Running into 2008

(Pix Credit: The Simpsons Show, Fox Network?)
Every year magazines, newspapers, websites, blogs tend to reflect on the year that has been and wax eloquent on the happenings, non-events and generate completely irrelevant lists of things. Today it's my turn to reflect.

2007 was a great year for me running wise (and other wise too). It started with the Stanchart Mumbai Marathon in January where I completed a half marathon. Having done this distance twice before, my ONLY imperative was to RUN the distance, not walk not crawl, but to do this with feet off the ground. I completed 21.097K in Mumbai in 3:40 something. While the timing was not as good, I was still very much thrilled to have done better than the previous Mumbai outing.

As is typical with me, I took a lot of time off after Mumbai and did not start running again till June/July. One morning in June/July after dropping the kid, I went to KNP and ran some laps. If I remember correctly, my average time was around 4:00 minutes per lap. Around August, I had been running regularly enough to venture onto the blogspace and start recording my exploits :-). The Delhi Half Marathon in October was a super high in my short running career with me getting rid of almost 40 minutes off my Mumbai time.

I ran 10K in Pune in 71 minutes. For once, it appeared that a 140 minute half marathon was not just an elusive figment of my imagination but a distinct possibility if I trained hard enough.

2007 is the year I ran 3 races and I am quite pleased with being able to find the time, and keep the enthusiasm going.

In 2008, I hope to run the half marathon in Mumbai, Delhi, maybe Hyderabad, perhaps the Ultra in Bangalore and if I can swing it - Singapore

Some totally random metrics from 2007.

1. Number of Laps of Kamala Nehru Park (KNP): 360
2. Number of Laps of Chittaranjan Vatika (CV): 47
3. On Road Kilometres Run: 104.97
4. KM flown to & from race venues: 2368 KM
5. KM by road to race venues: 240 KM
6. New running stuff: 1 Nike Water Bottle, 2 Nike drip dry shirts, 1 Adidas running shorts, 1 pair Adidas SuperNova shoes, 1 Sony NW something MP3 player.
   
7. Best Lap time: 2:48 (KNP), 3:08 (CV)
8. Entry fees: INR 500.
   
9. Celebratory biryanis and kababs: Lost count :-)
10. Weight loss: I would rather live in ignorant bliss than know the reality.

Happy New Year!!!