The Tata Ultra 50K – DNF

I have been playing with the idea of doing a 50K for a while now. The last couple months have seen me do 2 kickass marathons and the last 3 years have built a whole lot of mileage in my legs. In the last 3 years I have also spent a lot of time up at altitude to understand the demands of elevation and downhill running. And when I heard about Tata Ultra Marathon (TUM), it seemed to be a but obvious choice. It was close to Mumbai, where I have been residing for the last few months, I was physically in a great condition, I had been training and it was going exactly as per plan. And just like that I signed up for it.

Fast forward to the 19th Feb 2020 when I made my way to pick up the bib for the event. It was at the Striders Office and as soon as I got there, I just felt this supremely awesome vibe – cosy, busy, high energy team which was gearing up for the event. Seemed to me that it was going to be a weekend to remember – and it sure was ….

The next day I head out for a meeting early in the A.M. As is the norm, this was held at a fab location and with the Acon on full blast. Unbeknownst to me, the cold blast of air was doing its job as I sat there. Icing on top was heading out into the hot sun at 11ish and I had created my own hell. Later in the day my throat felt sore. I ignored it and carried on with life. Come Friday, and my voice had turned into one with a sexy husky over-tone. I popped a paracetamol and hoped for the best. I had planned to hold a stretching session with a few trainees on the Saturday morning by the beach. I did feel better in the morning too, but I wanted to keep the “feel good” emotion for the race later that night and cancelled the session.

Sudhir and me had booked a cab to leave by 10:30am so that we could reach Lonavala by lunchtime, stuff our faces and then retire for the day. The plan was beautiful. However, I completely lost my voice during that drive. Post Lunch, we retired to our respective rooms, and surprisingly I managed to get a couple hours of sleep. Tbh, ever since the day I fell sick, I was giving Sleeping Beauty serious competition and in fact, I was quite amazed that I had the ability to sleep as much as I was. Eitherway, I woke up around 5pm and around 6 went out for a cuppa chai. Lucky me, the chai-waala made sugarless kadak adrak chai for me. My voice had decided to take a hiatus and a much-needed vacation by now and it seemed that there was no-coming back for it. However the chai had a rather soothing effect. Ginger!! I tell you – it is MAGIC!

Post the chaibreak, I retired into the room confused if I should participate in the event or no. There were so many thoughts running through my head that I hardly got any shut-eye. Over a period of time, I have reached a point that I am comfortable in facing the repercussions of the decisions I take and I do listen to opinions around me, but the final decision is always mine. Anyway, I finally had a disturbed hour of nap from 12am-1am, at which point I had a decision to take. My voice was gone, but I felt rested and I had come all the way here and managed to wake up at the unearthly hour, also, I had really been looking forward to the route, so I thought, let me make my way to the venue and start the run – will see how I go on the move – nothing is set in stone.

And like that, by 1:30am, I got dressed and made my way to the bus taking us to the start-point. As we entered the marquee, we were given fruits ( bananas, apples and oranges), dry-fruits, biscuits, hot water, coffee and tea. I sipped on a lot of hot water as I lurked around trying to conserve any and all energy I had. Before we knew it, it was time to start the race. The energy was palpable, the drummers began playing beat that makes the feet move almost automatically and with a last 10 second countdown , off we went. It was a slight downhill as we started, beyond which it turned into a slight climb. As we started off, I felt my breathing get laboured, I made a note to self. Said, I will try this out for the first 5K and then take a call. After the 1st three kms, I felt a slight ease in my run. The route was rolling and I had reached a certain rhythm. However, It was obvious to me that I was not in racing condition – at all!

As we approached the big climb around the 10K mark, I started walking up the hill. My body had started feeling heavy. Anyway, I kept going thinking ok, its the elevation – downhill will get better – but it didn’t. during this period my body’s thermoregulation was out of whack – i was either too hot or i was shivering, while running and in addition to this my body was not accepting the gels for nutrition either. I continued moving through positive self-talk until 25Km. At this point, I was like 50% done, now I can continue moving till the finish line. However, I had another voice screaming in my head going – you are only beating yourself up. You know the difference between suffering because you are pushing yourself towards performance and suffering for the sake of suffering. You are not enjoying this. Are you doing this for your ego? Is it worth it?

Over the next 5K, these were the thoughts in my head. Also, I met such lovely runners along the route who were constantly encouraging everyone around and spreading so much love and energy that it felt almost criminal not to run with them around. But by 30K I was done. Physically I was destroyed and mentally, I had made my peace with my physical condition. I walked upto the closest volunteer around 31K and told him I wanted to DNF. He asked me to move out and have a seat. I didnt want to sit down as my body would have got colder, so i literally was hanging around there trying to keep warm waiting for some vehicle to come and get me. 10 minutes into this, I realised that there was no help coming anytime soon and that I would be better off walking upto the finish line myself instead of sitting in the cold. So I went back to the volunteer and told him I will rejoin the race.

As I started moving again, it was absolutely reestablished that I was in no physical condition to continue moving, but I didnt seem to have a choice. Say another Km into the track I saw a volunteer riding towards me with a photographer riding pillion on his Jupiter. This man was to be my knight to the rescue. I waved him down and told him I needed help. He said, we will drop you to the finish line ma’am and both of them scooted ahead to make place for me on the bike. I jumped on, using the body of the bike to do my stretches as we moved towards the finish line. Part of the manners of participating in a race is to inform the organiser of the decision to retire if a runner decides to do so. As we made our way, we stopped at multiple checkpoints/ aid stations but none of the volunteers seemed to know what to do with the information. So we continued our way forward. The temperature difference was immense and I was already cold – although the two boys in front of me were acting as wind-breakers the gravity of the amount of cold my body was being exposed to was not lost on me, but there was no alternate so we laboured on.

Ive gotta give it up to that boy – I dunno his name – but he rode that Jupiter like a pro and a man with a mission to take me to safety, with the two of us sitting behind him on that broken dusty road – THAT boy! is a rockstar! and if you are reading this – THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. We moved forward to the cut-off point which was manned by Vikrant from Striders. I advised him of my decision, he took my bib and informed the relevant people including Deepak, the race director. The Sweep Buses were standing there and he asked me to get in there and wait until the bus is full and we are ready to move to the finish line. I told him of my condition and he advised me to move into the ambulance to stay warm. I got a blanket and covered myself. I was shivering inside it for the next 45mins but stabilised after that. Even got a 30 minute nap in. I woke up when another runner came into the ambulance with a muscle tear. We spoke for a while after which I gave him my blanket and went out into the sun for warmth. Sincere request to the organisers: 1) Its imperative to have blankets for runners at the aid stations & definitely more than one blanket in an ambulance and 2) The volunteers should be made aware of the person to inform in case of a DNF. The bus was ready to move. I jumped in and we moved onto the finish line. I grabbed a bite to eat, waited for Sudhir and then we jumped into the Bus to take us back to Lonavala.

The torture was not over yet. The ride back was soooooooooo long. After that we freshened up, checked out and grabbed a good lunch. The plan was to get into the cab straight after and start snoozing immediately. Lo and behold! Lonavala has an anti-uber and anti-ola policy which meant we didnt get a cab and eventually got a local cab 2 hours later after hunting for one in an absolutely exhausted state at double the cost.

I have been on complete rest and antibiotics since I got back. My voice is still playing hide and seek with me. I am using this time to catch up on my studies, recovery and experiment in the kitchen. To be honest, its quite frustrating but I look at it as vippasana and a patience-building exercise – not like I have much of a choice. I also plan to go back to this event next year.This time, we will make a kick-ass weekend off it and we will drive in our own vehicle/ use public transport. If you want to learn something from this experience of mine. If at any point in time you feel “confused” – the answer is NO, you are aware that the body is not ready to go through a beating and it’s just your mind that refuses to understand.

I will also be relocating back to Bangalore by end of March/ Mid-April – will tell you more about the Why in another post – so will look at doing some exploration around Maharashtra before heading back home. And there will be some really exciting stuff up ahead in 2020 ( think hills and mountains :))

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