I am moved… and so did the miles on my activity calendar

For a brief while now, I have been running 3, 4, at the max 5 miles. I was eager to touch the 10K mark soon. So I was determined to run my first 10K on this beautiful bright sunny saturday morning. V and I have been doing a lot of running on the roads and in various parks in the city lately. But I was keen on running this one in lalbagh for many reasons. I first started running with V in lalbagh when we met initially. Those were some special moments and so was today’s run.. so I wanted to run where it all begun And I digress..

Back to my run. I was so pumped up to run my first 10K that I woke up even before the alarm went off, had my playlist ready with my favorite songs – some carnatic, some mushy, and some power songs. I began my run slow and steady at a pace of 11. But strangely the first 2 miles was the most difficult, I broke into sweat early on and I was doing a 9 min run, 1 minute walk routine until my body got used to the run. From mile 2 onwards I was determined to stop only after I achieved my goal. At times, I ran slow alright, but I needed to recover and gain my pace back while on the run. My best pace was between 2 – 4 miles at 9.5. The sheer excitement of visualising the feeling of having achieved my first 10K took me through the last 2 miles relatively easily. I completed 6.33 miles in 1 hour 10 mins on the dot!

The most surprising part is I was not as tired as I had anticipated to be, which means there is potential to do more Not to mention the rest of the day went by in treating myself to guiltfree yummy masala dosa and chaat

One Event, Two Sports and an experience of a lifetime!

Run,Cycle,Fly was the slogan of the event. Indeed, I was flying high after completing 5th in the women’s 5K category in India’s first Duathlon that was held in Bangalore on the 14th of June, 2009.

Having been the first sports event I participated after school, I was apprehensive about completing the race, let alone the timing to complete it. The excitement set in when I bought my mountain bike – the ‘trek 4300′ a week before the race. As the days grew closer, the more apprehensive I got about the race. With the adrenaline rush and the anxiety setting in, I could hardly catch a wink of sleep the night before the race.

Vikram and I piled both our bikes in my Maruthi 800 and took off at 5AM to the venue. The car is awesome for the amount of space it provides when compared to the size of the car.

We arrived at the venue at 6AM, an hour before the race commenced. It was wonderful to see the high energy levels of all the participants ranging from the age of 7 to 78 with their colourful sports bikes.

The Duathlon consisted of the following race categories:

• 10k run + 20k cycling (split as 5k run + 20k cycle + 5k run)

• 5k run + 10k cycling (split as 2.5k run + 10k cycle + 2.5k run)

I had enrolled for the 5K run + 10K cycling and I completed the race in 1:07:06. It was heartening to see a lot of passersby cheer while running. Its interesting how long every minute felt during the 3rd leg of the race! It was then that a funny thought occurred to me – Time as a relative tool. ’An extra minute of run can seem so long when exhausted, while one extra minute of sleep feels absolutely insignificant’!

For pictures from the duathlon, please Click here

Congratulations to Vikram, Swaroop and Varun on completing the 10K category… You guys rock!