No Landmark in sight

Just returned from a bitter, humbling experience at the Chennai Landmark 2008. Failed to make the finals by a mile.

The upside is that I managed to finish reading the Murakami, enroute and made some headway with a book by Truffaut I bought a while ago. Had tremendous fun post the quiz in the company of some fellow nutcases from good old Hyd. Barely managed to survive splitting of my sides.

Managed to wipe all tears by running home from the railway station :) That is about 7 miles (give or take, a km) in 70 mins, with a bag weighing 4 kg on my back, while wearing denim trousers!

Pain is inevitable, Suffering is optional...

So goes one of the several beautiful lines that dot the landscape that is "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" by Haruki Murakami which came and hugged me today. I am solidly in love with the book and finished about 1/4th before I realized I had to go home also!
Expect to finish it over the coming long weekend and post about it. Like the author's epiphanous moment, I think this might be the moment when I might finally take the plunge to start the 1st of my several planned books.

Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks also joined the book club. While the book above was bought mostly due to the fact that it details a somewhat ordinary man's transformation into a manic marathoner, this one was bought mostly due to the buzz around it and the author. More when I get around to reading it.

Of course the day ended on a splendid note, with my buying the above books at Premier and reading some of the 1st at Indian Coffee House

Urban Stampede

Today was a big day. I participated in my first ever 5K race! (A little weird since I have done longer races incl. an ultra). It was part of RFL's corporate relay contest, Urban Stampede
78 teams from 38 companies had turned up.

I had sort of helped my 3 other team mates for the relay, prepare for the race. So it was important that they did well. Everyone incl. me turned in PBs.
Timings are not in yet, but we turned something around 1:49 for the 20K. The race was won by some aliens running in about 1:27 or so. More when timings arrive. Highlight of the race was Jugy's alien-like 22:13 for 5K

Also, thanks to the muscular young man Manoj for pacing 3/4th of the team, w/o we couldn't have managed what we did

New Book, Quizzes, Hyd visit

This was one of those rare weekends when I did more quizzing than running.
Was at the Hyderabad Open Quiz y'day where we were yet again, unlucky losers, failing to qualify on some tiebreaks :( Got some consolatory coupons - using which I bought States of Indian Cricket by Ramachandra Guha.

The book was on my wishlist for over 2 years. Being the bargain hunter I am, I was waiting for its paperback version, in vain. Finally bought it today :) It seems extremely promising.

Also came 2nd in the Concern India Corporate Quiz today. Got beaten fair and square by a better quizzer (sometime team-mate) from Yahoo. Lenovo Laptops were for the winners only :( But hey, got more freebies :) So all's well that ends well.

Y'day in Hyd provided more cause to feel better about being in Bangalore. There were heavy rains and the place I stayed in (one of the best areas in Hyd otherwise - Banjara Hills) was quite a mess. Ended up with wet shoes due to knee high water and assorted misery, none of which are unknown in Bangalore during the monsoon. But you do get autos more easily, although charges usually compare to Lufthansa business class tickets :)

Lovely weekend, especially since I caught about 30 mins of a movie on History Channel called "4 minutes: about Roger Bannister. Need to see the full movie sometime. Learnt some little known facts about that medical student. I didn't even know he participated in the Helsinki Olympics. Wonderful.

Thank you...