And what's been going down on the running front the last few weeks

A 10k or an HM is where you race against time, but an Ultra is where you race against the distance and your own mind.One of the greatest Ultra runners, Scott Jurek says in his book Eat & Run, “The longer and farther I ran, the more I realized that what I was often chasing was a state of mind–a place where worries that seemed monumental melted away, where the beauty and timelessness of the universe, of the present moment, came into sharp focus”. I think these words clearly define the spiritual realization that an ultra brings with it.

With these thoughts as a background, the Proton crew has decided that now on, until the Bangalore Ultra in early November, they will be doing some fabulous, scenic routes around the outskirts of Bangalore to clock in the miles. These Long Slow Distance (LSD) runs are probably the best way to bond with and spend quality time with people in your life.

The first edition was kickstarted with the Gandhi Jayanti Run. The run was the brainchild of Shuveshek. He decided he wanted to do an LSD in Whitefield. Before you know it there were 7 (Shuveshek, Dharma, Aditya, Rahul, Shreyas, Geeta and me) of us all set to do the run with Nagaraj being kind enough to crew us on his motorbike. This run was superawesome due to three things:

- It marked the comeback of Rahul MV to running. Rahul, and me had done our first Full Marathon together. After The TCS 10k, he had injured himself and then met with an accident. This had him off running for a long stretch of time, but this 2nd of Oct, he came back and it certainly is good to have him back.

- It marked the coming together of the crew for a long fun run after months. Somewhere along the line, we all got so busy in chasing PBs, training schedules, work schedules and personal life demands that it all became too mechanised and the fun element went missing – this was a good way to bring back the ” joie de vivre” and rekindle our love for running.

- It also revived the adventurous spirit in each one of us, as we treaded an unmarked route, followed our heart, at times the trail and most times the fence to have an eventful and scenic run from Whitefield to Sarjapura.

Of course, I was back in bed after this run. The weekend just gone by got us all together for the next session of the LSD. This time the chosen route was the infamous Pipeline route. This time around, I was smarter – Rahul and me both decided that we would be part of the crew and would keep the runners well fed, hydrated and energised through the route.

This run marked the comeback of the extremely beloved Gajendra Ranganna. He had been away in China for the last month and a half and his presence has been dearly missed. Pipeline route saw a total of 7 (Jitender, Sridhar, Naveen, Shuveshek, Sri Ram, Shreyas and Gajendra) runners and two crew members (Rahul and me). We had a gala time cheering the boys on that tough route, did a recce of a few new routes around the area as well and were complete happy puppies by the end of the day.

Ultra seems to have everyone excited and motivated. I can feel my health getting back on track so here is hoping that I join in as a runner with the crew ASAP.