Chasing Nell.

That is Brit glamour model Nell McAndrew.

She's been on the pages of Playboy, Maxim and FHM ...all publications that I have ever only read for...you know, the articles. Honest.

We'll get back to her in a bit...

Apparently there is an actual thing called ‘post-race depression’.

I’ve raced prolifically over the past few years and have never experienced this mind-numbing gloom that seems to follow the immediate euphoria after a successful race, and it may have something to do with the fact that I’ve never had a truly successful race.

Though I have slowly managed to get faster, my method seems to mostly involve missing my time goals.

Until I qualified for the Boston Marathon, a week ago...

Now, I had been explicitly chasing that goal for two years. As a runner, that was the beacon that clearly determined the direction of my efforts. The first time that I failed, I barely broke stride as I prepared for my next shot at it.

‘At least I don’t have to bother figuring out new goals...’, I remember thinking, in my charming, wry fashion.

For all the bad things that you may say about failure, one positive that comes out of it is that it leaves your target intact.

But what do you do after you have done what you set out to do?

In the movies, end-credits roll, and an imaginary universe ceases to exist. In fairy tales, the narrator uses the cursory ‘happily ever after’ device.

But as we all know, the thing about real life is that it goes on. ‘What next’ is an ever-present question, looming over our endeavors. Hence, I think it's sensible to have subsequent goals lined up beyond the immediate ones, failing which efforts tend to become uninspired, lost...

...purposeless.

Allow me to quote the Agent Smith clones (those guys are seriously cool,no?) from The Matrix Reloaded (2003)...

“It is purpose that created us, purpose that connects us, purpose that pulls us, that guides us, that drives us. It is purpose that defines us...”

So if I call myself a runner, what, after this, is my purpose?

Luckily, until the inevitability of age starts eroding my running capabilities, that can always be answered in the form of xx:yy:zz. The quest for the next PR.

But while a PR, in itself, is a nice thing to aim for, it is a bit vague to hold my interest. Will it be worth it to train for an year, just to improve my time by maybe a few minutes? Nah.

The first thing that I thought of was a sub-3 hour marathon. Yes, definitely a worthy goal, but still... indistinct and arbitrary, since there is no real significance appended to the time... It's just a neat-looking round figure. Also, with a truckload of luck, I feel this is something I just might be able to run in April 2017, in Boston. That's more than an year away, but it's not 'long-term' enough for me.

What I need, in order to escape the aforementioned blues, therefore, is something more engaging, outrageous... glamorous...

And that, obviously, brings us back to Nell McAndrew.

Let me explain...

Have you seen this Wikipedia list of non-professional Marathon runners ?

That, right there, is a treasure of interesting goals to aim for.I see a lot of familiar names who have run some really good times.

Among the sub-3 crowd...

Lance Armstrong, the cyclist, with 2:46:43
Jenson Button from Formula 1 with 2:52:30
Erich Segal, the author, with 2:56:30
David Petraeus, controversial CIA Director with  2:50:53...
and Alan Turing, the pioneer of computer science, with 2:46:03...

Nell McAndrew’s name leaped out at me. The only woman on that list with a sub-3 PR. Where did I remember her from?

Flashback to the last century...In late 1999, when I was a snot-nosed young lieutenant, I once sat at a computer somewhere and out of curiosity, clicked an icon labelled ‘Tomb Raider III’. Over the next few hours, I confess that I became hopelessly infatuated with the voluptuous video-game archeologist-adventurer, Lady Lara Croft.

Still am, a bit.

That was my introduction to computer games, and before I took up running, gaming was among my primary leisure activities.

Now over the years, many real-life models/actresses have actually donned the gunbelt and backpack of the character to promote the game franchise. In 1998, when Tomb Raider III was released, Nell McAndrew was the official Lara Croft. This little bit of inane information was something I came across in the chaotic ocean of the www. My brain, for whatever reason, stowed it away deep within my subconscious as I faithfully bought and played the subsequent Tomb Raider games.

Apparently, Ms McAndrew isn’t just another pretty face. The erstwhile Lady Croft is a consummate amateur athlete. She has run a 10k in 36:54 and a half-marathon in 1:21:51. In 2012, she ran London Marathon in an outstanding time of 2:54:39!

One would think that I had learnt my lesson about running after blonde women after being snubbed so mercilessly by one of them during SCMM 2015. But we runners are gluttons for punishment, I guess. So here goes...

In AD 2018 (or before...)

I shall equal (or better...)

Nell McAndrew's Marathon PR of 2:54:39.

Enroute to this goal, I also intend to take a shot at that half-marathon time, perchance, at ADHM 2016. It'll be interesting to see how I fare at a half after training specifically for it. So far all my half-marathons have been training runs or tune-up races on the way to goal marathons.

Other than that, I have very foggy plans for casual races this year. The Mukteshwar Half may happen for a second time. Cherrapunjee and/or Cochin seem likely. Plus whatever races I can run in Delhi/NCR when I'm here.

In the intervening period, Nell, please don’t run faster times...

This blog shall document my efforts.

I do promise, that as before, my writing shall be quite ghastly.