krishna

[iwritewhatilikelove]

Thank you Donors (GGR 2018)

Another year of great support. You guys are amazing 🙏🏻. Fundraiser received over 3500$ this year including the company matching.

This year’s run was even more meaningful to me. I can proudly say that I supported literacy which you’re all aware of and also organ donation. I did double duty in honor of supporting the two cause(thanks to my friend who fell sick in the last minute to give me the opportunity)

I can’t discount the folks I ran with. They are the best! <3

​Two months before the relay, ​a friend underwent an organ transplantation after lot of struggles. It wasn't a pleasant sight.​ Just two days before the race, I came to know that one of my undergrad friend is in desperate need for a kidney transplant. The golden gate relay itself is being organized to support/promote organ  donation. My case for running the relay just became stronger.

“Love is the most important thing in our lives, a passion for which we would fight or die, and yet we’re reluctant to linger over its names. Without a supple vocabulary, we can’t even talk or think about it directly” - Diane Ackerman

I can’t thank you enough for showing that power of love. Together we can do wonders ! 

P.S: I’ll get to know more details about the total funds raised by ILP in a few weeks. I’ll share that with you to show our impact 😊T​hank you!

[iwritewhatilikelove]

Joy of running!

“Running is an addiction (if you’re doing it right)” ~Casey Neistat

In this post, I would like to share my experience running the Go Green - St. Patrick’s day Half Marathon last weekend (3/18).

who signed me up?

Until March 9th, I don’t have any clue about this race.  Thanks Tyler Graf for sharing this race and expressing his interest in having a time target for 1:30 finish. Oh my good lord (that was my mind voice). I have always loved running fast but then 1:30 seemed too much out of my league and agreed to race but my realistic goal was 1:35ish.

Race day Update

And the day came, weather was perfect for running. Parking lot was a good ~1 mile away from the start line. I had to return to the car mid-way as I forgot my race bib :|. After all it’s a good warmup. I’m glad that race start was 10 mins delayed due to the parking situation.

I was running with 1:35 pacer. Tyler was running with me for first 2.5 miles and he increased his pace to meet his goad. I decided to hang out with the 1:35 pace group. All went well until I stopped at the aid station for some electrolytes. They didn’t have any electrolytes and my pacer was well ahead of me. Next 2-3 miles was a struggle. I wish I carried some electrolytes.

Struggle is real :D

Running by myself, only thing that kept me going was cheering the runners in the opposite direction :). I badly wanted someone to pace me to keep up by pace. Then came some unknown runner! She was at the right pace for me to follow.  I was following her until mile ~10. Trail was getting busy as I was approaching closer to the finish line and this brought some extra energy in me. I decided not to push very hard as I felt like my quads were cramping. I kept my pace steady and sprinted like a horse in the final 0.5 miles and you can’t beat the feel of a STRONG finish!

Some Gyan :P

Few things that keeps me going in these tough races,

Thank the volunteers and supported along the way

Cheer up the fellow runner

Keep that SMILE on. I had supporters calling this out explicitly more than once “You still have that smile!”. That just gives an instant energy booster.

Less often I run with time goal, even I do - Do what your body says and not what your watch says.

End of the day, It was a TOUGH race and I achieved what I wanted to :) and I smashed by PR by 4 minutes :D (I still have lot to improve on)

Thanks to Tyler, Ronan, Piyush, Shweta and the whole ILP group who make my runs lot more fun :)

You might be interested in this One foot in front of the other. #shameless #plug

[iwritewhatilikelove]

Remembering 2017...

Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we will ever do. ~Brene Brown

We are almost done with a quarter of 2018 and I’m yet to complete this writing.

My 2017 will go down as one of the most memorable year with many life changing events!

New year’s eve:

As usual, new year started without much of a fuzz. I spent the new year eve in San Francisco with Srini, Mukunthan, Neeraj, Priya and Pradeep meeting for dinner.

Any new year resolutions?

Not really. Wait, I decided to stop eating meat. (OMG! That’s going to be tough) - eventually I held my base strong :) Read more about that journey here - I’m one happy vegetarian. 

How was the start?

2017 started with me requiring to train hard for the upcoming SantaRosa Half Ironman. I started spending big chunk of my week in training.

What’s new in 2017?

Training for 3 activities was something new and hard

Became active on Instagram

All is well!

1 month to the Half Ironman, small accident resulted in thumb/elbow fracture. I didn’t even realize that I had a fracture until I visited urgent care. Thanks to Bharani for taking me to the urgent care.

Pain was terrible. I cried multiple times in the first two days not because of the pain but because of me not able to get out of the house. Thanks to everyone who checked on me and helped with my recovery. I don’t want to call out the names as I’m afraid that I will miss someone. This accident only made me stronger!

This is when I started listening more podcasts. One of them stood out and provided me with much needed mental strength - Rich Roll Podcast. If not for this, I wouldn’t have run the Golden Gate Relay with cast in my arm. 

I was on cast for ~6 weeks and I used some of this time to prepare for my job interviews. By July, I ended up accepting new job offer. Thanks to a big set of folks who helped me cross the line.!

New Job:

Joined Facebook in September, 2017 (9/11). I’ll definitely miss my team at Qualcomm. Life moves on and looking forward for new experience at Facebook.

Do what you love to do:

I took a few weeks break between jobs and travelled

Road trip to Oregon with friend for the total solar eclipse. I can’t express that feel.

Solo trip to Kauai, Hawaii (yes, I went alone)

Had some of the best Couchsurfing experiences

Adventure sports : Kayaking the Napali coast

Backpacking in the Waimea canyon, getting lost, having the campsite and canyon to myself for 2 days!

Backpacking in Mt. Rainier with Srini and Sathya

Visited Guatemala with Srini and enjoyed the sunrises, sunsets, lake Atitlan and the volcanoes.

Visited Mani and Ramya in Boulder, Denver for the Christmas and New year holidays

Some of crazy things that I did:

I could go on listing things. Restricting this list to 5 top items.

Getting my PR in San Jose Rock n Roll Half Marathon(finishing in 1:39). Thanks to Piyush. 

Finishing another tough 50K trail run (The North Face Endurance Challenge)

Having nothing but blisters on my foot after finishing Santa Fe Half Marathon. Course was very rough. Paced Srini to finish his first Half Marathon. 

Jumping off the cliff in Lake Atitlan

Eating wild blue berries in Mt Rainier

Learning experiences:

Managing my time.

Thanks to the triathlon trainings.

Gotten into habit of reading books

Gotten the taste of the benefits of meditation.

I’m not very regular but trying to be so

Improved on my swimming.

Thanks to Senthil.

Started repeating this mantra and trying to live by it.

“Love more, show Gratitude and Be Content”. 

And the adventure is not over yet, It’s 2017 when it was all decided.

Yes, I’m getting hitched to Archana. Save the date: 17th June, 2018

[iwritewhatilikelove]

I’m one happy vegetarian!

Some of you know that I stopped eating meat since 1st January 2017. Spent one whole year avoiding meat successfully with 2 exceptions (mostly I ran out of option).

Why Vegetarian?

I have been eating meat since my childhood (mostly chicken, fish and goat). We used to eat once in a week or two weeks. When I moved to California, I realized that almost every meal of the day have meat in it. After a point, I felt tired of eating meat (seriously? - yes I’m not a foodie). That’s when I heart about Climate Change(yes, I do believe in it) and carbon emission from the meat industry through my friend Shankar Ram.

However, what stuck me hard was the Factory farming to obtain the meat. Coming from the family with agriculture

Background, I knew how cattles were grown. Even though they were to be butchered, they were given all the freedom while growing. In United States, I looked at Animal farming as a cruelty. I’m not against anyone eating meat. I’m against how we obtain that meat.

In India, we were able to sustain with small scale farming due to meat consumption. I also learnt that meat consumption in India is growing rapidly and sooner we will be in the same situation as in United States.

When I started avoiding meat - my only reason to do so is my stance against Factory farming.

How easy was it to try this?

In 2016, I wanted to reduce meat consumption. I came across this TED talk - Weekday Vegetarian. This made my life easier. I’m not going to lie, the transition was hard. All of a sudden, I feel that I have no options in the menu. For the first few months, I used to eat lot of meat on the weekends. I even bought one whole chicken during the weekend. As time passed, my craving for meat reduced; not completely but I was able to manage. Luckily, my room mates were vegetarians and I had to dine with my non-vegetarian friends, only a few times in a week.

End of 2016, I felt good about myself doing this and didn’t feel like missing out anything. Thought of trying out avoiding meat fully in 2017 and since then following it religiously.

I was mocked, even called a radical. I had to face all sort of questions like how one person can change the world?, how are you getting enough protein?, why don’t you just eat fish?. Question ranged from showing genuine concern to sort of bullying. I don’t really care and never tried to convince someone to be vegetarian so it’s of little importance to me. I never argued in this matter. Everyone have their own opinion, I respect that.

What did you miss out?

Definitely chicken-65 :). Especially when the guy sitting next to you eats it :|. Path towards being fully vegetarian wasn’t easy. I had to overcome my occasional cravings.

What did you achieve?

I realized many things after stopping meat consumption.

I spend lot of time outdoors (~5 hours a week) sometimes doing strenuous activities. Since I stopped eating meat, I felt my recovery after the workouts were faster.

All of a sudden, I started eating more vegetables and fruits and they got higher precedence in my plate.

I consciously looked for healthy options as I had to replace the so called proteins from meat with non-meat products.

I started eating more Whole Foods.

I feel good about myself doing this (could be more of psychological thing)

My cholesterol level, blood sugar level all remained normal and well under the concerning level.

Are you going to be Vegan?

one day maybe. In my honest opinion, it wouldn’t be hard I guess.

I still like to re-emphasize that I’m not against eating meat. I was against the way the meat was produced. Having said that, looking at the outcome of becoming vegetarian in terms of health - I would not consider eating meat again.

Especially, when I visit India - I’m doubtful about me sticking to the vegetarian diet. I have a trip coming up soon and I’m still in the dilemma on whether or not I should eat meat. :P

Maybe I’m crazy!

Do what you can to make you feel great! 

Have any comments or discuss more on this? Feel free to reach out to me. Appreciate your feedback and willing to learn :)

[iwritewhatilikelove]

One foot in front of the other and move on...

It’s never a bad time to start running. When I started running for the first time, I could hardly run half a mile without huffing and puffing.

I am writing this not to emphasize the benefits of running. I would like to focus more on what you will go through when you start running for the first time. P.S: I’m writing this based on my personal experience, you know your body better. If the symptoms are serious, take necessary actions.

If you encounter any of the following, you are not alone -

Bothering in the mid foot

Pain in the shin

Knee pain

Breathing hard

Sharp pain in lower abdomen while breathing

Above said symptoms are very common and mostly noob mistakes. Most of them could be fixed with proper techniques.

Do not hesitate to walk when you are breathing hard. You could even alternate between run-walk when you are starting. 5 mins run and 2 mins walk is a good start and adjust it based on how you feel.

When you start running, do not run on consecutive days. Take it easy and start with every other day and run more only if you need to.

I would recommend look at running as a fun activity rather than a workout. Go out for a run in the park! (Ditch those treadmills - I’m not a big fan of treadmills ;) )

Spend at-least 5 mins before and after the run stretching. Your body will be thankful forever for this favor. It’s the only way to avoid running injuries. Inculcate this habit from day1. (I didn’t follow this and ended up having injury in my knee. Since then, even if I run for 10 mins - I spend ~5 mins before and ~5 mins after the run stretching.)

Pre-run stretches:

Ankle rotation: With toe on the ground, raise your hell and draw circles with it. (10 circles on each leg)

Knee rotation: 10 rotation clockwise and 10 anti-clockwise

Hip Circles: Standing with your feet hip width apart with your hands on your hips, rotate your hips in circles in a clockwise and then counterclockwise pattern ten times each direction.

Leg Swings: While holding onto something stable, swing one leg to your side and then back and across your torso. Perform the move 10 times each side.

Butt Kicks: Walk forward slowly while kicking your heels in towards your glutes for a total of 20 kicks (10 per leg).

Walking Lunges: Step forward with a long stride and drop your back leg towards the ground. Focus on keeping your front knee over your ankle and perform it in a slow and flowing motion.

Post-run stretches:

http://sassyfitgirl.com/post/116227909817/best-post-run-stretches

Please feel free to reach out to me if I can help you with anything. Feedback is a gift. Please share if you have any :) 

Enjoy running!

Credits to my running coach - Senthil Cheetancheri and ILP running group for most of this gyan!

[iwritewhatilikelove]

Thank you Donors! (GGR 2017)

Please take a moment and appreciate yourself on your kindness in supporting the kids and giving them a beacon of light. Thank you for all your support.

It was a different experience for me personally with my arm in the cast. I was determined to run but couldn't do all my 3 leg duties. I ended up running just one leg. Everyone in our team chipped in to take the additional load and we all completed the race - slow but strong.

With all your support (thanks to your employers for their generous matching), I was able raise $2050. I couldn't hit my fundraising goal this year. Nevertheless this $2050 will go a long way.

As pledged, I donated $200 to the fundraiser.

About the relay itself - It was an amazing experience with 10(out of 12) of my friends running this for the first time. It was always going to be challenging with only 3-4 hours of sleep for 36 hours running in the scorching Napa heat, cold windy SF and hilly Saratoga mountains.

We all finished strong with memories to cherish.

Thank you 🙏

[iwritewhatilikelove]

Swim... Bike.. Run. Yes! Triathlon

Yesterday, I finished (yes barely managed) my first triathlon. It was a Sprint triathlon with some weird distance -Tri for Real at Shadow Cliff Lake, Pleasanton.

Why would I do this? Lately, I took interest in challenging myself and get out of my comfort zone. On doing that, I was seeing lot of other benefits which naturally comes when we are physically active. After successfully finishing my 50K trail run, I decided to challenge myself again and hence the triathlon.

When I registered for this race,

I can stay afloat in water and cross a length of a pool at that point.

I was betting on my current fitness level to finish 19 miles biking and 4 miles of running.

I have no way to escape swimming except to swim. Now I am left with no option than to practice swimming

Learn to swim, let alone swimming in open water!

I took few classes to learn some techniques and started going to swimming pool regularly(if only averaging twice a week qualifies to be regular 😉 ). I wasn't seriously preparing maybe because my body just wanted some rest after all the running I did in first half of the year.  I did bike twice before the race (my 4th and 5th time biking in last ~6 years). Once I did 19 miles and next time I did 7.5 miles. 

Swimming was challenge and the first time I went to Shadow Cliff lake, I couldn't swim ~75m. By the time I reach the section where I can't see the floor - my brain badly wanted me to stop and I sincerely honored the request. I had to go there two more times to atleast get some fear out of my mind. Thanks lot to Murali and Harish helping with all the tips!. Thanks Prabhu and Aravind for swimming with me and Mukunthan for reiterating the importance of swimming 😉 

Race day:

Early start at 7AM. All dressed up in wet suit for the swim. 28 minutes following the whistle will be the hardest time of the day. Volunteers were amazing. If not for them, I would have taken even more. They kept checking on me if I am doing okay. If I get help, then I will be Disqualified. There was no cut off time so my motive is to drag myself 700 yards and I did that! Thank you volunteers, I could not identify the faces because of the foggy glasses and sun. I finished second last. 165/166.

Biking went well. Moment of scare when I had a bleeding nose but that dates back to my childhood, so I just ignored it and I was fine in few minutes. I can definitely work and improve on my biking.I finished 5th last 😃 162/166.

They said running would be easy for me. Not after swimming and Biking 😔 .  My legs were wobbling after biking. I had to walk a bit before getting into rhythm. Running course and sun took a big toll but thank god I had run in my third leg and not swim 😃 

I eventually finished with a big smile 😃 Yes, I finished it ! Thank you Shwetha and Harish for cheering me at the finish and also for the pictures :) . With flu in the past week, this race was still a distant dream but somehow everything fell in place.

With so much scope for improvement, I will always say "YES" for the next triathlon.

What next? Coming soon... (may not be until next summer).

[iwritewhatilikelove]

You never know...

Disclaimer: self-praising involved ;)

As I mentioned in my previous blog, 16th May 2014 was a very special day in my life. Two years later, I was at the spot which I never dreamt about - placed 3rd overall and 1st in age group in Race for Literacy - Half Marathon. Participation for Half Marathon was less but still I was really proud about my performance.

Two years ago, I could not even run a mile without stopping but two days back I ran 13.1 miles @7:56 mins per mile pace.How was I able to get there? It's better I post that in another blog. Discipline and dedication will definitely take you there.

Primary reason for most of them to run is to reduce weight. In my case, I was never in a situation where I had to reduce my weight. It was hard to answer those who ask why I need to run? I still don't have a clear answer for that.

I love running for various reasons - keeping me fresh (get some fresh air), smiling is infectious - to get infected (I can feel the positive energy for every greeting and smile), explore places - an excuse to visit those places, meet new friends - sooner will be your new family, to win the workweek hustle/weekend warrior - fitbit lingo :P Lately, trail running is something that I'm loving. Especially early morning run on the trails. Amazing! You can see some of the pictures in my facebook album.

I take this opportunity to thank all who were with me guiding, supporting, running during the last 2 years. 

[iwritewhatilikelove]

Gift of education

"A child without education, is like a bird without wings" - Tibetan proverb

Your contribution to support the cause of India Literacy Project (ILP) will go a long way in a child's life. In fact, you providedthem a new lifeline. Thank you will not do justice for your act of kindness. I will share more how your support helpedthe kid's.

With all your support (thanks to your employers for their generous matching), I was able to hit my fundraising goal of $5000.As of today, we have raised $5282. As pledged, I matched the single largest donation of $300 (Since I reached my target, I donated this $300 to my friend's fundraiser). With generous matching of Qualcomm, donor's $300 (+match) + my pledge $300 (+match) turned into $1200 in total to support the cause.

Thank you!

About the relay itself -

It was an amazing experience with many of my friends running this for the first time. It was always going to be challenging with only 3-4 hours of sleep for 36 hours running in the scorching Napa heat, cold windy SF and hilly Saratoga mountains. We all finished strong with memories to cherish.

After finishing 3 legs of the relay.

[iwritewhatilikelove]

Sustainable Agriculture

I had a special guest waiting for me when I arrive at my native place - Chinnamottanoothu. She was fondly named as "kamatchi" by my dad. Her arrival means, I was able to gulp some steamed Colostrum (Seem Paal).  What else to ask for when you return to your native after 2 years?

Small flashback...

I was born and brought up in this small village which does not have public transport access (even today). Whenever someone asks about my native - I will have to start with South TN(technically not) -> Coimbatore -> Palani  and finally Chinnamottanoothu. High five to those who made it that far :) 

My family stayed in a home located within our farmland. We also had poultry farm and good number of cattles in our farm. My sister and myself used to help with daily chores to some extent until my 8th standard after which I moved to residential school.

Gobar gas was our household fuel, milk from cows in the farm, eggs from the poultry farm, farm grown vegetables (generously shared with neighbors). Most of the lentils are seasonally grown and we had to go out for rice as our area soil type does not support rice cultivation. Cattles were given equal importance as a human member in the family. No business for PETA (pun intended).

Over the period, many things have changed. Gobar gas -> LPG

Pause... Re read the above paragraph

Nothing else -> this is farmers and rural India for you!

One of the disturbing thing that I see today is Artificial Insemination of the cows. Except for this they are treated with respect. Most of them have jersey cows now which have good milk yielding capacity. Most of the crops/vegetables grown are hybrid. Why? Farmer's greed to earn more?. Little do you know about how much a middle class farmer earn and the pain he goes through - physically and mentally. If the farmer doesn't own the land then the problem increases exponentially.

At times we had to leave the fully grown vegetables go bad in the field just because that avoids him losing money on labor. This is the problem of demand and supply. Middle men benefit a lot making more money from end customers and farmer always get the fixed rate. When you farm at small scale, you have very little option if you are not going through a middle men.

If you read this far, thank you from bottom of my heart.

We started realizing farmers are great and saluted. Being born and brought up in the family of farmers, little do I know about farming. My generation will just listen to the stories if I have time to share them :(.

Is this the end? Can we do something? I believe so. Can we foresee the demand of particular crop being cultivated - this can definitely prevent loss for the farmers.This can't be done within a region and it has to cover the entire country even including exports/imports.

If you have interest, idea, suggestions - please feel free to connect with me.

We can all together strengthen the backbone of India - "Agriculture".

[iwritewhatilikelove]

What made me start running

16th May 2014 will be the day to remember throughout my life. Until then I never thought I could run. I always avoided sport that involved running and most of my friends know my fitness level and my health conditions.

I used to volunteer for Youth Red Cross during my undergrad days. After that various life events and jobs kept me busy until I moved to bay area for my full time job in February 2014. New place, new job, new friends and I started enjoying my life.

This is when ShankarRam introduced me to India Literacy Project (ILP). We were helping Mukunthan as course volunteers for Race for Literacy. I was asked to be course biker who would be manning 5K stretch of the course. This is when I noticed something - diversity of the runners. No gender barrier. No age barrier. Runners with their kids on stroller. If they can run, what is preventing me from running? Shouldn't I be running the race? You will what this thinking lead me to...

Believe me that was the first time I rode bike in U.S. I didn't know that brakes are reversed here in U.S. (oh my god, why on earth these guys try to be unique from rest of the world). Midway through the race, I applied brakes on the slope and within seconds I landed with my head and injured my knees. Thank you runners, roles were reversed and within few minutes runners were helping me get back on the bike. Injury was not bad that I could ride my bike back to the start. First aid done and I got back home.

Little spark on this day will result in drastic changes in my life for good!

Note: While I write this, I have completed 12 races including 3 half marathons. In my next blog, I will share how I was able to do and what motivated me.

[iwritewhatilikelove]

We run so they can read...

I will share my two day experience with the team Chai Latte during the Golden Gate Relay - "California's Longest party” http://www.therelay.com/re_welcome.htm

Chai Latte Team:

Van1: Prabha, Nithya, Ramesh, Senthil, Rajeev, Nitin,

Van2: Baban, Muthu, Bala, Krishna, Piyush, Abhijit.

Training:

Senthil's training for the relay started in the month of December. I registered myself for the relay only by end of January so I missed his one month of training. what a waste :(.I was already training for my half marathon by then so I was already running 7-8 miles at easy pace. His training is not about finishing the race but finishing it free of injury. For the first two months, we used to meet Saturday morning around 730AM (you are reading it correct - 7:30 in the Saturday morning) and in the last month we used to meet on Saturdays and Sundays. One day will be track workout and the other day hill running. It turned out that I missed all the hill running with the team which I will worry about later during the relay(Leg 10- first 3 mile will be at an elevation. More than the elevation exposure to late after noon sun).

Senthil made the training session very interesting by not repeating the workouts. I used to treat myself with delicious Pongal and Idli at Madurai Idli Kadai after the run. I could not forget the day we went to Ramesh's place for breakfast. One of those "rare" days, I lost count on the number of Idli's that ate. Hot mysorepak is an added bonus. Special thanks to Abhi and Abhi's amma. I was not very disciplined in attending these training's towards the end but good enough to get most out of the training program. During these two months, I get to meet many new folks. Thanks to ILP for giving me this chance. I will later realize that this is just the start of an wonderful journey ! Half Marathon(29th March 2015):Training for the really helped me with my first half marathon - "Rock n Roll San Francisco". Two weeks leading to my half marathon was very hectic and I was not running very regularly and was short of confidence. Week before the half marathon, I hiked Clouds Rest (20.1 miles: http://gurmeet.net/hiking/hikes/Clouds_Rest_From_Happy_Isles.html). We did it. Views at the top were worth the hike. This definitely boosted my confidence. If I could not run 13.1 miles, I can at least walk to the finish. Here you go, I am up for it... I finished my HM faster than I expected :) Fund raising:

I wanted to start the fund raising much earlier than I did but work kept me busy for few weeks in march. I did not want to share yet another random fund raising page but wanted to add some meaningful information into it. I was able to collect only little information which was good enough to start the fund raising campaign. I was little hesitant to ask for the donation. I wanted everyone to donate by themselves. I am glad to have many of those friends who were generous in their donations and wishes. I did not expect that my fund raising campaign will receive the support that it did. Just a "thank you" will not do justice for their gesture. Respect !

My fundraising page http://www.ilpnet.org/ILPRelayFundRaising/302 I received generous donation tallying to 2560$. As of 26th July, ILP is still waiting for matching donation to publicize the total fund raised. This info will be made public by mid August.

D day:

I was slotted to be in the Van2 which means we had an advantage of starting late on 2nd May. Believe me that is the only time Van2 folks had a real advantage over Van1. Muthu and myself picked the rental van on Friday. It was one of those days when I had to explain my mom what I am upto and what  it means to thousands back in India. Muthu and Piyush arrived at my place, We started and on the way picked up Baban, Abhijit and Bala. Bala landed from India just few days before the race. We all packed and now ready for the what would be an amazing two days.

We were making new friends during our short 2 hour drive to Napa valley. I met Piyush, Baban during the trainings and Abhijit wass my colleague. I am meeting Bala for the first time and Muthu for the second time. We are going to spend our next 30 hours together. Revathy (Muthu's wife) made breakfast sandwiches for all of us. We reached Napa church by 11:30AM and expecting our other van teammates to be there by 1PM. During the short break, we prepared the van for the relay with all the mandatory posters and few quotes. Napa church was also offering Spaghetti lunch(Carbo-loading) and variety of cookies(at-least 15 different types) for a very minimal donation of 6$. I finished my lunch there and was getting ready for our legs.

It's 1PM, Van1 arrived the exchange point. Team picture - checked. I am excited and Baban is all set to start the run and in few minutes we we were all waiting in the exchange point for Praba to show up after her leg. And there she is... Baban is one of the fast runners and the day being sunny we just had few minutes to say goodbye and start our next 6 legs. There are no aid/water station to provide aid from the organizers. Each of our van should be the aid/water station. We decided to stop for every mile for water. We were running through grape fields of Napa. It was really hard to capture the beauty with lens of our smartphones. Our first baton exchange - Muthu received the wrist band from Baban and continued followed by Bala. I was next in line for the run. I had couple of bananas and some Groundnut chikki. I am all geared up and warmed up getting ready for my first leg. Excitement at its peak !. It was 4:06PM when I received the wrist band from Bala. Out of excitement, I did run fast for the first mile. Not an ideal weather for the run. Sunny day, running uphill with wind against you. I am almost exhausted after a mile. I trained well but didn't train much for the uphill and that is really haunting me. For a moment, I had this question "What am I doing here? Why should I do this? (out of exhaustion)" and there was my team waiting for me at mile 1 cheering. Baban was super excited in providing the runners with water/Gatorade throughout the relay. Hydrating myself, I started my second mile and is just getting better. I am already sweating and my addition to the gear (head sweatband) is really helping the sweat out of my eyes. Another hydration at around mile 2 and I am still climbing. Though the climb is not steep, temperature and wind made it worse. Too much of water and two bananas is now coming to play, I felt like puking. I then realized not to take more water/Gatorade. After the 3rd mile, it was all flat but it was still hot and I am getting used to that. I could not see any runners after 7th mile and we are getting into Petaluma city. I had to take my cell phone to look for the map and finally reached the exchange point where Piyush was all set for running. I hardly get time to stretch there. Quickly poured some water on my head, washed my face and started to follow Piyush. I was stretching whenever we stopped for Piyush and eating the breakfast sandwich along the way. We were soon at exchange 11. Someone provided free doughnuts and we all tasted few of them. Abhijit was all set to run. Unfortunately that leg turned out to be the toughest and Abhijit with little practice exhausted himself and will not recover for his next two legs.

At exchange 11, Van1 folks took over from us and we were headed to the Golden Gate Bridge. This time to take a nap in the parking lot. I never imagined I will be in the golden gate parking lot with my sleeping bag. On the way, we bought some dinner from Chipotle. I enjoyed my dinner in the parking lot with the view of Alcatraz island, SF downtown and few cruised on the bay. Time to get some rest now. Our next leg (leg 19) would start around 1230 AM. We hardly have 3 hours of time to rest and used it to the maximum. My legs were still tired after the tough leg last afternoon. My second leg is just 4 mile but even that was hard in the hilly SF area. Our second legs were in total darkness. It was mandated by organizer to wear reflective jacket and headlamp. Van1 folks passed on the baton to Baban near Golden Gate bridge and we were all set for the run again. Many of us did not need water supply as it was cold and we were not sweating out. We just wanted to make sure that runners are not off track in the darkness and van will wait for the runner to pass by for every 1-2 mile. Due to construction, few miles of the course was closed and we had to drop off Piyush crossing Hwy 280N. Despite his swollen foot, Abhijit was eager to do his second leg. He would give up after a mile and Piyush was able to finish that leg for Abhijit. Piyush was also suffering from back pain and he wanted to slow his pace to avoid increasing the severity of his back pain. (Back pain was not due to the run). Inspite of all these, we had a such a wonderful atmosphere in the van. Bala's presence would make it so lively. Forgetting that I barely understand Hindi, Bala would converse in Hindi for my nodding head until he relaize that I am not getting anything :P. Probably I would pick up some Hindi vocabulary before May 2016. We finished our second leg faster that our van1 folks expected which made them to hurry to the exchange point. We were happy with our second leg finish time except for Abhijit's injury. After our exchange, we headed to Canada college for our short rest. It was already 6AM but still we needed some shower and sleep. Hard earned rest. Hot shower after a tiring day is a gift and a nap after that. I hate someone waking me up in the middle of a deep sleep. It was one of those days, I had to accept that and the culprit was Muthu (our captain). He will later treat us with Upma, Dosa and coffee at his home for breakfast :). Thanks again to Revathy. After our breakfast, we dropped Abhijit and headed to our third and final exchange point. In the mean time, Piyush's kids were baking a cake to support Chai Latte. We did not do justice to them. Unfortunately, due to time crunch, we had to head to our exchange point.

Due to Rajeev Patel's unavailability for the second day, Van1 folks need to shuffle their turns which means Senthi and Ramesh had to take 2 legs at a stretch which was not easy as said. Ramesh chose to run the legs 29 and 30 climbing santa cruz mountains heading to interseciton of HWY 35 and HWY 9. We took a team picture before Van1 folks head home. So far we were running for just for the case without considering too much about the time except for logistics reason. Towards the end, we get to compete with other teams and fellow ILP teams as well. It was a real fun. We now had a real chance to finish first amongst the ILP teams. Never mind, we did not accomplish that but still it was worth the try. Relay results are here http://www.therelay.com/app/team/results/year/2015.

With finish time playing in our mind, we decided to shuffle our schedule. Bala being a slow but steady runner and considering myself slow climbing uphill. We decided that Bala will run 2 miles of my uphill and I will take over from him for the remaining of my 6 miles and do first two miles of Bala's slot which was flat and Bala will then finish it off. This turned out well. I finished 8.6 miles with avg pace of 8:28 minute per mile. Course and weather supported this task. Except that I lost about a minute and half in the traffic signal. This might sound silly but when you are cruising at that pace this is definitely a setback. A month later, Ranga (one of the ILP's fastest runner - a veteran runner) came to me with compliments for my running form during that 8.6 mile run. Thank you Ranga !. In Van2, we were debating who to run the last leg on behalf of Abhjit. Just finishing my leg, I badly wanted to run that leg. Its all downhill and it should be a cake walk. Muthu slated to run that leg had to drop off due to lactic acid build up and we decided that myself and Baban will share the last leg. In that leg, I ran 2.3 miles in 16 minutes. Downhill here you go... I want to run to the finish but per team's decision, Baban will take over from me and run to the finish. We took some pictures in the finish line, collected our medals and left Santa Cruz. It was an amazing weekend. While we made friendships, experience for life, kids back in India gained something that can not be explained. P.S: This is my first attempt blogging. Comments are welcome :)