Jai Ho!!

ARR does it!! It certainly was a proud moment to see a lot of Indian faces at Oscars. He has been constantly churning out great works right from Roja to Dil se to the more recent Dilli-6 and it was nice to see works getting their due recognition. Liked his polite speech all the more. On a related note, I think  Benjamin Button didn't get its fair share of recognition. It was my favorite for the Best picture award. Also glad that Kate Winslet finally got her due. Her performance in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was as close to perfection as it can get. The Reader is quite a good flick but not in the same league as Eternal Sunshine.. Loved her acceptance speech for the sheer absence of frills.

The Auroville Experience

It was a colossal experience. I couldn't have chosen a better place for my first half marathon. The entire trip was great and the run was the perfect icing on the cake. I was so close to backing out from the trip which in hindsight, seems not such a brilliant idea. The reasons being I haven't praticed anywhere close to what I wanted to( I wanted to run a total of 100 kms in the 2-4 weeks before the half but just ran about 25 kms) and I had a freak accident a week back. 

The trip with the hyderabad runners club to chennai and then to pondy were memorable with discussions ranging from IPL to entrepreneurship. The fact that there are no marathons scheduled till the second half of the year pushed me take the plunge and boy, I am glad. We reached Auroville at around 6 pm on 02/14 to collect our bibs. The place is quite scenic and event organisation was good in general. 

The full marathoners started at 5 am, the next day. The half marathoners started at 6 am and for most of the run, I was accompanied by Rajesh Vetcha from Hyderabad(for almost 18 km). Well, he was my pace setter and being a veteran marathoner, got a lot of gyan about running. We were joined by Anupama from chennai for close to 10-12 kms(Here's her version of the run).  Was ultra-cautious at the start as I didn't want to aggravate the injuries. At around the 5-6 km, we had the drummers playing the dappan koothu genre. Had a lively discussion with Ganesh on how underrated the genre is. We had a strategy of walking all the aid stations(one in every 4kms) and it was fun. I kind of amazes me that I was able to run the entire stretch. During our weekend runs with the hyderabad runners, I pretty much used to break down at 15-16 kms. Guess the Auroville weather must have helped me a great deal here. Meet Abhishek from Bangalore during the last 5-8 kms and we were sprinting at the end. It took me 2 hrs 37 mins 32 secs to cover 21.1 kms. I tried to get a sub 2:30 but what the heck? I am glad that I was able to run here. After a wonderful post-run massage and breakfast, was waiting for the other hyd runners to complete. Had a good shower and roamed the place a bit. Planning to come here next time for a full marathon. Some of the Auroville impressions are captured here. Next is the hyderabad half some time in august. Hope I'll do a sub 2:30 there. Happy running!! Au revoir!!