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This evening at Sunder Nursery, it was raining intermittently. The sky was patchy with angry bursts of cloud and peeks of an autumnal blue.

A light breeze blew, a distinct coolness in the wind. Fall was around us.

Because it is the Sunday before the Delhi Half Marathon, the roads around Nehru Park are crammed with runners and groups. Especially down Niti Marg. I ran a swift four loops of Niti Marg and Shanti Path, dodging folks and weaving through crowds.

I met the young boy at exactly the one hour mark to continue on with him. We did one loop of the same, and then carried on for a longer loop down Nyaya Marg and the wide nearly traffic free road flanked mostly by embassies and consulates.

We picked up the pace for the last few kilometres rounding up a solid Sunday morning session.

It’s good to run with Gaju again.

It was a long tempo effort this morning. After a quick warm up, an extra gel in the pocket, off we went.

A fun thirteen kilometre effort and for the most part a silent one except for the sounds of our breathing and shoes.

At least I am not feeling useless by skipping Friday optional run. It’s short. It can be tiresome on the treadmill. But I would much rather be on this than anywhere else. Certainly better than scrolling on the phone, for example.

Because I met Gaju and Coach Ravi yesterday, I asked Gaju if he would be interested to join me for mile intervals at Nehru Park. He readily agreed.

We met on the other side of 6 AM in the morning and there were already quite a few runners on this Dussehra-Gandhi Jayanti combination.

As the morning wore on, the numbers increased and on stretches of Niti Marg we were avoiding traffic as we sped through the interval repetitions.

We had solidly beaten the prescribed pace but I was far from where I would like to be for my goals.

Later in the morning, I read a post by my coach Eilish McColgan:

Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.

As I drove out of my house, I called Coach Ravi. Was he at the track? Yes. Was Gaju around? Yes. Would they be up for a run on the road? Yes.

What else could I ask for. I met Gaju, some of the other kids and Coach Ravi in the parking lot.

Off we went down the familiar roads for an easy ten kilometres. Although, I haven’t been here for about a month, everything of course was just the same. The vendors, the morning folks going about walks or errands. The Ubers, vans, cars, rickshaws and all manner of traffic. Gaju remarked that the road looked wider. Indeed, we saw that the median had been shorn of bushes and trees.

When I was driving home, the morning light looked different. That smudged manner of winter light was already in the air.

I woke up in the morning and jumped up on the treadmill for an easy run.

A core workout followed to round up the morning.

Recovered today.

The morning light is already changing. But the weather very much remains hot and humid.

Today, started the run with my friend Gokul.

Then ran on my own. Then the young boy joined me and we ran at a lovely, easy pace. Then I finished the final mile on my own.

And so wrote my coach Eilish in the notes for the pyramid 3 mile intervals. I bet there will be longer ahead but this was long enough for now.

The Delhi half marathon is in two weeks and I am nowhere near personal best shape. However, I am in better shape than I was a month ago.

The run today was just relentless. But as I write this, I am thinking about the young boy and has fall off the treadmill after I came back. It was a lucky escape on all counts with ‘just’ a bad scrape to the shin. We both were shaken up.

Before that, it was insane going for him with a fantastic workout between the treadmill and hurdles.

Well. That’s that for now.