Indie's running adventures

“There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.” -- Khalil Gibran Peter, in a team meeting last week, heard me talk about Lotus Petal and mission 30x30. Before I know it, there was a donation made. Education, you see, is something he is passionate about. Back in 2001, he and some friends at the Rotary Club of San Diego built a High School for homeless children in San Diego. He donated a 40 seat computer and audiovisual lab to the school and then he continued with a laptop donation every month to give as a gift to a deserving student. https://monarchschools.org/ The story is part of a book, “ Guts!, Companies that Blow the Doors off Business-as-usual ”. Here’s a snippet: -- At a planning meeting for Monarch in the early days, Peter asked Susan (chairperson), “What needs has nobody stepped up for yet?” When Susan shared her vision of a state-of-the-art computer lab, Peter pulled out a small pad of paper, made some notes, and said, “I’ll take care of that

Checkout the video of this run here . Mission 30x30 continues.  Highlight of the week was double digits of runs done and double digit entry into our fundraising (we are at 11% of our 30k target now). This week concluded with 14 half marathons, last 3 of which were a single run in Kings Canyon National Park.  Kings Canyon is glacier carved canyon, in Kings canyon national park CA with a rich history.  The area is home to world's tallest trees , the giant sequoias.  The park is rugged, and least visited amongst the Sierra parks in CA.  Over the last century, loggers wanted to log, gold diggers had plans for mines, development interests wanted to build hydroelectric dams and then there was constant push back by conservationist.  Finally the sense prevailed the park was designated a national park and all tourist resort/dam plans were shelved.  Thank God! Me with AR I had plans to do it with V, my regular wilderness run partner.  After our High Sierra camp run in summe

Unlike 2017's 12in12 initiative for lotus petal....where every run was out in nature, with varying degrees of weather changes and altitude and unexpected company of fun people...it was a joy writing those reports as well (see previous posts in from Jan to Dec 2017 on this blog for same)...this time its just me and my garage treadmill! So unlike 2017's progress report where I used to report post every run, this time I will try to bundle up progress reports (or if I am out of garage for a run, I will try to post more frequent). Here's first update on 30x30 mission. I started June 5, 2020.  Given COVID 19, all races are cancelled.  Road running is allowed but running with mask isn't the most fun.  So the choice is treadmill.  In Garage.   And if you are familiar with California summers, we are talking 90-100F temps in there.  Its an Oven. So with garage door partially open, and side door opened as well - you have a bit of a tail wind which helps.  I also put up

Badshahi Mosque, Lahore (This one is not a running blog ... but could've been had my india-pak-marathon-plan worked out :), which was to run from Lahore to Amristar - a flat 26.2 mile course but as they say in Pakistan, "Next time Insha allah!)   A thought Pakistan has been an enigma to me. There has been an intense desire to be there! Not sure if it was stories I heard growing up (my maternal grand father studied at DAV college, Lahore and my paternal grandfather had a little shop in Lahore before he moved to Delhi a little before partition), or was it over dose of Sunny paaji's movies , Kushwant's singh 's books, or my past visits to border areas of Punjab, Jammu and Rajasthan (when you could see across the border but couldn't cross) -- I have had dreams of visiting this land for the longest time! AK is a good friend and he hails from Lahore (well Pindi actually but more on that later).  A lunch hasn't gone by when we don't discuss our

Last Sunday of July belongs to San Francisco Streets! Found Santiago! Never gets old, vibrant every year! Its been like this since 2002.  Every year I think I am getting too old for these hills and every year I find myself at the clock tower in the wee hours of morning at San Francisco marathon.  Every year. Team Asha group that I coach Start line.  National Anthem! There is a tremendous gratitude to nature, for letting me be part of this and for letting me continue to handle these hills.    2018! Two things make SF marathon great -- the views and people.  The crown jewel of experience being the run on golden gate.  It never disappoints! Leaving you with some pictures from the morning 4am journey to city to from home and pictures on the course, till finish medal.  Enjoy. Here's the run as I lived it  https://www.relive.cc/view/1736461880