First Half Marathon - My experience in SPCM, Chennai 2020

My 2020 New Year's resolution is resuming blogging. It's been six years since i penned a blog post. Lot happened in this six years and to list few highlights, i am back to hometown in 2014, practiced photography, switched two companies, got married in 2017, became father in 2018 and took up running seriously in 2019 for fitness. All these years, I never stopped expressing my views through words but i switched the platform (FB) which i regret big time. I am not dogmatic here on medium that one should use blog. But I felt that FB is not ideal place to jot down our thoughts which will fade away or wont reach the target audience in the midst of attractive unwanted posts of mass. So here i am, my FIRST post of 2020.

FIRST is always special. Life is full of FIRSTs and they will linger in our mind forever. Personally they are like time machine, we can travel back to our vivid memory anytime and dwell in nostalgia for a while. Isn't it true? Our first kiss, our first day in college, our first love, our first job, our first salary and many more firsts. All my FIRSTs are gushing in to my memory now. This post is about such First. My first Half Marathon (HM) experience which i completed yesterday (05th Jan, 2020) in SPCM, Chennai. 

Marathon, arguably one of the toughest sports in the world considering its duration and intensity irrespective of climatic condition. I’m confused now where to begin as I have so many different emotions swirling around inside of me. It is now reality that i finished 21K which i once thought impossible. I feel sense of achievement, triumph, pride, happiness and price for hard-work & dedication . I have been updating training pics and progress constantly in stories of Whatsapp/ FB and now i wanted to immortalize all above said feelings and experience while i am still savoring it. 

I was a gym loving guy and passionately hit gym for 9 years till my wedding. After marriage, for all possible reasons i became lethargic and lazy which ended up in weight gain obviously. Then on one fine day, i came to know about "Chrompet Cheetahs" in my locality through Adaikappan fondly known as AK. Chrompet Cheetahs (CC), one of the running chapters in Chennai and i must dedicate a separate post about them who plays major role in my running activity.

Training: 

To sum things up, I have only been running for little over an year and participated in one 10K and 12K race officially prior to 2020 HM SPCM, Chennai. So i never ran beyond 12K and I was so skeptical to register for HM. Frankly, the thought of running 21K scared me and i waited till last day of registration to signup for the challenge.

Meanwhile i know i should hit the road hard and test my fitness level. So putting my fears and doubts aside, i started my preparation around October end. Here comes the role of CC who charted out well designed plan for each week according to the target timing. Since this is my debut race, i was not worried about the timing. Long Slow Distance (LSD) in weekends were challenging as my legs were not used to run beyond 12K. Looking back at the training mileage (215 KM in two months), it is incredible to know how far i have travelled.

It is so easy now to type that i have done 2 months of training before the race but every part of training was equally challenging. Training made me to gain confidence that i could complete the HM. Training was mixed bag for me. Experienced pain, dehydration, cramps, recovery, demotivated at times and was confident many times. Throughout the training, one thing that kept me disturbing was my shin. Mostly i ran through pain and i felt like self torment. Often i questioned myself, Does it worth it? Only at the fag end of training, i realized the fault in shoe lace pattern and that helped to overcome the shin pain. I should thank Thamarai for all those pep talks during LSD and selection of different routes and Sharmi for tagging me in all LSDs. Whenever i run in MIT track, many seniors helped me in correcting my running form and as i said earlier, i should write individual post about CC to thank them.

D-Day:

We collected the BIB on 4th Jan 2020, previous day of race. Doctor Rads and Master Daya arranged van for the race as start and end points are in different location, we avoided taking own vehicle to the venue. On Race day, I woke up @2.15 AM to get ready for 4.45AM start time. Bus started at 3.30AM from MIT with 22 co-runners and we reached the spot well before reporting time. San Chan helped me with little warm up session and we geared up for the real challenge.

With my training experience, i set reasonable self target of 3KM 8 pace as warm up, 12KM 7.30 pace and push last 6KM with stored energy. I was so naive here, missing the climate part totally. Usually on December and early January, winter should peak in Chennai. It is the dream period to run comfortably in city. But to my dismay, climate was so horrible on race day. It was an anxious start and i stick with my own plan of 8 pace till first aid station. I already drenched completely, thanks to the weather. Then i picked up my pace to 7.30 and carried the same till 10KM. If it was other normal day, i would have happily quit the race.

 I felt tired legs and started pondering how to cover other part of the race? Still 11KM to go. The same thought beats me down and lowered confidence. I have a strange mindset that once i start walking, i could not run further. So no matter how hard it is, i try to push myself to run rather than walk at least @8 pace. Hence the walk + run methodology won't suit me. Post 10KM, i started running @8 pace and covered another 6KM. 16KM done around 2 hours. By this time, I would have gulped truck load of salt and electrolyte. There comes the back stiffness. All my shortfall in training started staring back at me with evil laugh.

Every step post 16K is blur and i couldn't pick up pace beyond 8.30. I was so stubborn not to stop running and didn't want to succumb to the relief until reaching the finish point. But my mind lost to the body fatigue. I tried last possible strategy. Yes, i hate to try the walk + run. Epic fail in the attempt and i managed to cover another 2KM with this method. Still 3KM to reach the destination and with no other go i started walking @11 pace. Aim is to reach the destination and i consciously crawled which brought me close to the ultimate goal that i had been painstakingly working towards over two months. There i spotted Master Daya and AK. I got sudden gush of energy due to Alppa santhosam watching them walking and joined both for the climax. I badly wanted to see the finish point arch and pushed last attempt of running with whatever energy left. I told AK and Daya to finish at same time and we executed at least this as planned. It was a dream moment for me. 

It was a tough race. As the cliche goes, it was more of mind game. Finally i completed the race of 21K in 3 hours 6 minutes. I planned for 2 hours 45 minutes, i was in such confidence at start of race. Nevertheless, i am proud of myself that i completed the race without any injury in testing weather and not so pleasant running atmosphere. It is a never ending process. Every run is a new run, new opportunity to learn about myself and improve on the shortfalls. I have learnt more about myself as a runner on my bad days than i do on my best ones. There is no open secret behind this success. Set a goal, no matter how hard it is. Work religiously with dedication, be with like minded people to guide and you will get there!! With this philosophy, i finish my post. Hope to run more in coming days.

Thanks for reading!!

En Route to Gavi, Kerala

Finally I am forced to come back to blog space to freeze my invaluable memories that I gained in Western Ghats, Kerala. I almost forget that I own a personal blog and I renewed it for another two years. To my dismay, this is my second post of this year and I am writing this after eight months hiatus.

It was not a pre-planned trip. Before I headed to Gavi (Kerala), so many people came up with their own stories about this place. Few told me it was blocked due to SABARIMALA season. Few told Kerala forest department permission is must to explore this region. And few cooked up a story that Gavi is blocked as Tiger Sensex is going on. I googled, mailed and tried calling few officials regarding the feasibility of visiting the forest but everything ended in vain. Finally believing my gut feeling headed straight to Gavi beating all odds.

Day 1:

I boarded KSRTC bus (only bus to Kumuli through GAVI) from Pathanamthita bus stand @6.45 AM. Within 2 hours of travel, thick forest with green smell beckoned us which were way ahead of my imagination. Moment i entered jungle, the sense of calmness is palpable. I have been to forest region before but this is huge and dense. Almost four hours we traveled through thick jungle. Awesomematic bumpy ride ended at 12.15PM and went to Green mansion (only lodge to stay) for room stay with bum numbness. Luckily I got the room there to stay and they charged me 2200Rs (includes Jeep jungle safari, boating, trekking, three times food, room to stay and a guide to assist you in jungle). But if you have idea to visit this place, get pre-booking done in this lodge.

First thing I did after reaching Gavi was having lunch. They serve both Kerala and Tamil Nadu style food for all three times. Then after taking a nap in room, I started clicking flowers and humming birds located nearby to the lodge. Clicking humming bird is difficult and challenging task for me. They are too small and constantly switching places. I was having 70-200mm lens and I can’t click them from far. I spent more than 2 hours and painstakingly clicked around 50 pics to get one in motion sucking honey from the flower. After satisfied with my humming bird photo, I got into the boat with my guide in a silent artificial lake situated near to the lodge. Nature has endowed Kerala with great scenic beauty. I had a pleasant two hours of boating where I saw Darter (Snakebird) for the first time and enjoyed bathing few minutes in waterfall at the other end of lake alone. The day 1 ended with dinner (provided chicken gravy) and unusual sleep with too many unique sounds produced by various nocturnal habitats. After 8 years, I spent a whole day without touching cell phone (No network available). This was one of the strange things that I did after quite a while.

Day 2:

I woke up at 5 o’clock with uncontrollable shivering due to chill weather. Still I can hear those mystery sounds from various insects and birds. I was getting ready for the much awaited jungle safari through the thick jungle to site few wild animals. After having black coffee, I boarded one jeep along with a wildlife analyst who was having Nikon 80-400mm lens. The day started with wild bison which was far away from us where my 70-200 couldn’t reach. Then we traveled around 30KM and unluckily we couldn’t see any wild animals nearby us. We spotted Sambar deer too far, few black langur and Malabar giant squirrel. I was disappointed that I couldn’t spot any wild animals like tiger, elephant, leopard and wild dogs. But the fellow tourist was having fun clicking various birds which I couldn’t even spot at my first sight.

Here I realized that in jungle we need to look for birds too rather than waiting only for wild animals. Our guide and wildlife analyst were having debate on various birds that we spotted which I am totally unaware of. I was so naive that in one instance, guide was showing us Bull Bull bird and I was desperately looking for a monkey. This is my knowledge about the birds. In another instance, I was hysterically screaming to stop the jeep as I spotted parrot (only bird I was aware of). Around 20 kinds of birds we covered and none of the bird I couldn’t take a proper pic with my 70-200mm. Entire journey I was using my camera as mini-binocular. Then coming back from safari, we had breakfast and I headed for trekking to try my luck again to catch few wild animals. I almost climbed top of the mountain where I can clearly see SABARIMALA which is just 30KM away from Gavi. I covered around 15KM by walk frantically looking for beast but nothing I noticed other than green wiper and blood sucking leaches.

Return journey:

After having lunch on day 2, I was waiting for the KSRTC bus (only bus) back to Pathanamthita. This was the best part of the entire journey. I saw around 15 wild elephants, so many black langur, bison and deer in close range which I ultimately missed in jungle safari and trekking. Driver was kind enough to stop the bus whenever we spotted animal. But sadly I didn’t take any photo since I dismantled my Canon gear and packed inside the camera bag. Here I badly missed my old companion Lumix FZ-38. After 5 long hour of splendid travel, just before reaching the destination I was appalled to see heavy smoke coming out from the bus engine. It is very difficult to maintain buses on these kinds of routes and luckily it stopped just few kilometers away from the destination. Otherwise we would have stranded in middle of jungle haplessly. Then I caught one auto and reached Pathanamthita. From there I headed to Trivandrum to catch my flight to Madras.

So if you are planning to Gavi, things to take care are

• Pre-book the room in Green Mansion cottage (under Kerala forest department)
• Don’t miss to look around while travelling from Pathanamthita to Gavi (if you start from Kerala) / Kumuli to Gavi (if you start from TN)
• If you want to use mobile then carry BSNL sim.
• For people who has penchant towards the wildlife Photography, carry long range lens (400mm or 500mm) or long zoom bridge cam to click the birds and animals
• Have patience and maintain silent to enjoy wildlife.

This is the first time I traveled alone to a forest and started doing wildlife photography. I have learnt basics and looking forward to have blast in future by rectifying it.

RIP mama!!!

Until Wednesday (NOV 14, 2012), this year is such a fruitful and sweetest year in my personal life. My brother got married, my sister got engaged, did 60th marriage for my parents, successfully switched my working stream in office and took my photography passion to the next level recently.

On Tuesday, we celebrated the DIWALI in much much joyful manner with neighbor kids. Decibel level of our laughter was more than that of bursting crackers. Next day, around 4 o’clock we got the terrible news which just swiped away all our previous day’s happiness and turned 2012 as a terrible year of my life. My dearest maternal uncle has passed away who fell down from third floor while checking the water tank.

He was the epitome of love and kindness. He was altruistic and greeted all with his trademark smile. He never said NO to anyone. He was my YES MAN. If you read my old posts with tag “parents”, I always stress about taking good care of parents. He was the man who injected this idea deep into me. He single handedly took care of my grandma who suffered from complete paralysis for 6 years.

“Yesterday is a memory, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift, which is why it is called the present.”

Everyone cried and all talked about his kindness and greatness. But nothing is going to get back him. We never know what will happen next minute. So I repeat, let’s break our silence. No more vengeance and no more stupid ego. Make peace with all and live the present.

RIP mama. You will always be remembered. You will never be forgotten. You will be celebrated forever. I will try my best to live like you. Thanks for everything. Finishing this post with heavy heart and wet eyes. Love you :’(

The End meets the Beginning (Life is a circle)

“Forty is the old age of youth; fifty the youth of old age”. How true it is??

Recent happenings in my home made me to realize the power of this old saying and this is the reason behind this post.

Going by this old saying, my mom just entered into her teenage and dad crossed his teenage in their old age. Recently my mom started losing her teeth due to gum disease which is quiet common at her age similar to infant having no teeth. Both my mom and dad’s muscles and bones become weak as with the child whose bones are weak in their forming and strengthening process.

In childhood, we were totally dependent on our parents for everything. They helped us monetarily to get education, to get good clothes, medicine to cure from illness, took us to movies and outings. Now after my dad’s retirement, I am doing the same to them.

I still remember, how my mom screamed when I asked her permission for taking bike to attend a function at the age of17. Now I am commanding my dad not to take his bike for longer distance to attend one. He became old enough to tackle the city’s traffic and rash driving by others.

These prove the popular saying “Old age is second childhood”. Except the fact that, kids grow stronger but older people don’t. As they grow old, their childishness also grows with them. Their bodies and minds start degenerating into what we once were, helpless children. They need a lot of care, affection and attention. They cry and become so dependent.

You are growing old every day, so am I. I do agree we tie youth close to our mind by keeping ourselves young and happy. So let us pour love and affection to them who already did altruistically on us.

Homemaker, the toughest job in planet

I remember, back in my school days when teacher asked me to brief about my family. I started off briskly with my dad, then about my siblings and finally ended up with my mom as housewife (homemaker) in dull tone. I thought being a housewife is easy & cool and that’s the reason behind dip in my decibel level. They can stay at home, watch TV all times, no home work, no exams and no pressure. But now I realized that being a homemaker is the toughest job in world. [I am writing this post by having my mom (South indian) in my mind].

So what is homemaker means? When I searched in google, I got this.

“a wife who manages a household while her husband earns the family income”

So simple, isn’t it? But it is not. Let me brief about the nature of job.

• Wake up at early morning. Clean the entrance and put KOLAM (rangoli)
• Prepare hot tea/coffee for all your family members and wake them up from their bed
• Run behind your kids and help them in bathing and get them dressed for school
• Prepare breakfast and help the partner and children to get ready for work and school (if you have 2/3 kids then prioritizes which one to feed first. Fights may come and be prepared to tackle).
• If you have small kids, take them to school and wave your hands till they disappear from your vision
• Back from school, quickly have breakfast and start thinking for lunch.
• Wash all the vessels and utensils which you used while preparing last day’s meal
• While washing, simultaneously have chat with neighbors and give them free advice to sort out their family problems
• Come back to kitchen and start preparing lunch
• If you have small kids, take the lunch box to school and feed them
• Watch noon serials and yell at the lady villain who tortures heroine and sob with her
• While watching serial have your lunch
• Take a nap
• Get ready to wash all your family member’s clothes (my mom didn’t use washing machine). Get one for sure.
• Again if you have small kid, bring them from school
• Prepare snacks for them and undress their uniform
• Take them to coaching classes, if any (Bring them back later)
• Play with them, have a little chat about their day and help them in finishing home work
• Start preparing dinner for all (if one don’t like particular dish then prepare different dish for them)
• Again watch serials and cry with them and have dinner
• Prepare milk and serve it to all before they go to bed
• Put rice in grinder, if at all you planned to prepare idly/ dosa for next day’s breakfast
• Clean the grinder and go to bed
• Don’t forget to switch on mosquito repellent before going to bed

Till now, I told about the daily routine of a homemaker. Apart from this,

• You need to take care of finance of your family. You should be smart and frugal. You will be getting your partner’s full salary or part of it (depends on situation). In that, you need to get groceries, pay school fees, rent and other expenses.
• Plan for savings (Very important)
• Take care of anyone who is falling sick and take them to hospital
• Do first aid, if anyone get hurt
• Console crying baby and comfort demoralized partner
• Remember all the things that others mentioned you and remind them of that event
• Decorate home, take good care of garden and pets
• Attend all school functions and help your kid to prepare for all competition and encourage them
• The most difficult and important task is to try and stop fighting. You should not lose your temper and carefully take wise decision while stopping fight

If you fail in any above mentioned points then it will directly or indirectly affect the growth and moral of your family. Being a homemaker is like ruling a nation. Single handedly they should take care of all the departments and wisely should take the decision. My mom did this job without any complaints and still continuing to do so.

Slam book- My crush

“Live your life fully in the school”, this is the most repeatedly chanted statement by my teacher in school days. But I never realized the importance of this statement. Now I regret it.

There are so many means (photos, videos, letter and more) by which you can recollect all sweet memories of your school days. Among these, slam book plays a vital role in driving those memories and through this post I am going to relish my first slam book experience.

Slam book, is a notebook with full of questions which will be circulated among your friends to fill in their own answers to those questions. This book is the remembrance of your old buddies and you can post any kind of questions to them. After a long time, if you happened to read those slam posts, it will definitely bring cute smile on your face.

Let me go back to my school days. Before my final exam, one of my friends circulated her slam book to us and asked to fill it before end of the day. Everyone started filling one by one and I was eagerly waiting for my turn. My turn came and I was casually looking at the questions that were put forth before me. I was stuck by a question and I really didn’t have a clue to answer it. The question is “Who do you have a crush on”?

I was frantically thinking how to answer. Cold war started between my mind and heart. Both knew that was her. But my mind stopped me to reveal the truth. The confusion in my mind was palpable and eventually my mind won the battle. I wrote as “None” with heavy heart. It happened again in high school and I blindly did the same.

Suddenly I have been reminiscing about my school life and now felt like dumb. Gone are those days along with innocence. 

Memorable trip to Kerala

As per the last year’s pact (Reunion at some place once in a year), we (school friends) made a wonderful 4 days trip to Kerala last week. Without any further ado, I straight away pen down my experience in Kerala. Initially we planned this trip with seven people in mind. But finally, only 4 (myself, Vetri, punch and mark) made the trip. On 24th March evening, we all headed towards Kerala through Allepey express.

Day1:
The first day started off nicely with the intro of railway police. Before reaching Allepey station, we were caught by RPF for playing cards in the train. I thought they will give warning and leave us. It happened previously to me while travelling to Madhurai. There were three police and they initially warned us and casually started conversation about our plans for four days. They were having all our identification cards too. Suddenly, one police opened his bag and started turning charge sheets to book case against us and asked us to come to court next day to pay penalty. We argued and pleaded a lot. Finally he made a call to another police officer and asked us to pay spot fine (around 500Rs) to that officer who will wait for us near S2 coach. And surprisingly, he handed over all our ID card back to us. Then we all packed our things and slowly moved further to S10 coach and escaped hastily to the entrance. Interestingly, a police officer in pitiable condition waited for us near S2 coach.
So after fun filled thrilling escape sequence, Tini (Vetri’s Friend) embraced us and took us to the house boat. He also arranged us a car to reach other spots for rest of the days. House boat experience is new to me and enjoyed to the core. This is the must go place in Kerala and a good Honeymoon spot. Even I reserved one for mine. Boats are little expensive but definitely worth every penny. We boarded the boat around 11.30 AM. Had welcome drink, relaxed a bit, had photo session, drank toddy for first time, swam in backwaters, had delicious lunch, enjoyed the sceneries and reached the destination around 6.30 PM. After this we went to beach and then to hotel to take rest.

Day2:
Our car reached the hotel around 6.30 AM. Binu (Driver) who belongs to our age group gave us good company for all three days. Second day we headed to Munnar. On the way, we had traditionally Kozha puttu. Climate in Kerala is almost like Chennai. But Munnar welcomed us by bringing down rain. Our second day was disappointing since main spots (Rajamalai and Anaimudi) in Munnar were closed. Then we went to Top station which was full of mist and later started searching room to stay.

Day3:
After taking enough rest, we started to explore Munnar again. On the way we found one cave and briskly entered in. Due to shortage of light, we came back and moved to Kolukkumalai. If you go to Munnar, do not miss the chance to see Kolukkumalai. Only jeeps can take you there. We hired one jeep for 700Rs and started off our journey around 1 PM. After travelling 10 minutes, we saw breath taking view of mountains with green carpet on it and bumpy road ahead us. That was a thrilling journey for us. Jeep crawled on narrow, steepy, bumpy path. Even a small mistake will take you to heaven/ hell. This is definitely not a good place for piles complaint people. The whole Asteraceae and Fabaceae family will beckon you to stop the jeep and savor the natural beauty. I felt like, I was in heaven and took some eye catching snaps. On the middle of our journey, jeep’s front suspension plate got damaged and we stuck in the middle of the tea estate. After an hour of repair session, we started to climb down with faulty plates. To reduce the suspension tension, jeep’s cleaner bravely sat on the bumper and travelled all the way to basement. This is really a unforgettable spot in my life. After getting down, we headed towards Chalakudi (20Kms from Athirapally falls) and stayed there for rest.

Day 4: The final day
Our final day was best of all the days. We started to Athirapally around 9 AM from Chalakudi. The travelling from Chalakudi to Athirapally was ultimate fun. On the way, we pelted stones to knock down mangoes, scratched rubber tree to see the milk flowing, tried to get into the water canal and many more. Then we reached Athirapally around 11.30 AM. We took bath there for 2 hours and climbed down to see the breath taking front view of grand Athirapally falls. We were awestruck by its majestic look and clicked my camera shutter for a while to arrest its beauty in my memory stick. After spending considerable amount of time there, we went to vazhachal falls (2 KMs from Athirapally). This is also equally good in its unique style. The whole day we enjoyed in water and around 4.30 PM we moved from there to Chalakudi railway station to catch our Chennai train.
This is the end of our yet another lovely memorable trip. And through this post, I want to thank Mr. Baji (Vijay) and Mr. Bai (Arafath) for their contribution for house boat expenses. Though they didn’t make it to the trip, I appreciate their contribution for their beloved friends. I hope, next year we shall go for international trip with full strength. I am eagerly waiting for that moment.

Paa, real life hero

We always remember and praise the sacrifice of our mother and the role she played in our lives. But we often forget the fact that our father too played the equal role in shaping up our lives. I think its nature that most of the fathers are less expressive than moms and often reserved because of their work tension.

In my childhood, since my dad was the only source of income, I had to ask him for everything. But I never asked him directly. In turn, I always tortured my mom to request him on behalf of myself. I was so afraid of him. I still remember how I was jealous on few of my friends (Baji, Ramesh and Kudi) to get such a friendly father. But that’s in my teenage. Now, I can understand the part he played in my life.

I can realize how hard it is to get the ground and construct building in Madras. I can realize how hard it is to educate three of his children in well esteemed institution. Now all three of us (me, my brother and sister) are well placed and leading the sophisticated life. Next week, he is retiring from his job and I am very proud about him.

In this post, I just want to list down few of his good habits and ideas which I already adopted in my life to do wonders.

• He never tasted alcohol and tobacco.
• He never get loan for anything. He always do some sort of savings and accordingly he will run the family. (my mom helps him a lot in this case)
• He never hesitate to attend relative’s function irrespective of distance and climate

Negatives:

• He is too short tempered and introvert 
• He never took us for outing. 
• No friends and feels hard to socialize with others

I finish my post by stating this quote. “Rarely does a child express love and affection to his/her father. While saying ‘love you’ or ‘thank you’ to a mother is easy, articulating the same to a father is difficult”. So let’s give the same respect and love as we do for mom and make him happy.