For Chico!

Today's run was for Chico Q, one of the most generous dogs I've ever known. Chico has supported every fundraising campaign that I've been a part of and I'm still not sure how he earns the money, but he's not afraid to spend it. If you want to be like Chico, click here to donate! This year the money is going to create a campship for needy kids in Minnesota.

Chico's run was a modified run of one his favorite old walks, the 4K Chico's Feet route. I added a bit to make it a 3 miler.

This run surprised me quite a bit. Now that my training has picked up, finding novel routes in the short distances is getting harder. This run didn't really take me on any new roads, but it put old roads together in a new way. It was also interesting how quickly you can get to three miles with lots of twists and turns. I left school and quickly made a turn up a small hill and turned back toward school. Back to school and then away again, skirting the Malcha Marg neighborhood, Chico's favorite haunt.

Apart from raising money, training for the marathon and exploring Delhi, I have another mission. I'm addicted to coverage. I want to try to run on as many of the roads on Google Maps as I can. I've done well, run on most of the roads near my house and discovered that many roads on Google Maps aren't actually there.

With that in mind, I added a small bit to Chico's 4K to explore and add some coverage. Turns out, the road that I wanted to run on isn't actually there. Another road myth busted.

The run itself wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be. I usually skip my Thursday runs because I play soccer on Wednesday nights. That, combined with a sleep schedule-experimenting toddler and Thursday is usually a sleep-in day. But, due to Chico's generosity, I couldn't skip the run. It was an easy 3 miler and it was fairly quick. I wasn't tired due to the fact that the boy slept through the entire night! Fingers crossed for more Thursday runs.

This run belongs to Chico! Thanks for helping out!

I'm dedicating runs to raise money for a campship in memory of my friend Ty Taylor at YMCA Camp Miller. Click here or here to donate. Please make sure you choose the Ty Taylor Campship option. And please let me know if you've made a donation so I can thank you!

RUN STATS:
Distance - 3.03 miles
Time - 23:07
Soundtrack - A wicked J-Dilla mixtape!  Smell the Da.I.S.Y: The De La Soul Mixtape! Sw-weet! Download it now before it disappears.

For Rachel!

As you know, this year I'm dedicating my training time and efforts into a fundraising campaign to create an enduring campship in honor of my late friend, Ty Taylor. He was a big influence in my life and a huge lover of the camp where I grew up, YMCA Camp Miller in Sturgeon Lake, MN.

Last year, I raised money for an organization called Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. NILMDTS is an incredible group of professional photographers who volunteer their time to come to hospitals and do family photos with children that have passed away or that will soon.

Last year, I wrote about Rachel Elkind, the photographer who came to shoot our family the day before our son Ellis passed away. Little did I know then that we would eventually become friends or that Rachel would come and visit us in India, but that's exactly what happened. In December, after months of planning she came to experience India and we were happy to host her in our home. Wednesday's run was dedicated to her. Thanks for the donation, friend!

My plan for Rachel's run involved a few things that I thought she'd like. First, I chose a route that Rachel and I ran together when she was visiting. Rachel is the type of person who seizes opportunity and appreciates the beauty and variety of everything around her. The 2 Temples run offered a chance to see some interesting sites and daily life in the capital city, so I took Rachel for a tour on that run. The Shiv Mandir is a temple that I've previously described as the "Lego Temple." Now, I confess that I've been past this temple to Lord Shiva many times, and I've been tempted to check it out, but it took Rachel's free-spirited request to go inside to see what was going on.  On that particular day, we did go inside and we were welcomed warmly by the men worshipping, ringing bells and plugging in this electric drum.

So it was with fond memories of that day, that I ran past the Shiv Mandir once again. I also decided to incorporate a bit of creative exploration into this run. This route is usually a 3 miler, but I was on tap for 4, so I reconfigured the route to add a foray into the chi-chi private housing complex of the Railway Officer's Enclave. Empowered by a trip into the private Railway Workers Eco-Park Golf Course last week, I went searching for the private walk that connects the bungalows to the golf course to the housing complex. In India, a government job is a promise of much more than money. It's also often a ticket to free housing, transportation and more.

With my Google Maps homework completed, I was on the road out of the temple and in search of the trail that I knew was there. First, I snuck through an alley, behind a hospital in a trash and stray dog passage way, out the parking lot and down another alley that I thought would lead to the trail. It didn't. Instead, it led to this.

This is a typical Delhi slum, wedged between the family-friendly Railway Museum, the tracks and the wide-lawned private bungalows of India Railways bigwigs. After a peek at the people pouring across the tracks and up the hill on their way to work, I made my way back up and luckily found an open door in the previously closed gate along the path. Knowing this must be the "yellow brick road," I ran through and adopted my "I belong here" facade. I was, in fact, on a brick trail that was fenced on both sides, clearly not intended for the general public. The trail ended exactly where I thought it would, at the golf course from last week. Taking into full account the dangers of turning left into the Eco Park (see photo below), I opted for a right-hand turn.

On the right was a private pedestrian bridge to the Officer's Enclave.

I crossed the bridge into a development that would be right at home in the American suburbs and headed for home. In honor of Rachel, I took the route that showcased the duality of life here in India. On my left, private schools and embassies. On my right, another huge slum. Take some time to look at these areas on the satellite map below(change the map type in the upper right corner). The golf course should be easily recognizable, you can see a train in the image. The Officer's Enclave is above the train, neat rows of homes with red roofs. The two slums are almost right on top of each other. They are the areas with the trees. 

Rachel, I'm sure you would have enjoyed this run. There was a lot to see and even more to think about. Thanks again for your donation, it means a great deal to me.

I'm dedicating runs to raise money for a campship in memory of my friend Ty Taylor at YMCA Camp Miller. Click here or here to donate. Please make sure you choose the Ty Taylor Campship option. And please let me know if you've made a donation so I can thank you!

RUN STATS:
Distance - 3.94 miles
Time - 31:32
Soundtrack - More hip hop music on shuffle.

For Auntie Sandy

Today's run was for my dear Auntie Sandy! It was designed for her for three reasons:

1. She donated. If you do it too, you get a run.
2. As she is a lover of the great outdoors, I left the city streets and headed into the Ridge.
3. Because she's trapped in the frozen north, this was a special run in the heat of the emerging Delhi summer. Maybe some of the heat will make its way to the Northland.

As you can see it's getting warm here in Delhi. It seems to be a bit late this year, which is nice. Knowing that I have over 2 months of training left before I head to Minnesota isn't as nice. Obviously, running in the heat isn't ideal; that's why I usually run at 6am.

However, a 6am run wasn't in my stars this morning. The boy is getting very close to being able to sleep through the night and the past several nights have been great nights of sleep for all of us. Last night was a struggle, with a good chunk of awake time from 4-5:20am. That meant 20 minutes of sleep and a run, or an hour and a half of sleep and sanity. I opted for sanity.

I was able to shift my run to the afternoon, so I headed out for the Ridge 5 Miler. I've written about the Ridge before on this blog. See my first Ridge post here. Today's run was not nearly as dramatic as that one. Thankfully.

As I entered the Ridge today, I was overcome with that distinct scent that can only be a dead animal. I couldn't see it, but it couldn't have been far. The next sight was a huge macaque. They can be terrifying and unpredictable. The road into the Ridge is usually covered with them and so far they haven't attacked me, but I hate running past them.

After passing the gauntlet, the next sight is a small Sufi temple. From there, it's off the road and into the woods. I was hoping to see something really cool to write about, but there was nothing too crazy. A giant cow, a few creepy dudes and a bunch of peacocks. Rumor has it that the largest Asian antelope, the Nilgai has been seen in the Ridge. I would love to see it.

The run was tough. It was hot, fast and my legs were dead. But, it's five more miles done! To date in 2014, I've run over 220 miles, so I'll well on pace to reach my goal of 800 miles this year.

This run belongs to Sandy! Thanks for helping out!

I'm dedicating runs to raise money for a campship in memory of my friend Ty Taylor at YMCA Camp Miller. Click here or here to donate. Please make sure you choose the Ty Taylor Campship option. And please let me know if you've made a donation so I can thank you!

RUN STATS:
Distance - 4.98 miles
Time - 37:09 (my fastest time on this route!)
Soundtrack - Hip Hop Shuffle. Some real gems including Microphone Fiend by Erick B and Rakim and Rockin' It by the Fearless Four!

Motivation!

Thank you! An appeal for donors nabbed three quick donations, taking care of today's, tomorrow's and Wednesday's runs.

Without Becky, today's run most assuredly would not have happened.

It was dark.
It was raining.
My headphones stopped working.
Wah.

Under any normal circumstances, I would have headed back upstairs and crawled back into bed. Training for a marathon takes time, effort and dedication, but a measly three miler can be skipped, right?

Not when there's money on the line. It means the world to me to have people helping out and donating money to inspire me to keep running. More importantly, the ball is rolling. Becky's donation helped to make my total $260. Added to the previous amount in the campship, and we've raised almost $1000! There's still work to be done, though. An effective campship needs between seven and ten thousand to accrue the necessary interest to send a kid to camp every year. Click here to read why it's so important to me to raise money to create a campship in memory of my friend, Ty. Click here if you think you can help too!

Back to the run.

Believe it or not, this was the first time that I've ever gone running in the rain. I wasn't sure if I would like it or not, but it's not so cold anymore in Delhi and truthfully, it wasn't pouring. It wasn't so bad, and like I said, there was no way I could back out on this run. The big bummer was the fact that my headphones stopped working. I love running with music, so not having anything to listen to put me in a dark mood. Again, thanks to Becky, I kept running.

The route was the Nehru Park 3 Miler. If you're reading my posts (I think somebody does, right?) then you know that this is my speed workout, my challenge run, my future probable cause of puking on a run...well today was a good one. I got my second personal record (PR) on the 1.6 mile Nehru Park Loop course. 11:10. The standing record is 11:03, and I would love to break 11 minutes. Maybe a big contingent donation will motivate me?

The rain didn't keep the visa searchers away from the Pakistan embassy. The translators were under tarps with their LED lanterns busy on their typewriters. Over the weekend, there must have been an event in the park because today there were piles of chairs and tents. Not so oddly, there were few other people in the park today, just a few walkers with umbrellas and a few other runners braving the rain drizzle.

Normally, after I push myself on the loop, I leave the park and slow down quite a bit on the way back home. Today, I decided to keep the pace. Lo and behold, even though I didn't beat the "in the park" record, I did get a PR on the overall 3 miler. It was my fastest time out  of the 12 times that I've run the route this year!

This run belongs to Becky! Thanks for helping out!

I'm dedicating runs to raise money for a campship in memory of my friend Ty Taylor at YMCA Camp Miller. Click here or here to donate. Please make sure you choose the Ty Taylor Campship option. And please let me know if you've made a donation so I can thank you!

RUN STATS:
Distance - 3.0 miles
Time - 20:45
Soundtrack - None. See my whiny comments above.

The REAL Color Run

If you've ever heard of The Color Run, then you might have an idea of what I did today.

The Color Run is basically a rip-off of the Indian holiday of Holi. This is the first time in the past three years that I've celebrated. It was thanks to a great idea of my friend Jake. He suggested that we go for a run today in our Holi whites and see what happened.

When we first moved to India, we loved playing Holi. It was a fun way to celebrate the end of Delhi winter. We'd get together, brunch, douse each other with colored water and powder and have a grand time. The past two years, we've played it down quite a bit, but this year it was back into the fray.

After a late start, Jake and I headed out.

Looking fresh, in Holi whites

We were out of the school gates for approximately 20 seconds when we got hit by the first group of revelers. They blessed us with color and we were on our way to Malcha Marg, the residential area near school. We followed the beat of the drums and found the stragglers still celebrating. With cries of "Happy Holi!" we roamed the streets. With the occasional dustings, we weaved our way through markets and alleyways meeting children, parents and even a bhang-crazed dancer. It was good fun and upon our return to campus, we met up with other teachers and their children for a lunch potluck and an sun-filled afternoon of games of leisure.

Good times.

Not so bad, considering we were late in the day

Jake pointed out that I always get dark on my ears

This run could have been yours!

Remember, I'm dedicating runs to raise money for a campship in memory of my friend Ty Taylor at YMCA Camp Miller. Click here or here to donate. Please make sure you choose the Ty Taylor Campship option. And please let me know if you've made a donation so I can thank you!

The One With All of the Peafowl!

Today's run was a 6+ miler through the Delhi Central Ridge. The ridge is "Delhi's Green Lung," and the home to several species of plants, birds and mammals. Read about my first solo in the ridge here.

To learn even more, I found this e-book from 1991. The History section is worth a read!

It's meant to be a protected area, but as this site explains, there has been much encroachment into the area. It's a shame, because running in The Ridge is an absolute pleasure and a distinct change of pace to the hectic streets of the city.

Today's run was an idyllic 10K through the wooded trails of the ridge. Today, those trails are maintained by the army and the President's Bodyguard, a calvary unit of the Indian Army. The PB are stationed at the Presidential Palace, near the Central Ridge and maintain the trails that were originally set up for the British Viceroy in order to exercise the horses. The story goes that our outer loop was the Viceroy's and the inner loop was The Lady's Loop, reserved for his wife (and her possible indiscretions, ooh la la). I'm still looking for a source to verify this...

There is always something to see in The Ridge. Today it was peafowl (my wife reminded me the other day that there is no such thing as a female peacock; those are peahens). On the route today, there were at least 12 of them, most of them taking flight. There are few "bird things" cooler than a peacock in flight. Their bodies are so big and their tails are so long, that it seems impossible that they can take to the air. At one point, a group of three took off, with one flying left, another to the right and the third straight ahead. It was awesome.

This run belongs to Lynnea! Thanks for helping out!

I'm dedicating runs to raise money for a campship in memory of my friend Ty Taylor at YMCA Camp Miller. Click here or here to donate. Please make sure you choose the Ty Taylor Campship option. And please let me know if you've made a donation so I can thank you!

RUN STATS:
Distance - 6.86 miles (a bit extra due to some backtracking)
Time - 58:57
Soundtrack - None. My phone was almost dead, so I skipped the music to save battery.

The Hard and Fast One!

As you know, this year's fundraising is an effort to raise money to create a campship in honor of a man that served as a role model for me in my youth as a counselor at YMCA Camp Miller.

It's appropriate then, that my first dedicated run of the year goes to Dr. Cathy Alfrangis. She was my first mentor in my teaching career. She took a chance on me as a long-term sub, fresh out of college. She hired me to fill a position the following year. She encouraged me to take classes to grow as a teacher. She helped me win a fellowship from the Washington Post to study in Spain and she always believed in me. Every year, at the beginning of school, I take out the goodbye card she wrote to me. It has inspired me to keep improving.

And Dr. A continues to inspire me. After becoming the first donor (minutes after yesterday's post), she told me to run "hard and fast!" So that's what I did.

Today's run was a three miler on the Nehru Park course. As I wrote last month, I'm using the "gamification" of running to help keep me motivated. I created a "digital race" in Nehru Park that keeps track of the fastest overall time, the runner with the most runs and the most consistent runner overall. To date, I hold all of those records. It's been a bit of a back-and-forth with one of my running partners (who also loves competition and extrinsic motivation). In fact, we joke that it will probably eventually injure one of us (I'm guessing me).

With the goal of breaking my record on the 1.6 mile course around the park, Dr. A's inspirational words, and the desire to start the fundraising campaign off with a bang, I picked the Nehru Loop as today's target.

On Feb. 17, I left the house dressed in pants and long sleeves. It was 52 degrees and it was pitch dark at 6am. Today, I wore shorts, a t-shirt and it was plenty light by the time I got to the park. I've been feeling really strong lately, so I figured the run would be a quick one.

I entered the 80 acre park after the typical route past the US and French Embassies, across Shanti Path and another quick dip between the Australian and Pakistani Embassies. As usual, translators with typewriters and LCD lanterns were busy at work on the sidewalk, helping fill out visa form at the Pakistani Embassy. It's quite a sight in the dark, so in some ways, I'm sad to see the sun coming out earlier.

On the other hand, it made for some impressive half-light to the set the background of Nehru Park against the manicured lawns and palm trees in the first open space - one of open spaces where free concerts are held, where school children play and families picnic on the weekends.

From there, it's a right into the park on the jogging trail. A quick jaunt brought me past art installations, a statue of Lenin and an empty fountain. The second public convenience is the first big running landmark in the park. It's at this point that the MapMyRun lady comes over my headphones letting me know that I've reached the one mile mark of my run. Today she let me know that my mile was up much faster than normal. My first split was 7:12. I knew I was poised to take the Nehru Loop Record, so I kept pushing. Around the hairpin, up the hill along the wall, down the hill past the spot where we used to play Ultimate Frisbee, over the bridge at the Shiv Temple and into the straightaway. At the 2 mile marker, Ms. MapMyRun told me that my second split was 6:52. I knew that it was go time, so I powered up a little more and finished the Nehru Loop in 11:03.

It was 38 seconds faster than my fastest time. After cruising through the park, I thought I was taking it easy on the last 1/2 mile or so home, but my third mile came in at an average 7:00. Either I ran fast coming out of the park, or that last stretch in the park really helped me offset an easy trot home.

Either way, I ran hard and fast!

If you'd like a dedicated run too, please donate!


Here's the link for donating - http://www.duluthymca.org/give/ Just choose the Ty Taylor Campship option.

If you prefer, here's a direct link.

RUN STATS:
Distance - 3.03 miles
Time - 21:43 (Route Record!)
Soundtrack - 20 Questions: A Coverfolk Mixtape from my favorite blog - Coverlaydown.com

Running for a Reason 2014!

I am pleased to announce my fundraising campaign for Grandma's Marathon 2014. In the past two years, I have dedicated my training and my races to different charities. This year I'm doing the same.

And I'm very happy to tell you that this year you can help to make a very real difference.

On January 28, 2010, I lost a dear friend. Today, I'm finally doing something to honor his memory. I wrote this after he died.

One of my highlights growing up in Minnesota was going to YMCA Camp Miller every summer.

It taught me so many things about life that I would have never learned staying at home. I made friends, mistakes, and crafts out of leather.

When I was sixteen I joined the staff as a CIT and when I was 17, I was an Assistant Counselor. That's when I met Ty Taylor. He was an amazing guy that had a life story that blew my mind as a 17 year old from Minnesota. We worked together all summer and he was a big influence in my life. He inspired my love of adventure, my ability to laugh at myself, helped me appreciate the simple things that surrounded me and taught me about the value of unconditional friendship.  

After that summer, I never went back to camp and Ty and I lost touch but just like the things I learned at camp, he was always a part of who I had become. Just a year ago, we met up again on Facebook and despite the 15 year gap, it was just like old times. 

Last week, I received the terrible news that he had passed away after a routine surgery.Several of his friends from Camp Miller have been in touch and we are trying to set up a Campship in his name. If we can get together about 7000 dollars, the scholarship will accrue enough interest to be given to a deserving kid every summer. 

I'd like to think that we're giving other campers a chance to meet their "Ty."

In 2010, we weren't able to make that goal. This year, I want to do everything that I can to make it happen. If the money can be raised, Camp Miller will give a deserving kid a campship in his name every year from now until forever. Ty would love that.

Please consider donating. It will help a kid have the experiences that I did and it will motivate me to keep running every day from now until raceday. And beyond, if necessary. Anyone who donates will have a run dedicated to them, and a write-up on this blog!

Here's the link for donating - http://www.duluthymca.org/give/ Just choose the Ty Taylor Campship option.

If you prefer, here's a direct link.

I'm running tomorrow, so who will make the first donation?