Melody notes from my trumpet

[Written on November 3, 2009]

Last Sunday, I ran my yet another annual 26 miler marathon. I just can't imagine that it's been 8 years since I started doing this. My initial goal of doing 10 years in a row seems like a possibility now. Probably, if I do 2 runs next year, I can have my run number 10 next year itself.

In the early years - that seems long, long ago - running in the wee hours of the morning in the dark trails was an experience of its own. A long twig moving in the wind would seem like a snake lying around. But over the years, running on the trails repeatedly has given me a lot of other advantages too. First, is the kind of runner friends - I call, my running mates - I have gained over these years. They may not get me a V.P job, they may not get me an "angel" to fund, but most are good enough to help me finding a good store for my running shoes!

[P.S: This paragraph is written only on getting the approval from my wife.]

It's interesting, how my eyes have got trained to run in the darkness, that by looking at the silhoutte I could now sense from a quarter mile away, whether it is Sarah the soccer mom, or Hillary the hot mom. What? How about detecting men? Do I care?

In the April of 2008, I had an opportunity to run a 200 mile relay - a 12 member team, roughly 17 miles per member - from Napa to Santa Cruz. It was a 35 hour run starting off on a Saturday afternoon, continuing non stop for 35 hours and ending the following evening in the beaches of Santa Cruz. The experience was simply one of a kind. There were roughly 200 teams racing the whole course on a night that had a 40 degree weather with a pretty bad wind chill. One of my segments was a run from GG bridge to the zoo in SFO, along the pacific highway at 2AM in the morning. In the calmest hours of the day, listening to the footsteps of the 200 runners backed by the sound of the Pacific waves was something only a "youtube" video could explain. Mmm..what to say, I do have dreams of running this relay with my buddies one day. We have a couple of runners for now. We just need a few more!

Every year, I start the Spring with a hoping of doing better in that year's run, but it's so far being always on the negative side. For now, let's put the blame on the family. No matter how bad my training is, every year, even now, I always feel something emotional at the start. Sounds very funny? Wait, but 5 minutes later it is just usual (boring?) business.

For the first year back in 2002, I had my running shirt signed by a lot of friends from work. I still have that shirt and more to that, some of the writings are still readable. What does it say? Lack of washing in the years followed? No, it's simply the greatness of the "Sharpie" pens. I remember, all the Sagaa guys later showing up at our home to congratulate me.Fond memories!

One of my buddies that time wrote the lines from Robert Frost's famous poem, "Stoppying by woods on a snowy evening". Even though the lines written in the shirt have faded, those lines would never fade from my memory.



Here are the last few lines of that poem:


"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep."