Satara hill half
Marathon....
I did my first one in 2016. It is called Indian mini
comrades because of huge elevation, scenic route, and wonderful crowd support..
Last year a bus full of our friends travelled to Satara and
had fun. It was my 4th Satara.
This time I was not very keen as group was going to Ladakh
and my other friends from all over India
were also doing world’s highest ultra Khardung
La Challenge there .
My Berlin was round
the corner so Ladakh Ultra was not an option. Though I registered for Satara I
was not very keen to travel all 6 hours for just an half marathon.
No travel, no hotel was booked. I almost decided to skip it
till my coach Satish Gujaran sir insisted me to do it .
Guru said go. And do
sub 2 hour finish in that 415 meter elevation gain event .
I resisted. But he
insisted
“ It will increase your confidence for Berlin.”
Entire Satara hotels
were sold out but buddy Dr Anant accommodated
me in Fern.
Expo was great. Crowd was huge but they managed it well.
Bumped into some friends there. Excitement started to kick in.
Made a plan accordance with elevation gain and loss at every
kilometre
Fern was good hotel., full of runners from across India.
Tried to sleep early but as usual night
before marathon is always a sleepless one.
In huge police ground
around 5000 runners were doing warm up on music .It was exciting. I forget my reluctance.
In line up I found friends from Palava runners .
“What is plan? “I Asked
Arijit .
” Nothing less than gold medal!”
“What is that?”
“If you finish sub 2 hour
you get gold ( coloured ) medal”. Manoj replied instead.
"I also want
Gold medal " I shouted loudly .
When you speak your
loudly, it becomes commitment I read that somewhere.
Runners anthem a new idea by Satara people was followed by
energetic Indian national anthem. And there was flag off.
Air was cool but I was feeling hot after uphill 1st km . Next 2 km were gentle rolling. Clocked sub-6.
Wow. Plan was working. 4th was bit climb but I continued running . 5/6/7 I had
planned walk . It was really tough to run.
It was too uphill. But Why I am surprised? I ran here four times before .Then started segmenting this tough part in walks and runs . Managed to clock it below 8 minute per km .I was running as per plan but I started doubting my own plan. Because averages pace has reached above 6:30
Damn this pace thing. I am not seeing thousands of runners
running along with me . Different colours . Some familiar names on T shirts.
Some colours constantly running ahead of me like my pacers. The historic city
in valley. Clapping of supporters all along route. Drums, music. I was
indifferent to everything. Even I didn't heard shouts of water station
volunteers .
I remembered last year's race. When I was pacing friends. No goal finish was set .Many high fives with crowd cheering from side lines . Cracking one liners with them. Playing
Tambourine while running. Mocking photographers with weird poses.
This year I was missing all of that and just focussed on
damn pace. Though this was my fifth Satara,
it was mountain didn’t become easier .Sub
2 was almost impossible task for me.
And now my chances looking dim. But I believed in my
calculations. So I thought after 7th it is flat terrains. I will push and cover
lost time. But it was not that flat, it was rolling . I was running sub 6 minutes per kilometre . But I knew it was not enough.
Now kilometres were feeling like miles. I had calculated to reach turn around point at 63 minutes , latest by 65 minutes .
But this halfway target was also looking distant. All of sudden a huge
incline welcomed me in 10th km . Was it there last time ? I had to walk. I gulped a gel by walking
glanced at watch .and I knew I will not finish in two hours .
Turn around
happened at 68 minutes.
“10.50 km in 52 minutes.” not possible. Period
.
I felt free. Relieved.
No pressure of expectations. It doesn’t matter now.
" Anyways this is your training run for Berlin only.
This is not your race .so no point
pushing. for impossible.” I convinced myself.
Now I could clearly listen music, slogans
hailing great king Shivaji , patriotic , motivating songs on
loudspeakers ,Drums playing on sidelines .I could smile at girl at water
station who was wishing good luck .
I could see known faces in runners running towards turn
around point in opposite direction and wave and answer their waves.
I could reply greetings of runner friends. I stopped
glancing frequently at watch .
By now I crossed 12 /13 km mark. My feet found downhill and
responded in accordance with training it
got . Running was easy and fast. My watch vibrated at km 14 and told me that you running at 4:31 min/km. I was surprised I
don't run that fast even in my sprint practice . Legs were making merry
encouraged by steep slope. I started targeting colourful T shirts ahead of me
and overtaken hundreds of those. My watch vibrated violently and shouted “ Last Km was4:09”
“Is it happening real
or I am in dream?” I questioned in my mind. Slow down Dilip. Might be cramps
are waiting round the corner.
An ambulance siren was becoming louder. “Give side to
ambulance "
A runner behind
broke my train of thoughts.
I stepped aside. Ambulance zoomed past. I prayed for runner
in it .Last year's incident crossed my mind. Some runner from Kolhapur lost his
life in final kilometres. Very sad
incident.
I came back on tarmac and continued cruising downhill. “4:17” watch yelled .
Alright sir this is happening real .I was really enjoying
slopes. At water stations road had become slippery I rolled over it with dangerous cadence .
"Slow down Dilip. Berlin is just three weeks away. You
don't want to get injured for your first world major "
“4:25” watch
vibrated again.
. By the time hill was over and I entered into city .there
was no more sharp downhill . but rolling. I got bored as Honeymoon was over . I walked at a small uphill glanced watch for time lapsed . Mind
automatically calculated required pace for Sub 2 . Wow!!! It is easily doable.
Immediately legs started running. I was running easy but interestingly pace was
below 5. But I was afraid to push .
"This is not your race " I reminded myself again
."This is just training run for you . Coach just wants sub 2 finish"
And calculation told
me sub 2 is very much possible now .no need to rush . I eased and kept cruising easy on gentle
slope at pace of 5 . Few runners ran
past me . I didn't care .
A white paint writing on road told 300 meter to go. Wow 150
steps of each foot .
I started counting. Red carpeted finish line was waiting for
me with half a dozen photo graphers.
Drum was playing loud in police grounds. I wanted to dance
on that tune. may be Couple of
hundreds runners finished before me ., So
this huge ground was kind of empty .
Selfie stands were all available. This was rare scene for me
not to wait for my turn for photographs . I took the opportunity to take some
selfies.
I was not still believing
my dramatic finish . I checked my watch app . I ran last 10 km in just 47 minutes . My four year old PR was 51 . And current was 53 .
It was huge progress of 6 minutes.
Later that day when official result were out I found myself
at 7th position in my age category.
It is 7th
Heaven today!!!
