I did it!! the Marine Corps Marathon

I completed the Marine Corps Marathon. It was an amazing experience. The support I received, the high of finishing. All the 18 months of training, the hurting ankles, hips, knees are well worth it now. I am so glad I did not give up after failing to get to even half the distance last year.

It was a matter of "Just 10 more steps". I kept telling myself just a bit more to go. Then when I had just 'beat the bridge' I felt a low and was so happy to reach that milestone I nearly gave up. that is when a great AID supporter Arun Gopalan (former runner himself) came along and ranthe rest of the way with me. His support was amazing. He kept telling me "okay let us run to this traffic light/road sign/this walker ..." then he reminded me that it was easier to run than to walk. this was true, but the mind seems to think otherwise. My mind was saying "Your body is hurting, your hip is hurting, slow down, walk, stop" but the reality was that when I was running the feet hurt less and so did the body! Arun kept reminding me of that and kept me running except when I walked real slow. That is the only time that my body hurt least. But that way I would still be on the course.

What an experience!

3 weeks to the Marine Corps Marathon

Ran 12.5 miles in 3 hrs 10 minutes last Saturday. This was 10 minutes more than I wanted to do it in. 20 miler this weekend!! I am excited and nervous at the same time. If I can do it under 5 hrs then I am in good shape for the MCM. It feels so strange that now I can feel the half-marathon is a breeze!! That comes in a week - the Baltimore Half Marathon!

Please support AID, the charity I am running for it is a 501c(3) charity and completely Tax-deductable. http://www.runforindia.org/runners/sarvind


You can check out their credentials in Charity Navigator if you choose.

18 Miles and Going Strong

This feels great. I have got to 18 miles and still was feeling great afterwards. It is the most I have ever done. I am well on my way to completing the Marine Corps Marathon. I will definitely complete the Baltimore half-marathon now. It is such a great feeling.

I really felt like singing "What a feeling.....

Getting on with training!

The runs are getting longer and are now officially classified as long runs. We are past the 10k mark, getting to the 10 mile mark. I am finally getting in some weekday runs/walks. It is good that I am the organizer this year because it is getting me to at least run during the week with some of the runners.

The number of runners has decreased and we need to find new runners because we have fallen below 20 for the Marine Corps Marathon. We have 20 bibs. Anyone reading this blog is welcome to contact me if they want to run the MCM and raise some money for charity. The training is professional and free.

Please support my marathon. Click on the picture below.

Alexandria Running Festival & Potomac River Run

This was a great experience. On Friday we filled out the goody bags to be handed out to all the runners at the Alexandria Running Festival's (ARF) 5k and half-marathon and the Potomac River Run (PRR) marathon. It was great fun and a lot of exercise bending and picking up and opening bags to fill with flyers, samples and coupons from sponsors. There was some good stuff.

On Saturday we manned the tables for the bib-pickup and College of Running held by Marathon Charity Cooperation (MCC) at the festival expo in the Arlington Hilton Old Towne Alexandria. One of the speakers happened to be a runner from India known as Marathon Man on India. This is a 76 year old cardiologist who was running his 102nd marathon at the PRR on Sunday. Very impressive person. the best part of meeting him - his first half-marathon and mine were the same one!!! He continued on and kept running increasing his distance to marathons and I came to the US and stopped most forms of exercise other than biking and walking all over campus.

Later in the evening we went out to a sponsored dinner and I met a lady who was running 52 marathons in 52 weeks!  What a day!

Fitness trend continues. How long will it last?

Two days ago, I ran indoors and did some aerobics with 10 lb weights in each arm for about 1 hour. I put on loud remixed bollywood music and danced/ran around the house. I know you readers must be laughing at the thought. Those of you who know me will probably have a bigger laugh imagining me running around the house. But then you will also not be too surprised :-) Hey, it felt really good.

Later in the evening I took Jackson to the dog park. The second time this week he has been to the dog park. He has now made friends and enjoys bullying/wrestling with a couple of the other dogs. He is still trying to train them to fetch the ball when their master throws it and drop them at his feet to pay homage. They do intermittently now.

Looking forward to a weekend of volunteering at the Alexandria Running Festival. Lots of events. We now have more than the target number of runners for this year's Marine Corps Marathon (for AID). Some will no doubt move to a half-marathon as they find the time commitment too much. As long as no one drops out, this will be a good year for AID and looks good on me as I am coordinating it with a lot of help form Mayank and Arun. Check out our website aidindia.org.

The snow is gone! The rain is here now :-(

What a wet year it has been so far. It has been hard to motivate myself to train in this weather. Today is a good day though.

Reading my last post, I realized that my training is far behind the schedule I has set for myself. I began my fitness training a few weeks ago. Ran a bit, biked and also did a lot of aerobics in the days till now.

I feel really good because my weight is down to where it has not been since 1993 and that too was only for about 4 months before I bloated up again. This time it has been down for about 2 months and I don't see it going up because I have changed my lifestyle. That last time it was because of a very physically stressful job.

This year, I have already logged in a few days of 20 mile bike rides, a couple of runs and lots of aerobics. I have also incorporated into my life 'dancing while driving'. I put on loud fast music and dance away on my seat using my hands and feet as much as I can for as long as I can. I stop when my hands start to ache because of the pounding on the steering wheel. It is a fun exercise. You should try it sometime yourself, it makes driving so much fun.

I have also become vegetarian since mid March. I plan to become a vegan and am trying to do it as much as possible. My only regular break from it is yogurt. I don't drink milk anymore and try to avoid it in coffee or tea. Once in a while I eat paneer. I don't want to make it too strict a rule because I know that then it will not last long. It will be a passing fancy. Last year I was a vegetarian for two weeks.

I believe this has also helped keep my weight down. I hope to see the effect in my blood sugar and cholestrol soon too.