The last few days

A few more pictures as we end the build of The Neem Tree, Esher. All coming together in this 300 year old building!

Lots to do!

Last 2 weeks and lots to do, by us and the builders, as you can see, but all very exciting!!!

Pushing through the 25th Mile!

My London Marathon Adventure

What an experience! Did I finish it? How hard could running 26.2 miles be?

Watch my video summary on Youtube here!

The Start

The start was very exciting as I set my running pace at under a 4 hour marathon pace. The support from the crowd especially at the early stages was amazing, as young and old came out to support.

Even more amazing were some of the runners - blind, one legged...if they were doing it, surely so could I.

The Middle

Up to 13 miles , I felt good, my body was not hurting and my plans for a 4 sub hour marathon were on! I was thinking I felt so good that perhaps I could do it nearer 3 hours 30 mins?

From 13 miles to 16 miles, as we headed eastwards and through the Docklands, I could start to feel my body saying take it easy Arun, enjoy the race. The longest I had run in my training sessions was 16 miles, so up till this point, I was doing OK, but albeit it slower than the Kingston, 16mile Breakfast run.

It was between the 16 miles to 25 miles stage that I could feel my body beginning to break down. Mile 19 at Canary Wharf was tough, but the reverberations of the shouting crowds against the shiny building gave me some of the energy I required. However, by the time I reached mile 20, I knew I had to stop trying to get under 4 hours, and just cross the finish line! Now my objectives had changed!

The Last 2 Miles

At Mile 23 I saw Smita and Parus, my son, and Ajja yelling me on, which gave me a very welcomed boost, but the pain was still there...and my legs were beginning to hurt. Through the musty tunnel at Blackfriars and all that lay in front of me and the finish line was a couple of miles - I could do it!

Or I thought I could.

There was not one time throughout the whole marathon that I did not think I could not finish it. Mentally I was 1000000% prepared, but was my body?

As the crowds yelled me down the Embankment, and a few others were falling beside me, i knew I had to crack on.

Mile 25

But then at mile 25, cramp hit my left hamstring - Ouch! I could not move. Passionate yells of encouragement came from the crowd - I did not look, I just re-focused. 20 seconds later I was slowly jogging again, albeit in great pain. I could do it.

But then 600 yards from the finish line, cramp appeared in leg number two, but through resolve and pure determination, I gritted my teeth and pushed through the pain to reach the finish line in a respectable first marathon time of 4 hours, 12 minutes and 17 seconds.

Full details of my time are here.

What an amazing physical and emotional experience. Painful? Yes. But I loved every moment of it. It was worth the £5788(as I write) raised for the British Heart Foundation. Thank you for all the wonderful donations I received from all across the world!

But would I do it again?

Straight after finishing I felt never again, but 3 days on, I am now itching to submit my entry for my next marathon!

If I can do it, so can you! See you next year?

Lots of Love

Arun

P.s. Watch my video summary on Youtube here! You can see how i really looked after the big event!

24 Hours to Go

I am so excited about running the London Marathon,i have 24 hours to go and the excitement is just getting bigger and bigger! I can't sleep!

This is my first marathon and i have been training quite hard, but as we all know, life always gets in the way of best laid plans. Kids, trips, business, new practices.......all great things but all distracting me from some of the early morning runs!

The day will be hot tomorrow, so lots of water and lucozade sport, but i hope to set a good time, but most importantly, i want to enjoy the big day with the 30,000 other runners! Amazing 30,000 runners running 26.2 miles across London!

My inspiration to run is my little daughter Aashima - whom, along with her brother, Parus, are my driving force in life. My aim in life is to inspire my children to do some great things in the world - i hope this will inspire them one day to help others too! As that is what matters, not what you have, but how we can help others!

I am raising money for the British Heart Foundation, i would love you to contribute if you have not already, and if you have a MASSIVE thank you!

I have almost raised £5000 making me the second biggest fundraiser online for the 2010 London Marathon for the British Heart Foundation so far - just behind the man doing the marathon in the armoured suit! But more would always be welcome!

You can donate at http://original.justgiving.com/arunmehra

See you at the finish line

Lots of Love

Arun

Latest Planned Pics

How the building looked when we got the keys!

Planned frontage of the practice

Design, Design, Design......

The importance of design is so important in society today. We buy Apple computers because of design (and functionality), we buy cars, houses and just about everything because of the design. In addition, patients buy dentistry because of design, of chair, surgery, reception, website.....the importance of design is essential in dental practice today.

When we set up our first wandsworth practice i was quite hesitant in getting a designer involved, I perceived it to be expensive, however, we made the right decision by getting the right design agency involved. Any notions that i could do the job of a designer were quickly dispelled by realising these guys were excellent at their job.

From the way the light comes in to the practice, to the position of the reception desk, they all need to be considered in creating an ambiance that customers want to experience. Getting the right designers is essential in doing this

Well what is a right designer?

From my experience, i know there are a few designers/architects etc in dentistry, but from what i have seen, most of their work is pretty much the same, just badged a little differently each time, no great consideration of brand and ethos has been considered, but most importantly addressing customer needs has not been considered.

When we chose our original designers/architects, we chose a firm that had little knowledge of dental practice technology (they learnt quickly) but they certainly understood what customers wanted. In my opinion, that is the essential aspect that so many dentists forget, what do customers want and to experience? Designing a practice around brand and customer experience is essential in today's private dental age, any good designer and architect can learn about the dental aspects they need to.

Just a few pictures of current plans for The Neem Tree 3 show above. All in development at the moment but pretty exciting when you see it on paper. Lots of decisions to be made.

If you want to get involved in detail to see The Neem Tree 3 develop from a concept to a final practice then don't miss out on our "Hands- On" Setting Up In Practice Programme starting 12th March 2010...more details here.

Week one - New Dental and Office Site

2010 has started off with a bang! New Site for Samera offices and The Neem Tree!

I plan on blogging about our progress in developing a new Neem Tree and Samera offices over the next few months at our new site in Surrey. I hope this will prove to be an interesting read for anyone interested in the trials and tribulations of opening a new dental practice plus offices for Samera.

Week One

This has been a really interesting and exciting week after Xmas, although i was supposed to be away, my trip was cancelled due to a few family reasons, i have been in constant discussion with designers, contractors and all manner of sorts of people who will help us achieve our objectives.

The first person we have taken on to deal with the project is Pete, he is our designer and also our project manager. We have learnt from previous experiences always hire a team that can do a much better job than we could. Pay the professionals for their expertise, don't try and do everything yourself, as it will rarely be as good as a professional!

He has drafted concept drawings for the offices and also is in the process of putting the drawings together for the dental practice too. Since the building is a grade 2 listed building, it is pretty old, we also have employed russell to be our structural engineer, design is important, but so is structure, so we don't have a failing building!

Problems we have encountered....

Such projects are fraught with issues and problems, just in week one we have experienced:

1. Problematic structure - since the building is 17th Century, trying to get the drawings of the building right, from under all the existing buildings has not been easy

2. Snow - No show of builders due to snow (kind of expected)

3. Police - A visit by the police.....more on this later!!!

4. Budget Management - Keeping the costs as low as possible! already some hidden unknown costs are appearing, so we will have to manage costs accordingly, keeping to a tight budget will be key here.

As I write the builders have already taken alot of the old debris off the walls away, tomorrow is a site visit, lets see how this goes!!