Mmmm yes, i am talking about the trails of Auroville. This trail if not respected properly will earn respect from you and which had exactly happened to me. Not that i have trained properly in the month gap between Mumbai and Auroville , but there were lot of lessons to be learnt in the Marathon and i have learnt it in this Auroville Marathon, but again i am emphasizing the fact that i have really enjoyed this Marathon but have not improved on my timings. I will be able to catch hold of various points which had led to the reduction in pace all through this marathon and confident that i will be able to pull the plugs properly in the forthcoming KTM in Srirangapatnam.
Trails and myself have a good connection with each other, my first Ultra killing me to the core, i should have realised the fact that the Marathon can humble you and every Marathon is a new experience. Yes it is and enough of intimidation from my self! Getting to the finer details this time around i was very much sure that my wifey and Kiddo should be present at the finish line so that it will be more interesting for me! So this time i had taken with me, my wife and kiddo to my In laws place (Kalpakkam - 80 kms form Auroville) and to my surprise, my parents, my In laws, my sister in law and my sister had also joined. And i have great cheer group for me in the finish line by this time unlike Mumbai Marathon which was bit lonely to celebrate my first Marathon.
As some of my Fellow Roadies have opted for Bangalore Brevets 300km ride, myself, Karthik and Hari were left to do Auroville Marathon. While Karthik and myself had planned to do the Full Marathon, Hari was doing his second Half Marathon there in one of the scenic Marathons conducted in India. As planned i left to Kalpakkam via Shadapti to chennai on Saturday Morning with my family while Karthik and Hari had left to Pondy on Friday Night itself. After reaching Kalpakkam immediately had lunch (Full Carb loading!), and moved to Auroville in Volvo bus (from Chennai to Pondy Via ECR). By around 3:30PM, came to Auroville.
Meanwhile an Autodriver was convincing me that there are no rooms left there inside, you have to come back and stay here! I was wondering he had a great deal that day with all the runners scampering around for stay. Went to the Visitor's centre and asked him not to wait because i have friends in that place! Sadly he left the place. Went straight to the first counter and told my name and email Id for Bib collection. They said your name is not here. Balaji from Chennai runner had also checked and said, 'No your name is not here'. Everybody carrying the puzzled look and suddenly asked whether i had registered for a Full Marathon and i said yes. Much to my relief i was sent to the next counter and collected my Bib No:250, Dinner token and my baggage coupon.
After doing this called up my friend Karthik and Hari who were relaxing there in the Visitor's center only! Went to them and talked for sometime and very happy to see so many known runners there. Talked with my good friend Suresh who had done an impressive 5h50m FM inspite of the injury he had carried which seriously had hampered his preparation for the Full Marathon. Seen Amith Seth and Nipa Seth who were the Comrades finishers and Amit seth led the 5 hour bus in Mumbai Marathon. I have started telling all these stories to Karthik and Hari who were pretty much glued to the celebration mood in the Visitor's center.
We then started doing bit of rounds to get accustomed of the place and our friend Hari being the Senior in the knowledge that he possessed about that place started to talk about various things in the Auroville Marathon route and also letting us know the very important fact of where we are going to start the next day morning. In between i suppose we had walked a lot and this i won't do before a big race day but Auroville had pulled me in doing these walks! By the time it was getting dark, we realised that the dorm to our horror did not have any lights and looked like we are going to stay in a jungle like atmosphere.
Auroville Marathon is known for its very good organizing capability. Barring their accomodation in CIC and giving away no medals this time, they rocked as usual. We had talked to the organizers and they were also feeling guilty about CIC accomodation and asked us to transfer to a different place which was 6km from the start point. Then we had finally consoled ourselves and they had helped us by getting some candles. So we went to our Dorm after nice dinner to enjoy the candle light sleep! Fans were working and we had managed to light some candles. Yes the resting place was ready.
While Karthik and Myself were busy charging the mobile and Hari was giving the company. We were hearing Jingi Jingi Jimikki potu which helped us to forget the nerves of the marathon and we enjoyed that moment fully and went for the sleep by keeping the alarm for 3:45AM in the morning. With the start in the morning 5'o clock organizers had taken care of the runners really!
We had almost slept for around 5 hours but not without any breaks! But the sleep was good enough to refresh ourselves.
Even before alarm went off, i had woken up. Karthik and Hari were also in the line. Hari was so enthusiastic that he had also started with us. We slowly started to dress up for Marathon and sometimes it feels great to be so disciplined to take the cap, Bibbed T-shirt, Shorts, Sipper and yes there i was for the start of my second Marathon. This time i had met Suresh, Yogesh, Bhasker Sir, Nitin, Jacob, Ramani sir from Chennai runners and so many other runner friends. We had started stretching and question of whether i was ready for that marathon arose which i rubbished with definite ease. I wonder some how it all happened now. But yes there are lot of things to complete a marathon.
There the whistle was blown for the start and with the torch to protect from nothing more than a pitch dark surroundings, it was bit scary to run in dark! Thanks Suresh for a powerful head lamp with whom i was following i don't know how long. This is truely a unique experience to hear shouting of , 'Up slope, Stones, Downslope, Beware' helped all of us... I had done 10km in around 1h9m which is in the pace of 7m/km. It was going on fine until the 21km mark. Good to go through the sand pits, red sand, uneven roads and slowly memories of Ultra was coming to me but leaving it to the sands beneath my foot i continued all along.
The distance from 21km to 25km i had followed my counting technique and i was quite confident to go on. But after 25km it has become tougher. The next 5 to 7 kms seemed to be an eternity! But in one water station Karthik had caught up with me and started to run together pretty much together. We were constantly having little talks and thanking each and every volunteer in the water stations. Without them we would not have done this marathon for sure. Myself and Karthik were telling each other still we need to cross the sand dunes to finish this marathon.
And really those were testing times and to be frank i was even thinking am i doing the right thing but now the mind took over and we had started to tame the sand dunes. By this time there was not much thinking about pace which was biting the dust by then! By the 39th km approaching we had to cross from Sand dunes to join the Tar road. By the time we joined that and started running a Tata Sumo came in right front of us and going to the left side of the road. Myself and Karthik were cursing it and to my tired surprise!, my entire family was waving and clicking photographs! This moment got my adrenaline going and Karthik also joined me and we had started running faster to cover the last 3kms.
My family were very happy to see us and they proceeded ahead to the finish line. We were pushing each other and went to the last water station where Hari was sitting and all of us recognised and he started shouting to sprint the last lap. And yes there we were sprinting like hell to finish off this Marathon which to me is an eye opener and also taught me that i have a strong mindset. More than that i wanted Karthik to finish first mainly due to his steely grit and determination. But still i did not slow down, Karthik went ahead with his pacy sprint while i finished behind him by 20 seconds. I was so happy to see my kiddo, wifey and everyone cheering me up in the finish line. After my prayers and hugs from wifey and kiddo went right to Karthik and had a big hug.
Only both of us knew what it took to finish this Marathon and we are sure to be back next year to hunt down our PBs. And before winding up, i would like to appreciate the noble effort of Runner Suresh to give a helping hand for a struggling runner. Hats off to your spirit Suresh. I thank everyone who had supported me and as always my wifey takes the first position here because she is the one who keeps hearing all my running talks and schedules every time and i owe it to her great time. Kiddo Hasini has also some part in this!!! Thanks to my family and SAP Roadies, my friends and DMers i was able to complete yet another Marathon with lot of good lessons learnt!!!
Both of us would have finished it by the same time within seconds difference. The time was 6h19m. Hari had done a great job in completing his Half marathon in 2h50m shaving off a full 30 minutes from his previous attempt.
Lessons Learnt from this Marathon:
1. Reduce the weight and Alcohol.
2. Do Core strengthening workouts.
3. Familiarize trail runs.
Thanks to all my SAP Roadies gang especially who had consistently helped to pull off this one as well. I take this opportunity to ask Raghav and Hari to complete their Full Marathon in KTM. Really raghav and hari the satisfaction you will get is second to none when compared to any other endurance events you had done before. Waiting for that chance to finish Marathon with you folks. You can definitely do this.
The last 10 km in a MARATHON is the distance which introduces the grit and determination hiding in us, time and again in every marathon we are part of..
- MJV
