Guess what happens, when one runs a half marathon without any training? You break all records for finishing late 
. Jhanvi and I ran the 2010 Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Chicago today. It was hot and humid.. but we managed to finish the run. Am so proud of Jhanvi for finished faster than me.. She just started running last year and I think she is a natural.
I kicked off the 2010 running season with the Shamrock shuffle held on March 21st. Jhanvi was going to run it with me, but was not able to due to health restrictions. She is planning on joining me for a couple of half marathons this year . Hopefully, she won’t beat me as she did last year .
I finished the 8K (5.1 miles) a couple seconds short of 1 hour . Official chip time was 0:59:51. Results are published here. Looks like I am going to settle in the 12min/mile pace. That has been my pace for the last couple of races.
Jhanvi and I successfully finished the 2009 Hot Chocolate 15K, held on the lake shore of Chicago last weekend. Not a surprise that Jhanvi beat me by 1 second . Her finish time was 1:46:27 and mine was 1:46:28. It was a chilly day, but after a couple of miles we fell into the rhythm and enjoyed the race. The only disappointing portion of the race was the watery hot chocolate that was provided at the end of the race. I am not sure if it was a case of the organizers underestimating the crowd or if they were being cheap, the hot chocolate (which was supposed to be the attraction of the race) was pretty watery.
Yes.. people do run ~9 miles to get a cup of hot chocolate .
I ran the last (at least for now) half marathon of 2009 this weekend along with Jahnavi and Sri. We ran the Northface Endurance Challenge Half Marathon. The Northface Endurance Challenges are a collection of races which take place in the wilderness across the US throughout the year. The race in Wisconsin, held each October, is the easiest out of them. I ran this race last year and wanted to make this of my annual races.
My official time for the race was 3:01:09 (~31 minutes slower than my time from last year). So this makes it my slowest half marathon ever. How do I continue to keep breaking these slow records? Well, by not practicing .
While the run itself was painful (reminder for self.. never ever run a half marathon in the woods without practicing!!), it was fun to have Jahnavi accompany me on her first half marathon. She was a real trooper and kept me company throughout the race. I also took some videos of the race (that again tells you how poorly I prepared for the race ). Here is a snippet from my last mile, I was delusional by this point
The obligatory pre and post race pictures
Pre Race
Post Race
I successfully completed the Chicago Half Marathon held on 9/13 in 2 hours and 44 minutes. I know that is nothing to brag about (in fact my worst time so far for a half marathon).. but considering that I didn’t train for it at all and had a couple shots of tequila and some beer the night before, I think I did OK. But boy was I hurting at the end.
I ran the race with my friend Sri and his friend Rama Krishna. Obviously, I was the late finisher in the team.
Here is our pre-race picture
p.s : Please don’t take this as advice to start drinking before embarking on a long run .
It was cold (35 F), Windy (30 mph) and snowing (3 inches) for the Shamrock Shuffle 8K race yesterday…. But I was determined not to miss yet another race this year. Thx to Sri for pushing me during the race, I finished it in 51:28 minutes. Thats an average of 10:22/mile.
[Photo Credit : Kieffer]
This is how the course looked like. The road was so slushly that my feet were frozen and I couldn’t feel them till the 2nd mile.
[ I have to make fun of Sri's new moustache ]
The only cool thing that came out of the 2009 Superbowl (Other than the fact, that the Cardinals played their heart out.. but still lost), were the 3D ads!! Dreamworks and NBC partnered up with Pepsi to show two ads in 3D after the first half.. I don’t know if the hype generated by the ads justified the millions of dollars spent to create them.. I am sure the picture below was reflected in most of the households across America
Thx to Sri and Kirthi for hosting this year’s Superbowl party.. The Guacamole and Haleem were yummy..Pictures from the party (http://flickr.com/photos/kudithipudi/sets/72157613256281176/)
I was able to go to the Bulls/Jazz game tonight when my cousin offered me tickets to the game.. The Bulls won by 8 points (106 – 98) . Â Here are some pictures from the game.
Sri sent this link (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/11/24/pirates.indians.ap/index.html?cnn=yes#) from Sports Illustrated about a story of how the Pittsburgh Pirates signed up two 20 year old men from India as free agents to be part of their farm. These two guys never touched a baseball in their life!! Other than pitching at a reality show called “The Million Dollar Arm”.
Imagine.. it is the bottom of the ninth, The Pirates are leading by a run and the opposing team has all the bases loaded. 1 strike and 2 balls.. The manager calles in Patel as a closer.. the crowd goes crazy yelling “Patel.. Patel..Patel..” LOL . Cannot wait to see that..
The results are in for the 2008 North Face Endurance Challenge, which I ran last weekend. My official time was
Not bad for a first cross country half marathon. At least thats what I am going to think .
Full list of results can be found here http://results.sportstats.ca/res2008/madison21k.htm