Training Run as well as Route Recconaisance run for Pune Ultra-50K

The First Pune Ultra is about to be launched by FreeRunners. Therefore, I decided to get a feel of the route. The Ultra-marathon event would be a niche event for trained ultra runners. As the discussion progressed on Facebook Ultramarathoners page, runners decided not to have any T-shirts, BIBs or timing chips. The numbers would be kept to a manageable size and therefore, individual attention could be given to the runners. Costs would be kept to a minimum, catering for the route management, organisation of stay and food for the participants at actual costs. Cost of medals, hydration and food would be the main components. As for the route and cut-off timings, it was decided to have a timing cut-off which would be challenging and make the event interesting. Route would be a mixture of tar roads, mud tracks, and trail, with a number of rolling hills through natural environments of villages and small hills and water bodies. The runner will definitely feel refreshed by the beauty of nature around him/ her. However, training will be essential to run this route in order to succeed in meeting the cut off timings. The date for this event has been decided as 22Nov 2015, a week after Diwali is over. In order to do the route reconnaissance, an impromptu plan was made and a group of FreeRunners also training for the Bengaluru Full Marathon decided to run this Ultra route as a practice long run of approx distance 33K. The Ultra route will have a loop of 12.5k and back done twice to complete 50K. So we decided to start at a point 7k away from the Start point and complete one loop of the Ultra route. The Ultra Start point is planned to be at “Innovera High School" which will partner FreeRunners in organising this event with the gracious hospitality of Mr Vinay Joshi, a FreeRunner and Founder Director of Innovera High School.The training run commenced at 0505 hrs with 8 runners and we started running from a point on the Pune-Solapur road with a lot of truck traffic and insufficient light on the road. All were scared of any injury as it was only three weeks left for the Bengaluru Marathon. Vinay Joshi accompanied the runners on his cycle and two ladies, Anupama and Sangeetha, wives of two FreeRunners were the angel supporters. I was not feeling very well this morning, as I was having a slight niggle in my glutes after a fast 12k yesterday at Magarpatta with Vivek Bhargava. My stomach was also feeling queasy as I had not de-ballasted completely in the morning and I was wondering how I would be able to manage this for the long run. I reaffirmed to myself that the body always adapts to the mind and focused on my run. The darkness on the roads made us run quietly and carefully watching the road like an amateur barefoot runner, especially with the blinding headlights of trucks coming from ahead. I was cursing myself to have decided to chose this as the starting point, but now that we had started, there was no looking back and all of us ran amidst all the darkness and pollution waiting eagerly for the turning tothe school ensuring better environmental conditions for the remaining run.So the first 7.8K approximately took us about 40/45 minutes as we entered the school from the back gate and Vinay was already there waiting for us. But since there was another group coming behind, he could not accompany us to show us the route, but Shyamal knew the route as he had run earlier on the same route. So we all took off on the first part of the route which was 8k of motorable roads, a mix of tar roads and mud roads through quaint villages and open grounds. So we started running, the time was about 05:45 hrs and it was dark but the signs of daylight were visible already.

As we ran, we could feel the change in environment from the pollution of the vehicles to the fresh air and the surrounding vegetable fields and we were running towards the hills at a distant backdrop. We reached a point where we took a left turn onto a mud track alongside a canal, which was not having much of water, indicative of the water shortage in this city, and we continued on this route for about 3-4K till we hit a main road and a bridge which this track joins, and then we ran on the road on the other side of the canal and this road meandered into a village and then a slow climb up a hill raising the elevation of the route. Since none of us were mentally prepared for this uphill, and we tried to maintain our pace, we were panting as we reached the top, but the angels (damsels (sic)) came to the rescue of the “knights in distress” and gave us enerzal and water. This was our first pit-stop, and we then continued on the route till we reached the end of the road at “Ram Garrha” a beautiful ancient temple with a water body. 





This was approx 8 kms from the school. None of us knew the route ahead of this point and Vinay was not in sight, so we decided to take our chance and continue, so we guessed the route and took a right turn and the route was a trail with stones and slush patches in between where we had to do some gymnastics to cross puddles. There were rolling hills and then we just started following our instincts and kept running into the villages and kept a constant direction. Soon we hit a Tar road and could see the ghats from there on the left, and also the building of Hadapsar and Handewadi, hinting that if we continued running on this road, we could reach back to Hadapsar/ Kedari. The Garmin worn by Muthukrishnan, Vivek and Shyamal was registering that we needed to run another 700m to complete the distance of 12.5K from the school, and so we continued on the tar road till the Garmin registered 12.5k and then we retraced our way back. There was a bit of confusion on the way back, but we were finally able to trace our way back. I forgot to mention that in our tryst with this unknown route, as we were crossing one village, two dogs( bitches to be specific) tagged along with us and kept us company for the entire route till we reached back the temple. We were appreciating their fitness and ease with which they were tackling all the up-slopes and down-slopes and they were running across us into the fields and then again joining us as if they were making fun of our running ability.On our way back, we soon saw Vinay standing near a field and we realised that we had taken a slight detour from the original planned route and he showed us the path next to a field which lead to the main road. Then we reached the temple and found our angels waiting to re-energize us for the balance 8k back to the school. The Sun was up by now and as we ran back, I was reenergized after having enerzal and water, and increased my pace along with Shyamal, and both of us surged ahead as this part was mostly downhill and soon we reached the turning point into the mud road alongside the canal. Here, Shyamal was feeling dried up, and he wanted to hydrate himself, but there was nothing in sight, and the Garmin showed that we had another 4k to do, so we decide to just run and complete it. This stretch was difficult as there was absolutely no shade and sun was directly up and the road seemed never-ending. Finally the turn came and then the tar road through the village/ township also seemed very long. I finished the run at about 08:20 am(3hrs:15min) from our starting time of 05:05 am. The distance covered was 33k.Vinay was there at the school and an awesome treat of boiled eggs and hot tea with bread was waiting for us. This was a totally unexpected surprise treat from Vinay and we landed up gobbling up the eggs at a pretty rapid pace as we were all famished and hungry. The icing on top of the cake was the “refreshing” pipe shower rather a pressurized “body wash” provided by Vinay by running a water pump from the well in the school. All of us were completely fresh and charged up again at the end of the run. Thus a memorable run came to an end with absolutely endearing and great memories that will be embedded in our minds for eternity. A zillion thanks to Vinay Joshi and the angel supporters Sangeetha and Anupama for the brilliant support provided by them. Vinay actually cycled about 40-45k today for providing us this support. So watch out for this special event for trained runners- “Pune Ultra-50K” to be launched very soon..

Satara Hill Run 2015

The FreeRunners group decided to go as a group for this run a second time and  probably the last time, and just to prove that "hills" are not something to be feared, but to be just run freely, about 9 members were trained to do their first Half marathon in this event.  Well, I had not decided earlier to join this run event due to some personal commitments and therefore did not register, but just  a couple of days before the event, I was tempted to join up and go with the group, because the last year's memories were fresh and were seducing me to run the hills. I was not too happy about having to pay the large registration fee, and doing all the registration formalities at the expo, and I had earlier suggested to the group, that the entire group could plan a Satara Hill run on it's own, and we can plan it ourselves. It would have been fun. But, since the group had runners who needed the  feeling of having completed an event successfully, it was decided that the group would participate in this event.  My attraction was the hill route which is mesmerizing and beautiful. I simply love the hills and nature and get fully charged up.
          I decided on Friday, that I would go for this event, and announced it on Facebook and within minutes, I got a call from Jeetu Sir about accommodation already being arranged, another call from Dinesh Heda, a Goa runner friend about accommodation and bib being available, and even the transportation to Satara was arranged as I got a call from Sangeeta ( another FreeRunner) asking me to join up with her as she was leaving early to set up a stall at the expo and I felt blessed. So it was decided and I was going to Satara to participate in this event.
          The expo was at a different venue, and it was organised in a big hall and there was a queue standing there for the "Spot" registrations at 0900 hrs. The organisers were against changing names of the last minute drop-outs to accomodate the spot entrants and asked us to do fresh registrations. So I stood in the queue. Here is where things went absolutely awry as I got a feeling that the organisers were ill-prepared for such registration and they had no clue how to tackle the problem of the "influential locals" who would try to get their names registered. There were a lot of outstation runners standing in the queue and getting frustrated as the spot registrations for these "local influential" people had started even before the scheduled time of 1000hrs and when my turn came, I was told that the slot for my age group was over. Naturally, since we were the first people in the queue and there was a promise for the first 100 entries, it was not understood how within a few minutes, the entire 100 entries had got over. It seemed that they had blocked certain BIB numbers for each age category and the age category of 35-44 had finished very soon, owing to the "local influence" entries being in that category and the volunteers were non-plussed as how to manage the genuine runners standing in the queue. The race director and event organiser had to intervene and after a "full-marathon" wait of about three and a half hours in the "non-ventilated" expo zone, we were given an assurance that a BIB would be arranged by evening after they consolidate the total number of participants. So I went back tired and feeling cheated to my room without a BIB. I went back to the expo late afternoon and finally I was given a BIB number which, to my horror, was not available at the BIB collection counter. Then I was directed to another lady, next to the BIB verification counter, who issued a Manual BIB with the number marked by a permanent marker and the RFID sticker was stuck on it. No ID proof was sought from me, probably because by this time, everyone seemed to know me very well because of my irritation and frustration. Finally, another participant of my age group and me teamed up, as I collected the manual BIBS and he collected the Goodie bags from the other counter. Phew! We congratulated each other as we had finshed a "Full Marathon" collecting our BIBS and Goodie Bags after 8 hrs of having reached the Expo. The organiser of the event was courteous enough to inform us that he was doing a favour to us by having spot registrations as this was a "Guiness Book of World record event" and he did not want any genuine runner to miss out. Well, I was wondering how any runner would benefit from this record, Isnt the runner doing a favour to the organiser by ensuring that his event gets the so called record of conducting a hill run with maximum number of participants. The number is being achieved only because of participants, so doesn't the organiser owe it to us runners? How is he doing a favour to the runners when the runners are paying through their nose to participate in this event and more than the money, the time and effort that each runner had to put in just for collecting their "paid BIBS" was obnoxious. I may sound extremely negative here, but I want to make a point that in any event, the "runner" is the customer, and not a slave, and the organiser needs to treat the runner, especially an outstation runner with that spirit. This event was definitely not in that spirit. You can blame the volunteers or the heat, but the onus or responsibility always lies with the Organiser and he should accept the blame and improve.
        So having finished a Full Marathon of collecting a paid BIB from the expo by evening, I joined my group of FreeRunners for a tour of the route and from here on, the mood changed as we mentally prepared ourselves for the lovely route in the Satara. I slept well that night after a sumptuous meal in our host's ( Navjeet and Shalaka) bungalow. They did an awesome job of hosting about 25-30 people from our group in few bungalows and organised the lavish meals. It was like a wedding party with shamiana and superb arrangements. I got up early at 0400 hrs and stretched myself , did some Yoga and was ready to go at 0510 hrs. Since the start point was close to the place where I stayed, I left at about 0515 hrs and joined up with the Bangalore group running to the venue. So it was good warming up for me as I jogged to the venue about 1km away. I reached the venue and met up with a lot of friends from Chennai, Goa & Mumbai. I was not able to spot my group anywhere, so I slowly looked for the holding area and slinked my way to the front. Though I was having a "C" line up written manually on my BIB,( because they did not bother to even ask me my estimated timing or my previous timing), I managed to move up to the front or "A" line up. I had decided to run my best  and therefore justified the "cheating" to myself saying that I was not going to block any faster runner, as I could recognise most of these faster runners. I was there at the forefront, and then as the time came closer to the start, I found Shyamal and Sonali (FreeRunners)alongside at the front. We wished each other and got ready to take off. The timing was perfect and well organised, and the race started dot on time as we all took off. I was soon alone on the road with few runners alongside and I had worked the strategy in my mind, which I wanted to follow. Basically, the first 3-3.5K was a slight rolling hill till the base of the main climb, which I had decided to do at a faster pace and then slow down in the main climb of 3.5 to 8 k, and then again increase pace till the turn-around point. So as I paced ahead, I felt my breathing quite hard and slowly shifted my focus on my form and breathing to stabilize. In a race, there is a tendency to compete and a runner tends to push more than normal running pace in the initial part and later gets tired faster, so I controlled myself and built in a rhythm of breathing and kept my form as correct as possible. I was trying hard not to pronate and have a regular foot strike by ensuring correct form and running using my core. So every run is  a practice to do that perfectly, and I just about keep trying this in every run.
         Soon, I was at the base of the hill, and I had this runner in front of me, who was stopping, holding his waist and then again running, and he was doing this constantly. Surprisingly he had a determination of steel and maintained his pace for the entire climb, with the same start-stop sequence. My practice runs at Bopdev Ghat at Pune were paying dividends as I was not panting at all, and was breathing comfortably all along the climb. Breathing happens to be the most important part during the climb and one must learn to build a rhythm of strong exhalation after every few steps to ensure sufficient supply of oxygen.  I was very comfortable and whenever I felt that my quads were tightening, I relaxed my muscles and focussed on my core and straightened up and felt better immediately. The run was beautiful as ever, with one waterfall( very less water though), and beautiful scenery on the other side and I was enjoying myself thoroughly seeping in all nature's beauty.
        Last year , I has suffered from a bad stitch during the return leg and hence I was wary and controlling my breathing by shifting my exhalation occasionally from the right leg to the left leg strike. I was quite comfortable at the turn around point and then  I decided to increase the pace and tried to use gravity to my benefit,as I tried to let go and use my core to balance the body. I was very comfortable till I reached the base of the hill, but as I started the last 4 k, i could feel that my foot strike was too loud suggesting that my mind was working towards a better timing and I was losing my form. I corrected myself and I was fighting against my mind which was telling to me to run faster and my brain which was telling me to maintain my form. I just continued to run and soon the left turn came where I saw Kamal (a freeRunner) who cheered me on and then I decided to up the ante and increased my pace. I had sighted one person wearing an "INDIA" vest running ahead, and I made up my mind to catch up with him, though he was quite ahead. I finally was behind him when we turned into the finish run of 50m and I sprinted with all my energy and I think I finished either with him or just after him, only the official timings will say which is correct.  The clock read 07:47:--? when I crossed over. So I assume, my timing is about 1:47: something. I was strong when I finished and feeling relaxed, meaning I could have pushed a bit more and achieved a better timing. Overall, i was satisfied with my performance as it is the finish of a run which decides if the run was good or not. I was strong in the finish and felt good and that is what matters. So "Satara Hill Marathon" done and dusted. I have to decide now which all events to participate in or maybe create own events and get people together and just run to prove to these great run organisers that you don't need too much money from runners to organise runs. I will do that, BY GOD! This is a challenge that I am going to take up for the great cause of running that FreeRUnners believes in and I will organise an event soon. So watch out , Runners! for a lovely run only for trained runners which will be an absolutely "no-frills" run with the only enjoyment being "Running in Nature".
                       Last but not the least, Thank You very much to the organizers for these lovely moments in the beautiful Sahyadri ranges which I enjoyed thoroughly. Looking forward to create a  "Run" for trained runners with the focus totally on the runners.