The popular annual 10k event got a new sponsor this time around and hence a new name. What was known as the Sunfeast Open 10k last two years, is now christened as the TCS 10k event. This is my 3rd open 10k, and by far one of the best in terms of experience. It was special too because it was Shamala’s first major running event (she earlier did a 5k as part of the annual Midnight marathon event) and the fact that we were running together. It was Deepa’s (Shamala’s sister) first running event too. We now seemed to have a nice running trio:).

Before the race

The training as usual was again erratic. I have not been able to master this bit and it shows in the final day run. Though we managed several 5k-6k runs, I did only one 10k before the event. But the fact that I have been running for sometime now helped matters. Sham on the other hand did manage to get a couple of 10k runs in before the event.

We landed up at the venue well ahead of time around 7:15 ish AM.  The weather was gorgeous, perfect for a running day. The Kanteerva stadium was brimming with people. Over the last few years, the event has gained tremendous popularity, with the number of registrations exploding each year. This year I am given to believe close to 15000 people participated. The numbers were quite obvious looking at the sea of people standing at the running gates, waiting for it to open. This is one aspect though, I wish would improve going forward. There is too much of pushing and prodding which happens at the running gates, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it leads to a stampede-like situation in the future events. The organizers need to take note of this!

The run commenced at 8:10 am, soon after the international event ended. We somehow managed to make it through the running gates unhurt and proceeded to the start line. The first few minutes of a run are always tough as you try and ease into a rhythm. In events like these, its only made tougher with so many people running around you and you being cramped for space. Its only around the half way mark that you get adequate space to run comfortably. Shamala and I started slow and steady.  Given this was our first real “event” run together, I wanted to run with her from start to finish, even though it would mean that I would clock a significantly slower time than the last two editions. The weather continued to be gorgeous all through. The route ran from Kanteerva stadium till Ulsoor junction via Gen. carriappa road, and then making its way back through the Cubbon park to end back at Kanteerva. Sham and I struck an amazing rhythm right from the start, ensuring that we never had to stop even once. Sham did stop, but they were like a 2-3 sec breathers rather than a real stop. That in my opinion is a huge achievement for Sham. We ended with a time of around 1 hr 29 mins, which is a good time for first 10k run.

Other than the initial starting chaos, the arrangements pre-event, in-event and post event were fabulous as always. The bib collection this time had an additional centre in the Koramangla national games stadium, thereby making it very easy for us to pick it up. Plus it was much less crowded.  The refreshment stations during the run were plenty in number and well stocked. Though, I thought it might have been a good idea to have some bananas and biscuits at the stations in addition to the liquids.  But, at least for me there is nothing to complain as I can run a 10k pretty easily without fluids or food.  Arrangement for medal distribution and refreshments collection post run was also well organized.

All in all a wonderful experience; infact there was a moment during the run when I thought that this was one the best things which could have happened to Bangalore!

Next year, gotta target a sub -60 run! Till then, keep running!

Interlaken is perhaps the place which attracts most tourists in Switzerland. Its a not-to-be-missed tourist spot and the only place to hit if you are a first timer in Switzerland and short on time. Interlaken, as some might guess, means between lakes.  Interlaken is located between Lake Brienz to the east and Lake Thun to the west in the area called Bödeli.

View of one of the lakes

Since we had turned in pretty late night the previous day, we started around mid-morning for Interlaken.   However, this was not good as we risked not getting tickets for train to Jungfraujoch – Europe’s highest peak and highest train station.  And if the train was missed, there really was no way for us to get up there. And so it happened!

Enroute to Interlaken

We hit Jungfraujoch train station at around 1:30 pm. The parking lot was FULL and it was an indication that we might be in trouble.  Except BIL, the rest of us quickly made our way to the platform and I rushed to the ticket counter, only to be told that the max limit for the tickets for that day had been reached and they closing booking for the day.  Already some 5000+ people had made their way to the top!  BIL joined me sometime later, and given the situation, we started exploring options to see some of the mid-way stations; not very exciting but then options were limited.  And then a miracle happened. It can’t be anything else, as out of the blue the ticket attendant tells me that just then a few cancellations happened and 6 tickets were available for the 2:10 pm train. The time then was 1:55 pm!

Hurraaaaaayyyyyy! We purchased the tickets and rushed to the boarding platform and off we were to see the highest peak in Europe! By the way, just a mention the the tickets were out-of-the-world-expensive…they cost us about 960 francs which is around 650 pounds! and that is damn expensive!

The train journey was to take about an hour and half with stops in two stations midway – Lauterbrunnen and Eismeer.

In the train - Honey had loads of fun

Well not much to write about the train journey per se. But what is extremely impressive is the infrastructure created by the Swiss.  It was obvious when we visited Mt Titlis, but this was even more impressive.Our Himalayan ranges are still mostly inaccessible to the ordinary individual (and I mean unathletic) and one cannot fathom how people like mine or anybody’s else’s old parents can get to see the Himalayas.  But here , we had an impressive railway track laid all the way upto 11000 ft, twisting and winding and passing through tunnels cut through the mountains.

Valley and Mountains - on our way to Jungfraujoch

Sham at Lauterbrunnen...

....and that's Me

The route travelled

As we ascended, it was starting to get real cold and we had to get out our warm clothes..here below is the Eismeer station inside the tunnel and it was pretty cold …

At Eismeer Stn ..and its getting colder

There was a viewing station available at this station and we had breathtaking views of the Swiss side of the Alps …

People trekking up to Jungfraujoch!

Panoramic view through the glass

Finally, at the end of the 1 and 1/2 hr journey, we were at Jungfraujoch!

Patel photo! been there!

And as we got out there was more snow greeted us ….

As we stepped out into the snow ...

Posing in the snow

…… and more amazing view of the swiss alps…

Snow, mountains and clouds ..a beautiful combination

Glaciers through the mountains

Snow Landscape in the Swiss Alps

The entire infra, walkway etc has been carved through a huge mountain rock..take a look -

Walkways were through this huge rock mountain ..

Back from the snow, we visited an ice cave – with ice exhibits. It was extremely cold inside and the floor was a little too slippery for comfort …

Inside the ice cave

Around 5ish we decided to call it quits from that place and caught the train back to the base station . . .

Back at the base

On the way back, we caught dinner at a Pakistani restaurant in the nearby neighbourhood. As we were leaving Interlaken, dusk was setting in creating a mesmerising atmosphere at the lake where we stopped for some time.

Beautiful Dusk Setting

Technically, our stay in Switzerland as per the planned itinerary had come to an end. We were to check out the next day, but then we could not come to a consensus on where we wanted to go next. There was not enough time to undertake another city as the day after next, we had to catch the ferry back to UK. In the end, we decided to spend an extra day in Interlaken.

Day 2 at Interlaken

After a leisurely start to the morning, we completed the checkout and headed to Interlaken again. Given that we could not spend enough time at the lakes the previous day, today’s plan was to spend an easy-going afternoon at the lakes.

First lake that we visited

This lake was by the side of a small forest and also had a small trail. There were benches on the banks, and we took the opportunity to stop and have lunch here. We spent a hour here eating, taking walks along the banks and taking photos ….

. . . and I tried capturing the lake from different angles

From a corner

Around 3ish, we left for the second lake, and this was even more beautiful …

As we stood on the banks, this was the most serene spectacle

Quite a few families were picknicking here ….and as one of my friends commented, this was a favorite passtime for the Swiss, where the full family would get together and picnic at lakes like this one  ….there was even a stone T.T. table there ….guess they would call it ping-pong here…

The kids had lot of fun here taking dips in the water. Harshita is a complete water baby, and Honey, though adventurous in the beginning, chickened out later … guess the cold got to him finally . . .

The kids having mega - fun . . .

Honey after his water games!!

. . . and then finally it was time to bid adieu to Switzerland, as we had a 4-hour drive to Strasbourg ahead . . .

Packing up . . .

On the way back, we stopped in Basel to grab something for dinner …indian ofcourse. The drive to Strasbourg was mostly uneventful, except when we actually needed to find the hotel where we had booked for the night stay. It became a little bit of a struggle to find the hotel and language barriers weren’t really helping….finally somehow we managed to find the place ……and crash…it was another late night and after the long drive everyone was quite exhausted. We had another 4-5 hours drive to Calais ahead of us the next day ….we were catching the 3:30 pm ferry to Dover to bring our soujourn to this part of Europe to a close . . .

If Paris is an art, museum and history connoisseurss’ paradise, Switzerland is a nature lover’s haven.  We had a splendid time in both these places, and as this leg of journey came to end, we were left longing for even more….and we pledged to actually come once again ..but this time just to Switzerland and spend an entire week here! The image of a house in the countryside, a cool chill in the air, farmers tilling the field, and the sun setting in the background still lingers on . . .

We left for Switzerland on the morning of 4th August. We were putting up at Zurich. The drive from Paris to Zurich took us about 7-8 hours. We drove through the country side of France, admiring the the lush green farmlands and impressive chateaus.

Chateau in the country side

We reached Zurich at around 9 ish in the night. The light was still there slightly, and at one point from where we passed, we could see the beautiful Zurich city lit up. Our first priority was to stop was dinner, and that too Indian. We had located one place called Ravi’s Indian on the GPS. It is a nice place with decent ambiance and all, however the food is horrible. In case you are looking up restaurants, and come up against this one, do not try it, atleast not for Indian food. Anyways, not left with much choice, we raked up a bill for 144 francs for very ordinary food and headed for the hotel – Hotel Movenpick. The Movenpick rooms turned out to be a stunner – was expecting it as was told it was a five-star hotel. The rooms were very spacious, the bathrooms were awesome, and there was a general good feeling about the place. We turned in for the night.

Bright and Sunny

The next day morning was bright and sunny, and while others were still getting ready, Sham and I, took a quick stroll in the neighborhood.

Neighborhood next to the Hotel

By the time everybody got ready, and got out it was nearly 11ish.

The Family in Zurich

Since, we hadn’t had a proper breakfast (there was not complimentary breakfast in the tarriff), we decided to make a quick stop for brunch, before heading out to Mount Titlis. The place is famous for its cable car rides to the snow peaks. As we searched for lunch, we passed through Zurich city, and I must say, I was very impressed with the vibes in the city. The city felt very vibrant – office going folks clad in smart suits to general junta relaxing in the squares. The drive from the city to Mount Titlis, took us through the green pastures of Swissland, which we had seen so many times before on TV.  It sure was like a dream coming true:). Given that we were running a little late, there was not much time to stop along the way.

Scenic views along the way

As we approach Titlis

We hit Mount Titlis by around 2 ish. We headed to the cable car rides, bought tickets and were on our away.  Stunning views of the Switzerland greeted us as we ascended.

View as we started ascent

The Cable car we were in

A look at the cable car infra

We reached the top in about 30 mins. Pure white snow welcomed us. The snow was so white, that the sun reflecting of it made us blind for a while. The views from the top were 360 degrees panoramic views with snow covered mountains all around us.

Snow Snow!

Snow clad mountains..it was breathtaking as we stood there

beautiful valley

Sham and Me on the viewing terrace

We played in the snow and passed time for a while, till about 5 pm, when the last rides back to the ground station commenced. As we came down, we were pleasantly surprised to see Indian snacks – samosas, idlis and garam chai  (hot tea) available in one of the mobile restaurants. There is always glee when we see Indian food in a foreign land.  And the fact that we hadn’t found too much good Indian food till now, added to the thrill. The quality for that stuff also turned out to be pretty decent.

Hogging the snacks

Stream at the entrance to the park

The indian snacks downed with sweet tea, we set out for out next stop – Luzern.  Along the way, we took a break chilling at one of the grassy meadows. There were no people around, just us and the kids were going ga – ga !

One of our best photos together - relaxing:)

Kids going ga-ga

Luzern

Luzern is a nice quiet city on the banks of a an extremely beautiful lake.

Luzern Lakeside

We generally loitered around doing window shopping for some time and then buying out souvenirs before heading to a place called Kanchi Indian Restaurant. The food was pretty good, making up for the bad indian food in Ravi’s Indian the previous day. Post dinner, we spent some time strolling through the city and taking in the night life in Luzern.

City lights reflections and dont miss the moon!

The lights had come on, crowds were bustling on the side walk cafes, and couples were settling down at  the waterfronts.

More of Luzern in the night

One of the attraction in Luzern is this 500 years old bridge …. we walked the length of it taking in the nightlife

Sham, Chetna and Me on the 500+ years old Luzern Bridge

Day 1 in Switzerland had come to and end. A truly awesome and and enjoyable day. As we all reflected on the day gone by, a silent ride to the hotel ensued. We all said our goodbye and turned in for the night looking forward to the next day for out trip to Interlaken – Switzerland’s most scenic district…

]]> http://venkymixedbag.wordpress.com/2009/12/29/europe-vacation-switzerland-mt-titlis-and-luzern/feed/ 0 12.958828 77.707649 12.958828 77.707649 Venkat IMG_2563 IMG_2565 IMG_0732 IMG_2578 IMG_2579 IMG_0741 IMG_0745 IMG_0756 IMG_2622 IMG_2628 IMG_2655 IMG_2660 IMG_2673 IMG_2677 IMG_2702 IMG_2708 IMG_2726 IMG_2742 IMG_2744 IMG_2747 IMG_2746 http://venkymixedbag.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/udf-hike-self-vitiating/ http://venkymixedbag.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/udf-hike-self-vitiating/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:39:46 +0000 Venkat http://venkymixedbag.wordpress.com/?p=407 ]]> Came across this news today about how various airports in the Metros (BIAL, DIAL, Hyderabad Intl Airport) etc. are planning to hike the UDF (User Development Fee) for both domestic and international passengers.

The reason being stated for the proposed hikes is slower than expected traffic growth resulting in slower revenue growths from these consortium airports. And hence, to be able to continue maintaining the airports, steep hikes in UDF.

To me this is self defeating. UDF hikes will only add to ticket costs, which in turn has potential to impair traffic growth even further. And its all a downward spiral from there on – more slowdowns and more hikes and so on …

Where will this end? Shouldn’t the government being intervening here rather than not do anything about the hikes? The news seems to suggest the govt. cannot do much (its hands are tied?) Wonder why the taxes we pay cannot be put to use here ? Why can’t there be a minimum floor UDF which has to be borne by the end consumer and the remaining charge be borne by the govt?

Given that its Diwali,  a relevant topic is whether we should burst crackers or not. Obviously, the initiative is in support of a go-green movement.  But, will this good intentioned movement, create more problems than solve any?

If you’ve read Shantaram (by Gregory David Roberts), you might understand what I am trying to say here. There is a passage in the novel, where he describes how he used to take hot water baths twice in the day. And for that there were labourers who would manually carry pots of hot water up several flights of stairs (this was somewhere in the 80′s). When Shantaram comes to know of it, he feels quite guilty about it and decides to stop his practice. But in doing so, as his friend Prabhakar explains, his good deed will only serve to imbalance the eco-system, by snatching away those labourers livelihood.

So as  I wondered about this “don’t burst crackers movement”, I was also thinking about the zillions of people who are engaged in this industry. If collectively we do happen to embrace this movement, what will happen to the people engaged in this industry? Someone might say – rehabilitate them…but most of us know that it is easier said than done.

Before the movement can gain any momentum, we will need to provide actionable plans to rehabilitate these people. Till then, enjoy burst crackers (but with restraint:)).

Happy Deepavali!

Versailles is famous for the famous chateau, called the Palace of Versailles. It is an imposing palace with sprawling gardens running all around the palace.

Palace of Versailles

The palace was closed down for renovation, however the gardens were open. And luckily, entry was free again. The gardens were split across – one on the left of the palace, on in front and one on the right.

Amongst the lush green, there was this beautiful flower garden with lots of colorful flowers in it.

Flower garden in Versaille Palace

Lawns on the left of the palace…..

A view of the sprawling garden on the left of the palace

The lawns in front of the palace ….what opulence…..

In front of the palace

Sham and I took considerable time out to kind of chill here, while the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves in the lush green gardens; their parents ofcourse had a tough time!

All smiles!

We headed back to Paris around 6:30ish in the evening; the objective very clear – look for Indian food.  It had already been more than 48 hrs since the folks had some desi khana. We headed to Gare du Nord (this is also where the Eurostar train station is). And as we came close to this area, there were significant sights and scenes of indian / south east asian establishments.

Indian / SE Asian restaurants .... finally some familiar food:)

We narrowed down to place called Madras Cafe. Not great, but good enough given the situation. Once dinner, was done, we decided to do Paris by night as this was our last night in Paris and for that matter in France.  We drove down Champs Elysees and then headed to Eiffel Tower and were greeted with stunning views of the tower … we stayed at the tower for about an hour till 11 ish; that’s when they also put some special lighting on the tower; its beautiful…

Eiffel By Night

Down the road, Arc De Triumph, also looked majestic …

Arc De Triumph lit up

…and with that, we called it quits for the night and for Paris.

All in all, an amazing experience. Two  days, by any stretch of imagination, is too short to even sniff Paris. But, then we had a good detailed trailer, and would definitely like to come back and spend some more time here.  Before that, i guess we should put in some effort to learn French also!

Next on agenda – Switzerland!

]]> http://venkymixedbag.wordpress.com/2009/10/03/europe-vacation-french-connection-ii/feed/ 0 Venkat Panorama_Versailles_Chateau IMG_2502 IMG_2512 IMG_2517 IMG_0640 IMG_2539 IMG_0715 IMG_2555 http://venkymixedbag.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/europe-vacation-the-french-connection-i/ http://venkymixedbag.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/europe-vacation-the-french-connection-i/#comments Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:21:35 +0000 Venkat http://venkymixedbag.wordpress.com/?p=343 ]]> At its best, Paris is chic, stylish and flashy. Paris has its own share of shady parts of the town! And we tasted both. All in all, at the end of two days we were left longing for much more. And the impression that I came away with from the french land is that, for those looking for it,  there is unlimited fun available!

We set out for Paris on the morning of Aug 1st. The plan was to take the ferry to Calais from Dover, and then drive from there to Paris. All in all, total trip time was to be around 9-10 hours. Since we were to gain time on reaching Paris, we hoped to reach Paris by around 10 pm local time. We left Warrington around 10 am on a wet Saturday morning, running  behind schedule.

All packed and ready to go!

The drive took us longer than usual, as there was heavy traffic on the M-ways. We had to reschedule our ferry booking as we were not able to make it on the time for the original booking. Finally, we took the 5:00 pm ferry and reached Calais at around 5:30 pm, local time.

From left side to right side (driving)

The drive from Calais to Paris took us another 3-4 hours and and by the time we checked into the hotel we were quite exhausted. After check-in, there was not much to do, and we tucked in for the night, eagerly awaiting the next morning

Good Morning, Paris!

Charged on a breakfast of cereals, muffins, juices and other goodies, we set out see Paris. The weather was cloudy and chilly, but still pleasant. We walked down to the nearby train station, La Garene Colombes to catch a train to the city centre.

At La Garene Colombes station

As we got to the city, we walked around, taking in the sights and smells of Paris.

Sights in the city

Then, we came across the fashion opulence, the city is known for – a diamond and what else studded shoe

The Glamorous Shoe

The plan was to get on to one of those sightseeing buses to get the big picture of the city, initially. Later on we visited some of the more famous attractions (as much as possible in two days). The first half of the day, hence was spent in going around in the hop-on / hop-off bus.  We drove by on the Champs Elysses, passed Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumph, the Louvre, Cathedral of Nostra Damus, and others.

I loved these squares in Paris

A first look at Eiffel .. . .

Eiffel Tower - in the daytime

Once the survey was over, we decided on three attractions – Louvre (ofcourse), Cathedral of Nostra Damus and Eiffel Tower. By the time we finished off a full round on the sightseeing bus, it was lunch time, so we proceeded to one of the street cafe to scout for some veggie stuff. After a quick lunch, we proceeded to the Louvre.

Now we’ve heard and read about this place so much; t’was quite overwhelming to be there; and quite overwhelmed were we after entering the museum.

Infront of The Louvre

To even wonder whether we could cover the museum in on day would be blasphemy. The museum has three huge wings like the one in the photo above and extends several feet below the ground! Being the first Sunday of the month, there was a huge queue (on the first sunday’s of the month, entry is free). Once we got in, we two stood there like two kids lost in a huge city. Then we did what we thought most people were doing; ask the helpdesk to suggest the must see’s. Armed with the map and the key attractions marked out, we proceeded towards Venus De Milo. Amongst others, we covered Coronation Crown,  The Grand Feast, and others paintings and sculpture, finally coming to Mona Lisa – the most seeked after and crowded place in the museum. We spent at best 45 minutes in the museum, enough to get a look at some of the best attractions.

FIL at the glass pyramid in Louvre

We got out of the Louvre by around 4 pm and then proceeded towards the nearby Cathedral of Nostra Damus, the great fortune teller.

Cathedral Of NostraDamus

The cathedral is also apparently famous for the beautiful glass work inside the church.

Glasswork inside NostraDamus Cathedral

The church  is as beautiful inside, as outside. A service was in progress or about to commence, I guess. Hence, access to that altar was restricted, unless you wanted to participate in the service.  It looked even better there.

A service in progress in NostraDamus Church

We spent some time admiring the glass work and going around the church, before proceeding to the grand attraction for the day – Eiffel Tower.

At the Eiffel tower and Guess what time it is!8 pm

It was 7ish, and still bright and sunny (refer the european summer i talk about in my ealier post). And there it stood in all its mighty glory. It leaves you breathless even to think how they would be able to put up such a massive mass of steel together

A look at all the metal

Eiffel tower has two viewing decks – one at the second floor and the other, right at the top and the views from both are amazing. You can see all of Paris, with the Seine flowing through the middle of the city. I know I have written about how amazed I am with all of this (you really can’t help but get amazed); but if you take a look at the elevators, you will be amazed again! It not straight up vertica; it glides along the strussess; simply mind boggling. And to think that they built this between 1887 and 1889!

Awesome view from atop Eiffel Tower

We spent a considerable amount of time, close to some two hours, gazing with amazement at the views of Paris below us.  It was almost close to 10 pm by the time we left, and as we did, the lights on the tower came up.

Eiffel Lit ...look at the blue sky

So that was Day 1 in Paris. An attractions packed day. We still had to see Paris and the Eiffel Tower properly lit up in the night; that was planned for the next day. It became a bit of s struggle to get back to the hotel, as we took some time to find the metro, and which did not take us near the hotel; we ended up taking a taxi, which cost us 25 euros (that’s a lot by the way)! What’s a day without adventure, anyways:)

First stop, immigration. The orderliness and the way things are managed in these western international airports never fails to impress me (we in India sure seem to be getting there, albeit slowly). There was a slight hiccup at immigration. The immgration officer wanted to double check on Sham’s visa as it has been rejected once earlier. We had to wait for about 5 mins, before the officer came back and approved our entry to UK. And so we passed through the gates into UK!

We had some more time on our hands to admire the airport. BIL was on his way to pick us up and he was still 45 mins away.  As we waited, we filled ourselves on some muffins and hot chocolate. Finally BIL arrived, and we stepped out of the airport. As we did two things hit us – plenty of cigarette smoke with people puffing away like chimneys and the chilly morning air. We lugged our luggage some more distance till the pick up area and then loaded it into the car. After the greetings and handshakes, we were all set to head home – Warrington – a three hour drive from the airport.

The drive home was fairly nice.  Driving on these freeways, or motorways as they call it in the UK, is not as exciting as driving on Indian roads:).  By the way, for those who don’t know, driving system in UK is similar to that in India. The “monotony” of the drive had already put Sham to sleep and I was beginning to feel a bit dazed. So we decided to quickly break for 10 mins and pulled into an exit area. Another few muffins and a coffee later, we were on the road again.  We passed Birmingham on the way, the only big city / county that we passed on the way.

Warrington is one of the sub-burbs about three hours from London. Beautiful lanes, manicured lawns and pleasant looking houses greeted us as we reached Creswell Close around 1:00 pm. The second round of greetings – mom and dad-in-law and sis-in-law.  And the most exciting of them all – Honey – our very cute 1.5 year old nephew. After the general chit-chat, we freshened up, had lunch and then had a good nap, making up for all the sleep lost on the flight.

Evening I went along with BIL to pick up the car for the trip. The car was to be picked up from somewhere in Bradford, about 30 mi from Warrington. The drive gave more sights of the UK countryside. After we came back, we generally went shopping in the neighbourhood malls, purchasing stuff for the next day’s trip.

We got back around 8 pm, daylight still there in all its glory. Now this is one of the things (for better or worse) about the summer with which I was quite impressed.  We ofcourse enjoyed the this aspect even more in the later part of trip.  Later on, we finished dinner,  finalised the packing for next day, and then settled in for the night….eagerly anticipating day break…

The visa process turned out to be relatively easy. UK visa turned up 4 days after we submitted our application, and the Schengen visa took a week. Bottomline – provide as much information and documents as possible, and the process is generally a cake walk. We also got tickets to our liking; Jet Airways at around 54k return for the two of us

So our departure from India was planned on July 30th night. What is a trip without some adventure right at the beginning:). 15 mins into our ride to the airport, the rain came pouring down and with it came the traffic jams. For a 9:30 departure flt, we left home at 6 pm. We reached at 8:15 pm, taking 30 mins more than expected to reach;  in the end it was quite safe, but there were some tense moments along the way. Maybe a little bit of judgement error on my part also, in hindsight. Shouldnt have trusted bangalore traffic so much.

So we flew out of Bangalore and landed in Mumbai. Our flt to london was at 1:45 am. Immigration was a breeze. Few things I noticed. The departure forms (and the arrival ones) look much more professional. 6 years back they looked pretty pathetic. Secondly, I was really taken aback by the amount of people traffic at the international airport. Talk about recession! I was not seeing any of that at the international airport.

Anyways, by the time we finished immigration, we were ready to board. We enviously passed the first class (full reclining), business class (semi-reclining) to our economy class seat (very little reclining!).  Though I think the seats were quite comfortable and good leg room- Jet Airways is pretty decent. We took off on time. It was to be a 9 hour flt, reaching Heathrow at 6:45 am London time. We dozed on and off. I used the time to catch up on some movies – Wolverine is one of them I remember (mebbe the scotch got to me a little:) ). After a fairly comfortable flight, we finally landed in London! Ta – da!

]]> http://venkymixedbag.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/europe-vacation-i-bon-voyage/feed/ 1 Venkat http://venkymixedbag.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/sunfeast10k-run-may-31st-2009/ http://venkymixedbag.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/sunfeast10k-run-may-31st-2009/#comments Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:04:13 +0000 Venkat http://venkymixedbag.wordpress.com/?p=320 ]]> I remember last year that I was quite frustrated when I had to miss the first edition of the Sunfeast 10k run. It was I think on May 19th; I was traveling that weekend and so could not make it. I had planned it to be my initiation into regular long distance running. It was not to be, and I ultimately initiated my self into long distance running through last year’s bangalore ultra half  marathon.

However, this year I enrolled well in advance, and made sure I was around when the day came. I had also planned to train well enough in order to lock in a respectable run timing. I was aspiring to make it a sub 60 min run which by standards would have been an improvement over the ultra last year. Though the training started off well, I could not keep the momentum going. Lot of pressure at work and shifting into our new house in the month before the run took it toll. My practice sessions were quite erratic, so much so that I could manage only a few 5k+ runs before the actual run; and most of those practice runs were indoors on the treadmill.

Now as I clearly know, road running is quite a different ball game compared to tread mill running. And it showed on the 31st. Even though I was mentally quite prepared, in the end I did not manage to run the entire 10k non-stop. I struggled quite a bit between 4th and 6th km; especially during the uphill on the 6th km. Also, I was constantly hitting my Max Heart Rate (MHR),  forcing me to slow down quite often. I ended the run with a timing of approx 1 hour and 12 mins (72 mins) as against my target of 60 mins (at least).

I have quite mixed feelings about the run event experience though. Last years ultra was a core core running event (minimum frills); also the setting for the run was great…nice green surroundings..no traffic around you….you ran with a decent crowd but you had your own private space to run. … I felt too crowded out in the Sunfeast 10k.  Obviously with about 8000 people running, I shouldn’t have expected any better; but at times you just had to slow down because there were too many people around you – a virtual running traffic jam.:) This especially happened on the stretch from Manipal Centre to Ulsoor Road junction.

The experience was also not so great as I was there all by myself – no Sriram and no supporters (read Pranitha and Shamala)!

Well anyways, it was a decent enough experience, and if I ask myself, will I do it again – the answer is yes! But an important learning – this year I decided to forego the Timing Chip cause I didnt think it was that important as I had my ways to time myself. What I didnt know was that participants with no timing chip were given second preference (the two sets of participant were kept in different enclosures like some stupid caste system!!)…what this resulted in was that I was already behind some 1000 people  when I started my run. . .

Well, the resolution from now on is to go for a run every weekend through the RFL apart from my during the week training…i have foregone quite a few feet on the street (FOTS) event…lets see if I catch one this weekend