Bombay 2006 Part 2

[glaconman]

Thanks very much for the encouragement guys.

Wise words indeed Andy. I'm fairly competitive with myself when it comes to these things and found myself pushing for a time during my half a few years back. But this time it's all about getting around and making sure I enjoy as much as possible.

We had a pretty arduous journey as we opted to drive down to Pune from Bombay straight after landing, so it was 5am local time before we hit-the-sack.

Last night I ventured out into the Indian night for a swift hour of running. I probably won't be doing it again, there's just far too much risk running on Indian roads at night. There's very little street lighting and masses of pot-holes. The rains were very bad this year so most of the roads have suffered.

When the traffic is heavy you're competing with pedestrians, bikes, scooters, rickshaws, lorries, buses, cows, goats, stray dogs .... the list goes on.

When the traffic disappears you're left with darkness and potholes. You end up trying to anticipate the changing surface. Bit of a lottery. I was worried about being chased by stray dogs, but I've been told they're fairly indifferent in Pune. If we were in Bombay then they would chase me.

But I'm glad I went out to stretch my legs. And for the experience. Indian urban night running must come under the category of 'extreme running'.

We're on the outskirts of a large city and it's not ideal. I would like to be on my in-laws farm to train. But we'll be here, so I'll have to adjust.

More later.