The eagerness to grab this cherry post a gruelling Khardungla Challenge just a couple of days before wasn’t to prove the humanly capabilities of running back to back events, but rather to treat it as a training material and understand the recovery model when you are still exposed to fatigue.
And not to forget the social engagement model when you get to meet, greet and know the how and why and what next in running helps you set your next set of goals.
So here we go:-
Vijay – Veteran at Khardungla Challenge
Ashish – The only Indian to have gunned down 555kms at LAULTRA.
Anurag and Peeps rocking it post Khardungla too!
Rajeev – A source of motivation, at KC and HM.
Hemanth – Goes ‘Leap’s and Bound with his innovative endurance gels and mixers for ULTRA running.
And this is me, so wanting to go back and hit the bed for the better part of the day.
Post the Khardungla Challenge, this run was only meant to keep the legs warm and ensure I get an opportunity to enjoy running shorter distances at an event in Leh and made it to what we call the Worlds Highest Marathon.
The only thing that can get on to your nerves is the layers of clothing you end up wearing in Leh to keep off from the cold weather. But a 6 am Half Marathon starts makes life easy when you dont have to wake up in the wee hours. The usual hour regime prior to the race time of freshening up, hydrating and some museli was done. The attire comprised of a layer of warmers, shorts, tees and the rain jacket. The BIB holder can be a pain if it does not fit well around the waist. With less than 30 mins left for the start time, Vijay and I headed to the start line in the rainy weather. At this moment, the thoughts of rainy weather ruining the run did cross my mind but the rains faded off as we reached the start line.
With over 5 gels and nothing else handy , yes not even a water sipper made me feel how unprepared I was for this run and wanted to absolutely breath in just the joy of running on the roads of Leh. I headed to the gathering point to sip in some water prior to hitting the start line.
At the start line, the knack of being closer and closer to the start line is something I have developed over the period time only to ensure I don’t have much dodging to do to go past the other runners If I have to and get a clear path on the day of the run.
The elevation profile of the route was a happy downhill followed by a quite the nasty last 3-4km uphill.
I could feel the body fatigue from the past event and pacing the route was not an option but the idea was always to keep it under 2 hours. With just over 5kms in the race, I did feel like just resting at a place and sipping in some hot tea and take a glance of the beautiful landscape. I also realised that there was no breathlessness that could jitter down things and make be pant for air. All this came to reality when I saw other runners grasping for much needed breath on the route. This was indeed a respite of not having to tackle this challenge and all that I could and had to think of was finishing the run.
As a matter of fact, the very sense of an achievement at Khardungla made the run stress free and adding another feather to the cap had gotten much easy than it could be thought about. The downhills were a breeze this time and even the gradual inclines and rolling ascents did not make me feel a thing and was indeed satisfying.
The run was more of a celebration than to actually push your limits and achieve a PB at Ladakh Marathon. But I did set a goal to cover the distance under 2 hours. That gave the entire run a reason to be there and do your best and mind you, without any injuries.
So, with not much jazz along the route and a peaceful run waving to runners along side and while you continue enjoying the calmness of the roads, you will be struck with what we call the last climb and finale of suffering on the route at around 16th km.
This can be be game changer too, make it or break it, deal or no deal , in short dhoodh ka dhoodh, Paani ka paani :).
The last 5 kms is where I felt I was running an event and I wished to push myself against this only odd on the route. To my surprise, I had Vj in sight and gave the much needed push on the incline. With just a few kilometres left, I wanted to give it all because I knew the gruelling effort will be short lived and should be done with it as soon as possible.
Saluting to all the soldiers on the route and they cheering you in return can give you goosebumps and that very feeling of winning a battle can hit your emotional instincts hard. Drop a tear here and there is quite expected when you are overwhelmed with their graceful presence through out the route. Taking all that pride with a smile on the face though beneath you are struggling to keep you legs moving at a pace you wish to, is the runners high at Ladakh Marathon.
The finish wasn’t far and well within the set time goal and was quite elated to cross the line without much hustle considering it was just a day after the mammoth Khardungla Challenge.
Strava Stats
https://strava.app.link/3ODhVLhVEtb
And it’s a wrap!!!!