Chennai Runners 10 x 10

Inspired by my running group , I decided to sign up for the 10 x 10.

What is 10 x 10 ? Running 10 km on consecutive days for 10 days.

I’ve never had a running streak longer than 5 days and the 10 x 10 will test me. But will give it a good shot. Watch this space for the updates J

My 10 x 10 - Between 1 Aug 2010 - 10 Aug 2010

Day 1

Saturday night 9:00 pm – engrossed in the colors on display at pecha kucha. Met many friends and as usual, didn’t have a watch on the time L .

9:30 pm – Rushed home for a call with friends in US / UK. 3 of us, in chennai / oxford / cinncinati went over an event plan, that was just a month away. It was 10:45 pm . I was now pinging my dear friend in poland and I was in queue ;)

And then I remember waking up at 1 am , lights on , lying on the desk!!! These days , all I need is some space and I go zzzz . Yes, I don’t just have to ‘make-up’ for the poland miss, I realised I forgot to have dinner!!! It was apple and a few slices of bread. Now I truly fu@#$% up the morning run

With that thought I hit the bed and slept like a log, missing the alarms and woke up at 6:15 am . Tiger and gang would’ve started off at 5:15 am and now I have to run alone . I checked the garmin and it was dead. Decided to juice it up for 30 mins.

At 7:30, with the garmin back alive, I started my 1^st of the 10 x 10.

A very slow 10k through mandaveli , Boat club and Anna University. I was initially planning atleast a 15km but lacked energy.

Run Stats : http://connect.garmin.com/activity/42625834

Running alone is never fun and today was no exception.

If you are looking to run in Chennai, in the mornings over the next 10 days, feel free to buzz me. I need you more than you need me ;)

BITS World 5k Run

Come December 6th, 2009, the 1st BITS World 5k run is organised around the world - over 150 participants in 13+ cities around the world are taking part in this run.

Go to www.bits2marathon.com to sign up !

Post run, all the participants can download a customised certificate with their photo / timing / city / name . Sign up NOW!!! Thanks to BITSAA Technology and the Communications team for designing this beautiful certificate and making the certificate download, possible!! You guys rock!!

BITS World 5k Run

First ever BITS 5K run - Calling all BITSians / Alumni and Friends : Run on a 5k route near you!

Check more here - www.bits2marathon.com

Why Do I Run ?

As i start answering this question, i can clearly separate the pre-marathon and post-marathon days..

During the school days, i was lucky to win a few medals at the school / district and run at the state levels. I ran 100 / 200 mts at school / district levels and 400 mts & 4x100 mts relay at school / district / state levels. Those days, i admit , the top reasons for running were to be the fastest runner in school , receive the medal from the school principal at the morning 'assembly' in school , win a medal at the state level ( and get into a top engineering college through sports quota!! ) , impress some of the 'friends' at the school sports day :P .. okie, i know that was selfish !!!

Move a few years forward and i ran my first marathon in 2006. And here are some of the reasons why i run these days...

• The Marathon Dream
• The Bet
• A simple morning run can result in this - An idea that was discussed over a morning run :)
• The Marathon
• Have fun with pals here , here , here and here and more...
• and listening to that Pink Floyd ( high hopes / coming back to life) or A R Rahman , an hour into the run, is surely out-of-the-world - a 'free high' !!
• And many many more...i sure can write a book on this...

“If you want to win something, run the 100 meter race. If you want to experience something, run the Marathon” – Emil Zatopek

Bits2Marathon

A new initiative :) - Reproducing Vignesh's email to the BITS Community -

Running is probably one of the most popular and yet simplest sport, ever. All you need to start running is just a pair of shoes and the will to hit the road. It is this reason, why there is a huge bunch of people who are already running or eager to jump into it with that small and much needed nudge.

We all run for different reasons, sometimes to burn that double cheese burger you could not resist, or the 5 pints of beer that you drank during your last Friday pub evening. Some run in groups and join running clubs to make it a social activity and others use it as a point of introspection running alone to clear the multitude of thoughts. I know friends who started running to apply to B-schools, to travel and see places by running marathons around the world and sometimes just for the feel good factor after a great run, what is commonly referred to as the “Runner’s High”!

However, the key still remains that everyone needs that first nudge to start running. During a Skype call with a few fellow Bitsian running friends, the idea of promoting running amongst Bitsians through a forum was formed – Bits2Marathon. Being amateur runners, with a couple of marathons under our belt, we’ve benefitted tremendously by staying as part of a running club in terms of running tips and advice, motivation to run and help in garnering funds when running for charity (BITS.aid has a Run for a cause program encouraging Bitsians to run and raise money for the many projects under its banner). We hope to achieve the same through this forum.

The aim of this group is to promote running within the Bitsian community, by meeting for weekend runs, train for marathons in your respective cities, travel together for running competitions, run for charity and change lives, get new friends and stay connected in the process. We have created a Google groups as of now and invite all runners and those interested in running to join the group. Also, feel free to spread the word amongst your Bitsian friends who do not know about the group. The more the merrier!

Please click here to join group

Slowly as we grow in size, we will start up with more activities and have weekend or long-runs.. Who knows one day, we will be strong enough to have our own Bits Marathon, around the campus in Pilani!

Happy running,

Mahesh Krishnamoorthy

Boston – Vigneshwaran Chandran

KK – Karthikeyan Vijayakumar

2 for 4 ( Continued )

I wrote about 2 for 4 here http://karthikeyan-kk.blogspot.com/2008/08/2-for-4.html

I had planned to run the Chennai Marathon in Sep 08 and Singapore Marathon in Dec 08, to raise money for Deepam. Chennai Marathon was DONE -http://karthikeyan-kk.blogspot.com/2008/09/chennai-marathon-2008.html. But couldn't practise / run the Singapore in Dec 08. 

Am running the Auroville Half Marathon ( 21 km ) on Feb 15 2009, to complete the 2 for 4 project. 2 weeks ago, running even a 2 km was proving to be difficult, because of a knee injury. Some resting / stretching has helped me recover . This morning, i did a 21 km and i should be able to do the 21 km at Auroville, comfortably.

Here is the appeal again -

2 for 4 : Through these 2 runs, i wish to raise 4 lakh rupees - this money will be utilised to get computers, Internet connection and reading material for the kids. We wish to place the computers permanently at the locations we teach - Govt. Schools, Slums and orphanages.

I request you to support me in this effort - If you can donate / spread word about the program, i would really appreciate it.

Please do get in touch with me, if you can support in some way.

ECR 8

East Coast Run 8

Date : 19 October 2008

Start / End Point : Mayajaal

Distance : 0 to 5 km , 10 km , 15 km, 20 km, 30 km and 35 km

ECR 8 was by far the best organised run from Chennai Runners - We had an event director in Vidyuth who led the show and a bunch of us played the support role ! We had a few 'firsts' with this event - First time we had a sponsor ( in Apollo DKV Insurance ) , First time we had the ambulance support ( from Chettinad Hospitals ), First time we had water / Gatorade support points ( thanks to Pepsi / Gatorade for joining in as the 'Hydration Partner' ) every 2.5 km all the way ( 0 to 35 km route ) and the first time we were on air spreading the running movement in Chennai ( Thanks to the 'Chennai Live' radio station ).  

Despite the very heavy overnight rains, over 50 runners turned up for the run. They were supported by about 15 sooper enthusiastic volunteers! Their energy and encouragement helped a lot of runners stretch beyond the limits.                                                                                             

Here are the 35 km runners, at the start point                                                                                                           

The runners at the start point at 4:45 am

Some of the finishers at the finish line. Enjoying the 'runners high'

Thanks Nithya, Shyam and me at the 15 km point. Nithya ran the 20k along with us ( she went from running nothing at all  to 20 km run , in all of 4 months )

Thats me at the 5 km point..

Personally, i had a good run - the longest since the chennai half marathon. I had only run 5k runs since the chennai half but the weather helped my 20 km run. It was a 'fun' run for me - i started last, after all the groups left and i stopped at all the water points ( every 2.5k ) to chat up with the volunteers. From the 10 km point, i ran along with Nithya and Shyam and exchanged a lot of stories ! We managed to finish the 20km run in 2 hours and 44 minutes. 

After the 'catching up'  with all the runners at the finish line and an 'ok' breakfast at the On-Shore resort at Mayajaal, it was time to head home. Another ECR run down and the run gets better with every edition. All this experience will help us at Chennai Runners to organise our own ' Namma Chennai Marathon' ... very sooon.

East Coast Run 8

Am running this one.. Are you ???

Chennai Runners presents ECR8, in association with APOLLO DKV.

Register Now at www.chennairunners.com (Last date for registration is October 15, 2008) 

ECR 8 Details.. 

Date: October 19, 2008 (Sunday) 

Start Time: 5:15 am 

Start point: On Shore resort inside the Mayajaal compound 

End point: On Shore resort inside the Mayajaal compound

Assembly time: 4:30 am

Events: 5K, 10K, 15K, 20K, 25K, 30K, 35K 

Entry Fee: Rs.250/-

Hydration Partner : Pepsi ( Aquafina / Gatorade )

This event is organized by runners. Runners will be taken care of well. Well stocked water points along the route. Breakfast @ On shore Resort inside the Mayajaal Compound for Runners and volunteers

Chennai Marathon 2008

Some months ago, i watched a short clip of the 1982 Boston marathon - Alberto Salazar won that closely fought race. What stayed with me was a line from the commentary - " Salazar runs longer than anyone else at the 'red line' - the point of pain. He continues to run at the red line longer than his fellow runners "

That line was a big motivation for me when i started training 3 months ago . I wanted to run for a good amount of time at the 'red line'. That was the goal, since, i had always given up at the red line.

I can see some improvements - I ran for 2 hours continuously on 2 sundays in the last 1 month (Before this, the longest i've done is 1:35 , for a non-stop run ). My breathing which was shallow, has improved as well. And importantly, i've become more regular at the runs and i run atleast 4 days a week - whether it is at 5 am / 8 am / 1 pm / 8 pm or 1 am ( Yes, i've run at all these times in the last 2 months ).

So, with all of this behind me, i ran the chennai half marathon last sunday - I finished the 21 km in a disappointing 2 hours and 38 mins. Disappointing, since i was targeting an under 2 hour run.

The heat was not the excuse since i was all ready for the big day – I even ran from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm , one of the Sundays. I trained for the hot conditions. But, i just couldn't change into 'overdrive' mode because of a mild fever i was carrying.

The first 40 mins of the run was smooth for me and I ran at 10+ kmph. Around the 40 min mark, I started to walk... That was the hardest part of the race – the mind playing games and suggesting that I quit the race ( I always had the ‘fever’ excuse ). I decided to walk for a while and shut those thoughts out. It was hard when a fellow runner ( ofcourse, he was being nice :) ) , asked me not to ‘give up’ and run… just the other week, I ran a 2 hour continuous run…

I just decided to finish the race and 2 hour target had to wait for another day. 

I kept walking for another 10 mins and i had a chocolate bar. I decided to walk the ‘shade’ part of the course and run in the sunny parts. Soon, I started running and ran the next 4 km. From then on, running in the sunny parts and walking the in the shades, I managed to complete the run in 2:38. 

It was a great feeling, running the ‘home’ marathon – knew lots of people who were running this one and the encouragements and simply, running with a ‘known face’ kept me going. Towards the end, I ran with Rekha – Shes a mom of 2 and used hit 81 kgs on the scales 3 years ago. Currently, she is possibly one of the fittest women one would meet . Despite the hot conditions, she was pushing herself and we finished the run together.

About the run,

Positives

• Great participation - it was a nice feeling to see so many runners on the road
• Closed roads - the roads were closed for vehicle traffic for over 3 hours

Negatives

• Organisers didn't have a clue on conducting this race - From the BIB distribution, water points, route planning, volunteer involvement and many many more
• Poor crowd participation ( except for a few sections ) - Run the Mumbai run, to experience the crowd participation
• It was sad to see the water bottles / polythene covers strewn all over the roads and 'kid' ragpickers going after those - afterall, a lot of us were running to raise money for those kids..

It was clear that the Chennai Marathon has miles to go, before it can hold a world-class , runner-friendly marathon. NOBODY cared about the runners - they are the focus of the running events. The focus was on ' getting the attention' than ' doing the job '.

P.S Thanks to Karthik at chennairunners for the photos.

Runs and Podcasts!

I stopped listening to music during the long runs - I used to listen to music mainly to keep the boredom of a long run away and distract my thoughts on 'stopping'. But, i figured out that listening to music held me back from improving on my run performance. Without the Ipod , these days, am able to focus on keeping myself relaxed , maintain posture and importantly, work on my breathing and keep it steady.

Last sunday was an exception - i listened to the interview of Intuit's Founder and CEO Mr.Cook ( www.iinnovate.blogspot.com ) . One of the best interviews on starting up, i ever listened to. Very honest and very real life !

I was into the podcast so much, that i ended up running for close to 2 hours, despite running between 1 and 3 pm on sunday ( and the cool weather helped :) )

2 for 4

"If you want to run, run the 100 metre race. If you want to experience something, run the marathon" - Emil Zatopek

Can't agree more with this great Czech runner's words. The marathon experience , when contrasted with my 100 metre experience, has so much more to offer to life - the friendships, the lessons, the 'collective' high's , the opportunity to run and raise money for a cause and many more. The last aspect of Marathon running is something am mailing on here -

A bunch of us are working on 'Deepam' - A program to take computers to underprivileged kids in Govt. Schools , Slums and Orphanages. More about the group can be found here www.deepam.in . It has been a fascinating journey for us in the last 7 months - Taking 'Deepam' from just an idea to teaching 40 kids every weekend in Chennai, right now. Personally, the class is something i look forward to - 2 hours of being friends with the little kids, answering their questions , learning from them and experiencing a high - to witness 'Deepam' connect with the kids and seeing them take to computers with curiosity !

Am running the Chennai Half - Marathon on Aug 31st 2008 and the Singapore Marathon in Dec 2008 . In addition to finishing these runs in less than 2 hours & 10 mins and 5 hours, i wish to raise money for the Deepam activities through these runs.

2 for 4 : Through these 2 runs, i wish to raise 4 lakh rupees - this money will be utilised to get computers, Internet connection and reading material for the kids. We wish to place the computers permanently at the locations we teach - Govt. Schools, Slums and orphanages.

I request you to support me in this effort - If you can donate / spread word about the program, i would really appreciate it.

Please do get in touch with me, if you can support in some way.

Thanks
kk

( karthikeyan dot vijayakumar at gmail dot com )
+91 9884217276

BITS Pilani, Gym Grounds, Marathon

Mahesh Krishnamoorthy ran the recently held marathon (42.2 km ) in Columbus, Ohio in 4:26:30.

Something about him...

He and I went to college together and on most days, we were the only ones running on the 400 m oval at the BITS, Pilani grounds in the evenings ( some days, we were the only ones in the ground !! ). And i used to comfortably out run him, every single time !!!

With this reality , both of us decided to enter into a bet ( before we left BITS in 2004). We decided that we will return to the same 400 m oval to do a 50 lap race 28 years later, at 50! ( I was so confident, that i really upped the stakes :) )

Now i realise that the only time i was better, was when we ran during our college days. Last year, when he was down in Chennai, he kicked my back... while i was huffing and puffing to complete the 20 km run, he was cooling off at the end point with the shoes off and waiting for me to finish ( prly 25 mins slower ??? )

and i ran my first marathon and i finished ( ok ok, that talks about my timing ... 5:59 ). And Mahesh ran his first half ( 1:42 !!! ) and just did his first full ( 4:26 !!! ) ( and i say, i ran in INDIA and he in the US !! difficult conditions, i've run in !, my excuse )

I still have 25 years to improve though ... ( am just hoping someone ties him up inside his house in Cincinnati).

This aside - the reason for the improvement. He was extremely dedicated to running. He never misses his run ( lesson for me !! ) . Runs 10k on most days. When i speak to our common pals in Cincinnati, they tell me that if anyone wants to meet with Mahesh, they have to either go to the grounds or to the research lab !! oh yes, the other thing - he just doesn't stop at running. He has been awarded a fellowship to do more research in fluid dynamics ( not sure of specifics ). He won a few awards at a national conference for his work,recently !!

And he says, his running made him more focussed on his research !!

Sooper stuff Yogi! Hope to learn from you :)

Girls, Running in Marina and Men

Running on the Marina sands is one of the best running experiences. It feels like you are lugging some 20 kg weight strapped to your legs. It feels even better when you do a 200 metre sprint on a hard road, at the end of the workout - gravity doesn't seem to affect you at all and you can really TAKE OFF!

Ok, that is not the point of this post.

Whenever i've run at Marina ( on the inner tar road ) with a girl, i've a great time (it is because of the company, obviously :P ) !! . It is also really interesting to observe the men ( who form the majority of the morning walkers / joggers and most are in the 30's , 40's and 50's ). Some points..

• I stare at men ( ok ok I am quite straight .. ) for like... ages and not one has noticed that ( for he is staring as well )
• The velocity of the man in front relative to us decreases considerably from the spotting time till we pass him / them after which it picks up again
  
• When i spot an interesting girl in front of us and coming towards us, then my velocity with respect to her decreseas as well ( oh yes, am not a hypocrite!! )
• And if the girl in front has a man in tow, their relative velocity has little change on spotting us ( poor guy.. he doesnt have an option !! )

And yeah, it kind of hit me hard when i saw men staring at my pals - It really makes them uncomfortable with the attention and most times, it interferes a great conversation happening during the run. Sometimes, its hard to be a girl . ( I am not a saint and i sure do have spent times looking at the women ). Having had the opportunity to be almost in the shoes of the girl, i can get the discomfort men sometimes cause ( harmless intent , if i have to defend the men and me)

ECR Run # 3

ChennaiRunners had the big run for the quarter on September 16th.

No of Runners : 36
Total Distance : 26 km approx
Route : Toll booth on the ECR to Mamalla Beach Resort at Mahabalipuram

We called this event 40 x 30 - 40 people attempting 30 km run and we almost met the target. Runners met at 3:45 am at Dimensions Gym in Alwarpet and car pooled to the start point ( Toll Booth).

We had 2 cars that worked as mobile water points - they stopped every 5 km for the runners to get hydrated. Thanks to volunteers Savitri madam ( she is 50+ and her energy is amazing. She wants to finish a marathon very soon ), Ravikrishnan, Srivats, Jayant, Ramesh's driver and Bhargav's pal. They egged the runners on and supported us all the way to the finish line.

Weather aided out efforts - We never saw the sun till we reached the finish line. The finish point ( Mamalla Resort ) had ample space for us to walk around and some of us even took a dip in the sea. The weightlessness in the sea after the 26 km of pounding the leg received is just heavenly.

After a sumptuous meal and a fanatastic time with the runners, we left back to the start point. The runs always bring out great camaraderie at the finish line. It is almost as if the runners want to break free and make up for the "lonely" running moments...

Some photos

Ravi and Sundar at a water point. Savitri and Srivats , the enthusiastic volunteers.
Ram speeding away on the ECR ...
Shiva - 0 to 30 km in 3 months!!


Relaxing at the Mamalla

Sumptuous breakfast at Mamalla !!!

Hope to target 50 X 30 for the next run.

Chennai Runners on India Today

India Today has a piece on Chennai Runners in its edition dated 17th September 07. The "Simply Chennai" section has this piece. It was 2 weeks ago, when the runners met with the India Today Photographer and the correspondent at Anna university grounds. After a number repeated routines to get the right picture ( and spending an hour in the process and having fun.. ), the memory card in the photohrapher's high tech camera gave up!! and we did the same routine again a few days later.

Here are the scanned pages - Thanks to Ram for these!

Hope more of you join us for the early morning runs - 256 is current group size. Check www.chennairunners.com

Sports Story # 3 - Women, Running and Cornell

A year and a half ago, i was all pumped up to run the 1st marathon of my life. I trained with a bunch of guys in Chennai and having seen the benefit of training as a group, i was keen to bring this idea of running the marathon into my Alma Mater's alumni group ( BITS Alumni Association ) . Mails were shot to the yahoo groups and about 10-15 of them were extremely enthusiastic. One of them was Anu .

I was very much suprised on seeing her interest mainly because she was the only girl expressing interest in the initial days ( At the back of my mind, a doubt lingered that her enthusiasm won't last long ). With every passing day, the doubt cleared way for appreciation. She used to hit gym regularly to improve stamina and increse strength. She also was upping her running limits every week, from a 20 min continuous run to a 45 min continuous run.

The group communicated over e-mails and till now (july 2007), we have never met face to face. Each of the members mailed their running experience and pushed the rest to run. Anu did her bit and more, with the mails and encouragement for fellow runners. All this while, she was in Hyderabad and most of the others were in Bangalore and i live(d) in chennai. We met up when she came to Chennai ( her hometown) for what else - Run! We decided to start early at 5 am, starting point being the Gandhi Statue at Marina and decided to run a distance of 10 km ( would be her longest so far). I thought running with her would be relatively easy ( the group i train with in Chennai, pushes me to exhaustion every time i run with them and thats a HIGH!!) and i had a long night with pals and went to bed at 1 am.

I was really hoping she would call me at 4:30 am and feign tiredness ( infact, i was sure she would!). When she didn't , i thought she might be sleeping and decided to give her a wake up call (in reality, i was still in bed when i called and was hoping she was fast asleep and would not answer the call - its a double win for me , i get to sleep and still i won't be blamed for the missed run). The phone rang and the worst thing i could hear - she was on her way to Marina!!!!!! and i was still in bed!!!! That news bolted me out of bed and i was rushing through the morning activities! Grabbed a gatorade bottle and rushed to Marina! Just made it on time!!!

We met for the first time offline - though we were batch mates at BITS for 4 years, we haven't spoken a word. We stretched for a little while and started running. Ran steadily for 15 mins and soon we reached labour statue at the end of Marina ( i was hoping she would stop and we could walk back to Gandhi statue ). She was running at a steady pace while i was cursing all the drinks that i had the previous night ( i was keeping up with her though!!). We kept running at the same pace and at 30 mins, we were past the war memorial and were on the Mount Road and still haven't stopped. At 45 mins, which was her longest ever run till then, we hit Anna square, having run 7.5 km. She was still looking strong and by then i was fervently wishing she would stop ( though my longest ever run till then was 26+ km, i was dehydrated and tired from lack of sleep). I didn't want to lose face by walking and i was telling myself that i would lose respect !!!

It helped that we had good conversations and that took away all the ugly thoughts. Soon, i was crusing as well and at 45 mins, we decided that we will up the speed and do the 10 km run under 1 hour. We pushed hard and she matched the pace i set and she was raring to go even faster. We sprinted the last 500 odd metres and finised the 10 km run in 58+ mins!!! Her longest ever run!! The joy on her face was clear!! She managed to win the mind battle and went past a milestone!

We would later help co-ordinate the run for a cause program at BITS-aid . The program was a success - 15+ runners ran the Bangalore Marathon 2006 and managed to raise about INR 50K for the causes the BITS aid supports. Anu did her first big run - Completed the half marathon (21.1 km ) in under 3 hours ( the only girl who i know, had run the big distance ) and i completed my first Marathon ( 42.19 km in under 5:59 hours).

She would go on to run the half marathon in Mumbai, jan 2007 and regularly hit gym and keep fit. While doing all this, she was also aiming to get into a top Bschool in US. She got a top score in GMAT - 710 and had worked in a top tech company. She had also volunteered at BITS aid and had run a few marathons. Just the perfect match for the Bschool admission committee.

She just heard the big news - She made into the 2007 Batch at Cornell ( Johnson school - a Top 10 Bschool in the world).

A survey of top School admits would reveal a high number of the big race finishers!

Its not a coincidence that marathon runners make it to the top B schools!

30 X 30 - ECR Run

30 X 30 - 30 runners doing 30 km!

Chennairunners is planning a run on the ECR, on July 15th, 2007

Route : Start near Toll Booth and Finish at Mahabalipuram, on the ECR [ approx 30 km ]
Start time : 4:30 am from the toll booth

Last time the group did this run, we had about 14 runners taking part [ when the group was much smaller ]. We are 5x the group size now and really hope as many can join this run.

This route gives the perfect opportunity to stretch the limits for a runner - scenic route and less traffic [ plus for safety, we run in the direction of on-coming traffic] . Ask any runner who ran this route and they would swear that the ECR run was the best run they ever had in chennai.

People who do 5-10 km right now, can look to stretch the limits to 15-20 km [ and take the bus/auto to mahabs ]

If you want to join, start practising and go here and "Join Chennairunners"

You know you have a running problem when...

Running buddy Shumit has a post here about the criterion for "running problem". Here are mine, for an entry into the club!!

• Wake up at 4:15 AM every Sunday morning.
• You look out specifically for runners' blogs
• You think the only shoe worth buying for you is a running shoe
• Drag a pal along to hunt for "The Complete Book of Running" by James Fixx all evening and night on the streets of London. [ This is after a long hunt in Chennai and repeated phone calls to the big book stores]
• You buy choclate bars, only to have them before the early morning run
• Download podcasts to listen to during the runs
• The first thing you pack in your travel bag is the running shoe
• You pull all your pals into running every week
• Most of the e-mails in your inbox are about running
• You stopped drinking on saturday nights because of the sunday morning runs
• You think the "highest high" is listening to "High Hopes" by Pink Floyd after you hit the 1 hour mark, running
• Wake up at 5:30 AM on a Sunday morning and feel miserable, since the run started at 4:50 am.
• You think a heart rate monitor is one of the coolest gadgets!
• You think running is a life changing experience

Chennai Runners on The Hindu

Yes, The Hindu had the Chennai Runners covered in the page 2 of the chennai edition. The reporter and the photograher had come to Anna University, to meet with us. Thanks to Vani [who wrote the article] and the photograher [ A senior person at The Hindu], for landing at Anna University despite the early Sunday morning and the pleasures that go with it.

Below is the "mock" run we had, for the photo session! [Thanks to Ravi for sharing this photo] [From left to right - Photograher [partially seen], Sundar, me, Ravi [behind], Hari, Karthik, Senthil, Shahid, Ram, Anba and Jagan.

Here is a snapshot of The Hindu online edition where Chennai Runners is featured

The good bit about featuring on The Hindu is the spreading of awareness about the group. We had almost 40 new members joining the mailing group today. Hope to run with more new members. The group is at 125 members and growing!

If you want to join, please go to www.chennairunners.com

Running Route - Sunday Morning Run

This is the route we follow for the Chennai Runners' Classic Route run, every sunday morning [starting at 5 am]. We start near Sony World on the C.P.Ramaswamy Road and do a distance of about 16 km, on this route. [Sometimes we run into and out of the scenic IIT campus to do a total distance of 20 km +]. Thanks to Ram for the google earth links [got from his Garmin toy].