May 15, 2017 - For Nicola and Amanda!

Today's run was sponsored by Nicola and Amanda! 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.

Running is many different things to many people. For some, it's about the workout. For others, it's about the social aspect of running with friends. Others run to explore, to meditate, to reach a goal, to grieve, to raise money... If you've read my blog, you know that I run for all of these reasons.

But when I left the house on Monday morning, it was with the sole intent of taking some time to think. I had a potentially difficult meeting coming up, and I needed to think carefully about how I was going to proceed. My legs went on autopilot as I began the Statues 3 Miler route. You can read about other runs on this route here, here, here, and here. My thoughts centered primarily around how the ability to change my perspective and take a fresh look at the path forward might help me. What were my objectives? How might I present that information? I went through several scenarios and soon arrived at the Salt March Statue. Wikipedia gives a good quick look at the Salt March, or Dandi March, but basically it's the story of how Gandhi initiated the literal march as an act of civil disobedience, and began the figurative march to Indian Independence. You can read more about the Gyarah Murti statue on the so.Delhi blog and take a look at a video here.

Typically, upon passing this statue (which happens frequently when I go running), I acknowledge Gandhi-ji with a wave, or a hand on my heart. On this day, I did something different. I stopped. I walked around to the back side for a fresh look. I took a break at the statue and thought about how he may have approached his tough decisions.

The moment was poignant, as I considered this leader, who set out on a journey to the sea to prove his point.

But I also considered the followers. Without their support, the trip wouldn't have made the same impact. His point would surely not have been heard by the British. It was their support which was needed. Gandhi had big ideas and passion and cared about independence, but he thought carefully about how to deliver the messages of his people. People who were widely varied as illustrated in Choudhary's sculpture.

In the end, the Mahatma succeeded in changing minds and inspiring hearts. Renewed in the belief that my meeting was going to go well because I was aided by talented collaborators and representing good people, I continued my run and came across the Teen Murti statue.

The three statues (Teen Murti literally means 3 statues) are arranged in an equilateral triangle. Acknowledging the ironic fact that I wouldn't be allowed to pause and reframe this statue from a new angle since they are all the same, I grinned at the universe and finished my run.

I'm choosing to thank Nicola and Amanda for this run, because they are both involved with me in different groups at school. I've been grateful to share their thinking and I'm appreciative of their desire to help me fund the Campship. As I prepare to leave AES, I'm so thankful for the opportunities I've had to be part of important work. And as I prepare to enter a new school, I'm thinking about what opportunities for sharing thinking I'll have. Which ideas will become important? Will I have a chance to be a leader? Or perhaps, most importantly, how can I be an enthusiastic and supportive follower?

RUN STATS:

Distance - 5.15 miles

Time - 46:27

Temp at 6:30am, 87°F

April 26, 2017 - For Melissa!

Today's run was sponsored by Melissa! 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 write-up is so late in coming that I'll actually dedicate two runs to Melissa. Thanks for your generosity, I appreciate it

The first run was actually in March!

Melissa, the generous donor behind this post, was visiting Delhi. As our incoming Middle School Assistant Principal, she was in town getting to know the school as part of the transition visit. When I heard that she was a runner, I couldn't resist the offer to play tour guide, so I volunteered myself to guide a morning run. Probably not fully knowing my history, she agreed. Since she was staying at the Claridges Hotel, I decide to take a loop around Nehru Park, meet her at her hotel, hit the tourist hotspots near the hotel and finish with a half lap of Lodhi Garden.

The run was an immediate introduction to urban Delhi running. Monkeys and dogs were our companions as we headed toward the Gandhi Smriti. The Gandhi Smriti is the location of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. It's now a flashy "high-tech" interactive museum and a taciturn preservation of his few possessions, his simple living quarters and an immortalization of his final footsteps. Gandhi was assassinated in the garden of the Birla House by a Hindu nationalist that opposed his stance on Pakistan and his doctrine of non-violence.

The spot where Gandhi-ji was killed. Notice the footprint, the path traces his last steps.

Flashy Interactive Museum!

And, oh yeah. We had tea with his granddaughter. (far right)

Our run continued past another commemorative site, the site of the assassination of another famous Gandhi (no relation), Indira. Indira Gandhi was the third Prime Minister of India and was actually the daughter of Jawarharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister (who's death site is just down the road from hers!). She was assassinated famously by Sikh bodyguards who were retaliating for Gandhi's ordering of Operation Blue Star in 1984. The house is also now a museum. I still haven't visited it, but writing this post reminds me that I only have a little time. I think I will make this a mission.

We continued running, chatting the whole time, discussing the relative merits and dangers of running in a mega-city. It was as we were crossing the street near Safdarjung's tomb when it happened. I came pretty close to getting hit by a bus. Granted, it was starting from a dead stop at a red light, but it was close enough to encourage me to have a quick discussion with the driver and to (probably) scare Melissa off from running in Delhi entirely! Tranquility was restored when we arrived to Lodhi and took a leisurely half-loop in the city's idyllic heart.

RUN STATS

Distance: 7.43 miles

Duration: 1:01:32

April 26, 2017

This was the run that Melissa actually sponsored, an early morning run after a night of wonderful rain! It managed to cool things off a little, but not much. I met Justin at the gate and we set off on an hour-long run where I thought I could show him some new spots and mix it up a little bit. The first hit on this route was the pedestrian over-bridge that crosses the train tracks near the Chanakyapuri Railway Station. To call this a station is a bit of an overstatement. It's really a platform. As you can see, the station itself looks like it hasn't been used in a while.

This run features a few up and overs. First the railroad tracks, then up and over the Ring Road. We continued on through what has been a rough patch in the past, but is now absolutely terrible. Tons of construction, ripped up roads, into bright headlights...and back to the Rao Tula Ram Marg and a dash across the Ring Road at ground level.

From there, I had the idea to try to "sneak in" the front gate of New Moti Bagh. I've never tried to go in the front gate, so I thought it would be worth a try. The guards greeted us with "Good mornings," as we passed through the gate and it was a success! We took a lap around this strange anomaly of a planned community with amphitheater, parking garages and private fruit and milk shops and headed out the back gate.

Then it was all business as we headed home. Running with Justin keeps me honest. He likes to run fast. I know I slow him down, but I like to think he likes the company.

RUN STATS

Distance: 7.23 miles

Duration: 1:01:04

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

Pour Lucie!

This run is for ma cher ami Lucie! Lucie is my colleague in the World Languages department and she ponied up for a donation to my fund raising cause. Like many of us, Lucie has lost loved ones and she jumped at the chance to honor Ty's memory in the form of a continuous campship in his name. Merci beaucoup, Lucie. If you'd like to help like Lucie did, please donate here.

Time was running out for dedicated runs in Delhi when Lucie's run came up. It was the second to last Delhi run for the school year!

The gang was back together for this run and when Keir arrived, we left it up to him to choose the route as a departing gift for the core of the running group. He wanted the Ridge, but Bernie and I quickly vetoed. I was wearing a pair of never-worn before shoes and Bernie didn't have his "Ridge" shoes on either. Oh well Keir, we still love you. (ps. It was also a ploy to get him out for another run the following day). Glad I was not running with the Hash House Harriers (they would have forced me to drink from my new shoes), we tried to think of an alternative.

Bernie suggested a route that passed the Gandhi Salt March Statue, which seemed like a fitting farewell for Keir and we were off.

Hot. Delhi is hot in May. That was the thought in my mind for the majority of the run. I've clocked hundreds of miles, but it's easy in May in Delhi to feel like you're getting weaker instead of stronger. I take water with me on all of my runs now, I struggle to keep up, and I eagerly anticipate the end of the run. My knee is still not perfect, so I can't even find inspiration in the competitive courses. I'm definitely not breaking myself trying to steal back the record on the Last Gasp course. Save yourselves!

Nothing major happened on this run. No real wildlife to speak of, no monkey attacks. Which is a good thing. My thoughts on the run were drifting to running in the US, where a run at just about any time of the day is doable. I can't wait!

This run belongs to Lucie!

I'm dedicating runs to raise money for a campship in memory of our friend Ty Taylor at YMCA Camp Miller. Click here or here to donate. Please make sure you choose the Ty Taylor Campship option. And please let me know if you've made a donation so I can thank you!

RUN STATS:

Distance - 5.03 miles
Time - 38:42
Soundtrack - Maybe - Metric, Old World Underground Where Are You Now? again? I haven't updated the music on my phone in a while and I can't remember what I played.

May 4, 2013

A Popular Spot on Our Runs!

Last year when I trained for my first half marathon, I fell in love with Google Maps and MapMyRun.com. I was organizing routes for the first time in my life based on distance, so I wanted to make sure I was actually going 2 miles, 3 miles, etc. One of my first routes was a 3 miler that ran past the Salt March statue of Gandhi leading India to the sea to stand up to the British tax on salt.

When it came time to plan longer routes, I immediately took a look to see how far the Gandhi Smriti was from school. I was thinking of making a Gandhi-themed run. Smriti is a word that is usually used in the sense of remembrance, and the Gandhi Smriti is now a museum. The 5.25 mile route that eventually grew out of this search has served as the foundation of all of my themed runs. It changed from a Gandhi run to a route that went past the final resting places of three of India's most well-known leaders. Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru all passed away in my neighborhood. Of course, these runs often lead to google sessions at home to learn more about each of these folks and what happened to them. The Mahatma was assassinated at Birla House, Indira Gandhi was killed by her bodyguards and Nehru died of natural causes.

Fast-foward to a few weeks ago. I was running with friends Scott and Melissa on a new road for me when we ran past the Lal Bahadur Shastri Smriti. How could it be that there was a Smriti that wasn't a part of my run? I made a mental note to go home, find it on the map and Google it for more information. What I found was very interesting. Nehru was India's first Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi was the third and Lal Bahadur Shastri was its second. He seems to have been widely liked and humble. He died poor, under mysterious circumstances in Tashkent. He had gone to negotiate a cease-fire with Pakistan and after successfully doing that, he died of a heart attack. Some Indians allege foul play, and in accordance there are several conspiracy theory supporting details. No post-mortem was conducted, the government has no official death records, etc. I knew that this had to become a feature of my all-new Smriti run! I added it to the old route, extending it by a mile and the Smriti 6.25 Miler was born.

On May 4, greeted by Scott and Melissa once again, I offered the new route for our Saturday run. Six and change was agreeable to all and we set off. Adding to the challenge of remembering a new route, we had decided to run it backwards! By the way, this is a great way to avoid route fatigue. The run was progressing very well. There were peacocks all along the route. They were on walls, on the British era bungalow roofs, along the road, everywhere. Things in my  peacock call-induced zone out were beautiful until I was shocked back into reality when I almost touched a macaque. I was running along the sidewalk, minding my own business when I glanced to my right and a two foot tall macaque was approximately six inches away. Knowing that these aren't cute, fun monkeys like the ones in the movies, I give it a calm-assertive, Cesar Milan "tsh-tsh" to let it know that I wasn't afraid (I was) and to let it know that it should move out of my way (it didn't). Instead, it bared fangs, hissed and maybe swung at me. The split-second that this whole process had been slowly taking was interrupted by a scream from behind me, two hands on my shoulders and a jump over the bushes into the street. Scott evidently didn't trust my "tsh tsh." We were both scared crazy and the adrenaline had us running the next half mile a bit quicker.

When we got home, we had a story. I marched up to the apartment to tell it and log then run. That's when I noticed that I had cut out the Gandhi Smriti when I had extended the original 5.25 to 6.25 miles. Now it's time to figure out how to double back to Gandhi while still visiting Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and Nehru. The Smriti 7 miler? 7.5 Miler? ...and come to think of it, I know where the grave of Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, the fifth president of India is.  This route seems to be getting pretty long. Smriti 10 Miler anyone?

RUN STATS:

Distance - 6.25 miles

Time - 1:07:27

Soundtrack - More Beastie Boys (time to switch up the Shuffle)