After the 12-miler....
This is how I felt after the 12 miler!! That is me after 3 hours of mud-rolling and playing with color at Stanford Holi celebrations.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Warm-up before the 12-miler
Getting ready for the 12 mile run on last saturday. The run was at the beautiful Portola valley. It was raining heavily but almost 100 people turned up to run. The course was uphill during the early part and rest is just fun going downhill...
Sunday, March 20, 2005
My longest run ever!!
"Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance." Bruce Barton
Even though I didn't know who Bruce Barton was, this quote by him seemed to hit home the moment I saw it. If I had to describe my 12-mile run on Saturday, March 19 in a sentence, this would be it. I did my best to prepare myself both mentally and physically the night before, including a huge meal of singaporean noodles and an early night. Yet, the weather I awoke to on saturday morning seemed to take all the preparedness out of this run. It was one of those gloomy, rainy and cold mornings, when its hard enough to convince yourself to get out of bed; forget run 12 miles! But, the thought of the rest of my team braving it out in the rain, and of course, my carpool friends calling me incessantly on my phone to figure out why I wasn't there yet, kept me from turning over and going back to sleep after hitting the snooze on my alarm once.
The rain seemed to have slowed down to a light drizzle and the sun was even peeking through the clouds when we started the run. Things were finally looking up! After a short stint on the roads in Portola Valley, we weared off into the wilderness and headed straight for the hills. The views were absolutley breath-taking. Our course took us up and down the rolling hills and through the woods, which provided the occasional cover from the rain. Just when I had become oblivious of the weather, having been absorbed in the unbelievable natural beauty around me, the rain came back hard and strong for a while, before finally stopping. The sun came out, my clothes were drenched, and my shoes were covered in mud; yet I had never felt happier to be outside and to be running.
Not only did I finish the run, but also felt exhilirated running in the last few feet amidst the cheers of my teammates and the cancer survivors, who are our team honorees. The feeling I experienced after the run is hard to describe, but I'll try anyways. I felt very peaceful, almost euphoric. The smile on my face wouldn't go away. My muscles didn't complain (heck, they had done an awful amount of work for the past couple of hours!), yet there was a sweet soreness in them. The connection I felt with my surroundings and with nature while I was running was amazing. Was this the much touted "runner's high"? Who knew....but, if this was it, it surely deserves all the hype! It would keep me running the next week, and the week after.....that was for sure. And, it was all because I had braved the not-so-pleasant, almost nasty circumstances to do something I wouldn't normally do!
So, if you are wondering who this Bruce Barton was who had this wonderful insight into life and the human psyche, check out this link.....
http://www.ciadvertising.org/studies
/student/96_fall/barton/barton1.html
Even though I didn't know who Bruce Barton was, this quote by him seemed to hit home the moment I saw it. If I had to describe my 12-mile run on Saturday, March 19 in a sentence, this would be it. I did my best to prepare myself both mentally and physically the night before, including a huge meal of singaporean noodles and an early night. Yet, the weather I awoke to on saturday morning seemed to take all the preparedness out of this run. It was one of those gloomy, rainy and cold mornings, when its hard enough to convince yourself to get out of bed; forget run 12 miles! But, the thought of the rest of my team braving it out in the rain, and of course, my carpool friends calling me incessantly on my phone to figure out why I wasn't there yet, kept me from turning over and going back to sleep after hitting the snooze on my alarm once.
The rain seemed to have slowed down to a light drizzle and the sun was even peeking through the clouds when we started the run. Things were finally looking up! After a short stint on the roads in Portola Valley, we weared off into the wilderness and headed straight for the hills. The views were absolutley breath-taking. Our course took us up and down the rolling hills and through the woods, which provided the occasional cover from the rain. Just when I had become oblivious of the weather, having been absorbed in the unbelievable natural beauty around me, the rain came back hard and strong for a while, before finally stopping. The sun came out, my clothes were drenched, and my shoes were covered in mud; yet I had never felt happier to be outside and to be running.
Not only did I finish the run, but also felt exhilirated running in the last few feet amidst the cheers of my teammates and the cancer survivors, who are our team honorees. The feeling I experienced after the run is hard to describe, but I'll try anyways. I felt very peaceful, almost euphoric. The smile on my face wouldn't go away. My muscles didn't complain (heck, they had done an awful amount of work for the past couple of hours!), yet there was a sweet soreness in them. The connection I felt with my surroundings and with nature while I was running was amazing. Was this the much touted "runner's high"? Who knew....but, if this was it, it surely deserves all the hype! It would keep me running the next week, and the week after.....that was for sure. And, it was all because I had braved the not-so-pleasant, almost nasty circumstances to do something I wouldn't normally do!
So, if you are wondering who this Bruce Barton was who had this wonderful insight into life and the human psyche, check out this link.....
http://www.ciadvertising.org/studies
/student/96_fall/barton/barton1.html
