Flashback 2018

From Ultra perspective my main goal for the year was to complete unfinished job at TRT and have more balanced running schedule amidst all other commitments in life. I think I did fairly well on both fronts. our daughter was adjusting well at school in 2nd part of the year that was a major relief and we did plan one good vacation at Kawaii.

Listing some key runs/races of 2018 and how the year went. 

1. Duke's 10X dogmeat 50k: Duke captured report of the day here. I ran the race mostly with Jason it was fun catching up on our racing/running plans.

2. Western States Fatass Run 100M: Again started by Duke and I jumped at the idea of running WS 100 course as a Fatass event, it was on my list for a while and I am fortunate to make this happen. This was more precious than any other 100 I have finished before. I am extremely thankful to my friends Martha(Duke's wife) and Rajeev Patel for their support as crew at various points. Duke has detailed report here. Photos from the adventure are here

3. co-RD Ruth Anderson: I believe it was 39th year it went very well, Rajeev was out of town so I had to take up brunt of work on race day, we had a seasoned team of people helping us out so we worked it out fine.

4. 10th Quicksilver 100k: another of my regular runs, completed 10th run at QS and 5th 100k this year, middle miles were tough but sucked it up and got it done. Anil Chandran finished this tough 100k too, Bipul had some back issues so decided to drop.\

5. TRT 100M: 

Since the DNF 2017, this race was haunting and I was patiently waiting to get this done, for some reason day time was much harder than previous years, but 2nd half was made much easier by Bipul's companionship and his famous kichadi, it was a treat to have that at 50m turnaround.

6. Bay Ridge 100k:

mainly decided to run this local Ultra on famous Dick Collins 50M course to accompany Hart who was doing his 1st 100k, it was brilliant effort of perseverance by him and we got it done just in time and got our moneys worth.

7. 10th CIM:

got my 10th finish at my favorite marathon and had a good race as well. good participation by Akamai friends and some other bay area friends.

Amongst friends several notable accomplishments

- Satpal and Paul Tran got their RDL finishes.

- Hart finished his 1st 100k.

- Shashank and Pradeep finished their 1st 100M.

- CJ finished Tahoe 200 and inspired few of us in 2019.

- Bipul got enough points for UTMB and signed for Ouray 100 in 2019.

- Anil Chandran finished QS 100k this year apart from Comrades.

- Ganesh finished Trans USA bike tour.

10th CIM in 2018

Recently completed my 10th CIM in 3:33, as usual this was impeccably organized by SRA, I love to go back to this year end race, its my ritual to cap the year with this race. It was time to list short memories of this race from past 10 years.


2003:
1st CIM and 2nd marathon, I was mighty dissapointed with my 1st one at Long beach marathon as I finished in 5:12, few friends from Asha were in same boat and signed for CIM, I jumped in to train with them and ran a decent 4:48, a time I was satisfied with at that time.

2007:
Didnt run CIM for few years as I was caught with the Ultra bug and ended up running my 1st 100M at TRT that year, due to my work permit I had to relocate out of country for few months, I thought would be a good idea to race a marathon again, was pleasantly surprised to get my 1st sub 4. finished in 3:58

2010:
my friends Kiran and Arun were interested in getting back to marathons o we did signup to run and train together. We had pretty good training that fall mostly training in Los gatos creek trail. They both did very well as well. I finished in 3:38 I did get a decent 8 week training to run  a PR.

2011:
This was the year Ahana was born, I backed off running ultras, but wanted to run some quality race, at that time Dharmendra was trying for a BQ so got into BQ bug, we also had good training going on at Akamai had great time training with Josh Hunt. Got my PR that year at 3:14

2012:
I was 4 minuted away from BQ so trained harder and lost some weight to run a 3:10 marathon there, but weather gods had other plans. Arun and Dharmendra joined for this one as well. Dharmendra ran a really good race on a tough day in 3:08,  I ended up finishing in 3:25 after staying with 3:10 pace group till 16, I was spent, conditions were by far the toughest for a marathon. This year marks 5th year of CIM

2014:
Got into CIM loyalty bug and decided to do this on a regular basis, after training well I got a flu like sensation race week, I ended up running 3:21


2015:
2nd best marathon racing day, got -ve splits running with Jon Olson as pacer of 3:25 group. finished in 3:22


2016:
Had just got back from India and in my jet lagged state managed to run a 4:08

2017:
Another mediocre performance, didnt train specifically but managed a 3:38. Carpooled with Bipul and Manjeet.

2018:
Got good training cycle this year, I was hoping to run sub 3:25 but ran 3:33, pretty even splits, was happy with the day. 4 friends from Akamai joined (Venky, Josh, Sandro. Sandro BQed that day with 3:20:21) many of the other local friends joined too.

Now onto chasing #15 at CIM.

Races 2019: More doing Less dreaming.

November/December is the exciting part of year to plan races and adventures for following year.
With lottery season winding down, I have narrowed down my plan for 2019. I have committed to make it "More doing, Less dreaming" year so jumping into 3 big events which have been on my list for a while. Bighorn 100m run, High Sierra Loop (48m adventure run), Tahoe 200m hike.


Feb: 
         Feb 4th: Eldrith 50k(registered)
         Feb 12th:         Saratoga Fatass 50k
         Feb 23rd: Mt Hamilton 50k

Mar: 
         May 9th: Marin Ultra 50m (Not registered)
         May 16th:         Dogmeat Fatass 50k  (registered)

Apr:  
        6th:  American River 50M(registered, with Josh)

May : 
       5th:  Miwok 100k (got in lottery, registered, with Josh)
      12th:  QS 100k (registered)


Jun: 
    14th: Bighorn 100m (registered, flight?,hotel?, with Karen?)
    23-Jul 28th: India Trip


Aug 10-11 (In planning): 3 day trip, 2 day weekend runs in yosemite (TBD).
               day 1 High Sierra Loop (33m or 48m)
               day 2 15m run on TM to white wheels and back (Optional)


Aug 23 : Castle peak 100k (reg)


Sep 13th: Tahoe 200 (reg) (Pacers, Karen, Bipul, Ajith)
                 lodging:TBD
                 

Oct 12th: Ruth Anderson RD


Dec 1st: CIM 11th (registered)


Travel Plans:
Jan: San Diego (Jan 3-6)
Apr: Vancouver  (Apr 13-20)
Jun: India trip (Jun 23 - Jul 28th)