North Face 50m

North Face 50M,
Dec 5th 2009
Start/Finish: Marin Headlands , CA

What a day! you can't go wrong organizing a race in one of the most beautiful trail systems in the country. Marin Headlands. and North Face did a great job of selecting some of the most beautiful trails and also snarliest trails in the region.

I had chosen this run to be a good training run for C2M, it was lot more fun running with Todd and Darshan. Between enjoying course and talking to them time flew by.









fun course rolling through marin headlands

What worked:
1. Amphidpod waistpack 2020: Earlier in week had picked up this waist pack from Zombierunners. I was pretty impressed with its low profile design, the pack hardly bounces. I was little dissapointed with the size of the pouch.. hoping to carry more clothing, but I guess it is good enough for a light weight windbreaker. Overall its a good pack, if you plan to carry 2 bottles and a handled.

2. Hostel International: HI Sausilito is a perfect location and great price for a overniht stay. Shared room with Chuck and it worked great for us, we just walked to startline :) from this place.

3. Windbreaker: Firetrails 50m had given a great freebee Siere Design microlight windbreaker, it worked out perfect for early morning windly conditions and late evening finish. Its a great windbreaker but not for very rainy conditions.(It is wind resistant)

4. Hill running in past few weeks did help a lot, recovery has been great so far.













Todd, moi and Darshan overlooking Pirates Cove

Overall a perfect race, fun running the last few miles to make it to sub 13hr, small reward at end of a tough course.

more pictures at:
http://public.fotki.com/Rushme/races_and_runs/ultra/north-face-50m-2009/

Nutrition for Ultrarunning 101 (Part 1)

I have been pondering over nutrition for endurance events (ultra-running in specific) for quite sometime, today decided to jot down some of my experience. Nutrition plays such a key role for any events > 4 hrs that narrowing down the right strategy for oneself is critical to success.

In this section I am mainly going to list some thoughts on calorific replacement during endurance events.

1. Events less than marathon or a flattish 50k:
For events which are less than 4-6 hrs for a 4:30hr marathoner likeme, relying mostly on gels for every 50-1hr is sufficient. Mainly because human body has about 1800-2000 calories in the form of muscle glycogen which is the easiest and quick source body digs into during endurance events. For marathon distance typically one requires about 100 calories per hr, so total required calories is around 2600 calories.

If we are running a marathon in moderate intensity i.e in range of 70% max heart rate, about 70% of the calories are consumed primarily through carbs and rest through fat store. So we effectively need about additional 400-500 calories in the form of gels. So a gel every 50mins to 1 hr works for average athletes like me.


2. Events ranging from 8hr-14hrs :
For a hilly 50k , 50 mile and 100k events, we need to understand which of the refueling sources works for one's body. A good source to understand calorific replacement and various options are:

i) Hammer Nutrition's refueling guide.
ii) Ultrarunning magazine article by Sunny Blende, sports nutritionist.

According to article (i) some of the keys issues to consider are:
1. What is the total energy expended during endurance events?
The total energy expended during endurance exercise, is of the order of 600-900 cal/hr.
But we cannot replace entire calories expended because body cannot absorb and process food at that rate.

2. What is the max that can be processed by the body?
The limiting factors in caloric replenishment are gastric emptying and liver metabolism of carbohydrates. For most athletes, this is in the 240-280 cal/hr range, and this, by and large, sets the limit of caloric intake. If you consume more than that, you will only get some form of stomach distress.

3. How is the difference of calories between expended and consumed is fueled fulfilled?
Mainly by fat store and if the difference is too high it will dig into muscle store(protien) that's when consuming protein during endurance events helps and prevents muscle glycogen loss.

So basically our goal should be to consume around 240-280 calories every hr in different forms. To do that we have host of different options. Specially during Ultra-running you have whole buffet of food at Aid stations, so which is the strategy one should employ, well to answer that one should experiment with couple of different choices during training runs and stick with one that works.

3. Events of distances 100mi :
Disclaimer, not very experienced with the 100mi distances, but same strategy as above has worked well so far. Along with regular energy source some solid food during initial half of the race works well. As the event gets longer we need to rely on some real food as well. Since we will be running at lower intensity digesting solid food should be possible.(specially during 1st half of the race).

Fueling options(not comprehensive)

Gel and semi solid options: Most of the gel options are listed in article (ii) above, they provide about 100 calories in 1 serving. taking 2 gels and some additional calories from aid station in form of PBJ or potatoes works well for many.

Powder based:
i) Perpeteum: Hammer nutrition product this has worked very well during biking events but not so well during ultra-running for me, but works well for some of my other ultra-running friends. (has Salt as well so consider that during electrolyte replacement)

ii) Clip2: my favorite energy refueling source by SucceedsCaps. Each packet has about 150 calories of complex carbs and along with 1 gel every hour works very well. I don't get any sugar highs, body feels great as long as calories are replaced regularly. (has salt as well)

iii) Spitz: haven't used this but heard this works well for multi-day adventure racers.

Protein drinks:
i) Ensure and Boost: works great as a supplement energy source, it has good amount of protein as well(about 13gm per serving). This is very concentrated drink so diluting the drink helps to avoid stomach nausea.

Energy Bars:
There are lot of energy bars like power bars, luna, clif bars etc, but bars has a primary source is tough on stomach to digest but works well as supplement. It has been found very effective for bikers though... since bikers don't work that hard anyways :).

Finally goal is to get about 240-280 calories per hour, one needs to experiment and find that works for you during training. As George Sheeshan has been quoted umpteen times "we all are experiment of one".

2009 Bday run: Mission Peak to Rose Peak(and back)

I had been contemplating on different courses for a bday run on Dec 18th. Finally narrowed down to a run from Stanford Avenue entrance to Mission Peak to Rose Peak and back. A total distance of about 37 miles and Elevation gain of about 9200ft(approx).

I got all the required information for running this course based on past few runs with Padma(thanks) and Ohlone 50k trail directions.

1. Ohlone 50k course map clearly lists trails to take From mission peak to Rose Peak and beyond.
(I won't be taking the horse heaven trail instead will take main trail to top; shorter but steeper)
2. Also Dinesh Desai's site has some info on course from Sunol to Rose Peak.










mission to rose peak(turn back from maggie's half acre AS)

I think this entire run will be about 10hours so I Plan is to start by 6am and get done with run by 4pm in day light.

Mission to Sunol and more(C2M training run 2)

Another terrific run with Padma and Vinod. The plan for the day was to start early and get a 8hr hilly run. We started out at 6am, surprisingly parking lot of pretty occupied, it was pretty chilly weather to start with so we all were quite overdressed. The forecast called for sunny but windy weather so made sure we had a good Windbreaker and new jacket from Firetrails 50M was very useful.

This time we took a straight trail up to mission peak, it felt much harder today.. I was conservative to most parts keeping in mind a long day. As we reached summit it was very windy out there, just hiking up straight was difficult. We were glad to take trail towards Sunol which bright and windless, it was a pleasant run down to Sunol. We regrouped and refueled for another 2 hr run on Ohlone wilderness trail, it was a good reconnaissance run on this trail for my Birthday run on Dec 18th.( I am planning to run abt 36 odd miles from Stanford entrance of Mission Peak to Rose Peak and back, would be a good 10+hr run)









Elevation profile Mission to Sunol(back)

We ran until Sunol backpacking area and decided to turn back to Sunol visitor center for final refueling. Padma had got sweet potatoes for us, that was pretty tasty. 5hrs into run we had 1 more big hill to climb, I was hoping to run some parts of 5mile section. I was happy to run same splits as last time in about 1:15hrs. As I was waiting for Padma and Vinod got 1 more repeat of Mission peak, which was much harder due to wind conditions, in some sections I didn't have to work up at all, but just align myself to wind direction .. it was both easy and tough to be in path of the wind which was almost 55 mph.

Finally caught up with Vinod and Padma on the way down, both braved it very well. Vinod had just come back from Europe so was jet lagged but was determined to get a good run, Padma had some issues initially but was persistent as usual. Finally we got about 24-46 mile run with about 7500ft elevation gain in 7:30hrs. A great day out there.

I was testing quite a few things on this run for C2M 100, my experience so far
i) Firetrails jacket: Is a great windbreaker, but not sure how good would it be during rain, so far v good.
ii) nutrition stuff worked great, I am sticking to my usual formula, clip2,ensure,gels.
iii) Sugoi tights were excellent, held up very well during windy conditions and were very comfy.
iv) Ultimate Direction Diablo and Waist belt combo worked very well, back isn't heavy and waist belt offloads some of the weight. A 3 hour worth water can be easily carried.
v) Diablo offers some additional room for a fleece layer.(not a whole LOT though, something to consider)

Mission to Sunol: Kickoff C2M training

Mission to Sunol run had been on cards for a long time, finally got to do this hilly and pretty course. Initially Padma, Vinod and myself were planning to do Double Mission peak or Triple, but Vinod couldn't join due to work.

Me and Padma got started with our run at 8am, enjoying a beautiful hilly course through dense fog. Fog was so intense I could hardly see few feet, moreover some parts of the initial course was not familiar so I was hunting for the trail and making sure I am on Horse Heaven Trail leading to top. Unfortunately the beautiful views from summit were missing during 1st time, but we enjoyed the perfect running weather and continued on to Ohlone wilderness trail a 5 mile downhill to Sunol regional park head quarters. At ranger office we had plans to refill and take a break.

Interesting Sunol ranger office stocks up 10Gallon water containers for though-hikers and backpackers, It is a very convenient service for the nature lovers.

3hr 5 minutes into our run, we turned back to MP summit, surprisingly running up in parts felt really good, I was at summit in 1:15mins, I decide use the extra time to do repeats on the last 500ft section, which worked out great. Soon padma joined at summit and we headed to Stanford Ave start taking a shorter (steeper) trail.









elevation profile Mission peak to Sunol(and back)

Overall my goal for this run was to do a run with atleast 7000ft of elevation gain and it was achieved.

According to C2M course 100M gains about 27000ft of elevation gain so going fwd my approach towards training would be to do runs of similar gradient. Atleast try and do couple of 10000ft + runs and atleast one 13000-14000ft run.

Some possible courses going fwd
i) Mission - Sunol and back 18 miles 6000ft (+ 1 MP repeat) time required 5hrs
ii) Mission - Rose Peak and back 38 miles 10000ft (+ 2 MP repeat) time required 9-10hr
iii) Quad MP 24 miles 8800 ft (time required 8hrs)
iv) Quad PG&E 32 miles 8400ft (time required 8-9hrs)

50th marathon and beyond

Tomorrow I will be running Dick Collins Firetrails 50M, thats going to be my 50th marathon and beyond race. Also I will get to meet Legendary Ultrarunners Carl Anderson and Ann Trason.(RDs)

Ann Trason: In her career she has held every trail and road record at some point in and around US. One of the illustrious record is of her winning Western States 100M 14 times and once she was almost Overall winner, Until Tim T finally won it. (She came in overall 2nd)

Its been a fantastic running journey so far. Since the time I started trail running, my love for running has been purely driven by desire to see places. As a reflection into past few years of running I thought would list some of my favorite races in various distances, most of my criteria of choosing these races has been beauty of the course than anything else.

1. 5k run:
Forest of Nisene Marks, Aptos, CA
why:
Beautiful run through Nisene Marks park, easy 5k and a PR course. emotional favorite as it was my 1st 5k. It is very well organized with other longer races by friend and ultra-runner Carol Cuminale.

2. 10k run:
Palo Alto night run
why:
One of the few night runs on a full moon day, nice easy course by palo alto baylands.

3. half-marathon:
San Francisco marathon
why:
Organized as part of SF marathon, there are 2 half marathon options, the 1st half is the most prettiest (little tougher) run through fisherman's wharf, marina, up-the hill to Golden Gate bridge and run on the bridge. Some days when it is cloudy and misty; views of beaches and the bay is sublime beauty.

4. marathon:
Big Sur marathon
why:
You need to see to believe this magnificent course, Highway 1 is one of the country's best routes and running 26 miles through this highway is a rare opportunity to experience the beauty of the course, It has different genre of musical bands almost every mile and the views of the coast; highway 1 from hurricane point is well worth the entry fee. Post race feast is exceptional. Its a excellent family race destination as after race one can have liesurely time in and around small cute town of Caramel, enjoy 17 mile drive(ya right after a marathon) and Monterrey aquarium is a excellent attraction.

5. 50k:
Headlands 50k
why:
Most of the races organized by pctrailruns.com are my favorite. but this is the best run through marin county. Lot of hills, but views are worth the effort.

6. 50 mile:
Quicksilver 50M
why:
Pretty course, constantly changing elevation profile. Excellent friendly volunteers and a Sumptuous post race Grill and Massages. Also it was my 1st trail 50m, barely made the 45 mile cutoff by 90 seconds. Usually it tends to get hot.

7: 100k:
Miwok 100k
why:
Of-course, any race in Marin county has to be by default the best course in bay area. Apart from that Tia bodington and lot of volunteers do a fabulous job of organizing this event. Great views, excellent post race food and fun swag bag.

8: 100mile:
Tahoe rim trail 100m
In short as the RD says "Glimpse of heaven and taste of hell", a tough beautiful course. With generous cutoffs. Folks without altitude issues can do the 100M at a slow pace.

Based on feedback from other running buddies I have to yet run through Bishop 50m, Cascades 100, Big horn 100 and ofcourse Hardrock 100(someday). I havnt yet decided on 1 or 2 100's I may run next yr. (leaning towards Big horn 100m)

Gear Review: Petzl Myobelt

recenly used Petzl MyoBelt, it uses 3 AA batteries and manufacture claims it lasts 80-170hrs (in max(85 lumens) or economy mode(70lumens) )

http://www.trails.com/gear/p/petzl/myobelt-xp/

my experience so far
1. battery slot is not on head and headlamp is lighter, and for colder races you can put battery unit inside jacket for longer use
(v good for mountaineering)
2. economy mode was good enough to run clearly through night,
3. sometimes the battery unit makes it clumsy while running, but you get used to it.
4. buttons to change mode were small, found it hard with gloves on(I dread using it with mittens)
5. quite pricey but hopefully will recovery using rechargeable batteries

Overall, I liked the long battery life and strength of headlight. I recommend it.

Tour of Sonoma: Bike and Run in Wine country.

Vineman Triathlon,
Sonoma,
CA Aug 1st 2009

This is the closest I will ever come to multi-sport event(I think), I lack the motivation to learn swim or I am wussy of getting drowned, I truly admire folks for their commitment to train for more than 1 disciplines which takes up as much as a full time job, only true passion can encourage you to train for 8-9 months.

I am proud to have friends who swim through 2.4 miles like dolphins. Its commendable what some of my friends have accomplished at Vineman 2009.

my wine buddy Rajeev Char had mentioned about Relay event at Vineman and it was going to be my event of 2009. Char also helped me sync up with ChandraMouli Subramanium (a.k.a Mouli ) for Vineman relay, that worked great. I have been pondering over doing multi-sport event for almost 7 yrs now, but found it tough to get out of whirlpool of Ultrarunning, I just loved my comfort zone i.e just run. But in 2009 I decided to focus more on biking with Rashmi.

I began my training in Jan mostly relying on coaching/guidance from Veteran of multiple Ironmans Char, I was lucky Rashmi loves to bike as well so we ended up biking some pretty scenic and tough courses around woodside, portola and pacifica. My bike training was mostly training for Tour De Cure. And for runs I mainly relied on running couple of ultra's around bay area. I got some good running base after doing
- Sonoma 50M
- Ruth Anderson 50M(RD Rajeev Patel)
- Miwok 100k


By July mid I was waiting for the training to get done, I was tired of those long bike rides and endless butt pains, really admire all these Tri-athletes who can endure this pain year after year.

myself and swim buddy Mouli synced up on our preparation occasionally, thanks to Rashmi and Renuka who kept monitoring his swim training :), he was terrified of any encounters with them.

Pre-race:
Carpooled with Chars on Jul 31st eve for Pre-Race checkin. I was glad to meet up with Bay area Tri gang(Stan, Abhijit, Tandy, Doug, Manisha, Som and Mouli) at the expo, Char briefed me over transitions, special needs bags etc. Also met with ultrarunning friend Dr Mark Tanaka who seemed pretty casual about Ironman distance, he had got just 1 long bike ride but had huge running base(150 mile run in April :)) well he was'nt short of endurance but probably speed on bike.

We had another group of elite Relay athletes Tandy(swim), Kevin(Bike) and Tony Fong(TeamAsha coach and runner) who were brilliantly put together by Char and the only link between them was Renuka Char, inspite of that they went to win their age division in 9:40hrs(almost close to my bike time).










(prerace dinner @ Mary's Pizza Shack courtesy Rajeev)


Some of us joined for pre-race dinner at Mary's Pizza Shack, Tandy very thoughtfully got some home made cookies(yummyyy) and Stan shared some of his motivations behind doing Ironmans.










(pre-race showoff)

Race-day:

"Anil , Mouli is done with his swim" Shouted Chakry

Whatt.. its just 1:30 mins into swim, well he is done with his swim.. that means I need to bike and run.

I started off by bike in the most bizarre transition in history of Vineman, Relay teams theoretically supposed to have near zero transition, but our team took 6+ mins to transition from jeans to bike gear. Oh well here I go ..










(Transition 1 buzzing with swimmers)

Earlier in the morning I had carpooled with Mouli and Veena, it was exciting to see all the athletes preparing for swim leg, As per my understanding Mouli was expected by 8:40-50am(1hr 50 mins for swim) so I was sleeping in their car until 8:10am, Picked up coffee on the way to swim/bike unfortunately couldn't even enjoy my coffee because my partner was too good at swimming 2.4 miles, he beat his expectations.

Tandy was very upset with my casual attitude :), but she did advise me to take it easy as I had 2 stages to go. well Finally Felt was put to use, I was feeling pretty good during the 1st loop I knew I was biking beyond my intended pace but wanted to take advantage of the cooler weather(it couldn't have been any better). I was enjoying moderately undulating course through wine country. I Refueled at special needs area, my nutrition worked great, towards the end of 1st loop met up with Mark and we chatted about our upcoming events. Towards the middle of 2nd loop caught up with Abhijit and Char, who was riding easy due to his ITB issues. Abhijit seemed very well paced for his 1st Ironman.

By mile 90 I was looking forward to T2 and knowing that most of our friends would be there. Got into T2 and ready for run, which felt great, Mouli/Krishna got me some sandwiches but didn't feel like eating much, so carried on with loop 1, Each loop had about 4 aid stations and running between them just passed pretty quickly, on the way chatted with few Ironman finishers from Team in Training. I wasn't running hard just enjoining my experience. The loop format made it much easier to see other runners.

Tony was running hard to finish his 3rd and final loop, Doug was in his 2nd loop, Stan seemed to be in distress, later got to know he had stomach issues so decided to call it a day.(sound decision). I was running close to Char and Abhijit most of the time.

Char was close to his sub 15, we ran together most of the 3rd loop and got a strong finish. I wanted to finish with Mouli but he wasn't in sight. (he was busy running errands and helping us out with post race rides). Abhijit soon followed with a sub 15 finish on his 1st Ironman. Our relay team finished under 14:28hrs.









(Anil and Mouli:Vineman Team)

It was exhilarating to cross the finish line, all effort seemed worthwhile. Congratulations Vineman athletes, it was so much fun to be finishing this event in a big group. Thanks to Rashmi for her support during long training for this event. We were very fortunate many of our TeamAsha friends showed up from bay area to cheer us throughout the event. I am indebted to my wine buddy Rajeev Char for sharing his Triathlon experience, helping with bike issues and just being out there.











(Congratulations Abhijit, Tandy, Doug and Rajeev)


Overall I was pleased with the way our event turned up. IMHO without training for swimming, it was more time consuming to Train for Ironman distance races than a 100 mile run, effort wise probably it is close to a hilly 100k race. Will I do it again, hmm... probably if I can sync up with a swimmer and this time I promise to be on time.










(Photographer and my bike buddy Rashmi)

All pictures courtesy Rajeev and Rashmi.

Indian Angle: A coverage of bay area athletes

India Angle
Host: Shachi Patel

About 3 weeks back I got call from one of our friends from Asha Org Shachi Patel. I was pleasantly surprized to know about her new program titled The Indian Angle and that she wanted some of us as Guests in her Radio show titled Extreme Acheievers.

To start with I clarified that none of my outdoor pursuits are extreme per se, and I will be honored to be part of the program. Some of the fellow guests were my other running friends, Padma (Avid Ultra runner), Anush(Runner and Mountaineer) and Rajeev Char(Ironman athlete).

Apart from talking about our backgrounds, each of us had a specific topic to talk about I was mainly asked to discuss my 2008 Himalayan hikes to
i) Everest Base Camp, South side, Nepal
ii) Climb of Stok Kangri, Ladakh, India

Padma mainly spoke about how she accomplished being the First Female Indian 100 mile runner, Rajeev spoke about Ironman distances and his passion for it and Anush spoke about his love for mountains. Entire interview can be heard at: usstream.tv. It was very nice talking to Shachi and she did a excellent job of moderating between all guests.

Last day @ Rio

Already at end of your 2 weeks trip in South America, The lively continent. Past 9 days we have been travling exclusively in Brazil, starting with a breathtaking views of 275 falls at I?gasscu falls, river ride in Rio del Parana to Lively spirit of people in Copacabana, it has been a exciting journey.

After Beunos Aires we headed to Igassu falls, our guide Walter showed us through both Argentina and Bralizian sides with some additional events in small town of foz de igassu. It was very informative talking to walter, we learnt a lot about brazilian way of life.

After a 2 day stay at Igassu we headed towards beach city of Rio de Janiero. Carlos from Via capi picked us up and droped us at Orla right on Copacabana beach. We were pretty tired since our flight was delayed so we took it easy, after a small stroll we crashed at Orla.

Day 2 at Rio was a full day organized tour. After a brif chat with hotel assistant Francis decided to cut short my tour to visit a futbol match. It was between local team flamengo and santo andre, was very exciting to spirit of local fans at maracana. Attacks of flamengo were too quick fo santo andre to match, it was a one sided match.

Day 3 we decided to just relax and laze around the beach with couple of Capirinhas.. that was a great day. Soon we returned and decided to pack for our Wild life trip at Pantanal.. which turned out to be a total fiasco.. (more on that later)

Last day was mostly spent shopping for souvenoirs at popular Hippí market at Ipanema and enjoying buffet at our hotel, what a feast.

Adeus Beunos Aires

Last of the 3 days at Beunos Aires. From the start this trip has been sweet as planned so far. We had a long flight to BA from SFO, spent almost a 1 day with all wait time, we could have easily gone other side of the globe.


BA has resemblance of Europe, tiny small streets resembles more of Itlay, though havnt been to any city in specific but based on my knowledge from movies, pictures and report from friends.

Day1 we spent discussing various places with our local trip arranger Laura, very informative meetings, our iterinary for next 3 days seems all set. After a short rest we headed to San Telma for weekly Antique fair and Flea market. Followed by evening a quite evening in Resoleta Silverpub.. our Brushchetta order was pretty challenging so was our frequent visits by a stranger.


Day 2 was a organized city tour taking us to some neighbour hoods of BA Palemo park, Resoleta cemetery , San Telma, Caminito live street tango shows, Boca Junior Stadium.. was a good use of our time. After a short rest we headed towards Florida street and Peurto madera for some taste of BA shopping and harbour side cafes.

Day 3 was supposed to be our own designed trip to Tibre for a boat ride in Delta de Parana, instead we chose to go with a organized trip which turned out to be good decision as we got benefits of a informed guiode Thomas and met with family from Rio. Very interesting sharing expèrience with them.

Tonight we "may" goto somn dance place, not sure yet, we need to wrap up for a morning flight to Igauzo Falls.

Mt Hood climbing class is ON

my earlier plan to spend 1 week glacier class with SummitClimb.com didn't materialize, apparently they had way too many folks on wait list. So I have decided to pursue a 2 day Glacier Travel Crevasse rescue class with Timberline Guides. Its a long drive up to Mt Hood from bay area, but I guess will pursue, considering there arent much free weekends.

This should open up more time to summit Shasta this year.

Winter fatass running

I am so badly lagging behind my blogging, decided to club couple of my running experiences of this year in a single blog. This year has been great so far, I was lucky enough to join for some of fantastic courses all around south bay. I have been running around bay area trails for 6 yrs but still LOT more to explore.

1. Los Gatos Marathon (Fatass style) On 2/8
This was organized by Adam Blum and Sean Lang a fatass style trail marathon. Some geenrous volunteers provided us water, food at mile 5,13 and 18. Course starts from Jones Trailhead in Novitiate Park in Los Gatos and runs all the way upto Mount Sombrero. I loved the other side of Mount Somberero were the course opens up and beatutiful views of Santa Cruz mountains. I was glad to spend good time Talking to Keith Dubner. Considering I had'nt run much for past few months, was in good shapre towards the end and was very happy to finish in 5:35hrs. Post run chatting was fun, catching up with Pierre(winner), Adam, Sean and Jim Magill. Thanks Adam and Sean looking fwd to 2010 run.

2. 2nd Saratoga 50k (Fatass 50k) On 2/21
Another Fatass race of the season put up by avid trailrunner Keith Blum. It mainly consisted of 3 10 mile loops, running different part of Skyline to Sea Trail and Saratoga Gap trail. Again this run I started early with Keith Dubner. The course was made very easy by Keith's meticulous directions, we missed just 1 turnaround in the first loop. Overall a beautiful run the redwoods, the section near Castle rock park was my favourite. The last loop was a rush for me as I had to head back home just in time for my guitar class, that was lil stretch, but a fun day.













clear day in santa crus mountains

Teleported to Kathmandu

As I am listening to one of mesmerizing compositions of AR Rehman, Khwaja mere Khwaja from Jodaa Akbar, Iam instantly transported to my hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal.


I was just back from my Trek to from base camp, incidentally Jodaa Akbar was being relayed. This song just kept playing in my head as I was pondering over my failed attempt and how I could make it different. I so much want to go back one of the years, probably in next 3-5 yrs.

Someday. For now I am happy to be teleported through this song those beautiful mountains of Himalayas.