Sunfeast 10K, 2010

Another year, another Sunfeast 10K run and another disappointing timing. This year too, like the previous year, I wasn’t able to cross the one hour barrier. But there is some comfort that at least I did better than last year (even though the margin was a meager 23 sec). Overall my net completion time was 01:02:23 this time around.

Now that the detail timing is available online @ http://timingindia.com/results_page.php, I am able to analyse my run and figure out how mismanaged it was.

The most disappointing fact is that I crossed the 9Km marked at 55:30 but still didn’t put any extra effort to finish it within 1 hr. Somehow at that point of time I felt that I would easily overcome the one hour barrier and got relaxed and ended up taking 7 mins to cover the last 1 Km. Maybe the lack of any watch/stopwatch seriously hurt my timing.

Even before the start of the run, things didn’t go well. I was supposed to meet Varun near Marathalli at around 6:00AM. Reached there at 6:20 to find no one. Tried calling him but he had left his mobile at home. Around 6:45 left for the stadium in a Volvo, picking up Quaiyum near Domlur. Luckily, Varun was already there at the gate when we reached the stadium. After standing in a long queue for a pee, we entered the holding area just around 8:00AM. It was already congested with thousands of people. Before the start of the run, they only opened one small gate for a segment of the holding area. The over-eager participants in the other holding areas started jumping the wire-frame walls into the running zone. We too followed the crowd, jumping the wall.

Because of the over-crowding, it took almost 3 mins to cross the starting line from the time the whistle was blown. The situation remained the same for initial 2-3 Km where the crowd running in front of me governed my speed. I was targeting a 25 min 5Km but took around 30 mins. At around 6Km mark, I got a painful stomach stitches and to make the things worse, there was a uphill and hence I lost further 3-4 mins. But even then I was confident of completion within an hour. A gross over-estimation, I guess. Anyway, there is always a next time….

Random update

Phew! Time fly by so quickly, especially if you are a lethargic sloth like me. It has been more than one Earth calendar year since I started this blog and never returned back to it. Hopefully, this time around it doesn’t get stagnated (that long).

The way events of my life have unraveled in the past week, my existential dilemma has peaked once again. Though I cannot disclose the details of these events, all I can say is that I was compelled to go through the motions in these events and all the while I was wondering what the fuck I am doing with my life. These existential crises, instead of motivating me for a change, further propel the lazy ass in me and I end up doing nothing for days.

By the way, these crisis inducing events of last week also made me wonder about few other things. I always used to think that my self-indulgence and absurdist philosophy was the reason behind my indifference to other people. I could never feel the happiness or pain of others and hence can never connect to anyone and end up being a social dork. I envy others for they can emotionally connect with people. Or is it? One particular incident made me to contemplate whether people really care about others life or is it the selfish anticipation of getting something useful out of the relation that drives them? Nothing against anyone, I guess that is some inherent human instinct on which one doesn’t have any control. It’s the way nature made the human society.

Coming back to my crisis, luckily this time around I do have a purpose in life to get me out of this existential abyss. The Sunfeast World 10K run is back this year, giving me an opportunity to come over the bad experience I had last year. Though I did cross the finish line of my first 10K run last year, the timing was a dismal 62 minutes. This time around, I am targeting a timing of less than 50 mins. Though I started my training schedule few weeks back, I am still lagging behind my target. Nevertheless, it’s better than the almost zero training of last year. I am quite optimistic of meeting my target this time around. Let’s wait till the D-day (23rd May, 2010) and see if I achieve some uplifting result or another existential gust is looming around to hit me.

Overture

Finally, I am at it. After much of procrastination and contemplation, my innings in the world of blogging has begun with this small post. I don’t have any particular reason , but I had this urge to start blogging since a long time. It took nearly three years for my urge to gather critical amount energy to fly out of the orbit of lethargy and to create a blogging account. Another month or so was required to revitalize myself to sit down to write this first post. But nevertheless, finally, I am at it.

But why to blog? I am not sure. Maybe it’s in vogue, maybe I want to confound my already mismanaged life , maybe I just want to whet my writing skills or maybe just as Dr Snaut (from the movie , Solyaris) quoted that someone writes just because he consistently needs to prove himself to others. Or maybe there is no reason at all. Why should there be a why for each event. It’s only the human reasoning that introduces absurdity in the world.

A man of few words, I afraid that each time I sit down to write a post it will end up being an ordeal for me to fill up at least a page of the browser. I also fear that like many of my other endeavours, this one too gets deflated after one or two posts. Hope not. Hopefully this paragraph will keep motivating me to continue….only time will tell.


I’ll be back!