My Third Half

Well, if you thought I would be talking about my better half, then you are wrong! This is about my third 'half marathon' and the second in Bengaluru Midnight Marathon.

I have always had fun running and never missed an opportunity to be part of marathons since I started at the last Bengaluru Midnight Marathon. This time the Bengaluru Midnight Marathon was jinxed due to security concerns raised from the recent terror attacks in Mumbai. But these terrorist bastards can never ruin the true spirit of runners. The marathon was rescheduled to 10th Jan 2009 instead of 13th Dec 2008 and the event was a great success witnessing an unexpected turn out of around 6000 people from various parts of the world.

12:00 midnight IST ushered the start of half marathon, which involved two loops covering a distance of 21.10kms. The running path was around Whitefield and it was a moderately tough path. The inclination varied at least 4-6 times in a loop and the uphill turned out to be quite difficult. My first 16kms involved pure running; but the last 5kms indeed tested my physical limitations involving both walking and running. Having practiced on the thread mills before the actual run with zero inclination, I thought I would complete in about 2hrs. Reality bites; it actually took me 2.5 hours for the run. It was indeed a tough and fun filled run with high spirits as always!

Worth a Drive

Traffic, smoke, noise; all these are the characteristics of any city; but Namma Bengaluru surely shows it all in abundance. Any weekend will beckon for a peaceful get-away; but the finances/time constraints will not support every other weekend. So this time we decided to explore the vicinity of Bengaluru, a reservoir called Kanava dam. A cool highway towards Mysore has a lot to offer; but this reservoir being least visited by the people, keeps it noiseless and green; rightly called the unlikely paradise!

Kanava dam is about 65km from Bengaluru; so our plan was to start at about 11:00hrs and stay till we could witness the sunset. After picking up the last man, iJag, we were cruising towards nature's treasury of silence. We stopped at Kamat Lok Ruchi at around 1PM, about 3km after Ramanagaram; to relish the very delicious "jolada rotti". A mere 2km from here is a deviation to the right that leads to the Kanava dam. The journey gets rough; but the last 8km drive cuts through a few lovely villages, mango and coconut groves; making it a memorable drive.

A glimpse of green pasture, herds of sheep and cows grazing at the grass, welcomed us to the peaceful and isolated Kanava Reservoir. There were couple of cars visitng; but only to depart soon, leaving us with the entire reservoir. We spent most of the time shooting pictures, lazing around, spotting birds and listening to the music of silence. It definitely delivered no nonsense; but clean peace.

We started the return drive at about 18:00hrs. We visited the Irrigation Department’s Inspection Bunglow to get contact information for stay; but failed to get any. But this bunglow is surely a cool place to stay given that one gets the booking done at their office in Channapatna. We did a pit stop again at the Kamat Lok Ruchi for snacks and coffee. We then cruised back to reach homes before 20:30hrs. Yes, we were back in the concrete jungle only to have spent less than a day's time in a NO nonsense Kanava dam. Surely worth a drive!

The squad: Vinay, Jagadeesh (iJag), Megha and Myself.

More pictures at http://picasaweb.google.co.in/thyagaraj.annaswamy/KanavaReservoir
Also visit http://www.deccanherald.com/Archives/jan292004/metro16.asp