tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8512216966759541542023-11-16T02:45:31.149-08:00Running et al.Venkathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00073411983234413301noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-851221696675954154.post-34781122077158397452012-03-31T19:05:00.002-07:002012-03-31T20:34:31.107-07:00Apple of running shoes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Skora, a startup company was working secret for past few months developing minimalist running. They have just released their men's shoes and a review is of them -</div>
<a href="http://minimalistrunningshoes.org/skora-running-form-shoe-review"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">http://minimalistrunningshoes.org/skora-running-form-shoe-review</span></a></div>Venkathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00073411983234413301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-851221696675954154.post-22716645496119061682012-03-31T18:53:00.004-07:002012-03-31T20:37:15.656-07:00New Balance Minimus Zero Road review & giveaway<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;">A great review and giveaway of the New Balance Minimus Zero Road shoes - </span></div>
<a href="http://www.runningandrambling.com/2012/03/new-balance-minimus-zero-road-review.html"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">http://www.runningandrambling.com/2012/03/new-balance-minimus-zero-road-review.html</span></span></a></div>Venkathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00073411983234413301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-851221696675954154.post-16182612714386604482011-09-09T11:01:00.000-07:002011-09-09T11:02:31.272-07:00La Ultra The High - In Leh<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the aircraft starts descending into Leh, there was a buzz among the passengers and everyone starts staring out the window, whips out their cameras and starts clicking away to glory.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br />Was something wrong? Yes! it looks like none of us on the aircraft had seen such beautiful mountains before. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br />Take a look below (full size photographs are <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/110515159410937406596/RunningEtAl?authkey=Gv1sRgCNy6mZn288O-0gE">here</a>)
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The river on the right of the picture is the Indus!</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo4KVnwsMkZFQvLmHmgJkE_61C76bQ0xLhmyhp6EgfhPAr2zD56SXk51YwVfT1sRFtePzOviSN_1dQB1q1qOflLTOzX5sQXXEZXpMJRnkRrOoAwM_GM_-sQzsiNdFIemNGrNbeZagaGFBb/s1600/IMG_0007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo4KVnwsMkZFQvLmHmgJkE_61C76bQ0xLhmyhp6EgfhPAr2zD56SXk51YwVfT1sRFtePzOviSN_1dQB1q1qOflLTOzX5sQXXEZXpMJRnkRrOoAwM_GM_-sQzsiNdFIemNGrNbeZagaGFBb/s400/IMG_0007.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />And just when I thought it couldn't get any more beautiful, we got off the aircraft and the full face of the mountains comes into view - it simply takes your breath away!!!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The only analogy I could think off was when I saw the Taj Mahal, I must have seen the Taj Mahal thousands of times on television and in photographs, but the moment you step through the Main Gate and the Taj comes into view - you know now.<br /><br />Below is a photograph once we are off the aircraft waiting for the shuttle - </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was already fascinated by the mountains!!!</span><br />
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We weren't sure if the race organizers had arranged for pickup from the airport to the hotel, but knew that the core team and the runners were arriving by an earlier flight, so we were hoping to hitch a ride to the hotel.</div>
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I did get in touch with Rajat and he said not to worry there will be transport arranged but lost contact before I could check on how do we recognize the transport. </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sure enough, the moment we step out of the airport, number of members of the core team along with Kunal and other local crew were present.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We were welcomed with the traditional Ladakhi greeting of "Juley" - and closest description of meaning of "Juley" I can think of is that its Aloha+.<br /><br />Aloha only refers to the English greeting of Hello and Goodbye in Hawaiian (although originally it means much more), Juley is used for all kinds of greeting and acknowledgement including Hello, Goodbye, Thank you and Welcome.<br /><br />Vijay, one of our local contact points, also presented us with a Khata</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, a beautiful ceremonial traditional Tibetian scarf.<br />S</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">ymbolizing goodwill, auspiciousness and compassion, it is made of silk, and white in color which symbolizes the pure heart of the giver.<br /><br />Vijay, as it turns out, becomes our go to man for the entire journey, especially logistics related stuff in terms of arranging for local transport.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">Finally, we meet Rajat, after having interacted with him over email and phone calls, was glad to meet him in person.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's me with Aparna and Rajat - photo courtesy <a href="http://www.thehigh.in/">La Ultra The High</a></span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><br />We were quickly on our way to the hotel and the moment the car comes out the airport, I see a big road sign - pointing towards Kargil!!! - we were so close to the border.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">The short 10-15 minute ride, it was mountains, mountains and more mountains, all around us, a sight to behold. Also was a number of Indian army camps, grounds, hospitals which re-enforced the fact that we weren't far away from the border.<br /><br />And that was when it struck me - </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">never been a few hundred meters above sea-level, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">I am now at 11,000 ft. in a span of 2 hours and I suddenly became conscious of my breath, was I breathing too hard too quickly? running short of breath? mild headache? Nothing, so far so good...</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Next up - The Hotel<b>.</b></span></span></span></div>
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Venkathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00073411983234413301noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-851221696675954154.post-23854145781773885912011-09-09T09:35:00.000-07:002011-09-09T09:35:12.900-07:00Most important stuff<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most important point which I missed in my initial post - I was assigned to crew for Lisa Tamati (<a href="http://www.lisatamati.co.nz/">www.lisatamati.co.nz</a>) for La Ultra.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br />Lisa is a very very accomplished ultra runner, putting it very very midly :-). Some of her achievements - </span><br />
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A multiple time Badwater finisher.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Completed many 250 kms desert races including Marathon Des Sables, Gobi and Sahara races (part of the 4 desert races). </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ran Trans 333 through the Niger desert - a distance of 333 kms.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ran the length of New Zealand from Bluff to Cape Reinga covering approx 2,200km in 43 days.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Voted the New Zealand Maori sportswoman of the year 2008.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />Some stuff which we'll never even think of doing in a lifetime!</div>
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</ul>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After being assigned as her crew, I did have interactions with her over email and she was coming down to India with Chris Ord, an adventure journalist, Darryl, the cameraman who will be shooting the doco and Sunny Grewal, one of her sponsors.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />But the interactions did peter out and hadn't had much communication with her for a month before the race, so as I was travelling to Leh, was hoping that I'm a part of her crew.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br />To an outside looking at the races Lisa has completed, distances covered in extreme climates, La Ultra looks achievable but by no means easy.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br />But I was naive, so naive... </span><br />
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Venkathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00073411983234413301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-851221696675954154.post-73567628625850325052011-09-08T11:39:00.000-07:002011-09-08T11:42:12.582-07:00About La Ultra The High<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;">Stepping back, I spoke about going to Leh to run a marathon and crew for an ultra marathon, what's an ultra marathon? Do people distances greater than a marathon? Why??? <br />By the way isn't a marathon distance XX kilometers? Questions I used to ask about a year ago.<br />To clarify, a marathon is 42.2 kms and an ultra marathon is anything greater than that - typically ultra marathons are 50 kms and above. <br /><br />The ultra marathon I was going to crew for La Ultra - The High, a distance of 222 kms - you read it correctly 222 kms on foot. Now ultra marathons of 200+ kms are not uncommon across the world, but what added the X factor was the altitude which adds a whole lot of complications which I'll describe in my upcoming posts.<br /><br />Last year there were only 3 participants for the ultra and only 1 finisher, which practically guaranteed to have more people attempting it. Why? Because ultra marathoners are a "different" lot, the more the challenge seems impossible the more they want to attempt and conquer it. For them, unlike other atheletic disciplines from 100 mts to marathons where a podium finish matters, finishing is reward itself.<br /><br />So a snapshot of La Ultra - The High (<a href="http://www.thehigh.in/">www.thehigh.in</a>)<br />Distance 222 kms<br />Time 60 hrs<br />Avg. Altitude - 14,850 feet<br />Avg. Oxygen < 33%<br />Temp -6C to +40C<br /><br />Crossing 17,500+ feet twice!<br /><br />Here is a small preview of the race, in which Dr. Rajat Chauhan, Race Director, mentions about how it all came about.</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/23335481?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="400"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/23335481">ULTRA MARATHON RACE: LA ULTRA - THE HIGH</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/btvproductions">Barry Walton</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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<b>Next post </b>- Stuff which I missed out in my first post. </div>
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Venkathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00073411983234413301noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-851221696675954154.post-72879356785143532482011-09-03T04:16:00.000-07:002011-09-03T04:22:17.428-07:00La Ultra The High - To Leh<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"You're what???", (add incredulous look) - that was the first reaction I got from people whom I told that I will be going to Leh to crew </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">for an ultra. "We know that you enthusiastic about running marathons, but go all the way to Leh to volunteer for a race, and to </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">take 2 weeks of leave for it - you've gone bonkers".</span><br />
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An office colleague pointed out that a certain co-worker had also taken 2 weeks of leave but that was for his wedding and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">honeymoon, "Well I'm hoping for the same". "You're planning to get married there???" (add another incredulous look), "No, no, just </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">fall in love with the mountains" pat came my reply.</span><br />
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There were a number of reasons for me to go on this trip -</span><br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wanted to run a race in a different city in India every month in 2011, this obviously did not pan out during the summer months </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">since there weren't too many races in the country. This was a way to continue that quest atleast for the remaining months of the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">year.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A chance to interact with elite ultrarunners and get a glimpse of their thought process, mental makeup and training regime - this in </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">itself would have been reason enough.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Haven't taken a long holiday since Nov 2010, so it was overdue.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Leaves, office policy dictates that leaves cannot be accumulated and if not used, will expire, so had to utilize atleast part of my </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">holidays now since getting leaves at the end of year becomes difficult due to holiday season and many other colleagues take time </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">off.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Didn't want to just travel and see places but wanted to be a part of something - didn't know what but something.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Never been to Leh and wanted to go there for a long-long time (and no, it wasn't because of 3 Idiots the movie but always wanted </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to travel to Khardung La - "the highest motorable pass in the world" on a Royal Enfield motorcycle).</span></li>
</ul><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had originally planned only to run the marathon and not crew for the race, but since I had to be in Leh atleast a week in advance </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">for acclimatization, decided to take an extra week off and head there for crewing, as the crew had to be there almost 2 weeks in </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">advance of the ultra marathon. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
Had an extensive chat with doc (Dr. Rajat Chauhan - the Race Director), and it consisted of him telling me of all the pitfalls that leh (pun intended) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ahead, what a thankless job it was and the end result was nothing but a sense of achievement of aiding someone in finishing the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">race. But he did say that the whole journey was an experience whose lessons would last a lifetime. Did it? We'll know soon enough.<br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So here I am, all signed up for the marathon and for crewing, my leaves from office approved and my flight tickets booked well in </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">advance since we were told that it was tourist season in Leh and prices would go up as we moved close to August, and a bomb </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">drops - the race organizers might be able to get cheap flight tickets thanks to a potential sponsor.<br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why me? It always happens to me, book early and prices drop as the travel date gets closer, wait for prices to drop and it invariably </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">goes up. If we get hold of these tickets, will I have to change my travel dates, will I have extend my leave?<br />
But for some reason the tickets from the potential sponsor didn't pan out and I was back to my original schedule.<br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now finally since my schedule was set, I looked up the weather and temperature in Leh to figure out what kind of clothes did I </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">needed to carry. But numbers don't tell you the whole story, do they? So I spoke to Kunal who is a member of the core organizing </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">committee, a mountain guide, stays in Leh, and turns out to be a Puneite to boot and all he mentioned was to carry clothes for all </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">seasons because when you are up there on the mountain passes it could be any season.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He also mentioned to carry a postpaid cellphone connection since prepaid connections were not available locally in J&K due to </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">security reasons and also prepaid connections on roaming would not work.<br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A side effect of preparing for this race, was that I got a chance to buy quite a bit of running gear (for most of the seasons) which </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">meant a whole bunch of long sleeved running t-shirts which I normally wouldn't need running down here at sea-level and other </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">running clothes and accessories. Folks at home have commented that I now have more running apparel than formals that I wear to </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">work or casuals - inevitable for runners I guess.<br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During interactions with the Dr. Rajat, core crew members, ultra partcipants and their crew members, realized that Aparna from </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pune and Girish from Mumbai were also travelling to Leh for crewing. Whew!!! What a relief, I'm not the only person who takes time </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">off from work to come and crew.<br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The majority of the pre-race interaction involved around altitude acclamatization and sickness and the kind of precautions one can </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">take to avoid it. And if one does get hit by altitude sickness what kind of medication can one take to recover. And a magic pill </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">named Diamox was bandied about. A lot of differing views exist about Diamox, some say take it as a precaution atleast 24 hours </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">before you hit high altitude and others say don't take it unless you are down with altitude sickness. I'm not too fond of taking pills </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but having no experience with altitude, I decide to take one about 12 hours before landing in Leh.<br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Normally, I also read up before </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">taking medication, in terms of side effects etc. but this time for some reason I didn't and missed out on one important side effect - </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">you pee like a horse!!! </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which I came to know well after landing in Leh by the time I had decided on avoiding Diamox unless it was </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">absolutely essential.<br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So come July 31st I'm all packed and ready-to-go, co-incidentally me and Aparna are on the same flights till Leh, we take the 10 pm </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">flight from Mumbai to Delhi and a connecting flight from Delhi to Leh at 5:30 am on the Terminal 3 at Delhi Airport.<br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What a terminal! For anything inside the terminal one has to walk what seems like miles, a precusor of things to come? And why </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">did I have to walk so much - thanks to Diamox. Usually I don't use the toilets in the aircraft during domestic flights which typically </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">aren't more than 2 hours, but this time before even the flight took of for Leh, I was in queue for the loo - I guess I'm not the only </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">one taking Diamox.<br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other than the whole walking thing and the loo hunting, the whole journey from Delhi was pretty uneventful.<br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Next post - Leh & beyond - a preview of the mountains.</b></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6jODU0JKeJ0S158TGMbnHOHJvJKrq9iLs3FmCBOUjx5YUoB_1gi1nHYAJCTecnaNLRNqXuFzNoaQejiegeyJ8HB3458ocC0Z-h2ogVHUcjXy2UxG2fa9420Z1ajlRGR435sIGOd8xvEac/s1600/IMG_0010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6jODU0JKeJ0S158TGMbnHOHJvJKrq9iLs3FmCBOUjx5YUoB_1gi1nHYAJCTecnaNLRNqXuFzNoaQejiegeyJ8HB3458ocC0Z-h2ogVHUcjXy2UxG2fa9420Z1ajlRGR435sIGOd8xvEac/s320/IMG_0010.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>Venkathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00073411983234413301noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-851221696675954154.post-69801771853643676682011-06-07T17:58:00.001-07:002011-06-07T17:58:34.868-07:00Allied Medal Hanger GIVEAWAY<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Looking for a place to hang your medals? Checkout the Allied Medal Hanger GIVEAWAY!! <a class="twitter-timeline-link" data-expanded-url="http://networkedblogs.com/iR3LY/" href="http://networkedblogs.com/iR3LY" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="http://networkedblogs.com/iR3LY/">http://networkedblogs.com/iR3LY</a></div>Venkathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00073411983234413301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-851221696675954154.post-41632668828749551282011-04-19T19:56:00.000-07:002011-04-19T19:56:00.941-07:00Minimalist shoe review - The Merrell Trail Glove<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hi,</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As you know, I'm always on the lookout for my next minimalist pair of shoes after having tried and tested self-made huaraches from <a href="http://www.invisibleshoe.com/">InvisibleShoe.com</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Here is a wonderful review of the Merrell Trail Glove and a giveaway!!!</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.runningandrambling.com/2011/04/merrell-barefoot-trail-glove-review-and.html">http://www.runningandrambling.com/2011/04/merrell-barefoot-trail-glove-review-and.html</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The whole trouble is trying the shoes fit sitting out here in India but the giveaway gives me a chance to take a shot at the trying the shoes.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So do read the wonderful review.</span></div></div>Venkathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00073411983234413301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-851221696675954154.post-91718775513943861642011-01-19T18:43:00.000-08:002011-01-19T18:43:52.636-08:00Garmin Giveaway from DCRainmakerIt's been a long time since I've posted anything and this will be a short one.<br />
<br />
I've been a great admirer of Garmin devices, even though I've used many, never owned one.<br />
They are the pioneers in building fitness tracking devices based on their GPS technology.<br />
<br />
And since I've started running, have always been looking at ways to measure my progress and whomever I ask - the name Garmin always comes up.<br />
<br />
Well here's your chance to own a Garmin fitness device - the very popular and admired 310XT - checkout<br />
the Garmin Forerunner 310XT GPS watch giveaway at the DC Rainmaker blog <a class="twitter-timeline-link" href="http://ow.ly/3DJia" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://ow.ly/3DJia</a><br />
<br />
Happy RunningVenkathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00073411983234413301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-851221696675954154.post-65031808653954567472010-11-06T20:51:00.001-07:002010-11-06T20:55:13.420-07:00Who am I?<p>Professional in the IT Industry – based out of Mumbai, India.</p> <p>And I fit the physical attributes stereotype to the T – overweight and unfit. </p> <p>In trying to win the exam rat race that goes on, have never played any sport at school or college level. Infact I just realized that I was so bad that I did not even go out to play the “gully” cricket that goes on during the evenings or weekends.</p> <p>I enjoy travelling and seeing new places and am a voracious reader.</p> <p>My inspiration for all of this is the book “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall.</p> Venkathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00073411983234413301noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-851221696675954154.post-83542034303307773372010-11-05T00:25:00.001-07:002010-11-06T20:55:56.758-07:00What is this blog all about?<p>As the name suggests, this blog is about barefoot running. </p> <p>About the joy, the trials, the tribulations and journey which I am going through in discovering my growing fascination for distance running.</p> <p>More posts coming up in trying to answer other Ws.</p> Venkathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00073411983234413301noreply@blogger.com0