Race Report: Bangalore Ultra 2010

On 14th Nov 2010, I again found myself standing at the starting line
of the Bangalore Ultra, India’s first Ultra marathon. This was the 4th
edition of the Ultra, and my 4th attempt at 50 KM. It all started in
2007 as an impulsive decision to register for a 50 KM race, surely at
that time I wasn’t trained for it, but I was happy to have completed
it (obviously with injuries). This has always been a special race to
me, talk about the trail, the awesome fellow runners. Overall a great
event organized by RFL.

On Saturday everything went according to the plan, had a good (to be
read as heavy) breakfast with Ankita (obviously), Pankaj, Vinod,
Prateek, Priyanka and Meher. Then did nothing the entire day, read a
book, lazed around in the house and drank a lot of water. Had an early
dinner and slept at 9:00 pm. Woke up at 3:00 am and started for ONV
(the venue) at 4:00 am, like always we were the logistics experts for
the Ultra 2010, with Pankaj, Nagraj and me driving our respective
vehicles.

Reached the ONV a little late, thanks to RFL for missing the most
important sign board, but still managed to reach the start line before
the official start of the race, Meher helped me tie the timing chip,
while I pinned the bib, and so runner 5020 was all set to run the
Ultra 2010.

After some regular race related information by A1 (Arvind Krishnan),
the race was flagged off. I found myself running a little fast in the
first loop, I was running at an average pace of 6:05 min/km well
doesn’t sound a very fast pace if we talk of veterans whom I was
running with, but it was definitely a little fast for me if I was
running for 50 km, so decided to slow down a little, the weather was
perfect and the runners enthusiastic, met Sabine on the trail, she was
completing her first loop (she was running 75km, and started at 5:00
am), was greeted by typical Sabine cheer , which anybody in a 1km
radius would hear easily. Also met Praveen Singh with his infectious
smile, lansnayak Dharam and observed that he has become size zero now,
Chandra was happily pacing Athreya, who looked strong as ever,
identified Bhasker when he was 500m away, thanks to his stride, and
there came Nari just behind him!

I kept Meher in sight all this while, and then recalled that Meghana
arrived a little late at the start line, anyways I thought that she
has a timing chip and this is not going to make much of a difference.
She was running her first 50 km at the Bangalore Ultra, on her
husband’s (Sudarshan’s) birthday, and so was my training and running
buddy Meher.

Damn! The laces fell apart in the second kilometer, and I had to stop
to tie them, thanks to the laces Meher got a little more far from me,
anyways decided to stick on to a steady pace and not screw up things
at this early a stage. Reached the U-Turn mark and popped in an
edurolyte tablet, turned back and started again, met Pankaj Jathar,
Partha, and Honda San.

Near the 8th KM mark saw Meghana coming, with the Phone in her hand
and earplugs in the ears, was relieved to see her smiling and was
happy to find out that she wasn’t tensed at all. Anjana was pacing
her, she wanted to do her birthday long run, and also just wanted to
beat the Ultra trail, so here she was kicking some fine dust on the
trail. In the last leg of the first lap, saw a lot of 25 km runners,
cheered loudly for Ankita, Priyanka, Nitin and Deepti. All of them
responded back with the same enthusiasm

It was a good first lap, turned around and found Prateek just ahead of
me, caught up with him and then ran the next 6 km with him, it was a
good 6 km, well we didn’t speak much to each other, but it was good
pacing with him. Reached the U-turn mark and stopped to pop up the
endurolyte again, and Prateek got ahead, now I started running with a
couple of Pune and Mumbai runners. You have to adopt these strategies
on the trail while running, of chatting with different people you
meet, otherwise the trail would be very boring. So ran the next loop
with them and discussed about the trail, Pune city, love for Mumbai
and of course the awesome Bangalore weather which was not that awesome
by this time.

The sun started getting really bad after the second lap, but I think I
was doing good. Meher was scorching the trail as usual, and so were
Pankaj and Priyankar who were right behind her. This was a tough lap,
the sun got from bad to worse, but that didn’t affect Praveen Singh’s
smile, he was looking strong , completing his 37.5 Km and so were
Dharam, Athreya, Chandra, Bhasker and Nari. I must mention about the
water and aid stations here, they were awesome
accent>. Talk about sandwiches, oranges, peanuts, salt and sugar, they
had everything! They were like the Jeanie on the trail, they even had
ice!!!! Was pleasantly surprised find cold water in all the aid
stations, trust me there is no other luxury than having chilled water
in a marathon!!

By the time I finished my 37.5 km I started feeling dizzy, to make the
matters worse I threw up at the 35th KM mark, guess it was the heat,
immediately after throwing up I had a lot of oranges with salt on it
and a lot of Lucozade,  to prevent the dehydration. Met Prateek at the
36th KM mark and he wasn’t looking in a good shape either, it seems
that the sun was bothering him as well. So here I completed my 3rd
loop and was greeted at the U-turn mark by Atul, and thus started for
my last loop, in not a good shape, by now I started cramping up ,
guess it had something to do with throwing. Finally saw Ankita
completing her first loop, she was looking okish, bogged down with the
heat and humidity. Finally saw Meher, she was in her 49th KM!!!!!!!!!!
:) Wow! She is going to beat her target timing by 20 minutes, I was so
happy for her, and yet another podium finish by her, gave her a hug
and carried on my journey. Met Praveen, and Priyankar who were right
behind her, saw Amrita, she was walking guess she started cramping as
well.

This was the loop that screwed up things for me. I threw up again at
the 40th KM mark and by this time was in serious trouble. I started
contemplating if I should really carry on with the remaining 10 KM or
should give up and take a ride back with one of the crew members. Well
decided otherwise and decided to walk the rest of the 10 Km, maybe the
strength was given by Sudha Mehta Cancer foundation, there were people
who were supporting my runs,  well I just cant leave the trail and
take a ride back. The 10 KM of walk was a very emotional experience. I
was all alone in this stretch, and in a lot of pain, still was
managing to do a run walk. Finally the pain and crawling ended and I
completed my 4th Bangalore Ultra in 7 hrs and 14 min, yes I took about
2 hours for the last loop. It was very emotional to see Meher and
Ankita waiting for me in the sun just before the finish line and so
were Pankaj, Vinod, Rishi, Amrita, Prateek and Priyanka.

Random Moments:

1) Every time me and Nischal met on the trail, apart from discussing
that we are the members of the thunder thighs club :-P, we just stood
there touching our toes, and relaxing our back muscles. I think
Manjula has taken our photograph in that position

2) Santhosh Padmanabhan is an inspiration for all of us in the running
community, he ran for 24 hours and all his loops had near consistent
splits of 1 hr 30 min – 1 hr 45 min. He was looking so focused that I
found it inappropriate to disturb him by cheering him up. He was
looking oike a running monk

3) Chandra Gopalan and Preeti are rock stars, the completed 75 KM! Way to go!!!

3) There were 3 other iron ladies attempting a 100 km: Cathy (finished
in 11 hrs and 03 min), Emma and Aparna Chaudhary

4) Nishchal running 100 km got married three days back! I gave her a
congratulatory hug on the trail and we laughed, that only a runner can
congratulate other runner on the trail :)