For (Newly Retired) Uncle Joe - The Squirrel Run

When I got the email showing me that Sandy and Joe had donated to the Ty Taylor Campship fund - http://www.ymcacampmiller.org/donate/ty-taylor-campship-endowment/, and Sandy asked for a dedication to Joe's new retirement, I knew I had a run for him.

The Squirrel 5 Miler.

I figure old retired guys must spend a lot of time on the porch in their rocking chairs watching the squirrels, right? Or feeding them? Or rigging up electric perches to shock the hell out them when they try to get all of the birdseed from the feeder?

In any case, this run is for my Uncle Joe! If you'd like a dedicated run, donate to the cause and help kids go to camp in the name of a dear friend.

The run started just after 5am, with my frequent running partner, Scott. He normally prefers a different 5 miler, (The Scott W 5 Miler, his name for it, not mine) but he was willing to cooperate in the dedicated run with me. One interesting thing about Scott, is that he hates street dogs. A lot. Because, you know, rabies...It was only a short time into our run when the first ones appeared and may or may not have made a move toward him. The cursing began, primarily directed at the dogs, but also at me (under his breath).

His tolerance of my routes continued as I coaxed him onto the dark path that runs along a sewage canal storm drain (not too stinky today, btw). More dogs, more cursing, increased pace.

As we turned left to begin the squirrel's head (about 1.5 miles in), we noticed monkeys. "Monkeys on your right!" Scott yelled. I weaved left. "And on your left!" I screeched to a halt just as a steady stream of monkey urine poured out of the tree above me. I turned around fully expecting what I was about to hear. I conceded to Scott's (reasonable) insistence to skip that section. So, Uncle Joe, you get a squirrel with half a head (see below).

We stuck it out and continued to the second dark path along the same sewage canal storm drain. No dogs, but I did have to slam on the brakes again as I almost ran smack into a makeshift clothesline right at my eye-level. Whether Scott thought I was attacked by a dog, or urinated on by a monkey, I'm not sure. What is certain is that there was more cursing. And maybe some urine, but not from a monkey.

The rest of the run was uneventful. I'm hoping my Crip Road runs will be less exciting when I get back to the lake this summer to celebrate with my wonderful aunt and uncle. Thanks for the donation!

RUN STATS

Distance: 5.05 miles

Duration: 46:09

Temperature: 68 degrees at 5:58am

Soundtrack: Midnight Marauders-Tribe Called Quest (RIP Phife Dog)

For Pat and Jack! - West Delhi 9 Miler

Thanks to the generosity of Pat and Jack, aka the in-laws, the 2016 fundraising drive has begun!

As part of my training  for Grandma's Marathon I am hoping my friends will help with donations to a fund that I helped to create after the sudden and unexpected death of a friend. Camp Miller Duluth YMCA is working to create a yearly campship in honor of Ty Taylor, but needs more funding.

With your donation, you get a dedicated training run and the corresponding write-up on this blog. Thanks for your generosity and encouragement as I gear up to run the 40th anniversary in my 40th year of life!

Readers, follow Pat and Jack's example - Donate here - http://www.ymcacampmiller.org/donate/ty-taylor-campship-endowment/ Let me know that you've donated and I'll write up your run!

The Run: West Delhi 9 Miler
The Inspiration: A book and my "coverage map"

Today's run was inspired by a wonderful book about Delhi called Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity, by Sam Miller. In it, Miller walks a spiral through Delhi, starting at Connaught Place. He writes about the things he sees and the people he meets. In many ways, Miller and I are kindred spirits, as this is what I do when I run. I plan routes to areas that are new to me, areas that expose the best and worst of the city, the old and the new. When I first began to write this blog, Miller's book served as a bit of inspiration.

Here's a video of him talking about the book.

Chapter Nine introduced me to West Delhi, and the Pacific Mall. This location has resonated for many reasons, not the least of which was Miller's description. When the book was written in 2008, malls were not a new concept in Delhi, but they were certainly more novel than they are now. The Pacific Mall was a particular novelty due to the fact that, according to Miller, it was a symbol of the abrupt turn to conspicuous wealth of the Delhites. West Delhi is not exactly the first choice for the wealthy capital dwellers, but the fact that they were getting a mall signaled the shift.

I'm also intrigued by West Delhi, as it takes me out of the New Delhi Municipal Council Area and on to new roads. I'm on a quest to cover as much ground as I can. See my post about coverage here.

It could have been a fairly typical Delhi run, but I was joined by a new member of the AES Running Group for the run. Melissa has been in Delhi for two weeks, and was indoctrinated into my madness with a trial by fire. My warning in email said, "Could be gnarly. Could be amazing. No promises. :) It will definitely be a different route than usual." Her reply, "Duly warned." It seemed like she was up for anything, and we set out at 6am for the run.

We left school and cut through the ridge where we were able to talk about the dangers of monkeys while running in Delhi. We turned right and headed along the NH-8 where we were able to talk about the danger of being run over while running in Delhi. We turned left, made two wrong turns and talked about the dangers of getting lost while running in Delhi. At this point, I realized that I was probably monopolizing the conversation, so I asked the only question that made sense given that Melissa had turned up to run a 9 miler with no hesitation and also that we were cruising - "So you're pretty into running?" I'll paraphrase her reply. "I'm just getting back into it, but normally I run marathons in mountains and average about 60 miles a week." That put her strength into perspective for me, so I stopped worrying about whether or not she was worried about the "dangers" of running in Delhi.

So we ran. Along Patel road (a major artery), we saw temples (photo below), a tiny library in a roundabout, paperboys preparing their stacks for delivery, and people cooking and eating delicious-smelling breakfast. In an effort to avoid running over a flyover, we attempted to run under it. After crossing railroad tracks we were faced with a ten foot wall covered in barbed wire. But then I spied the stairs. They were half crumbled away and they led directly to the top of the overpass. We were forced to run down the overpass, dodging bikes, motorcycles and cars. We made it and decided to NOT run along the Najafgarh Drain, Delhi's most polluted water body. We did take the next left and eventually twisted and turned our way through the neighborhood of Rajouri Garden, with a purposeful detour on Magoo Road. Heh. Magoo. The final turn brought us to the final super busy thoroughfare, but we were able to run along access roads for most of it. The views along this road approaching the mall, brought to mind Miller's recounting of his walk under the Delhi Metro's Blue Line. Restaurants proclaiming to be Western! and a building with a Pegasus bursting out of it were highlights.

Finally, we arrived at the Pacific Mall. We took a selfie, hailed an autorickshaw and cruised back to school in style. It was a great run with great company and I saw a whole new section of Delhi that looks a lot like other sections of Delhi.

RUN STATS

Distance: 9.27 miles

Duration: 1:16:26

Temperature: About 80 degrees by the time we finished

Soundtrack: A Tribe Called Quest (RIP Phife Dog)

The Platform 9 3/4 KM Virtual Race! (or, we are really nerdy runners)

Well, we did it.  The AES Runners converged at Gate 2 of our fine school to engage in a "virtual race" that simulates  taking a fictitious trip to a fake train platform, in order to board a fake train that would take us to a fake school. In a book. That became a movie.

That's right, we did the Hogwarts Running Club Platform 9 3/4 KM virtual race. It's a way to raise money for various charities, encouraging running, and offering the opportunity for crazy oldies like us to plan a thematic run, spout Harry Potter quotes, and otherwise act like giddy young kids on a Saturday morning.

I couldn't resist the temptation to plan a route that was a) exactly 9.75km and b) Harry Potter-Honoring. As this race was honoring the magical platform at King's Cross Station, I knew I had to include the platform at Safdarjung Station. Getting there, I figured we'd do a bit of drawing in the Chanakyapuri grid and pass the Train Museum as an added bonus. I immediately crafted the route and hid it as private on MapMyRun so BludgerNimbus couldn't find it and spoil the surprise.

When we met at 6am on September 5th, I had to scan the crowd to see who had read my email and knew what they were getting into:

Evan and I are running the super-secret Hogwarts Running Club Platform 9 3/4 km run.

You are free to join us, but be aware! There will be significant backtracking and possible Dark Arts at work.

Seeing the trepidation in the eyes of the new members of the group, I hoped they wouldn't mutiny. Analyzing the eye-rolls of the veterans, I quickly calculated the risks, began the run and almost immediately stopped for a selfie.

While not strictly a Flying Ford Anglia, an Ambassador would make a cool ride to Hogwarts...

The stress of leading the run, drawing the map correctly and chatting with Bernie led to several groans from the group as we immediately u-turned from the Ambassador and headed into the grid. Another u-turn, more groans. Also, lots of Harry Potter quotes. I was so intent on getting the route right, that I was convinced we made a wrong turn, cursed myself out (while anticipating a Cruciatis Curse from another runner). To compensate, I went the wrong way, realized it again and made a third u-turn. We had gone a mile total, but we were only 1/4 of a mile from our starting point.

Apologies offered, we headed out and made all of the turns. After running almost half of our total distance we were on the way to the station. We arrived to greet two security guards with "good mornings" and "namastes" and entered my absolutely favorite secret back-door in Delhi. From there, it's up and over the pedestrian bridge to the station. The only thing stopping us was a monkey. Sitting dead-center in the middle of the stairs. I bravely (barely) convinced myself and the group that it wasn't a Dementor,  but that it was actually my Patronus.

We managed to cross the platform, take some great shots of people using Platform 9 3/4 and ran it back home. We compensated some new turns to make the distance and finished happy. The overall response of the runners has assured me that they enjoyed my shenanigans and just might join me on another run in this fine city!

Keep going for pics and the map!

RUN STATS:

Distance - 9.75 km

Time - 59:19

Soundtrack - Mostly friendly ribbing from friends, also the Entourage Soundtrack

For Faze!

The donations have poured in over the past two days, and I'm determined to give each of my generous and supportive donators a dedicated run. My plan was to do it in the order they came in, but today something special happened and I had to switch gears.

One donation came with a request - "think goats, negative splits, and a Ty inspired playlist"

I wasn't planning on dedicating this run to Faze, but when I saw this, I knew I had to whip out my camera and change my dedication plan.

Look Faze. Goats!

Sorry, the playlist wasn't Ty-inspired, but one will be soon; it's a great idea.  Splits? Again, I wasn't planning on this being your run, but they came close-ish to negative splits.

Except for that ugly Mile 4 - almost fully negative splits.

Faze's request for negative splits may very well be due to the fact that like Jess, she's a member of Team Tinto. Remember, Team Tinto - "Kiss my shiraz!" Stay tuned to the blog in July for Fueled by Fine Wine 1/2 Marathon updates.

The run today was a five miler variation of the Dhobi run. A dhobi is a launderer and this run passes through a dhobi colony near school. The dhobis live together, collect laundry from their clients, head back to the colony and wash, dry and iron the clothes. If you get there at the right time of day, the run passes through hundreds of meters of clothes drying on the lines. It's a cool sight.

Ted joined me and we had a good strong run. Yesterday, Ted broke the Nehru Loop record. By a lot. It's going to be tough to beat. I'll keep my word from May 13's pledge post, though. Give me a good pledge and I will do everything I can to break the record to collect the pledge from you! Although Ted is tall, strong and fast, he's not a big fan of monkeys. In fact, they might be his only kryptonite. He has requested no monkeys on all runs, but today as we were passing one on my side, Ted started edging me toward it. Thinking he was just being cruel, I let him know that I wasn't too keen on getting that close. That's when he informed me (looking straight ahead) that it was because of the two monkeys on his side. "Be brave, be brave..." Narrowly escaping rabies, we continued on. The next animal encounter was with a dog that tried barking at us, but sounded like it had been smoking cigarettes all night long. He just wasn't selling it.

The final stretch home is another course and Ted managed to break that record too. You know, maybe I shouldn't have taught Ted about MapMyRun courses...or maybe I need to pick up the pace and take some records back. Challenge accepted. I'll consider it Team Tinto interval training.

This run belongs to my dear friend Faze!

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 - 4.98 miles
Time - 38:39
Soundtrack - Architecture in Helsinki, In Case We Die

One more animal reference (what's the deal with all of the wildlife in the city?) - today's run might be retooled into a route that becomes called the Squirrel ___ Miler. See for yourself.

Running for  a Reason 2014 Official Partner

For Anja!

Yesterday's run is for Anja. She sponsored this 4 mile training run, so I'm writing it up. You can inspire me to run more and write more just like Anja did by donating here.

I was lucky enough to be joined by my friend Jess on the run. It was the first official "Team Tinto" sub-continental training run! A group of old friends are running a half marathon this July in Oregon wine country. "We've got legs."  Get it? And yes, this 1/2 is in addition to my full marathon in June.

As we left school, turned left and Jess said, "I've never gone this way!" I realized that I had chosen kind of a funny(?) run for us. I created it in August of 2012 and wrote the following description:

A scary route with lots of monkeys (Simon Bolivar Marg) and too much traffic (Upper Ridge Road). I probably wouldn't do it again.

And I didn't. Until April of 2013. Then again yesterday. It's not a great route, but I feel like I need to defend it. Given my recent experience with monkeys, it's not as if this is the most dangerous monkey route. In fact, today there was only one monkey in the road. Normally, there are more, especially when devotees of Hanuman, the monkey god, drive through feeding them bananas. Which brings me to the first funny(?) moment of the run. There was a guy selling bananas on the side of the road, but the monkeys weren't mobbing him. Whenever I see a car creeping along the street, passing out bananas, the monkeys can't get enough. They're practically rolling the car and setting it on fire to get one more hit. But this guy was chilled out, no stress. I wanted to camp out on the side of the road and learn his secrets.

Speaking of camped out on the side the road, the next funny(?) moment was on the traffic-y part of the run. The Upper Ridge Road dead ends at Dhaula Khan, a major cloverleaf connected the NH8 highway and the Ring Road. As such, there's a fair bit of road traffic (buses, cargo trucks, commuters) on the road. Evidently, one of the things those drivers love is coconuts. There are at least 2 different semi-permanent coconut booths set up along the one mile stretch of road. As we ran past observing the detritus of the roadside coconut business (100 meters of plastic straws and coconut shells), I noticed a guy sleeping under a mosquito net next to his stand. I turned to Jess and said, "Whoa, that's intense." And then I realized that the guy was in a tent.

Other Notes:  Dismayed with previous attempts to find a road to cut through the Ridge, I was on the lookout for a road into Dhaula Khan Enclave. I found a gated entrance that can probably be breezed through, ala Wednesday's run. I think there might be some nice possibilities for routes there...I also noticed a railroad station that I've never noticed before (Sardar Patel Station).

The last two miles don't feature any monkeys or irregular traffic, so there's not too much to report.

Except for this:

Jess is an absolute beast at running negative splits. Look at those beauties! There's almost a one and a half minute difference between the first and last mile. It's truly a thing to behold. I am worthless at running negative splits. I usually start too hot and pay for it later. Magical. Truly magical.

This run belongs to Anja with a shout out to Jess!

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 - 3.98 miles
Time - 38:21
Soundtrack - Dead End Friends, Something for the Kids. This is my cousin's straight up rock and roll band. Check them out, buy the album, support the scene, man.

Running for a Reason 2014 Official Partner

For Sara!

Today's run is dedicated to Sara Taylor. Ty's widow. Her husband was an inspiration to me and now she's inspired me to run and write. I wanted to do a special run for her and I think today's run was just that.

"There are times when fear is good.

It must keep its watchful place at

the heart's controls."

~Aeschylus

What is it about fear? We seem to spend an inordinate amount of time avoiding it, talking about it, hiding it and overcoming it.

Over the weekend, I was in Bangkok. The four miler I ran took me through Lumphini Park, the home of anti-Thai government protestors. As I was nearing the park, I wasn't sure what to expect and fear started creeping in. What would happen in the park? Would people see me as an outsider and resent my presence? Would I even make it into the park? I had read about a running group that switched their weekend runs to another park. Was it because they were afraid to be in the park? It turned out fine, pleasant, in fact. In that case my fear was unwarranted and I felt silly. I was also scheduled for a 12 miler during my stay in Thailand. I mapped it out on MapMyRun and obsessed over it for at least three days. I planned it, visualized the turns, reviewed the map, counted lefts and rights, counted bridges, memorized landmarks and proceeded to avoid the run. The first day, I had a six am wake-up call, answered it, got up and didn't run. Why? I was afraid. Afraid I'd miss a turn, afraid I'd get lost, afraid I'd be lonely, etc., etc.  The next day, I put out an appeal for donations and reset for the next day. Again, I woke up early. I got dressed in my running clothes. I was ready to go, but something was keeping me back. I couldn't get past the fear of the unknown. 

I was bummed that I couldn't summon the courage to run, but resigned myself to the fact that it was okay. There are bumps in the road. Like Aeschylus says in the quotation above, sometimes fear is warranted. Maybe I saved myself from something terrible. Or maybe I just wimped out. When I got back to Delhi, I checked my email and found out that Sara had donated. I was devastated. I felt like I had let her down big time by not running what might have been a special Bangkok run, with lots to do and see.

Then I proceeded to not run for two more days because the boy child was not cooperating. Sleep, it seems was not important to him.

Today, I got back on the road, hoping that something interesting would happen. Today is election day in Delhi, so I planned a run that would take me past the current Prime Minister's house and the Presidential Palace. A friend had made a similar run the day before and said she ran past hundreds of police, keeping the peace. I saw the parallel to my Lumphini Park run and thought it might provide interesting fodder for today's run.

The run started innocently enough. About two minutes into the run I watched two guys with a stick scaring a monkey out of a tree, trying to send him back across the street into the Ridge. They often come and terrorize homes near the Ridge, so this seemed "normal" to me as I continued my run. A right-hand turn at the Salt March statue and I thought I'd be entering the martial law described to me the day before. Not a single police officer was in sight. I turned toward the Presidential Palace and after another right-hand turn - FEAR. Real fear set in. Monkeys were stretched across the entire street. On  a good day, I can summon up enough courage to run past monkeys, but today something was different. As I tried to "tsk-tsk" enough monkeys out of the way to create a channel to run through, I was four or five monkeys deep. I had drifted from the curb to the middle of the street with monkeys on both sides. That's when the big, ugly dude dead center turned to me, hissed and bared his fangs. 

I stopped running. I took a breath. I remembered that alpha animals sense fear and attack weakness. I tried to stay calm. I tried to be tough. Then he started moving toward me. Then two of his big, ugly friends joined him. I walked backwards faster. I almost tripped over their buddy, who had came up on my left-hand blindspot. I tried to go alpha with a loud yell.

It worked. A little. I gained enough space to at least turn around, abandon my route and recoup. Just then, a guy came up on a motorcycle, turned it off in the middle of the street and took a look at the monkeys. After planning his route, he turned his bike back on. He looked at me and I asked in my best pantomime if he would take me through. He said, "Of course." I hopped on and we made it through.

Wimpy? Maybe, but in this case I think Aeschylus hit it right on the head. There are times to conquer your fears and other times when you must let your fear guide you safely through a troop of monkeys.

So, what is it about fear? How can we learn to trust it when we need to, but not dissuade us from growing? Maybe there's a lesson to be learned in this run. Perhaps we can mitigate our fear of fear by taking it one step at a time, like training for a marathon, by asking for help and by putting faith in the hope that the outcome will leave us better than before.

ps. After The Monkeys I saw a Navy officer polishing a brass cannon and a guy on a bicycle in a t-shirt and track pants. With an assault rifle. Incredible India!

pps. If you zoom in on the map below, you can see the moment of The Monkeys on Dalhousie Road just after Mile 2. Look for the backtrack!

This run belongs to Sara! Thanks for everything.

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 - 5.13 miles
Time - 39:37
Soundtrack - Beastie Boys, Root Down EP and Some Old Bullshit

For Auntie Sandy

Today's run was for my dear Auntie Sandy! It was designed for her for three reasons:

1. She donated. If you do it too, you get a run.
2. As she is a lover of the great outdoors, I left the city streets and headed into the Ridge.
3. Because she's trapped in the frozen north, this was a special run in the heat of the emerging Delhi summer. Maybe some of the heat will make its way to the Northland.

As you can see it's getting warm here in Delhi. It seems to be a bit late this year, which is nice. Knowing that I have over 2 months of training left before I head to Minnesota isn't as nice. Obviously, running in the heat isn't ideal; that's why I usually run at 6am.

However, a 6am run wasn't in my stars this morning. The boy is getting very close to being able to sleep through the night and the past several nights have been great nights of sleep for all of us. Last night was a struggle, with a good chunk of awake time from 4-5:20am. That meant 20 minutes of sleep and a run, or an hour and a half of sleep and sanity. I opted for sanity.

I was able to shift my run to the afternoon, so I headed out for the Ridge 5 Miler. I've written about the Ridge before on this blog. See my first Ridge post here. Today's run was not nearly as dramatic as that one. Thankfully.

As I entered the Ridge today, I was overcome with that distinct scent that can only be a dead animal. I couldn't see it, but it couldn't have been far. The next sight was a huge macaque. They can be terrifying and unpredictable. The road into the Ridge is usually covered with them and so far they haven't attacked me, but I hate running past them.

After passing the gauntlet, the next sight is a small Sufi temple. From there, it's off the road and into the woods. I was hoping to see something really cool to write about, but there was nothing too crazy. A giant cow, a few creepy dudes and a bunch of peacocks. Rumor has it that the largest Asian antelope, the Nilgai has been seen in the Ridge. I would love to see it.

The run was tough. It was hot, fast and my legs were dead. But, it's five more miles done! To date in 2014, I've run over 220 miles, so I'll well on pace to reach my goal of 800 miles this year.

This run belongs to Sandy! Thanks for helping out!

I'm dedicating runs to raise money for a campship in memory of my 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 - 4.98 miles
Time - 37:09 (my fastest time on this route!)
Soundtrack - Hip Hop Shuffle. Some real gems including Microphone Fiend by Erick B and Rakim and Rockin' It by the Fearless Four!

Running Into the Unknown

“Mistah Kurtz - he dead.”

This one was for Keir, my dedicated running partner who always keeps me going and Marianna, a generous colleague.

On today’s run, I felt like the protagonist of Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.” Like Marlow, I was heading into the unknown, the dark spooky jungle. I ran The Ridge alone this morning, for the first time. There’s a sense of foreboding when running The Ridge, because the entrance is lined with a gauntlet of monkeys. They set the tone for your attitude while on the run. If they’re gone, it’s a peaceful day in the woods. If they let you pass, you’re on edge and anxious. If they come at you...

Today, it was a successful negotiation of the monkey labyrinth and the accompanying anxiousness. After passing through the gauntlet, I entered the ridge forest. Questions immediately began flooding my mind. “Will I remember the turns?” “Will I get lost?” “Will I be attacked by wild beasts?”  I should have been enjoying the respite from the Delhi concrete, but instead I was overcome with doubt and fear of the unknown. I was watching each corner carefully, waiting for monkeys, cows or bandits to jump out at me and leave me like Kurtz. The fact that the ridge is a wild jungle-like setting didn’t help calm me down.

As I ran along thinking about Conrad, Kurtz, and Marlon Brando in “Apocalypse Now,” I started analyzing my fear. I had no reason to be afraid of The Ridge, but the very fact that it was unknown to me made me nervous and afraid. We tend to fear the unknown. Meditating on the fear of the unknown, with my annual departure from Delhi three days away, I started thinking of my previous trip out of Delhi. It was November and we were heading home to deliver the twins. We had no idea what was in store for us, but we were anxious. We knew it would be difficult. We knew it wouldn’t be easy. We knew we were coming up on the hardest times in our lives, but we had no idea what that would mean. Every day we headed further up the river, into the heart of the unknown but instead of finding a “hollow man,” we found ourselves. We made it through and out the other side. I wondered  what this next trip home would yield for us. I knew that the grieving process would begin anew, when we gathered with family and friends that we haven’t grieved with yet. I knew that returning to the lake with one fewer child than we had planned on the previous summer wouldn’t be easy. I ruminated on all of this while running the ridge alone. Every step brought me one step further and I found the right turns, avoided the imaginary demons in the bushes and made it out unscathed. I was sure the same could be said for a trip home to Minnesota.

The soundtrack for the day was intentionally the new John Denver tribute album, “The Music is You.” A nice country album for a run in the woods, I thought. Unintentional though, was the last song I heard as I emerged in one piece from The Ridge - “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” Indeed, I was leaving on a jet plane. A jet plane that would bring me and my family home and into the unknown yet again.

A video about the ridge - https://vimeo.com/110863559

RUN STATS
Distance - 5 MilesTime - 42:42 
Soundtrack - Various Artists, The Music is You: A Tribute to John Denver

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)