Pit stop For Recipe Marathon - With eyes on the goal!

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or gazelle - when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."

- Unknown

And Running we RM'ers sure do. And we run like Crazy. Its been 15 days since we started running and today we take a pit stop. Refresh, think back, motivate and start running again. Recipe Marathon is not about just Recipes. I started it with few open secrets. Links, Exposure, Friends, Self Motivation, Will, to continue till the end - in short a challenge to oneself on the way to gain some and lose some. Gain - Friends and exposure, Lose - laziness, lethargy and procrastinate.

"It is like a quick energizer to get back to the routine you craved but lost it due to some breaks." A hand to pull you back in and get you back into the groove. Needless to say, Siri was the first one to jump around in excitement after she heard the whole deal. (jumping around like little overexcited monkeys is one things which binds us -me thinks ;-)) I extended my hand and there were many hands which gave me theirs.And now instead of me having to pull them, they run hand in hand towards that one common goal along with me. If Recipe Marathon # 1 opened up my eyes to few things, RM # 2 broke open new more horizons. The new members have shown enthusiasm surpassing anything and everything I have known.

"If you ever get a second chance in life for something, you've got to go all the way."
- Lance Armstrong

...seems to be the motto of new members - PJ, Curry Leaf, Kamala, Padma,Medhaa

We have generated approximately 400 recipes between ourselves in the last 15 days. We have diligently posted recipes for every single day - apart from following our own hectic schedules. If we have become crazy , then we have become crazy together - we posted in same zeal and frenziness.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I... I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
-- Robert Frost

And this is precisely what motivated Madhu, Divya Kudua , Priya, Lakshmi V and Kamalika. They wanted to be challenged, to prove to themselves if they had it in them. And going by the records, they seem to be one bunch of strong willed runners.

The more intensely we feel about an idea or a goal, the more assuredly the idea, buried deep in our subconscious, will direct us along the path to its fulfillment.
-Earl Nightingale quotes

I have to say that I was astounded and simply blown away by one of our RM runners. Roochi informed just couple of days earlier and asked to join the RM. I was little doubtful since it was already late and the poor girl would have had to post recipes for almost 2 whole weeks and add code under each of them. But I was taken by surprise when I visited her site. She had done all her homework, without asking anyone of us and did with perfection that I absolutely had nothign to point out. I was humbled by her dedication, hardwork and perfection. The same could be said of Karuna who with hurdles, dint want to say "No" to joining but stuck to it and finished whatevcer it was needed to join the challenge. Such enthusiasam simply drives me to keep doing what I do.

Live life fully while you're here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You're going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don't try to be perfect; just be an excellent example of being human.
--Anthony Robbins quotes

Anu became my gal pal thanks to RM#1,who if taken on a challenge does the best to do justice to it. With so much going on on the other end, she still wanted to do this challenge and that talks a lot about her. Divya M joined RM#2 for the underlying reason of friendship and knowledge sharing and it personally sure has been for me. She says it helps her to develop her skill set more and I hope she realizes that there are many who say the same thing thanks to her :)

Valli tells me that I took her for granted - that I expected without question that she will be running the marathon along with me. Well what can I say - That woman inspires me to no end. I mean posting everyday is such a H*U*G*E task for me, but she makes it look like its nothing. She was a dear in RM#1 and she continues to be one this time around too! I have made certain promises to her and I just hope I keep them up ;-)

Ranji - Oh well I have soft corner for that girl. I still remember the day during RM#1 when Siri told me that a certain girl is v enthusiastic about joining RM but she cannot post on weekends etc. I am very rule oriented person and was like "no it wont be fair to others etc blah blah", but Siri convinced me that "No she is a dear and she will post those days entries during weekday and stuff" But Ranji did a great job and she was so enthusiastic and wonderful during the whole of RM#1 that I was glad that she was in the group. Even this RM#2 - with so much going at her end - she has been coming through so remarkably that, I have nothing to say but Hats off to her. Love you girl :)

Raaga and Lakshmi - members of the original RM#1 are v busy ppl and 24hrs is simply not enough. But Lakshmi wanted to get back into groove of posting on Yum Blog and joined RM#2 in the last minute - and Raaga with so many work deadlines, believed that she could clean up her drafts (those are everflowing I must say!) and hopes that she keeps her sanity till the end. Great to have you girls on board :)

As of now with all this running , rest of the others, I am thinking are too exhausted and using this pit stop to go ahead and refresh themselves for some breath of air, before they actually find the energy to talk. More about them once we reach our final goal.

Last but not the least, my special thanks to each and every member of RM#2 for making this Marathon happen and being enthusiastic each and every day making it an enlightening experience. Their jumpiness can only be seen to be believed what with mailing threads crossing inane numbers in a single day. With such an attitude, it can only help to fuel the engine which is going to keep us all running for the next 15 days! Yes! I believe that we can make it :)