Good morning friends.  We will witness 30,000 runners at Vadodara Marathon.  Armed forces will lead the marathon. 

Chaotic start marks the race in 16 different categories of Go Vadodara Go

The Vadodara Marathon witnessed a huge turnout with over 30,000 participants running in 16 different categories, on Sunday morning.

The first prize in the male open category (21 kilometers) was bagged by a 30-year-old Armyman from Hyderabad, Vipul Sahariya. He took one hour and six minutes to complete the race. Govardhan Mali (24) from Rajasthan, an Indian Air Force personnel based in Gandhinagar finished second, while Narendra Sahi (28), a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel deployed in Porbandar, came third. 

In the women’s category, Kamlesh Baghel (24) from Gandhinagar won the race, followed by two physical education students from Junagadh — Reena Thumar (21), who in a state-level basketball player, and Dimple Gevaria (25), a national-level cross-country athlete.

Sahi said: “Earlier, I had participated in marathons in Delhi, Mehsana and elsewhere. There was no segregation of lanes, so there was a lot of crowd on the track with children coming in our way. Overall, it was a good experience.”

Among the participants was the duo of Dhanish Ramsari (28), a farmer, and Gajendra Yadav, a policeman, from Chhattisgarh, who ran barefoot all through the route.

“We have participated in several full and half marathons, and have won many of them. We come from a poor background and cannot afford good sports shoes. But it doesn’t matter because we have been practicing in the hilly terrain barefoot and we are used to it now,” said Ramsari, who finished eighth. -Indian Express

Fear coats her tongue, and like a dog foists its nose

to touch-smell her hand.

Sometimes nights, she runs barefoot,

lifts her nose, smells wood smoke trapped in coat denim,
slides her back down the outer wall, crouching.

Fur bristling, teeth bared.

He in leather pants sits down on the kitchen bench,

slaps his boots, air-talking his wife like she’s there.

And she a frazzle of celery, green onions, red potatoes and dread, pretends

it’s simple math: what you get when it’s one minus this,

and which follows that. “Do you hear?”

(Lose this life or don’t, it whispers.)

And she, one-eye blind, Runs off the grid at least once a week

like trash pick  up  on the alternate day, waiting for his ashy voice. And only

god knows what will come.

They were all high, and their faces glistened under the cheap florescence that twitched above them. Kyle slipped the glass pipe into his pant leg, feeling it fall to bottom and keeping his wrist on the bulge. Everyone else just kept their hands busy, rubbing and toiling over friction and finger. So how the fuck did you get a black eye? Seth asked Richard, keeping his chin tight to his chest like he does. Richard didn’t say anything, but moved his dirty tongue out of the clamp of chapped jowls as if he would start to speak, but didn’t.

He got it doing something dirty, that’s what. Kyle said behind his square glasses. It’s pretty swollen, when did it happen?

I think like a week ago, Richard said, standing up and tightening his jacket up to his neck. Kyle and Seth stood-up. It hurts like hell, but it gives me street cred’. Kyle and Seth did something horizontal with their lips, but never approached a laugh. It was an old joke.

Seth brought the garage door up and bit, so everyone could lay on their bellies and roll into the sunlight. Kyle went first, then Richard. The two squinted as the concrete that surrounded them in the coldesaque dispersed the sunlight at all angles. The garage door slapped shut, bending slightly in the middle.

We need to check out the Chaparral, Kyle said. It’s this dank forest behind the park – you know what, I think it’s owned by the park. Either way, no one goes back there and there’s this tiny-ass river that goes through it. It’s pretty fucking rad. Richard didn’t have anything to say, and after a bit of breathing billowed between the two, Seth came out. He was running with his short little arms clamped to his tee, panting and grinning.

What the fuck are we doing?! Seth asked all at once.

We’re gonna check out the Chaparral. Smoke the rest of the shit, and who knows, maybe run into some other rats who wanna match bowls. Maybe they got danker shit.

I don’t know, that flake you have is pretty good. It burns like a gold amber. Is that stuff from Ah-dee?

It is most certainly from Ah-dee, and Kyle’s glasses bobbed down to the bump in the middle of his long bridge. His left wrist still focusing and pressing on the pipe and bag. You know what? We can get their through your backyard.

We can?

That’s what I’m thinking. You know how your neighbor’s fence goes all the way to where it drops down to the road? Kyle used his long fingers to convey a cliff, and thinly legs traversing it’s rim. We can just shimmy along the fence and drop down. The Chaparral is just across the street and through a fire exit. I think it’s just another block from there.

We can smoke my shit along the way, Richard confessed.

We can.

Can we get to the back through the side, or are the vines still crazy-shit?

I think we can. If we can’t, then we can just go through the front again.

Next person to say ‘can,’ has to do the whole journey barefoot.

I ‘can,’ Kyle said, kicking off twelves and shoving them in a bush that grew around a mailbox.

Great blog from Egoscue Portland. They are so right – Ask Why??

Read The Whole Article: Cause of back pain is never found in 85% of patients. Really?! WHY?

The holiday season is right around the corner and for some people the stress is too. There is a great article by the APA, it reminds us that stress leads to the unhealthy behavior. My favorite part:

“Take care of yourself — Taking care of yourself during the holiday season helps to keep your mind and body primed to deal with stress. Pay attention to your own needs and feelings. Engage in holiday activities that you enjoy and find relaxing. Exercise regularly. Eat healthy. Make sure you get enough rest and sleep.”

Taking care of yourself is key. Don’t forget to give yourself a moment to do your Egoscue workout, you will thank yourself later for it!! Happy Holidays!

Read the Whole Article : Holiday Stress Tips

Thought this was very cute. An Egoscue Affiliate in Finland created this cute youtube video. Find an Egoscue Clinic near you www.egoscue.com

Watch It Now : Egoscue News

Lazy to wake up, I kept tossing on my bed.. intermittently romantically provoked by the twittering that sounds music to my ears..

Yet another day.. I wish I could take a day off. I cared to open my eyes and spotted my roommate sleeping… and i escaped to the safety of my quilt again. Winter mornings can be romantic. It invokes a lot of emotions.. aspirations and enthusiasm. This gets followed by the miseries of life and my soul wishes for inspiration. My soul asks for guidance. My heart wishes for a touch of a very near one.

Am I insecure, afraid or am I just hurt?

In my desperation to take a day off, I started dragging myself to the bathroom to freshen up.

I was feeling so very fresh, the breeze seemed to have soothened my scars.. The trees seemed to be welcoming me and the birds seemed to be singing a welcome song for me.. Its heavenly feel.

A sip of hot tea at mashi’s tea stall, a silent tryst with nature… an endevour to feel… whadda start to the day!

The dew seemed so glistening, the sun unclear. The tree tops were swinging responding to the breeze. The dog near the stall seeks shelter behind the pillar, made for itself a comfortable place to lazily recline. The regular adda doesnt seem to come alive in this chilly morning. 2 strangers beside me with tea cups, cigarette and newspaper.

That was my time to leave and try out feels more comfortable and interesting than passive fagging. I had no better option but to go to the field near by.. not the mashi’s one.. The place where I and Praveen go when we are sad and together… walking across I felt my feet wetting a bit. Yea its the dew…

I had a 360 degrees view. No! no one was watching me! I hold my chappal with my hand and walked through the field barefoot. Its awesome. No words can ever describe the feel. Its healing, accomplishing… It felt mother nature nurturing me, playfully tickling and cuddling with me. It was chilling, wet and one could hardly stay there barefoot. At the end I had to run to reach the “Jhula”. [Dont get shocked, sometimes elder kids also love the jhula(the swing)]

Some 20 minutes of complete silence. Me and the empty jhula beside me.. The sky was clearing and when I raised my head up… I could see my inspiration. A sudden stike of nascent sunlight made me playfully shy away. The sun was round, red and clear. It feels thats another gift nature gave me today. It stood there high up, strong and confidence. Without its normal glare and strength… soft as it was it was asking me to get my beliefs back towards my moral, my ethics.. It was asking me to get my confidence back, and work even harder… I felt He was scolding me for having behaved like a defeated warrior.. I kept staring at the red sun until the clouds hid it…

A ray of hope, a ray of warmth…. a hope of affection, a warmth of a tryst…. Good morning friends!

Top 10 in the world in her class… WOW!! 3 years ago Leslie Mueller (37 yrs old at the time) found Egoscue! My favorite part:

“The results, she says, speak for themselves. Mueller dove into triathlon, steadily improving to the point where she was running faster than she did on her college track team 20 years earlier.”

Read the Rest of the Article : Triathletes of Marin: In balance – Larkspur’s Mueller uses posture correction training method to become top competitor

From an unknown photoshoot

For this “Mixed Feet” post I have decided to feature some black and white photos of some classic beauties. I believe most, if not all of these shots are from the 50’s – 60’s.

Sophia Loren	Claudia Cardinale	Rita Hayworth
Joan Collins	Jane Russel	Dorothy Dandridge
Angie Dickinson	Brigitte Bardot	Stefanie Powers
Elaine Stewart	Wanda Mckay	Sharon Tate

I ran my second organized race this past saturday the 14th. It was a flat course 5k, I was really hoping to beat my last time of 27:42 even though I was not training for it.

After my last 5k about a month ago I had not fully realized how important stretching was for me. Now when I run I stretch before, after about 0.5 miles and when I finish. Then, I stretched a little bit before and then ran the race. Up until this point I had not run past 3 miles and even then I hadn’t pushed myself. So after the first 5k I didn’t stretch and my calves the next week were horrible. I could barely walk, I hobbled around like I had peg legs. I would have offended someone with peg legs because I looked horrible. I winced every morning and all throughout the day. I ran 1 mile that next week and the next week brought a block of tests where I didn’t run much either.

So coming into this race I was hoping for better than 27 min but I was terribly ill-prepared. I started at the gunshot at a reckless pace for myself, at the first mile I had run a 6 minute mile and was in 5th place overall. Then came the next mile and I felt like I was going to die. My breath was coming in tearing gasps and my calves felt really tired. My two mike split was 17 minutes. As soon as the timer yelled this to me I nearly crumpled, I shouldn’t have been expecting better but I had been. So with this demoralizing statement I just started running for the heck of it, my race was over except to just finish.

I started running and walking when I felt like it. I didn’t get another boost until about 2.5 miles when I was walking and a lady ran past me and shouted, “those fivefingers killing your calves?”. This is all I needed, a lady passing me and poking fun. So I now had a goal, simply to beat her no matter the cost.

I ended up running the rest of the way and really making up some time. I did beat my prior time of 27:42 with a time of 27:13. Not near what I wanted but it was ok. This was a flat course though and I should have expected at least that time difference.

My post-race thoughts are a little back and forth. I know if I had not run at a killing pace (for me) for the 1st mile I could have done better. After that mile I was worn out and couldn’t really get back into a groove. But, I should not have expected a better time because I didn’t push for it. I didn’t train hard enough and I was lazy.

Also, my dad and I ran both of these races and beat our old paces by the same time. The only difference is he didn’t run AT ALL between the two races. So props to him and shame on me.

On another note, my legs felt much better after all the stretching. And I truly believe it was the stretching that did it.

I will push harder before my next race which is in 2 weeks. I will run more and be faster next time and my last mile will be my fastest.

Yesterday and today I ran in my old NBs. I can’t bear wiggling into the VFFs.

It’s nice and chilly, with good air for breathing.

I am carefully maintaining my chi posture to avoid re-injury. Everything still hurts a twee bit, but much less so.

7+4+5=16 mostly shod miles in November.

N and I had a wonderful walk yesterday in the park.  Oh, where, oh, where would my feet be without these awesome “shoes”?

And, thank you, Nathan, for teaching me the ultimate work-out – the dead lift!  My legs and butt and abs are killing me!  And I didn’t work out hardly at all!  Check it out – high intensity and low reps and once a week = awesome.

http://birthdayshoes.com

From an unknown photoshoot

Some of you might not know that I’m a huge fan of adventure racing.  Notice I didn’t say a huge adventure racer, just a huge fan.  I’ve actually competed in two races and plan to one day be an avid/consistent racer (3-5 races per year), but for right now I only dabble.  For those of you not familiar with adventure racing, think of being dropped in the woods with a compass (generally unfamiliar surroundings for a guy who made it through ONE boy scout meeting) and then asked to find a needle (checkpoint) in a ‘forrest haystack’ using said compass.  It ain’t easy, but it’s a blast!  My first race was a 24-hour, mind-numbing, feet-blistering, morale-crushing race.  I somehow managed to talk (trick?) my buddy Graham into racing with me.  We were asked to trek, navigate, bike, canoe and swim for 24 hours hours.  We spent 5 1/2 hours in a canoe (Graham, I won’t tell them what happened to you), and at one point I was literally seeing things moving in the woods while Graham was hearing thing in the woods.  Pretty freaky experience.  I can easily say that I won’t do another 24-hour race.

My latest race was just slightly different.  For the latest one, think more “Amazing Race” than “Survivor”.  The race was the part of the Oyster Racing Series, and they hold several races through the year in different cities.  Graham and I teamed up again, but this time we had our friend Bjon join us to form The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (you get to decided who is who!).  We covered about 30 miles total, but we didn’t canoe nor did we need a compass.  On this race we were given clues that led us around downtown Nashville to various sites and landmarks on foot and bike.  There were times that we used Bjon’s iPhone to look up a location, asked people for directions, and we were even allowed to use public transportation.  It was a completely different experience from the 24-hour race, and we’ll definitely be doing it again next year.  Here’s a great article recapping the Merrill team’s take on it.  The Merrill-sponsored team finished 6th in the men’s devision, while we finished 8th.  Not bad if you ask me!