Malnad Ultra 50km

I sure am on a running spree this year, because surprisingly, after my finishing off my Maiden Half Marathon in February, I still continued running. After months of looking through the pictures of the scenic trials and the vast expanse of coffee plantations, and the greenery all around, I signed up for the Malnad Ultra 2018 as a part of the Chennai Trekking Club group. This is an event organised by GIREM and hosted Coffee Day across its Coffee Estates near the Bhadra Reservoir and Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary. There are 3 race categories - 50k, 80k and 110k respectively. Having run only a half marathon earlier, I naturally opted for the least distance of 50km.

The Malnad Ultra Trail!!

Training began with running in the Pallavaram Hills once a week and some hill runs over the weekend. It was all going good until June, till which time I ensured I had a mileage of atleast 100 km per month. July was the time when I started slacking. The complacency started hitting in, and my regular runs became irregular. My monthly mileage took a very big hit in July and August. I had run only around 6-7 days in the whole of those two months put together. And most of them were only runs during weekends which ranged anywhere between 18-25km. Running such distances isn't per se wrong, but running so much on only one day of the week is just not right.

Come September, I started realizing that I was running out of time and resumed my practice in the Pallavaram Hills twice a week. It was a struggle to make my mind to let my body wake up and go run there. Man, Discipline is so much of hard work, and there is no shortcut. 

The 50km Malnad Ultra has a total ascent of 1,545 meters and a time cut off of 9 hours. Additionally, there is a checkpoint at 17.2km which has to be reached within 4 hours. The 17.2km is the highest peak of the course (1,248 meters elevation) which gives you an aerial view of the Bhadra Reservoir

Venky had studied the elevation profile of the 50k run, broke down the entire distance into several chunks and prepared a time plan on how to conquer the Malnad Ultra. I decided to stick on this plan. Also, I was seriously very concerned about reaching the 17.2km checkpoint within the 4 hours cut-off time than about the 9 hours cut-off for the finish.

As the race began at 7:00 AM, the initial 4km gives you a real pleasure as it is all downhill and you can cruise through. Like everybody else, I was rolling on and managed to reach the first rest area which was at the 6km mark in an hour's time. It took us a couple of minutes of waiting time there as the volunteers had to manually note down our BIB numbers. After this checkpoint, the route was a gradual uphill where I kept tagging along with Suchi in steady jog initially and as the uphills became steeper I started walking. After quite a bit of walking and climbing the stairs, I managed to reach the 17.2km peak in 2:45 hrs.

The view from the peak, though not fully visible due to clouds, was amazing! I spent around 5 minutes there and as I was about to leave, I saw Venky come along and sneaked in a couple of group pictures which lead me to spend another 10 minutes over there.

17.2km Checkpoint. Photo Courtesy: Shrayas

So by the time, I started off down from the peak, it was around 6 hours in hand and 33 km to go. I was totally happy that I managed to reach the cut off well within the time. Now, that the peak is done, I felt the rest of the distance should be an easy way, which was a grave underestimation. I still continued running in the downhills and walking in the uphills. By the time I reached the 27km, I had only 4 hours to go. This is when I started panicking whether I would be able to complete within the cut off or not.

You see, when I read that time plan prepared by Venky, I conveniently ignored anything mentioned after that 17.2km, which is why the next climb which came at 30th km was a complete shocker for me. A killer uphill which did not seem to end at all. 30-34km was the toughest for me. I completely lost all the motivation to continue any further and so badly wanted to give up. As I pathetically continue to march on, alone, in search of an aid station where I could slump off, 3 people hurriedly cross me. It was none other than Ninja, Jackson and Rady. As Ninja and Jackson hustle forward, I tag along with Rady, my savior. Rady and I steadily tread downhill as he keeps suggesting me on better techniques and keeps pushing me to not give up. But suddenly on a downhill run, I kind of toppled a little and fell on to the ground face first. Luckily, I escaped unscathed, without a smallest scratch even. (My tee and BIB were completely ruined and made it look as if I had very bad fall though)

As we keep moving ahead, we reach the 42km point, where we see this pristine lake shining in the noon sun. Such a mesmerizing place it was. I decided to stop at the aid station next to the lake and have some lunch before moving further. As I eat, I see Anu coming down to us and we decide to march on together from here. We start moving ahead, only to see that its all totally uphill from here.. Though I had no specific injury, my knees and ankles were totally tired, and I was not able to run ib the uphills. 45 minutes in hand and 6.3km to cover, is when it dawns on me that I would not be able to complete within the cut off. However, Rady doesn't let me and Anu to quit, and keeps motivating us. Eventually we 3 hit the finish line at 4:19:20 i.e., 9 hours 19 mins, which is 19 minutes post the cut off!

Lake at the 42km point. Photo Credits: Jerry Jonathan

So yes, I survived the Malnad Ultra but hey, I would want to conquer it. Conquer that 50km within 9 hours! Will be back again with more disciplined training.

A huge huge shout out to Chennai Trekking Club for making us sign up for this event, organizing practice runs, arranging the travel, and lastly, for always being there. A special thanks to Rady for pacing me all the way till the finish line. I owe you a lot sir!


And finally, to the man without whose support and constant motivation all this wouldn't have happened - Venky - A thanks wouldn't suffice. Love you loads!

All the tired faces at the finish line. (L to R: Cappy, Anu, Me & Rady) Photo courtesy: @keepcalmandjusttravel 

Yellowe!!!!

Whatsapp Forward Parithabangal

Have you ever set up a Whatsapp Account for your parents and had them come back to you a week later saying their phone has become slow?

I have. Every single week, my dad comes back to me saying his mobile has become very slow and is getting drained out of battery every other hour.

No prizes for guessing what the reason is. Yes, it is because of the huge loads & loads of data and videos and pictures that are being circulated in Whatsapp Groups and Chats which get downloaded on to his mobile & apparently reduces its speed.

It is seriously startling to see the amount of unwanted, irrelevant, running-to-multiple-pages forward messages being shared in Whatsapp.

You install Whatsapp for, say, your dad or mom. Once in, there is a Family Group, their work group, a neighbours group, old friends group, ex-colleagues group, extended family group, people of the same town group, etc etc. and in most cases, more than half of the members are common in all these groups i.e., a friend may be both in old friends group, ex-colleagues group, people of the same town group etc..Phew!! Enna koduma sir idhu!!

Above all, the messages in these groups are either birthday or anniversary wishes or, forward messages. There is almost never a proper conversation happening in these groups. When it comes to forward messages, I have observed the following types -

One, which comes with the tagline, Share it if you are a Tamilian, Share it if you are an Indian, Share it if you are Human, etc. -  What the hell is this? If I don't share it, am I not an Indian or what?!

Two, Share this to 10 people within 10 seconds and your wish will be fulfilled, else bad luck will be bestowed upon you - Like seriously people?!

Three, which goes something like, "Don't be selfish and share it with everybody so that all of the people are benefited" - First of all, I am not sure about the authenticity of your message and I have nothing at all to benefit from this message, then why should I forward it?

My dad (and a lot more people of his age) having received all these kind of messages, painstakingly reads through and believing it to be true, forwards to the rest of their contacts / groups. And now somebody who has received this message from my dad, will again start forwarding it and it keeps landing into my dad's Whatsapp again and again.. One vicious cycle this is!

These messages are not necessarily only text messages, they can be images as well videos. Things only get worse with images and videos as they get downloaded into the mobile and eat up the storage space. So, by the end of one week, I see my dad's phone literally flashing Low Storage Space, please do a Disk Cleanup. And when I go into the gallery, I see 300 videos and 3899 images under the Whatsapp folder. My mind voice be like "Ipdilam irundha phone en slow aagama irukum?"

After all the clean up, and exiting him all the unwanted groups, I give a 15-minute gyaan to my dad asking him no to download any videos or messages in the group. But the next week again, every thing goes back to square one. My dad is added back to all those groups from which I had removed him and the whole mobile is about to crash due to lack of storage space

Tired with having to delete every single conversation manually, this time, I decide to uninstall Whatsapp and re-install it. While re-installing it, I consciously skip the restore, so that all the old conversations are not coming up again. My Whatsapp is as good as new now, with zero data. The only downside to this is, I may lose out on some valuable data, if any, that had been shared earlier. But that's fine. I can always go back to the person who sent and ask them to send it again.


Believe me people, 99% of the content that is getting circulated as forward messages in Whatsapp is untrue and fake. Please and pretty please, THINK before you forward and STOP forwarding those messages!

~~End of rant~~

P.S.: If you are someone who's been sending me forward messages, please note that I may use the block chat option anytime. I'm seriously frustrated !

Maiden Half Marathon

Having knowingly given my usual Year end / New Year posts a complete miss this time, I'm here to write about something that I had taken as a New Year resolution this year.

RUNNING!

Frankly I did not even know about the existence of marathons here, in India, until my first ever volunteering experience at the Chennai Trial Marathon 2015. That event instilled in me, a new respect for the runners. And ever since, I had desperately wanted to start running marathons. But running a marathon is no child's play. You have to train properly with utmost discipline. It took me a whole 2 years to gain that discipline and train for a marathon.

In 2016, when I first started to run, I would hardly run (read jog) for 2.5 km and be exhausted already.  I continued this, and still at the end of 2 months, I had not improved one bit. This was sure taking its toll my mind, and I gave up. I wasted the whole of 2016 doing not productive in terms of fitness.

Come 2017, V started pushing me to start running. Memories of 2016 still kept taunting me and I wasn't too sure of taking the plunge now. But then came the Kodai Hills Ultra (KHU) to make me take that plunge. It was a marathon to be organized by the Chennai Trekking Club in Kodaikanal in January 2018. Since, this was the first time KHU was being organized, V was all excited and wanted to participate. And you guessed it right.. He brainwashed me into getting me registered for the event as well. And that too, for the 20 km - Half Marathon category. Trust me, I have never ever ran more than 10 km (in Wipro Marathon) and even in that, most of the distance was covered only through walk. So, 20 km was seriously a big deal for me and if I don't practice properly I would be doomed.

Once registered for the event, I had to let go off my apprehensions and start training. I began with walking around in the nearby park daily for close to a month. Around 3.5 - 4 km per day. And one fine day, I started jogging, and guess what..I had run a whole of 4.5 km without any hiccups. It felt great jogging the whole 4.5 km without being too exhausted. Now that was some super improvement and it sure boosted my confidence and motivated me to start running more. This day is one that I would be remembered for long since it was this kind of motivation that I lacked back in 2016.

I became regular with running 5 km for 3-4 days a week. Weekends were for long distance slow running. We (V, I and a couple of his friends) would run for around 10-12 km on Sundays and I was impressed with the way my body was cooperating with my mind and run the whole distance without much of a trouble. The timings were not great, but I was not too much bothered about the timing as long as I was able to run without any problem. But 10 km in 1:20 minutes was far far better than my 10 km in Wipro Marathon which took me 1:52 minutes.

KHU marathon was expected to have a lots of uphill and downhill as the route was mostly in and around Kodaikannal Hills. Downhills are always a bliss to run. All that you have to do here is to stop / control yourself from running uncontrollably. The real challenge is the uphill climb. Practice runs were being organised at the Pallavaram Hills on Wednesdays. When I went there one Wednesday, it gave me a reality check of how challenging the uphill climb would be. Flat roads lam onnume illa'ngra nilamaiku aakiduchu. But the training there was worth every bit, because by the end of third practice run there, I was mentally ready for the event.

With a decent practice for close to two months and some hills and long runs, I was all geared up for the event.

One thing that we did almost at the last moment, before leaving to Kodai was to get ourselves a cold weather running jersey. The temperatures at Kodai were a whole different ball game again. It dipped down to 7-8 degrees during the night and would go up to 17-18 degrees during the day. Having been accustomed to 27-32 degree Celsius temperatures at Chennai, 17-18 degrees itself were a big deal, especially for me. Nights were even more torturous with chillness all around. I wasn't even able to step on the floor barefoot.

Our run started at 6 AM in the morning. The temperature was still lingering around 9-10 degrees. I belonged to the first batch of 100 people. We started off the run with uphill climbs and an amazing sun rising behind the mountains. The first 5 km was all uphill, uphill and more uphill. It was a gradual rise. But that gradual rise itself became the killer because climbing uphill for 5 km at a stretch was sure taking a lot of time and energy. The weather wasn’t helping either. My hands had become so numb by this time that I wasn’t even able to tie up my shoe laces as the fingers all froze.

Slowly and steadily, I progressed on, cautious enough not to rush too fast while running downhill, and by the time I had covered 8 km, it was already 1:20 hours. I was planning in for a sub-3 hour finish, but this made me reset my finish time goals. But after the first 8 km, the route became more of a rolling terrain with quite a lot of downhills and one or two uphills splattered here and there.

The weather though cold, had its own advantage as well because you never sweat :D And the, it was 14 km in 2:00 hours and by now, I thought I would finish off at 3:15 hours.

The last stretch of the run was a loop around the Lake and off to the finish line. I had been to Kodai once during school and had gone for boating in the lake. But little did I know that the lake spanned to a distance of about 5 km. Only as I ran along it, did I know this. Man, that sure tested my patience. I was like, epo da indha lake mudiyum?!

And finally when the loop around the lake ended, I could clearly see the finish line. I sprinted across the road and reached finish line at 3:18 hours. Not a timing that I’m very proud of, as it was way later than when I had expected to finish, but still happy that I was able to finish off without quitting and injury free.

This event has sure helped set bars for myself a little high! And that’s yours truly signing off for now happy and hoping to do more of such runs in the future!

That joy when you hit the finish line :)