Bandra-NCPA run - Sunday, 4th September 2011

About 30 runners turned up today as against 43 that had confirmed both on RFL and FB. It was a very windy run today throughout the run and at some places the winds were very strong. I don’t remember such a windy run ever on this route, despite the route almost skirting along the coast. The humidity was not such a factor today because the winds were drying you up but at the same time forcing you to work harder. As usual we started in batches with the slower runners moving up ahead before the faster ones. Varun Joshi & Kavin were planning a 30kms run today in preparation for the Vasai-Virar marathon on 18th September and they along with Ronak did an extra loop of the Carter Road before joining us. Few runners started from Khar road – Kaushik, Unmesh, Dhanraj, Santosh, Sanjay etc. This run was falling in the middle of Ganesha festival – so we expected to see many Ganesh pandals along the way – the one opposite Bandra talab had so many trophies kept there, probably won by them as prizes in the best pandal competition, but everywhere we could see only the ad hoardings, not the idols themselves. Only at one place i.e. opposite Shivaji Park could we see the pretty looking Ganesha smiling at us from inside.

Giles Drego was going slow to ensure that all the runners from behind were taken care of in terms of knowing the route etc. Only when he was sure that they were all okay and knew the route that he sped ahead somewhere around Worli. We went through the Annie Beasant road instead of taking the Worli sea face road because of the huge winds. Stopped for taking a water refill at Haji Ali juice centre. By then the flow of runners from the opposite had already started – saw Sameer coming that way. Navigated the Pedder road incline comfortably – yesterday I had done the dreaded killer at Aarey forest comfortably, so was feeling doubly happy for that. Mani and myself had thought of taking the diversion i.e. the hill after the Kemps Corner flyover and come out of Malabar Hill, but he went ahead as he was to do only 15 kms and so that project awaits another day.



I had planned to do a 2 hour run today since I had already done a 2.30 hour (well, almost) run at Hyderabad last Sunday, but decided to finish the course at NCPA which became about 2.30 hours. At Marine Drive, it rained heavily for precisely 2 minutes, after which the winds increased its intensity as if angry at the rain gods’ intrusion at what was its day today morning. We could see lot of muck thrown up at the Marine Drive promenade from the sea – there could have been high winds at the bay, perhaps a couple of days earlier.



The Mumbai marathon training season is fully with us as many runners did 20+ runs today – Ashok, Sameer, Manoj, Varun, Kavin, Ronak etc.



Thanks to everybody for coming today and welcome to the newcomers today – Sanjay Padmanabhan, Shyam, Kshitij Sharma, Sebastian Schuller (whom we will be sorry to miss as he is leaving for Germany in a couple of weeks).



Next run on Sunday, 2nd October 2011.

11th Bandra-NCPA group run

After yesterday's full day heavy rains - we were like exultant children out to have ice-cream; running in the rains is after all one of the greatest pleasures of mankind. The day started with myself, Bhasker and Dhanraj assembling at  Khar road station at the unearthly hour of 5.20 a.m. when the auto-rickshaw drivers standing there were sort of amused by people in their chaddies, pata nahi kya karne wale hai.  We started off sharp at 5.30 a.m. without waiting for unnikrishnan who was late by about 3 minutes – I remarked that the humidity is still a factor despite the rains and this was evident in the first km itself. We were sweating profusely even before reaching bandra. At first the pace was quite good with bhasker dropping to our pace. Just after the bandra masjid we espied Rebecca streaming past in her long strides as if out to break the world record. It was great to watch her running by. Radhika sauntering by on the opposite side of the road just after bandra causeway and then she came on to our side of the road and bingo bhasker got company for his pace. We i.e. myself and dhanraj dropped to a more comfortable pace, but it was still a good pace to maintain. First pee break at shivaji park – pace dropped slightly but going well – first water break was to be at a small hotel just after siddhivinayak, unfortunately it was not open today – damn! Now I have to drop worli sea face to take the next water break at mela restaurant. Missed the water break at mela because I thought it would be on the left side of the road, whereas it was positioned on the right side, damn again! Now I have to stop at haji ali juice centre, which we did had a watermelon juice and replenished water stocks – enough till the end. Before that the stretch from near the bus stand to haji ali was very difficult with very strong head winds slowing me down considerably. Pedder road climb was comfortably done – and just after finishing the difficult portions of pedder road, Milton came by ostensibly in a bus having seen me running got down and joined me from there. He was battling a cold so wisely did a truncated run today. We were comfortably ambling along and turned into marine drive, where I decided to take a second pee break at the public toilet opp Wilson college. Milton went ahead – I decided to run most easy pace and take in the sights of the magnificient marine drive – it was definitely high tide today morning, but the winds which I encountered at haji ali had died down here – the seas were rough but the water was just managing to keep down – there were no water sprays. Just about half a km to reach NCPA Giles comes by and we start pumping up the pace till we were like sprinting down to the end. It was great fun – more than 35 runners today – many from new Bombay – went down to the stadium restaurant near churchgate station had bhurji pav and irani chai and went home to a satisfying morning.