Can't wait! I am not running much in this race. Just a 10km foot race! But, an opportunity to hang out in the Auroville forest! And the Auroville aunties are my favourite. This year, I am looking forward to a different kind of Ted Talk.. with the one and only Barefoot Ted, as featured in Born to run - The modern day runner's bible!
Feet, flat feet
I absolutely love this years Auro Marathon logo. Except for one thing. I feel bad looking at the magnificent arch. Because I am flat footed. Yes, this is true. I have run all my life, despite my flat feet. Its not a worthy excuse, I promise you. (Of course, I have other things going for me. "Low center of gravity" for one). Auro promised to be fun!
The Auro Bruja
Many of my friends got on the injured list these past two weeks. KP succumbed to a monstrous run in vibrams. Krishna blames it on some jump squats he landed badly in. There was some talk of carrying garlic to ward off the witch. The Quadster was the worst of all as he took a spill over his bike and found himself with several fractures. Ludwig went through the ritual bug - or the ritual bug went through ludwig... The rest of us had the usual minor complaints - the kind you don't know whether to ignore or give some TLC to; to run or cancel.
My chill out plan
Auroville marathon is on Valentine's day weekend. Historically. I am not a big believer or anything. But I thought it would be cool to run a race with my husband for V-day. It sounded like a good idea at that time, at any rate so I enthusiastically signed us both up. I wanted to try out a 10k race anyway - been long since I did that. So that was the plan. Thanks to his injury, KP was going for the 10k as well. So the three of us head out in the morning from the hotel.
"Lets decouple"
We are arguably the most decoupled couple. I remember a long winded conversation where a room-full of our couple friends thought it most ridiculous that we were like that. But it works well for us. We are independent like that. I don't pack his suitcase for him when he goes on a trip, and he returns the favour. At least I let him carry my bag (if its heavier, which is not often the case any more), I used to cringe at that too in my youth. We decided to run our own race because he said my initial pace makes him uneasy. And I am all about initial pace.
All about initial pace
Split
|
Time
|
Distance
|
Avg Pace
|
1
|
8:24.9
|
1.61
|
5:14
|
2
|
8:19.9
|
1.61
|
5:11
|
3
|
9:08.0
|
1.61
|
5:40
|
4
|
8:56.8
|
1.61
|
5:34
|
5
|
9:10.3
|
1.61
|
5:42
|
6
|
9:07.4
|
1.61
|
5:40
|
7
|
5:03.6
|
0.95
|
5:20
|
Summary
|
58:10.8
|
10.60
|
5:29
|
For reasons I find hard to express, I am not happy with my race at all. This year has been already great in so many ways already. But there are a bunch of minor disappointments as well. I have run three races this year. At the Mumbai full, my timing chip malfunctioned, so I don't have an official timing certificate. At the YMCA Republic Day half, the course was 0.5km short so I am not sure I met my timing goal. At Auro, yesterday, I felt as if my legs were not turning around fast enough.
Social aspects
The social part of the weekend was great though. I had some nice conversations. Chilled. I drank some beer, played with some cute kids, met a large number of my running buddies, found that after all Ted is another human being like us all (his feet look very thick soled though, I admit). Our hotel room was nice, and reasonably convenient. We checked out the floor tiles and bathroom fixtures carefully, for purposes of comparison as we reach that stage of our house.
Fat ass
I do feel like a lard ass now. I ate amounts of food not commensurate to amount of running, is how it felt. On the one hand it was awesome to finish the race and be all sprightly and not puky or anything. To be the first (among the) to eat breakfast and collect the t-shirt. To return back to the hotel room and be ready for breakfast buffet by 9:45 am. But on the other hand, both KP & I were feeling guilty for sure, though we made a good job of not telling our spouses about it - because they would make fun of us!
The morning after
And, as will be my routine for this semester, this morning, I was up bright and early to study for my class and then to teach it. I did consider canceling it but when it came down to it, I felt too guilty. Not when my legs feel just fine and my resting heart rate is back to normal levels. Also, I was really looking forward to today as I had planned to tell them the story of when my dad taught two classes on 'Chemical Equilibrium' as I squirmed in my seat as a wispy 17 year old...
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