Wet Compost pile

With the watermelon season on and with Murugan's local Watermelon mandi across the street, we had lots of watermelon skin to dispose of. It turned out to be the most watery pile we have seen in our compost bins! The prescribed means of handling it is by using sawdust (or red soil) - but we didn't have easy access to it. Added lots of dry leaves initially, but it wasn't much of help, then tried some existing semi-compost to the pile, but there was no sign of the pile drying up. Then it looked like we have to suspend putting new things into the khamba. Finally dumped the whole thing into the semi compost pile in the leave-it-pot. It took couple of days of stirring to dry up, but finally it did.

A wet pile of waste is one of the most challenging tasks for composting at home. That's when you need to think very deeply why you are doing this at all. And you also realize that your smelling instincts are very much in tact, which isn't a good thing in this case though! But you get used to it over a period of time as well. This is indeed one of the reasons why many community composting efforts fail - they are bound to trouble someone in the community and everyone hates bad smell even for a short duration of time.

When the sawdust arrived, Murugan's mandi was closed for the year! Our watermelon wines didn't last for long either in the hot climate. We also bought a new leave-it-pot as a buffer - new waste would go into just one of them and the old one would remain undisturbed on its way to compost.

Sunfeast World 10K Bangalore 2010

I made it to the Sunfeast 10k last minute spot registering at the expo. I wasn't sure to run or not considering my Achilles tendinitis injury which seems to have healed. So I left it for the last responsible moment to register. After couple of 10K+ runs and short 5K runs, I thought I could give it a shot. A 70 minute finish looked possible though I struggled to get there.

Reached the stadium by local BMTC Volvo bus, didn't have to wait too long before the event started, way too much crowd and with no pace categories, it was difficult to run or even walk. I stuck to my 3:1 run/walk plan and went with the crowd initially and picked up some speed after 5K, but by 8K things were getting difficult, so I took a longer break for the next walk break and tried to push a bit at 9K mark but had to take another break before I scamper to the finish line. It was 1h10:52s by my watch, not sure of the chip timing.

Frankly, I really don't like these mega running events anymore - typical large scale events where volume matters a lot more than quality. It does help one get started, but consistency in running is what pays you dividents, not the one-off mass event like this. That's where Runners for Life(RFL) is your best bet keep running and to be a runner for life(what an apt name!). With an organized run every other week throughout the year and two fantastic trail runs, you can't blame the lack of events for not able to run. You don't have to register and pick up your bibs for bi-weekly run, but register on the spot(I wish they had the same facilty for KTM and Ultra too - but they are becoming big too) And if you are more determined, there are always back roads that you never knew where you could run. And if you need company to run, join Daily Mile the facebook for runners, cyclists, swimmers and triathletes - you will never run alone.

These events do collect a significant money for charity during these events which is a good thing, but there is also business behind that which is not that bad. I didn't collect any money this time though, but my contribution goes to my charity partner - Association for People with Disability.