Raining Cats and Dogs in Chennai

Its raining cats and dogs in Chennai and that doesn't happen very often. Chennai is perennially rain (and thus water) starved city. So, it is kind of a welcome relieve to see the continuous downpour since yesterday. This gave me the perfect reason to skip today's long run and kept me indoors most of the day.

Feeling claustrophobic, decided to venture out a little and here are couple of pictures from that.

Elliots Beach is generally Choc-a-Block with people on a Sunday after noon, but not today. It has been raining heavily since yesterday and that pretty much has emptied out the beach.




These seem to enjoying the drench..

A short video clip - Elliots Beach, Chennai

Run & Rain

This morning when I woke up @ 4:15 AM, had the perfect reason to skip our weekly long run and cuddle back in to the inviting cozy bed. I looked out and it was drizzling little heavily. On any other day that would have been the reason enough to go right back to bed. But not today.. This dilemma lasted for about two minutes till I splashed some cold water in my face.

As I stepped outside in to the rain, wasn't sure how many was actually going to show up. But there were about 8 Chennai Runners who had decided to brave the rain and hit the road. Initially, it took me a while to get to my running rhythm in the rain, but I got used to it rather quickly and went further than I had originally planned.

With a gentle rain splashing across my face and cooler than the usual temperature, it was actually a joy to run. Unfortunately, this can't said be said about the roads in which we ran. Even at the slightest rain, Chennai roads develop water puddles and makes it difficult to traverse through them. Initially, I tried avoiding the puddles, but when that became difficult, I simply stepped in to them and started enjoying the splash after a while. With Hari's gentle nudge, I ran longer than I originally set out to and ran 20 kms in about 2 hours. I have never ran in the rain for that long must say that I would do it again if I get an opportunity.

Running in the rain is not without its flip side, My shoes and dry fit running clothes became heavier over a period of time and made running a little challenging. Nevertheless, I am glad to have run in the rain today.

I particularly felt good to have run today as it is birth day and this rain run the best gift I could have given myself.

Walking Faster Than Running ?

Well generally running would be faster than walking right? Nope.. Not if compare this walking record to my running..

Look at this record in walking at the 4th Military World Games being held at Hyderabad, India. (and this may not be the world record in this category...)

The results: Athletics: Men: 20km walk: 1 Cui Zhide (Chn) 1h 25m 23.7s, 2. Trotski Ivan (Bel), 3. Toth Matei (Slo).

Cui Zhide of China walked away with a Gold after walking 20 kms in 1:25:23. He had walked at a speed of over 14km an hour. I can't do that speed even running, let alone walking.

Only 46 days to go for Singapore Marathon and my target is to complete the full marathon under 4:30. If I can consistently do 10 km an hour.. then I can attain this target.

Games Indians Play - Why We Are The Way We Are?

Very interesting title isn't it..? This the book I have started reading..

“Why are we a nation that is individually so smart and collectively so naive? Why do we mistake talk for action? Why is our self-worth massaged only if we have the ‘authority’ to break rules? Why are we among the world’s most corrupt? Why do we jump red lights? Why do we dump our garbage at the neighbour’s doorstep? . . . Can it be our climate, population density, poverty, colonial past or even genetic encoding?”

This book is by V Raghunathan, an IIM-A professor who is using Game Theory to explain why Indians behave the way we behave.

I just read the first few pages and if they are precursor of things to come, then this book promises to be an interesting one. The book starts of with discussing the booty Karnataka Government announced for forest brigand Veerappan's head and how they handled hundreds claim for the INR 500 million.

I am not an avid reader, but would like to become one. I hope to come back to you next week with my take on this book.