I feel so great. One of my goals to run a marathon is going to be realized in another month or so.

Things that I have learnt so far from the training program:
1. Set small goals that are realistic.
2. Once the small goals are reached expand on to the next one.
3. There is power in working along with a group.
4. What happens between the training runs (including food, water, work-stress etc) matters to a great extent.

It is great to run along with a group. I have this theory there there is some energy that we tap into when doing things together in a team.

My theory of group energy
I have talked to many runners and they all agree that running in a group is much easier than running alone. I have also felt the same way in my training.

I have this theory that each person has an energy field around them and when people are together somehow this field interacts with one another to create a overlapped new energy field.

About the run
I was running along fine will about the 16 mile mark. With every long run, the “wall” has been pushed back. When I ran the 16 mile run, the wall was at 12 miles. At the 18 mile run, the wall was at mile 14. At the 20 mile run, the wall was at mile 17. The 23 mile run, I hit the wall at 17 miles.

I hit the wall at mile 18. I wasn’t able to run at all. I sat down by the street, removed my shoes and massaged my feet as they were hurting like crazy. After my little break, every step that I took was hurting.

I could feel the bolts of pain start at the ball of my feet and shoot up my leg … with every step I took.

After a few minutes, the pain started to reduce a bit and I started to jog. The last 7 miles, I ran by myself. It was really hard. One thing that I realized about myself was that I have lot of will power. I am amazed that I ran the last 7 miles all by myself.

I guess by that time, I had crossed my threshold of pain and wasn’t feeling much pain except when I slowed down.

The finish at the 26th mile was awesome. There were so many people cheering me and they had a medal for completing the run. I felt awesome for those 30 seconds just before completion. No pain.

Then after that, the pain started again.

I guess this time, the recovery is going to be quicker.

I wanted it to be a surprise for her. It is very hard to plan for a surprise. She has ESP. She can tell with about 90% accuracy what I am thinking without even me having to say anything.

Anyway, I got an engagement ring. It has a beautiful sapphire stone. I will post some pictures of it when I get around to it. This in itself was very difficult to do without her knowing about it. I had it shipped during the time she was not in town.

Now for the background planning
I had planned that I would propose in Chicago. That is where I met Sarah. I thought about how I am going to propose to her back in June. I also made sure that I got her parents approval. I talked to her parents when I went to Denver in March 2005.

Now, the final thing to do was to talk to my parents. My parents were happy that I have finally decided to get married. I think that they are stretched to the limits of their belief system.

Thank you Mom and Dad for supporting me. You are awesome.

And now, the main story …
My plan was to go on a “Memory Treasure Hunt”. Sarah would get some clues about places that had some significance for us. Places that had some special meaning for us.

I was supposed to give Sarah the clue and she is supposed to guess the place. I will take her to the place and then let her know whether she guessed it right or not. But everytime, I was so excited when she guessed the clue that I was like “YES!”.

Anyway we went to the following places:

1. Victory’s Banner - A Vegetarian restaurant where we went for meditation classes together
2. Tamarind - A Thai restaurant where we had our first offical date
3. Hayt School - Where Sarah and I met
4. Sarah’s place in Argyle where she used to live
5. Magic Hedge - A world famous bird watching place by lake Michigan

The final stopover was at the Magic Hedge. It is right off Lake Shore drive. I had planned to propose to Sarah by the Lake. It was really cold and Sarah was very keen on getting back to the car. I kind of panicked. Immediately got onto my knees and asked her to marry me …

To the guys out there: Yes. She said yes.
To the girls who are wondering: Her ring is very pretty and she likes it

White Sox won World series after 88 years. People that I met here were excited about the win. There was a celebration parade. Someone asked me whether I flew in for the parade. Funny. I never follow baseball.

I am staying along with my friends Sathyga aka “Raj” and Kavitha. The have a kwel downtown apartment.

Kavitha promises that the view from top floor is awesome. Will post pictures later.

Tomorrow by this time, I would have ran 23 miles at a stretch. It is pretty impressive what the human body could adapt too in a few weeks.

For those of you who were interested in the workout summary, here is the info from my Polar RS 100 watch. I lost my chest strap last week and wouldn’t have the workout summary for the 23 mile run.

Date: 10/09/05
Start Time: 7:27 am

Running Time: 4 hours 51 minutes 05 secs
Average Heart Rate: 145 bpm (75% of VO2 Max)

Calories: 3914 Kcal
Percentage of Fat burnt: 45%

Heart Rate Target (upper): 153 bpm
Heart Rate Target (lower): 143 bpm
Above Zone: 1 hours 47 minutes 59 secs
In Zone: 1 hours 06 minutes 05 secs
Below Zone: 1 hours 57 minutes 01 secs

Apple had a difficult time with the itunes phone, working with Motorola as in the cell phone industry products are announced much earlier before their release. Sometimes even 2 years early.

My guess is that Apple is going to come out with Video Ipod. Will know by tomorrow.

The recovery during the previous runs have been painful.

Today, I feel so much better.

As part of the AIDS marathon training program, this weekend was the 20 mile run. My previous 2 long runs had some “after-effects”. I was limping around for 7 days after the run.

The 20 mile run was originally scheduled for last weekend. But due to the fire in Los Angeles and the air pollution that it caused, the run was rescheduled this weekend. I have been mentally preparing for it and felt like the anticaption was prolonged.

Anyway, I started the preparation on Saturday by having 2 dosas at Annapurna Cuisine. It is my new fav indian restaurant. I like the food and service there. I was also stocked on Cliff Bars and shots.

The run started out very smooth. I breezed through the first 5 miles. It was too easy Around mile 10 I started to feel a bit tired. I was low on energy. Actually, I felt energetic. But my legs were feeling heavy. It is hard to explain. Thoughts of my “12 mile wall” flashed through my head. I would say running long distance is an experience in self-mastery. It is a lesson on how to break through my own internal voice (Yes. I do hear voices in my head ) and continue running.

The previous 2 runs, I had 2 main “pain spots”. My knees on the outer, lower edge hurt and the outer edges of my feet hurt. It is a dull pain when I am not walking or standing. And turns into a sharp, radiating pain once I start to walk or stand-up. It is not unbearable. I would rather not have the pain.

So at mile 13 (yes, ran through the 12 mile wall) my feet start to hurt. The previous 2 runs I didn’t feel the pain while I was running so never did anything about it.

Stu Mittleman says that our feet can expand upto 2 full sizes during long-distance running. I thought maybe that is what is happening to me. I mean, my feet had expanded and it is being held tight by the shoe, which is restricting the blood flow and hence the pain later.

I untied my shoes, and tied them again a bit loose. As I am writing this, I have very little or no pain at all on my feet. I will be able to verify my theory by tomorrow.

Finding Money
I noticed something curious during my run.

1. There were so many pennies and quarters on the road
2. No one else want to pick them up

I found a 1 dollar note (saturday), 1 Quarter and 6 pennies ($1.31) during my run. There would have been atleast 50 people from the AIDS marathon training alone run before me, so many other runners, walkers. How come no one spotted these coins? Is it my running style? Do I keep looking at the road instead of looking ahead? I don’t know. But I find a lot of money on the roads

So back to my running story — I ran out of energy at about 17 miles. Chewing on a additional energy bar didn’t make much of a difference in my every level. I walked for the next mile.

Mile 18 - I was talking to a fellow runner Matt. We started talking about his business. He buys and sells exercise equipment on ebay. I was talking to him about his business and what he does and before I knew it, we were about 500 feet from the finish line.

I felt good after the run. No major knee or foot pain (so far )

If you would like to donate to AIDS research please do so here: Aids Marathon

Right around that same time, the “I Love You” virus was creating havoc.

8:30 am in the morning
I was working at UIC at that time. About 200 computers at our Department were infected. We were looking for an anti-virus tool or update from Norton.

10:00am
The “I Love You” virus was covered in the news. People were talking about how fast it is spreading, but still no anti-virus program.

10:30am
I decide to write a home grown version in perl to disinfect affected computers.

11:30am
Norton posts update on their server.

1:30 pm
I finish writing my own anti-virus program in perl.

Moral of the Story
A virus scanner can be written in perl

Someday, when I have some time, I will have to find the code and upload it online.

I strongly recommend it.