Enough said for Friday. Or maybe one more line: meetings and more: morning to night to midnight to beyond.

It was again a late evening with work commitments but I woke up to a just in time possibility to make a run happen.

The driveway was my friend today. Up and down and got the job done.

I meant to run outdoors but this is late night week with continuous long days.

On the treadmill it was for a short quick tempo. Its race week so its taper week.

Taper in one way but way upswing in another manner.

I woke up, had a quick coffee, and it was straight on the treadmill. I had had a late night at work and then meeting with friends.

There was no time to lose and right off the start, it was a quick pace on the treadmill.

I counted the numbers just saying them rhythmically, in my mind and rolling the numbers in my mouth. Seven hundred or eight hundred counts later I was about eighteen minutes in. So I did it again until I got tired of it.

It’s surprising how tough it is to say consecutive numbers and not be distracted – at least it was for me – and definitely on the treadmill.

That’s why I can’t be sure to what number I counted to. I’m not sure that there was a point to it at all other than just doing something alongside the run.

The window revealed striated clouds partially obscuring the sunrise. As if the sky was wearing those strange glasses that folks tend to wear in rave parties.

I made a coffee and stared out. It was a rest day but would be a busy day ahead for me. It turned out that way but I felt calm through it.

Flow like Renzo Piano.

The week before the half, I had an easy Sunday run. Just as well after this week’s efforts. The sky was a pale pink as I drove towards Nehru Park.

I wore a light jacket for the first time this season. A crispness was in the air, but I was the only one with the jacket. I guess I feel colder than most folks.

Keeping the run light, I looped around here and there occasionally having the opportunity to listen to some free music blaring from someone’s shorts.

Dilbar Mere Kab Tak Mujhe, sang Kishore Kumar.

It started with a long tempo with two kids.

Additionally, the young boy gave me company nearly every alternate round.

The kids then started alternating as well.

It all helped get through the very long tempo that was both mind numbing and exhilarating. I’m not sure how it could feel contradictory at the same time but it did.

I rounded this off with further mile intervals at the end of which I did the fastest lap of the morning.

Spent, homebound with the young boy, I had a workout to follow on.

Today – my optional run day – I decided to take it easy in the morning and run in the evening. But, I was unusually late at work so that sealed the day as a rest opportunity.

I’m tired. That’s what I was this morning. Tired, under slept.

It’s a rare time – if at all – that I’ve yawned after a run. The chemical dance is too much to feel yawny. Today, however, was that day perhaps upto three times while driving home.

But earlier, I watched the young boy hit the track after a long time, doing hurdles, sprints, doing his thing.

Meanwhile, I was with my friend Gokul. We were right at home in lane nine where we conversed, exchanged ideas and shared stories. Later, he said that he couldn’t have done the run without me – coming at the back of an injury. It was absolutely reciprocated.

It rarely happens that an interval session hasn’t been inputted in by my coach, Eilish. And if so, I send across a quick message to her and it’s done just as quickly.

I hadn’t messaged so this morning, I flipped to last year – a week before another half marathon – curious to see what the intervals looked like last year.

They were amazingly hard. Wow, I thought. That looks so tough. At any rate, the job was done, I had seen them, and now I had to do them.

Undoubtedly, no question, without Coach Ravi and the kids, I couldn’t have done it. These were long efforts and they joined me in a relay kind of effort to give me company nearly at each lap. My gratitude is indescribable and visceral.