my first ultramarathon at Banglore ultra 2008
It seems so long ago- yes, 16th November 2008 was a memorable day since I completed my first ultra marathon (which for the uninitiated means at least 50 Kms of running) and the interesting part was that i have never run a full marathon before :), it was tougher trail than the previous year and i was just thinking, i almost cancelled the trip.
We reached the previous night at ONV (www.ournativevillage.com) a nice ecofriendly place on the outskirts of Bangalore at a place called Hessarghatta. We all went by a bus from Cubbon park to ONV- we were regaled on the way by A1 (Arvind) on what was in store for us on the trail and boy was he right to warn us (and more of that later). We met some of the runners who also stayed overnight; had lots of food (carb loading) and this is one of the best part of running ultra. Another major part of this year's ultra was the fabulous running by Santosh (who became record holder of running 156 km in India (Bangalore Ultra -2008), yes not kidding)- and the running doc (Dr Rajat) and others too - his wonderful parents- we wished them before the run and after one and half hours of run too-- then we went off to sleep :(. Incidentally i had registered for 25 km but changed it to 50 km the previous night.
We woke up (at least most of us) by about 5 and were very excited when the run started - it was lovely weather throughout the run - cool, cloudy, and of course nature was abundant and beautiful.. we started on the dot at 6.30 (as is expected in RFL organised ultra) and a bunch of us started the run with lots of encouragement from others (specially Sabine who couldn't run this year)- the trail was perfect - it started with being quite earthy, then went onto being grassy, then we ran on tar road for sometime and ended with sandy trail - great trail- on our way, we met the 24 hours running warrior team of Santosh and Rajat and others and it was wonderful to see them smiling... the runners in the ultra are wonderful and keep helping and motivating one another... I kept to a speed of about 8 km per hour in the beginning which looking back was quite high for me - specially since i was totally unprepared for the run - what with high worktime (at least 14 hours including travel time), being affected by viral which lasted about a month - till 15th october and weakness thereafter- and very limited running practice...
as A1 had warned, the trail was at a gradient twice and i could hardly take advantage of downhill and in the first two laps (i.e till i completed 25 kms), the gradient didn't bother me.. it was when I started the third lap to complete 37.5 km that the gradient looked tough... the other good thing about this run was the stuff that i could drink and eat - lots of water, electrols, sandwiches with jam and peanut butter, peanuts and fruits... apart from these the life savers were Iodex spray and the fantastic support from Doc's B2F team (http://web.mac.com/drrajatchauhan/iWeb/B2F/B2F.html) I probably missed the salt pills - I was advised to have one pill every one hour and unfortunately I didnt have them...The team helped me in stretching once i completed 25 km and then the 37.5 lap started
I found to my surprise that I was quite prepared for the 37.5 lap and was quite comfy when I started the next lap (50 km lap) with nice stretches from doc's team and reached the 42 km mark and the first major cramp started - I to actually sit on the ground and was groaning and thanks to the samaratins from the RFL group and some runners including Santosh's group which gave me a salt pill (which was amazing since they were running lot more than i did) and the doc's support, i felt better and could walk run till it reached the 43.75 km mark - the return journey was quite okay for some time till i reached close to the 47 km /48 km when once again the cramp started and it was worse than the earlier one and thanks to the runners and RFL i got over it - the sad part was that i had to walk most of the balance part and completed 50 km at a long time of 7:47 minutes at 2.17 pm! I didn't have time to stretch and was off to catch the flight
and thanks to my friends in Bangalore, i could reach airport by 3.30 pm and catch the 4.25 flight and boy was it hurting to even walk...it was such a joy to sleep that nite- just hit the pillow and went off to sleep :)
We reached the previous night at ONV (www.ournativevillage.com) a nice ecofriendly place on the outskirts of Bangalore at a place called Hessarghatta. We all went by a bus from Cubbon park to ONV- we were regaled on the way by A1 (Arvind) on what was in store for us on the trail and boy was he right to warn us (and more of that later). We met some of the runners who also stayed overnight; had lots of food (carb loading) and this is one of the best part of running ultra. Another major part of this year's ultra was the fabulous running by Santosh (who became record holder of running 156 km in India (Bangalore Ultra -2008), yes not kidding)- and the running doc (Dr Rajat) and others too - his wonderful parents- we wished them before the run and after one and half hours of run too-- then we went off to sleep :(. Incidentally i had registered for 25 km but changed it to 50 km the previous night.
We woke up (at least most of us) by about 5 and were very excited when the run started - it was lovely weather throughout the run - cool, cloudy, and of course nature was abundant and beautiful.. we started on the dot at 6.30 (as is expected in RFL organised ultra) and a bunch of us started the run with lots of encouragement from others (specially Sabine who couldn't run this year)- the trail was perfect - it started with being quite earthy, then went onto being grassy, then we ran on tar road for sometime and ended with sandy trail - great trail- on our way, we met the 24 hours running warrior team of Santosh and Rajat and others and it was wonderful to see them smiling... the runners in the ultra are wonderful and keep helping and motivating one another... I kept to a speed of about 8 km per hour in the beginning which looking back was quite high for me - specially since i was totally unprepared for the run - what with high worktime (at least 14 hours including travel time), being affected by viral which lasted about a month - till 15th october and weakness thereafter- and very limited running practice...
as A1 had warned, the trail was at a gradient twice and i could hardly take advantage of downhill and in the first two laps (i.e till i completed 25 kms), the gradient didn't bother me.. it was when I started the third lap to complete 37.5 km that the gradient looked tough... the other good thing about this run was the stuff that i could drink and eat - lots of water, electrols, sandwiches with jam and peanut butter, peanuts and fruits... apart from these the life savers were Iodex spray and the fantastic support from Doc's B2F team (http://web.mac.com/drrajatchauhan/iWeb/B2F/B2F.html) I probably missed the salt pills - I was advised to have one pill every one hour and unfortunately I didnt have them...The team helped me in stretching once i completed 25 km and then the 37.5 lap started
I found to my surprise that I was quite prepared for the 37.5 lap and was quite comfy when I started the next lap (50 km lap) with nice stretches from doc's team and reached the 42 km mark and the first major cramp started - I to actually sit on the ground and was groaning and thanks to the samaratins from the RFL group and some runners including Santosh's group which gave me a salt pill (which was amazing since they were running lot more than i did) and the doc's support, i felt better and could walk run till it reached the 43.75 km mark - the return journey was quite okay for some time till i reached close to the 47 km /48 km when once again the cramp started and it was worse than the earlier one and thanks to the runners and RFL i got over it - the sad part was that i had to walk most of the balance part and completed 50 km at a long time of 7:47 minutes at 2.17 pm! I didn't have time to stretch and was off to catch the flight
and thanks to my friends in Bangalore, i could reach airport by 3.30 pm and catch the 4.25 flight and boy was it hurting to even walk...it was such a joy to sleep that nite- just hit the pillow and went off to sleep :)
Comments
By the way I have a riddle for u.
Hollywood was very impressed with all the ultra marathons and they decided to make a movie out of it. Guess what is the title of the movie
Scroll down for the answer
ALWAYS ON THE RUN
can you guide me as to who i can speak to regarding this?
thanks
yash
mehtayash@gmail.com