Marathon Hike July 16, 2011(Saturday)

Longest I hiked was 22 miles in Mt Whitney, and I had little idea till we started the hike, that I would be literally hiking more than 26 miles, with elevation gain of 8400 ft. Thanks to Chetan, again for booking the cabins in advance and sorting out logistics for hike.

I went to bed at 10 PM on Friday, with alarm set for 12:40 AM. Though I knew I would not be able to sleep, I was lying in bed and trying to breath normally. There was a little possibility that we could be hiking Clouds Rest (9930 ft elevation, with net gain of 6000 ft from Yosemite Valley Floor) and Half Dome (8836 ft elevation) on the same day. We did not reserve the permit for Half Dome, which was now a requirement to hike Half Dome on all week days. All the permits were gone 3 months ago, however, I got excited after I received a message from Yosemite National Park that they were giving 50 more permits every day, in addition to the regular 400. It was apparent, that lot of people were reserving permits and were unable to use them. I was hopeful. Even though Clouds Rest is more in elevation gain than Half Dome, and a longer hike (22 miles), Half Dome is very popular because of potentially near death experiences. Note: Eight people died, alone this year, in Yosemite Valley, so go with proper preparations.

When my alarm sounded, I was wide awake already. I was packed already, with Cytomax and Cliff Bars, 3 liter of water and some oranges. I packed an additional head lamp for Vimal. Promila was awake and started making her special sandwiches (whole grain bread, with Organic Humus, alpha-alpha sprouts, spinach, tomato, cucumber – neatly wrapped in surround wrap) for me. She knew that Chetan, Nitin, Prasad and Vimal were going with me, so she packed some for them too, in spite of my protesting. I like to keep my backpack small. I told myself to give away extra sandwiches to group before the hike.

Vimal came in time, and we went to pick up others. Everybody was ready, and we were quickly on our way. After couple of pit stops, we reached the Valley around 5:45 AM. We saw two other hikers in parking lot, getting ready too, while we were booting up, and putting all the extra food in bear-proof lockers. On finding out that they were planning to hike Half Dome, I told them that most of our group had done it before. It was their first time and they did not have gloves for gripping the cable. I told them that they might need them, and generally they might be available at the base of the cables. Now after giving my amateurish expert opinion, I asked them if they had extra permits, and viola we got 4 of them.

I did not need any more signs, it was almost that the Rock was calling me. I told myself, if my knee holds up well, then I would give it my best shot. Most of the trail for Half Dome and Clouds Rest are same, except last two miles before Half Dome, Clouds Rest trails swerve to right and goes another 4.2 miles. So technically, we are to do 4 miles and 2400 ft of elevation gain more. Challenge was that after Clouds Rest, would we be in good enough shape to take on the Half Dome Cables. This was a personal question, and one has to answer it for himself.

We took John Muir Trail, passed Nevada Falls, and then pushed further for 2 mile marker for Half Dome. All of us were doing great. We discussed if we should do Half Dome first, as cables take a lot from you, and then try Clouds Rest. Since most of us have done Half Dome before, except Vimal, we agreed to stick to the original plan to do Clouds Rest first, and then see if time permits. Since Vimal and I were somewhat interested in doing Half Dome, we pushed from that point. I knew Vimal was in great shape (we did two Half and one full Marathon together in last one year). After 3 miles, we were struggling, as both of our hearts were pounding. I have seen more than my share of documentaries on Mt Everest climb, and knew that body slows down at higher altitude and make more Red Blood Cell, to carry more oxygen; and that is why it is important to get acclimatize to altitude. Vimal had a slight headache, and sometimes I got winded. We took 1-3 minutes breaks, but kept pushing up. Trail seemed never ending. Finally we saw a board which indicated that the peak was 0.6 mile away, meaning we should be up there in 15 minutes, however, it was taking longer. I was not sure about Half Dome anymore, though knew enough from experience that once at the top, there was a good chance that we would feel better. That is exactly what happened, Vimal was squealing like a little boy in the candy store, and we felt refreshed after few minutes. Cool breeze was blowing and temperature was in 70s.

We took pictures, and did the calculations based on a conservative 30 minutes/mile, that if we could reach Half Dome, and get back to Valley floor before 9 PM to savor Pizza and beer, which was one of the most important aspect of the hike. It did not seem possible. Either we had to rush or forget about Pizza or both. We decided to go down till 2 mile marker for Half Dome, and then make a call after reassessing our physical conditions. While coming down, we met Prasad who told us that Nitin and Chetan were taking a nap on the trail. Prasad looked strong.

We went down a bit more and saw Nitin and Chetan, exchanged some notes about trail (it was nothing compared to Half Dome granite steps and cable). After a few minutes, we just started running, in order to make it to Half Dome. We have both ran up and down on trails in Alum Rock Park before. After Marathon my knee was hurting, and generally hurt would come back whenever I did a downhill run; I was hoping it would not. Even if it did, and I could not do Half Dome, at least I would have the satisfaction that I gave it a decent try. I was ready to be wiped out. We discussed, if at any point, one of us did not feel like doing it, we will turn back.

We covered 4.2 miles going down very fast, and started hiking up for Half Dome at 2:45 PM. There was nobody behind us, and people coming down from Half Dome were giving us a quizzical look. Soon, we met the ranger at base of sub-dome and who took our permits and told us that it would take around 1 hour and 15 minutes. We took a 5 minute break before starting on 566 granite steps cut into rock. Vimal was kicking my butt while climbing up, I had to rest for few seconds after every 30-40 steps. I lead briefly from the place where steps disappear into the rock and you have to do scampering on the rock. At the base of cable, we just stared at the cables. And I could not believe that I had done those 3 times already. I kicked myself for thinking that I was going to bring my son here soon. The cables on granite rocks were looking insane and scary. I had to tell myself that they look more scary than they actually were.

One gracious woman gave gloves to Vimal. We rested another 10 minutes, ate oranges, dropped our backpack at base and started up. Vimal wanted me to follow him on cables (just in case if he slips, I could catch him – ‘Fat chance’). My only advice was to rest few seconds on each plank before moving on. Of course, he ignored it. Adrenalin was pumping, and soon we were on top. We did not waste any time, as we wanted to give our best shot to get hot pizza and beer waiting for us in Curry Village. We took photos at King’s chair, the ledge, the infamous cave (where couple of people got electrocuted few year back from lightening) and the natural Amphitheater. There were just 3 more people on the dome at that time. It was good to have the Half Dome for just ourselves.

Vimal was unsure as how to get down, i.e., facing down or facing up. I always do facing down. I was ahead of him coming down, and he experimented various ways, and then did facing down, just focusing on me instead of looking down all the way. I was doing the same, just looking down to next plank. This time I did not slip as much as last time. New latex coated gloves were helping. After coming down from cables at 5 PM, Vimal told me that his arms were hurting a bit and hands were shaking. I told him that it was quite common for first timers; adrenaline wanes off after sometime, and the hard part is over.

I did not want to run down, we climbed down quickly. Vimal was the only bachelor in the group. I asked him that he now had to entertain me by talking about his bachelor life experiences. As with any Indian bachelor, he was now getting pressured to get married. He was to start looking for a girl, however, there was no progress as he did not allocate anytime for this important project or came up with any strategy. He was confused, scared and excited. He wanted some outdoorsy girl who could hike and do other activities. As luck would have it, we met a few girls, working in his company, Cisco, on trail. He was way too shy to talk to them. It looked hopeless. But entertaining enough for me to not think about the exertion from long hike. I was chatting with most people on trail, saw quite a lot of people from Bay Area.

It took us 3 hours to get down. We met Prasad in last mile of the hike. His calves were hurting. I gave him some Tylenol and Bengay, which instantly relieved some of his pain. Soon all of us were at Curry Village. It was crowded and took 45 minutes for Pizza to arrive. I chugged couple of beers (got mocked on my accent of ‘bear’) and we finished two large Pizza between 5 of us. Needless to say hot food and cold beer tasted much better after 14 hours of hiking. All other married men in the group, after having a beer, started freely advising Vimal. May be get married to Yosemite Ranger, or put just one condition that he would marry only on top of Half Dome (that would surely reduce the expense).

I woke up around 6 AM next day, and was surprised to see that I did not have any aches or pains. I tried to wake Vimal up and ask if he was interested in going for a run. He was too tired to get up and gave me a kick. Chetan was up and we just sat in Curry Pavilion, ate bagel and cream cheese. Chetan started talking about things to do for rest of the day, he knew Yosemite inside out. Soon others joined in , we packed our stuff and started for Tunnel View point. Everybody was in a good mood. And I was soon going to get education on contemporary Bollywood music. Chetan was surprised to know that I had watched the Three Idiot movie, a week ago only. And I was horrified that Chetan and Nitin knew the latest Delhi-Belly songs by heart.

After taking snaps at Tunnel View (made famous by Ansel Adams), we started for Tuolumne Meadows and Tenaya Lake on Tioga Road, which opens for only 4 months in a year. We just got down at Olmsted Point, Tuolumne Meadows and Tenaya lake and took pictures. Delhi Belly songs were blaring, in the loop. Their favorite songs were ‘Bhag Bhag DK Bose DK Bose DK’ (meaning ‘Run DK Bose’ – however, if you say it fast enough it has a different meaning), ‘Jaa Chudail’ (Get lost witch) and ‘Duniya mein pyaar jab Barse, naa jane dil yeh kyon tarase’ (Blues – sad song - whenever I see rain of love in the world, why my heart craves for some). Poor Vimal, he definitely would not be marrying soon. The songs were repeated many times that they were engraved in my brain and I found myself humming for next few days.

All in all, great weekend, hiked over 26 miles, did two peaks in single day, 8400 ft of elevation gain, and got educated in last 1

0 years of Bollywood songs.

Father’s day Weekend in Yosemite – June 17-19, 2011

With John Muir

In an effort to build some family traditions, I booked this weekend this year also, back in January, to hike few trails in Yosemite. First time, two years ago, I hiked Half Dome with Som on this day, next year I hiked till Nevada Falls with Prem while Promila hiked Half Dome with Liz. This year I did not reserve the permits to hike Half Dome (now permits are required every day for hiking Half Dome) as I wanted to hike other trails in Yosemite.

Since I have been hiking with Paul and Chetan most of the time for any new hikes, I never really developed any map or trail reading abilities. These skills are getting important for me, as I found out during my Mt Whitney hike last year. And also, going forward, I want to hike more with my family, I needed to learn quickly. Though these skills are easy for most normal people, but not for someone absent minded as me. And only way to acquire them was to do hikes alone.

Bear always at Curry Village

I looked at Yosemite hiking map to decide which new hikes I would like to do. Two hikes stood out, one was to do Four Mile Trail to Glacier Point (3200 ft elevation gain) and then come back from Panorama Trail back to valley floor, it was over 16 miles from Curry Village with views of three waterfalls. Other was to go up to top of Upper Yosemite Falls and then further up to Yosemite Point (3000 elevation gain), total round trip of over 12 miles. I chose the first one.

Chetan, on earlier discussions, mentioned Panorama Trail, recommended that I take bus up to Glacier Point and hike down on this trail. He further mentioned that it was on opposite side of Yosemite Falls. I had no idea what he meant by opposite side. Reading the map, I soon found out. At 6 AM, when I started out of from Curry Village, with map in my hand, first challenge was to find the Four Mile trailhead. The free shuttle bus does not start till 7 AM. This trail was not as popular as Mist Trail or John Muir Trail. 6 AM was a late start, the sun was up already.

Soon, after following the map meticulously for 2 miles (as per my GPS watch), I ended up right in front of Upper Yosemite Falls trail head. Yes, opposite side ! I told myself, all is not lost, if I can reach to top of Falls and Yosemite point, that should count for something. I did not see anybody on trailhead. In spite of not trying to think, I remembered two years before when a bear chased Som and me, we saw a rattle snake on trail. It would be good to have some company on the trail. (Note: After I came back from this hike, I came to know a hiker got lost on this very trail just a day before and was still not found. ) Armed with knowledge that Black bears of Yosemite are really not known to hurt humans, I was relaxed. I reminded myself, as if I could do something every now and then, which was out of my comfort zone, I would bring that attitude to other facets of my life. Then I thought about people who first climbed El Capitan or put cables on top of Half Dome, my adventure was nothing. I thanked all these path-breakers, pioneers as because of them so many of us are enjoying these trails now.

Helicopter Rescue

Just in quarter mile into hike, I found 4 kids huffing and puffing on hike. On asking them, though they looked quite fit, I found out that they did not hike regularly, and thought that they would be fine. They had four other kids in their group who were ahead of them. I guess some people have natural ability, but not all. I was not the one with natural ability. Leaving them behind I found their other four one mile ahead. This group was keeping a good pace. Took some photos of them with the falls, still a long way to go, however trail was great as you get to see the falls at different points. This was probably the best weekend to do the hike, as falls were running at 300% of their normal capacity from last year. I enjoyed drenching in cold icy water. Trail was well marked so far, with few ups and downs. I knew coming down would be harder because of slippery granite stones. At top, on Overlook of the Falls, saw some rock climbers crossing the falls. For 20 minutes, I stood there watching, one climber barely moved one feet. I could only imagine how much patience is needed besides other technical skills. I told to myself, probably not going to happen for me in this life time.

Half Dome

I decided to go further to Yosemite Point, one more mile after crossing the falls, on wooden bridge, of course. There was no body going further on this trail. Soon I got lost. I applied lessons learned from Mt Whitney, and traced my steps back to trail, and then looked around, I found out I missed a turn. I was learning to read the trail. There should be some man-placed stone on trail or on both sides of trail to distinguish it from the surroundings. Some time tree trunks and branches are carefully put to keep you on trail. Do not always follow the foot marks which takes you beyond the trail to some backpackers campground, as there were plenty of them. And most important, if you do not think you are on trail, then most likely you missed a turn, so trace back.

Coming down, as expected was harder. I slipped 3 times, but hiking pole helped keeping me from falling. I was down before noon, total took less than 6 hours, including all the breaks. I thought I did pretty good in terms of reading the trail. And further applied my map reading learnings (read fiasco) from early morning and started walking in opposite direction to take me to Village Grill, to join my family and friends for lunch. Soon I was with them. Prem had lot of fun with Alexa, as Maria-Anand decided to join us for this whole trip. Both of them were proud Yosemite Jr Ranger. Promila was keeping them busy in various activities like drawing, Curry Village scavenger hunt and Ranger shows.

After my Marathon in March, my left knee was bothering me. I did couple of big hikes with the gang, and it would start hurting in 3-4 miles, so I was taking it easy, still running 3-4 miles every now and then. After coming down from this hike, I did not feel anything. I think it is healed up now. I feel that there are lot of good which came out of this injury. I got more aware about stretching and strengthening exercises of different parts of my leg. And I was amazed to see some of them worked so well. Also it reminds me how frail I am as human, and fortunate to be able to do what I enjoy.

After lunch, did a very good Geological hike with family and friends. Came to know that Mr Whitney and John Muir hated each other, as Whitney (studied at Yale and Harvard) proposed that Yosemite Valley was created by cataclysmic sinking of valley floor, which turned out not to be true, while John Muir(never graduated) argued for glacial action; How all peaks are named after guys and lakes after their wives. Half Dome was one of very few peaks which was not named after a person, as Mr Whitney thought, at that time, that nobody would ever be able to stand on top of Half Dome.

Watched another great show in amphitheater in Curry Village in evening from Steven Riley who draws and writes kid’s books and live in Yosemite Valley with his family. Slept early, to be ready to hike Vernal and Nevada falls next day with family. Prem had done Nevada Falls last year, and wanted to do the same this year. We decided to do Nevada Falls by John Muir Trail, and then loop back to come down by Vernal Falls. We packed our stuff in car and did our goodbyes to Grover family.

Top of Nevada Falls

Though Promila and I had seen black bears in Yosemite couple of times before this trip, Prem never did. As the luck would have it, we saw two big bears on the John Muir Trail. Just like last time, though I was leading the trail, I did not see them, and Promila warned me. The bears were some 20 meters ahead of us. We waited for them to get off the trail for couple of minutes. Now, we decided to try to stay with some other hikers on the trail. At top of Nevada Falls, the water stream was twice as much in width than last year and sound of fall was deafening. We took our break, ate some snacks, took pictures and videos.

Top of Vernal Falls

Coming down on Mist Trail, as expected, we all got soaked. In hind sight, we should have gone up the Mist Trail and came down from John Muir Trail. Mist Trail was real crowded in afternoon, probably the most popular trail in Yosemite Valley. It took us around 5-6 hours with all the breaks. Prem was tired so we dropped the idea of going to Mariposa Grove. He immediately slept in the car.

I am looking forward to go back to Yosemite Valley and do Clouds Rest hike, Four Mile Trail and Panorama trail; and at some point would like to do some backpacking.

Two Black Eyes

Oakland Marathon (26.2 miles) – March 27, 2011


Dave: ‘What could you tell a runner with two black eyes ?’

Me: What ?

Dave: Nothing, as you had already warned him twice.




Morning – March 27, 2011 –I did not sleep much in night, as my new iPhone was not working, and I could not set the alarm. Besides Prem was having cold and cough so we had to monitor his breathing through the night. He was breathing noisily and fast. It was after a long time, his cold/cough was threatening to build up into full blown breathing issue.

Woke up, looking at the clock, it was 7 AM already, race was at 7:30 AM. Tried to wake Promila to ask her to drop me, but she was not understanding, just smiling and trying to calm me down. Finally, unable to get through to her, I started running for the start line. Came across a stream, which was too wide to cross and flowing at full, looked around. Bad dream. Woke up at 12:15, then finally at 3:30 AM.

Reviewed my list which I prepared last night, Cytomax powder form, 2 Cliff bars – chocolate Chip Mint (Prem’s favorite), bib tagged on shirt, poor quality sweat (which if lost, you would not care), Mortrin and GPS watch. I was eating spinach-cottage cheese dish when Promila woke up at 5, and started making her ginger tea. Dave knocked at the door around 5:25 AM when I was sipping tea. He had his coffee mug in hand. Soon Norm appeared and Promila offered him tea too. We were chatting when Vimal showed up, felt a shiver to see him dressed in his half sleeve thin technical shirt.

I have been running for over 6 months now with Dave, Vimal and Norm. After couple of months Dave looked around to find a good race, and decided on Napa Valley Marathon, however, because of some family function he did not register for that. Oakland Marathon was another one during similar time frame, so he asked me and registered for it. I did not check the course, and when I did; I found out that Oakland Marathon course was a tough one. There was no looking back now, I followed him and then Vimal and Norm. I rationalized this would give me a good opportunity to come back and do another Marathon to improve my timings later.

Two weeks before Dave and I had completed a 23 miler with 2600 ft elevation gain, in decent time of 4:15. That monster run gave me confidence that I should be able to complete the Marathon. Most of our long runs were in Alum Rock Park trail. And there is a creek which fills up during the rain. Dave always love to cross that creek, while I try always to avoid crossing it. We ran 3 times in rain, things get still after 7-8 miles, you can hear full flow of the creek, very quiet and almost nobody in the park during the rain and feet build some new intelligence while splashing in puddles or coming down the slippery slopes. After one of these long runs, I saw Dave slipped in the creek once.

Besides that 23 miler, my training was falling apart in last 6 weeks, my weekly mileage (excluding long Sunday run) was averaging around 10-12 miles, which was not much. I fell during one of my earlier long run, and had 3 clotted toe nails from my 23 miler practice run. I was not stranger to having bloody toe nails, I had them during my long hikes. I was banking on race day adrenalin and ready to push myself and thinking of breaking 4 hours. Since my last Half Marathon was in 1:47 minutes, my strategy was to do first Half which was a tougher course, to try to stay with 3:40 pace group (completing first 13.1 miles in 1:52) and then naturally slow down. From my long runs, I knew my easy run was around 9 min/mile, at this pace I can talk and do not sweat much.

Dave had PR of 1:41 on Half Marathon, I was on 1:47, Vimal on 1:52 and Norm (though he never ran Half before) finished around 2 hours for 13.1 miles as per his GPS watch. We were lucky to have everybody around the same time zone. It helped that during certain days, any one of us could be leading the pack. If I was not feeling well, I would just try to hang in there. Dave was the only one who had run two full Marathons (close to 4 hours) and two Ultras. He kept telling me that the Marathon distance needed to be respected (especially by the first timers), and kept telling me about ‘Runner with two black eyes’. I did not realize what it meant till I ran the race and found out at mile 16 when all my plans went haywire.

Promila took a quick photo of us before we departed home. While driving, we were wondering as why there was no shoe tag (electronic chip which measure your splits at different intervals) and why timing chip was buried in the bib itself. Dave clarified, it was because the course is so tough that most of us would be crawling at finish line, rather than running ! We laughed and did not know how true that joke would come out to be.

At start I followed up 3:40, Vimal followed up 3:50 and Dave and Norm followed up 4 hour pace groups. Faster pace groups lined up first, so that they are not slowed down by slow runners. I climbed the hills (670 elevation gain) and came down strong, and finished 13.1 miles in 1:53, Vimal was couple of minutes behind me, followed by Dave. At mile 16, my calves started cramping up and my toes curling up. It had never happened before in any of the training runs. Could it be because of steep dip where you lose almost 600 ft elevation in less than a mile ? Really scared, I forgot that I generally needed only 16 ounces of water during my long runs, I started drinking a lot, ate a Cliff bar and started having sports drink. I would run for another 400 yards, and the cramps would come back.

During our practice runs, only Vimal had the tendency to cramp up. And we all tinkered with nutrition, as what to eat before the long run, and during the long run and how much sports drinks were needed and when. Generally, I associate cramps with nutrition, however, after another couple of miles, and drinking too much sport drink, my belly swelled. Since these drinks have salts in them, body was retaining much more water. May be it was too late to hydrate myself if you were cramping during the run. Lesson learned ! So I started doing some stretching, and was afraid to see few runners, lying on the side of road, cramping even more than me.

I knew it would be a long 10 miles now, and tried to find some inspiration. DNF (Did not finish) was a real possibility. I thought about Prem, and tried to emulate his breathing, quick and short to bring some much needed oxygen in cramped muscles. I thought about ‘Touching the Void’, and started counting my shuffling steps - hardly lifting my knee and keeping stride very short. I found that I could do till 100 steps and then have to walk for 20 steps on my heel, using different set of muscles which would give break to my running calf muscles. Vimal passed me between mile 16 and 17. I was waiting for Dave and Norm to pass me. At mile 23, when I saw 4:15 pace group flag, I thought Dave and Norm might have already passed me. I finished in 4:22 finally. Vimal was waiting for me, he did it in 4:01.

He told me that he was cramping at mile 16 too, however, since he had more training as how to run through cramps, he was able to keep up. He told me that his secret to break cramps was to shake your legs like Elvis Presley while singing his song. I was kicking myself for not having my iPhone to take the video, when he did the full demo. I asked him as where was Dave, he did not see him either, now that was surprising. So we looked around for another 30 minutes and then finally saw him; it was clear it was not his day today, completing the Marathon with 4:53, and soon Norm arrived too.

Though I was not happy with my times, the Marathon intrigued me. It was not cut and dry; and there were a lot of factors to consider. And that is the real challenge. Out of 4 of us, only Vimal ran close to his potential. Dave had told us earlier that it takes around 7 Marathon, before you could fine tune various factors. We were all thinking about the reasons of our bad timings. Experience is what you get, when you do not get what you want. Looking back, I think these are the learnings I would take to my next Marathon (if and when I decided to run it).

1. Instead of running the last long training run (23 miles) two weeks before the race, schedule it 3 weeks before.

2. Most of our long runs were on trail not on hard pavement, I think my nutrition was OK before and during the race, however, I really did not train on hard pavement for my long runs or interval training. The muscles might had taken the beatings till 16 miles in the race which had the steep downhill portion and then gave up.

3. There is a big difference between Half and Full Marathon. For Half Marathon (the distance we were running every weekend), you really do not have to worry about nutrition, water, pace and cramps. After you hit two hours, and you have another two hours to do, it is a different game.

4. Most of our long runs were not at Marathon Pace, I think I would have one of shorter long run (12-15 miles) at targeted Marathon pace to improve muscle memory of that pace.

5. We did Yasso 800s between 3:20 to 3:30 (Dave, Vimal and I); which as per the online calculator meant that we should all be able to run Marathon in that time; did not happen for any of us. Most of the calculators which extrapolates your mile, 5K, 10K and Half Marathon distance to give your estimated time for full Marathon, did not really work for any of us.

6. Increase week days mileage from 10-12 miles to 18-20 miles, to get to weekly mileage of 30 plus.

7. Continue Cross training of biking and/or swimming to give running muscles break.

8. Continue interval/speed training.

9. Carbohydrate loading should be just for one day before the run, not for 1 week. My weight was increased by 6 pounds in last 6 days, before race.

10. Find a flat or all downhill course for next Marathon.

Marathon running is tough and challenging, both physically and mentally. Why people do it ? Everybody has their reasons. Personally I would not say that I loved running Marathon distance. As I write this, I have been walking, with a stance two feet wide, more like Sumo wrestler, my calves still hurting and quads trashed; and I am thinking about my next race (I would like to think I am alert mentally). Two years ago I used to see Marathoners with neon light over their head, flashing ‘Crazy’. I started running just last April (never ran before in my life) and almost gave up. Now after experimenting for one full year, I have utmost respect for runners. Long runs (18 mile plus) would have been more painful without good company of friends. It was intrigue of challenge which was the driving force for me to run the Marathon. And also, that it gives me confidence, that if you put your mind and persist, anything is possible; except that you cannot teach anything to a runner with two black eyes.

18 mile run in Alum Rock Park (Feb 13, 2011)

Feb 13, 2011 – 18 mile run in Alum Rock Park (with Dave, Norm and Vimal) – This was a big planned run to train for our Marathon at March end. I have never run Marathon, so was looking to see how we hold up. My shins were aching for a week now from tempo runs and interval training, however, nothing where I had to stop running and take a break. However, I was thinking that it would be nice to take a break, as we still have another 6 weeks to go before the race.


I look forward for long runs, as they are run at 60-90 seconds slower pace than your planned Marathon Pace. Idea is to increase the endurance, and most of the time we can chit chat during the long run. Since there was no rains for quite some time, ARP was dried up. We decided to do South Rim and then do another loop till Bridge and come back. Well, that was the plan at least. All of us were prepared with nutrition (bars, Cytomax etc).

Dave was in a good form today, and we were just trying to keep up with him. I was hoping that my calves and shins would warm up and pain would go away after couple of miles, however, it did not. I was having doubts as how I would break 4 hours, if the muscles are already getting fatigued. After covering our usual elevation gain of 1000 ft, I was able to open up during downhill, was able to keep up a good pace, following Dave and Vimal. I was glad that trail was all dried up as I always fear for balance on wet downhill trail. Everybody was doing fine, and finished all uphill and downhill, and covered 13 miles. Then all of a sudden, I tripped and next thing I remember, I was all flat on the ground. Fall sounded really nasty. However, after smelling the wet soil patch where I fell, for 10 seconds, I knew that no bones were broken or joints were damaged (well at slow pace of 10 min/mile what do you expect). Dave came and inspected all fours (Hands-elbows and knees). Of course everything was scraped badly and right hand was bleeding. I told him that I could run, and we ran to nearest water tap to wash the wounds. He mentioned, good thing that you didn’t scraped your pretty face, otherwise Promila would have never forgiven you !

I felt more alive than ever, and thought I could do another 10 miles. The shin pain and calf pain was gone, I think shot of adrenalin woke me up. After cleaning up the wounds, I was leading for some time, I still wanted to do another 5 miles. Dave screamed from behind again, “Now we cannot lose you, all we have to do is follow the blood trail”. I know my legs are going to be pulled for a long time now, hope they help in stretching some of the muscles too. Since both of my hands were scraped I knew that I would not be able to stretch my calves after the run. And as I write this, though the pain from scrape is tolerable, but muscles are now seizing up. Anyway, completed 18 mile run in little under 3 hours (10 min pace). I thought this was a pretty good indicator as we climbed over 1000 feet.

After reaching home, Promila screamed, while keeping her hands on her ears, and Prem ran to the family room and disappeared. Great to see family support system in action. I guess some of the blood clotted and made it look worse than it was. Promila washed my wounds and dressed me up well and Prem came back with some water-proof bandage. My right hand is swollen, and I am limping not because of the scrape but because of calf muscles are not stretched. I guess, I have now proper sign to take that week break from running which I was longing for. All in all, I feel that Marathon training, to run it in less than 4 hours, is quite grueling. I am hoping at some time pain associated with running would go away, till then, thank you JnJ for making Tylenol.

Year 2010

2010 proved to be another memorable year for me. Personally, following things stands out, not in any particular order

1. Hiking Nevada Falls in Yosemite with Prem, while Promila and Liz did Half Dome hike.

2. Running – This year, after struggling for some time, was able to finish two Half Marathons. Now running has become a part of my life. I never felt so strong in my life before.

3. Hiking Mt Whitney


This year proved to be very good year for Prem. Nebulizer which used to be a constant feature in our family room is now hiding somewhere in closet. No asthma episode for him. I can watch him eat Pizza at Birthday parties without much concern. However, healthy diet and natural cures continue to control his triggers (runny nose) very well. And I am very thankful for that.

Looking back, in 2009, major highlight was hiking Half Dome. However, most of the group who hiked with me at that time moved on to do other things. As I enjoyed hiking very much, I was looking for company where people have similar interest and fitness level. I met Chetan and Prasad (and later Nitin) on one my solo hikes on Mission Peak. Promila’s ginger tea (yes, she still wakes up earlier than me to make it so that I can take it on my 6 AM hikes) proved to be ice breaker and one thing led to another, I ended up doing some major hikes with them.

Big thanks to Chetan for detailing out Mission Peak to Monument Peak (though we missed Monument peak) hike in January, Berry Creek Falls and Rose Peak hikes in April, Mt Tallac and Mt Whitney in August. I am looking forward for his lead to continue doing different hikes this year.
I was fortunate enough to do some other major hikes with my old buddy Paul, who got me started to hiking at the end of 2008. I remember hiking in Alum Rock Park with him, and after a month of hiking on weekends, we did Mission Peak and I remember very well that my legs were shaking after I reached the top for the first time. Just like Chetan, Paul has eye for the details and knows most of the hikes in Bay Area and around. He led me and Liz (my manager) on some beautiful hikes; Pinnacles National Monument in March, Quick Silver Almaden in April, Nisene Park in June and Sierra Azule in November. Again next year, we are planning for a few major hikes.

I was very happy that Liz and Promila hiked Half Dome. I was blogging throughout the year on most of my major hikes. Surprisingly, I received more than dozen of ‘Thank you’ for my blog on Half Dome hike, as it helped other people in planning, preparing and getting it done. Also, I received couple of comments hinting that sometimes blog is too long, and few comments asking for more details. Let me be clear, main purpose of this blog is to document my journey and share it with my friends and family members who are in India. Also, later when Prem grows up, at some time, if he is interested, he could look at it to have some idea as what are the things, growing up, we did together.

Courtesy Prem and Promila, I admit shamelessly, that I was father of the year.

New thing which I learnt this year was running. My struggles with running has been very well documented, and apparently this also helped few people in taking up running. Thanks to Dave to lead long runs on different trails, that I am still able to continue running. It really helps to have some company with similar fitness level again. Few days I might be down a bit, when Dave leads, and other times I might be leading. I find running more challenging, as I lose running fitness very quickly if I did not run for 3-4 days. It is good to have Norm and Vimal also on few of these runs, as it keeps everybody motivated. Promila has also started running somewhat regularly now.

With Prem doing well in last few years now, Promila was able to get a 6 month contract this year and enjoyed working in a startup and getting back into job market. She was her usual self, doing everything with lot of energy and passion. Before the start of her job, Promila took some home projects. She took off the wall paper in living room, textured the walls and then painted them, probably 4 to 8 different coats for each wall. She experimented quite a bit and was very pleased with her effort. It was indeed a big effort and a totally new area for her to take on. We got one of our bathroom remodeled and enjoying our Jacuzzi tub almost daily. The handyman who helped us with bathroom remodel, further aided us in recovering some of the walls Promila textured and painted. Promila is looking for a new job now, and I am somewhat anxious that she gets something quick, before she decides to take on another home project.

Promila and Prem started Taekwando and both now hold Green Belt. I was taken aback to find out that they can do 20 pushups and to see Promila’s bruised knuckles. Prem and Promila have made major leaps in learning swimming. I know that swimming is considered great cross training for running, so started going with them for recreational swim, one day a week, while their swimming classes are off till next summer.

As I write this blog, I am in Carlsbad, next to Legoland. Big thanks to Manoj E this year (just like end of last year) for making it possible to send us this last minute unbelievable deal. We are using hot tub and heated pool almost every day. Promila was thrilled to find Costco across the street, and I realized how truly she enjoyed cooking. As I write these words, Prem read my mind and said that this is the 5th day on vacation and we haven’t eaten outside as yet. The main reason for this is Promila has been cooking and eating very healthy food that she has lost the craving for comfort food, in fact, most of the time, it repulses her. It showed up in our yearly check up, both of our cholesterol level are over 30 points down, compare to last year.

We spent couple of days with Som-Swapna-Jahnvi during this trip. We managed to get out and go to Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, which took us to 8800 ft from desert floor. To our surprise, there was 2 ft of snow at top and a lot of areas to do snowboarding. Prem was missing throwing snow balls and playing in snow this year, however, this made it possible. It was amazing to enjoy beach one day and snow next day. In hindsight, I think this is a real good way to do snowboarding as you avoid all that uncertainty of road conditions and weather and still can play in snow and come back down the same day. We did go to SeaLife Aquarium and Museum of Making Music (shows most of the instruments from 1890, and how changes in technology wiped out certain things).
Though I lost everybody from 2009 hiking group, however, joined/formed three new groups, two hiking and one running. And everybody in these groups reached new heights this year, literally. However, main thing was that we challenged and enjoyed each other’s company and had fun. Looking back, I feel that this is a normal human tendency to remember the year by what good has happened and holding onto the things you love. Abraham Lincoln had summed it up in this quote

“And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.” ~

Happy holidays and we wish you a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year 2011, filled with laughter and joy.

with love (Prem)

Promila - Maneesh

San Jose Half Marathon – October 3rd 2010

This was my second official race, ever. My last one was on July 25, 2010. Thomas convinced me to sign up for this Half Marathon when we went to pick up the bib for San Francisco Half Marathon. As expected this was another highly organized event. My preparation for this event was better than the earlier one. This is what worked for me. I had couple of over 10 milers run, during my training. I ran only three days a week; Tuesday (30-45 minutes), Thursday (30-40 minutes) and then long run on Sunday (8-13 miles). Long runs were run at 9 min/mile pace or slower. Besides that I was hiking on Saturday (Mission Peak mostly) for 2 hours.


2 months before when I ran Half Marathon, my timings were 1:50:58. However, I ran 2nd Half of San Francisco Half Marathon; which means there was an elevation drop of over 300 ft; so I was always skeptical about this performance. San Jose Marathon was flat and it was a loop, so I was looking forward to see how would I do here. I was feeling lot more stronger than before. I thought if I could do 1:50, I would take that.

When race started, as expected, I forgot all about my pace and started running at a pace which I thought was comfortable; when I looked at my GPS, I was doing 7 minutes/mile. I finished 5K in 22:51. Though Thomas was ahead of me just by few seconds at this time, I did not see him. I finished 10K in 47:48. Till I finished 8 miles, I was still doing sub 8 min/miles. After that I started losing gas, and started walking through water tables (which were at every two miles). I knew that my cruise speed is somewhere near 8:35; so I did not mind slowing down. However, after running a big portion of the race at sub 8, it seemed to me that I was crawling. I finished my race in 1:47:01, behind Thomas 1:41:47.

I am happy with my progress in last two months of training. If you are a runner, you can appreciate as how difficult it is to shave off minutes from your last performance. Last mile I tried to run faster, however, my legs sent a signal that they might cramp; so I just kept my cruising speed. Promila called me at finishing line, she took my photo. Promila and Prem were waiting for me for all those 2 hours. I did not know that she took photos at 4th mile and she was able to capture Thomas, me and Radhika. Promila’s friend, Malai, just finished after me at 1:51:49; followed by Rajesh at 2:05:20, then Lindsey (my running counsel at office) at 2:07; Sudhakar at 2:16:09, and then Radhika at 2:40:56. We waited for Meenal for a long time, called her, did not know what happened. I just came to know she finished too. In one of the running book, it was mentioned that runner who run the marathon in 5 hours or more, compare to one who finish under 3; exert twice the effort, since they were running much longer, on their feet much longer. I have utmost respect for the people who in spite of knowing how hard it would be, came to run and finished it. By that logic, I would think that Thomas is the laziest of the bunch, did not want to put too much effort.

What’s next à Like I mentioned in my earlier blogs, that running is much harder than it seems. Hiking comes easier to me and much more enjoyable. I did not like the pressure of bettering my timings in running. Just like hiking, I want to enjoy my run, and it is difficult to do that in such a race. May be ultra running at lower pace might suite me. I have been doing my long runs with Dave (ultra-runner) and Norm; once in two weeks. We go to Ed Levin Park and Alum Rock Park; and do trail running which is much more fun and since lot of hills are involved, you do not worry about timings and enjoy the run. So till I have big improvement on my time, I do not think I would be enrolling for another Half Marathon, anytime soon. However, before I participate in any ultra-run, I might think of a full Marathon; not sure.
 
Photos

Mt Whitney - August 30, 2010

Mt Whitney Hike (over 6400 ft elevation gain and 22 miles, altitude of 14505 ft)

Promila's sandwiches on the way

I have been looking forward to this hike for a long time. I had heard so many stories about Mt Whitney since I have been hiking for last two years; most of them were quite discouraging and daunting which added to intrigue of the challenge. First time I heard it from a person who had been hiking for last 12 years, hiked Half Dome (at that time I had not even hiked Half Dome); who said that he could not complete it as he was exhausted and had a big headache. Another person, mentioned that he started vomiting at the start of switchbacks (there are 97 switchbacks which comes after half of the hike is completed). Almost everybody mentioned that altitude would gets you, i.e. hike starts from the altitude where Half Dome ends and then goes on for another 6100 feet. I knew this hike needed both mental and physical strength. Since it was going to be a long hike, you need to carry more water and weight, means around 20 lb of backpack lugging around for 12-18 hrs; not just legs needed to be strong, your core needs to be strong. Since I was hiking and running for most part of the year, I did not do anything special. I was looking forward to this challenge and was more curious to see how I reacted to altitude.

Big thanks to Chetan who had done this hike few years back; and like for so many hikes earlier, he organized this hike too. He booked for permits in February; knew that best time to do the hike was in late summer when we would not need ice axes or crampons. He booked the camp site, rental car; constantly told us that this was the hardest hike of all. He broke the hike in segments, what to eat, when to eat, and when to turn back if we were not feeling well. The youngest guy in our group of four was the most informed and leading the hike. Though when he applied for permit, he did not anticipate that his son, who was born just few days after he applied for permit, would hardly give him time to prepare for the hike.

Rainbow Falls

Devils Postpile

Day 1 – (Saturday - August 28) - A day before on Friday, we picked the rental car. We did a mock packing on that day to ensure that all of our stuff could fit in the trunk (4 sleeping bags, 4 backpacks, 1 car camping tent and 4 small suite cases; along with hiking sticks and hiking shoes). We had to keep two of the sleeping bags in backseat. It worked out fine, as they proved to be support to lean on and catch some sleep at 5 AM in the morning. Promila, as usual, got up at 3 AM, and prepared some 10 yummy vegetarian sandwiches with greens, sprouts, Morning Start patty and Humus. Prasad’s wife too packed some real good sandwiches, which lasted us for breakfast and later for dinner. I started to drive from Fremont, and asked Chetan if he had the GPS for directions. He told me that he did not need GPS. I never ventured out without GPS, I was one of those who constantly missed exits and were hopeless without GPS. Apparently, Chetan knew all the roads around California. He had traveled to Yosemite on average 5 times a year. When I missed an exit, he quickly reminded me – ‘Dude – you missed the exit’; and once we reached Yosemite Valley, he took over. He drove us to Mammoth Lakes to show us Devils Post-pile (National Monument) and then we hiked to Rainbow Falls (total of 5 miles hike). Idea was to start getting used to walking at higher elevation and look at some beautiful scenery. Devils Post-pile are hexagonal/octagonal/pentagonal shapes, a geological wonder,60 ft high columnar basalt, which were naturally created by volcanic activities 1000s of years ago.

From there we drove to Lone Pine city (all on route 395 S). We went to visitor center to pick our permits and then headed to Whitney Portal (13 miles on Whitney Portal Rd towards East) to camp there. Idea was to eat outside, so apart from sleeping bags, we did not have any other car camping things. After eating sandwiches, we slept at around 9 PM, and idea was to wake up early, do our breakfast and hang around Lone Pine Lake (10,000 ft) to get acclimatized to elevation.

Whitney Portal Camp ground

Lone Pine Lake at 10,000 ft

Day 2 - Whitney Portal has just one store, where you can have breakfast, lunch and dinner. Store was famous for pancakes. I shared the pancake with Chetan, and we both could not finish even half of it. I couldn't eat sweet syrup with pancake and Chetan found it amusing to see I was eating them with mustard. We relaxed a bit after heavy breakfast, and then started the 3 mile hike for Lone Pine lake. We had the permit for Monday, however, Lone Pine lake was just outside the permit area. It was a beautiful lake, surrounded by granite mountains. We hung around for 3-4 hours there, tried to rest. We started chatting with couple of other people there. This is when one person mentioned that wind was very chilly at Trail Campsite and it was freezing. There was a chance of snow. He further tried to scare us by asking if we had snow boots for the hike. This changed the mood in our camp. Already, everybody was uncertain because of altitude and length of the hike; and with snow fall sounding imminent, Chetan started asking us as what we thought. Initially, we thought of starting the hike at 1 AM in the morning; however, as per the weather forecast by this stranger, it was to snow in night. I told him that if it started snowing in night, we could delay the hike to get out later. I was willing to get out as late as 8 AM to give it a shot. However, Chetan was not amused to see this adventurous spirit and was worried that trail could be too slippery, and told us that he felt responsible for us as a group leader, and more or less had the right to put off the whole thing. We kept quiet and then decided to go to city and talked to ranger and get correct weather forecast and their opinion in another hour. I wanted to calm my mind down, and listened to my all time favorite book – Alchemist for some inspiration. Needless to say that I had to go through only couple of pages before I had to stop –

"At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny.

The old man pointed to a baker standing in his shop window at one corner of the plaza. "When he was a child, that man wanted to travel, too. But he decided first to buy his bakery and put some money aside. When he's an old man, he's going to spend a month in Africa. He never realized that people are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.

"He should have decided to become a shepherd," the boy said.

"Well, he thought about that," the old man said. "But bakers are more important people than shepherds. Bakers have homes, while shepherds sleep out in the open. Parents would rather see their children marry bakers than shepherds."



Ranger confirmed that weather was going to be better than before and chance of snow was only 20%. She further confirmed that this is very local thing and not a weather phenomenon which was going to stay for next few days. I was relieved to find out that hike was on. We came back around 6 and tried to sleep. As expected, I was too excited, and could not get any sleep.

Whitney Portal -
start of the hike

Day 3 - We woke up at 12:30 AM, and were at Whitney Portal at 1:30 AM. After taking couple of snaps at portal, we started the hike at 1:36 AM. Chetan ordered me to be in front, followed by Nitin, himself and then Prasad. I asked Nitin to be in front, as I did not want to rush everybody and wanted to go with group’s pace. Chetan, Prasad and Nitin had liquid Ensure before start of the hike and Chetan’s idea was to have Ensure every hour of the hike. I turned my GPS on to see that we average around 30 minutes/mile for first 6 miles of hike. Soon Nitin and I were ahead and waited for Chetan and Prasad after first hour, for around 9 minutes. We were getting cold quickly during our wait. At 4th mile (as per GPS which we came to know later that it might have stopped), we had to wait for full 40 minutes. Lot of other hikers passed. Apparently something was not working. Prasad confirmed that Ensure did not really work for him. Chetan quickly realized that it was too cold to wait for that long, and asked us to go further without waiting. This was around 4 AM, Nitin and I moved quickly to catch up with hikers who passed us while we were waiting. We soon caught up with few of them. And then before Trail Camp (upper camp for backpackers), we came across a stream which was dividing two big mountains. We did not know whether to cross the stream or not. One couple from Poland, who we just passed, caught up with us; and the girl quickly decided to cross the stream. She pointed to us that there are small rocks, put together on the side, indicating that we had to go over the stream. It was too dark to see the trail, even though all of us were wearing head lamps. We followed them, and after an hour of hiking, climbing on rocks, we knew we were not on the trail. We kept looking back and did not see anybody. And then we saw the head lamps on couple of other hikers on the another mountain on the right.

Consultation Lake

Now we knew for sure that we were not on the trail and not on the correct mountain. Since we had climbed up quite a bit, the distance between the mountains had increased. We pottered around to find way to jump to the other mountain. The Polish guy was very adventurous, and started climbing the rock; however, his girl friend got scared and asked Nitin if he could phone for help. Nitin, despite knowing that he did not have the signal at the portal, tried, and told her that he could not. Polish guy, after finding that his girl friend might be following us instead of him, returned back; and tried a different approach. We all climbed back a bit; and he found another way to get down and then climb over to the other mountain where we were intermittently seeing the headlights. We just watched him, and then on realizing that he was successful this time, tried to follow him. Nitin was much more at ease using his hands while I was slow on this technical climb. Since we had hiking poles, sometimes, I had to keep both the poles in one hand; and climbed just using one hand and two feet. I had to ask Nitin to slow down so that I could follow his steps on this tricky terrain. This had started to freak me out. Finally we reached the base of the right mountain and had to climb around 300 feet at almost vertical wall (70-80 degree angle). This mountain has lot of loose rocks and thorny bushes; so we could not use our hands to grab on the bushes. Loose rocks though provided us the footing but there was a danger of it slipping down and becoming unstable. We swore and sweated our way. And almost just 10 feet away from top; Nitin feeling comfortable asked me to that it would be good to capture in camera on what we just did. I just wanted to get the hell out of that hole. He finally took a video after we climbed back on trail. Lesson learned was that if you had hiked for couple of minutes without being on trail, turn around and retrace your steps.

Guitar Lake visible at Trail Crest

My body was buzzing with adrenaline rush. I was not prepared for this, and looking forward to the infamous 97 switchbacks. Day was breaking up, it was around 6:20 AM, we saw the Consultation lake in the distance, it appeared as a very dark serene water body. Soon we crossed Trail Camp; and looking for switchbacks. I saw a hiker coming down, I asked him as where were the switchbacks. He told me that this was them. We knew that last water stream to get the water was at switchback #23. I was carrying 3.5 liters, and so was Nitin. I still had around 2 liters and decided not to fill the water. Nitin stopped to get the water but it was frozen. It was cold so I kept pushing up to be warm. Based on Mission Peak and Mt Tallac hike, I knew Nitin was just few minutes slower than me for every mile. Since sun was already up and trail was totally visible, I decided to do final push for the top. I was still curious to find out as how I react to altitude. So far, no headache no nausea. I was surviving on regular Gatorade and cliff bars.

USGS seal at top of
Mt Whitney along with my
buddy of 3 Half Dome Hikes

I crossed the all the switchbacks and now I was on Pacific Trail Crest (last 2.5 miles). GPS was showing altitude of 13500 feet. Though once you reached Trail Crest, you get to see on other side of Sierra Nevada mountain range (Guitar lake above), it proved to be very deceptive as it kept going up and down; I winced every time it went down, as I had to climb back. These 2.5 miles proved to be the longest miles. I saw few people here who were vomiting and just gasping for breath. I was glad that I was not impacted so far. And then I saw the Smithsonian Shelter at the top of the Mt Whitney, indicating that my climb was over. I ran to it in excitement. I checked my GPS, it took 8 hours and 12 minutes. I thought this climb could have been completed in 6 hours had we not lost our way.

Log book at top of Mt Whitney
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On Top of Mt Whitney

Wind was blowing hard and howling. Smithsonian shelter was open to take refuge from this cold. I took some pictures with my shoe; and then pull out both US and Indian flags to take pictures with them. Getting Indian flag was hard. However, my true desire got materialized when I convinced one Desi shopkeeper to loan the flag to me for a week. I signed up the log on the top and went into shelter and shared stories with other hikers. I waited for Nitin; after around 40 minutes of break, I calculated that even if he was 5 min a mile slow, 30 minutes should be enough for him to catch up. May be altitude caught up to him. So I decided to return back, around 0.8 miles down and at 13,900 feet elevation, I saw Nitin sitting on the rock, keeping his face down, his backpack was few feet away from him. He was looking gloomy, and his long face reminded me of Devdas. I asked him as how was he doing. He confirmed that altitude slowed him down, and his heart rate was getting quite high so he had to take frequent breaks. He further mentioned that he was determined to make it. Though he was saying those words, I was not sure. I chatted with him, gave him more details and decided to get down. I went another 100 yards, and decided to turn around. I remembered Chetan’s words which did not amuse me at the time that he felt responsible for the group; now I was feeling the same. By the time I reached his backpack, he was pissing away some 100 feet from the trail. He took a long time. He was surprised to see me back, and politely said that I did not have to be with him. We hiked another 2 minutes, and he was winded again. I checked my watch, and thought that it might take too long with this pace. I offered to carry his backpack; again as a gentleman he refused and told me that it was too heavy for me to carry both. I checked, it was heavy, as he was still carrying unfinished Ensure and lot of water. I suggested to exchange the backpacks and see if it felt better. I had only 800 ml of water left at that time. He carried mine, and it was much lighter. He still had to stop every 5 minutes. Finally, we made it. And it was worth to see the real excitement and pleasure on this face. We took lot of pictures, he signed up the log, took some pictures in shelter. We met the polish couple inside. I was surprised to see that it took them so long too.

With Nitin

Going down was fast, however, Nitin felt winded and woozy whenever we had to do some climb on Trail Crest. He was cursing his low calories Gatorade and Ensure. Lesson learned was that never to try something new on major hike. After Trail Crest, he was strong for rest of the hike. On switchbacks, I had a burning sensation in my eyes, I had to use my goggles. And then I remembered to put sunscreen too. I knew I am a bit dehydrated. I remembered the signs of dehydration that if I stopped sweating and peeing that means I was dehydrated. Unlike Nitin who was flooding the trail, mine was a trickle. I kept sipping water. In hindsight, I think I should have drank more. We took many pictures now going down, and Nitin was feeling quite strong now. I asked him if we could stop at Lone Pine lake again, he was not in mood to do even a bit of climb back. I looked at the watch, and knew that we had to reach early as warm food at store was available till 7:15 PM. We reached at around 6:15 PM. Chetan and Prasad were anxiously waiting for us. We took few pictures at portal again. We spent over 16 hours on trail and I was surprised to see that I did not have any cramps or pains or stiffness in legs in this hike. We ate at store. Chetan, again graciously offered to drive all the way back (8 hours) on next day. Even couple of days later, I did not notice any pains or cramps; however, I noticed my lips were sun-burnt and lost all the sensations.

Going back, we had again a lot of fun in the car. Chetan was a total geek. I was impressed with his use of iPhone. He knew which gas stations had cheapest gas, pissing points on the road, and funniest of all was the discovery of right turns. He was anal in finding the Starbucks or pit stop where he did not have to take left turns. He had a huge collection of Hindi and English songs. And in his spare time, he enriches the content by tagging these songs with movie covers. Be it cars, computers, NAS, wireless, TV, Hetch Hetchy reservoir, he had all the details in his memory. I am sure if he writes his own blog, he would have a great following. He was quick witted too, and pulled everybody legs. When I pronounced bear as ‘beer’; he was quick to crack up. We were driving behind the truck carrying Alhambra water. Prasad mentioned that anything start with ‘Al’ means it name would be middle eastern; Chetan was quick to say, “How about ‘Alcoholic’?” Four days together, it was given that we would have some disagreements, however, we got past all that and in the end it was a very memorable trip.

After completing the hike

Would I do it again ? Absolutely. Mt Whitney is part of Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, so you get to see a lot of other mountains during the hike, along with lakes. Hike allows you to see both sides of the mountain range. Trail is very good and scenic. Altitude sickness did not hit me. I thought it may be due to my running. While talking to my Director, she mentioned that she got altitude sick at 12000 ft and she was much accomplished runner than I am now. I guess, I was just lucky. If some of you are interested, do let me know, we can plan for next year.

Photos