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Every January is a time, when we are highly motivated to make bold resolutions on attaining lofty goals. We have the luxury of knowing that there are 365 days ahead of us and by God, “this is definitely happening this year”. We believe that the goal will be attained because 365 days is plenty of time to make it happen. Life moves like a high speed locomotive, on a track, that at times is perfectly straight and clear, blocked or veering off into a different direction. Before we know it, our energy drains dealing with these obstacles, while trying to keep the train moving on the track.
The question arises, how do I continue to maintain my focus on my lofty goals? Am I going to let an obstacle or a distraction stop me from working towards this goal? It comes down to whether you are willing to put in the time and effort needed to get to the destination. When you arrive at the destination, it then comes down what you are willing to do to keep what you worked so hard to earn.
Early this year, I committed to making some changes in my life for 2020. I was “making it obvious” that it was time to incorporate some changes in my life. My main goals for 2020 were to
Develop a daily writing habit
Find a way to get more sleep (goal of 8 hours/night)
Get on the path to weight loss – target moving from 169lb to 150lb by adopting a whole foods plant based diet
Do strength training twice a week
Almost a month later, my observations are that none of these goals are easily achievable. If you are wondering which goal is the hardest to meet…..you guessed it, it is number (2), getting 8 hours of sleep per night. This is the one goal I have struggling to get past 7 hours. Getting in strength training twice will probably be the easiest to achieve, along with six days of running per week.
On developing a daily writing habit, I am also having some challenges. What does one write everyday? I have read articles and listened to podcasts, where the experts say that you should try writing a few sentences daily and then you eventually get into a rhythm. I started first by recording my workouts, meals, and how much I sleep, in a fitness journal. At the end of the day I also summarize how my day went. I have a separate blue book where I try to summarize my thoughts for future blogs, and perhaps thoughts for a future book 🙂 Finally I have a third book where I summarize books that I read, so that I can go back and refer to important takeaways from those books. So developing a writing habit appears to be very fluid at this time. You may ask, why do I keep three separate books? Well i am just like that. I am an engineer and love to ramble and record details. Perhaps one day I will have to create that one special notebook where I can record all of my activities and writings!
After 26 days, losing weight and sticking with a plant strong diet has been nearly as challenging as trying to get a good night’s sleep. Where do I begin??? A short summary of the journey would be as follows: Gaining weight is like falling from the top to the bottom of Mt Everest, and losing weight is like climbing up Mt Everest. One does not start by simply climbing up the mountain and succeeding the first time. The journey to success requires going through tough spells of training and scoring infinitesimal gains along the way. Nutrition plays a bigger role than exercise in weight loss, and one has to be patient along the journey and simply trust the process. I weigh myself every morning, record my meals and get my workouts in. I have a great running coach Lindsey Parry, who gives me a program that I follow. So the exercise part is easy (not really, but easier because it is defined in terms of what I need to do each day). The hardest part is watching what I eat and making sure that I am staying plant strong.
What it means to be Plant Strong
I am focusing my efforts on eating as many vegetables and grains as I can. I have avoided meat for the most part. There are times in Indian cooking, or when I have gone out to eat, it is difficult to avoid dairy products. Some of these times include when my wife makes pizza at home. I truly do not care for Vegan Cheese on a pizza. During such times, I eat a ton of veggies like roasted Brussels sprouts, and have a couple of slices of pizza. I am completely okay with that as I am getting most of my nutrition from plants.
Being plant strong also means that I have been motivated to get creative with my cooking. A steak is delicious and easy to make. Sprinkle salt and pepper and then grill. And it is quite filling. Cooking with plants means creating dishes that can take time, but are memorable. While a steak tastes great and fills you up, I usually don’t feel great afterwards. Cooking with plants means that I am having fun coming up with new dishes. I enjoy the process of thinking about what I am going to cook, scribble out a recipe, and then create the dish. When writing out the recipe, one needs to imagine what their creation will taste like, and then attempt to construct the building blocks, and ensure these building blocks fall in together like blocks in a game of Tetris.
This week, my mother and I made Tofu Curry pita wraps. I thought about this dish in the morning while I was at work. On the drive back home, I started to piece together all the ingredients that I needed to make the dish. Below is a picture recipe of how the dish was created
The process starts with making a marinade for the tofu. I mix together the following ingredients – 5 tablespoons of low sodium soy sauce – 1 teaspoon of sesame oil – 1 tablespoon of sugar
I use Super Firm Tofu, and slice it into cubes.Pour the marinade over the tofu cubes and let it sit for 30 minutes to marinade. The marinade allows for the tofu absorb a little flavor and also get slightly softer. While the tofu is marinating, we proceed with making the sauce
The process of creating the sauce base begins with 1) Chopping up 4 onions, 6 cloves of garlic, and some ginger 2) Pop up teaspoon of black mustard seed in olive oil 3) Saute the onions along with 2 bay leaves, two cardamom pods, and one cinnamon stick. The goal is to sweat and not caramelize the onions. This means adding a pinch of salt to draw the sweetness out of the onions and cooking them on a low flame for about 30 minutes. I have not added the garlic and ginger yet, as we do not want to cook these longer than 5 minutes. Cooking garlic and ginger any longer reduces the flavors, these are added after the onions have softened
Roast the spices until you can smell the aroma. Do not roast the pepper seeds 🙂
cashews are roasted separately
Blend the roasted spices, cashews and black pepper together
The spices are gathered! The first picture shows all the spices used: 7 chilies (less for desired spiciness), 8 tbsp dry coriander seeds, 1 tbsp cumin seeds, 1 cup of dried cashews, 1 tbsp black pepper. After the spices are roasted, let them cool for 10 minutes before blending them together
Concentrated tomato paste
Adding 2 tbsp of tomato paste to the onions
Adding the blended spices
Letting the spice mix cook together. Add 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric powder. Add a half cup of water to ensure that the spice mix does not stay stuck to the bottom of the pot. Right about this time, take out the cinnamon stick and bay leaves, and throw them away
The process of getting the sauce mix assembled!
The spice mixture is then blended with a boat motor (you can also use a regular blender). Chopped green onions are added and stirred. The sauce mix is done and can be taken off the flame. The next step is to roast the tofu cubes in a chickpea batter
Creating the batter
Dipping the tofu cubes in the batter
Getting ready to roast the cubes
To create the chickpea batter, mix 1) 2 cups of chickpea flour – you can find this in Indian stores (called Besan) 2) 1 teaspoon of chili powder 3) 1 teaspoon of salt 4) half a can of beer
Dip the tofu cubes in the batter and arrange them on a tray coated with olive oil. Bake in a 400F oven for 10 minutes. Once the tofu cubes are cooked, mix the cubes in the spicy sauce.
Saute a pound of spinach to garnish the spicy tofu curryMake a pita sandwich with the tofu curry and garnish with spinach. I bought the pita bread from a local Mediterranean store. Perhaps in a future post I will make it from scratch
Overall this dish fed 5 people over 2 separate meals. The dish was incredible. It was a little spicy, but I like my meals spicy. In the future I would probably reduce the number of chilis to 3 instead of 7 red peppers. It was also pretty filling. If you are motivated to make this dish, let me know how it turned out.
Measuring success after 26 days
My measure of success is weight loss. I started out the year at almost 170lbs (almost 77kg), and set a goal of getting to 145lbs (66kg)
As an engineer, I make observations and conclusions based on data. In the first one month, I have been running consistently, and increased my sleep from 4 – 5 hrs/night to 6 – 7.5 hrs/night. Sleep is the best form of recovery. I have also been staying plant strong as much as I can. Occasionally I have a slice of pizza, and I am okay with that. I also keep a record of my workouts on Strava, and also in my fitness journal.
My focus during this whole time has been on committing to the process. The habits I have committed to, namely, exercising well, getting sleep, and maintaining a plant strong diet are repeated every day. I consciously make the choice to ensure that I know what I am eating everyday and have gotten into a habit of taking home cooked meals to work. The number of restaurant visits have dropped. I also understand that time is my friend. Believing in the process does not yield a favorable result everyday. There are days when you wonder what is not working today, especially when your weight climbs up after a day of eating healthy. However over weeks, one begins to see the dividends coming thorough, from the investments made. Below is the journey of my weight loss starting from the beginning of January 2020
For my fellow Americans – a weight loss chart by poundsFor the rest of the world who like the kilogram standard
So over the last 23 days I have managed to shed over 6 lbs or little over 2 kg. Overall this is progress! I am motivated to continue on this journey, as it shows that adoption of good habits leads to favorable outcomes which continue to reinforce the good habits.
I dedicate today’s post to everybody that has made that decision to make a positive change in their lives. Be willing to start the journey and stick with it. Have fun on this journey and celebrate the moments of success. Not everyday is a successful day, however the culmination of hard work and dedication to your chosen process will slowly start to yield dividends. Until the next post!
A New Year brings about an opportunity for re-defining your path in this journey we call life. I am a non-believer when it comes to making resolutions, as these are done spontaneously and without building a foundation on which these resolutions can be sustained. The proper thoughts on “why we are doing this”, “why it is good for me for in the long term”, “what do I want to become” do not factor into the process. I recently completed reading “Atomic Habits” by James Clear, an excellent book, if you are looking to change your habits. The main premise is to not to focus on your goal, but to pay attention to the system that you are using to get to that goal. If the system is solid, you will eventually get to the goal. The reverse is also true, if your system does not have a good foundation, getting to your goal(s) will be a long road. In order to build a solid foundation, Clear explains the concept of habit stacking, where new positive behaviors are combined with an existing behavior, with the eventual goal of either overriding or complementing the existing behavior. An example would be if you would like to reduce the frequency in which you consume potato chips, you may want to look at either re-designing your physical environment such that your access to potato chips is restricted. Someone might say, “why not just stop purchasing the chips?”. This is more of a drastic step. This should be the goal. I would place the chips upstairs, as I am not motivated to keep running up the stairs to munch on the chips. Eventually I will lose interest in eating potato chips and stop buying them altogether. What does this have to do with my re-establishing and compounding good sustainable habits for 2020? For this I need to go back into 2019, on went well and what did not pan out as expected.
As I look back into 2019, I had many good things happen in my life, both from a work and personal life.
On the family front, my wife and son are also having success’ of their own, from a work and school perspective. My son plays the trumpet, participates in triathlon training, while balancing his school commitments. My wife is working in a job she loves.
On the me front (which is what this post will primarily focus on), I had a successful year as well. On work goals, I have been with my company for close to 24 years. The journey has been exciting with every year presenting a new opportunity for learning. I get to work with some of the most brilliant engineers all over the world, and along the way get to accomplish major milestones and learn new concepts.
On individual non work related goals, I had several successful accomplishments. I listen to audiobooks every week. From the beginning of 2018 till the end of 2019, I completed listening to 120 audiobooks (primarily non fiction). I live to learn so that I can earn how to live! The joy I get from learning new topics, whether it be investing, or reading topics on habit formation, or listening to “Long Walk to Freedom” by Nelson Mandela, is on a different level. In addition to audiobooks, I listen to several podcasts every week. With the amount of time spent in traffic to work, and also during exercising, I have found a way to fit in a way to learn from audiobooks and podcasts.
In the areas of exercising and health, I managed to run 2247 miles (the most ever in a year). According to my Strava profile, in 2019, I ascended and descended the equivalent of Mount Everest twice. In February 2019, I completed “The Coastal Challenge” in Costa Rica, which is a multi-day/stage event of covering 240km through jungles, mountains and rivers, while dealing with high heat and humidity. I had completed the Marathon des Sables in 2017, and I thought that the Coastal Challenge was much harder. In June 2019, I managed to complete my 4th Comrades Marathon (86km – 90km) in South Africa, though it was my slowest time ever. I don’t think I had a chance to recover fully from the Coastal Challenge. In October, I successfully qualified for the 2020 Comrades marathon, at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. My running year ended with a DNF (Did not Finish) at the BMW Dallas Marathon. It was warm and my body did not cooperate with the conditions. I made the difficult decision to drop out. After discussion with my coach, I took the rest of the year off. Health-wise, my doctor gave me a clean bill of health. His exact words…”your blood results are boring, if everyone came to me with your results, I would be out of a job.”
End of Day 1 at the Coastal Challenge. What a tough race!Comrades 2019 – my toughest and slowest. But a battle is won!
Areas that did not fare as well were primarily in two areas. I did not sleep well throughout the year, and I gained weight despite running more miles than in previous years. It is my belief that these two factors played a big role in my running, both from an energy and a speed standpoint. Over the last 4 years, I have gone from a 150lbs to 169lbs (the doctor tracks this). I don’t believe that this was all muscle. I sleep from 4 – 5 hrs/night, as I am usually up at 4AM to get my exercise in. If the exercise does not happen in the morning, it does not get done for the day, owing to work and family commitments. While this is good from an exercise perspective, I believe that the lack of sleep compounded itself into other areas of my life.
So what do I want to do differently from 2019? Well I do have a list! In 2020, I want to accomplish all of the below, while sustaining my 2019 successes. The goal is to continue being healthy and improve upon my running speed (I have a goal to hit a sub 4hr marathon eventually). The system that I am putting in place is:
I want to develop a daily writing habit and become a better writer. A daily writing habit does not equate to a daily publishing habit. I believe along the way, my writing skills will become better. More importantly I plan to use the writing habit to stack along with my eating habits, so that I can hold myself accountable and not be a victim of bad decisions
I am going to find a way to get more sleep. I managed to get 8 hours of sleep per night during the vacation, and I feel that it did wonders for my mood and for my running. It will be a challenge especially since I have to wake up early to exercise, and also need to balance work and family commitments. But then again, I will probably need to look at reducing time spent on watching TV and social media. This will probably be my biggest challenge, but I am ready to tackle it head on.
I need to reduce my weight back to the 150lbs range. In previous races, I have done well when I weighed between 150 – 155lbs. I did get down to 145lbs fours years ago, however I do not think that is a sustainable weight. When your pants and shirts start to feel uncomfortable, you know that it’s time to make some positive changes.
When I successfully kept my weight off, I was on a Whole Foods Plant Based diet for two years (99.99999% vegan). As a vegan, I found it restrictive especially when traveling outside the US, or going out to eat with friends. Starting January 1st I have gone back to starting on being Plant Based. It will be a gradual journey, and I will be flexible when I need to be. In order to increase my chances of success, I am keeping a food diary, and also looking at how to load up more of fiber on my plate, and ask myself why I need to consume meat or animal products. I have also started cooking more at home, making dishes such as vegetable stir Frys and Green Curry vegetables (recipes to be posted in a future blog)
I purchased a Garmin Fit Scale and am now weighing myself daily. I know that my weight is not going to fluctuate day to day, and I need to look at a longer time frame. Your weight gets recorded on the Garmin Connect app (BMI, body fat, muscle % are recorded too)
Do Strength Training twice a week. I feel a sense of euphoria after each session, which is different than the runners high. Having a strong core and upper body helps with the running. I had periods of time when I was actively weight training in 2019 and periods when I was not. The results were directly proportional to my race results.
In order to keep these 2020 resolutions/build these new habits, I am recording my eating, workouts, and sleep habits on a daily basis. I also plan to post once a week/twice a month to keep progress of what I am doing. This will keep me accountable and shows my commitment to the process. I believe that doing these four habits over and over again will help will build a more solid foundation for me to be a better runner. Efforts compounded over time will eventually lead to an outcome (hopefully the desired outcome). Success is not achieved via instant gratification.
If you have read this far, thank you :-). In the future I will also post recipes of the dishes that I cook! Wishing you all a successful 2020 also.
On the 9th of June 2019, I was fortunate to toe the starting line at the Comrades marathon (55 mile marathon from Durban to Pietermaritzburg also known as the Comrades Up), billed as the world’s largest and most famous ultramarathon. Around 19,103 runners participated with 86% successfully crossing the finish line. Despite the high percentage of finishers, this race promises to put every runner’s will power to the ultimate test of crossing the finish line within the allotted 12 hours. The five famous hills/mountains – Cowies, Fields, Bothas, Inchanga, and Polly Shortts – strike an ice cold fear through every runners’ heart, along with the countless other “minuscule” mountains. The hills are so long and steep, that even the winners of the race will occasionally end up walking a portion of Polly Shortts. Along the way, every runner need to beat 6 different cutoffs on the course. Missing any of these cutoffs meant the end of your race, and not being recorded in the official results. Crossing the finish line brings about an exhilaration, that I have not experienced in any other race I have participated in. This was my 4th successful Comrades completion. It is not uncommon to see runners who have completed 10, 20, 30, 40 and if you were lucky 46 comrades (two famous runners Louis Massyn and Barry Holland completed their 47th run this year). When you complete 10 Comrades, you get the coveted Green number (usually presented to you by a previous winner, and you get to keep your race number permanently). Runners from all walks of life: poor, rich, young, old, of every race, creed, and multiple nations run together as one. All differences are put aside as each as every runner will face the tribulations of the day together. It is the one day that South Africans are united together and rooting for each other to be successful. Every finisher ends the day forever changed.
I arrived in Durban on June 6th and met up with my friends Danni, Stephanie, Alison, Jaimie, Damien. After a few days spent hanging out in Durban, we got ready for race day. I wore the colors of Texas. Below are us looking very dapper with our big smiles at 4:30AM in the morning. We were up at 2:00AM and ate breakfast, so it was going to be a long day.
We made our way to the start line which was about a little less than 1km away, and made our way to our respective corrals; based on our marathon qualifying times. Race start was at 5:30AM. At around 5:00AM, we sang the electrifying anthem of South Africa (Nkosi Sikilel’ iAfrika) followed by unofficial anthem (Shosholoza), and finally by the unforgettable “Chariots of Fire” by Vangelis. It was evident how these three songs brought the best out of everyone runner on the course. After 4 years of running Comrades, I will never forget these moments and memories that these songs evoke. Right at 5:30AM, after the famous cockrell cry of Max Trimborn, the start gun was fired, and we were off to the races!
It took several minutes for 19000 plus runners to cross the start line. I don’t recall how long it took, but it felt like forever, and the roads were so crowded. It was unbelievably crowded and I felt quite claustrophobic. Imagine thousands of runners in front of you and behind you trying to run up a road with 6 lanes through the city of Durban. It felt warm, humid and difficult to breath with thousands of runner inhaling oxygen and exhaling Carbon dioxide. I felt nauseous and started to struggle from the beginning. In addition to all of the above, all of us were avoiding the “cats eyes” on the road, as these were a potential trip hazard. I last ran the Comrades Up direction in 2015, and had forgotten how tough it was to climb up the initial hills of Durban, which presented a big challenge even before the first of the devil hills…Cowies Hill!
Most of the climbing on Cowies hill happened while it was dark, so mercifully I was spared the sight of a daunting slope. We managed to get to the top. The South Africans have a tradition of raising their arms in the air once they got to the top of the hill.
Once Cowies hill was conquered, then came Fields Hill, which is the monster hill on this course. Almost 3km long, this hill is meant to break your spirit. I believe that your destiny in the race is determined by how you decide to tackle Fields hill. I chose to run 1 min and walk 30s and repeat and rinse. This was a mighty hill that just never seemed to end. I seriously thought about throwing in the towel, as my nausea would not go away. It was right about this time I started to smell Arnica Ice spray (smells like ultra strong Ben Gay) being used by multiple runners. In addition to the smell, the spray was getting into my eyes. I am not sure how I made it up Fields Hill without throwing up, but I did.
Once Fields Hill was conquered, I decided that my original race plan of finishing in ten and a half hours was going to be impossible. I needed to focus on finishing successfully. Having travelled from the top of the world to the bottom of the world, I needed to secure that finishers medal. I did not want my training to be in vain. Therefore I decided to break up the rest of the race into milestones. Each time I hit a milestone, it would re-affirm my will to stay in the race. As someone that works in the field of project management, I believe in the philosophy that the successful completion of a journey to its final destination involves hitting intermediate milestones successfully on time.
The next devil of a hill was Bothas Hill. I was surprised that after Fields Hill, this was not as overwhelming. Not to say it was not challenging, but for the first time, I was not smelling Arnica Ice. I decided to “smell the roses” instead”. I told myself how lucky I was to be enjoying this wonderful moment of running the Comrades marathon. It was amazing to see the camaraderie of the African runners. Africans do an amazing job of sticking together. Usually a leader (man or woman) emerges. He/she does a sing song like “1, 2, 3, 1, 2,3”, while the rest of the group chants the same. The leader leads the group on a run for several minutes and then switches to a walk. It was mesmerizing to observe this. It is at these moments that I know that my heart belongs on the African continent. I was born in Tanzania and also lived in Nigeria. It was at this time that I decided I was going to finish this race. I defined my milestones as every major hill and every one of the 6 cutoffs. Each time I hit one of these milestones, my motivation to stay in the race became stronger.
Inchanga Hill suddenly made its presence known. Having done this race a few times, I still end up asking my fellow runners if the hill in front of us is Inchanga. This is the one hill that is winding and visible in its entirety. To look at the entire length of Inchanga is akin to having a little mini heart attack of what you are about to take on. I just smiled and decided to do the 1 minute 30 second run walk routine, and climbed all the way to the top.
After Inchanga, it became a matter of wits of making it through cutoffs and putting one foot in front of the other. Every footstep forward was a footstep getting closer to the finish line. Around this time I was starting to getting cramps in my thighs and calfs. Having become an “expert” on dealing with muscle cramps, I walked for a couple of minutes and ingested a salt pill; my placebo for cramp reduction. When the cramp subsided, I continued moving on. Below are are some pictures of me enjoying my self-induced misery in style. A smile can go a long way to disguise extreme discomfort. Running Comrades means enjoying pain and embracing the suck.
After Inchanga, the next goal was to make it to Polly Shortts (no this is not named after Polly and her shorts. My understanding that this hill is named after the farmer that owned the land here). I managed to make it to the highest point – Umlaas Road- and make it to the base of Polly Shortts.
Oh! How I hate Polly Shortts. This is a cruel 2km hill. By now I knew that I was going to finish in the back of the pack in the field. My quads felt like blocks of lead, and I just marched up this hill. It was at this point I looked at my fellow runners and took sight of everyones suffering. It was heartening to see runners helping each other to get up this monster hill. This is what Comrades is about. I am not sure how things would be outside of the race, but today we were going to help encourage other to get to the finish despite the differences in our backgrounds or standing in society. On Polly Shortts I also saw Hilton Murray who is famous in South Africa for pushing Anita who sits in a wheel chair. I admired the both of them immensely. Hilton for pushing Anita for 88km, up and down every hill, and Anita for sitting in that chair the whole time. I finally got up to the top of Polly Shortts, and just continued running and walking towards the finish line (approximately 7km more). Polly Shortts takes everything out of you, and you more or less are pretty much hanging on by a thread, right up to the finish.
The road to the finish line went through several residential neighborhoods and countless number of hills (yes….there were no shortage of nameless hills). The finish line was at horse racing course, and even the entrance to the course had a hill (thank the Lord for that downhill followed by that uncalled for uphill). You can see how tired I am getting to the finish. Finally I crossed the finish line at 88km (based on my GPS watch) in 11:44 (16 minutes before the 12 hour cutoff). It was my slowest Comrades marathon and my toughest fought race. I was completely exhausted that I could barely wave to my friends who finished and were waiting for me at the finish line.
All of friends finished strong and I was very happy for them. I was just relieved. As soon as I collected my bag with change of clothes, we caught the bus back to Durban (a 3 hour journey, but that is another story 🙂 )
Exhausted but so relieved to be done!
While I was tired, I truly felt like the lion in below pic….victorious and content!
Acknowledgments :
My family, who are always my biggest cheerleaders and give me the time and space to pursue my adventures
Coach Lindsey Parry, who created the program that helped me get mentally tough to tackle the race of enormous difficulty
My friends who I got to spend the week with before and after the race. While the race was important, spending time with and making new friends is what I treasure most from these experiences
Chapter 1 – Day 1: The day of reckoning aka what the heck did I get into
Chapter 2 – Day 2: Get the eff outta here
Chapter 3 – Day 3: Need my flippers. You still have 30 more minutes
Chapter 4 – Day 4: It is only 1 km from here. Lord I hope I don’t break a bone
Chapter 5: Day 5: The final battle: Are you planning to paddle that canoe any faster?
Chapter 6: Day 6: The victory lap – we are going to get this done!
Epilogue – The sweet taste of victory
Prologue – The beginnings of an adventure
After my adventures in 2017 in the infamous grand-daddy of multistage races (Marathon des Sables) in the Moroccan Sahara Desert, I swore that I would never attempt another multi-stage race. In the spirit of “I will never do anything like this again”, I ditched that promise in 2018, when my MDS buddy Justin Brewer successfully arm twisted me into signing up for the 2019 Coastal Challenge Race, which is a 232 km race over 6 days (Expedition distance was 232 km, there was an Adventure option for 131 km). During the course of the race, we would climb a total of 5.5 miles (8738 m) in elevation and descend the same (8740 m). I don’t believe I have ever done a race with this level of difficulty, and along the way, learned how to manage a new level of pain. According to the The Coastal Challenge Route Book:
“The course is set along the Costa Rica’s tropical Pacific coast line but weaves at times through into the Talamancas, a coastal mountain range in the Southwest corner of the country. You’ll will finish near the border of Panama in a serene fishing village that until recently was only accessible by boat. The terrain is jungle and rainforest trails, mountain trail and single track across ridge lines, highlands and coastal ranges; beaches, rocky outcroppings and reefs, river and estuary crossings, and ends in Corcovado National Park one of the premier rainforest experiences in the world as well as a Unesco World Heritage site”.
Great sales pitch, that avoided mentioning that you would be doing this in the blazing sun with 100% humidity 🙂
Fast forwarding towards the race week…..After months spent in running road races, and lack of trail running preparation due to incessant rains in the Dallas area (trails were closed), I was forced do all of my training on roads and treadmills. Two weeks prior to the race, I put in 71 mile/115km training week. I did not have an opportunity to get in any heat acclimation training (Texas winter) as the sauna was permanently shut down in the gym. I did not know if this would be a major handicap for me. I remember doing a ton of sauna training before Marathon des Sables. Regardless, attitude is everything. If you put your mind to getting something done, you will find a way to get it done. No excuses allowed!
I flew to Costa Rica (4 hr flight from Dallas) and got settled into the Best Western Irazu hotel. I met Justin and Bob Heess (who had roped in Justin to do this race, and who in turn returned the favor to me), for breakfast. We collected our race packets, and then I went to prep my bag for the race.
6 Days of clothes, meals and 3 pairs of shoes (we were told to bring at least 2 pairs of shoes, due to the humidity and wetness of the course). I also brought Black Diamond hiking poles, which were a life saver
That evening we were treated to an incredible display of a troupe of a dancer and drummers, prior to the race briefing with race director (Rodrigo Carazo), who went over the Race details in both perfect English and in Spanish
An incredible and talented display of dancing with knives and flames Rodrigo going over the race details with us. On the screen is the course profile for Day 1. Rodrigo told us specifically to take a dip through every river and stream we crossed. It was important, so that we could lower our body temperature in the heat. He mentioned that the first day was going to be a shock to most runners in terms of the heat and course profile
Rodrigo went over the rules and regulations of the race. In Costa Rica, you will frequently hear the expression “Pura Vida” which means “great life”. The way the expression was being used, made me think that it stood for more than “Great Life”. It almost meant “Chillax man, enjoy life, it is short, just Chillax). Rodrigo made sure to communicate that the rules and regulations were going to strictly enforced (cutoffs, cheating, etc). In other words, there was nothing going be “Pura Vida” about the race regulations. After the race briefing, we went to bed. The next morning we had to leave the hotel by 3 AM, to ride on a bus for 4 hours to the race start. We were going to start running at 9 AM starting from an African Palm plantation.
Chapter 1 – Day 1 (34.3km, 893m ascent, 774m descent) : The day of reckoning aka what the heck did I get into
On Sunday morning, I was up at 3 AM. We packed our bags into the bus, minus the items we needed for Day 1. Justin, Bob, and I took a quick picture before getting on the bus
We are looking spic and span. Let’s show everyone what we are made of!
After riding for 4 hours on the bus and thankfully a couple of stops for bathroom breaks (Costa Rica is a well planned country with regards to rest stops), we finally got to our destination. We had to walk around 1.5 to 2km to the race start (beach).
Day 1 – The Start lineDay 1 – the biggest smiles the three of us would exhibit during the race. Even the sunlight is glittering shining off our teeth. Oh we have no idea what the day will bring!
At 9:00AM-ish, the horn went off, and we all took off running from the beach through the African Palm plantation. It was relatively flat, incredibly warm, and I ran a 5 min run/2 min walk routine.
Picture of what the start of the Day 1 course looked like. I have used someone else’s picture (credits to the photographer listed in the pic)
I had a great time, even though it was hot and humid. All was fine. I even soaked for a couple of minutes in a stream to cool down. I chewed on a few “Nak’d” fruit bars to sustain my energy. I started to bubble with overconfidence on my performance, when I hit the first hill/jungle. I whipped out my hiking poles and started to ascend the hill.
It was quite an ascent. The combination of the heat, humidity and climbing through the jungle suddenly sent my heart rate sky rocketing. I was shocked by how difficult it was. It was like running a 5K at max heart rate pace. I stopped a few times to take a couple of breaths before proceeding. Now I understood what Rodrigo meant when he said that the first day will be a shock to most runners. Calf and quad cramps set in, and I was forced to slow down. At that point I decided to listen to my body and get into a hiking routine, as there was more climbing and I was not even halfway through the course. It became a day of reckoning and I started to wonder what I had gotten myself into.
Eventually the first hill was conquered and I started to move again. When we got to the aid stations, I made sure to eat plenty of watermelon and load up of water (I ended drink 3 liters of water on the first day).
Along the way I mingled with several runners including overtaking and being overtaken by a couple of ladies (an Israeli and an American). I was so tempted to say “Shalom” each time I passed them, but I was intently focused on the course. I also stuck with another group of runners – a lady from North Carolina, and a couple of Costa Rica.
After ascending and descending multiple hills, we had one last mountain to ascend. After getting to top of the mountain, we saw a pair of photographers, who took of pictures and pointed to us to finish line at the bottom of the valley. We had to get to the bottom and then cross a rolling river and get to the camp (The Rafiki Lodge).
I fell down several times when crossing the river and finally made it. Day 1 was complete! After a shower, dinner, and a massage, we listened to the Race Briefing for Day 2. It was time for bed, as we were going to get up at 3:00 AM for day 2 – race start was at 5:30 AM!
Day 1 Course Profile and Terrain mapJustin and I slept in this tent everyday
Chapter 2 – Day 2 (41.1km, 1740m ascent, 1860m descent) : Get the eff outta here
Day 2 involved a large climb at the start, followed by a descent and then an even larger climb
At 3 AM, we were woken by a race official yelling like a Boot Camp drill sergeant. I did not absorb all the words except something about pain being temporary and how we would not be here if we did not love it, maybe something to that effect.
After breakfast and coffee, we started Day 2 at 5:30 AM with a huge climb through a jungle. I started out with a group of friends and eventually we all got separated as we climbed the first peak. Taking the lessons learned from the first day from muscle cramping, I decided to take it easy and plan on ensuring I got through the next 5 days.
A view of what it looked like once we go to the top of the first hillTaking a moment to rest and take a selfieA view from above as we were climbing the peaks
After climbing the 2nd peak, I made a new friend from Spain, Andrieu. We decided to encourage each other till we got to finish. After the last aid station, we had 8km to complete on a beach. We wisely decided to trek the beach as it was incredibly warm.
Andrieu and I, on the beachWhat a beautiful countryOur campsite on Day 2
We finally got the finish line, a resort on the beach, where in addition to the runners, there a bunch of tourists who looked at us, like we had descended from the moon.
I talked with a Canadian tourist and his wife. He looked like Larry the Cable guy, while his wife was pretty and petite. He asked me what was the event about. I mentioned that this was a multi-day race of 232 km and today we covered 41 km through jungles and mountains. He and his wife were aghast, and he said to me “Get the eff outta here! Did you just do what you said you did? Get the eff outta here.” I could not help but smile. He and wife were very friendly. They both went on to mention how they walked 4 km that morning to a waterfall, and how they ended up calling for a Land Rover to pick them up, since they were exhausted. They wished me the best.
After a shower, lunch, massage, and dinner, we had the race briefing for Day 3. The race director mentioned that the next day would be the toughest, as we would be going through 6 km of a river. Yikes. I climbed into bed and slept soundly.
Chapter 3 – Day 3 (47.3km, 1735m ascent, 1728m descent) : Need my flippers. You still have 30 more minutes
I mistakenly turned on my Garmin GPS twice today. The highlights of the course were the 6km river crossing, the mighty climbs and descents, followed by an almost 7km beach walk, another major ascent followed by 5km on a busy road. AS stands for Aid Station
Our drill sergeant woke us promptly at 3:00AM. We were all laughing this time, listening to the lectures on pain and success. He was really a great guy. Today, the goal was to make sure that we beat the 3:30PM cutoff at the 3rd aid station, or else we would be not considered finishers in the race. After breakfast, we started at 5:30AM walking 3 km on a road. It was very pretty as we walked alongside a river.
We then approached the river and started to walk through it. I did not pay much attention walking through the knee deep river with slippery boulders, until all of a sudden, in front me a couple of people waded into neck deep water and started swimming. I followed them too, and was aghast. Try swimming with a back pack, hiking poles and running shoes. For the first time I started to get worried. I made a mental note to check back in the race brochure, on where it mentioned to have a PADI certification (scuba diving) in order to get through the course. I wished I had flippers…….After doing this for about 500m, I noticed that we had a sweeper (race official that sticks with the last runner on the course), who knew exactly where to cross in the river without any swimming. I stuck 5km with the sweeper, jumping from one rock to another. After almost 2.5hrs. we made it to land and the first aid station. I think this was the longest 2.5 hrs of my life.
After re-fueling, I started climbing and headed to towards the famous Nauyaca water falls. On the we went past an animal park where I saw howling monkeys, a toucan and a couple of parakeets. I kept moving on as I was painfully aware of the cutoff at the 3rd aid station.
Nauyaca falls – picture courtesy of tripadvisor UK. My phone was too wet to get a proper picture
Nauyaca falls picture with my soaked iPhone
Standing in front of the Nauyaca falls
After a 2 minute pause at Nauyaca falls, I started climbing again. I made a new friend from England (Tim, an accountant), and we trekked and hiked all the way to aid station 2. Along the way we were separated, and I got lost, and added 500m. Luckily I traced my way back to the course, and continued through the jungles. During part of the journey I ran into an American lady walking her horse and dog on the trail. I knew she was from the USA, and asked her where she was from. She mentioned that she moved from New York 15 years ago and it was the best decision of her life. After saying goodbye, I continued pushing on, and caught up with Tim.
After climbing and descending steep ravines, we finally arrived at the 2nd aid station (15km from the 1st aid station). I was thirsty and tired. I sat down and munched on a sandwich, ate a bunch of watermelon and a few biscuits, and asked how much time was left to get to the 3rd aid station. I was told that it was 10km away and that 2.5hrs was left.
After hearing that, I stopped thinking about being tired, and quickly pushed off. 2.5hrs on that terrain was not much time. I started running down every downhill at a tremendous pace, hitting a couple of half mile stretches running a 6:30 min/mile (A speed I don’t think I have achieved ever in my running career). I fast hiked every hill. This was no time to fool around, I had to make that cutoff. After what seemed like an eternity, I finally came out of the jungles and roads and came to the 3rd aid station. I asked how much time I had left. I was told that I beat the cutoff by 30 minutes. Imagine my relief!!!!! I loaded up on more water, and then decided to walk the remainder of the course, which included an 8km walk on the Whale’s Tail beach, followed by a climb and then another 5km on a main road.
The Whale’s Tail beach is literally a beach that has a section in the shape of a whale’s tail. Whales come to mate here (did not see any whales). It is a tourist section. The instructions were to walk on the beach until you came to a dead end, which is exactly what I did. I soaked in another creek, before starting to climb into another jungle, which then turned into a main highway. The third and final station was right there. I re-fueled up and then fast hiked the last 5km to the finish line, which was in a National Park. It was dark by the time I arrived, but I was so relieved to finish successfully. After another shower in questionable open air shower, dinner and massage, we listened to the Race briefing for the next day, and got into bed.
The Whale’s Tail. The outcropping of the beach looks like a whale’s tail. I was hoping to see a whale
Chapter 4 – Day 4 (37.6km, 2083m ascent, 2072m descent: It is only 1 km from here, Lord I hope I don’t break a bone)
The course began with a 700m/3200 ft climb and ended in the same way at the end of the day
Day 4 started with a mighty climb going up to 700m/3200 ft elevation. It was another one of those climbs where I would walk for 10 mins and then take a 1 min break, all the while going through an uneven and steep jungle path. Once I got to the top, I chowed down on another PB&J sandwich, before continuing to move on. Today was a day of struggle with the combination of heat, humidity, and undulating climbs and descents. I was by myself for most of the day till the end. It came to the point where I decided to give myself a timeout and think about what I was doing out here. I was not here to prove anything to anyone, I was here to have fun. So I stopped and looked at the scenery and to take a few pictures and “smell the roses”
The timeout begins. Time to channel my inner child and enjoy the surroundingsThe undulating terrain – there was many an opportunity to sprain my legs. I had to concentrate on the course. It was more mental than physicalFinally I am starting to smile – Kemosabe, you have passed the test. You now have a beard, and you can proceed forward
I continued to climb more hills until I came to one of the race volunteers, and asked him how far it was to the next aid station. He mentioned that it was 4 km away. After going around 4 km, there was still no aid station. By now I was incredibly thirsty. I was getting desperate. Right around this time, I started going down some of the most incredible descents I have ever ventured on. My quads were aching hard. I also could not use the poles to go down. So I sat down on my butt, and pushed myself down the slopes till I could get to a walkable/runnable section. There were plenty of opportunities to break my bones, and I thank the Lord that I did not break any.
The same volunteer who told me about the 4 km distance to the aid station came up suddenly behind me. He was able to breeze through the declines like it was nothing. I asked him how far it was to the aid station. He mentioned 1 km. I had half a mind to ask if it was 1 km on the trails, or 1 km by a drone above the forests. Thankfully almost 2 km later I arrived at the aid station.
After drinking water with electrolytes, I had 3 km left to the finish line (a school). I ran the remainder of the way through neighborhoods and past stray dogs, who barked and just looked at a crazy runner going past. I finally arrived at the finish line, where I boarded a bus with other runners to our next camp.
Chapter 5: Day 5: (48.9km, 1732m ascent, 1751m descent) The final battle: Are you planning to paddle that canoe any faster?
Today we were running towards Drake Bay, which is close to the border with Panama
The goal of today’s stage was to make it to Drake Bay and the Corcovado National Park, which is close to the border of Panama. Corcovado National Park is an island rich in biodiversity (has 3% of the world’s biodiversity in terms of plants and animals). As part of the race briefing, I understood that we would take a bus ride and then a ferry to the race start. Right before Corcovado island, we would take another ferry to get on Corcovado, before another trekking another 10 km to the finish line.
We got to the start line and awaited till 6:30 AM before getting on the ferry. After getting to the start line, we then took off. This course was more runnable.
R – L: Justin, Bob, and myself take our first selfie/runfie of the dayWaiting on that ferry. Do they not know that it is getting hot? I am itching to get movingThe start line is across the river.
Today I made a new friend – Laura Moreira. We spent most of the day of the course together, after halfway. Prior to that I was alone, climbing and descending again through the jungles. It was simply exhausting. I paused for 10 minutes, to sit on a log and munch on another PB&J. While eating, I heard a loud buzz next to my ear. I looked around and saw a hummingbird flapping its wings. It was so neat, however I could not take a picture in time :-(.
Right at that time, Laura came up behind me, and we stuck with each other till the end of the stage. After 2km, Laura said, “Hari, I did not mention it to you when you were sitting down, but there was a snake close to you”. Needless to say, that I was the last time I sat down on the course.
After crossing a river (where I lost my sunglasses), we came to another aid station and re-fueled. Below is a pic of me chomping on watermelon aka gift of the gods!
We trekked through beautiful trails and forecasts, with going up more steep inclines and declines – this course was getting tiring, and took a moment to take more runfies/trekfies (running/trekking selfies). As my inner child says, when things are hard, slap that smile on your face, and your stress levels drop. I made sure to remember why I was here. This was a vacation in a beautiful country.
We finally came to a beach where after a 1 km we came to the river crossing, and looked for the ferry to take us across. The “ferry” was a small canoe on the other side of the river, with an older gentleman paddling the canoe. It was about 400 – 600 m afar, and I started to wonder when the canoe would get to our side. I joked with Laura about whether this canoe trip was part of the distance.
Finally the canoe made it over and Laura got in. The gentleman then asked me to help launch the canoe into the water…..say what???? After all the distance, you want me to push that canoe????? Oh well, I will do what it takes. So I pushed the canoe and somehow jumped in. He slowwwwly paddled the canoe. I had half a mind to ask if he could give me the oars, so that I could paddle faster.
Laura took a rowfie (rowing selfie) for me. At this point I was exhausted, and ready to start on the last 10 km
Once we got to the other side and the last aid station, Laura and I trekked 4 km through inclines and declines before starting the last 6 km death march to the finish line. It was hot, but the sun was starting to set, so we took a few pictures. The sunset was amazing. I don’t think I have ever seen anything this beautiful. After what seemed an eternity, we finally came to the finish line, with most of the camp cheering for us (actually for Laura)! We were so glad to be done!
That night, after dinner, I got a massage. My quads were destroyed after 5 days of climbing and descending steep inclines. The massage therapist recognized that I was in a lot of pain, so he gave me an ice-cube massage to soothe my muscles. It worked like a charm and I then climbed into bed to sleep. The best thing about tomorrow was that we would get to sleep in till 5 AM, and start the final stage at 7 AM
Chapter 6: Day 6: 22.8km, 555m ascent, 555m descent: The victory lap – we are going to get this done!
On the last day, I woke up energized. The ice cube massage from the previous evening minimized the inflammation in my muscles. We were start on the beach, and go through the island, traversing beautiful waterfalls, roads, hills and finally finishing off on the beach at our camp.
Justin and I are ready to tackle the victory lap! We have this in the bank!
Right around 7AM, the race started. It was nice and toasty, but I did not worry at all. I knew in my heart, that I would make it to the finish line. After going through the last stream and climbing some incredible waterfalls, I proceeded to start trekking down the beaten path. I interacted with several people as I marched through, and spent around 30 minutes with a English couple. The wife had done the Marathon des Sables previously, and together as a couple they had done multiple stage races. They were awesome, and I enjoyed my conversation with them (the husband even bought me a beer at the finish line). I will be sure to look out for them in future races.
Around the 13 km, I came to the only aid station for that day. The race organizers were breaking open coconuts for all the runners. It was incredibly refreshing to drink coconut water. I caught up with Laura at this point, and we trekked a few km together, at which point I started running the last 2 km to the finish line.
Taking a pause to take another runfie. The end is close!
As I got closer to the finish line, I was running in the middle of resorts, and finally got back on the beach. I saw the finish line in a distance, and ran towards it with whatever energy I had, and finally reached the end. I was ecstatic! The race director Rodrigo, congratulated me and put a medal around my neck.
I went up to the tent, collected a fresh change of clothes and then showered. I ate lunch, and then drank a beer, courtesy of the English runner (what a gentleman). I chatted with another friend Ken for a while and also took a walk with him on the beach.
That night after dinner and chatting with new friends – Cid (from Israel), Hailey (from Idaho) and others, we attended the prize ceremony where all the winners and other incredible athletes were honored.
After the ceremony, I went to bed.
A fair bunch of incredible athletes. What an honor to get to conquer the same course that they did!
Epilogue – The sweet taste of victory
The next morning, it was time to get back to San Jose. I was excited that my wife and son were at the hotel waiting for me. All of the race participants got on to speed boats for a 1.5 hr ride to buses. We then rode for almost 5 hours before reaching San Jose.
That evening, my family, Justin, Bob and I went out to eat at a great restaurant Furca in downtown San Jose. It was an incredible meal.
The next morning, after breakfast, we said goodbye to Bob and Justin, and then headed out to downtown San Jose for a beer and food truck festival. We had a great time. In the evening we went to another awesome restaurant called Tin Jo (Asian). It was a fantastic meal. If you are ever in San Jose, I recommend visiting Tin Jo. The fried bananas and ice-cream, followed by masala chai was out of this world.
Top left, me and the drill sergeant who woke us up each morning. The rest of the pics are of the journey to the buses.
In summary, I had one of the best experiences in my life. The race was so intense (even tougher than the Marathon des Sables), that I did not even think about work for a second. All of my energy was focused on getting through this race. Before one attempts race like this, I would recommend practicing trail running (unlike winging it like I did), doing weight training and practicing hiking with poles. Unless you are incredibly fit and can run up very steep inclines, you will spend a good portion of this race hiking.
Special thanks to
My family for letting me go on this vacation. Having a supportive family is key to doing these activities.
Coach Lindsey Parry (Comrades Marathon official coach)- he writes great plans to work around a busy life. Thank you for the 71 mile week before the race. It got me mentally prepared.
Justin, Bob, and Laura for the incredible times on the course
A special thank you to the Coastal Challenge organization from the Race Director, Logistics Director, Medical Staff, Nutrition specialists, cooking crew, race crew and the aid station monitors. You put on a memorable event. It was the most exciting adventure I embarked on. I hope to do it again.
To the audience who read through this long blog. Hope you enjoyed it and are inspired to give the Coastal Challenge a try. I highly recommend it!
The 32nd Marathon des Sables (MDS) was an incredible lifetime experience. Â My friends and I trekked, marched, and sometimes ran 237 km over 6 days, across the Moroccan Sahara Desert. Â MDS is a self-sufficient race where all entrants are required to carry their provisions in a backpack during the race (meals, clothes, trekking poles, required kit composing of compass, knife, anti-venom pump, lighter, sleeping bag etc). Â The backpack has to weigh between 6.5 kg (minimum) to 15 kg (maximum). Â The only provisions provided by the race organizers were water and a tent and facilities for extended bathroom breaks.
Picture 1: The start line for each stage at MDS
My friend Danni Suskin (we met at Comrades 2014 and 2015) encouraged me to do this race with him.  During the journey of getting ready for MDS, I met Steve Holder, and also got acquainted with Penny Boettiger, and Graham Dance. I  also got introduced to the Bristol Convocations Running Club (BCRC); an incredible group that Danni and Steve are part of.  During the course of the training, Danni, Steve and I met up in Nashville to run the 2016 St Jude Rock’n’Roll Half/Full Marathon.  Danni and I also did one-week training together in Atlanta in preparation for the race, including four back-to-back runs with a heavy back pack.
Coach Lindsey Parry (Comrades official coach) guided me through the training process.  His help proved valuable during times of despair.  Training with a backpack was tough, and I hurt my back several times during the process.
Fast forward towards race preparation and the race itself 🙂
D-day minus 2 weeks
After months of a pipe dream of getting my back pack down to 6.5kg, I finally accept that I will be at 10 kg, of which 5.8 kg are my meals. Â Later at the weigh session in MDS, after attaching other required items (GPS transponder, water bottles, etc), I am closer to 11 kg. Â In training, I ran/walked with no more than 7 kg.
How am I going to fit all of this into my backpack
D-day minus 3 days
Danni, Penny and I meet in Marrakech and take the shuttle to Ouarzazate (pronounce Warzazat); 5 hour bus ride with other participants. There we meet our other tent mates -Nancy, Krista, and Mike- and father and son duo (Matt and Calvin).  We spend the night in Ouarzazate, where we meet up with Justin Brewer, our other tent mate.  We took buses the next day over to our race-site biouvac , which is 6 hours away from Ouarzazate.
Morocco is such a scenic country. Â We see a lot of greenery and mountains along the way.
Picture 3: On our way to Ouarzazate
Picture 4: Penny, myself, Justin and Danni on the way to the biouvac. Â This is the last known picture of us looking spic and span before the race.
D-day minus 2 days
We arrived at the Biouvac and get situated in our tents. Â Below are pictures of our mobile home for the next 8 days.
Picture 5: Tent #165 ( aka the coolest tent in town)
Picture 6: The biouvac with participant tents. Â The black tents were for participants. Â White tents were for volunteers, medical and email facilities
Picture 7: Below is our mobile toilet for extended bathroom breaks. Â Special thanks to Kia motors for providing a translucent cover. Â The trash can outside is for……..(you get the point). Â The rest of the grounds are for quick bathroom breaks, when needed.
During the two days prior to the race, the MDS organization; from the Race Director Patrick Bauer and the wonderful volunteers; welcomed us, and fed us a magnificent lunch and dinner. Â We were now getting comfortable and complete the check-in process. Our bags are weighed, our EKGs are thoroughly checked by the medical staff, and our pictures are taken. Â It is at this point, we start being self sufficient on the race, depending on our meals and supplies. Â Water will be provided every morning.
Picture 8: Graham and Steve paying Danni and myself a visit prior to the race start
D-day- Stage 1: 30.3 km
(10 hr time limit to complete)
Tent 165 wakes up to a freezing morning.  The desert is a cold climate in the morning and gets hot by mid morning (120 – 140°F).  This cycle repeats itself every morning.  The general routine is for the Berber volunteers to dismantle our tents in the morning, and we get dressed for the morning adventure:
Picture 9: Tents getting dismantled in the morning
Picture 10: Tent #165 getting ready to kick some butt….I mean some sand!
From left to right: Danni, myself (Hari), Patrick (19 time finisher), Krista, Penny, Mike, Nancy, and Justin. Â We are just looking dapper and can’t wait to tackle the day
As is the routine everyday, the race director, Patrick Bauer, gives a speech welcoming all the runners, giving an overview of the day ahead, and also announcing the birthdays. Â He starts of each daily stage with AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell”. Â How appropriate! Â At least the weather feels like Hell. Â The experience however of trekking in the desert is awesome.
Picture 11: Patrick Bauer and his English translator on top of the Land Rover giving details of the day ahead. Â We even get a demonstration on this day on how to use the loo, from Patrick himself (fully clothed of course). Â The translator at some point is embarrassed to translate, but we got the point. Â We all have a good laugh!
Picture 12: Yours truly feeling awesome on the first day. Â It really can’t be this bad, can it??? Hmmmmm!!!! Â Let’s see how I feel at the end of the day.
Day 1 goes smooth. Â Moving with 11 kg on my back and using the walking poles was taking some getting used to. Â I spend most of the time with Danni and Justin. Â We took it easy. Â We had been forewarned not to exert ourselves, as Day 2 was supposed to be much harder. Â We finished strong, happy and content. Â It got hot during the day. Â It is so hot, that I can hardly felt any sweating. Â The evaporation was so rapid in the dry hot environment. Â We finished in a little over 6 hours.
The MDS volunteers have checkpoints along the way to stock on water, and to rest. Â Medical Teams are at the different checkpoints to assist any runners in need. Â Never during the race, did I feel helpless. Â There are volunteers in their Land Rovers across the course and 2 helicopters overhead to address any medical emergencies.
Day 2 – Stage 2: 39 km
(11:30 hrs maximum time to complete)
This is the supposed to be a tough day, and it definitely lives up to its reputation.  It felt unusually warmer than Day 1.  I employed my poles very frequently on this stage.  We traversed so many areas of sand.  In the last third of the course, we climbed a rocky mountain peak, which took forever to peak.  With the incredible heat of the day (someone later says it hit 140°F that day, however I have no way of proving it), I took several breaks.  My nose started bleeding.  According to the Strava/Garmin maps, we ascend from a 2300 ft elevation going up to 3100 ft.
We got a consolation prize of descending on the other side of the peak, which is a mighty sand dune. Â Nothing felt more awesome than descending down a 1000 ft of sand.
Picture 13: Descending a massive sand dune
After talking a 15 minute break at the last checkpoint, I proceeded to walk 4km to the biouvac. Â I was so happy to have made it through Day 2. Â It took me close to 10hrs to finish this stage.
Day 3 – Stage 3: 31.6 km
(10.5 hrs maximum time to complete)
I felt little better today. Â Justin, Danni and I went out together. Â We was thinking that this stage is going to be easier than Day 2. Â But Patrick Bauer had other plans for us. Â We climbed and descended 4 major peaks.
We saw one of the major peaks in the distance, and I jokingly told Justin, that we will climbing up to the top of the peak.  Justin said, “no way.  I don’t think so”.  So of course were aghast when we discovered that we had to climb all the way to the top in the heat.  At this point, I was thinking to myself, “where did it say we had to include mountain climbing as part of our training?”  Thankfully all of us made it to the top.  I took a little over 7hrs to complete this stage.
All of us now were thinking about the long stage tomorrow. Â We went to bed early , so that we can wake up early. Â The long stage would start early.
Day 4 – Stage 4: Long stage of 86.2 km
(35 hrs maximum to complete)
Justin, Danni, and I started out together. Â We thought that today’s course should be easier, given the distance. Â After all we got through day 2 and day 3 with all the mountain peaks. Â Tough luck with that thought process. Â We had several sand dunes that we climbed, and the course was mostly sand dunes and not the rocky hard surfaces that we read from previous blogs. Â Walking on these sand dunes zapped every ounce of energy from my body. Â Although theoretically my backpack was lighter, it did not feel that way. Â As I climbed every dune, I could feel my shoulders hurting. Â I was getting irritated with the poles, but found them quite useful when trying to push myself up the dunes.
The elites started a few hours after we did, and caught up with us in no time. Â It was amazing to watch Rachid el Morabity (overall winner) and Elisabet Barnes (1st female) charge up the slopes in the heat. Â This was one of the two times I saw them on the course.
The 3 of us get separated along the way and eventually grouped together in the evening. Â We have been on our feet for 12 hours and were miserable and tired, but still found the energy to crack an occasional joke. Â As night time approached, we were given glow sticks to attach to our bags, and we turned on our headlamps.
The three of us walked hours and miles through the energy zapping sand dunes, taking occasional 5 minutes breaks in the night. Â I don’t think I would have made it without the company of Danni and Justin. Â At the 4th checkpoint, we stopped to have dinner. Justin was gracious in getting hot water ready for our freeze dried meals. Â At the 5th checkpoint, we stopped for tea, which is quite refreshing. Â I am touched by how helpful the MDS volunteers are. Â They ask us about how we are feeling, and take note of our physical condition. Â I can’t help feeling how tired they must be, standing around the whole day.
We pushed off and trek another 9km towards the 6th checkpoint. Â The Sahara at night is so beautiful with the full moon. Â We see several large beetles in the sand. Â Occasionally we see runners sleeping on the desert floor. Â By this time, I asked Danni and Justin that we sleep for 20 minutes at the next checkpoint. Â By now have been on our feet for about 19 hours and were are getting delirious. Â We finally make it to Checkpoint 6 and collapsed in a tent for a 30 minute nap. Â I started thinking about what possessed me to sign up for this event. Â Prior to falling asleep, I wondered if I would ever sign up for a 100 mile race in the future (I am still wondering the same as I write this race report ……….)
We get up, I felt somewhat refreshed with a 30 minute nap, and we all decided to push off to the finish line which is about a half marathon (21.1 km) away.
We finally get through the Checkpoint 7 (last checkpoint), rest and spend the last 10km getting to the biouvac.  I could see the biouvac from 5km away.  It is the longest 5km in my life.  I mentally “thank” Patrick for making the statement of “so near and yet so far”, a glaring reality in MDS, especially when it comes to where the biouvacs and finish line are visible from miles away……..
We were so happy to complete the long stage in a little less than 26 hours.  What a long day and night!  It is quite hot when we finished, and we ended up taking an afternoon nap to recover.
Picture 14: Justin, myself and Danni walking past a village fresh in the morning
Picture 15: Danni, Justin and myself during the night on the long stage
Stage 5 – Marathon Stage: 42.2 km
(12 hrs maximum to complete): Medal awarded after this stage
At about this time, all of us in the tent couldn’t wait for the MDS event to be over.  After several days of wearing the same clothes, without a shower, we couldn’t stand the smell of ourselves.  This was a good thing, as you could not smell anyone else 🙂
I had gotten through the race with hardly any blisters on my feet (thank you to MyRacekit gaiters and gurney goo), however I was chafing so badly between my legs. Â I Â was waddling like a penguin by this time. Â I should have gone to the medical tent, which I eventually did after this stage.
I started off the stage walking with Ed Mafoud, who was in the next tent.  We spent a couple of hours talking with each other.  I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Ed.  I mostly walked this staged quite slowly. I was tired and chafed badly.  Two and a half miles away from the finish, I got a second wind, and decided to run into the finish line.  This was probably the only time on the course that I ran and what a pleasure it was to run right to the finish line.
Picture 16: Last section of stage 5
I was greeted by Patrick Bauer (and so was every finisher) with a hug, a kiss on the forehead and cheek, and a congratulatory message on accomplishing the Marathon des Sables race. Â Patrick then proceeded to put the medal around my neck!
Picture 17: The coveted 32nd MDS medal!
I went to the medical tent to get my chafed legs taken care off!  After 45 minutes of work, I was good to go, with a nice big bandage on each thigh.
All of us were very happy to complete the 32nd Marathon des Sables! Â We only had the 7.7km charity stage left the next day.
Picture 18: Below is a picture of Danni, Steve and I celebrating with a beer that night. Â It was so good to have a cold one. Â We also went to cheer on the last finishers of the MDS. (It was a custom to cheer on the last finishers of each stage. Â All of us felt emotional watching the last participants come through)
Last stage – Charity stage: 7.7 km
What a relief! Â We made it. Â After 6 days of wearing the same shirt, the organizers gave everyone a yellow t-shirt to wear. Â We all walked together across the beautiful sand dunes. Â Below are some pictures of the dunes
Picture 19: Undisturbed sand dunes – not for long though
Picture 20: Walking on top of the dunes
Picture 21 and 22: Camels waiting on tourists to descend from the dunes
Picture 23: My shoes have taken a beating from the rocks and sand! Â The lugs are loose and some of rubber melted
We made it to the finish line and then got on to buses on the 6hr ride back to Ouarzazate.
Picture 24: Danni and I on the bus back to Ouarzazate. Â We both are sporting thick beards
Picture 25: Clean shaven 7 hrs later! Â So happy to be done. Wait, I already said this!
Picture 26: Picture with Lahcen Ahansal; 10-time winner of Marathon des Sables
In  conclusion, what an amazing experience MDS was!
I don’t think I have been more happy to complete a race. Â I consider the Marathon des Sables to be more of an adventure requiring survival skills, rather than aiming for a specific finish time. Â There are many variables to control when participating in a multi-stage event- nutrition, hydration, pain/blister management, heat acclimation, and then being able to do this day after day after day after day after day after day.
I had the opportunity to see several amazing people on the course, who had a much more challenging set of circumstances to overcome in the race. Â I was fortunate to see Duncan Slater (British veteran and double amputee) from England during the race and also the award ceremony. Â Duncan lost his legs in Afghanistan, and completed MDS on his second attempt. Â I saw a blind runner and also a runner with no arms, participating in the race. Â I also got to meet a 16 year old girl and her father (from England, and living in Monaco) on every stage of the race. They completed it successfully. Â I talked with many amazing participants, some of whom succeeded on this round, after previously being unable to complete the race. Â When I see such people participating in these events, it motivates me to put aside all of my excuses, and do what it takes to get the job done. Â Due to participating in events like this, I feel I am stronger in my personal life and feel equipped to handle various situations accordingly.
Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge many friends and family on this journey to complete MDS
Danni Suskin, my Comrades buddy! Â Without you, I would not have dreamed of participating in this race! Â Thank you for helping me realize that we need to live our lives to the fullest extent!
My wife Nirisha and son Jay and my parents and other family – thank you for encouraging me down the path of doing this event and supporting me all the way
Coach Lindsey Parry – thank you for sticking by me and revising my training plan to accommodate all the injuries I sustained along the way, and encouraging me as I started to succeed. Â I would have given up in December 2016 due to all my back pain, but was able to pull through
Richard Maas – my massage therapist. Â Thank you for the countless hours spent on working on me. Â Without your help on my back, I would not have made it to the start line. Â I know that this was a journey
Tent #165 (aka coolest tent in town) – Danni, Penny, Patrick, Nancy, Krista, Mike, Justin. Â Although I was largely quiet in the tent, I truly enjoyed the conversation and jokes cracked, during the 1 week we spent together.
The BCRC group: thank you for stalking us and sending messages of encouragement throughout the race
My friends in Dallas: Heather, Angela, Liz, Bill. Â Thank you for wishing me the best prior to my journey to Morocco!
My other friends (and wife’s friends) and Jay Batchen, who sent messages of encouragement during the race. These messages gave me the necessary boost to carry on for another day
Finally Patrick Bauer and the incredible team of doctors and volunteers of MDS. Â What a highly organized and memorable event you put together. Â I never felt scared at any point, knowing that there were volunteers close by to come to the rescue. Â Also the volunteers were exemplary when it came to providing help for the runners. Â I would highly recommend this experience to any adventurer out there.
I have become busier in the last few weeks and have neglected to publish Week 15 of my training. The light is at the end of the tunnel, and I will be running the Dallas Marathon in two weeks time. I have improved both physically and mentally as a runner in the last 15 weeks. My current plan is to start taking it easier prior to marathon day.
Below is a short summary of my Week 15 and Week 16 Training:
Monday
Nov 17th: Cold morning. Ran 8 miles at 9 min/mile avg
Nov 24th: 6 miles at 9:33 min/mile avg. Tired after Sunday’s run.
Tuesday
Nov 18th: 1.6 mile warmup, 3 X 2 mile repeats with 800m recovery followed by 1.7 mile cooldown. The repeats were done at 8:08 min/mi, 8:09 min/mi, 7:54 min/mi. Total of 9.18 miles
Nov 25th: 1.6 mile warmup, 4 X 1.5 mile repeats with 800m recovery followed by 1.6 mile cooldown. Total of 10.9 miles. Repeats done at 7:47 min/mile, 7:29 min/mile, 7:37 min/mile and 7:36 min/mile
Wednesday
Nov 19th: Rest!
Nov 26th: Rest!
Thursday
Nov 20th: 1.6 mile warm, followed by 10 miles at 7:55 min/mile avg, 1.54 mile cooldown
Nov 27th: 1.57 warmup followed 10 miles at 7:47 min/mile avg. 1.72 mile cool down. Definitely not going to run my marathon at a 7:47 min/mile. My calf was nagging a bit and I was tired!
Friday
Nov 21st: 7.01 miles at 9:06 min/mile avg
Nov 28th: 6 miles at 9:21 min/mile avg
Saturday
Nov 22nd: 4 miles with friends at 10:06 min/mile avg followed by 4 mile tempo at 7:57 min/mile pace
Nov 29th: Ran with my friend Viresh. 12 miles at 8:31 min/mile average
Sunday
Nov 23rd: 16.12 miles at 9:12 min/mile pace. Last long run. Warm and humid today!
Nov 30th: 10.5 miles at 9:06 min/mile avg. Warm and humid today!
Total miles week 15: 63.5 miles
Total miles week 16: 59 miles
Thoughts for the week. Need to get through a 55 mile week next week (week 17) and the following week is marathon week (Week 18). Although the plan for week 18 is to still get in 6 runs, I may decide not to run after Wednesday, and let my body heal up and rest for marathon day.
This was a week of great running weather. Granted it got windier and colder, but after having a mixed bag of heat, humidity, cold, and wind for the last 13 weeks, it was a blessing to have one week of consistent weather. Another positive note was being able to get in my 6 runs this week with minimal issues from my left knee. During this week, I also discovered new running routes in Allen, and now have identified my route for my remaining three 10 mile tempo runs. This week’s training went as follows:
Monday 11/10/14 – 6 miles at 9:27 min/mile pace
Although the weather was great, my legs were tired this morning (as all Monday mornings). Before Monday’s, I accumulate 4 days of running, of which, one is a Tempo run on Thursday and the other is a Sunday long run. Needless to say, I have stopped pushing myself on Mondays. It is a sort of “run for joy” day.
Tuesday 11/11/14 – 8.6 miles, 1.5 WU only, 2 X 3mile repeats with 800m recovery
Wow it was cold! Brrrr!!!!! Not sure from where did this wind descend upon us? I dressed up as warmly as I could, and went for my standard 1.5 mile warm up.
After coming home, I got Dunbar and we took off to execute our strength workout of 2 X 3 miles with 800m recovery. For my odd reason, Dunbar was in a playful mood and just dragging me everywhere today. While it was funny, it was also a bit annoying. Anyway, for my marathon goal, the target was to complete each 3 mile repeat at 8:15 min/mile pace. My results were as follows
1st 3 mile repeat: 8:16 min/mile
2nd 3 mile repeat: 8:10 min/mile
As it was so cold and windy, I decided to skip the cool down phase. I spent 20 minutes in the shower thawing out.
Wednesday 11/12/14 – Thank goodness for a day of rest!
Thursday 11/13/14 – Tempo run day – 11.7 miles
Today the combined warm up and cool down was 2.7 miles. As it was cold, I shortened the cool down portion of the run. Dunbar and I completed the 9 mile tempo run at a 8:11 min/mile pace. Was quite satisfied with this run.
Friday 11/14/14 – recovery run day – 6 miles at 8:56 min/mile pace
The weather was great again. Did some yoga prior to the run. Ran at what felt like a relaxed pace. Surprised to complete this run at a sub 9 min pace (I usually complete the Friday runs at 10 min/mile pace). I think the yoga prior to the run really helped loosen my legs and back muscles.
Saturday 11/15/14 – 10 miles at 8:45 min/mile
Got to sleep in this morning. Before the run, I did a bit of yoga. Ran with Dunbar again from our house to Market Street and back home. Ran into my old work colleague Paul Barker from my previous job, and we chatted for a few minutes. Paul has been running for only 2 years and has already done a 1:33 half marathon. I was impressed! Ran home and completed the run at 8:45 min/mile average
Sunday 11/16/14 – 10 miles at 8:50 min/mile
It was wet and drizzling, however I dressed up quite warmly and ran again with Dunbar, who keeps following me around to make sure that I do not leave the house without him. We checked out a new route in Allen today, and I will be using this route for my last three 10 mile tempo runs. This was a bit of a challenging route with some long hills. Finished at 8:50 min/mile pace.
Takeaways from this week’s training:
1) With colder weather, my running is becoming more consistent.
2) Skipping a running day last week to deal with a nagging knee discomfort, was a wise decision. This week my discomfort reduced, and I was able to complete all 6 days of running
3) I did yoga on Friday and Saturday before the run, and felt great on those two days. On Sunday, where I skipped yoga, it took longer for my legs to feel comfortable with running. I will need to find a way to fit in 15 minutes of yoga prior to beginning my runs next week.
13 seems to be an unlucky number. This was a tough week for running, but at the end of the day I got through one more week of training. I have 4 more weeks of hard training, before taking some easy time prior to the Dallas marathon. In addition to a hectic week at work, I was nursing a sore knee, and had to take a day off to recuperate. Below is how my week went
Monday 11/03/2014: 8 miles with Dunbar at 8:52 min/mile
Had an additional hour of sleep today due to daylight savings. What a difference it made for my run. Dunbar and I had a great run this morning and average 8:52 min/mile pace. What was not exciting was everybody still has their sprinklers on in this cold weather. We dodged several of these sprinklers, only to get rained soaked at the end of the run. Also my left knee was throbbing after the run.
Tuesday 11/04/2014: skipped run
Got up this morning, feeling discomfort in my left knee. Decided to not run as I was not prepared to risk all the training I had put in so far. I am determined to run the Dallas marathon, so skipping one day is not going to kill me. Had an all day offsite training at work, and ate like a king at a team dinner at the end of the day.
Wednesday 11/05/2014: Day of rest
Wednesday is the day of rest! My knee still felt out of whack, so I did not mind taking another day of rest. Again had several meetings at work including another work dinner, where again I ate again like a king.
Thursday 11/06/2014: Tempo run – 12.2 miles (1.6mWU (10:49 m/m), 9m Tempo (8:14m/m), 1.6m CD (11:15m/m))
Decided to test drive my knee today. I was quite tired this morning. Eating like a king on Tuesday and Wednesday made me feel very sluggish. I was happy to see that my knee was holding up. Ran the warm-up at a 10:49 min/mile pace, and then came home to pick up Dunbar for the Tempo run. After not running for two days, Dunbar was chomping at the bit. We took off like a bullet and I succeeded in positive splitting this run (average pace of 8:14 min/mile). We completed the cool-down at 11:15 min/mile pace. The positive thing from this run was that my knee felt fine.
Friday 11/07/2014: Recovery run – 7 miles at 9:01 min/mile pace
I did some yoga before this morning’s run. Had a great run this morning with Dunbar. Usually I run Fridays at a 10 min/mile pace, but I guess that skipping the Tuesday run plus doing yoga prior to the run helped a lot.
Saturday 11/08/2014: 16 miles in Allen (9:26 min/mile pace)
Tried out a new route today. Ran with Dunbar to Celebration Park on the East Side of Allen. Note to self, Exchange Rd in Allen is the worst road to run on! We kept looking for areas to run and then crossed over the US 75 highway. Dunbar did not enjoy running on the bridge at all due to all the noise of the cars on the road. We got to Celebration Park and then ran back home all the way on McDermott Rd. This was one long uphill, and my back definitely felt it all the way. We were both happy to make it home! Ate like a king again tonight. We had some guests over, and one of them brought a home made chocolate pecan pie. It was incredible. It also made me feel sluggish for my Sunday run 🙂
Sunday 11/09/2014: 8 miles (9:09 min/mile)
Woke up early this morning, did some yoga again prior to my run. Dunbar and I went for 1.5 miles and I then dropped him home. I wanted him to rest after running 16 miles yesterday. Dunbar is ready to run at anytime, however sometimes I think he does not know when to rest. We ran the 1.5 miles at a 10:15 min/mile pace. I then ran the remaining 6.5 miles by myself. Finished the run strong.
Takeaways from this week’s training
– While I am obsessed with making every run on the schedule, sometimes listening to your body is important. Taking a couple of days off this week helped me get back on track
– I need to not eat too much of rich food. I felt like my runs were tougher this week. Next week I am going to get back on the bandwagon and be disciplined about my eating
Last week was quite busy and I could not get a chance to publish my blog for Week 11. It was also my birthday week, as I commenced into a new decade of my life. As I committed to recording my weekly progress towards training for the 2014 Dallas marathon, I will be documenting both Week 11 and Week 12 training into this post.
I have 6 weeks more weeks left till Marathon day. The end is almost in sight!
Monday – Recovery from the weekend
Week 11: 10/20/14 – 8 miles at 9:20 min/mile pace
Week 12: 10/27/14 – 6 miles at 9:19 min/mile pace
Tuesday – Intervals!
Week 11: 10/21/14 – Fantastic weather this morning. Saw a couple of shooting stars this morning. Ran 6 X 1 mile repeats with 0.3 mile recovery in between. I had to program 0.3 miles into my watch because my Suunto watch could not program 0.25 miles intervals. Supposed to target 8:15 min/mile. Splits were as follows;
8:12, 7:43, 7:55, 7:50, 7:51, 7:39.
Ran 1.5 mile warm-up prior to and after the workout. Total of 10.85 miles
Week 12: 10/28/14 – A week later it was incredibly humid. I am not sure how I survived the workout this morning. Today I did 4 X 1.5 mile repeats with 800 m recovery. Goal was to complete each 1.5 mile repeats in 12:20 min (8:15 min/mile pace).
My splits were as follows: 12:19 (8:12 pace), 12:08 (8:04 pace), 11:54 (7:55 pace), 12:07 (8:03 pace)
Ran 1.5 mile warm-up prior to and after the workout. Total of 11 miles
I was exhausted, but I learned something today. Despite the humidity, my body is getting programmed to run a certain pace and I am getting better at holding that pace over distance.
Wednesday – Yes! a day of rest
Thursday – Tempo run day
Week 11 10/23/14: Supposed to do 8 mile Tempo run today, however as I was doing the Double Trouble race in Grapevine (5K followed by a 10K), I decided to incorporate one 11 mile regular run. Ran the 11 miles at a 9:05 min/mile pace
Week 12 10/30/14: Did 9 mile tempo run this morning (did 1.5 mile warmup and 1.5 mile cooldown also). Total of 12 miles. Ran the 9 mile tempo at a 8:10 min/mile average pace. Great weather this morning for a run.
Friday – always a recovery run
Fridays’ are always my slowest day
Week 11 10/24/14: Did 7 miles at a 10 min/mile pace. Felt completely blah in this run
Week 12 10/30/14: Did 6 miles at a 10 min/mile pace. Also felt tired during this run.
Saturday
Week 11 10/25/14: Met my friends Angela and Heather at Grapevine to run the Double Trouble race. Raced the 5K in 22:20 min and 10K in 48:54 min. The course was quite hilly, and it warmed up during the 10K. Happy with the results as they were both PRs. My next goals will be lower my 5K time to 21 minutes. Total of 9.3 miles of running today.
Week 12 11/01/14: Met Angela to run around the 10 miles around the lake. It was a great run overall with great conversation and wonderful weather. Fall is here!
Sunday
Week 11 10/26/14: Turned 40 today! The weather was not exactly great. Ran 7 miles at home with Dunbar, and then went with my buddy Viresh to run another 7 miles at Erwin Park. It was a great trail run. Came home and ran another 2 miles with Dunbar for a total of 16.14 miles.
Week 12 11/02/14: Met Viresh to run 10 miles. Had a great run again today. We ran on the Chisholm trail and back. We had a beaver sighting by the bridge close to Parker. Did not know that we had beavers up in Plano. Total mileage was 10.12 miles
This was an eventful week for training. Week 10 was a ramp down week for mileage. My legs were tired after 9 weeks of training 6 days a week, and having to skimp on sleep daily.
In order to balance family and work responsibilities (because I believe that there is a life outside of running), I have discovered that the only time I have for running is early in the morning. If I am not done by 7 A.M. in the morning, I am not going to get my runs in. However, I do recognize that I enjoy my running tremendously and am willing to make the sacrifices necessary to get my training completed.
Without further ado, below is how my training went this week
Monday 10/13/2014, 6.02 miles at 9:25 min/mile pace
I had to wait this morning for the rain, thunder, lightning and wind to subside. Surprisingly my dog did not seem to be worried about the weather. Just to be safe, we went out, once it stopped raining. It was nice and cool and we had a relaxing run.
Tuesday 10/14/2014, 7.47 miles, track work at Allen High School, 3 X 1600m with 600m recovery
I was at the Allen High School track at 4:15AM. I began my customary 1.5 mile warm-up around the track, and saw a shooting star in the sky. I was quite fascinated with the trail of light it left behind. Anyway, back to running, I was supposed to target a 7:20 min/mile pace for each 1600 m repeat. Below were the splits that I managed
7:18, 7:11, 7:15
I met my goals for the morning.
Wednesday 10/15/2014 – Thank God again for a rest day!
It was quite difficult to get up this morning. After having conference calls that lasted till 10:45 pm the previous night, I got up at at 3:00 A.M.,0 as I had another early morning meeting at work. I went for 1.58 mile tempo (10:47 min/mile pace) and came home to pick up Dunbar. We then went for our 8 mile tempo run. Target was to hit a 8:23 min/mile pace. I decided not to look at my watch during the entire run. Our splits were as follows: 8:19, 8:10, 8:10, 8:06. 8:06. 8:05. 8:25 (uphill), 8:05, 8:08.
I was satisfied with the splits. The lessons learned from this run, were that with colder weather (and not paying constant attention to my watch), I can manage more consistent splits, based on running my feel.
Friday 10/17/2014 – ran a 6 mile recovery run with Dunbar at 9:29 min/mile pace
Saturday 10/18/2014 – 10 miles at 9:03 min/mile pace, followed by 0.35 mile recovery
Ran with Dunbar today. This was in essence, a run with tired legs. I had some difficulty pushing my pace today. At the 6th mile, I stopped at Russell Creek park to sip some water at the fountain. There were a ton of soccer games in progress. Several soccer moms were looking at Dunbar, and of course, he proceeded to embarrass me by peeing on the water fountain. We quickly left and ran home.
Sunday 10/19/2014 – 10 miles at 9:15 min/mile pace
Ran 10 miles on a different course with Dunbar. We stopped at the 5th mile to talk to a lady who also had a Great Pyrenees mix (with Anatolian Shepherd). We chatted for 20 minutes, and then Dunbar and I took off home. As I was having dead legs again today, I decided to take it easy.
Total miles for the week: 51 miles
Mileage for the last 30 days: 230.7 miles
Next week, I will most likely skip the tempo portion of my Thursday run and keep my legs ready, for the Double Trouble race on Saturday, in Grapevine (5K followed by a 10K race). I am quite interested in seeing how I perform after the last 10 weeks of training.
In memorial – Henry Zoch III
I would like to also take this time to remember one of Dallas’ finest runners who passed away in a fatal auto accident on Thursday. Henry Zoch III was one of the greatest runners our running community had ever seen. He always had a smile on his face. I had the fortunate experience of getting to see Henry in races around the country, whether be it in Oregon, Dallas or New Mexico (half marathons, marathons and ultras). He also was a former Marine who served his country in Iraq and Afghanistan, and would have celebrated his 33rd birthday today.
I thought about Henry a lot during my runs this weekend, and remembered the positive attitude he exhibited at all times. I therefore dedicate this week’s write up to Henry, and will follow his example of being disciplined during the rest of my training. May you Rest in Peace, Henry! The running community will miss you!
Run and Explore Trails 