The inaugural event at Nashik organised by Zendurance at Sula Vineyards was a good experience. Sula Vineyards is located at the outskirts of the city and it is more convenient to have own vehicle when you go there. The local autos fleece you and buses run from the city till Gangapur Village and you have to take the auto from there. Minimum fare is 100/= to120/= post negotiations.
The run was very well organised with sufficient water points( every 2 Kms) in a 10K track which had to be done twice and then the balance distance was in the road leading to the vineyard. Most of this 10K track was a trail run in the backdrop of villages and farms and was a real pleasure for me. Small children from the villages were cheering the runners.
I stayed in a hotel in town ( it was the cheapest option available). So my day started early at 0330 hrs. I left my hotel at 0430 hrs and reached Ibis hotel by 0450 hrs by auto. ( had tied up with an auto guy the previous day, who agreed to drop me for 200/-). Another participant who was staying at IBIS hotel had agreed to give me a ride to the venue viz. Sula Vineyard which was another 8-10k from Ibis Hotel. So we left for the site at 0500hrs and reached there by 0515 hrs. It was pretty dark and the organisers had just started their arrangements. Crates of Water bottles, sign boards etc. were being loaded onto the tempo which had to go and place them on the route. The weather was kind of chilly for a Mumbaiite like me. The toilet complex at Sula vineyard was clean and warm. So coming early helped as I could freshen up there. Slowly, the crowd started pouring in, the DJ music was set up and loud music had started to pump up the spirits of people. People were feverishly warming up and the scene was of a professional marathon start point. The race start time for the 21K was 0630 hrs, and there was a lot of time as it was only 0545hrs, when I had finished my first round of warming up. I generally do dynamic stretches which includes lunges, side kicking and frontal kicks, running with my heel kicking my butt and running with knee lifts (20 steps each). Then some stretches for the hamstring and quads.
I then met up with few friends from my running group and chatted with them for a while. Again at about 0615 , I had my second round of warming up and got set for the race. Deepak's ( One of the main organisers) voice was resounding everywhere, building up the spirit of the run. Then the count down began and the run started when my watch read 06:33 a.m. It was a lovely starting for me as there were not too many people and thus there was no pushing . I had decided to run easy, and I had no clue about the route or the type of road that I was going to run. So I started off very slow with a companion runner and decided to slowly warm up and increase speed only after about 7k. The initial part of the run was on road and then we turned left onto a trail path, and my companion warned me to take care as you could twist your ankle and land up with an injury. The path was stony and running across fields and villages and mountains in the backdrop. At about 3or 4K, I don't know what happened but I was running ahead of my companion and I was running smoothly but landed up overtaking people one after the other. I just couldn't stop. I don't think anybody overtook me at all after this point. The scene was beautiful, we went across a dam and water body and then some huts and fields. The track was stony and I knew I had to be careful, but my previous experience of trekking in such paths made me very comfortable with this road and I just ran naturally as my legs conformed to the path and found the right surfaces to land on without hurting itself. It is very important to harmonize with nature and I just let myself go with it. I was running very comfortably and easily generating conversation with all the runners whom I was overtaking one by one. I was not pushing at all. The weather was awesome and the scenery was breathtaking. These factors definitely gave me a boost and I was in good form. I had a problem of a stiff left glute muscles earlier and in the back of my mind, I was measuring the pain, which seemed to be somewhere lingering there. Every 2kms, I did this funny drill of kicking my butt with my heels about 15-20 times and then trotted along. It seemed to help and I felt better. The water points were the distance markers as there was one every 2K, and finally we were back on the Tar road. This road running had its share of a gradual uphill slope for about 3 -4 k and I just glided along. The first loop was over in less than one hour (approx.). I generally avoid looking at the watch while running, as I want to run naturally. So the second loop was on and this time it seemed much shorter, and I seemed to be just flying past the water points. I stopped at most and had a sip of water. ( A negative point here- The energy drink was in short supply, would have been better to have more of that). I was overtaking many people still, and I started setting targets- I would see a person ahead and tell myself that I had to get to him and voila!, in a few minutes I would be there, I would wish him/ her "great running"! and move on to my next target much ahead of this one. This continued till I reached the road and then I saw one guy with sleeveless red t-shirt very ahead of me on the upslope. I set him as a target and moved on. Finally I caught up with him just before we entered the Sula for the finish and here one lady participant was cheering us, ( she had completed the race in 1hr 36 min) and was back to cheer fellow runners. She joined up with me and helped me sprint about 200m and then I had another 200-300 m to go, I managed to keep up some pace and then grit my teeth and sprinted back to the finish point. When I entered , the watch was showing 08:25 or 08:27( I don't remember exactly) but I was well within 2 hrs. Most of all I wasn't tired at all, and was feeling relaxed. That was my aim. I had thoroughly enjoyed my run and then I returned back and ran along with a couple of my companion runners and helped them to finish the race strongly. So Thank you very much to the organisers for the great event, and hope to keep running at many such events. Cheers. Timing obtained 1:53:45.
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