After the finish at Singapore Marathon

After the run at Mayajaal

@15 km Mark- photo by Shahid& Senthil

My ECR 8

Last Sunday run at ECR 8 was one of my finest long distance runs. I have not run many runs , but with my little running experience this ranks as one of top runs. It was raining the later part of the week and I was little worried that it may rain on Sunday too. Not that any one was really bothered about it enough to post pone the run. But rain would have made it uncomfortable by increasing the risk of friction and chaffing. At least that is what was crossing my mind. But thank God, the whether was perfect.

We assembled at Mayajaal at 4.30 a m. The enthusiasm was great, the organisation was impeccable. Thanks to the committment and dedication of the team , at no point there was any kind of inconvenience for the runners. I ran 20 kms with a timing of 2 hours 41 minutes. Certainly improve on this at Singapore.

Parental Woes

I read somewhere this " If you have a kid, you are a parent. If you have two kids, you are a referee. I guess that qualifies me as referee. But since my eldest is in hostel I don't have any problem of having to intervene kid fights. Strangely enough, I had to intervene with my youngest kid's fight with her mother.

It is a kind of great ordeal to get Rae to go to school. Right from the time she is woken up the trouble starts. A compulsive procrastinator and strong willed , she creates havoc at home in the mornings. The energy needed to handle this kid is huge and by the time she is off to school, her mother is completely done.

I was discussing this with one of my friend and he said that " Kids are very sensitive and if their ego is bruised at a very early age, they may grow up to be very difficult adults. " Strangely what about 40 year old parent's ego ?

It is a dilemma. If you discipline your child too much then they grow up to be obedient, orderly, good and boring human beings. A free spirited child can grow up to be an independent, strong willed and irrational but very interesting human being capable of changing the world. But our intolerance during their growing up can kill the real potential . How does one balance that ?

Dog Menace

There is a very interesting post in the chennai runners about dog chasing the runners. It just got me thinking. Ever since I started road running one thing that had always stayed at the back of my mind is the fear for stray dogs. During my school days we have always maintained a very healthy distance with the dogs and never have tried any kind of gallantry when dogs are involved. As I grew older, I have some what become more confident about dealing with them and thus lost the fear for them.

Though we do not have any dog at home , we have had a few at our home in the village and those dogs are quite ferocious. But no problems for us kids. But now every morning as I run , I always look out for a stray from the corner of my eye and sometimes it is very distracting. Especially, in one of my long routes there is a pack of dogs who chase people persistently. I don't think they have bitten any one but the very thought of being bitten by dog is good enough to instill fear.

Whenever I encounter a stray dog, I try to stop, stay calm and move slowly, without giving a slightest of sign that I am afraid. This strategy works most of the time but most of these dogs are always argumentative types. They insist that they argue and that's when the fear turns into anger. Now a days I carry a small stick while running, which might look very funny, but that is a deterrent for the dogs to attack me. I have not had the opportunity to test it so far, but I am sure the dogs are as scared of me as I am of them.


However, wise men say " Dogs are man's best friend". But that's another story............

Do we really plan ?

In all the years I have been consulting on risk management to clients and teaching to students, one thing of late keeps coming back strongly to me. As a society we are risk takers and our risk tolerant level is surprisingly high.

Consider this. A bike rider goes out every day, without wearing safety helmet thinking that either nothing will happen to him or what is destined to happen will happen irrespective of what he does. How often have we heard this argument that " I will do this some how!!!" - How ?? no one has any idea. We fail to prepare or our preparation is insincere. Even though we have one of the elitist teaching on this - " Nishkama Karma".

Having a high risk tolerance per se may not be bad after all. However, coupled with complacency or indifference it can be very dangerous. A lower risk appetite person will always be on the guard to the extent of being a paranoid. Paranoia increases alertness . On the contrary a complacent person will get careless and invite trouble.

Human mind always believe that all the bad events and miseries that happen around us will not happen to us. Not will it touch us in any way. How untrue !!!! This sense of comfort and complacency can be misleading and result in big loss. But it can also build resilience to bounce back once some thing terrible happens.

We normally plan but once. A corporate project may have back up plan or alternatives, but everyday plans do not have plan B. A plan is not complete unless we also have an alternate plan of action in case things did not go as thought. Working an alternate plan requires intensive thinking and imagination. A first level plan can be made very simple. It is to look at the objectives one need to achieve and the shortest route with least possible resources. But having done that one must go through that plan minutely and try and visualize pitfalls and shortcomings which can surprise during implementation. Unless this exercise is complete and we also have an alternate plan we might fail even if we had a fool proof plan.

One might find during bad days , even alternate plans do not work.. You might need some thing else to succeed. But that's another story.........