Trek to Kothaligad fort

Had been to Kothaligad Fort on trekking with friends on 4th July, 2010. The day started with apprehensions because the previous day i.e. Saturday, it was pouring rains all over Bombay with some parts of it severely flooded too. Two or three members dropped out possibly due to concerns about transport, safety etc. Even my family was a bit apprehensive, but since I was one of the leaders of the expedition, I could not have backed of.



Few phone calls made to friends on Saturday evening to iron out last minute glitches, if any – everything seemed go - everybody was enthusiastic about the trip, rains notwithstanding.



We started of at 5.45 a.m. from Borivli National Park in a 25 seater bus which had its first pick up at Aarey forest and then onwards to the JVLR picking up few more people on board – last one being at Powai. Everybody was joking, jovial and light hearted. Rains continued to pour throughout the trip to Karjat.



At Karjat, we stopped for kanda bhajia, vada pav and some tea. Suitably refreshed, we set off again to the base camp, which was about 10 kms away through a narrow, winding, broken road Enquiries made at the base camp which had a local entrepreneur offering refreshments etc. – we were on the right path.

We set off at 10 a.m. through a winding upwards road, which had stones on it, so walking was a bit difficult, had to concentrate hard in order not to lose footing and twist ankle. This went on for about an hour by which time we came to the base of the mountain. The party broke into two groups, one going ahead with a purpose and the second party at a leisurely pace taking photographs on the way. So at the base of the mountain, we again made enquiries whether the advance party was on its way and having been re-assured, we set off climbing the mountain. From this part onwards, the breathing became hard, (though since we were all long distance runners the endurance levels were extremely high), the climb was tough at parts, few people took support and we reached the base of the fort which had a cave in it.

Again local entrepreneurship was visible, we were offered limbu pani, which was like nectar to us at that stage. The cave was just one room with a seating ledge and views through slits to the mountainside. We sat down for a while, took photographs etc., cracked a few jokes and then started off again – this time we had to climb 98 monster steps, each step like three steps of a building staircase. The steps were narrow so only one person could climb at a time, taking support of the sides. It went on like a spiral, some people counting the steps, others deeming it unholy to do so. At one point, when we were climbing the steps, it jutted out to the mountainside which had a sheer drop of about 1000 feet, so one had to be very careful with the footing. At the end of the steps, we reached the top of the mountainside, which had a small plateau and a beautiful view of the entire mountainscape all around. It was sheer breathtaking beauty in itself.

Lunch packets brought out, each one nibbling a little from each one’s box, we relaxed for a while and soaked in the atmosphere for as long as possible. The climb from the base of the mountain to the top took 90 minutes.

We started back at 2.00 p.m. again encountering the steep steps and this time the cliff side descent was tough on the weak hearts. Few more photographs on the way, we were on the way back first down the mountain and then down the winding path. On the way, we came across, one village which had its typical village houses, quaint little verandahs, little shops, children playing across the road, dogs et al. Returned back to the base camp at 4.30 p.m. had delicious tea at the base camp restaurant with few of the lunch snacks. Suitably refreshed and thoroughly satisfied with the day’s trek we set back to Bombay at around 5.30 p.m., few people dozing off, others chit chatting and all of them asking for an encore – more treks in the near future.

week ending 11th july 2010

finished week ending 11th july 2010 with only two runs during the week - a 7.3 km run on tuesday in slight to moderate drizzle, which completed my 100 hours of running for the year 2010 and a 13 km run on saturday at aarey forest in a hill climb, which resulted in a groin strain, due to which i had to terminate my run sooner than expected.

week ending 27th june

Finished the week ending 27th june with only two runs over the weekend - a 9.4 kms effort at Aarey - this time going over the hill slowly and taking it through and a 11.5 kms run in Marine Drive on sunday - this was a super effort because the humidity levels were killing and coupled with that - absence of breeze and presence of sun made it difficult to run. However, running in marine drive is an experience in itself to be savoured.

Week ending 6th June 2010 - 30kms

Finished the week ending 6th June 2010 with 30 kms overall during the week. 9 kms on tuesday, behind inorbit, 5 kms same route on friday, 9 kms at aarey forest on saturday and 7 kms at BNP on sunday, overall satisfactory effort during the last days of summer. The heat and humidity continues to be unbearable. Hoping for rains during next week.

Long run - saturday, 29th may 2010

Did a long run of 9.5 kms today in a time of 64.54 minutes at Aarey Forest, conditions were extremely hot and humid and muggy. Unable to take few of the hills.

easy run - tuesday, 25th may 2010

Did an easy run of 38.30 minutes today, about 5.7 kms, in easy pace more as a recovery effort after sunday's bangalore 10K event. The humidity levels in Bombay continues as usual, next two-three weeks would be gruelling for runners.

Bangalore Sunfeast 10K - 23rd May 2010

The sunfeast 10K could have been better organized was the overriding thought as we boarded our evening flights (all delayed as usual) to Mumbai.




All of us Mumbai runners met at the Expo on Saturday afternoon as pre-planned i.e. myself, Ashok, Hemant, Krishna, Milan. Surprised to see Apurba as we did not expect him at the event, more surprises was to follow. Also met Arvind Bharati of RFL at their stall. That evening it rained heavily in Bangalore. I am sure all of us thought – great, now for a PB here.



The next morning i.e. Sunday a.m. we again ran into each other at the indoor stadium, which was filling up soon. Here we ran into another surprise in the form of Mahadev Samjiskar who was there in full readiness for the event. We did not know Samjiskar was running that day. Also ran into Arvind Krishnan of the RFL.



The elite men’s event started at 7.10 a.m. followed by women’s event at 8.04 a.m. It was magnificient watching these elite athletes in full flow because they did two laps of 400 metres at the start of the race, which itself was awesome.



At 8.10 a.m. precisely, the open event started with chaos as the opening gate was very narrow and people were bounding up the fencing and jumping down the tracks to join the race. At the start there was much chaos with runners forced to do zig-zag due to the number of runners and walkers also. The roads were bit narrow and by this time the sun was up beating down hard on the runners. The running crowd deterred any attempt at ramping up the pace upto 3.5 kms after which it started offering some leeway to the runners. The route was changed this year and therefore did not pass through the Ulsoor lake, which would have been pleasant.



I saw Veera thrice on the opposite direction and sub-consciously decided I needed to catch up with him. Ashok left me at about 3.5 kms mark and I saw Samjiskar buzzing past at around 3 kms mark. Hemant and Apurba of course flew away much before that, I did not encounter them at all.



I reached 5 kms mark at 33 minutes which was not a good pace and thought I needed much catching up to do and therefore, I picked up pace from 7 kms onwards to ensure a decent timings, now that a 10K PB was out of the window. By the time we reached the Raj Bhavan I was into a decent pace and crossing one runner after another. I passed Veera inside the Cubbon park with about 1.5 kms to go and went for sprinting in the last 0.5 kms to register a decent time of 1.03.57 hours (PB in Bangalore), not much of an effort, but considering the summer run, was satisfied overall. The dream of running a sub-1 hour 10k remains.



Few negative points about the run – there were too many loops, narrow roads, not much cheering crowd. Positives – sufficient water stations on the route.



Now for the August i-Race 10K at IIT Powai