So what happened in the past 6 months

Dude, what happened?

That's the typical response these days! I guess dropping 20+ pounds and a few sizes does get noticed :-)

It was all going fine and dandy - work was great, family doing fine, all peaches and cream! So, what if there was a bit of a spare tire around the midriff - a sign of opulence right? Until, enter that villian, that anti-gourmand, evil incarnate -only, in this case, he wore a white coat, and spouted on about low HDL, high LDL etc. Oh the inhumanity - one actually had to watch what one ate, and things that tasted good were actually bad for you?! I did like his style though of getting to the root of the problem - he pats my spare tire and goes - 'this is the root of your problems' :-)

So, here I am wondering how I can get back in shape when my friend Rajeev tells me about Team ASHA - a marathon training program for people who've never run and want to run a marathon in 6 months. 0 to 26.2 miles in a half-a-year. He must be kidding right?

In any case, I go to the informational, sign-up to try it out (it's risk free the first few weeks you know - you can drop out if it's not your cup of gatorade). The coaches and mentors looked like they knew what they were talking about and generally made sense - you know running program, track workouts, VO2 max(?), gradual ramp-up etc. In return, they only want those extra pounds of flesh (works for me) and your first born :-) - just kidding... In return, you get to raise money for ASHA to support the education of underprivileged kids.

Sounded like a win-win. So, I decided to give it a whirl and there began a wonderful odyssey which I will chronicle in brief in my next post!