and my first half marathon's over

- woke up around 5
- met up with Ram, Vikranth, Narender
- Vikranth got me something to attach that damn tag to my leg. Since I run barefoot, I obviously couldnt use their contraption which fits on to shoes.
- warmed up(not really) and stretched
- and the run started. felt like a long run, nothing more. separated from Ram, Vikranth, Venu, Naren in the first 100 yards
- woman wearing earphones spots me running barefoot. screams to entire race that am running barefoot.
- spotted coach Martina, decided to pace myself by running a few yards behind her.
- not good roads, hurt my feet
- broken glass on the road. stepped on it. thankfully didnt penetrate, got it off before I got my next stride in. Yaay me!
- some folks on the side cheering us on throughout the course, nice of them
- and at los gatos creek trail, familiar territory
- crap! wooden bridge with gaps in between planks. get a splinter in my leg. luckily, this has happened before and I have perfected a technique of running on the outside of my foot and rolling my forefoot over. painful but have only 8 miles to go, so not too bad
- have no idea what mile am at or what pace am running. as always i miss almost all mile markers
- at mile 6, and 59.50 on the clock. pretty close to perfect - 10 mins a mile
- and well, more of the same till mile 11
- bharath, anup and the rest of the asha folk are there at the waterstop. get a big boost there
- and almost there, at the end... some more Asha folk screaming at the half-way mark
- and I finish at around 2hrs and 10 mins to the sound of the announcer mis-pronouncing my name
- wait around for the full-marathoners, stretch
- catch shuttle to go to start-point, and make my way to the first waterstop
- get my sandals and put on my Asha t-shirt, and wait for the Rancho full-marathoners.
- and Ram's here, at mile 25. run with Ram till the finish line
- and Naren came in with Bharath in 15 mins
- and Vikranth with Anup
- and finally Venu with Miheer
- Special mention to Bharath, Miheer and Anup who ran 11 miles with the full-marathoners, which is only slightly less than my 13.1 - they deserve a medal too!

pics on facebook, if you are connected to me.

Thanks to all the donors,and in no specific order

• Mr. Rathnam
• Subbu
• Vishwak Associates
• The Ramans
• Gowri
• Abilash, Hari, V, Vetti, A T, Ranju and all those who tried to read my blog regularly
• and anyone I forgot

And of course, thanks to the people at Asha, especially the volunteers. They are there before us and are there after we finish, at every long run and at the tracks. You guys are awesome. You deserve my medal more than me... that's an idea, hmm.
And finally, to my fellow Rancho runners. Thanks