Nearly as soon as I started this morning, I met Shikha. She had already done eight. After exchanging a few words, we ran silently, in step, barely any variation in pace. The weather was pleasant, the sky featureless, charcoal shades.
We ran one side towards Shanti Path, then the other side down Vinay Marg, alternating between the two loops.
As dawn broke, the sky reluctantly changing to the colour of dark jeans, we decided to head down Niti Marg, down the curve, to where Niti Marg meets Nyaya Marg at the roundabout and the arc continues perfectly to make a semicircle the next roundabout where Nyaya Marg is perfectly parallel to Shanti Path which in turn is parallel to Niti Marg.
These wonderful roads of Lutyens Delhi in the heart of the embassy area, providing the picture perfect flat training ground for hundreds of runners each Sunday.
Where else in the world can you run freely down the streets, at times in the middle of the road, literally as was the case with Shikha and I as we made our way down Nyaya Marg. Of these three roads, Nyaya Marg is wide with barely any traffic.
The same familiar and faithful dogs lolled around at the American Embassy.
We looped around and made our way back for Shikha to complete her run at thirty one kilometres.
Then the young boy arrived and off I went again, down the same Niti towards Nyaya, running nearly the same loop as I did earlier. As always, the young boy got hoots of encouragement, claps, and shabash. After a quick water break at the car, we ran one shorter loop to complete ten kilometres for the young boy and thirty three for me.
A couple of waffles and a short snooze later was a good way to round up long run Sunday morning.
Writing about Running 