Half Marathon - here we come

I have started on my new goal - training for the half marathon.
I got the website, got the books, got the plan.
Now to get the shoes and start pounding pavement.

Well, if you wait for the shoes - the running will never happen - so the running will happen even with the old shoes.

Interesting to note that since I made mention of the half marathon - I had a few friends say they want to run too. So now I have to make sure that I plan the schedule so that we can do the required miles and give us enough time to stretch and strengthen.

I am using Hal Higdon's training for novice runners. I also have a book that has been designed for women runners.

So check back to see how we progress.

A conversation in my head

How do you know which way to go?

If you are in a car and you stop - somebody behind you will honk that will force you to go in a particular direction.

So how do you know if it is the right direction?
Unless you already know the way - you really don't.

So, in life when you come to a fork - what do you do?
You make a decision which way to go.

So, what if you make the wrong decision?
Well, you never know until you make the decision.

So what is holding me back?
Maybe it is fear.

Fear of what?
Fear of failing, people saying stuff, to me about me.

You cannot stop people from saying stuff. So what you gonna do?
Nothing, just make a decision and go with it.

Good, so what are you waiting for?
GO!
OK I am going.

Reverse! Reverse!

When you were young your parents told you study hard, become good at what you do and then you will be known for your work and then people will respect you for that.

But now that does not apply. There is no reason that says that you have to be old by the time you get that knowledge. The same goes on the Internet. With the Internet making knowledge available at your fingertips - it is the passion that you have and expertise that you acquire that gives you respect.

You gain the respect first on the Internet because you make your self known first.
Only then you get power - the money comes last.

I can only say that it is a good thing - at least I don't have to wait until I am retired to get any respect or expertise.

Who thought..

..you would be competing against your own? I was at a party where most of the parents had kids who were college bound in less than 2 years. As discussions started leading towards college tours and how do you figure out what college you need to go to, the topic came to quotas.

A statement was made that everythng was a quota. After all if you gave the admissions only to the kids who had it all, you would have only Asians for the most part in the top ten colleges.

Why you ask? Ask any Indian parent. They will do anything for their children's education. However what most parents don't realize is that as you get your kids to be really good academically, in community services, extra curricular and leadership, that is what every other kid's parent is also doing. As a result what do you have - a pool of Indian kids who are so bright that they are all competing against each other for the top 10 school sin the country.

So what does that mean? It means that if you are a Asian Indian boy - you have very little or no chance of getting into an ivy league school because you are competing with every other indian kid in the country. Quite a crapshoot, isn't it?

So what do you do? You still study really hard - but when you go to undergrad, maybe look at the top 10 schools as a goal for grad school.

But then everything depends on luck.