Talk by Anu Vaidyanathan - Hyderabad Runners

Sunday, June 26th 2016, I went to St Mary's College at Yousufguda. There was supposed to be a talk by Anu Vaidyanathan, India's first  Ultraman. Now, I didn't know what Ultraman means.

Anu is a triathlete. She runs, rides bike and swims. She has finished several marathons, iron mans (2.4 mile swim, 112 miles bike ride and 26.2 miles running). In 2009, she completed the Ultraman, which is swimming for 10k, bile riding for 425.6k and running for 84.4k. Now, you may be thinking that she is an adventure sports junkie.

Well, she has a graduation and post graduation in computer science, a PhD in electrical engineering, and she has been a professor at IIT Ropar and IIM Ahmedabad. She has her own consulting firm operating in the patents field. Also, she is a daughter, wife and a mother!

Now, that's some list of achievements that can make any one proud. But she is all about humility.

I had read about Anu earlier and knew about her achievements. So, when HR Runners decided to host her talk in the occasion of the 10 years celebrations, I registered a slot for myself.

Though I had been to St Mary's College at Yousufguda earlier, I was and still am not familiar with the way. Google maps have become my best friend and they guided me to the destination. There were few cars and bikes parked outside the college compound. As I entered the gate, the security staff told me to go to the 4th floor.

Near the lift, I met Amulu, a Toastmasters friend who was also there for the talk. There was a small auditorium, with capacity of around 150 people on the 4th floor. Rajesh Vetcha, founder of Hyderabad Runners, along with Shiv Kosgi, the operations manager, were there at the door of the auditorium, welcoming people as they walked in.

The auditorium was dimly lit. There were about 50 odd people inside the auditorium. Some were seated and some were milling around the stage. On the stage, there was a small table to the right with a pile of books neatly stacked. There were 2 standees on the stage, one announcing Hyderabad Runners 10 years celebrations and another for Anu Vaidyanathan' book, Anywhere but home. Anu was standing there talking to anyone who wanted to, signing the books for anyone who bought it.

After some time the talk started. Rajesh gave a welcome speech and invited Anu to take over. Anu passed on a feedback from and a post card with a lucky draw instructions before starting the talk. She was very calm and composed. She spoke in a natural style, spoke very fast and had lots of humor baked into her talk. She started with her connection with Hyderabad and especially Rajesh. Then how there were many Telugus who were part of her life and the contribution by them in her journey. She told about her childhood, school days and college days at USA. She apparently used to be a chubby kid during school. Is was the college that one of her friend introduced her to running.

Post her engineering in the US , she started pursuing a PhD there. Somewhere in between, she got frustrated and decided to come back to India. She came to Bangalore and started a start up. Running was her anchor during that time. She felt most comfortable while running.

Then one after the other, she started taking up bigger challenges, culminating with the Ultraman in 2009. Later she got married to a person who also supported her ambitions. Then, she became pregnant and continued long distance walking till almost the end of her pregnancy. It was during that time, someone asked her to write a book. The book project took about 2-3 years to complete. Now, it was being released.

If you look at her now, it will be difficult to believe that she was once a triathlete. She has gained weight. But there is one thing that she said which I liked. Her overall message was to keep passionate goals and achieve them. She said, people like to brand themselves as something. Like you may say you are a runner. Then you become imprisoned with your own definition of yourself. You have to prove to yourself and to others that you are a runner. You have to beat a certain time. That is dangerous. She said, do not cubby hole yourself. Do whatever you are passionate about. Reinvent yourself based on the time and circumstances. You define yourself. Others definition of you doesn't define you!!

Finally, there was a question and answer session and a prize distribution ceremony of HR Relay Run.

Influence of 7 Habits

Books are like people that you meet and you know. You like some people and some people, you dislike very much. Then there are others that you neither like nor dislike! Then there may be one person whom you like very much, but your friend may not like that person. Similarly, books that are important and that you like may not be important for others. Some books speak to you directly. Some do not. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is one such book that had a huge impact to shape my thinking and world view.

Covey’s book, 7 Habits, is one of those books that I give credit for having had a deep influence on me and my thought process. It provided me with a paradigm to look at myself, to look at my relationship with others, and to look at the world in a pair of new eyes. It gave me ideas and links to discover more. I read up Vicktor Frankl and his works, I learnt about the stimuli, the response and freedom of choice in between. It taught the concept of inside out change and the concept of dependence, independence and interdependence! The 7 Habits book gave me a completely new way of thinking. Over a period of 6–7 years of trying to read, re-read, listen to the audio book, and incorporate his ideas in life, I found myself improving in many ways. My relationship with myself and with others has improved. I have become a better person. This book has done wonders for me. Hence, it is very important in my life.

I am a fan of Stephen Covey. I have read most of his books as well. Two other books that I liked were First Things First and The Principle Centered Leadership.

Good Habits Kill Bad Habits

Can developing good habits kill the bad one's?

The short answer - Yes.

The long answer, well it is a long process and it takes time. But developing certain good habits are known to kill bad habits. Let me give you an example from my own life. 6 years ago, I was a sedentary, lethargic and utterly unfit person. I used to eat all kinds of junk food, smoke almost 8–10 cigarettes a day, sleep late and wake up late. All my vital health parameters like BMI, Blood Pressure, Lipid Profile, Urea, etc had gone over the roof. I knew that all that I used to do like smoking, binge eating, oversleeping etc are bad habits. But I did not know how to get rid of them. In fact, I never tried to shed those habits because I used to enjoy them.

In 2011, I took up running to control my weight. It was a difficult process. It took me several months and a truckload of will power to get into the groove of running. You can read that story here: Couch Potato to Runner - My Story!

In about an years time, the running habit was firmly established. I started calling myself a runner. I did not know that I was setting up a habit that would change my life. I lost the extra weight that I was carrying for most of my life. The health parameters came back to normal. I started taking part in longer runs. This meant I has to eat healthy food. My binge eating stopped. I had to wake up early to go for my daily run. This meant that I had to go to sleep early. My overall lifestyle changed because of the habit of running. In order to run better, I felt like quitting smoking. One fine day, I just stopped. The runs were much more enjoyable and I became faster.

Today, I am a changed person. I have become much disciplined and have incorporated many other practices into my daily life. My life today is 360 degree different from what it was 6 years ago.

So, yes, it is possible. It will take time. But with your will power and patience, a good habit will help you kill bad habits. Such habits are known as key-stone habits. They are the ones that help add more and more good habits in your life and drop the bad ones. Example of keystone habits are running, meditation, tracking your food intake, maintaining a daily to-do list etc.

Shriram Properties Bangalore Marathon - 2016

Runners are mysterious creatures. How else would you explain someone endure the all pain during the training, then travel long distance sometimes even to god forsaken places like Antarctica, and finally endure even more pain during the run? And the madness does not stop there. Even if they are injured, even if they feel they are under prepared, even if they do not meet their targets, time and again, they are back on the track, running the loops, chasing another imaginary goal, getting exhausted, getting exhilarated and getting excited about running!

With the above introduction about running madness, it is now not difficult for me to accept the fact that I also travelled out of Hyderabad, for the first time ever, just to run in an event. This was the Shriram Properties Bangalore Marathon, which was held on 16th Oct 2016.

It is true for all marathon runners that as soon as you finish one race, you start itching for the next one. On 28^th August, I finished the Airtel Hyderabad half marathon and I started thinking of my next race. On 1^st Sep, I registered for the Bangalore Marathon. Friends told me that unlike the Hyderabad Marathon route which has lots of elevation, Bangalore Marathon route was quite flat. I hoped, I would be able to do my PB (personal best). So, that was one of the attraction of going to Bangalore.

My training had tapered a lot after the Hyderabad marathon. I had taken couple of weeks off running and when I started, it was just a maintenance run of 5 kilometers for 3-4 days a week and a longer Sunday run of 10-15 kms. I did not do any strength or cross training at all.

The travel to Bangalore was via train. I started on 14^th Oct, Friday evening. My wife and daughter also joined me. During the journey, I was not able to sleep properly in the night. So, by the time I woke up in the morning, my body was quite sore. My cousin came to pick us up from the Bangalore Cantonment station. We went to his home. I took bath and gorged on a sumptuous breakfast. Then, I went to the kanteerava stadium to collect the bib and came back at lunch time. Post a heavy lunch of biriyani, chicken and seer fish fry, I had difficulty keeping my eyes open. So, I took rest for about an hour.

In the afternoon, we went to another cousin’s place at Whitefield. I wanted to take rest. But they insisted to go out somewhere. So, in the evening we went out on a ride. On the way we had street food - panipuri, momos etc. The dinner was again a gigantic affair at a restaurant – Ji Hujoor. It was a buffet dinner and again I could not resist gorging myself on the spread over there.

By the time we came back home, it was midnight. The plan was to wake up at 3:00am, go by a car pool with another runner, Vaibhav who stayed nearby with whom my cousin had connected me.

Started from Whitefield along with Vaibhav around 4:00am and reached the venue around 4:40am. We went to the baggage drop area and found few of the runners from our colony. There were Madhuri, Neeti, Himanshu and Abhishek. We did some warm up and then proceeded to enter the stadium. The crowd was huge!! I was told some 8000-9000 folks registered for the half! Since the run started from inside the stadium, and the entry being quite narrow, it took at least 10 minutes for me to get to the start point.  By the time I reached the start point, we were all dispersed and I was alone.

The goal was to try to finish below 2:23. The only strategy was that I will not walk till the first 10 km. Later, if I felt like walking, I will do so only on uphill. The weather was cool and I started running slowly. I thought I will pick up pace after 5k or so. I finished 5k in about 33 minutes. My plan was to increase speed between 5 to 10 k so as to do 10k in 65 minutes. But somehow, I was not able to push myself fast. By around 8k, it was clear that I will not be able to do 10k in 65min. I did that in about 68 minutes. My goal of doing PB of 2:22 seemed difficult.

I pushed along. Somewhere around 12k, I saw a runner lying on the road surrounded by few support folks. Then I saw an ambulance blaring its horns coming along to pick that person up. A little shiver went up my spine. I thought that the sport that I am indulging in could also be fatal. I slowed down a bit.

After about 14k, I saw Venkatraman Pichumani of you too can run. I came up to him, wished good morning and started small talk with him. We ran almost 3-4km together. He is now almost 60 and had undergone a cardiac bypass surgery in 2003 (if I remember right). After that he has been running a marathon every year. He has been a successful entrepreneur and created and sold many BPO enterprises. Now, he focuses on running which is his passion. He has a company, you too can run which organizes running events, seminars and he also coaches other people on running. He has also written a book called “Sofa to 5k”. This is available on his website at a nominal cost of Rs 100. He told me that I should start strength training if I want to increase my speed. My sagging spirit was uplifted with this conversation. But by that time I realized that I was slowing down. I had lost almost 3 minutes in those 4 km. So, I told good bye to him and picked up my pace to see if I could at least beat my Airtel Hyderabad timing.

I could finish the 18^th kilometer faster. But again on the 19^th kilometer, I could feel the cramp coming in my left leg. Remembering what happened to my legs in Hyderabad marathon, I slowed down. I did not push myself. I finished the run in 2:27:45 seconds. Post run breakfast was very good. I returned back happy and exhilarated.

I could not push myself fast in this run. I think it is because of inadequate rest. The lesson learnt is that it is advisable to take more rest before the run. I would have slept 9 hours in all in the 48 hours prior to the run.   I should go to bed by 9:00PM and try to get at least 6 hours of sleep on the night before the run. Also I should limit the errands on the day prior to the run.

This run was my first run outside of Hyderabad. I have a dream now which is to run in a marathon/half marathon event in as many states of India as possible. I do not have a time limit for that. Will take it as it comes. And I will blog about it.

Happy running, happy blogging and happy reading!

Visit to Holy Mary Degree College

It was a Saturday. Vikram Chandra from Secunderabad Toastmasters, who was the Offline Outreach Chair for Master Orator Championship, reached out to me to visit a local college to promote the event. Master Orator Championship was an event conducted by the Toastmasters of Hyderabad to promote public speaking among college students.

Holy Mary Degree College is located bang on the main road leading from JNTU to Hitec city. I had noticed this college several times in the past and wondered that it would be a great location for a Toastmasters club. So, it made sense for me to visit the college and get introduced.

As I reached the college gate, it was a very different feeling for me. I had never been into any sales job. So, going somewhere and doing a cold calling, and that was exactly what I was going to do, was not my cup of tea. On one hand, I thought I may make a fool of myself as no one would entertain me. On the other hand, I was thinking that I had nothing to lose. Even if they turned me away, I will gain the experience of getting rejected!

With these thoughts, I marched in and was soon stopped by an old man who seemed to be the watchman of the place. I told him that I have to go to the office and he allowed me. Inside the building, I found several rooms with their doors locked. One door was ajar and there sat a lady, doing some paperwork. I met her and told her about Toastmasters. Then I handed over the 2 paper pamphlets that I was carrying. She checked it out and asked me if I would like to meet the director. I did not expect that in my wildest of dreams. But why not? I remembered a key phrase from Ed Tate, a world champion of public speaking...

 "If not here, then where? If not now, then when? If not you, then who?" 

With these thoughts, I said yes, I would love to meet him. She asked me to wait and in sometime she asked me to go to the director's office. Contrary to my expectations, Mr Srinivas, the director was a young man. I introduced myself and appraised him of my intention of coming there. After listening to me patiently, he asked me if I would like to speak with the students in their class room?

Again, why not? If not now, then....

 
So, he took me to a class room in the first floor. It was the class room for the BBA students. There were about 25 students and a teacher. He introduced me and gave the floor to me. It was an extended table topics for me. I gave a quick introduction of myself and explained about Toastmasters. I told them the what and how of Toastmasters, how clubs operate and how they help in building communication and leadership skills. I told them the importance of communication skills in the job market and professional life. Then I briefed them about the contest that we were organizing and asked them to register for it. I spelled out the benefits for them from the contest and the formalities required to register for the same.

 
With that I opened the floor for questions and answers. Couple of folks asked questions regarding venue, topic etc. I answered them and finally thanked the students and their teachers and then left the class room.

I met with the director again before leaving the college and thanked him as well.

Life throws unexpected things - things that you sometimes dread and things that you some time enjoy. As they say, if you believe that the universe will present the best of opportunity to you, it somehow materializes!! But, as someone said, luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Universe will give you an opportunity. But only if you have the right preparation, so you can convert that opportunity to be a lucky one!! 

The Monitor Badge

The other day when I came home from work, Sara, my yet to be 6 year old daughter, who is in class 1 now, ran up to me. She seemed very happy and excited. “Papa, Papa, (do) you know what happened at school today?”, she said, in her lilting voice. I knew she had something to share with me. Her mama was standing behind her, beaming as well. Faking utter surprise, I said, “No, Sara. Tell me, what happened”. “Papa, papa, I got this monitor badge today”, said she as she held up a white rectangular piece of plastic with Montitor, Class 1 Section C, inscribed on it. “Wow, you have become the monitor of your class!” I exclaimed. We did a high five and I asked how it happened. She told me that Priscilla Mam, her class teacher, made her the monitor. My wife laughingly told that in her school, the naughtiest fellow used to become the monitor. May be that is the reason, Sara became the monitor. Sara showed some displeasure and said she is not the naughtiest.

The next day, when I returned home, Sara was still basking in the glory of being the monitor. I asked her what she did as a monitor. She replied that she did whatever Priscilla mam told her to do. She followed her to the cupboard where the notebooks were kept. She had to carry them from the cupboard to Priscilla mam’s desk and distribute it to the children. She was still thrilled of doing that job.

I remembered the days when I was the monitor of my class. We did not have a monitor badge or anything. The teacher just announced that someone is the monitor of the class. Now, that was a grand feeling, because it exalted your status in the class. It felt like you immediately acquired some super-powers. And which kid is not enamored with super powers? In my days, I as the class monitor, apart from doing the usual job of carrying stuff, also had to actually “mind the class”. Minding the class means, announcing to the other kids, actually shouting to them to remain quiet and refrain from any pranks, going around the class like a king, looking at the other children and noting the names of the errant ones on the blackboard. The teacher would come and then take those folks to task by making them stand on their chairs or asking them to kneel down outside the class depending on the severity of their indiscipline.

The next day, while dropping Sara at the school bus stop, I saw that she was not wearing the monitor badge. I told her so. She was shocked and she ran back home instantly with me trailing back. She scooped the badge from her cupboard and put it on in a jiffy. She could not for a single day, go without the badge.

Couple of days passed and Sara was still gung ho about being the monitor. She would put the monitor badge proudly every morning and show it to everyone in her bus stop. People also feigned wonder and disbelief by seeing that badge. Children of her age were eager to be monitor of the class one day.

I realized that unlike our school days, when I was monitor for the entire year almost, these days, schools must be rotating the task of being the monitor among all students, just to give them that extra responsibility and make them feel special. So, I guessed that it must be a weekly turn and Priscilla mam will take the badge away after a week. Since Sara was quite attached to her monitor badge, I thought it would be good to tell her that one day, it will go away. She should know that nothing in the world is permanent. So, one night, I broached the subject to her. While she was in bed, going to sleep, I told her that mam will take the badge one of these days and give it to someone else. She said, it is not going to happen. She is the monitor and she will have the badge. When I tried some rationale justification to explain it to her, she didn’t listen. However old one may be, one cannot reason with a 6 year old! She can furnish unquestionable arguments, no matter how nonsensical they may be, and if nothing works, she would crumple her little face, break down and start sobbing.

In the middle of that night, she woke up from sleep crying. She had dreamt of something and she was blabbering about me saying monitor badge being taken away. We somehow put her back to sleep again.

In the coming days, I decided not to make this monitor badge a big thing. This issue had to be taken off from her mind and the best way was not to bring up that topic and engross her with something else. So for a few days, neither the badge, nor the monitoring activities were subject of our discussion. One morning, while going to drop her off at the bus stop, I noticed that she had not put the badge. I asked if she has forgotten her badge and she nonchalantly said that mam took it away. She did not have a tint of sadness or any attachment to it. She had happily forgotten the incident and moved on to other things that were in the present.

Are you still holding on to your monitor badge after it has been taken away?

Re-Calibrated Dreams

Did you ever wonder where the daughter of your house maid studies? Did you spare a penny of a thought to what hardships the son of the person who cleans your car every morning goes through? Do you know what could be the dream of the daughter of the watchman in your apartment, who says 'salaam saab' to you every time you pass by? Well, I did not, till some time back. I was in my own world, minding my own business, mostly.

It was a day that I would never forget in my life. A day, which taught me so many things and made me realize some of the hard truth of life. I and some other folks from office had received an invite from someone to visit an institute and meet the students who were preparing for their upcoming placements. Since I was involved with campus recruitment for our organization, I had received this invite. I was all pumped up to go and give a pep talk, motivate and inspire them to do well in the interviews. The organizers also wanted us to conduct some mock interviews.

We had to go to Tolichowki, a locality at the intersection of the old and new city at Hyderabad. On one side you could see flyovers leading to tall buildings with shining glass façade, housing the young urban professional, and on the other side was the massive expanse of living quarters of middle and low income group families. The location of the institute puzzled us. Nonetheless, we found our way to a nondescript building whose address was given to us.

We 4 colleagues from Capgemini, climbed the stairs to the first floor of the building where the institute was located. The first floor had a small reception, an office room and 2 class rooms. The walls were decorated with motivational quotes. In one of the room there were about 30 kids. They were looking nothing like engineering students. They were 18-23 year old students from slum areas and villages, all children of low income families. We were asked to address the students. Very soon, we understood that they would find it difficult to follow English properly. Hence, we used Hindi to address them.

We all tried to inspire and motivate them. I told them about having a goal and narrated the story of karoly Takacs, the Hungarian shooter who despite losing his right hand won the Olympics gold medal. I told that they, despite of their struggles and problems, can also achieve their goals, if they focus on it and work hard.

Then it was time for the mock interview. We divided the students into 4 groups and I told them that we would do a group discussion and I will ask questions to them and they can ask questions to me as well.

The group of 8 with me went to another room. We settled ourselves and I asked them to introduce themselves with their name, where they come from, what they are studying and what are their hobbies, interests, dreams & goals. That is when I realized that they were mostly 10^th class failed. Their parents were auto drivers or house maids or working in a tea stall or road side hotel. Most of them did not speak audibly. I had to really struggle even to understand their hindi even though I was sitting quite close to them.

I gave them some tips like saying hi/hello, smiling at others and saying their name loudly and confidently. After giving some other tips, I asked them to ask me questions. There were absolutely no questions from their side. So, I kept prodding them. I learnt that they were studying Sales – to be sales boy or sales girls in small shops, Hotel operations – to work in small restaurants and Computers – to be data entry operators. Most of them told me that their goal was to get a job and start earning. I understood, being financially independent by earning their livelihood and helping their family was something badly needed by all of them.

After asking them several times to ask me questions, Saba, a girl in a black burqa asked: Sir How big is Capgemini? Where are the different branches? Who is the owner? What is your duty time? Etc. I answered those questions patiently.

Then Saba asked,

Sir, what is your designation?

I said Senior Manager.

Sir, What do you do in a typical day?

I struggled to explain to them what system integration is, what is a merger and what are the challenges when an organization like Capgemini acquires another organization like iGate. But these questions still could be answered. The next one was a googly.

Sir, what is your salary?

I did not know what to answer to that particular question. The first thing I thought was that these kids were so innocent that they did not know what questions could be asked and what should not be. I was overwhelmed with their simplicity. But still I did not know whether to tell the truth or not. The truth, which I at the end of every month feel is not enough; but the same truth, I am sure would be sufficient to sustain some of their entire family for almost a year. If I tell the truth, I felt they might feel deprived and bad, and if I did not, I would be lying. Then it dawned on me that I am not supposed to disclose my salary.  Relieved, I let a long breath out and winged up a convoluted answer telling them what I earned when I started my career, and that it goes up with experience.

The next question was again a bouncer. Another kid asked,

Sir, if I want to become like you, what I should do.

I was at a loss for words. What could I say? My life and how I became what I am flashed across my mind in a second. And I realized how just plain lucky I had been to have been born to parents who could provide me with education that helped me get on the professional train. Should I tell them, that to become like me, they should get an engineering degree, then get an MBA and then get into a corporate life? Will it encourage them, or will it discourage them? How do you say that to someone who is 10^th fail and does not even know what the real world boundaries and limitations are? Would you just tell her that there is no way for you to join a large MNC? Or would you sugar coat your answer? Without knowing what to say, I just ducked the question asking them to dream big, to focus on the goal and to work hard – One day they could become like me.  My inner voice was shouting - how hollow these words were. What actions could I take for them?

Question after question kept stumping me.

Sir, what are the opportunities for me at Capgemini. 

I was just as helpless as before again. What could they do at Capgemini? Would they be happy to be the housekeeping staff, I thought to myself, to clean the premises, pantry and the washrooms? I was actually feeling very small because I did not have an answer. For several minutes, I did not dare to say anything. Finally, those hollow words came out from my mouth - You can be anything that you want to be!

Sir, how many years of service is required to reach your position?

Very soon I realized the reason why they were asking me questions about my designation and how much money I make. Perhaps, they were trying to imagine themselves at my position. Perhaps they wanted to day dream. Perhaps they wanted to understand that such a thing, which we in our society take for granted, is possible. It is possible to become a professional, to speak to one and to get to know one was a dream come true for them. They were re-calibrating their own goals and dreams. How could I ask them to become a cleaner or office boy and shatter their newly painted nascent dreams the color of which had not even dried from their eyes?

Finally, 2 of the 8 kids announced proudly – Sir – I want to become a Senior Manager at Capgemini. That is our dream. Their dreams had just changed from becoming a data entry operator to become a Senior Manager at an MNC. This was no laughing matter. They were dead serious about it.

How could I help these kids was the only thing that was in my mind. All of them had goals and dreams. Though their voice was weak, their passion shone clearly. One boy told that his father has a tea-stall. He wants to expand that. He wants to make it a hotel business. These were the kind of dreams they were carrying.

Later, we had a feedback session. We were supposed to give our feedback to them. I gave the feedback that I loved their passion, dreams and goals. I told them to work on their English speaking skills which can be a passport to their job. I told them to help each other and never feel that they are alone. And whenever they feel like they are alone, just ask for help.

At the end of the session, they came and asked for our autographs. I was afraid to sign as I do not consider myself worthwhile to sign an autograph. We were all simple office-goers, but were treated like celebrities. However, we wrote an inspiring message for each of them, not to disappoint them.

On the way back, the Hyderabad traffic was bad. Throughout the journey, I sat silently. Just one thought kept recurring  – Just how plain lucky I had been! Then, a sense of gratitude came over. It was gratitude to all those – my parents, teachers, members of the society, colleagues, everyone who helped shape my life.

I went there to inspire them, but I came back inspired. I went there to ask them questions, I came back with lots more questions, unanswered. I went there to show them the way, I came back having realized the path.

That night I kept asking myself, what I could do to help the kids. Now, I have a plan. And by will of God, I will be able to execute the plan, one step at a time. This blog is the first step. To spread the word.

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This post is incomplete if I do not mention the organizers, the instructors, the fund raisers at such organizations like AIF and CAP Foundation. They are all doing tremendous service to society by helping these kids find their livelihood. They go door to door, mobilize these students and train them free of cost. They also organize placement service for them. Just imagine, if such selfless people are not there, what would be the future of all those who due to financial and social circumstances have been deprived of proper education? My request to anyone who has ways and means of helping these kids to come forward and extend a helping hand, lend an ear or at least spread the word.

Thanks for reading.

Here are some pictures of the session.

AHM 2016 - Mind, Body and Will

The Airtel Hyderabad Marathon was scheduled on 28^th August, Sunday. I had registered for the half. 

On the previous day, I did not go for a run. I planned to take as much rest as possible. But I had some errands and ended up walking more than 6k and roaming in the city the entire afternoon. By evening, I was pretty exhausted by all the errands. For dinner, I had a bellyful of white rice which was my carbo-gorging (not loading!).  I planned to sleep early so that I could get up by 3:30 am. The cab was booked for 4:30am.

I went to bed by 10:30pm. I thought about the run in the morning and what would be my target. Though I was secretly hoping to do it in 2:21, my realistic plan for the run was 2:27. I had been thinking about my running splits and decided to scribble it on my left hand. It will serve me as a reminder if I am doing fast or slow, I thought.

I wrote:                    2k  -       15 mins

                                7k -        50 mins

                                10k-       70 mins

                                15k-       103mins

                                20k-       140mins

                                21k-       147mins                                               

(This picture was taken just after the run while stretching)

Typically, the night before a run, I do not get good sleep. Contrary to my previous experience, on that night, within a few minutes of lying on the bed, I was in deep sleep. Around 1:30pm or 2:00pm, I woke up, drank some water and tried to sleep. Surprisingly, I was feeling fully awake. I tossed around in the bed, unable to sleep any further. The 3-3.5 hours of sleep seemed enough. I just kept my eyes closed.

Around 3:40am, I got up and prepared myself. At 4:30am the cab came and I contacted 2 other runners, Dev and Amit who were car pooling with me. We reached the venue around 5:10am or so.

It had rained heavily in the night. So the early morning weather was cool. As usual, there was lot of light and music at the start area. There was a big crowd as well. The full marathon folks had already started at 5:00am and they were doing the loop around Hussain Sagar. We went to the hold area and were joined by the other RTP runners. Together, we took some snaps, did some warm ups and then there was a call for the line up as per different corrals. That is when we dispersed and I did not get to see any other RTP runner till the end of the run.

The run started exactly at 6:00am. I had a good plan. I started slowly. I was hoping that once the crowd thinned out I will pick up pace. But the crowd was huge. And it did not seem like thinning. All runners seemed very excited and but their speed was a slow jog. I also jogged along with them for the first hundred meters.

Hyderabad marathon is not known as the toughest city marathon just like that. The race starts at the benign and beautiful necklace road. But do not be beguiled by the beauty of start area. No sooner than you have covered even 500 meters, you meet the first of the several flyovers – the Khairatabad flyover. It is a small one, but it is a portent one. It tell us the shape of things to come.

By the time we reached the Khairatabad flyover, people had picked up speed. Most of the crowd ran past the first flyover briskly. Down the flyover, a sharp right turn takes the runners on the Rajbhawan road. I did 2k in about 13 minutes. I was running 2 minutes faster than my target and was happy. Around the 2.5k mark was the first water station. Some runners slowed down to take a sip. I continued my run.  

At 3.5 km, came the next hurdle. It was the Somajiguda flyover.  A flyover is never easy to run on. Though there is a downward slope after the upward incline, the thought of running up a flyover creates some hesitation in the mind if you are not used to it. But when you have to run, you have to. So, I persisted. The Somajiguda flyover gave way to the Punjagutta flyover.  By time the Punjagutta flyover forked and we reached the Banjara hills road number 3, we had covered 5k and yet another mental pressure was building up  just by looking at the steep incline of the road ahead.  The next 2 km presented a 50meter climb. It was difficult because it is a straight patch and you can see it. But since it was still early on in the run, most of the runners sped through. So did I. By 45 minutes since start of run, I had covered 7 km, ahead of my target by 5 minutes and feeling really happy about it. It was then I started dreaming about doing a PB (Personal Best). I clocked my Personal Best in 2012 at 2hr:22mins. At the same time, my mind started telling me that I need to walk a bit. I had not walked at all from the start. I told myself that there should be a water station in the next 500m to 1k where I can rest. So, continued running.

Around the 8k mark was a water station. I stopped and had water, grabbed some biscuits and banana. Then started running again. The next 1 km or so was still a slow climb. By the time I reached Jubilee hills check post, almost 9k done, the road flattened out and the running became a little easy. I took 65 minutes for 10k, still 5 minutes ahead of my target and still dreaming of my PB. I thought if I could maintain this pace, I will be able to do the run at 2:22 instead of 2:27 and just some extra push in the last leg will see me achieve my PB. But I was not aware of the things to come.

The downward incline continued. Again, my mind was begging me to walk a bit. It told me that I have 5 minutes lead. I can easily afford to walk for 1 minute. I kept repeating to it that I can slow down, I can run slowly, but I will not walk. This tussle went on for 3 more kilometers and after 13km, an upward incline presented itself.  The wicked mind, which was looking for excuses,  told me that you have crossed way beyond the halfway mark, almost nearing the 2/3^rd mark. Now, as a treat to your body,  you should walk. In a moment of weakness, I succumbed to it and walked for about 100 meters.

Around the Hitech city junction, it is a sharp 100m elevation in about 1 kilometer till the mindspace junction. That is a killer. I slowed down, reduced my stride length and increased the cadence a bit. Luckily, the 10k runners had not reached that point yet and hence it was comparatively crowd free. I remember, the previous year, due to my slow run, by the time I reached Hitech city, the 10k runners were all over the place - the road, the water stations, aid stations and everywhere else.

I reached 15k in exactly 100 minutes, still 3 minutes ahead of target. I was still dreaming of a PB. Infact, I was thinking about a 2:20 finish!

Around that time, I had some more banana, a bit of water and some electrolyte – fast and up – and that was yuck!

The run from 15k to 17k was mostly downhill. I tried to make up my lost time in the mindspace hill by running faster in this leg, with longer strides. There were school kids standing beside the road and cheering all the while. It was really motivating!

Around 17k I could see the last big hurdle, the Gachibowli flyover. I had good time till that, at 1hr:53min. I ran steadily. The school kids were all standing on the flyover divider and cheering. Some of them extended their hands out and I touched them. It was invigorating. Around 17.5k, I felt a tightening in the right leg calf muscle. I was surprised. A runner is not a stranger to pain. I remember I have had pain in all over my body during my marathon preparation, from toes, to feet to heel, to ankle, knee,thigh, back, tail bone, you just name it. But this was different. But I never had such an experience in my last 5 years of running. I slowed down drastically, almost to a walk. Slowly, the pain subsided and again I started running. I knew the 3 minutes lead I had was slipping away. I had already lost almost a minute. Hardly would I have gone another 200 meters, again the front tibia and the calf muscles of both legs tightened. I saw a medical aid station and limped along, determined not to stop till I reach that. The aid station folks sprayed the pain killer on my legs and the pain subsided to a great extent. I resumed my running. But, just 2 minutes and 200 meters later, both legs cramped again. It was excruciatingly painful. I could not even stand. I was in the middle of the road and had to move to the edge of the road to sit down on the divider. The legs felt like dead lead. I was really afraid by now. My mind told me to give up. But I did not want to. 

I sat on the divider, massaging my muscles, thinking about the 1000km of running that I had put in before this run. I thought about the tremendous will power I had to use to quit smoking in order to run well. Now, the PB was a distant dream. Not only had I lost all the time I had gained, now the dread of a DNF was looking straight in my eyes. In fight between mind and matter, mind always wins. But here was a fight between mind and will. No one was asking the body what it wanted. Mind was gripped with fear and wanted to stop. Will wanted to continue. I summoned all the will power that I had and stood up.   

The runners who were passing along urged me to keep running slowly and not to sit down. I gathered myself and started running again. The muscle cramps were still coming in waves. Whenever the calves of the legs were getting tight, I slowed down a bit and then started running again. But the intensity of the cramp was reducing. So, I took it as a good sign. With renewed vigor, I pushed ahead.

By the time I looked at my time, I had taken almost 10 minutes for that 1 km. As luck would have it, around 19k, the cramps subsided completely. The PB was definitely not in the scene. I did not even know if I could meet my 2:27 target. It was 2:11 and I still had more than 2k to go.

Slowly and steadily I pushed along and entered the stadium. All the way, the kids were shouting - last leg, 500 more to go. And even after going 500m, they were shouting 500 more to go. That was frustrating. But I knew that they were instructed to shout like that. The last leg inside the stadium, for some reasons, seems very difficult. I reached the red running track of Balayogi stadium. It was less than even 100 meters now and I could see the finish line. But my ordeal was not done yet.

Just about 50 meters from finish, the body that was ignored all the while revolted. The cramps came back again with a vengeance. It was a sharp pain again, freezing me on the track. My face crinkled with pain. I simply stopped then and there and bent down.  My mind was happy to prove itself right. It was saying – look, I told you to give up. You did not listen. Now suffer. This is what you deserve. My will was just observing all that was happening, without passing any judgment at all. There were no thoughts of PB. There was no thought of reaching my target. It was just soaking in all the pain, the dream and the sweat.

A few seconds later, still writing with pain, I picked up my run and crossed the finish line. I looked up at the large watch put up beside the finish gate. It showed 2:30. I stopped the app on my phone that showed the actual run time. It was 2:26:13. In spite of the trials, I had managed to just beat my target. The will triumphed.

A few minutes later, my phone buzzed. I received an SMS from the timing company. It read a chip time of 2:26:59. 

Woohoo!!! I had beat my target by just 1 second! The feeling, priceless!

It was a journey from a dream to pain to finally happiness. It was a fight between the monkey mind, the obedient body and the indomitable will. Finally, the will triumphs!

                                                          ~o~

Sandeep, Deepak, Vivek, Vasudha and other folks from RTP runners were already there, having finished their runs. We stretched, had the breakfast and then returned back.

Before I end this, a big shout out to Hyderabad Runners (HR) for organizing the AHM. This is the 6th year that they have organized the race and I have participated in 4 of these 6 years. Every year, the organizing team adds something new and the bars are being raised higher. This year, I especially liked the music bands, traditional dancers, tribal musicians and kids on route who were doing a great job of cheering and encouraging the runners. A huge Thanks to you all AHM Organizers, HR members and volunteers for the great experience!

Airtel Hyderabad Marathon 2016 – The Preparation.

This story starts on August 30^th 2015. It was the last Sunday of August last year and it is the day of annual pilgrimage of runners at Hyderabad - the Airtel Hyderabad marathon. I had registered for the same enthusiastically, but my preparation was not good. However, having completed a half and a full marathon in 2012 and 2013 respectively, I was confident to complete this half. I did. But my time was dismal. It was dismal by my own standards - the standards of a slow runner. I had finished the half in 3 hours and 2 minutes.

While analyzing my run, I found that I was taking a lot of walk breaks in between. I was getting out of breath and was not able to sustain my runs for a longer period. Thinking more about it, it dawned on me that the reason could be my habit of smoking. Smoking impacts the lungs. It destroys the lungs and drastically reduces the capacity of lungs to hold and assimilate the oxygen from our breath to blood. And hence I was feeling breathless and had to walk every 500 meters or so. I still do not understand why I did not face this breathlessness in 2012 and 2013 when I ran the marathon.

As it happens after every run, I set up a few new goals for myself. One of them was to do a respectable time in the 2016 run. This meant that I had to practice regularly. I decided to do a 5k run almost everyday as a practice.  Apart from that, I also decided one more big goal for myself which would help me in running well – that was to quit smoking.

On 30^th November 2015, I had the last drag of a cigarette and quit after being a smoker for 16 years. My trials and tribulations in quitting will be a story for another day! I was amazed with the results of quitting. In just about 3 days, I could run a loop of 2.5 kilometers without stopping. In 7 days, I was elated when I did a 5k run without a break! In about 3 weeks time, I was running 10k continuously without walking at all!

I kept my running rhythm going. By January, I set some new goals. I told myself, I will run 35 km a week. It will be 5k every day and since I will be taking 1 or 2 days rest in a week, I will do a 10-15k long run on Sundays. It was just what I have done till now. I did not do any other strength training or hill running or tempo runs.  

Here is my running chart from Dec 2015 till August 2016:

The year has been a good year of running for me. I have been running quite consistently and clocking 100+ km per month regularly. On August 26^th, I completed 1000 km of running in this year and was looking forward to the half marathon on 28^th. I had put in the effort, demonstrated progress and was confident on my ability to finish quite well.

In my training runs, I had done a half in 2 hour 30 minutes. So, I was confident that I will be able to better that. Secretly, I was hoping that I will get a PB by going below 2 hour 22 minutes that I achieved in 2012. 

The Nonagenarian Runner

Running has many benefits. The physical benefits are well known. But the other day, a chance encounter with a person while running, made me realize what exactly running can do.

It was a little overcast morning. It had rained the previous night and the roads were still wet. Some of my running friends had gone for a 10K run around Novotel hotel and since I had started late, I was trying to catch up with them.

I reached the hitex exhibition grounds and was expecting that I will meet them. But they were not to be seen. I was in double mind. I was weighing whether to return back from there or to run alone. The morning was wonderful. The place was beautiful. But for me, doing a 10k alone is somewhat dreadful.

As they say, while in doubt, run! So, I kept running.

I saw him coming towards me in a red vest. He seemed about 80. His face had wrinkles and freckles, a sign of old age. But he looked wonderfully strong. He was straight and moreover, he was running!  He waved his hand towards me. When he came within audible distance, I said good morning. He stopped his run, came near me and asked me what. I shook his hand, wished him again and asked him his age. His hands were strong. He had well defined muscles. I was admiring his persistence and effort. But when he told me his age, I could not believe myself.

He said he was 94.

It was really inspiring to see someone running at that age. When I asked if I could run along with him,  he said some very profound words - You go on your way, I will go on my own. Do not keep your mouth open while running. Breathe through the nose, send it to the spine, everything will go away.

And he ran off slowly. I stood there pondering what happened. I forgot to ask his name or where he lived. Even I forgot to take the customary selfie. I turned around helplessly, looked back at him as he was going. On his red vest, it was written CHITTOOR.

Later that day, a runner friend shared this link about him.

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/…/age-no-bar-vijaya-ramachan