..taking to the Heels ..on F1 circuit !... Adidas Half-Marathon @Silverstone

Adidas half-marathon in March. which is generally seen as a run-up to the London Marathon.
This time it was on the Brit F1 racing circuit at Silverstone. That was some
experience. Set the target of 2hrs, after a week's practice of relaxing 8-10mile runs alone along Thames side path during moonlit nights.. with no one, not even dogs out and about, to distract you from your cadence of breathing in sync with steps, with peaceful music or winds, moon and the river..

It was sunny when the race started off. First time I was going to an F1 circuit, never thought I would be racing on F1 tarmac! :p
After 5km into it, got nicely warmed up and geared up for coasting along. Clouds were moving in quickly and sun vanished. Pleasant for the run. Then all of a sudden everything changed, with cold winds blowing in, literally pushing you back. That was just a starter!.
Soon the air was awash with wooshing, swooshing, whistling sounds of wind with the high-pitched squealing of some girls..some runners were looking disoriented.

That nice dripping-sweat feeling on the warmed-up skin gave way to those of strong-wind-induced tears getting spread on the skin, as I strived hard to keep the eyes open a wee bit, scanning for any possible place to shelter in case of emergency. Nothing in site, it's far off from any building or spectators' areas and stands.. Just smoothly undlulating terrain around as far as I could see, and that's not much!. Then it intensified into strong gales with sleet slashing hard on the face, it was a piercing feeling.. That was the most dramatic change of weather I ever faced!.. well, really Face It, especially in such a condition, and you would get fazed.. within seconds already started feeling numbness on the skin.
Instinctively turned back, sleet hitting hard on the back of the neck, and was running backward until the nape could bear it, then turn and run forward for a shorter while until the face can face it and swtich back, facing the dilemma, whether to stop till it's over or not.. Right then I passed a pile of tyres stacked up by a turn in the track, with a bunch of runners huddled up on the inside of the tyre-wall to escape the sleet, with more scurrying to get behind it as they notice it.

The battle of Mind over Body started raging inside; One of those times when what's harder for the body is easier on the mind and vice versa. Easier on the body to go, give up the avoidable hardship and relax; Harder on the Mind that doesn't want to give up, and want to finish within target time; Harder on the body to keep going in this situation; Easier on the mind which thinks of the target..
-- keep running to keep the body as warm as possible is a better way to cope with it keeping the race in mind, but much harder for the body, than, resting and getting numb all over and shivering, having to get warmed up all over again from a worse condition than when starting the race. In fact, like the clouds, gloomy thoughts started to loom large over me, of the possibility of abandoning the race if this continues...
I decided to push on, backwards. Starting to feel the dryness inside, and I grabbed a packet of lucozade drink when the first set of drinks were handed out by the staff volunteers, all wearing ponchos and facing away from the track and sleet. So it was more like grabbin your drink from them, going from behind! :)

I held the packet, and realised that Fingers have gone totally numb.., they no longer obey the brain and could not even hold it in place to bite-and-twist open the cap on its neck! Feeling desperate, decided to take my mind off it than the cap off the packet. To numb the psyche from all the distractions and push on the physique.. it kind of worked, and later the sleet subsided within 2kms.. and could run forward again, and 2 more km down, saw some patch of spectators, I stopped by a lady who was cheering and since eyes locked, found it easier to ask to help removing the drink-pack cap.
She tried hard with gloves on and gave an apologetic helpless look, and then suddenly eyes widened and without a second thought she bit it and tried to twist. Then the second thought hit her and she wondered if I mind.. I smiled and shook my head, thanked, got the open drink, left waving to her.

As the weather slowly cleared up later, and running more relaxed, something I read in Che Guevara's "Motorcycle Diaries" came to mind- It was about surviving a night of bone-chilling cold and sandstorms in the Atacama desert after having to abandon the kaput jalopy of a bike called La Poderosa("The Mighty One").

Something propelled the muscles more from that point on, gradually upped the pace and then got into relaxed mode only after finishing the race, 10min off-target, timing 2:10:19, but still thrilled, and sunny inside.. and by now, outside as well..

Forecast for the race day had indicated possibility of a windy weather. Though when I arriving at Silverstone, it was bit sunny and chucked the gloves in the kit, had no idea what was coming my way- 60+kmph gales and sleet; A memorable way to experience both the first time; with a half-marathon to boot!

Tryst with Vedanta Philosophy.. and Siddhartha

Have just read SIDDHARTHA by Hermann Hesse.. and completely lost in it..

I took me by surprise, not once but thrice, on different days while I was reading the book in the train, when some Brit fellow travellers came upto me after seeing the book cover, to tell me how much they were touched and amazed by the story, its utter simplicity and profoundly insightful nature. It is quite remarkable that seeing that book evoked such a response for people to come and talk to me- normally it doesn't happen that way in trains, where people are left to mind their own business especially if sitting with a book!.

Had watched the movie adaptation of the novel from Bangalore 8-9years ago, it was a special screening at Max Mueller Bhavan, the cultural institute of Germany.

It is just a coincidence that I have been breathing in some Vedanta in the last couple of months from Chinmaya Mission here, with o'course exactly the same philosophy of Siddhartha...

Been attending some classes/informal discourses and discussions for the youth by Brahmacharini Sumati Chaitanya, who is resident at the mission centre here in London.. (she was a practising doctor from Gujarat who renounced that life and searching for truth/Self, became a disciple of Swami Chinmayananda..
Interestingly, while she was away for 2weeks, on a trip to India, as a stand-in to take up all her responsibilities[- ie., taking vedanta-philosophy and sessions based on BhagavadGeeta for youths, Upanishads and Ramayana etc- mostly for middle-aged&senior people who attend those], another Brahmacharini, known as Bhakti-ji, a French lady (profile) who was a professor of Yoga, who now takes care of the the Mission sessions in France, came from Paris. Listening to her teaching the Indian Philosophy with in-depth understanding of the cultural contexts, was a very unique experience for me.

Reading Siddhartha, I had the same sort of reverence for the German author Hesse's grasp of the intricacies of cultural context and ancient Indian scriptures and philosophical texts.

{Pic-- Bhaktiji during her leaving dinner, answering questions after her last evening Vedanta/BhagavadGeeta session with youngsters. }

BTW, though I have a copy of Siddhartha back home, bought a new edition which has 70-page introduction! including Hesse's short bio.

Also came to know from the intro that Dr Hermann Gundert, the German missionary and scholar was Hesse's Grandpa (who lived near my hometown, where his Gundert Bungalow still exists, which I visited during schooldays. It was there he published the first ever Malayalam dictionary!!, Grammar book and Bible translation..). Hermann Gundert's daughter married Johannes Hesse and the outcome was Hermann Hesse ! :)

Auf Wiedersehen.