Silvassa 27Kms – My 50^th Timed Run – “Experience the Experience of Experiencing an Experience”

#Karchond  #Godbhari #Dudhani

Hey , man you will have to run / swim or cycle , your thyroid is out of proportion and your weight  is about to explode at  close to 100 Kg , I was feeling hope less and this were the  first sentence  of Dr Kulkarni , the super specialist from Fortis way back in 2008  . Do something about this  boy or else worse is gonna happen.

I need to Run a thought came to  me somewhere in my heart and I Ran , Ran  .

Here I was on the cusp of my 50^th Timed Run which included 10K , 21k , 42k , 12 Hrs etc ….

Run would be more memorable since I had accidently chosen this tough route to be my personal milestone , what more this was to be run with close friends Babu (who was running his 60^th 21Kms and above) , Bobby , Pradeep , Reji and Satish Sir .

After the bib collection, we headed to Hotel Green Valley  where we had arranged our stay . Was happy to see  Santosh and Ami  when we reached there. Hotel was occupied mostly by runners and all big names across were  parked here . 

We  recced  the route at silvassa and satish was smiling  when he saw us (he is the one who guide us and he knew it will be tough for us ) . I was searching for shashi to ask for refund . But thanks to Sunil , satish and Sangeeta , they guided us how to tackle the run .

We had a early dinner , we went to a shop and along side we saw a egg vendor , we asked him sir kya aapke paas Phute hue ande hai , he said nahi , then we replied  kal eight milenge tum ko ………

My bestie  Babu and  I was sharing the room . Babu retired early and I was watching Malayalam channel  a award night  ….. malayalam actress are beautiful , with this thought in mind I was fast asleep .

Race day : -

Alarm blasted at 0315 and we were decked up for the brutal route …… “Mere maut pe hasne waalo , tumharri bhi kabarr kabhi toh khudegi , this lines were ringing in my mind for all those were to enjoy our plight .

We  had Fast and Up activate and felt good , we left for the venue after having our smart breakfast which was arranged by the hotel (a very nice gesture) .

I could see the number  of runners had reduced since many would have dropped after seeing the brutal hills .

Sooner or later we were on the start line hugging many known and unknown faces . Running is a great sports you get to hug most of them . Shashi further demoralized us by giving details about the route .  

Collector came to flag off and appreciate that the young guy himself ran 5kms.

Race Report:-

Race started at  0600 . The incline started at first 100 mtrs itself, sometimes things happen for good the darkness kept the hills camouflaged ,  I started with a walk of 200 mtrs . I wanted to run a good race. Slowly and steadily the legs started moving and I started getting my rhythm. As a preparation for the run , I had trained at yeoor couple of times and had done many short hill runs in mulund .

Okies , 1 Km mark passed , this was from dudhani  to godbhari and the occasional moving cars provided us the required light to appreciate the inclines (inclines needs to be appreciated).  Runners are a great lot they cheer and motivate you in your hour of suffering , thus I had mentally mapped and marked my partners in suffering  and I decided to tag along or keep them in my Radar. As we were passing the 3 kms there came a place call Karchond . Karchond + Dudhani + Godhbari this is what was going to happen to most of the runners..

A marriage celebration was going on at that wee hours , groom was sitting quietly on a horse and all other  guys were dancing around , probably welcoming him to the fraternity of married people (and thinking saale aaja abh teri bhi lagegi)

The inclines started gaining elevations the first major incline started at around 4 kms  and the elevation was   gradually increasing meter by meter . This was a never ending incline . Most of the runners were looking at each other  helplessly (as if saying “teri laagi naa , meri bhi lagg rahi hai”).  I asked a local guy who I came across “aur kitna Chadnna hai “ he said “ Abhi bahut hai, majje lo…….” . I continued my tryst with the hills and was cursing shashi . Wow then came the decline , if you see the elevation profile it’s a steep decline , you cant proablly run fast but you could roll fast .  First time I realized , saala declines were equally tough . I continued on the route ….. at 14kms the route headed  in to a village , near the turning around 14kms the water  point had stocked up watermelon , ate a slice and moved on , I asked for the relief spray , but the station was not having it . Moved on to run , from here the route was pure trail and kaccha roads , the village kids and the ladies were welcoming us with shy smiles .  When u see this kids , you will realize how lucky city kids are , but unfortunately they don’t value the givings . After high five with kids and after some selfies , went on to run strong . At 17kms , at a water station  I aksed if he had any energal or fast and up and the boy their said “Bhai , iss glass mein electric hai “ pointing to a filled glass . After having the same , I started getting the spondylitisis pain and I was badly in need of volini . There was a stationery aid ambulance , I went and asked the medicos to help , a lady assistant saw me and said kapde uttaro , I was like oops kya galat time pe bola ….. she applied a gel and I aksed her the name of the gel since I wanted to be sure if its volini then I need to be careful of not touching the gel , else after few kms , the gel may spread to unwanted places . She said chloroform , I was like , what , I was thinking all weird thoughts , then she  said that the gel was of similar name . Thanks to her , I moved on and thereafter the run from 19kms to 27kms was very strong .  Throughout  the inclines were only raising ….. met  Mahesh Mahroliya and Vishal sethi runners from kandivli , and thanks to them I kept my pace on and we became friends . Was glad to know that they follow my posts and writing .  Met Ramani Sir enroute . By that time many of the 54kms bravehearts were returning on their second leg . I ignored the Kenyan runners since any way they are gonna win .

Thanks to  Reji , I could muster to run the final leg , I was keeping reji in sight and running .

The flying kiss  was for the photographer and for all my friends who will read this . At 23 Kms , when things started  looking good , the hills started again , at a sharp curve I thought the hills are over then again a steeper one , this was breaking me . Then one more hill , then one more hill ……. Finally when the Garmin showed 25kms , the crossing runners said its down slope now , but the roads were broken and uneven , so ran at a decent pace to reach near the cross line . Sprinted the last 200 mtrs at pace of 4.30 . Crossed the finish line Sunil , sangeeta and Reji were there to receive . 

Was wondering and reflecting back on how did I complete ….. we were standby to receive Bobby and Reji .

The  pick up bus which came after an hour took us back to the base point , we rushed for medicals, medals and food . Was happy to see so many serious and strong runners completing very strong .

Had a chilled beer and we waited for Babu to complete , we gave company to babu for last 1.5kms and ran with him .

Sooner or later we were in the wine shop checking out the subsidized rate at Silvassa. Reached Mumbai at 2138 IST . The race was done , but the experience was experienced .

My sincere thanks to RK Nair sir from silvassa who was instrumental in helping many runners , satish sir for foregoing his run due to a back spasm and then doubling up as a volunteer . Thanks to Sunil Lahigude sir , he gave me all the mental strength to tackle  the course and reminded this route was like our Armed Forces Flag March types .

Thanks to Shashi , Supriya , Pramod and all others from sportman team .

Conclusion : It’s a tough race , prepare for it . Don’t go for just another run .  Frankly , this could be arranged in much better way next time . Excellent route , thanks for the find shashi , pramod , supriya . Thank you for the event and am sure next time would be much more better , since the event is gonna be big .

For me , running my 50^th was like “Experiencing the experience of experiencing an experience”.