Back to the Prairie...The Path is clear

The Illinois Prairie Path is a great boon to runners. It spreads out in multiple directions, and one can run a good distance on the non-concrete path and enjoy nature and other runners and bikers. Always grateful to the people who made these kinds of things happen.

Picking up the Pace

As the spring progresses, it is time for runners to pick up the pace and do longer distances. The key requirement is waking up early enough in the morning.

LBW- Lendl, Borg, and Wilander

Three of the finest tennis players bring back great memories- the greatest of them all, Bjorn Borg, with his cool excellence, Lendl with his consistency, and Mats with his great court coverage.

Borg could face McEnroe in Champions Series in US - Tennis - Yahoo! Sports: "Borg is participating in the 30-and-over Outback Champions Series event in Boston that begins Thursday with eight entrants. If Borg beats Mikael Pernfors in the opening round, he’ll meet the winner of a match between McEnroe and Mats Wilander.

“With all the great matches we had in the past, it’s always something special to see John’s face on the other side of the net,” Borg said by phone from his home in Stockholm."

Engineer MBAs- at IIM and at IIT-M

it is interesting to note that in the competitive MBA slots at IIM-A and IIT-M, engineers dominate.

It's engineers galore at IIM-A-Education-Services-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times: "Unlike last year, the number of girls entering the coveted institute fell sharply. For the 2009-11 batch, as many as 19% of the entrants were women, a sharp rise from the 2008-10 batch figures of 6%. This year, however, just 11% of the successful candidates are girls.

While 369 out of a batch of 385 are engineers, only one student from the arts background has made it to IIM-A, and only nine students, or 2% are from the commerce background, as against 4% last year. The others have a degree in science. The institute has maintained the percentage of candidates with prior work experience, at 61% of the total batch. The previous batch had nearly 60% candidates with work experience.

With the third and final round of implementation of the non-creamy layer-other backward caste quota complete, the strength of the current batch has gone up from 315 to 385. While 182 candidates belong to the general category, 104 are from the NC-OBC section, 87 from SC-ST and 12 from the differently-abled category.

In a shift from last year’s practice of offering tutorials to students from the SC/ST category who are weak in communication, mathematics and computing skills, the institute has broadened the scope to include students from the general category as well."

Arizona..once for runners, now one better be running

Arizona is a great place to run- beautiful mountains, wide-open spaces, blue skies. But the new "immigration" bill signed off by the Governor will force all runners who are not Caucasian to carry a number of IDs just in case they are stopped- not worth the trouble when one can run worry-free in neighboring states.

A London Fun-Athon in a Marathon

It appears that the London Marathon this year was a lot of fun. Shoes off to Kebede and Shobukhova for posting fast times.

BBC News - London Marathon runners set new world records: "Several world records for running in fancy dress have been broken as up to 36,000 people took part in this year's London Marathon.
Princess Beatrice, the first royal to complete the race, was in a group of 34 who set a record for the highest number of interlinked runners to finish...

Emmerdale actor Tony Audenshaw said it meant "everything" to have become the fastest celebrity to finish the marathon this year and also the fastest ever as a baby.

He crossed the line in three hours and 13 minutes saying: "You can forget about the 100m record; this is the record people are interested in - the world's fastest baby in a marathon."

Account manager David Ross, 42, from Sutton became the fastest-ever cartoon character.

He dressed as Fred Flintstone and carried an inflatable club during his run, which took three hours and seven minutes.

"I got a bit tired saying 'Yabba Dabba Doo', but it's a very proud moment," he said. "It's been a good day."

Police officer Jill Christie wore a Superwoman outfit and took the record for quickest female superhero..."

A Bolt of Speed

Bolt Anchors Jamaican 4x100 to Record Win at Penn Relays - NYTimes.com: "A record crowd of 54,310, most of them cloaked in the Jamaican national colors, turned out to watch Usain Bolt, the men’s world-record holder in the 100 and 200 meters. He did not disappoint them. In the “USA vs. the World” program, Bolt anchored his 4x100 relay team to a Penn Relays record of 37.90.

Heading into the final leg, Bolt’s Jamaican Gold team was nearly even with both American relay teams. Bolt received a clean handoff from Marvin Anderson and almost effortlessly sprinted away from the American Ivory Williams to win by a clear margin. His split time was an astonishing 8.79 seconds."

A Volcanic Price...

A Marathon Just to Reach the Starting Line in London - NYTimes.com: "Bedford said the London Marathon organizers paid $230,000 to ensure the most competitive field would be there. The majority was for a $170,000 charter flight from Madrid that brought 20 runners from Africa and Europe, including the reigning Olympic champions Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya (also the defending London champion) and Constantina Dita of Romania. All 20 wheelchair athletes were in London or on their way, Bedford said."

Green running

Runners like me keep pounding the earth, so it is imperative that we tread gently. It is nice to be able to run in forests or on a beach. It was very nice to run inside IIT, where one could be close to nature, with deers and monkeys and crows and other birds and animals. Shoes made out of recycled rubber are widely available, as are vegan shoes. A good runner can observe nature during running and then go back and examine it in detail. One cannot help but respect the nature that yields us an immense array of fruits and vegetables. One of the best aspects of living in Chennai was the access to really fresh fruits and vegetables. The papaya we used to get was so sweet - because it was allowed to ripen naturally.

let's run, not run nature into the ground.

No Runners

An interesting sign on a walking trail in the Morton Arboretum - No Runners, aand there is a picture of a bike with a line across- so no biking and running along the trails. Understandable, as the trails go through wooded areas where there might be birds and animals, and also people taking a walk or studying nature.

A great run...

Ms. Lorena Ochoa is retiring from tennis. She provided great excitement in ladies' golf, along with Annika, with whom she shared a winning smile.

Lorena Ochoa Announces Her Retirement From Golf - NYTimes.com: "Lorena Ochoa is retiring, just as Annika Sorenstam did two years ago, leaving the struggling LPGA Tour without its No. 1 player again and depriving the sport of one of its great ambassadors.

Ochoa, probably the best-known athlete in Mexico who is not a soccer player, announced her surprise decision Tuesday and will discuss her plans Friday."

Inflation- in prices and in G.P.A.s

Another story about the increase in G.P.A.s over the past fifty years.

Plenty of debate about what this means- but it should be noted that G.P.A.s are calculated after a student's actual numerical score in a course is converted to a letter grade.

In our private liberal arts college "Regular grades are defined as follows:

A - Superior

B - Above Average

C - Average

D - Below Average

F - Failure"

Most schools have definitions along these lines.

Since B represents a 3 on a 0-4.0 scale, an average G.P.A. of 3.3 (in private schools) can be interpreted to mean that the "average" student (based on the mean G.P.A.) in these schools is somewhere between Above Average and Superior in performance...which seriously begs the definition of "Superior" and "Average" in the grading scheme. The entire grading scheme is a real academic performance. Interestingly, back in my engineering days at IIT (India) our report cards just showed our "actual" performance...the % achieved in every course.

Want a Higher G.P.A.? Go to a Private College - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com: "Over the last 50 years, college grade-point averages have risen about 0.1 points per decade, with private schools fueling the most grade inflation, a recent study finds.

The study, by �Stuart Rojstaczer and Christopher Healy, uses historical data from 80 four-year colleges and universities. It finds that G.P.A.’s have risen from a national average of 2.52 in the 1950s to about 3.11 by the middle of the last decade."

Cheruiyot does a phenomenal Boston Marathon

Phenomenal running by Mr. Robert Cheruiyot in the Boston M. My favorite runner-student MS posted a great time as well. Way to go!

Cheruiyot -- not that one! -- wins Boston Marathon - Yahoo! Sports: "Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot won the 114th Boston race Monday, finishing in 2:05:52 to shatter by 82 seconds the course record set by unrelated four-time winner Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot. American Ryan Hall, who finished third last year, missed another spot on the podium by 2 seconds, but his time of 2:08:41 was the fastest ever for U.S. runner in Boston.

“Today was a breakthrough day,” said Hall, who was 6 seconds faster than Bob Kempainen was in 1994. “Guys are paving new territory, and that’s good for us, too.”

Teyba Erkesso of Ethiopia took the women’s title in 2:26:11, sprinting to the tape to win by 3 seconds in the event’s third-closest women’s finish. Russia’s Tatyana Pushkareva smiled and waved at the TV cameras as she closed what had been a 90-second gap, but she could not quite catch Erkesso on Boylston Street."

No De-Icing Needed, but Hot Sox are...

An interesting sports time in Chicago- the Cubs and Sox look awful, Bulls will get cooked in the first round-and the Blackhawks are carrying high expectations on their shoulders.

Forty to Fifteen

A little more than two weeks ago it was running in Chennai in 40 degrees Celsius. Today it was 15 in Chicago...quite a cold feeling, but nevertheless more pleasant to run in.

A Marathon Eruption

Volcanic Eruptions Affect Hundreds of Runners’ Travel to Boston - NYTimes.com: "As many as 600 entrants from Europe may be unable to get to Boston for Monday’s race because of volcanic eruptions in Iceland that have disrupted trans-Atlantic flights."

Getting to racing form

After a decade of non-racing, it is time to train for serious racing...

Against the Wind...

running against the wind...a great classic by Bob Seger and the SBB. Gorgeous 80 degree weather in Chicago makes it heavenly for runners.

A Maniacal feeling of being In My Tribe

In My Tribe- a wonderful album by 10,000 Maniacs in 1983. The song Peace Train introduced me to this band, and Natalie Merchant remains one of my favorite singer/songwriters, more than a quarter century after that album.

An IIT run

It's been more than a week since I returned from IIT Madras. Running in the Chennai weather was a fun experience- though it became tougher as the summer took hold.

Untarnished High Praise

Two young girls playing in our courtyard stopped by to admire our garden. Both of them came up to me and said "you have beautiful flowers in your garden." The innocence of youth makes these remarks so remarkable- and bring great joy to the gardener.

A gorgeous day

April 10, 2010 should go down in the record books for an example of a "perfect" day- mildly sunny, pleasant 75 degrees, slight breeze, low humidity, and greenery all around.

A runner's irresistible candy.

A Sad Commentary

Watching the IPL games on TV, the viewer is treated to a corporate-sponsored commentary- the Indian Media have taken sponsorship to a dramatically high, hitherto unscaled, peak.

Of cliches and silly points: "This thread of communication, though, is getting strained at IPL as commentators look to forge stronger bonds with sponsors. So a resounding hit over the boundary is “DLF Maximum”, with no regard to the fact that more than six runs can be scored off a ball if an overthrow is added to the mix. The fall of a wicket is a “Citi Moment of Success”, giving the impression that the successful player owes something to Citigroup, the global financial powerhouse.

A good catch, like it or not, is more than that — it is a “Karbon Kamaal Catch”, perhaps suggesting that the player could not have held the ball as well as he did but for the mobile handset brand."

Back in Stride

Getting back to running on a dreary, cloudy, drizzly day, is not easy but once one is out it is easy to find one's stride.

Amazing Spring

Many plants in bloom, gorgeous flowers in abundance, greenery all around. Kids running around. Now is the time to get back to running.

Slow tortoises pay the price...

It is quite sad and disheartening to see the human pursuit of food and entertainment result in such destruction. Tortoises are, like all others, beautiful creatures that enliven nature.

Tortoise's Beauty Contributing to Its Downfall : Discovery News: "Entire regions were found to be devoid of the tortoises. Locals informed the scientists that armed bands of poachers had taken away truckloads of tortoises to supply open meat markets in towns such as Beloha and Tsihombe. Remains of the poached tortoises were also found at processing sites where authorities recently seized the meat.

“Areas where scores of radiated tortoises could be seen just a few years ago have been poached clean,” said James Deutsch, director of the WCS's Africa Program. “Back then, one could hardly fathom that this beautiful tortoise could ever become endangered, but such is the world we live in, and things can – and do – change rapidly.”"

getting back...into running groove

Returning to 60 degree weather from the high nineties feels rather cold..time to hit the road again.