Long run YIPPEEEEEEEEEE!!!

It's been a long while since I went on a long run. Had planned one last week only for a personal emergency to put paid to the plan. Yesterday was a rest day. I have been nursing a cold coming into the weekend and feeling a bit off weather in addition to a runny nose. The alarm went off at 6:00 AM. I turned it off and went back to the warm bed. Finally at 6:30, I dragged myself out of bed,finished my daily rituals, laced up and stepped out of home, chewing on some raisins.

Warming up in Good Luck Chowk (GLC) was interesting.. It was around 7:15 and I did draw some astonished stares. The three guys sitting on the steps of the Batavia Medical Store feigned ignorance, the rickshaw wallahs looked amused.

Anyway I started off at 7:27, ran up BMCC Road and down Bhandarkar Road back to GLC in 20:08 minutes. This loop is around 2.67K and I had planned to do enough to complete 10K.

However started back on FC Road, decided not to strain my calf muscles with another climb and continued to the far end near Police Ground, turned and back down FC to GLC in 43 and odd minutes.

By this time, I had an idea forming in my head, how about running down Karve Road? since anyway I was not sticking to plan. Do I run up Karve Road (it is an uphill all the way till end) or down? Karve Road has major traffic no matter what time of the day. Avoiding traffic on my home leg won out as an argument, and I turned onto Karve Road, climbing it all the way. Panting and groaning, somewhere near Nal Stop chowk, I finished 60 minutes of non-stop running, went up further, turned into the bypass(canal) road near SNDT, on Law College Road.

By now, I was calculating my pace as roughly 8 minutes per KM, so was not 100% certain about getting 10K under my belt. Any way, at the next decision point (can't or won't), I went with won't (the alternative was to go down BMCC Road) and turned back into Bhandarkar Road to take the down-slope advantage. I ended back at GLC in 85:01:00 minutes. Cooled down, as I walked back home.

I was apprehensive about the distance when I logged onto my online pedometer. Joy of joys, I have run 10.8K. YIPPEEEEE.. I decided to call this route - Three Whorls on account of its three loops. Here it is.