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 27, 2013

Only four more days of school! Then it’s back home to Minnesota. In celebration of that trip, the run today is dedicated to Aunt Sandy and Uncle Joe. Can’t wait to see you soon! Also, thanks to Heather, my first race photographer. She was there for my first 5K as part of a team triathlon at our school in Seoul. Today’s run was a 5 miler with Keir. Thanks for running with me yet again, friend. It always helps to have you along for the company. Today we ran a familiar five for me, but it was the first time Keir had run it. I decided to run it backwards to see if it would cure my desire for new routes.

The run was a typically Delhi run. It was hot, humid and seemed like it would never end.  The route is essentially a big loop, so there’s not of variety on the run. Hence, the backwards path today. Two crossings of the ring road, once in the street and once on a pedestrian bridge. Other than a major turf war being fought by two rival dog gangs, there was not too much to report. The end of the year is coming soon and cooler climes will prevail soon!

RUN STATS:Distance - 6.5 MilesTime - 40:39Soundtrack - The Fugees, The Score

Another Crazy Idea

I sent out a request for donations that would put me past $1000 in my fundraising and within minutes two sets of wonderful friends stepped up to help out. Thanks for your gifts, Matt & Skye and The Gregors. It really puts me in awe that so many friends are willing to help out with Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. The organization was so helpful to our family, and the ability to repay some of that kindness means a lot to us. Thank you.

In order to live up to the challenge of passing 1K, I conspired to offer up another of my crazy ideas for a run. Over the past two years, I've grown a reputation for dreaming up crazy runs and somehow convincing people to join me on them! Some of them have been themed (The Railroad Run, The Embassies of the Countries I've Visited Run), some have been pictographic (The Star Run) and others have revolved around my desire to explore (How about a run to see the Hanuman Temple that's made of an 80 foot cement monkey? A 1/2 marathon to Old Delhi and Back? Okay? Let's go!). It was in this vein that I convinced Liz to join me on an exploratory run to Haus Khaz Village and back.

These are some of my most favorite runs in Delhi, or really anywhere. I sit down on MapMyRun, look around for cool stuff and plan routes that:

A: are actually on roads that are "supposed" to be there.
B: are not "dangerous" due to lack of aforementioned roads.
C: not too twisty turny so I can remember the route as we run.

Amazingly (and out of character for most of my crazy ideas for runs), Sunday's was a smashing success. The route to Haus Khaz was easy and except for one small missed entrance to Deer Park, the route went as planned.

Haus Khaz has enjoyed the ups and downs of gentrification. Although it is almost 800 years old, the modern history of the village is what draws most of its visitors. The ruins of the mosque, the reservoir and the madrasa are wonderful archeological sites, but the hip cafes, restaurants and art galleries are what the Delhi elite and expats are coming for. The ruins almost seem like a quaint afterthought. Like any good neighborhood, Haus Khaz became too cool for the cool kids and other, trendier neighborhoods are taking its place. But it wasn't the cafes and galleries I was looking for on Sunday, it was Deer Park. This expansive park would lend itself well to adding miles to a run that is no further than Lodi Garden. The thing about this run, though is the fact that it goes the other way! Most of our runs head east and north, but this one bears almost straight south. There's plenty to see on the way to Deer Park, including a run through the sleepy Netaji Nagar neighborhood, a dodgy Ring Road crossing and a bad stretch on Africa Avenue (crazy ideas, right?).

The arrival to Deer Park, though had me thinking other thoughts. We entered through the Commonwealth Games tennis complex and I was instantly amazed by how nice Deer Park was! There were large lawns, manicured trails and a nice path around the reservoir. If you squinted just right, it was reminiscent of a nice city park in Orlando or another urban area. It was still Delhi, though. The pack of street dogs that chased away an interloper into their territory, the creepers and the unnatural green color of the water told us that. But for here, nice. And for a new route that creates possibilities for more diversity in runs, really nice!

We tried to get from the reservoir up to the madrasa and the ruins, but all of the gates are barred and locked, so we explored a bit for a path out and into Haus Khaz. Eventually we found it, found the next segment and ran along the deer enclosure. Plenty of people were feeding the animals and we cruised past and came out of the park right where I thought we were going to. Success! The crazy route planning worked. I love it when that happens.

The rest of the run was along a busy road and back across the Ring Road and into Sarojini Nagar. We took a pit stop to replace some sweat with Lime Soda, which was much needed after a late night on Saturday. From there it was a few miles left to get home. After a bit more running, we decided that we had had enough adventures for the day and we hopped into an autorickshaw for a quick ride home.

Thanks for joining me Liz and supporting my crazy ideas!

If you want to support more crazy ideas, please donate to keep me running!

https://www.coloradogives.org/forellis

RUN STATS:

Distance - 7.57 miles

Time - 1:18:11

Temp at 6am - Hot. Damn hot.

Soundtrack - De la Soul, 3 Feet High and Rising.

May 25, 2013

Saturday's run was sponsored by Melissa and Scott! Thanks a million. Your donation is well-appreciated.

It's appropriate that this run was sponsored by Melissa and Scott because it was the three of us that went for  a run on Saturday. I've had a standing appointment to run with any and all comers this year as I've been training and Melissa and Scott have shown up for several. When I saw their names appear on the fundraising site Friday night, I wasn't surprised. They're very generous friends and we've become closer over the years through the heat, the sweat and the numerous miles.

We headed out for a nice 6.5 Miler, the Lodi Garden run. Lodi Garden is a favorite run for many of us, due to the shade, the wonderful monuments and the people watching. If you live in or near New Delhi and you're interested in a morning walk, jog or laughing yoga, this is the place for you. It can be a lot of fun to run to the park and see all of the people. Saturday was no exception. There seemed to be more people than usual, and finding room to run on the jogging track wasn't easy. No laughers this time, but there were plenty of people doing yoga-in groups, alone or just simply taking a moment to do a simple sun salutation. By the way, this is rapidly becoming one of favorite things to see on my morning jog. A faithful Delhite steps out of the shadows into the sunlight, brings his or her hands together in the namaste and takes a moment. At times, it can be magical. The ancient ruins of Lodi Garden make it even more spectacular. There's something that's so reaffirming about watching someone take a moment to give reverence to something that most of us take for granted. The sun for example. Or a tree.

Saturday's run was a good training run for all of us. Melissa and Scott will be running a half marathon in Milwaukee this summer. The pace was good and the weather wasn't too nasty.

As always, help if you can!

https://www.coloradogives.org/forellis

Here are a few pics of Lodi Garden that I took while not running!
 

RUN STATS:

Distance - 6.5 miles

Time - 1:10:06

Soundtrack - Galactic - The Other Side of Midnight (Live) and Ruckus

May 24, 2013

This year I wanted to run a marathon. Cooler heads (Kate's) prevailed and convinced me that the first 6 months of life of our new son was no time to be training for a marathon.

Thank God Kate is so smart. This week I took three days off because our son decided to wake up every two hours. That means that waking up at 5:40am isn't so easy. It also means that if I can get 30 extra minutes of sleep before heading to school, I'll take it. The temperature in Delhi is also rising. That means hydration is more important than ever. After not drinking water all day long on Wednesday, then playing soccer Wednesday night, I woke up in the middle of the night with a killer headache. Another day of not running.

Finally, Friday I was back on the streets of Delhi tallying up miles in pursuit of my goals.

The run is a 5 miler that passes through a Dhobi Colony in the Ministers of Parliament's neighborhood. Dhobis are the launderers of India. They collect your clothes, take them away, wash and press them and bring them back. When I cruise through the narrow lane just before the 2 mile mark on this run, the dhobis are just starting their day, hanging the day's work on the multitudinous lines on either side and criss-crossing the route. Given an hour or two more and there would be a sea of white shirts, sheets and other assorted articles of clothing lining the way.

Not too much to report on this run, it was pretty standard. This is the third time I've run this route, and I beat my previous best by 4 seconds, completely on accident!

I've got to start bringing a camera on my runs, or going back and taking photos. A new goal?

RUN STATS:

Distance - 5 miles

Time - 42:27

Temp at 6am - 90 degrees F

Soundtrack - Bonobo, The North Borders

The "Thing" About Running

This run was for Jonah, a dear friend, a generous donor, and maybe a runner mentioned in a previous post...

On Sunday, May 19 I ran a 10K trail run. I had been itching to do a race, with all of the training I had been doing. Since March, I've run 242 miles, which is helping me approach my goal of 1000 miles this year. It's nice to do a race to keep training fresh, add some incentive and switch up the training.

The day before the race, I found myself talking to my wife, Kate about running. These days I love talking about running. I mean, it's almost obnoxious. I'll talk to anyone about running for as long as I can. Anyway, I found myself saying to Kate, "The thing I love about running is..." And then I realized, that I've said this a million times about a million different things. There is no one thing I love about running. There are a bunch. I used to tease my host sister in Mexico when she would say, "There's a saying in Mexico..." and I would respond, "Really? There's A saying in Mexico." Now I know how she must have felt. Sorry Jadwiga.

But back to the "thing" about running. That "thing," I explained to Kate as she patiently waited for my most recent diatribe to end, is that running and other individual sports don't rely on a winner for satisfaction. You are always competing against yourself.

You have the runs where every stride you take takes you farther than you've ever run before. I remember those runs with great fondness from last year. The reward that comes from doing a 2 mile, then 3 mile, then 5, 6, 7, 10, 13 mile run is incredible. There are few things better than coming back from a run that took you one mile farther than your farthest run.

There also comes a great satisfaction in breaking personal records. The swim coach and basketball coach of our middle school were talking about their respective tournaments during assembly and the swim coach beamed with satisfaction that everyone on the team had beaten personal, school or conference records. The basketball coach then goofed on the fact that they also "beat records." Of course, they didn't and that's the "thing" about running. Every time I run a route that I've planned and come home sooner than I did last time, it's an achievement. Every time I enter an event and finish with a PR, it's an achievement.

That's why I was so excited to run the 10K on Sunday. I've only ever run 2 other 10Ks, and the first was before I really became a runner, so I have no record of it. The other one was last year about this time and it was also a trail run. As far as I could recollect, my time from last year was about 50:30. With this in mind, I set out to beat that time. Just me against me. And whoever else showed up, but that's neither here nor there. Every race has faster runners and slower runners.

Zach(the swim coach), Brent and I attended the staff going-away party on Saturday night, then woke up at 4:15am, headed out the door and arrived to the venue at 5:30am. By 5:45 we were off on the 10K trail run. It was a really fun route that took us into a protected Aravalli bio-diversity park, the remnants of the 1500 million year old Aravalli mountain range, through the local villages and back. We passed temples, dogs, wild pigs and more on the cross-country run. It was the first time for a new running organization in Delhi to organize such an event and as you could expect there were freshman snags. The event was well organized in advance and the check-in was easy breezy. In fact the organizer had made special arrangements to help us register! The signage on the run wasn't great and the front runners of the 10K got lost on the way back to the finish. Being one of them, I convinced the other guy I was with to cut across a ravine to get back on track and we did. From there, we ran back to the finish and I was lucky enough to finish first.

When discussing my finish with my friends, I received the obvious congratulations for finishing first. But the "thing" about running isn't winning, it's beating your PR and doing the best you can on any given day. I tried to explain to a friend that winning the race wasn't that big of a deal. "It just means that I was faster than everyone else who showed up that day." Any other day, with any other runners and the story could be different. A broken PR though, can't be taken away. He replied by simply restating what I had said. "Exactly. You were faster than everyone else that day." Another friend helped me accept my fair share of joy when I said, "It's not that big of a deal." "You're right," he said, "but it's fun, isn't it?"

I guess it is fun, but I know that on any given day, there will be people much faster than me. And that's the "thing" about running. It doesn't matter. As long as I'm true to myself and true to my goals and true to my inspirations and motivators, I'll win. Thanks to Jonah, Zach and Brent for the motivation to get up too early after a night too late. Thanks to my family for giving me a reason to run, and thanks to all of you who read the blog. It's not too late to add to my inspiration. If you can donate a few dollars, it's enough to get me out the door on the days that I want to stay in bed, cozying up to my wife and son.

Oh, and we had moustaches!

Please visit https://www.coloradogives.org/forellis and see why I'm running this year.

 

 

RUN STATS:

Distance - 10K (6.2 miles)

Time - My time 46:22, they say 47:15. Either way it's a PR for a 10K!

Soundtrack - Super Race Day Playlist taken from our wedding reception playlist!

• Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win - Beastie Boys
• Body Movin'-Never Gonna Get It - Beastie Boys Remix
• Let Me Clear My Throat - DJ Kool
• Young'n (Holla Back) - Fabolous
• Bang Pop - Free Energy
• No Pause - Girl Talk
• Great! There it is - Hood Internet
• Mayhem - Imelda May
• Tipsy - J Kwon
• DANCE - Justice
• Back that Ass Up - Juvenile
• Bulletproof - La Roux
• Drunk Girls - LCD Soundsystem
• Roll Out  - Ludacris
• Electric Feel - MGMT
• Work It - Missy Elliot
• Little Lion Man - Mumford and Sons

May 18, 2013

Thanks to my dear friends Becky and Isaac. This one was for you!

Today's run was awesome! The route is one that has achieved a cult status among the small handful of runners here at school (if such a thing exists). Can you have a cult following of 4 or 5?

I'm referring (of course) to the Star Run! This one is so special, I'm going to put the map in the middle of the post instead of at the bottom, where I normally put it.

As you can see, this route looks like a star (or a spur). This run has been in my pocket for over eight months, just like The Low Impact 5 Miler. It was a run that I mapped out, but never ran. I tried to get people to run it with me several times, but for one reason or another, it never happened. But today, we finally ran it! This run is designed to be a differentiated run, with something for everyone. At about the 3 mile point, we reach a traffic circle and people can choose to run as much or as little as they want.

I've actually mapped several possibilities for this one! I'm addicted.

Star 3-Do the beginning of Star 6 and take an autorickshaw home.

Star 6-To the roundabout and back. http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/195109620

Star 7-The first two spoke, with adjustments. http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/195110378

Star 8.5-Four spokes. http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/195110788

Star 9-All spokes, no roundabouts. http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/207598053

Star 10-All spokes, roundabouts and the extra bit to Rajpath. http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/133177603

I was happy to have three adventurous colleagues join me for the Star Run, but it was Kendra's enthusiasm for the route that really made me feel good! Thanks Kendra. This year we've had a lot fewer runners due to injuries, air quality issues and the demanding pace of life at our school, so it meant a lot to have others show up for this run.

Nothing too crazy on the run. The first roundabout on spoke one has an old mosque in the middle of it, which is unusual for Delhi. Google Maps calls it the Sunhari Bagh Masjid. According to the one image I've found it was built in the 1700s, and it seems that Google Maps at least misspells the name, but there is a much more famous Sunehri Mosque in Old Delhi, so I think it's mislabeled too.

**UPDATE: It seems that the mosque is actually called Sunehri Bagh Road Masjid. I've found some voter logs for the people living there, but no real information.

In any case, it looks neat. There's also a mosque on the fourth spoke and the guards at the Taj Mahal (don't be fooled by the name!) Delhi Hotel were very friendly! Not a lot else interesting on this route, but it was a fun way to pack in 10 miles!

Thanks again, Becky and Isaac. If you want to be like Becky and Isaac, please follow the link and help out. Thanks a lot!

https://www.coloradogives.org/forellis

RUN STATS:

Distance - 10 miles

Time - 1:31:29

Soundtrack - Vampire Weekend and Daft Punk - Super secret copies of upcoming releases!