Satara Misal - Stage 3

Homeward bound

All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. ~T.E. Lawrence

Umesh is the dreamer of the day. I dreamt of the return trip at night.

Here's the scene at the Satara Hill run endpoint

Umesh : "Let's go back to the room, get fresh and start our return on the bike"
Me: "Hmm .... give me some time. Let me eat something and recover"
Me:  (after sometime) "Umesh, lets use the bike rack and catch a bus or take a lift"
Umesh : "What happened ? Not feeling like it ?"
Me:  I am fine except for the ankle pain which does not come up during cycling. See the weather. No clouds. We will be starting latest by 12:30 / 1:00. There will be headwinds.
Umesh : The weather will be ok. We will start early.  But your call. I will go by your decision (But I could see his heart was bent on going back the way we came - cycling)
Me : "Hmmm ... Let me go get fresh. My mind will be a lot clearer then"
Bhari : (concerned) "Guys, Lets not risk it. The bike rack can be setup for all three bikes. You have already stretched the limit."

12:00 noon : Both of us are ready outside the hotel to return

And thus we embarked on the return. Not before fixing up the rack on Bhari's car with Vijay's bike. That had its own share of trouble as it was the first time I was setting this up. We lost a nut from the strap harness and Vijay biked down to the nearest hardware shop and fetched another one but we did not have anything to tighten it. Finally Bhari and Vijay put the rack into the car went to the same shop got it tightened and were back.

The bike rack and bike all setup for the return

I wrapped the reflector around the bike to be on the safer side and told Bhari to get down and check the rack whenever they stopped or hit some bad road patches.

We also told them to start a couple of hours after we started, in case one of us needed to discontinue.

Typically after I run a marathon I drink water at frequent intervals until I flush out all the toxins. I also eat at regular intervals. This time we were burning fuel as well as needed refuelling. I had filled a litre of Enerzal. Umesh and I had also eaten Upma and Poha after the run at a hotel near the bus-stand.  Bhari had dropped the others to the hotel and come back to pick up to take us back to the hotel. He had been giving us VVIP treatment throught out as well as in the hotel room.

The moment we hit NH4 towards Pune, I told Umesh we will stop at a decent dhaba and eat some solid food.

In 30 min we came across a hotel and refueled with a Roti each. The dal fry was very spicy (for my palatte) and I ordered and Egg bhurji without chillies. Washed this down with cold water and refilled my camelbak with cold water. i felt much better so much better that I told Umesh that I was ready to climb Khambatki now :-)

The road back is all rolling and mostly downhill, except for a steady gradient at at Shindewadi. I kept it easy and  we took turns at leading. We were faced with cross winds all along and the downhills were not all that fast. Umesh was doing strong and if riding alone would have reached home faster. But he slowed his pace with mine and stayed together.

We were passed by a couple of marathoners in their cars who cheered us. This added to the motivation. Soon after another car passed by gave a left indicator and a hand came out with a camera to shoot us. The same car stopped ahead at some distance and continued shooting us as we approached the car. It turned out to be Venkat who took some great snaps and told us we were crazy. He was driving down to Bombay after all the hard work of organising as well as pacing as a 3 hr bus.

Venkat took this snap as he passed us

A selfie was the right thing to do at the moment

We took another break for cold water but this restaurant did not have any. I ordered some sandwiches as we had stopped anyways and a cold drink. I was also stopping by for urinating and was checking on the urine colour. Pale yellow to white was a good sign and I managed to get this in sometime. 

We approached Wai Phata and another 5 kms before we hit Khabatki tunnel which was a beautiful downhill all the way even after the exit. We stopped before the tunnel approach road and fished out our head lamps. Checked our tail lamps and got ready for the dark tunnel ride and the downhill. 

I was leading as we entered the tunnel with the other vehicles noise deafening us and some of the bikers honking all the way and I noticed I could barely see my head light or the road ahead. What was wrong ? !!! Decelerated and slowed down. Dang ! we had forgotten to take our sun glares off. Stopped immediately and Umesh asked me the reason. He too had his glasses on and was wondering the same. We removed it and put it back into our jersey pockets and continued on. There was a missed call from Vijay on Umesh's cell when we were approaching Shirwal after Khambatki. They had started and were also approaching Shirwal. we stopped for them and they reached us in a couple of minutes. 

Shirwal - Meeting our support car

Bhari and the others were concerned and wanted to know whether we wanted to continue. Of course we were in great shape. the sun was now past its worst and the breeze was cool although I would have preferred a better direction. I told them to carry on ahead. Our next stop was the Vitthal's restaurant which I like because of the filter coffee. I wanted some caffeine 

Vitthal's on all highways

We took a long break at Vitthal's with Masala dosa and coffee. Called up home. It was probably 5:30 pm and I anticipated another 2 hrs more

Soon the gradient towards shinde wadi and the Toll naka started and we continued on. And the Katraj hill came in sight, we decided to take the Katraj tunnel by pass instead of the ghat to avoid the city traffic on the Katraj -swargate road. 

the tunnel and the road after was a long downhill and we got paid back for the climb that we had done the previous day morning. We did remember to remove our glares for this tunnel :-)

As we approached the Sinhagad road phata the road turned bad and the traffic worse. This was the Sunday evening city traffic. We had to stop and start quite a few times because of the bad traffic as well as traffic signals. Umesh parted way to go to Pimpri while I stayed on course to reach East street and Camp. Finally home was in sight and knocked the door at 8:00 pm. 

Siddhant is all smiles and beaming on my return

An eight hour ride after a half marathon was like running a full marathon ? Maybe not :-).

Thanks to Umesh for dreaming in the day. Venkat P from youtoocan run for the wonderful pictures and motivation. Bhari (Bharadwaj Keesra) - a friend whose support and care is unconditional.

Vijay Chavan for having the courage to start and stretch his limits and the spirit to stop and take the support for the return and Brijesh, Prashant and Ashish for the company and motivation.

More of our pics from Team PTC are here

Satara Misal - Stage 2

Hill Finishers

Bhari with the rest of the PTC friends reached at around 4:30 pm. The others got the hotel room. Bhari got our bags and settled himself as our third room mate. We had washed our cycling shorts and Tee shirts and kept it out to dry, optimistic about riding back after the run.

Elevation map

Now it was time to prepare for Stage -2, running the hills. The route 's elevation is as shown in the pic . I had no dreams of doing a PR here. And the journey back was uppermost in my mind as we discussed the next morning's ritual.

We had tea at a tapri in the city and then scouted around for some bread and bananas for the next morning pre-race fuel. Bought some bottled water and returned to the room planning for an early dinner at the hotel restaurant.

The hotel was some distance away from the start point and we were mulling over the best way to reach. Bhari volunteered to drive us down and make two trips as we were 7 of us. Fortunately two of us got a ride in another car as Sudhir a colleague's husband and his son were going to the start point as well.

The organisation of this event is impeccable and has grown from strength to strength over the past couple of years. With Warm up sessions, DJ Music, Drone cameras and water station at the start point,  it is clearly an event organised by runners (Dr Sandeep Kate and his team). The atmosphere is electric and the crowd was energetic and raring to go.

Brijesh, Sudhir, Rishabh, me, Vijay, Ashish, Prashant, Umesh.
Bhari is taking the pic

No political speeches and at 6:00 am and we were flagged off. We had pacers (bus) for the 2 hr, 2:15, 2:30, 2:45 and 3:00 hr finish . Venkat P and Nikhil Shah from Pune running group were the 3:00 hr pacers

I kept a slow pace while Umesh, Vijay and Prashant moved ahead. Prashant is a fast runner . I had predicted an easy sub 2 hr run for him. He dissappeared in no time. I had hopes of finishing between 2:45 to 3:00 hr.

Umesh and Vijay were running barefoot. I admired their resilience despite the unpredictable terrain. I had decided to run in Vibrams. There are many runners from the Satara Athletic Association running barefoot on this course and tearing downhill at high speeds.

panoroma - pic credit - Venkat P @youttocanrun

Ashish Arora was debuting his first run event and Brajesh and Bhari were behind me. The route was an uphill right away and snaked its way through the town into the road leading up to Kaas.

Uphill walking for some

Motivation

Music, cheering locals (a big difference from the inaugral edition) and water stations lined up the route. There were running related quotes which motivated the runners and kept their heads up.

Adequate supply of Music, water, energy drink and medical aid

The water stations had enthusiastic volunteers. They were opening up the bottles and handing it to the runners. Energy drink holding volunteers made themselves visible by extending their arms.
The medical personnel had aprons and pain relief spray with them. Perfect support and further evidence of a "by the runners" event.

Some runners were littering the beautiful roadside with their empty / half filled plastic bottled. Although the rag pickers are around to pick these up, runners should be sensitive to the ecosystem and hold their bottles / waste till the next water station. This becomes easy for the rag

A veteran runner does an impromptu jig with the music

picker to collect. Some runners w
ere throwing the bottle away from sight. I wish the organizers message this out BOLD in the goody bag next year.

I passed the 2:45 pacer on my way up and then saw familiar faces coming down. Umesh and Vijay followed on their down route.

Finally reached the half way mark, grabbed a banana and set myself for the down hill. Down hill does seem easy. Easy for the heart but takes a toll on the legs. I had no plans of hurtling down. Venkat, with the 3 hr bus was coming up and he stopped to click me and many others. I soon passed another 2:45 pacer going downhill. Bhari was enjoying the uphill run with his phone camera. He noticed me and turned his camera to record.

Bhari selfie with quote :-)

Sometime before I had started getting pain on my right ankle bone. This was an injury which I had recovered from a couple of weeks back. Any attempt at increasing the downhill pace hurt the inner area above the ankle bone.
I took a spray at the next water station. and got a little relief. Reached the base and the town area. A corporator had put up blaring music and announcement of his name along with his welcome message.

Venkat P@youtoocan run took this pic

The town road was now lined up with kids and their family. I like to hi-fi the kids standing with outstretched hands . Made suer I did not miss anybody not even the tiniest as some of them giggled and others shyly acknowledged my touch.

Another water station came up I paused for a second shot of pain relief spray. After this started increasing my pace as the road gradient had eased out although still downhill. I could hear the music at the end point and suddenly saw a huge group of  runners coming towards me. Enthusiastic kids in costumes joined me. This was the Dream Run equivalent of SCMM (Mumbai). Now the half marathoners had to look out for the small children and make their way. I was in no hurry and advised a kid whose lace had come undone to retie it. There were other finishers with medals walking up, encouraging their friends and relatives. Soon the last turn and the red carpet came in sight as I turned in to the finish point. saw the clock showing 8:36 and realised that I had out run my estimate. A satisfying run as I made my way to the refreshment area to get the medal.

Met Rafiq Somani who was with his Bombay gang. Some people were enjoying an artifical rain shower. The atmosphere was festive. Umesh and Vijay had finished and clocked a sub 2:30 while Prashant had made a blistering 1:50 finish. The others soon followed as we waited and rested.

The weather was sunny, no clouds, the body had endured a half marathon and there were headwinds on the highway back to Pune. I was in two minds - To bike or take the easy way.

on to Stage 3 - if you have reached this far :-)

Satara Misal - Stage 1

The idea of making a misal of cycling and running was borne in 2011 when Umesh and I were travelling from Bangalore to Mysore for the Kaveri Trail Marathon. There was a cyclist that we passed on the highway and he was soon out of our minds as we enjoyed the drive and small talk. Later in the evening while we relaxed in the hotel balcony in comes Mr Cyclist and checks into the hotel with the Kaveri Trail Bib bag. Next day after the run he loaded the cycle on car bike rack and checked out. 

Soon after Satara Hill Marathon announced its first edition in 2012. I recalled the above and thought this was the ideal event for the Misal as the place is around 130 km from Pune for a half baked randonneour like me to indulge in. It took two more years for the actual attempt, read on ....

Short of Long distance cycling practice I had to take out my Masi for some rides and ended up doing Chandani Chowk and Pirangut. The running training wasn't going good either with the house renovation taking its toll on me physically and mentally. I planned to space out my reserves and not go all out for each of the stage (cycling to satara , Running the half, Cycling back - 130 - 21 - 130 )

Umesh was all geared up with numerous trips to the just opened Decathlon store at Wagholi. He had also bought the Merida Crossway and invested in the right accessories. His training during the last week before the D-day was also way above his usual preparations for any event.

Checklist

The two of us made a long list and shared notes. I was skeptical about the return and ordered a Bike Car rack for a hatchback / Sedan from BikerZ which arrived just a day before leaving me no time to try it out.

BikerZ bike car rack

Bharadwaj (Bhari) was going to drive down to Satara in his car with 4 others. I gave our bags (with the running clothes) and rack to him on Friday.
One of the runners in the above group, Vijay, changed his mind and decided to join us on the bike ride. We were a little apprehensive but one never knows the other person's capacity to stretch his limits. It was a risk that each participant needed to evaluate for himself.

Kiran Revankar, a long distance rider decided to accompany us in the morning and turn around at the 40 km mark. We had good company when we met at Rajaram bridge at 6:15 AM

At Rajaram bridge 6:00 am

The start of the ride is always great with the body fresh and dawn breaking out with less traffic. We reached the Bombay- Bangalore bypass and hit the false flat road approaching Katraj tunnel at steady pace. Umesh and I were leading the pack and I was trying to introduce Umesh to paceline riding :-) while Kiran and Vijay followed. We took a break at the start of the tunnel for a fuel break and to attach the headlights. We saw a runner approaching us and he was a veteran looking very strong on the uphill.

Paceline :-)
Photo credit - Venkat P@youttocanrun

We resumed the ride with me taking up the rear this time and Vijay in front of the group into the tunnel which was still uphill. Exiting the tunnel was an exhilarating downhill till the Toll and we could cover the lost time as we hit top speed with a nice tail wind to assist us

Kiran at Katraj

3 idiots at Katraj

Our next planned stop was the MacDonald at 36 km. We gorged on some Egg Muffins and I packed another one, advising the others to do the same. I needed the second after the Khambatki climb.

Kiran parted ways soon after and took a U-turn back home while we rode ahead. Vijay was faltering behind and we stopped after some distance to let him catch up with us. The weather was partly cloudy and it showered slightly and I prayed this to continue till Khambatki top. Umesh led the way now with Vijay in the middle and me bringing up the tail. the distance between Umesh and us was increasing and Vijay was at a slower pace than mine. The clouds had cleared and we needed to cover 30 kms more to reach Khambtki base before the sun hit us. I passed Vijay and caught up with Umesh as we approached Shirwal and Khandala.

The ghat was approaching and I mulled over the thought of suggesting Vijay to go to the other side and walk across through the tunnel from the wrong side and save the climb. Would have been dangerous. Umesh was doing strong as he pulled ahead of me and overtook a groaning truck. I kept a high cadence and kept it easy, watching my breath. Soon Umesh had powered his way to the top and started capturing my ascent on his camera. This would soon be his routine for the rest of the journey as well :-)

We decided to wait on the top as I refuelled with the egg muffin. I had also carried a couple of bread sandwiches. Umesh took one of them and I kept the other for Vijay. Both of us made calls and selfies and enjoyed the scenery around for a long time with no sign of Vijay.

Khambatki Top

I got worried and tried flagging motor bikes passing us to see if they had noticed another cyclists. Finally one guy said he saw a cyclist at the base walking up which meant a another 30 mins. Umesh called up Vijay who told us to go ahead. We got ready for the descent and zoomed down encashing our climb effort till we reached Wai phata and stopped for buying some water.  The road surface was getting bad as the six laning work is in progress with lot of diversions and bad surface patches. The sun was hotter without any clouds or breeze and we were around 35 kms away from our destination - the Marathon Expo Hotel. Traffic had become denser as we reached the NH4 crossing to enter the city and stopped to ask for directions. Reached the expo at around 12:30 pm and started the formalities of collecting the Bib. Met Divya Tate and Veloscope photographer Brijesh Nair who spotted the Team PTC - PMC bike jersey. Venkat P from youtoocanrun was in one of the booths for the Bib verification and we bade him bye as we needed to check into our Hotel Lakeview as soon as possible.

The bikes parked outside the Expo had some locals interested.  They had the usual queries for long distance cyclists :-). After satisfying their curiosity we found our way to the hotel. After some usual lethargic moments from the hotel management (or lack of it) got a Room which was adjacent to a Reception hall and called the "Bride's room".

"Vadhu" is bride in Marathi :-)

This is the changing room and temporary resting room given to the Bride's family for any Marriage function hosted Well, the room was big to accommodate three of us but the toilet was an Indian one. I dreaded the thought of crapping and cramping together, not to mention the getting up after the job was done. But that is for another post ... :-)

We had packed a spare change of  shorts in the handle bar bag, as the Car with our bags was to reach in the evening. We removed the Satara marathon t-shirts and put that on much to the bemused look of all the others in the hotel wondering why these guys were wearing the next day's event T-shirt.

Vijay followed us soon after by 1:30 pm in the Hotel restaurant for a well deserved Curd rice, more rice and some more rice and we remembered our Rice eater Bhari who was to drive down and reach by 5:00 PM.

Stage -2  running the half marathon follows ...