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..