Ashok's Blog

When I started marathon training I was not able to run for 15 minutes. I trained for 5 months and completed running Silicon Valley full marathon.  Following are some of the lessons that I learnt. Try before saying no : Our immediate response when we have a new challenge is to say no. We think that if  we have not done it before we would fail. This is not always right. When we give up before trying we close ourselves to number of opportunities.  Before saying no, say  "I'll try". Try for few days and learn from it. Now you will be able to make an informed and a better decision. It's not about you, it's about your discipline : When we have  new challenges, our immediate question is whether we can do it ?   A better question would be, " Do I have the discipline  to achieve what I want ?".  Marathon training needs immense discipline for few months. Most of the goals can be achieved with discipline and perseverance. We have what is required to achieve, b

My friend said, "Why I need Twitter when I've Facebook ?". Most of my friends are on Facebook and few of them are on Twitter. I'm on both Facebook and Twitter. I use Facebook for connecting to my friends and use Twitter for connecting to the rest of the world.  Facebook is mutual relation, friends connect to each other.  Somebody may "follow" me on Twitter.  I may decide not to "follow" them. Twitter can be one way street, Facebook is two way street. I follow people on Twitter because of the content relevant to me. On Facebook, it may not necessarily because of content, but to stay in touch with friends. Facebook, Twitter are tools for communication. You can experiment and use in a way that works for you. You "friend" on Facebook . You "follow" on Twitter.

Lately I switched to Comcast  Internet connection. I was getting slow connection. I called customer representative and explained my problem. To start with, customer rep tried to convince me that my slow speed was because of my plan. After I tried reasoning, he said it can be because of some network repair work. Lastly he told me that the problem was with modem. He said  Comcast would charge me if they had to send service rep. When I asked him why I need to pay, he told me to cancel the service if I was not happy with the service. I think he was trying to move on and not interested in understanding or solving the problem. I took a chance and called Comcast customer service second time. It was a different person. First, this customer rep. tried to understand my problem. She asked me to do few steps with my browser settings to diagnose my problem. She was patient as I tweaked my settings and rebooted my customer. Finally she said that she would send a customer rep.   It was a bi

When I received the mail on the Redwood park trail run, I just signed up. Never realized what I was getting into. Naren said that it would be a 30km run and this would be same as the 18 miles regular weekend run. I trusted his words and signed up. Naren , Jay and me participated from the Ekal team. We had four more runners from the Asha team. It was a nice gang. We started the run at 8:30 AM. We had to first run 20km loop, followed by 10km loop. The total elevation was 2780 ft. It's just a number right? I realized how much was 2780 ft when I started running the steep elevation. It was hard, but not impossible. 10km second loop was the hardest. In most of the places, the steep was very much. It was hard to run on these steeps. We just had to walk. Every 10km there was aid stations with food to eat. This helped us in getting the energy for the run. It was a well-coordinated run. At the end of the run, the thrill of completing the run was amazing. Jay had got nice Indian food. We