If I walk up to anyone and say that I love street running in Bangalore, people must think I’m crazy! But the fact is that by changing your strategy you can also love running on the streets.

I asked myself how come I love running on the streets and others don’t. I figured I was doing a few things differently.

• Running in residential areas:

Avoid main road when you can. If you are running random and don’t care to do a loop  it is best to run on small roads. Here is an example of my run around Padmanabhanagar. You  can see on google maps that there is only a few spots I hit the main roads (roads shown in yellow). I run mostly in the residential areas and small roads (roads shown in white). You can go from one area to the other by doing this, once in a while you might hit a main road, but find the next cross road as soon as possible.

What I love about running in the residential areas/small roads is that there are quite a number of trees around you. And all the houses look so different. Every house in Bangalore has its own charm in the way it is built. Some are colorful, some are built big, some are small and cozy. I keep myself entertained looking at all this.

• When you hit the main road stay to your right:

I feel this is very important to see a head on traffic than traffic behind you for two reasons, 1. You hear less honks. People in India honk so that the other person knows they are coming. 2. It is safer to see head on traffic so that you can move around looking at the vehicles.

But yes… most important thing is to find the next small road and get into it!

• Music helps

Music has always made me stay in my own world while running. I listen to a lot of podcasts / audio books while running. This can make you run a couple of extra miles.

These are the top three things that I do that makes a difference. I’m sure the other runners will have more points, do comment your experiences so that this helps other runners. Let us make street running a culture in Bangalore!

When I first met Roopa she had got me a gift from Brussels. It was a make your own ship kit. I was excited about the whole project. This was the first project together. I had seen a lot of these models when I was at Germany.

The Pirate Ship…

Making of the ship… We first started of finding all the different pieces and putting them together…

We enjoyed building the whole ship. It is best to do these small projects over the weekends. Keeps your mind occupied and a productive outcome

View all the pics here.

In the practice runs the maximum distance I had run was around 15Kms. I wasn’t sure what I was doing, but was determined to do at-least 3 loops of the 12.5 KMS.

The first 25K was easy and I was able to finish it in 2:18:26. The problem started when I continued further. I could suddenly feel that I’m going slower. I was monitoring my pace per KM. It was amazing to see how my body was not ready for the long distance. I had lots of energy in my mind to go faster, but just couldn’t go any faster. At around 32KMS I had a very bad cramp on my calf muscle. This was my first cramp while running. I could feel the calf muscle harden like a stone. I did some stretches and continued the run. In the end I stopped at 37.5 KMS. I didn’t want to run any further.

I enjoyed the whole run, I’m glad I tried the longer distance. The confidence of doing another full marathon is back. I was not sure if I would do another full marathon after doing the Bangalore full marathon in 2006.

Here is my timing chart of the run. Needless to say the graph after 25K just goes down.

KM     PACE / KM     Total Time
1       05:05     0:05:05
2       05:12     0:10:17
3       05:00     0:15:17
4       05:24     0:20:41
5       05:26     0:26:07
6       05:03     0:31:10
6.5    03:06     0:34:16
7.5    05:06     0:39:22
8.5    05:46     0:45:08
9.5     05:50     0:50:58
10.5     05:33     0:56:31
11.5     05:20     1:01:51
12.5     05:00     1:06:51
13.5     05:28     1:12:19
14.5     05:33     1:17:52
15.5     05:14     1:23:06
16.5     05:26     1:28:32
17.5     05:59     1:34:31
18.5     04:27     1:38:58
19     03:14     1:42:12
20     06:17     1:48:29
21     06:18     1:54:47
22     05:33     2:00:20
23     06:02     2:06:22
24     06:02     2:12:24
25     06:02     2:18:26
26     06:33     2:24:59
27     06:36     2:31:35
28     06:38     2:38:13
29     06:45     2:44:58
30     07:16     2:52:14
31     06:49     2:59:03
31.5     05:24     3:04:27
32.5     08:12     3:12:39
33.5     09:15     3:21:54
34.5     06:41     3:28:35
35.5     08:13     3:36:48
36.5     07:19     3:44:07
37.5     07:01     3:51:08

The funniest part is the day after the marathon. Everything in this video is true to me (including the last scene)

City:

Its a beautiful city, has a lot of touch from Paris, mostly because a lot of roads around city have the rough stone look.

The building and surroundings look very colorful.

Best part is the river flowing through the city:

I like the fact that a lot of people workout or try to be outdoors all the time:

People:

Today I had been to a typical German restaurant called “Muenchen”. I have always found a way to find something vegetarian in the menu . I was sitting on a table alone. After some time, two more guys asked me if they could join me. They were not very well off, they made their living singing on the streets. They were a little drunk and were here to have some more beer. What I liked about these guys is what they were talking to me about. We had a general conversation about US, India etc… but before he left, he said:

Most important thing in life is to be happy. Money and other things don’t matter.

I was so surprised to hear this… and was actually pleased to hear this from him I was happy for him that he is happy for what he does for a living. All he does is sings and plays the guitar on the street or so, makes enough money to survive.

Before he left, he gave me a lot of advice and asked me to enjoy this time of my life.

Anyways, the point is, my experience with a lot of people around here has been very nice. People are very friendly, will go all the way to help you if you are a stranger. I have slowly started to like Regensburg. It will be one of my favorite place for sure!

Click here for the complete photo set of Regensburg.