It's amazing how things change, sometimes very fast. Not even last year had I imagined that I would participate in a marathon event. I was not a sports person until few years back. IISc (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) changed that. I happened to make some fitness-freak friends and started enjoying that side of life. Until then I was just a student who wanted to excel in academia. I ended up learning and enjoying Kung-Fu, Aerobics, Badminton and Swimming and this actually kept me sane from the ongoing drill of PhD life. But one thing I didn't enjoy, though my friends tried to motivate me, was running. I could barely keep up with them and didn't want to practice enough.

Fast forward to 2011. This year in March, I got to know about my boss's wife's half-marathon experience. She did it few years back when she was 40+. That got me into at least thinking about it. But the mere thought of running 13 miles was scary at that time. I couldn't run even 1 mi non-stop. But I decided to start my training. After a couple of weeks, I registered for Bay to Breakers (B2B) 2011 - an annual footrace which takes place in San Francisco on the third Sunday of May. This 12K (7.46 miles) race had started as a way to lift the city's spirits after the disastrous 1906 San Francisco earthquake. And this year was the centennial running. A bit more than half of half-marathon distance and 100th year seemed good enough reasons to participate in it and luckily I got into it. And as the training started getting better, in April I decided to register for a half-marathon as well. I had two options - SF half-marathon in July or Nike half-marathon in October. I wanted to run SF one as it was in summer and the course map included running on Golden Gate Bridge. But I knew I wouldn't be ready by that time. So instead I chose the Nike one in spite of the fear of rain and cold. Now, Nike runners are chosen by random drawing and as luck would have it I got selected. So, now I was on a 6-month long relationship with Nike never knowing how it would end :) B2B went alright, I took almost 2 hrs to finish it by running and walking. And then I went for this long 17 mile hike in Point Reyes in July with my hiking group. These two at least gave me the assurance that I would be able to finish the half-marathon, if not by running, at least by walking. Training continued off and on though now I wish I were a bit more sincere! I decided against joining Asha or Team-in-Training - my boss's wife trained herself and I could do it too. At first it seemed impossible to run more than 2 miles by myself but slowly and steadily it happened. Reading about the amazing women who did almost impossible things really helped. And one day there I was, running 5 miles non-stop. I was almost ready.

Now to the race day - yesterday. I was excited! I couldn't fall asleep early the previous night. Not a good thing to do. Resting well is very very important. Woke up at 4am to get ready and start for the city by 5am. We decided to go on our motorcycle for ease of parking and the fact that there would be traffic. Oh boy, was there traffic and road-blocks at 6am in the city! Joy was able to stop a couple of blocks away from Union Square, I removed the motorcycle gear and wore my running shoes. I was ready. It was 6:40am. I walked up to Union Square - there were thousands of people! I had to go to the bathroom before I joined the runners to start. The queue was so big, it took more than half an hour for my turn :) Meanwhile, the race had officially started at 7:00am, in time. Finally, at 7:25am I joined the runners and I was in it! I had officially crossed the start line.

First 5 miles seemed to go very well. It was same as my training runs of 5 miles, without much elevation gain. The real work started after mile 6 with more than 270 ft elevation gain. Like most of the runners, I walked up the hill. Between miles 7 and 8, it was easier running down the hill. Then walk up the hills again between miles 8 and 9.5, and run down until mile 10. Then I hit the wall! I will never forget miles 11 and 12! My legs were in so much pain with the cramps (this is where I thought maybe a bit more training would have helped). I thought of stopping by the next first-aid station if the pain continued as I didn't want the pain to increase and stop me from finishing. I almost walked those two miles, running once in a while in between. And to add to the pain, it was uphill, almost 100 ft climb. Slow and steady I told myself. The pain reduced a bit and I didn't stop by the first-aid station. I still continued to run and walk alternatively until I hit the downhill somewhere in mile 12. I slowly started running - I was getting closer. I crossed mile 12. I was feeling better, finish line was only 1 mile away AND it was all downhill. And then I spotted Joy as I was rounding the last corner to the finish line! I stopped for a coule of seconds, waved at him and started running to finish. If my memory serves me well, I actually did sprint a bit to the finish line :) I was happy to finish! The pain was still there, but who cared anymore!

I picked my Tiffany necklace and finisher's t-shirt, enjoyed the goodies in the finishers' village and attended the prize distribution ceremony. All the women out there did an amazing job in inspiring each other just by running and without actually saying any words to each other. I took inspiration from a younger girl running beside me for quite sometime. Her t-shirt said - 'Pain is temporary, Pride is forever'. And how could I forget about the amazing books I read during my training about the great achievements of the women! I thank Lynne Cox - her book 'Swimming to Antarctica' is something everyone must read. And I also thank Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen for sharing their amazing adventure of Antarctica. They became the first women to cross it on foot, in 2001! You all have inspired me to dream and live that dream!

My friend Vasanta from IISc has been another strong motivation for me. I have always admired her will and strength, and have taken some life lessons. You are my lady Pole star :) Keep inspiring everyone!

 

Here are the stats from my run and the elevation profile: http://nikerunning.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikeplus/en_US/mapping/#/events/NWM2011/...

And some photos my hubby took: http://www.flickr.com/photos/therider/sets/72157627911893434/

 

 

After the 5th lesson, we decided to take lessons without much break and so far we have managed to take 3 lessons in 3 continuos weekends. Lesson 6 was a bit frustrating but 7th lesson made up for all of it. We took the afternoon class yesterday and the wind was quite strong for us to handle. But our instructor Dave helped us practice a few quick flights from lower hill to get some confidence. Towards the end of the day the wind had relented a bit and we made quite a good progress with some good flights. I was a bit tired from my long hike the day before and Dave helped me a lot in not getting too tired. All in all, it was a great day with lof of improvement in our skills to stay on course. Joy is doing better in landing compared to me - I am making full use of the knee pads by landing on my knees :) Hopefully in the next class we will do a lot better to stay on course and eventually come to the final skill before getting hang1 licence - flare landing!

Joy was very happy with his last flight yesterday - Dave couldn't help commenting on his wide smile :D

It was our fifth lesson of hang gliding and we somehow managed to give 4 months gap between this and the last one. Our techniques got a bit rusty and it felt like we were starting all over again. But we soon managed to get everything polished and were having a lot of fun. We had a new instructor this time, George, instead of our regular instructor Dave, and we were a little bit apprehensive. But he turned out to be so awesome! I am sure he was a comedian in his last life :p

We got more flight time in this lesson thanks to the trust George showed on us. He let Phil, Joy and me take continuous turns while he took two newbies under his wings. Phil had gotten his H1 licence 10 years back and he was back to get it done all over again. Everything came naturally to him and it seemed he didn't forget one single thing. It was nice seeing him fly so smoothly. We three got a lot more flying while George kept an eye on us and kept correcting our mistakes. Joy and I had to be a bit less aggressive to do our flights more smooth. George said aggressiveness is needed at higher altitude. My last flight turned out to be an amazing one thanks to the crazy wind which tossed me sideways. George was happy that I had the presence of mind to use the aggressiveness this time and didn't crash! In fact my landing was also much better than the last flights. Joy also had a great time and we both are looking forward to taking lessons faster this time to get our H1 licence asap.

 

Saw a great Kathak performance by Radhika Sathe and her student Rachit Kumar yesterday at Jain Temple in Milpitas, organized by IISc AANA and NIT. The energy and stamina of the dancers were mesmerizing! She did 50 turns effortlessly (as one can see in this old video). When we asked her how she managed to do it, she replied she does 100 turns everyday for practice. That's a WOW! Her Abhinay (acting) of Seeta Swayamvar was out of the world! And I just loved Rachit Tiwari's graceful and strong dance poses! He started learning Kathak when he was an engineering student. That leaves me give with a great hope and inspiration of learning some classical dance one day!

Joy was the official photographer for the event. As usual he did a great job capturing the momenets.

Joy and I enjoyed Holi together after a really long time, thanks to Asha. It reminded us of the Vasantotsav in Santiniketan, which holds so many sweet memories for us. It felt good to be running like a kid again, hands full with colored powder. And the crazy dance of Joy and Ken -  'like uncrewing a lightbulb and patting the dog at the same time' - in Ken's words :D

An afternoon spent with my boss SubbaRao and his family biking in the Half Moon Bay Coastal Trail. Morning was not promising as it kept on raining but it cleared up in the early afternoon, and the weather was lovely for ~8 miles of biking.

Every Sunday we end up thinking about the upcoming Monday Blues. Thanks to my super-cool boss, I haven't felt that after I got out of IISc. His daughter is here for her spring break and they decided to go for a hike on Monday morning. Boss asked me if I was interested to join them and of course I was :) It so happened that he didn't come at the end but Sarada and I joined his family anyways. We decided to go to Palo Alto Foothills Park. The weather was lovely, with a bit of shower now and then. The hike was beautiful too - the pictures will prove that easily. We didn't go to the end of trail but I intend to go there again and finish it. The only downside is that the park is reserved for the residents of Palo Alto. But there was no one to check that day. So I am sure it doesn't hurt to take a chance. You might get lucky...

Some more pics are here.

After four lessons, we decided to go for a tandem hang gliding to experience how it feels to soar at 1000 ft. So before our fifth lesson, we scheduled for 2 tandem gliding each with our instructor Dave. Oh what an experience it was to soar at 1200 ft! Dave did all the controling in the first flight while we watched him and enjoyed the flight. During the second one, he let us coltrol the glider for a bit. He even let Joy land the glider! Hope this will help us in our fifth lesson. We just can't wait to get our hang1 licence and finish all the practice runs before doing the winch towing and glide at 1000 ft.

Here is a compilation of videos taken by Joy and me, and edited by Joy:

Dave had a GoPro camera attached to the glider to record the video of our flight. Unfortunately only one video got recorded - my first flight.

It was difficult to believe that we let three months pass by before we went for our fourth lesson! Well, there was this crappy depressing winter rain on one side, and then there was Joy's new schedule for the new job in the city. We were glad the sun finally was out for long enough time to dry out the hills. Joy also had settled in the hectic but satisfying routine of commuting to the city. So we called up Mission Soaring Center and scheduled for our fourth lesson with Dave. It was a fantastic lesson - no surprises there. Dave was wonderful as always and we got some nice flight.

Here is a video Joy compiled.