Minnesota Half Marathon - StPaul - 2019 - Race Recap

Brutal. That's what this year's Minnesota Half Marathon was, on 3-Aug-2019.

July had been rather cool, not hot at all. Race morning however was all hot & steamy. Still it looked manageable. There was Sun out in open and I guessed it would be 70'sF. I did not expect it, but it was the rising humidity which took the toll. Race started as usual and I kept the usual pace while being on the sunny side of the road. After the turnaround, made it back to the Science Museum side, which is 8th mile. Now the breathing seemed labored and I took my first walk break. Here on I saw many stops where medic van was helping runners. My run buddy who ran a 10 miler, actually saw many people throw up.

So by 9th mile, I decided that this slow pace is fine. I only need to cross the finish line. The real torture began after the turnaround on 11th mile. On this last stretch, Sun was on our back. No big deal. But gradually after 5-10 minutes I could literally feel all of my back - from my head to the heel - was on fire. I let out a yelp and turned around. This was totally real. But there was just no escape here - no trees, no building shades to hide behind. I don't know how I went on. Everyone on this stretch was red-faced, feet jogging ahead. On the 12th mile, a young girl was red-faced and crying. I tried screaming some motivation stuff, but within a few minutes I felt like I would breakdown. So I stopped and inched away from her but in forward direction. Every moment that I am talking about here, should be imagined in slow-motion. Anyway finally made it to the finish line.

And it shows up in my race time - a never before 3:15:33 hours.

Brutal & Horrifying - that what this race was.

Race gear is the same design as last year, which is great because it's a lovely cut & great material.

Past Minnesota Half Marathons: 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2014 |

Game of Thrones - end notes

Yet another show meets its ending. And wow the strong reactions everywhere. To the extent of threats the director-duo.

I had 2 friends and 3 cousins who were mad about GOT and egged me all the time to catch up with the old episodes before I see the finale season. 66+ episodes of 1+ hours each - Omg I could get some college credits for that kind of time investment. No way I was going to see it all. 

But its not like I was completely ignorant of the GOT Universe. I had spent enough time on Wikia through the past seasons. I just didn't have stomach to watch the gore I heard/read about. So I knew the characters, their developments, relationships and major events.

I still wonder why such strong reactions. It ended perfectly for a TV show. That's how finale-seasons are supposed to be. Considering I started watching from S7 last episode, it provided great closure to all the remaining folks. For the real ending, fans have to wait for the book. 

Starks rule the world - 6 kingdoms, North, Night watch, West of Westeros. 
Tyrion is the real controller. He eggs Jon & then he gets to pick the king, be the hand & rule the place. 
Like any heist movie, no one gets the money.

Loads of impressive things about the show. Massive scale of fictional world. Loads of talking points & thinking points for so many people - what they call inspirational. 

What I hate & love about the show - is the parallel to or borrowing from other mythology and historical events across cultures. Iconic shots have some connections to real life tragic event or painting. Stories are picked from the various mythology or history from different cultures. I don't like this level of unoriginal thought. There is no credit of recreation; just unending borrowing to create your own nest. Plus I have an axe to gring against alternate-history which is written or told in realistic manner. Its misleading; someone someday is going to think this was true. Even in fantasy genre, this would be attributed to the author not the original source.

Best part about the show is the meme it generated to truly reflect our lives in Minnesota :)

Maple Grove Half Marathon - 2019 - Race recap

This is my first time running Maple Grove Half Marathon today on Mon 11-May-2019. Start of the race was from Maple Grove Senior High School. Coffee, hot chocolates & muffins was available at the start thanks to Daily Dose. They were other sponsor tents like massage.

Perfect weather morning for the race. Pleasant 53F, Sunny with constant breeze. Very April Springy weather in May.

Half race started at 7:40am, with a loop around the track. Then the route went in & out of Rice Lake Trails. Those portion were by the water. Out of trails were in residential areas. The roads were not closed out, as there was hardly anyone driving this early Sat morning.

Route directions were exceptional. Considering how circuitous route this is, with 2-3 turns every mile, there were arrows with volunteers at each of these. A lot of those were high school students. Without these arrows, no way could we make it through this route. For people of my pace group, it got lonely in the trails after first few miles. Felt very Run club kind-of run. Water-stops were frequent & they had Gatorade after the first stop. Very helpful & cheerful volunteers here.

My race time was a satisfactory 3:03:08 hours.

Race swag was cool, perfect fit shirt & medal.

Avenger Endgame emotions

Franchises (in its true sense) are truly powerful thing the creative world came up with. I have always been a fan & will continue to be so. Why end something, when the story is not over ? We want to know more.

When Infinity War launched and I read some spoiler, which said Spiderman dies in it, that was enough for me. I did not watch it. Plus I did not know about the whole plot of Avengers movies & Marvel universe on the whole ending soon. I stayed away, but my kids watched it. And internet made sure I saw the pics where the characters fade away in dots. Ew.

Anyway when the time for Endgame came, and internet informed me, that this was a last movie tie-ing up the 22 movies (I did not know!) of Marvel Universe, I wasted no time in buying tickets and seeing the earliest show possible.

Looking at it, so many things are ending this year - Marvel Universe - Iron Man atleast, GOT, Big Bang Theory ...... Its bringing out a collective emotional response across media.

Three-fourth of the movie was build-up with multiple time-travelling. It was interesting for someone  who like references to other individual movies (aka me). But the most enchanting part was the last part of final war. It was reminiscent of epic level Gods & Rakshas wars. I got goosebumps (like the makers intended) when Captain America whispers "Assemble".

Girl Power moment was a visual treat even if lasted a few seconds. When you have so many of powerful characters, it makes sense to assemble them in a single frame and carry on a task of single purpose. I looked around, & did not find a pic. This blurry thing is the only one I could capture.

Girl Power moment in Avengers Endgame

The most striking thing about Avengers End-game was the parallel with Hindu stories. During a low point, when Caption Marvel comes to the rescue and changes the equation, it was totally entrance of Durga during the big war between the Gods & Rakshasas.

Marvel, DC & Star Wars are American mythology in progress, and we are witness to its creation.

Orange in Sunnyvale

In the first week of March, at the time when snow is piled up for 4 feet in MN, I got a chance to visit Sunnyvale California. What a contrast. Its spring out here.

There is so much snow, there is no place to shovel it. It’s spilling on sidewalks & roads. We have run out of place to push it in. Meanwhile, its blissful, foggy, crispy Spring in CA.

 

Californians had Orange plants in their gardens.

And lime growing in the side bushes. Wow.

Went for a walk around and promptly got lost. Even maps was lost. Had to call Uber for a 5 minute ride back to hotel.

It was a short visit. So on the way back, I did a stop-by at Google office. Google campus brought back memories of IISc & Infosys campus.

Mountain ranges around SLC are so fascinating. At night only small pockets were lit. They were isolated, far away from each other. No roads showed at day or night. Wonder what those places are ?

Securian Winter Run 2019 - Half Marathon - Race recap

My fav Winter race Securian Winter Run - Half Marathon was on 26-Jan 2019 Sat this year. I was here after a gap.

Being a Winter Run, this race has the best start location, with the spacious Securian building & skyway as warming location for practically everyone.

 

As usual there was lot of hand-wringing before the race about weather conditions. The day I signed-up, the lowest it had been was bright & sunny 35F in Jan. Right after I signed up, the temps started dipping and hovered before -10F and 10F. I can't explain the number of nervous messages I exchanged with my run buddies.

But all that worry was for nothing. Weather worked out perfect for this morning. The actual bad weather came up right next week onwards - with a week of Polar Vortex (temps before -45F), followed by 3-4 days of icy road condition. Icy throughout the twin cities, like never ever seen before. And then weeks of snow blizzard. Looking back, that weekend was a warm one.

Temps were between 0F-10F, no sun, no wind, but light snow throughout the 3 hours.
My run gear was perfect. I was worried about overheating before the race. But my choices were perfect in these conditions.  I was never cold or hot throughout the 3 hour run plus more time to get back home.

1. Columbia thermal jacket + 2 tech shirts 
2. Regular Woolen cap
3. C9 thick Neck Gaitor - Most of the quick runners had the thin variety on. But this worked perfectly for me. I alternated between covering mouth till nose every few minutes. So it never got too moist. Air was not cold, so that helped.
4. Compression pants + wind-cheater-type outer layer pant
5. Ski socks in my regular running shoes. My toes never got cold.
6. And most importantly - Gloves. Large loose ones, so I could curl up my fingers on a warm palm. And Hand-warmers to keep warm the palm.

 

I have run out in cold past few years. But this year I hardly stepped out in Dec & Jan. But in all my life, this is the first time I had so much snow on me, my face. I got #FrozenLashes or #Lashicles.
When the leading crowd was coming back after turnaround, I got to see the leaders with #FrozenBeards. Unique sight indeed. 

My finish time was a decent 3:04 hours. So every half race, 11-13 is the killer stretch, where some pain drags my mood down. This time it was at mile 10, but no physical or mental time. But the van showed up. Driver asked me to get inside as they will open the roads in 10 minutes. I was incredulous - how can they open so soon. Its never been so soon before. But I knew they had to, coz it was snowing throughout, volunteers were few (& stars) and they couldn't stay out freezing for so long. Made sense, but also made me angry. That I wouldn't get a finish time in my record. I was so looking forward to this race, I didn't want it to end bad. I swore, this is the last half I do for any winter anymore. Anyway, I opted to continue, and after the van moved on, I was worried about getting lost in the city. Shepherd Road is a straight stretch, but after the left turn within city, I had no idea how to make it to the finish location. But once the choice is made, I had to stick to it. On the Shepherd Road, I switched to the sidewalk on the right. A police officer helped me cross the half open road. Far away I spotted an Orange jacket running. Even with snowy visibility, I kept him in sight. Then once I turned inside the city, turns out I knew the way ! Roads were opened, but the finish stretch outside Securian was still closed. Finish arc & time machine was still around, so I got my finish times. Asked others for pics & I was done. 

Race swag was a cool full sleeve shirt and neat cup. Cup was useful. As soon as I finished, first thing to do was get the free coffee in this new mug, coz everything else was packed up.

My Securian Winter Races - 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2019 | 2020 |

Running Report for 2018

Running:
While last year 2017 was dominated by strength-training, I did up the running this year.

Ran a total of 478 miles this year. Very less, but barely more than those years with my least miles.

Races: Ran mainly MN series for the temptation of their jacket for signing the series in one go. Though I lost the jacket promptly after the first race (facepalm). Love their shirts though - the best design & material.

Kept my races to the minimum, but evenly spread across seasons.

Temp	Name	Date	Distance	Time
18F-25F	Goldys 10 Mile	8-Apr-18	10Mile	2:20:58
54F	Lake Minnetonka Half Marathon	6-May-18	Half-Mara	3:02:39
Pleasant	Music in Plymouth 5K Fun Run/Walk	30-May-18	5K	40 min
69	Minnesota Half Marathon - StPaul	4-Aug-18	Half-Mara	2:57:28
35F Cloudy No-Windy	Minneapolis Halloween Half Marathon	27-Oct-18	Half-Mara	2:54:26

As I end this year, I don't have any specific goals for 2019. But I for sure need to keep the running consistent & increase the miles. The call of the run routes is irresistible.

All of my yearly Run Reports are here.

Wish you all a very Happy & Prosperous New Year !

2018 Movies Experience

After the golden years of Doordarshan, this is that time. All thanks to Netflix & Amazon Prime, I don't remember any other year where I would have seen so many non-Hindi & non-English movies. This is the standout thing about 2018. The supply in Hindi & English was not enough for my demand of new fresh movies.

Thanks to the exciting hype around Mahanati and Amazon Prime, I got to see this movie fresh.
I am not alien to the Telugu universe, but I didn't know much about Savitri before this movie. And yet I was familiar with all other key players of the movie. And Keerthy Suresh's fresh-faced smile is enough reason to watch it. It's been long time seeing a high production value movie on the vibrant times from 50s, 60s & 80s South India. The movie did not disappoint in any area.

Other new discovery from this movie was Vijay Devarakonda as Anthonygaru. Samantha & he are the journalist storytellers of Savithri's & Cinema life. Looking for his other movies, I saw his Nota & am looking around for his other movies in any streaming services I have. I was surprised to know he is Arjun Reddy, of which I knew from longtime but have no stomach to see it.

Meanwhile, my exploration of Bengali lok started with  Guptodhoner Sondhane. Thanks to Abir Mukherjee's star power, I was hooked to a bunch of Byomkesh Bakshi movies & Feluda movies on Amazon Prime.  All these were not this years releases, but I am glad I stumbled into them this year.

The only new movie in Kananda world, that I saw & enjoyed is Katheyondu Shuruvagide. Its unique & calming music is the highlight. The movie location matches it. Thanks to its lovely song "Good Morning", youtube recommended some other melodies like in Kirik Party.

Now Kirik Party is on my wishlist along with Sarkari Hi. Pra. Shaale, Kasaragodu. But I don't know when I will get to watch it. Unfortunately the regular fare of Kannada movies is too ultra-masala for my taste. But its heartening to know that interesting Kannada movies are still being made.

Malayalam movies are in such a mixed variety. I left a few off halfway this year. But the one which got me started was a very satisfying Maheshinte Prathikaaram. The location Idduki, the sub-plots & all in between.

Marathi jagaatla movie bagitala, thanks to Netflix. Pimpal has that stirr quality about it. While my kid complained about how sad the whole movie was, I was happy at how many questions it raised, and did not answer because there are none. And while there is no villain, it is just life from different viewpoints. Bucket List was purely for Madhuri magic. It really picks up after the Drunk scene. As cliche as it is, it made me laugh in some portions. Killa was again a good watch for its location.

 

Hindi cinema, no doubt, had numerous brilliant releases for 2018. Good ones got their due in mass love and box-office hits. My personal favorite  list:

1. Tumhari Sulu - worth multiple watch for its story flow and execution by all the actors.
2. Parmanu - such a well made thriller touching on something from modern history. Perfect music & ensemble of actors.
3. Stree - the only horror movie I readily saw in theatre. Its that funny ! Plus made by my fav filmaker pair - Raj&DK.
4. Sui Dhaga - best execution of underdog becomes winner genre. They got the spousal-dynamics right too. Nice to see glamorous actors of this gen in real life looks.
5. Badhaai Ho - If there was any doubt of Hindi movies being in a rut and BHB & above movies are the best showcase to contradict it. BHB keeps us engrossed from the trailor till the movie end. End scene is mixed with sniggers & laughs. Everyone know someone who is like some character from the movie.

I need to blog separately about the outstanding music trends that happened.

My Yearly Movies List here.

Reading list in 2018

All these days I didn't think I read interesting books. Or that I read many books this year. Anything  worth a blog post. Only when I write this post,  I find out that I have really read good stuff in 2018.

The Pursuit of Endurance - Jennifer Pharr Davis

 

My fav Hiker & AT Record Holder published Endurance this year. Book has her usual tone, while she captured stories of some unique people associated with ATK. Each one merits a chapter here.

 
And gratefully her book tour brought her to Minnesota for a talk in the Wayzata library. So thrilled I got to meet her. Her oration is as inspiring as her books. Sadly I had to skip the Hike with JPB around Lake Minnetonka, after the talk.

North - Scott Jurek

 

And then my other fav - our very own Minnesota Ultra Runner Scott Jurek was here on book tour. He spoke at TC Running Room store. It was an outdoor event.

North tells the story by him & his wife Jenny, of their ATK Record hike.

Packing for Mars - Mary Roach

My new fav writer. I can't wait to get hold of her other books.

Cheeky, that's her tone. Chapters on Vomit, Gravity, BM etc are a revelations & wicked funny. And in the midst of all that ride, suddenly on 258 she made me tear up unexpectedly. Unbelievable. Also loved how she made Frank a running gag through the book.

Throne Spirits - by Ashna Kshirsagar & Ellie Abood

Presenting the book by my neighbor. Both my kids read it and highly recommend it.

Gone to Dust - by Matt Goldman

Got hold of this primarily cause author is Minnesotan and the story is entirely set in Edina area. Did not disappoint on any areas - thriller, Edina locality details, Minnesota winter & a personal arc for the Detective.

The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad by Twinkle Khanna

I started the year by reading this book. Now I feel like how far back it was. Book has 4 short stories. Nothing exceptional (actually more of RKN style) but good reading in say airport or insomniac night. Best takeaway is that TK leveraged the 4th short story to popularize Auranachalam's story and eventually went on to produce PadMan featuring her superstar hubby AK.

Origin - by Dan Brown

Not comparable to Da Vinci Code. This one is a Langdon treasure hunt in Spain.

Story was tedious but I waded through it to an interesting last 100 pages.

More fun books

 

First Ladies of Running by Amy Burfoot

Interesting, insightful and thought-provoking book. Chapters dedicated to each iconic runners from different decades. Wish someone would commission the same for Indian women athlete and market them well.

Running for Mortals - John "Penguin" Bingham

is a great book for anyone new in running & has thousand unanswered questions.

Cricket textbooks

Yours

What books did you read this year ? Which one stayed with you ? Which one sent you on a journey of knowing more on the same topic or theme ?

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