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
My friend sent this to me today
I think this applies to you.
Long back, a person who
- sacrificed his sleep,
- forgot his family,
- forgot his food,
- forgot laughter
were called “Saints”
But now they are called..”IT professionals”
There are tons of free tools to create PDFs. Some of the ones I use on a regular basis are
Now.. thx to the good folks at Sun, you can edit PDF files too for free now. Although this is not full fledged PDF editing, you can make simple text changes and move blocks of texts around.
You can get a free PDF editor solution by
Love Open Source :-)..
Wishing you and your family a happy Diwali.. (festival of light). Wishing this year, brings you love, peace and prosperity.
Someone remixed the theme music of the old Knight Rider series with the intro video of the new Knight Rider series on NBC.
Enjoy…
My friend, Ravi, responded via e-mail to my ranting about the end of affordable flying in India and the note that we might be slipping back to socialism..
I understand that there will be no Rs.99/- deals in future (Yes, Rs.99! + Taxes, which are close to 20 times the price of the ticket). There should not have been such deals in the first place. Many airlines to gain market share have priced their fares dirt cheap and are now facing the consequences. If they are not even making money to pay the salaries, how are they going to become profitable by bearing operating costs and considering all loans they are unable to repay even after 5-10 years of starting their operations.
In a way I feel it is good that the airline sector is making some adjustments at-least now but the managements made some blunders in implementation of their ideas. If you followed the story of Jet employees getting sacked, it looks ridiculous and shows how stupid the management was. This is a perfect example as to how a company will have to take back it’s decisions due to social pressures if it makes decisions without proper implementation plan. People like Raj Thackeray making comments like the Jet airways will not be allowed to land if the employees are not taken back, etc and his previous hatred comments against North Indians shows how narrow minded politicians are able to speak whatever they want and can come to limelight and ENJOY their actions.Read the below article which describes how a CEO of a company was attacked and killed recently in India. There may be various versions of the same story but what bothers me most is people get away with no one being held accountable for the crime.Also, there are so many political games in all states in India that it has become difficult to feel secure to do any business though you abide by the law, unless you have local support. Recent move of Tata Nano plant from Singur in W.Bengal to Gujarat is a perfect example of how things can turn due to political gains.Yes, there is corruption anywhere in the world but in India you can get away with relatively easily, even if caught. This is a major setback and I fear things will get much worse before some radical decision comes out later to tackle such situations.Sorry for going into social aspect of the problem rather than financial aspect.Anyways, we need to have political power to do anything better for the society on the large scale and to get there we will face the same issues of combating corrupt and dangerous politicians who are ready to do anything to regain their position.I will go back and spend money for the betterment of the system if I win BigGame 🙂
I succesfully completed my first half marathon of 2008 yesterday. And to top it off, it was my first official cross country trail race. Although I signed up for multiple half marathons this year, as part of training for the Chicago Marathon, I was not able to run any of them due to conflicts with work.
Sri and I signed up for the North Face Endurance Challenge on a whim a couple of months ago. Looking back, it sounds crazy :-). Why would anyone want to run a half marathon, 2 weeks after running a marathon and that too in the woods. But I am so glad we did it and that I got to finish it.
Sri, Hafsa and Joy came along with me to cheer me on during race. We took off at ~6:00 AM in the morning and had breakfast at a small diner along the way. The drive to Kettle Moraine state Forest, where the race was held, was senic. Esp with the fall colors. I never realized that Wisconsin was such a beautiful state. I guess that is what happens, when the only places you visit in a state are the touristy places (Wisconsin Dells).
The weather was perfect for the run (~40 degrees) and I got time before the run to warm up. Joy ran the first 1.7 miles with me to the first aid station. The first mile had a killer hill. We had to elevate ~1000 feet in a matter of 200 meters. We started off strong up the hill, but then got our senses and walked the second half of the hill :-).
The race had two loops of ~4.9 miles. The first loop was not as hilly as I expected (or maybe I wasn’t as tired 🙂 ), but was slushy and had a lot of barriers. The second loop was a lot more hilly. I never trained in the trails or hills this year. So this was a new experience. But the beautiful scenery around me kept me distracted and moving forward.
Joy joined me again for the last mile. I switched to “Supreme Hero.. Sweet Heart” 🙂 for the last half mile on my iPod and sprinted to the final. It was a photo finish ..
Some pictures from the race
Warm up
Take Off
The easy part of the trail
Fall Colors
More pictures can be found here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kudithipudi/sets/72157608376845295/)
P.S : I came first in the race. i.e. in the desi category :-).
I came across a compilation of songs from Chiranjeevi‘s (Cinema Actor in Tollywood) 1980s movies. And I forgot how much I loved these songs :).. Esp this one (https://kudithipudi.org/patalau/Yamudiki_Mogudu_Andam_Hindolam.mp3) from the movie Yamudiki Mogudu.. I guess I was in middle school then. And this was the kool aid we used to drink :).
What can I say.. I love disco :-).. and I am not ashamed to say it..
I wish I can find the video for this song. Chiru was cool in those days :).
Sri found the video for this song on youtube.. the quality is not good.. but you can enjoy the tight pants and shiny shoes 🙂
Even if you don’t know who Chiranjeevi is and what telugu is. Go ahead, download the song and listen to it. The music is discolicious :).
