Tales from the Saddle......: Skylark Challenge!!! Challenge was to not to get lost!!

Another race coming second. Its frustrating to lose when you dominate the entire race especially if you are stronger and faster than your competitors.

The race was on Sunday the 29th of September. Had been training for it right after coming back from rugged. It was Luda's idea to run the race. Did a lot of training on Sinhgad plus ran outside my office after work. My running really needed some work if I was to keep up with Sushil n Ludmila. Luda due to her recent Ladakh trip was super strong and I was desperate to not be the weakest link.

The race was gonna start in Velhe village, which is at the base of the historic Torna fort. The village is surrounded by a jungle n a huge river flows by one side. Very laid back village, no coverage disturbed only by the steady stream of trekkers to Torna fort. Its about 40 kms from Pune right at the edge of Sahyadris.

Me, Luda, Ashok Captain our coach/manager, Sushil's wife Priyanka all left for Velhe the night before the race in my car. Reached early, had a nice dinner of chicken cooked on choolah. Man that taste can never be replicated. So delicious it was. They had allocated a separate room for us, Captain's magic, otherwise all the other participants slept in a big hall. Sushil joined later at night.

Wanted to talk with the missus (who's in Australia) but no coverage anywhere, so tried to walk all through the village to get a signal to send a text home; no luck. There was no phone booth with international connection either. So just took out the car and drove 5 kms out, all the time holding my phone out the window for one fucking signal; no luck again. Drove back. Finally gave in to Luda's insistence of using her phone which had some signal.

Yes AC does sleep, despite popular urban myths

Had a nice sleep in my sleeping bag with the calm sound of a creek running near by. The next morning was oh so beautiful. The mountain was covered in clouds and they were fast descending on us. The locals said it gets very foggy late in the morning. Was surprised to find the village full with athletes. Didn't expect this kind of turn up. Met some fellow cyclists too. But Captain told us to be focused n we went on a short warm up run. The race got delayed for about 2 hours, finally we were let off at 9.30. By that time it had started to rain pretty hard. The terrain which we had to run was all through muddy trails n fields.

The Map

Started with a nice steady pace, with Sushil leading , Luda in the middle and me bringing up the rear. The trails were super slippery due to the rains. Very very hard to run, was all wet in minutes. Shoes got heavy too. Thanks to our training, all this had little affect on us. The scenic route to the first control was alongside a huge backwater area (Gunjawne Dam). We had to trudge through knee deep creeks and ankle deep mucks of paddy fields. The rocks were slippery too, almost slipped couple of times. The swampy land was slowing us down considerably and I wished for the mountains which I later regretted. We were the first to reach the first check point. All along we were closely followed by a team of super strong athletes. After the check point they made their move and overtook us. We however maintained a steady pace and tried to keep up with them. They were way too fast for us, soon they would have put up a nice lead on us, but the girl in their team unfortunately slipped and scraped a knee. That slowed them down and we took back the lead.

These pics hardly do justice to the Terrain!!! (Pic courtesy Sunil Nanaware and Santosh Zurange)

Soon we hit the mountains and we had to run up steep slippery slopes. The pace reduced to almost a crawl now. Luda got a little winded here and I pushed her up the slope to get us going faster. Sushil strong as ever could hardly feel a thing. After a particularly steep slope we reached the third control which almost made us crawl on all fours. The route then went down a mountain side. And there we thought going down would be easier than climbing, haven't been so wrong. Descending was almost as slow as ascending, thanks to the slippery terrain. After a brief slope down the mountain we hit a totally deserted woods, no sign of civilization for miles. It was here that we got lost. Things got worse when the fog came down on us. All I could see was Luda running in front of me. So hopelessly lost we were that we had to stop and think for 5 minutes (that's a lot of time to keep still in a race) . There were no other teams who followed us there. It was all very frustrating. We went down the wrong path twice, wasted at least half an hour until we finally managed to find the arrows on the road again. Once back on the road, we soon came down to the village and the tar road. Discouragement had set in. But we still managed to increase our pace in our hurry to make up the lost time. While going through one of the fields a small lamb hardly 2-3 months old started giving chase to Luda. The cute little thing did not let up for about half a km. Sushil had to stop and get rid of it as its owner was cursing us to stop. Just after the third check point we hit another steep climb. The climb was very slippery, even walking up there was a task. It was here I started to get cramps in my groin muscles. Had a 2 minute break at the top, drank lots of water which took care of them. But my leg muscles were screaming to stop. All the hammering and pushing Luda had taken its toll. Kept on running even though in pain. Soon we reached the last check point. It was all downhill until the finish from here. So we increase our pace and soon enough I can see the finish all the way down the mountain. Here the formation changed a bit, I was leading, Luda in the middle n then Sushil. While descending a steep patch I look back to make sure Luda is following me, only to see her slip and was hurling towards me, I catch her just in time other wise it was all hurts for me and her.

Soon we cross the finish without anymore drama. It took us 3 hours and 1 minute finish. The First team finished 10 minutes before us. Coming in second was a huge disappointment. After some stretches I had a huge lunch. Got into dry clothes, and by the time we collected our 4 grand prize it was already evening. Had a huge dinner at Velhe and soon left for home. Once in Pune , went out with Luda to meet the Pune Rando peeps over a stubbie, then dropped her home. It was almost midnight that I finally got to rest my tired ass.