Stoked about Stok

25 days to go for first himalayan climb! Climbing Stok Kangri which stands at 6153 meters and the 10 day trip starts from July 12th .Getting goose bumps just thinking about it. Not really a technical climb,supposedly the highest trekkable mountain in the world similar to Kilimanjaro, but its as high as Denali and I know the altitude and breathing problems faced. Excited and nervous at same time.

Stok is the highest peak in the pic.

Exercising my democratic rights.My first vote!

Earth to earth,dust to dust,ashes to ashes

Departed comrade! Thou, redeemed from pain
Shall sleep the sleep that kings desire in vain
Not thine the sense of loss
But lo, for us the void
That never shall be filled again.
Not thine but ours the grief.
All pain is fled from thee.
And we are weeping in thy stead;
Tears for the mourners who are left behind
Peace everlasting for the quiet dead.
Lucretius, Roman epic poet and philosopher (ca 94 - 55BC)

With Gary Mims at stone mountain,the climbing legend of north carolina who pioneered most of the rock routes in that state.

Dear Gary Mims,
I am at a loss for words,death always has this effect on me. The thought that I will not have another climb with you is crushing. You were an inspiration to me, I absolutely loved your attitude and the confidence you instilled in the people surrounding you,I for one always felt safe knowing you were there and have tried to emulate you in climbing. I will cherish both my trips with you in North carolina and Ouray and was indeed very blessed and privileged to have met you and climbed with you.I simply cannot comprehend in my mind that our paths will never cross again,there is still a deep knot in the bottom of my gut as I write this.

12.24 miles in 1 hour 56 mins 48 secs.Banana, milk and noodles diet last night and two rest days seems to have done the trick.Feels great, tired but fun.

Another day of running.6 miles in around 56 mins. Running was hard today.Looks like I had not fully recovered from my sunday run in the sun. Interesting how my body is reacting and struggling to adapt.

The local dogs have got used to me.I encounter around 5-6 packs on my route, yes packs , they are rarely alone.I still remember the first day ,when the sense of a new smell,that too running at around 5:30 am  alerted them from their sleep and few woke up and stood up ready to react, few warning barks and growls,some followed me for a meter or two, thankfully no standoffs occurred.Now ,after months ,they don't even care.They know who I am, some just rely on their smell to figure me out and stick to their cozy sleeping positions, a few more active ones who dont want to rely just on one sense just half open one of their eye, get visual confirmation and happily go back to sleep. Local guards of posh houses who earlier used to look at me in suspicion or curiousity no longer bother, I am now like one of those regular vegetable vendors who keep frequenting those roads who gives an aesthetic appeal to the road but do not matter as a whole. Early in the day motorists do stop to let you cross, yes, just like in US, but later on as the traffic increases all those civilities go for a toss, its every man for himself.

Running in bangalore has been fun and very Interesting.I only wish there were more parks, grounds and trails to run around instead of the roads.Its a pity that land is such a profitable commodity that there is no or very less scope for such free spaces.

Butt kicking 8:64 miles run today in the heat;totally sapped!

Yiannis Kouros

YIANNIS KOUROS! The most incredible runner,a greek,called the 'running god' or 'Pheidippiddes successor'.In case you dont know Pheidippides,he is the central figure in a story that was the inspiration for a modern sporting event, the marathon. Yiannis Kouros holds every men's outdoor road world record from 100 to 1,000 miles and every road and track record from 12 hours to 6 days. See the below video,he calls it a spiritual experience to run such long distances in which you leave the body and the body kind of no longer matters. Deep stuff!

My running playlist

I thought let me put my current fav running playlist on my blog, it maybe fun to look back after years to see what kind of songs I loved when I ran. I love racy/catchy/heavy songs as they power me forward when I want to quit.

1.Aloe Blacc - The man (Thanks to prani for this song, Recent fav,Colin Kaepernick ad hooked me to this)

2.Danza Kuduro(remix) - Don Omar (Thanks to Jasmin Zumba classes)

3. Six Days(Remix) - DJ shadow Ft Mos Def (Big fan of this song since the first time I heard it on movie Phone booth)

4. Be yourself - Audio Slave (Niranjan Narayan my former manager in Infy who introduced me to Audio Slave)

5.Iron Man - Black Sabbath (Long time favourite since my college days when listening to metal music was cool)

6. For whom the bell tolls - Metallica (Fav metallica song which was sealed as all time fav when i heard them play live this song with James hetfield right in front of me and high fiving trujillo,most memorable concert moment)

7.Call me - Blondi (Spinning classes LA fitness Edina)

8.Runaway - Bon Jovi (Again spinning classes LA fitness Edina,this song is like an adrenaline shot)

9.Archangel - Two steps from Hell (What an inspiring song,what a band,I imagine as if I am going to war)

10. Crazy - Gnarls Barkley (Great song,heard on the radio's of Minnesota for the first time)

11.Extreme ways - Moby ( Bourne mania)

12.I will survive - Gloria gaynor (Rocky,Rocky,rocky)

13. TO glory - Two steps from hell (You cannot have just one song in your play list from this group)

14.Pacific Rim - Ramin Djawadi (Jaegers vs Kaiju's,what a movie!)

15. Heart of courage - Two steps from hell (Hell yeah,that's song number 3 from TSFH)

16. Its my life - Bon Jovi (This song needs no intro)

17. One way street - MLTR (Santu introduced me to this group)

18. One of these nights - Eagles (Kinda slow for a run,but changes the tempo,Heard this on the radio for the first time in the night while driving through Arizona from Phoenix to grand canyon and was hooked to it from the first time I heard it)

19. Papercut - Linkin Park (For some reason I love this song a lot from Linkin Park than their other famous ones)

20. Phantom of the opera - Iron maiden (Oh god,what a song!I have never got bored of this)

To continue..

My first 10 miler in India

Woohoo! My first 10 miler in India, took some time getting to it. Finished 10.23 miles in 1:40:53 at a pace of 9 min,52 sec per mile. Need lot of work on fitness.