keep their shops open as the building crumbled around them. A wonderful monument to the past it was supposed to be redone in 2009 as part of the build-up to the Commonwealth Games, but for now, it stands in ruins, victim to time and the political machine that Lutyens buildings call home.

RUN STATS:
Distance - 8.09 miles
Time - 1:12:54

April 14, 2017 - For Pat and Jack!

Today's run was sponsored by Pat and Jack! Thanks so much for continuing to help fund the Ty Taylor Memorial Campship Endowment. We're getting so close to fully funding the endowment, I appreciate your help! Soon, YMCA Camp Miller will be able to send a deserving camper to camp for free every year in honor of an amazing man.

Everyone else can get their dedicated run by clicking here and allocating the donation to the Ty Taylor Memorial Campship.

This year I've been thinking a lot about what my dedicated run posts will look like. It's the end of an era for me here in Delhi. Our family is leaving after nine years and we're heading on to Ghana in July. I'm also hoping we can bring closure to the fundraising that started so long ago. With those things in mind, I'm hoping to not only capture my waning moments in this amazing city, but also honor those of you who have continued to support me through the years.

So...

...Pat and Jack, you get my go-to route. It's the one I can always count on. Just like you. When I was lucky enough to have you become part of my life, I was immediately struck by how quickly you let me in and by how willing you both were to support me. I know that you'll always be ready to help, and for that, I'm eternally grateful. Thank you.

The go-to route is, of course, Nehru Park. We're lucky to have Nehru Park so close to campus. It's only a kilometer away, and it's a wonderful green respite in the craziness that can be India. In a lot of ways, Nehru is our Central Park, although it's only 1/10th of the size. On any given morning, there are people jogging, walking, doing yoga, playing cricket or otherwise enjoying some time for themselves.

For me, that's what a run in Nehru has been over the years. It's familiar. It's predictable. It's a time to go on autopilot and meditate on a morning run. Now that it's April, it's crowded at five o'clock, but in the winter, it's often dark and abandoned. It's a perfect time to unplug and recharge at the same time.

It's the painted reggae bridge, the Lenin statue, the fountain that was fixed for some reason last month and now flows with renewed energy and commitment. It's the contests from 2014 to be the fastest lap around. It's food festivals, three ancient temples and hidden idols.

It's Arlo zipping around on his bike, Amos and Kate and I following behind. It's comfortable. It's my backyard. It's home.




RUN STATS:

Distance - 6.16 miles
Time - 54:26
Temperature at 5:42am - 79°F

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April 3, 2017

Well, training has begun in earnest. And it's already hot in Delhi.

Granted, this was an afternoon run, but if it's a sign of things to come, this year's going to be a tough one for training. Speaking of training, I've decided on a pretty tough plan that I hope will help me to finish with a PR for the half marathon in June. Oh, and I'm starting at week 5 of the plan. And I was crazy tired and dehydrated from traveling this past weekend. Whee!

But, I ran. I ran because I know that this post was going to be a dedicated run because my friends are generous. So, this post is for ______. You can get a dedicated run by helping me finish my goal of raising $3000 to fully fund an endowment to give a campship to a needy camper at YMCA Camp Miller in memory of my friend, Ty Taylor. Just click here and donate, then let me know you did it - http://www.ymcacampmiller.org/donate/ty-taylor-campship-endowment/

The route was a quick Nehru Park four miles after school to make up for the long week of not running at all in Italy over our Spring Break. Granted, I was snowboarding almost every day, so it's not like I haven't been working out. Speaking of last week, here's a picture from the top of Courmayer!

Going from that to 100 degrees was a shock to the system to say the least. Here's looking forward to two more hot months of India running.

RUN STATS
Distance: 3.91 miles
Duration: 34:52
Time and Temp: 4:00pm, 100°F

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For Steadmans! - The Qutub 16 Miler

This run is dedicated to the Steadman family. Thanks for helping to build a base that will eventually provide a campship to a needy camper at YMCA Camp Miller in memory of Ty Taylor. Anyone else can get a dedicated run by donating here - http://www.ymcacampmiller.org/donate/ty-taylor-campship-endowment/

We had a three day weekend the last weekend of April and I was all set to run the Qutub Sixteen Miler on Friday with the faithful crew. However, the 5am wakeup call was accompanied by a round robin of cancellations. The AQI had taken a strange upsurge for April and nobody (including me) wanted to run in the terrible air.

Dejected and disappointed, I went back to bed. I moped around all day, cursing the various reasons why Delhi has the worst air in the world. The next morning, I woke up, checked the air and saw that it hadn't improved. Determined to boost my bad mood, I pulled my mask out of storage and set out on my own to conquer this long training run.

The Qutub route is a fun one. It heads out of Chanakyapuri, into Vasant Vihar and heads uphill (in Delhi!) to Sanjay Van. Sanjay Van is a continuation of the Delhi Ridge forest, and for better or worse, it has been carefully landscaped and manicured with wonderful running/walking trails. Sanjay Van is also the home of Qila Lal Kot, which is the historic "third city of Delhi." Over the course of the last 5000 years, it's said that Delhi and its boundaries have been the site of seven distinct and different cities.  Qila Lal Kot is now in ruins, but scrambling to the top of its rubble allows for amazing views of the forest and the surrounding city. It's also a cool place to watch planes coming in to Indira Ghandi International Airport.

Coming off the road in Sanjay Van is amazing. Everything is instantly quiet and relaxed. Almost idyllic. People are walking, running and playing in the park. There's a pond!

I ran in the park for a while, checking out the views and even a Sufi Tomb. They say Sanvay Van is haunted due to the high number of these tombs and its proximity to the Mehrauli ruins. 

The focal point of the Mehrauli ruins, the Qutub Minar was the destination for this run, so I eventually ran out of the park and posed for a selfie in front of the Qutub to send to Kate to let her know that I was okay. It was hot - almost 80 degrees and the air was bad.

After a photo shoot with the Qutub in the background, I headed home. It was a long tiring run, but it left me feeling very accomplished and glad that I had headed out despite the odds.

RUN STATS

Distance: 15.65 miles

Duration: 2:03:44

Soundtrack: Shuffle of the songs on my phone

For Michael! - Naked Guys, Car Crashes, Snakes and Wrong Turns

This run is for Michael! At a random discussion before work, my fundraising came up and he humbly reached into his wallet and donated without hesistating! Thanks a lot, I appreciate it. The Campship fund in memory of Ty Taylor is growing every day. Donate here - http://www.ymcacampmiller.org/donate/ty-taylor-campship-endowment/. 

The idea behind this run (and most of my runs, frankly), came from the desire to see a new part of town. I'm sure that idea would resonate with Michael, he's seen more of this city than I ever will.

We started out on familiar roads, headed toward India Gate. On the approach, we crossed a group of men walking down the sidewalk, escorting two completely naked men. It was likely that they were Digambara Jains, or possibly Naga sadhus. Each group focuses on attainment of their religious goals through asceticism taken to the extreme. No possessions means no clothes. 

I'm not quite sure what to make of what happened next. As we were crossing the street, an autorickshaw stopped to let us cross in front of him. While that in itself should have been the surprising thing (it never happens), it was what happened next which really shook me. As soon as the auto stopped, the car behind it smacked into it. After establishing that the drivers were okay and the damage was minimal, we continued on our way. Days of processing have left me at a point of confusion about systems thinking. I know we often present quite a sight in the streets of Delhi. While stark naked men may be passé, a group of foreigners running on sidewalks, streets, railroad tracks, etc., isn't. I had never considered us as potentially dangerous, I had only thought of us being in danger from cars, dogs, and worse.

And then, we saw this.

A man, asleep (we hope) on his motorcycle, parked in the middle of a four-lane highway. The traffic moved effortless around him. Thanks go to Adam for capturing the photo.

The goal of the day was to complete a long run (14 miles), visit Indraprastha Park, and see some new things. Less than five miles into the run and one of those goals had been accomplished in spades. The second goal was just around the corner. Running to Indraprastha Park is not ideal. You get there on busy roads. It's alongside the Ring Road, not far from the Yamuna. Without understanding exactly where in the city I was, I've seen the park from buses and cars several times but the green space it occupies on the map is conspicuous. The focal point of the park is a large Buddhist stupa.

The Stupa was envisioned as a symbol of enduring world peace and was dedicated in 2007 by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. It contains relics donated by him, The President of Sri Lanka, the President of Mongolia and the Prime Minister of Nepal.

Running to the park was eventful. Running in the park was quite nice. It was good to get off of the pavement and the park itself is quite big. But running out of the park...

The difficulties of the park's location became apparent as soon as we tried to get out. Like many parks in the city, there are few entrances/exits. We ran to the end of the park, met a wall and tried to shortcut out through a nursery. When no exit was in site, we turned around and Emma jumped into the air screaming. It was a snake. Add it to the list of things that could kill us on a run. NOTE: I'm just going ahead and assume it was a cobra. It couldn't possibly have been anything else.

The next section of the run was what I had feared it would be - along the edge of the Ring Road. It wasn't too long before we turned away from Delhi's most traffic-ridden artery. We did it at the Nizamuddin Railroad Station. At one point, I had dreams of crossing through the station over the pedestrian bridge, but after an a day of pushing the limits of my friends' trust, I decided not to. We quickly got lost, jumped a wall, turned around and found our way through the warren of alleyways in the railroad adjacent neighborhood. At one point, someone said that it was more intense that last weekend's Old Delhi run. They might have been right. An underground tunnel, a parade of rickshaws, the entrance to the station, hundreds of school kids, and then - Silence. Within 100 feet, we had gone from absolute craziness to complete serenity.

We had also lost almost of the group. Well, not lost, exactly. Much of the group that day isn't training for a big race like me, so they took off after 5, 7 or 10 miles. At the end, two of were left to run the remaining four miles home. It was hot, it was exhausting, it was a great accomplishment at the end of the route.

What a run!

RUN STATS

Distance: 14.43 miles

Duration: 2:12:08

Soundtrack: A collection of Prince albums, of course. RIP.

For Lynnea! - Lodi Garden

Lynnea is an old friend from Camp Miller. She was also close friends of Ty and she understands why raising the money for a recurring campship in his name is so important. If you want to see some crazy photos of her from back in our camp days, check out the Camp Miller Facebook Page. If you want to offer the opportunities that camp gave us to a lucky camper in the future, donate here - http://www.ymcacampmiller.org/donate/ty-taylor-campship-endowment/.  Thanks!

Lynnea's dedicated run is a 6.5 mile loop that is terrain well-trod for our running group. We left this morning at 5:10am and headed out for Lodi Garden. I've written about Lodi runs a few times in the past - read about them here and here. In a great coincidence, another Lodi run was dedicated to Julie, another former Miller counselor.

SIDE NOTE: The group that ran this morning is most of my core support group. Of the five us that went running, these are the ones that are almost always up at 5am, ready to run. Of the five of us that went running this morning, four will come across the finish line in Canal Park this June. And that's something that I'm really excited about. This summer, four of my Delhi friends are coming to stay at our summer house for the race! 3 of them will do the Bjorklund and 1 will do Grandma's with me. I love it when my world's overlap. Hosting this group at the house, going for a pontoon cruise, playing some bags or horseshoes, hanging out in Murphy's on the Lake is something that I can't wait to share. I'm proud of my little piece of America and I love these people, so I'm expecting a good time. For Saturday night. Friday night we have to be responsible. Spaghetti and water!

I have to say, I'd love to host a Camp reunion at the house too. What say you Miller alum?

Back to the run.

I took the opportunity to use today's run as a pace training run for the marathon. Luckily, my friends were up for it. We picked up our pace a bit and cruised out of school. We were to the park before we knew it. It's hot already and we noticed. On the way, we passed Safdarjung's Tomb.

We can't see this view, but here's a shot a took several years ago.

The park was cooler, the temps always drop in the shadows of the lush, leafy trees, and we were grateful. I had one of those moments in today's run where you look around and even though you've been there a million times, everything seems different. A slight change in light, or visiting at a different time of day and the path seems different. Strange.

Wikipedia reports that Lodi Garden houses buildings and tombs from the 15th century. In those times, small villages surrounded the tombs, but the villages were relocated in the 1930s in order to allow Lady Willingdon the opportunity to landscape the entire area into a park. After independence, the Park was renamed Lodi Garden in honor of the original architects of the monuments. Speaking of architects, Joseph Stein, the architect that designed buildings at our school, re-landscaped the park in the 1970s and included a greenhouse.

That greenhouse is the first thing we see on our loop of the park.

As we continue clockwise, we can just spy a glimpse of the Shisha Gumbad, which was originally covered in shiny blue tiles. You can just make them out in this photo I took in 2011 (to the left).

Below is a shot from inside the walls of the park's namesake, Sikander Lodi. It's a popular spot for family photos, including some of mine!



The next landmark on the route is the Athpula or "8 Piered Bridge." It was the last of the Mughal structures constructed in Delhi. We often run across it, not wondering why there is a bridge in the middle of a park, seemingly going over a lake. A guest of the eighth grade a few years ago that came to talk to the students about water explained to us that at one point in history, there was a waterway that connected Lodi's tomb to the Yamuna river which is at least 3-4 miles away.

The loop off of the bridge brings us around toward the main entrance of the park where the Bada Gumbad and attached mosque dominate the scenery. There are always large groups of people in the grassy lawns surrounding the Bara Gumbad and this morning was no exception. Lodi is a magnet for the city's early risers.

The final leg of the loop passes the last tomb in the park, that of Mohammed Shah, built in 1444. This is the first time that I've done any research on the buildings in the Garden. I've been too many times to count, but seeing that date gives me a new appreciation for our running route. Also, the morning light at Shah's tomb is always great. The photo of Mohammed Shah's tomb below is from a group run in August of 2015.

After that, it's back to the glasshouse and out of the park. Then we zipped home.

RUN STATS

Distance: 6.54 miles

Duration: 57:04

Soundtrack: Joan Shelly, Over and Even