Nueces Trail Marathon

The Nueces 50 Miler and Marathon race was held on March 6 this year at the Camp Eagle park. This was the first year for this race in this form, and it was very exciting to be a part of the launch.

Camp Eagle is a gorgeous park. This is beautiful, rugged Texas hill country, with steep hills and a spring-fed river. I'd visited the park earlier for a few days in fall 2009 when I volunteered to help create, measure and map the trails here for the race. I was so impressed with the park and the facilities there that I felt like I'd stumbled upon a hidden treasure in my backyard! It wasn't the best time to visit the park for me though, as most of the hills are covered with cedar trees, and bush-whacking through the trees just puffed up clouds of pollen that didn't do my cedar allergies any good. It was all good though, I really enjoyed hiking and running on the trails, learning about how Joe Prusaitis, the race director, maps out the race courses and meeting all the friendly folks at Camp Eagle. It was no surprise then that I decided to run the race...

I selected the Nueces marathon as my target race for Team Asha and I pledged to raise $100/mile for the Austin chapter of Asha. At Asha, I have been working with 2 projects for children in Rajasthan (India) for a few years now:
(a) GSK, an education project that provides very high quality education to about 400 kids this year.
(b) RMKM, an education and rehabilitation program for about 375 mentally challenged children.

The race
I hadn't trained specifically for this race, but I had been running and keeping up with my fitness generally. But I'd flared up my hip flexors a couple of days before the race, and I was worried about having to run through pain and having a miserable race. My anxieties lifted though even as I drove into the park the previous night, and met all my running buddies. I decided that I'd have fun at the race - and the attitude change helped with my run the next morning.

It was a wonderful day to run. It was cool, in the 50's, cloudy, and we had challenging trails in beautiful hills to run on. I started very slow and it took me nearly 2 hours to complete the first 9.5 mile loop. And from miles 8 through 14, I struggled through with pain in my right hip flexor. The worst part of having the pain was that I couldn't run all those long delicious downhills! Even as I was starting to contemplate dropping out of the race, the aid station at mile 14 came up and I was supplied with some ibuprofen. That saved my race, and my next 12 miles went much better than my first 14 miles had. Surprisingly, I finished rather strongly and managed to pull in to the finish chute in about 5:50. I was happy with the time I made, especially with all the low expectations I'd set through the previous day and the race.

It was a good race to be a part of - the race organizers, the volunteers, the camp staff and the scenery were all wonderful. I'd definitely go back for this race next year!

Links
My Team Asha fund-raising page
Gramin Shiksha Kendra (GSK)
Rajasthan Mahila Kalyan Mandal (RMKM)
Nueces Trail Marathon (Tejas Trails)
Pictures from my Camp Eagle visits

Catoctin Mountain Park

Date: October 11, 2009

Place: Catoctin Mountain Park, Maryland

Trails: Falls Nature, Hog Rock Nature, Blue Ridge Summit, Thurmont Vista, Wolf Rock, Chimney Rock

Distance: 8.5 Miles

Difficulty: Moderate

More fall season hiking, this time at the Catoctin Mountain Park managed by the National Park Service. It's a beautiful drive of about 50 miles from DC leading to the park. The mountains here are part of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the ancient Appalachian Mountains. The park itself is forested thickly with hardwood trees like oaks and maples and also has some interesting rock formations wrought over hundreds of millions of years of geological evolution.

Shankar and I chose the longest round-trip trail, listed as being 8.5 miles with a few strenuous climbing sections. This loop skirts around the edges of the park, from the Cunningham falls in the west to the Chimney Rock in the east.

Falls Nature Trail to the Cunningham Falls

Around 1.5 miles from the visitor center trailhead, and along the Falls Nature Trail, lies the Cunningham Falls viewing point. The hike up is moderate, and the falls are set in a beautiful wooded area.

Hog Rock, Blue Ridge Summit and Thurmont Vista

From the Cunningham Falls, it's a strenuous hike up of around 1.25 miles to the Hog Rock. The Hog Rock is at the center of the park, and is made of metabasalt, a dark greenish-gray igneous rock. It's also called the Catoctin Greenstone. After sunbathing here for a while and taking in the beautiful views, we resumed our hike up to the Blue Ridge Summit about half a mile away.

The view here opens out to the Blue Ridge Mountains in the far west, hence the name. Another half a mile away on the trail led us to the Thurmont Vista overlook. You can see the town of Thurmont in the valley below, the valley itself a geological attraction made by erosion over millions of years.

Wolf Rock

Another moderate hike of 1.5 miles took us to the Wolf Rock formations. The quartzite rocks and the erosion by wind and rain water (through frost wedging) creating spectacular shapes were a treat. We spent considerable time here jumping from rock to rock.

Chimney Rock

Chimney Rock, another 0.6 miles away, was the highlight of the entire hike. This is again quartzite rock formed in the shape of chimney. In order to get on the chimney rock though, we had to jump across very deep wedges that had formed cliffs along the rock walls. Dangerous and exciting as the jump was, we were rewarded with the best panoramic views yet. After spending half an hour here, we jumped back onto the main trail and headed back.

A couple of miles more of hiking brought us back to the visitor center just as the sun was setting. The hikes made for a good workout among beautiful wooded and forested sections for the most part, and there are viewing spots all along the trail every mile or so. It is an enjoyable and rewarding hike through some of the best scenery in Maryland.

Shenandoah NP: Overall Run Falls

Date: October 4, 2009

Place: Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

Trails: Overall Run, Beecher Ridge, Trace Trail

Difficulty: Moderate to Strenuous

Shenandoah! (Just love saying that word aloud!)

The day was nice for a hike/run - sunny, in the 50s and 60s, fall season. The Shenandoah National Park is about 90 miles from DC, and consists of breathtaking scenery of forested Blue Ridge mountains and meadows. The plan was to hike/run the 11.5 mile round-trip connecting the Overall Run and Beecher Ridge trails. The trails are listed on hiking websites as being strenuous and having an elevation gain of 4000'. Despite all that, Shankar and I started the hike, for various excuses, at 4.45pm. Even as we started, we knew that it was miserably late and that we would finish when the fullish moon was overhead.

We started at the Traces Trail trailhead, and the trail started climbing steeply immediately for a mile or so. On the way we passed a few trail intersections, randomly chose what we took to be the "main" trail, wondering why these extremely well maintained trails were not marked at all. After hiking a mile, we came across another intersection, and we finally figured out then that the funny looking stone pillars had tiny metal plates on the sides that gave out the information on trail directions that we could have used 0.5 miles earlier. This intersection was with the famous Appalachian trail, which we had definitely not planned to meet.

Backtrack. Back to the previous intersection then, a fast downhill run on trails nice, rocky in parts but mostly soft. We finally got back to the Overall Run trail, our initially intended itinerary. We then hiked up steeply and then down steeply for a couple of miles through thickly wooded forests. There are no scenic views here, but the trail itself is colorful with the red, pink, yellow and green leaves from oak and maple trees that herald the arrived fall season. This part of the hike ends at a clearing with fantastic views of mountains and the nearby 93' Overall Run Falls. All the prior steep climbing was forgotten in this vista of meditative beauty. The setting sun added a picturesque background to the valleys of the Blue Ridge mountains.

We continued hiking steeply downward along the trail for some more, though Shankar by this time was plodding on bravely despite ITB issues and foot blisters. It was soon 7pm and darkening rapidly, and we decided to turn back to conquer the trail another day. A surreal night hike in the forest ensued, navigated safely with the help of a flashlight and a headlamp. The trails were empty of any people other than us two, quite reasonably, and that added it's own charm in the night with birds tweeting and creatures strange rustling the leaves on the ground. We got a little lost though and ended up at the Mathews Arms Campground instead of the trailhead, but we knew the way down to the trailhead through the campsites. We finished finally at around 8pm.

If the 7 miles or so that we did on the trail is any indication, this is a strenuous hike with rather steep uphill and downhill sections but well worth the effort for all the beauty there is along the way. Among the wildlife we saw today were white-tailed deer, gray squirrels, vultures and white caterpillars.

The little we saw of the trail and the park was enchanting. Enough to make me want to go there again. Soon.

Visit to RMKM

A report from my visit earlier this year to RMKM, a non-profit organization working on women's empowerment and other issues in Rajasthan.

Project: Rajasthan Mahila Kalyan Mandal (RMKM)

Date of Visit: Mar 12, 2009

Project coordinator: Kshama Kshade

Project Details

RMKM is an organization mainly focused on women’s rights and empowerment in the Ajmer district of Rajasthan, India. The projects I have been associated with are initiatives for mentally handicapped children in Ajmer.

Getting there

I traveled by train from Chennai to Jaipur along with my friend Stanley Berly. The train arrived at the Jaipur station early in the morning, and then we took a bus down to Ajmer immediately from there. The bus took about a couple of hours to get to Ajmer, and as soon as we landed, we called Kshama and got a ride to RMKM.

The RMKM campus and activities

At around 9am, we reached RMKM’s campus at Chachiawas. I had visited the campus earlier in 2005, and could visibly see several improvements and new vocational units. Kshama then gave us a tour of the building and campus.

Vocational training

We started with the vocational units including carpentry, paper products, embroidery etc. The vocational training program has been partly supported by Vibha since 2006. Chandrasekar heads the vocational training program.

Finished products

RMKM has a showroom of sorts where they display many of their finished products. There are teaching and learning materials to be used in primary schools, made by the vocational trainers and finished by mentally challenged children. The teaching and learning materials can be sold to other schools, and RMKM may also be able to sell some through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme. There are several arts and crafts made by the children as well.

RMKM is an organization primarily devoted to women’s empowerment, and a big focus is their work through women’s Self Help Groups (SHGs). These women have formed a cooperative through which they make products and sell them at the Pushkar fairs. The social and economic position of these women has improved in society through these activities.

The National Trust supports the sale of products, and some expenses for the hostel etc. ARUNIM is an organization set up for that purpose, and RMKM had sold Rs 13000 worth of products through ARUNIM. ARUNIM had preferred the wooden products. They have also assigned RMKM to be a resource center for other organizations so that RMKM can make some money through training as well.

After we checked out the products in the showroom, we visited some of the outdoor vocational units like vermicompost, water plant, and rainwater harvesting.

The tiger and the goat

While we were outside, we saw a teacher lead some of the children in a game of “tiger catches goat”. This game allows children to mingle with one another and improves their reflexes and other psycho-motor skills.

The wood craft unit

Saurav was trained in 10 months. He is physically disabled, but now works full-time at the wood craft unit.

Paper cutting unit

Manoj initially studied at RMKM’s day care center. He has been working in the vocational unit for more than a year now. When RMKM first started working with Manoj, his initial diagnosis was social awkwardness and cerebral palsy (CP) with monoplagia.

Special education classrooms

The children learning here are at different levels, and each special educator works with only 5-6 children at a time.

Physiotherapy unit

This unit is used for physiotherapy for all the childen. The schedules are printed and pasted on the wall. While we were there, a trained worker was stimulating the nerves for one child, and another child was training to walk on the stair-step stool.

The deco unit

Here’s where RMKM makes its greeting cards, jewelry and other products that require decorative finishes.

Hostels

Separate hostel rooms for boys and girls currently exist within the building. They are constructing a new hostel building with help from the Embassy of Japan.

After the tour of the building, I met Rakesh Kaushik and the accountant. We discussed RMKM’s accounts, and other operational issues. Shortly thereafter, we went into the mess and all the staff and children settled into a communal lunch. There was lunch prepared in RMKM’s kitchen, and also food that most staff members and children had brought. It was a great experience to sit in a circle, share stories and laughter, and sample so many different kinds of fantastic native Rajasthani food. We really gorged ourselves here, helped in no small measure by everybody insisting that we have more and more of the food they had brought.

Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) program

The CBR program is currently supported by Vibha and the Austin chapter of Asha. In this program, workers trained in special education, physiotherapy and speech therapy visit children periodically (about 1-2 times a fortnight). Parents and other community members are sensitized to the child’s issues and given training so that the child’s rehabilitation is continuous.

We first visited J., 8 years old and diagnosed with a severe handicap. J. needs daily intervention, but he is unable to come to the day care center where he will be taken care of better.

Mohd is 19 years old. When he was younger, doctors and others told his parents that there was no cure. His Muslim parents, in their desperation, had even taken him to various temples. His younger sister is also disabled. His father, who had a secure job with the Indian Army, gave up his job so that he could take care of his children. Mohd can now walk with the help of a walker and wheelchair. He has a natural talent with operating cell phones, and is now assisting in his father’s shop with accounts. RMKM has arranged for Astha disability benefits and insurance for the family.

G. was initially diagnosed with ADL. RMKM has been working with him for 2 years now, and he is now able to take care of some basic daily activities like eating etc. It will be better for him if he can stay at the RMKM hostel, but his relatives (no father) are reluctant.

R. is 17 years old, and RMKM has been working with him for a year now. His family is agricultural, and they own a few bighas of land. Since his childhood, his relatives have made him very conscious of his disability, and even when we were there, they were mocking his “lesser” brain. He was initially diagnosed with mild retardation, but because there has been no childhood intervention, he now needs more attention. RMKM wants to get him admitted into the vocational training program, as they feel that he can pick up a few remunerative activities. However, the parents hesitate to check out the program because they fear the loss of their daily wages if they spend a day traveling to RMKM’s campus.

Discussion with RMKM staff

Well up to 3% of the general population in India is suspected to have some form of mental disability, like retardation or autism etc. This translates into many thousands of children in the Ajmer district alone and RMKM is the only organization working on this issue. The resources available to RMKM in terms of funds and other logistics mean that they are handling far fewer children than they should, and are also strapped in terms of how well they can help these children who are distributed all across the rural landscape. They have been thinking hard and coming up with innovative means to reach more children and make their intervention more effective.

Regarding the vocational unit, they currently support only about 35 children. They can expand with current resources to about 100 children if travel could be arranged for them. In the hostel itself, lodging and food cost only about Rs 100/month. Vocational product sales range from Rs 50-100,000/year, but this is felt to be far below the potential. Part of the problem lies in Ajmer being located in a fairly remote area. They plan to focus on self-sustainability unit-by-unit.

Other ways to expand the number of children with existing resources are being explored. They can train physically handicapped children who can then help with the training of mentally challenged children. Some of these vocational units like decoration and vermicompost can be set up at community centers across the district.

Our RMKM visit concluded here. It was a wonderful experience interacting with all the children, the community members and the staff of RMKM.

LINKS:

1. Rajasthan Mahila Kalyan Mandal (RMKM)

2. CBR program supported by Vibha

3. CBR program supported by Asha Austin

4. Vocational training supported by Vibha

5. Pictures and videos from site visit

Mind your language

Complementing Jane Sahi's thoughts on the power words chosen carefully have in conveying a wealth of meaning and raising our consciousness, here is a wonderful post by Huma Yusuf in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn about how words chosen carelessly or possibly even intentionally can have a demeaning and deleterious effect. Huma provides some telling though sadly common examples of chauvinism and prejudice against women expressed through words like eve-teasing and sharminda (ashamed, shy):

...the Karachi police surgeon, the man who oversaw all medical examinations that could have a bearing in criminal cases, was referring to women who had been raped and gang-raped as girls who had ‘become sharminda’ or suffered a ‘beizzati’. The surgeon’s choice of words instantly bothered me. They inappropriately cleansed the act of rape of all violence and violation. Even worse, they seemed to put the onus of the heinous act on the female victims – instead of having been violated and abused, the surgeon’s description implied that the women had done something they should be ashamed of.

...let’s be honest, ‘eve-teasing’ is a charming way of talking about blatant sexual harassment...Eves are not being ‘teased’ – there is nothing flirtatious or innocent about men fondling women on buses, yelling out obscenities to college girls crossing the street, or groping young girls outside schools.

Do words reflect the true intent and conception of the speaker? Or, is this merely a cultural or linguistic handicap? It probably varies from person to person using such terms, but there is no doubt about the cultural acceptance of such verbal euphemisms that transform ugly truths into tolerable constructs, in not just Pakistan, but across the border in India and the wider world as well.

Raising consciousness

There are moments in our lives, perhaps when reading a book or when talking to someone or even when in thought, when we go "aha!". A moment that fundamentally alters our vision, our carefully constructed world-views, and perhaps even our calling in life. A moment in which our consciousness is raised.

Words are especial transport vehicles for such moments. Simple substitutions in everyday phrases can add a wealth of information to common understanding. An example of that was in the '70s and '80s, when feminists consistently challenged the phrase "one man, one vote" and successfully substituted it with "one person, one vote". Such a simple change can carry an important social message. If "man" in the former phrase is meant to represent an adult of the human species, then using "person" is more precise and inclusive, and is less misogynistic in usage. Importantly, when people start watching their phraseology deliberately to avoid any unintended misogynistic connotations, the consciousness of both the speaker and the listener is enriched.

Recently, I had the opportunity to interact with Jane Sahi, who runs Sita School outside Bangalore. She is an inspiring educator, thinker and speaker who has the ability to communicate in a manner that fosters mutual learning and understanding. And, she also did something far more important for me: she raised my consciousness by choosing her words so carefully and precisely. The effect is quite stunning. 

Learners vs school-goers

To her, education for a child is far more than the child just going to school every day. This leads her to use phrases like "first generation school-goers", as opposed to the more commonly used "first generation learners" to describe children who are first in their families to get a formal education. When you think about it for a minute, you realize how many profound thoughts can be conveyed just by being precise with your words - school-going is not necessarily learning, learning does not happen exclusively at school, people who are considered "uneducated" (defined by the world as folks without a school education) actually have a lot of learning to offer their children, learning happens in the home, the community and other communal spaces. And so on.

Economically Poor

Another example of her consciousness-raising for me was this: about how we call some people "poor" or "under-privileged" in an unqualified manner. She makes it a point to be more concise in how she describes people: for instance, who we think of as poor are actually only "economically poor". The term "economically poor" says a lot about these people, and also about what the speaker thinks of them - you realize their poverty is in only one dimension among many, unlike the meaning conveyed by the more generic "poor". So people may be intellectually rich, emotionally rich, culturally rich etc, but in just one aspect, they are impoverished. 

Under-privileged vs dis-privileged

And how about saying "dis-privileged" instead of "under-privileged" when you want to convey that some people were denied or stripped of their privileges, as opposed to being born into them. Again, says a lot about them, and also establishes the existence of more active agents.  Again, the difference in the effect it has can be dramatic - "under-privileged" people need our charity, while "dis-privileged" people need the active dis-privilege-ising agent removed. Using the latter term forces us to recognize the existence of agents that strip away privileges. Do starving third world agricultural communities need our aid pennies, or would they rather have the crushing "free-trade" agreements modified and first world subsidies removed? Depends on how you think of them, "under-privileged" or "dis-privileged".

Choosing the right words is important. In some cases like the ones used by Jane, it can show how thoughtful we are, can convey precise and concise meaning, and could ultimately even bring about a change in the way we think. And collectively raise our consciousness for a better world for all of us.

Some links to Jane Sahi's work:

[1] Education and Peace  

[2] Work and Wisdom of Vernacular Educators from India 

[3] Promises of Schooling 

[4] Sita School (pictures)

Orphanage Benefit Run 50K

The Ciudad de los Ninos (City of Children) Orphanage Benefit Run, a 50K race was organized at the Bluff Creek Ranch, Warda, TX this year on January 24, 2009. The race raises funds to construct a water line from the city water lines to the orphanage building in Matamoros (Mexico).

I used this race as a training run for my upcoming 50-miler at Rocky Raccoon. I was familiar with the course as I had already run 25K at the Cardiac Run in November. There were 4 loops of around 7.75 miles each on this semi-supported race. The trails are mostly single track, 70% shaded with pines and old oaks. The trail also winds through acres of cow pastures and even an oil rig in the ranch!

It was cold and windy, but overall, it was a good day for a long run. I had fairly even splits to complete my race at 6hrs and 10 mins (a PR for me by 25 mins). I started out very slow, partly by choice and partly because I was very sore after playing squash on Thursday after 12+ years! I was in pain the first 2 loops but slowly eased into some comfort in the latter half of the race.

Running slow had some almost unintended effects. For the first time in a long run, I maintained roughly the same pace throughout as opposed to tapering off and taking more walk breaks towards the end. A lesson learnt then about my body: if I start out slow, then I am able to maintain stride and form steadily through a longer time without pushing myself too hard.

The race was, as usual for the organizers, well directed and the volunteers very helpful. Thanks to Damon and family for putting up a wonderful race! I now have to run the Doogies in March to complete the Warda triple!