Kaveri Trail Marathon 2011 - Weather Benign

Well, Kaveri Trail Half Marathon bloodied me last year, since it was my first ever trail marathon and I cramped badly from 13 kms onwards and came home battled and bruised in 2.35 hours. That was last year, 2010. So I was determined to go back to the Kaveri trail and do a better performance than last year. It was not a revenge but this is what all marathoners do, I believe, when they don’t get a good performance in a particular track, they go back and try to do better.

With that intention in mind of doing better this year, I dutifully registered for the Kaveri trail marathon as soon as it opened. But before the registrations itself, we had done the group train bookings for more than 10 persons from Mumbai There is a great camaraderie in travelling together for marathons, as I have experienced since last year. We get to exchange notes with other runners during the journey and believe me all we runners talk about during the train and air journeys is nothing but running all the time. In Hyderabad, we had Kavin as our official host being a telugu spokesman for the group. In Bangalore and Mysore we were lucky to have Srivatsan and Vikas as our language hosts. More of that later.

In August, I had done the Hyderabad half marathon in a time of 2.27 hours in a beast of a course. Since I knew the Kaveri trail I was sort of mentally prepared as to what to expect this year from the trail. The trail remained the same, only the weather behaved better this year compared to last year. I wanted to do better than last year’s time of 2.35 hours, no other expectations of a personal best half marathon.

The train group dwindled to about five members being myself, Anand, Milton, Hari & Manoj. Srivatsan & Bhasker were flying separately. The 24 hour train journey took its toll on us despite having a third a/c accommodation. The train from Bangalore to Mysore however was a beautiful journey, only 2 hours, comfortable seating and quality food was served in the Shatabdi. Srivatsan joined us at Bangalore and immediately made us comfortable with his language skills in Kannada, talking and negotiating everywhere. At Bangalore station, we also met facebooker Panneer Selvam, he was doing a full marathon.

Since we were arriving into Mysore by mid-day on Saturday and the bib collection was at the Young Island resort that day itself, I had requested Ashwin to help us out somehow and he graciously agreed to keep our bibs at the resort on the race day itself. However, Vikas, a local Mysore boy was also travelling to Mysore from his work arrangements that day and he readily agreed to collect our bibs from the resort. He was also running a 10km at Kaveri, so that was indeed a great help as we were saved the tiring journey to the resort on the Saturday. It was a great help to have the bibs and chips on Saturday itself as we were able to pin the bibs on the tees and also fix the chips on our running shoes, saving last minute botheration at the race venue. He also invited us to his house to be his guest. Later that evening, we went to the famous Dasaprakash restaurant and gorged on some delicious local snacks. Besides, Anand & Bhasker made provisions for post race tipple. The dinner at Ginger hotel was also quite sumptuous and delicious.

We had, again through the help of Vikas, arranged a vehicle to pick us from the Ginger in the early hours on Sunday in order to take us to the venue and bring us after the run and also ferry us to the Mysore railway station. So everything was in place for the race day.

Since all of us had already tied the bibs to the tees and fixed the chips on our shoes, we decided to leave the hotel for the race venue at 5.00 a.m. The race venue was about 12 kms from the hotel. Bhasker’s event the full marathon was to start at 6.15 a.m. followed by the half marathon at 6.45 a.m. We reached the venue comfortably ahead of the race time and set about meeting other runners from Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and other places, notable being Ashok Nath, Suneela Katikala, Suresh KP, Sujit Kolke, Pramod Pai, Rupal Shah etc.

Bhasker set off with other full marathoners exactly at 6.15 a.m. to the sound of a conch horn. While the half marathoners gathered nervously at the start, many eyes were looking upwards at the skies to detect any signs of impending harsh sun and also probably seeking the blessings from the upper reaches for a safe and comfortable marathon. The half marathon started exactly at 6.45 a.m. with the sub-2 hour runners positioned ahead of the others.

I started cautiously by ensuring proper footing at the start and also not stumbling upon other runners. A couple of runners badly twisted their ankles in their anxiety to get going which made me nervous. I was coming out a bad ankle week with only one run during the week on Wednesday, a gingerly done 4 kms and so was testing the ankles to gauge their performance. Feeling comfortable I upped the pace after the initial kilometer. Saw Srivatsan surge ahead as also Unmesh & Sujit who was wearing a VFF. Around 3 kms I started developing stomach cramps which was unusual because I had never experienced this before and that too so early in the race. I thought back to what I had eaten, whether it was too much and started weighing the reasons for abdominal cramps. Then I immediately cut the pace and started breathing deeply and kept at it for about 3 kilometers during which time the cramps slowly went away.

The sun mercifully kept away during the initial stages and feeling the cap which I was wearing to be more of a hindrance to me, I immediately removed the cap and hooked it around my right hand which was also holding the water bottle. I was taking a swig of water at each kilometer and more also in between because there were plenty of water stations provided by RFL along the route. Each station was also equipped with bananas, oranges, biscuits, and medical aid.

I reached 9 kilometers comfortably during which time the water canal was on the left side of the runners. At 9 kilometers, there was a short bridge and a gradual climb but with full of gravel stones so one had to be careful at this stage because the full marathoners and also some of the half marathoners were returning back from the 10.55 kilometers mark. After 9 kilometers the canal came on the right hand side of the runners, but it was shorter in width than on the left hand side.

I reached the turn off point at 10.55 kilometers comfortably and turned without any stoppage whatsoever feeling strong. Started the return journey feeling strong and navigated the downhill at after 11.0 kilometers carefully. From 11.0 to about 14.0 kilometers I was going very strong by overtaking other runners and getting into a ritual of reining in the runner just ahead of me and so on I overtook many runners. Also during this stage, I was careful because last year at this point, the calf cramps started hurting me badly. Luckily the sun was still behind the clouds though the humidity was a factor. For Mumbai runners humidity was not a threat as we are used to running in extreme humidity.

In the meantime came across runners from RFL, DM & Facebook on the opposite sides so hollered out to Sahine, Gopal, Bhasker, Milton, Panneer Selvam and others. Srivatsan was pacing himself just behind Milton, so I thought there is going to be an interesting battle between the two.

From 14.0 kilometers onwards, I thought I should take it easy until 18.0 kilometers and then give it all out effort. In hindsight I feel that I should have kept the momentum going at this stage. The sun started peeping out at around 18 kilometers but would immediately go away behind the clouds probably doing recompense for its last year’s brutality. At 14 kilometers Bhasker passed me on his second leg and despite my hollering out, he was in a trance like state, determination furiously writ large on his face. So much was his focus that he missed out all our cheering and encouragement at the second lap.

The going became slow and steady in the last 3 kilometers and started pushing it through in the last couple of kilometers to come home in a time of 2.25.22 hours. The time was an improvement of 10 minutes over last year’s time.

Met Ashwin Bala at the mat followed by Arvind Bharati who was doing the announcements. Gracefully acknowledged the medal hung around my neck by a volunteer.

Before me the stalwarts Milton Frank, Srivatsan, Anand, Unmesh had already arrived. So we waited for Bhasker to arrive and since we were expecting him to come in less than four hours, Srivatsan & Anand took off their shoes and Milton with his shoes went into the track to bring him home. They met him at 500 metres distance, a little disoriented from his fall at 41 kilometers due to wrong direction given by a local. But the champ that he is, Bhasker immediately put stride in his legs and sprinted down to a first position in the veteran category in a time of 3.57.58 hours. Earlier Milton frank was declared the third place winner in the men’s veteran half marathon. Later on, Rupal Shah came in fourth in the women’s half marathon in veteran category.

So, RFL Mumbai runners again struck gold at a running event and this is becoming like a welcome habit these days. After the fantastic show at Hyderabad, this was another superlative performance at Kaveri Trail Marathon.

After tending to Bhasker’s bruises, we all dutifully went to the Young Island resort to have our post race carbo loading as well as collect the prizes for the podium finishers. Prize collected to a tumultuous applause and brunch taken, we headed back to the Ginger to refresh ourselves and indulge in the post race tipple.

All of us were travelling to Bangalore in the same Shatabdi train before dispersing our different ways by air or train or staying back. Bhasker was in his elements during the train journey and provided ample entertainment to the passengers as well as the ticket checkers who were in splits at his repartees.

Myself and Milton travelled together in the Udyan Express accompanied by a brick kiln distributor and a garment trader. While the brick guy was in shudh Hindi, the garment trader improved his English and Milton his Hindi by conversing with each other.

The most crucial element in this year’s event was the benign weather at least for the half marathoners. The full marathoners did bear the brunt of sun’s fury for some time, but then again it was playing hide and seek behind the clouds.

The arrangements by RFL were fantastic as usual with ample food & water counters, timely on the dot start, timely prize distribution etc. Kudos to A3 gang of Arvind Krishnan, Arvind Bharati, Ashwin Bala along with Nikhil and his team for this superb organization.

KAVERI - TRAIL BY FIRE

Kaveri Trail Marathon is a tough, demanding, grueling marathon held on the banks of a flowing canal, with paddy fields, sugarcane fields, bullock carts, hay stacks & farmers intently working, along the route. There is very little tree cover and the surface is dirt track more used for village life than city roads. The track is interspersed with stones embedded into the ground and it is narrow with capacity to hold only two runners at a time. Moreover, running right through the centre of the track are green tufts of either grass or other some small plants with the result that each runner has only a small place to land his feet. The runners have to constantly keep shifting from left to right and be alert all the time or they could stumble and fall. There is only one small slope at after the 9.5 kms mark, otherwise it is a flat track. The route for half-marathon is a straight one to 10.55 kms and return to the starting point, whereas the full marathoners have to do this loop twice.




Saturday, 18th September 2010 saw nine of us (Raj, Zico, Kavin, Bhaskar, Ashok, Gautam, Mahesh, Amit, Rahul) at the Santacruz airport at 9.15 a.m. all looking fit like going into war. Bhaskar had already started the first of his many witty remarks and repartees, when Kavin commenced the first of his Sardar jokes. Both of these gentlemen kept us in splits throughout the two day marathon safari.

Bangalore was pleasant at 11.00 a.m. when we started on our long road trip to Mysore, which took about 5.5 hours, with a halt for lunch at Kamats hotel enroute. The lunch was a feast in a traditional Mysore style with rice, sambhar, rasam, etc. in a plaintain leaf.

Okay, carbo loading done, now to the Ginger hotel which we reached at 4.30 p.m. Mysore weather was even more pleasant than that of Bangalore and by then it had started raining. I am sure many runners would have eyed that PB, and of course quite a few achieved it as well.



We came down at around 5.15 p.m. and decided to go for a short walk which ended with a loss of few thousand rupees from our wallets – all this happened in a blink of an eye – a friendly neighbourhood autorickshaw wallah eyed us undecided what to do, where to go, when he offered to ferry us to the market to have a look at the traditional Mysore items and bring us back, all for a princely sum of Rs.50/- only. Decision made, 6 of us clambered into the auto, got the red eye from a couple of traffic police guys and reached the venue still undecided what to buy and what we came there for. Raj made the decision to buy some sarees for his wife and everybody followed him in a frenzy and polished off about 20K in less than an hour. We runners have affinity for doing everything with clockwork precision.

Dinner at Ginger was a runners’ special with pasta, curd rice, fried potatoes, fruit jelly, ice cream et al. We had an early dinner and retired to bed around 10 p.m. Sunday morning dawned in an almost chilly cold weather and all of us said “Wow” this must be great – little did we know what was in store for us as the day progressed.



We had to travel about 20kms to a place called Young Island Resort from where we had to collect our bibs, timing chips & food coupons. That done, we had to travel back about 2 kms to the starting point, which was a little inside the main road and where the RFL stall was in full attendance with all supplies already in place. We came across some venerated runners like Honda, Sabine, Kothandapani et al There were some other firangi runners as well and the atmosphere was charged with excitement though it was lacking in the tension usually associated with a big city marathon like Mumbai.

The full marathon race started exactly at 6.30 a.m. after the usual instructions to the runners. Out went Zico, Raj, Mahesh, Amit, Veera, Sundaresan, Krishna. The full marathon route was two loops of the distance from starting point to 10.55 kms and back to the starting point. Water and aid stations were laid at 2.5, 4, 5, 6, 7.5, 9, 10.55 kms and were well stocked with water, lucozade, bananas, oranges, parle-g, peanut butter jelly sandwiches and first aid. Few volunteers were roaming the distance in motorbikes to look out for people who were feeling discomfort and they were a couple of them who kept the volunteers busy. An ambulance with medical doctor was stationed outside the start line which was also bought into use a couple of times.


Next was the half-marathon which also started with clockwork precision exactly at 6.45 a.m. Out went Ashok, Giles, Mani, Mahesh Gune, Sridhar and myself. Giles was in close pursuit of Bhasker and the dream fight had begun. The rain clouds which was witnessed on Saturday had decided to take a day off on Sunday and therefore it was a clear sunny morning which saw the half marathon participants take the road. The route was very scenic and a sight for greenery starved city denizens. The RFL organisation was razor perfect with kms markings in chalk on the ground & cross markings to ensure people do not wander where cows & buffaloes are allowed to.

Few kms gone into, terrain gauged, pace adjusted, steady and determined strides, full concentration on the road ahead, 6 kms – need for replenishing lucozade, 8 kms - runners returning after doing U-turn at 10.5 kms, exclamations, motivations, determined faces, 9 kms - our runners coming, Bhasker galloping back, (where is Giles??), Ashok, Zico, Raj and others, 10.5 kms need for a break. Sun out in full fury now, chugging along slow and steady pace, stumbled about 3 to 4 times, which triggered the cramps, first in the right calf, then in the left calf, then in both calves, taking all the water stops, walking for a few steps after the cramp attacks, then again re-starting till last kms reached, volunteers out – shouting encouragement and the distance to the finish line - 800, 200, 100 to go and then sprint to the finish.

Pleasantly surprised to receive a finishers’ medal and kept it proudly around my neck until the strap broke – no problem, medal a first one. Ran into Giles about to plunge into a local Jacuzzi and Bhasker and Ashok looking fresh as ever, even without the jacuzzi. Again a cramp attack after we started walking towards the Resort, which Ashok kindly helped reduce with massage.

We collected the bib money, had our lunch, which was again quite fantastic with rice, sambhar, rasam, papad & payasam – quite a feast after the early morning work. By the time we came back to the venue, Krishna had finished his race and Mahesh had gone to fetch the others.

The sun was at its beastly best and we were only waiting with trepidation because the usual stalwarts were yet to come. But come they did: one by one Zico, Amit and then a long wait for Raj. By this time we were really worried for Raj and we (Ashok, Bhaskar & myself) decided to venture out into the route with a worried look on our faces. A few minutes later Raj emerged regally escorted by Krishna on one side and Mahesh on other side. We decided to join the party behind the royals and all of us sprinted across to the finish line. Of course, none of us were given a second finisher medals. Kavin was left to finish his first full marathon in the capable hands of Rahul, Amit’s brother. We had to perforce leave the venue because of check out restrictions, damn.

Quite a few achieved their personal best - Amit (whopping 30 mins), Mani (sub 2 hour half & also PB), Sridhar (whopping 23 mins), quite others achieved good timings - Ashok, Krishna, Mahesh, but the real hero was Bhasker Desai with a fourth place in Veteran Category. Kavin, Veera & Sundar achieved their first full marathon.

Endurance building on those monster hills at Aarey and BNP definitely helped in sustaining the pace under the unrelenting and merciless sun. All Mumbai runners finished creditably in this trail marathon.

Food taken by the full marathoners, bibs refunds obtained it was time to leave Mysore, which we did around 2.00 p.m. Enroute we again descended on Kamats, this time justifiably proud of our early morning achievements. All of us ordered Idli & Wada, which was probably the “in” thing to have in Karnataka, along with the dosas. The idli was shaped in a cylindrical shape, enveloped in a patta This was the first time, we were seeing idli in a shape other than like that of an UFO. The dosas mercifully survived the revolution and were round in shape.

Reached Bangalore airport at 8.15 p.m., the plane took off before time and landed in Mumbai after circling overhead for about 30 minutes, enough time for us to have a nights eye view of the Ganpati pandals in Mumbai. Reached home at 12.15 p.m. and had probably the best and soundest sleep in yearssssssssss.