Silicon Valley marathon - a race report

Dated Nov 4th

After a great half marathon in San Francisco, I went on a well-earned vacation (at least it felt like it at that time). When I got back, Coach Martina and the Mt.View gang talked me into coming out for a long run that same weekend. My troubles began then with my first injury at that run. After many more weekends of long and longer runs, much rolling, doctor appointments and a few very painful sessions at SMI, the big day dawned. It was finally Nov 4th, the day we had all been training for. (at least some of us)

The day began with the promise of nice warm weather. Kiran, Gurpreet ( + roommate) Martina (the coach) and I carpooled to San Jose downtown to get to the start point. For more on the mechanics of how we got there, read Bharath's blog ( http://0to262.blogspot.com). After the warmup run and stretches, it was time for ..the line to the porta potties. After standing in line for what seemed an eternity, I got in just to hear the announcer go "3, 2,1". So much for starting with the crowd :). I obviously missed leaving with all the other Asha folks who were a bit wiser than me.

But considering that 10 % of the marathoners were from Asha, it was not hard to find a bunch of Asha folks to run with. Running through the streets of downtown San Jose is pretty cool. Familiar streets went by and before we knew it, it was time for the first water step manned by the awesome TA folks in costume. Of course, Chakri was there with his trusty camera capturing the run of everyone. It was so much fun watching the different costumes and the enthusiasm that I didnt hydrate very well at this water stop :)

Soon after this I caught up with Gurpreet and Kiran. After we met up around mile 2, it was a steady 6:(0.30-1:00) run walk till mile 13. Along the way we were entertained by Gurpreet and his PJs. It was fun to enter campbell park and run along the familiar Los Gatos trail. We were watching for all the landmarks noted during the earlier runs - the apartments on the way, the water cascading in the creek, the lake on the right, the familiar uphills and downhills. So far so good. Smooth sailing. Just around mile 9 we started seeing the fast ones returning including Coach Tony and Sandip.

After this was the 2nd TA waterstop with more costumes and Coach Rajeev and his headgear. We could hear them from at least 1 minute away. When we heard yelling and shouting, we knew we were near the next waterstop. Its no wonder TeamAsha won the spirit award. After this, it was smooth sailing to mile 13 - the midpoint.

Right around mile 13, my nemesis struck, the damn ITB. It was time to start walking. Fortunately, I had ample experience doing this over the past few months during my long runs. After walking and trying to run for a few miles without much success, I decided to just stick to walking as the running wasnt getting me very far. At Campbell park, my wife was waiting to cheer me on with bagels and other foods.
The high points of my return trip were definitely the Asha water stops. A bunch of people encouraging me to keep going and checking if I was ok. The toughest aspect of the run after mile 15 or so was the heat. It was getting really hot and it was really hard to run or even walk too fast.

Around mile 22 or so, I managed to catch up with a few other TeamAsha and other people who were also walking due to ITB issues (one can see the classic ITB walk from a mile) . After the 25th mile Asha water stop and a much needed sugar boost from the jalebis, it was time for the last mile.

This is when I hit the last mile problem. Three of us who were walking together got to the corner of Vine St and Woz Way. Since it was pretty late (61/2 hrs), the cops had cleared away the cones used to show us where to go. We were standing at the street corner wondering where to go. Then we saw some other runners getting into their cars and they waved us on to the finish line. The same thing happened at the entrance to the park. Since there was a bend, we didnt know where to go. A BIG thanks to Reena for showing us the path and running those final 300 feet to the finish line. After all, if there's one thing every Asha runner does, it is to finish strong.

It felt great to hear the announcer read out my bib number and name and actually run under the SV marathon banner. I felt really good about finishing the marathon inspite of my ITB injury halfway through the run. Then it was time for hugs from my wife, the coaches and other running buddies from the Asha gang. Some samosas, pongal and sweets provided the much needed sugar and energy to recover and smile during all the pics.

Overall, it was an awesome experience and something I will remember for the rest of my life. A million thanks to the Asha coaches, mentors, coords, volunteers and everyone else have been with us for the past 7 months. From 1 mile on the first day to 26.2 - what a journey its been.

Solitude at Midnight

Our last night in Rome and we decided to go by the Trevi fountain at midnight to see it in relative solitude. Unfortunately, all the tourists in Rome seemed to have had the same idea - and it had crowds incomparable:)



Anyway, it was a good opportunity to get more honey ice cream at il gelato di San Crispino, which is considered by many to have the best gelato in Italy.

Are there vegans in Switzerland ?

Its kinda tough being veggie in switzerland if you dont eat cheese. Their 2 signature veggie dishes are rosti and raclette. Rosti is basically hash browns dwowned in a half inch layer of cheese. You can optionally get it with a variety of meats or onions. This was good for the first time, but got boring quickly. Raclette was more interesting. Basically, they bring a live heated place to the table on which is placed a slab of cheese which is heated and melted. You are given a bowl full of boiled potatoes and some pickled veggies. There is also some raclette masala. The idea shave off molten cheese off the slab, dip the potato into the hot cheese and eat it with the veggies and masala. This was pretty tasty.

Overall, the amount of cheese we ate in Switzerland was etraordinarily high. We hopefully walked it off in the mountains.

Pics from Pisa

Overall, Pisa was the least impressive place we visited on the trip. The leaning tower was the smallest tower we saw on the trip. But still, it was fun for the pic opportunities it offered. There were hordes of people there pushing and holding up the tower.

All roads lead to...

... well, Pisa, in this case. We are driving from Siena to Pisa and reach a roundabout. 2 of the 4 exits from the roundabout point to Pisa, but it turns out that the fastest way to Pisa is a third exit!

Distance measures are sometimes strange as well - when driving to a small town, San Gimignano, the distance was 11 km to the city for about 5 kms. We drove and drove, but the signposts with the km readings stubbornly refused to update, until suddenly, the distance reduced to a mere 4 kms.

Other than these idiosyncracies, driving in Italy is fun and the Tuscan countryside is unbelievably beautiful.

Last Meal in Switzerland

Rice : 6 CHF
Raita : 4 CHF
Mixed pickles : free
Eating Thayir Sadam in Switzerland: priceless

Driving on the autobahn !!

Day 1 (Aug 8)
We rented an Opel from Frankfurt and drove all the way to Munich - some 650+ kms (Yeah, its all km here). This included driving to Karlsruhe. Resmi ably navigated with the help of printed google maps directions, a AAA map and a half working GPS. After triangulating our way to Kallu's place and sleeping off the jetlag, we took off the next morning to drive along the Romantische Strasse (Romantic Road). (Day2) This included stops at medieval Rothenburg Ob der Tauber, Nordlingen and Fussen. Its pretty cool to drive along a 2 lane highway at 100+ km/hr.


Fussen is the nearest point for the obligatory visit to the Neushwainstein castle (picture the Disney castle in a fantastic location surrounded by lakes and mountains). After a 30 minute walk up the hill, we clicked some pictures and were off on our way to Munchen.


Day3 (Aug 10)
Munchen was great. We reached pretty late and had dinner at the Indian restaraunt attached to the hotel we were staying at. The next morning, we went to the city and met with Resmi's friend. We had lunch with him at an excellent local cafe while he gave us a good idea of what to see in Munich in 4 hours. We climbed up a bunch of stairs at a tower in old Munchen to get an excellent birds eye view of the city. After going to the legendary Hofbrauhaus (oldest beer house around), we took a guided bus tour to go around the city. After that it was time to go to Salzburg.

It was great to meet with Sathish's dad who happened to be in Munich for the same few hours as us.

An aside
For those interested, the max speed I drove at was 185km/hr (~115 mph). The car refused to go any faster even after flooring it. I was passed at will by the nicer German cars on the road. Next time...