I am a crazy guy whose passion is running and this passion took me all the way to Auroville (near Pondicherry) on the 14 of Feb 2010. Whoa what a way to spend the Valentines Day running around the forests of Auroville.
I was in Alwar till 5 Feb 2010 and thanked God for giving me some time to practice before the D day. But as luck would have it I was asked to pack my bags to Alwar again on 9 Feb. I thought Oh My God, I am going to miss this nice wonderful run. But I believed in myself and knew that God wouldn't let me down. I back on 11 Feb 23:45. I did some stretching exercises on 12 Feb and did a mild 2Km run 13 Feb.
Thanks to Shameek, one of the Chennai Runners who offered me a seat in his car for this 3 hour journey to Auroville. There were totally four of us in the car- myself, Shameek, Puro and Bharani. Myself and Shameek were doing the half marathon (21.097Km) and Puro& Bharani were doing their maiden full marathon (42.195Km).
The journey from Chennai to Auroville was a pleasant one, we covered the whole distance in about 3 hrs. Shameek had got all sorts of snacks that one usually doesn't munch on before a big run such as this. But we thought ' Chalta Hai' and also we were hungry.
Bharani is an amateur cyclist, slowly moving towards professional cycling. As myself and Bharani were sitting behind the driver's seat and the journey was going to take us close to 3 hrs we started chatting about cycling. I got some info on cycling, what sort of cycle to but, what apparel to wear for long distance cycling etc etc.
Finally we reached Auroville around 14:30 hrs and went straight to Visitor's Centre, the place where they were distributing BIB numbers. We got our BIB numbers and dinner tokens and left to find our respective dorms.
The full marathon runners were put up in a hostel called Mitra, which was located quite close say about 2Km from the Starting point. We had no problems in finding it. Unfortunately the Half marathon runners from Chennai were put up in dorm called DANCE HALL. It was funny that no one in Auroville had ever heard about such a hall. We spent nearly 3 hrs finding our dorm. The name of the dorm was actually " New Creation Corner" near Basket Ball court. We were informed of this change after nearly 2 hrs of searching. Once we found our dorm we wanted to have some food as we did not have our lunch but no restaurant in Auroville was serving food (by food I mean rice, roti and solid stuff) at that particular hour. We were tired, hungry and frustrated. Bharani grabbed a packet fo masala biscuits form a bakery and all of us munched on this.
Finally we found a place called Georgio's Pizzeria and the good news was they were serving food. WOW we thought what a relief ! There was this old Japanese lady or may be of some other country but definitely of a Mongolian race. She was so sweet, she took down our orders and suggested which food would give us the strength to complete our runs successfully tomorrow. Myself and Puro had Spinach Pasta, Shameek had some other pasta with eggs, Bharani had the pasta with mushroom sauce.
After having our food at Georgio's we headed back to Visitor's Centre where we had our dinner again. Guess what Pasta again and salad. We retired to our respective dorms and prepared ourselves for the run tomorrow.
The full marathon runners had their run starting at 5:00 am, we- the half marathon guys had our run start at 6:00 am. It was cool in the morning and the run through the forest was amazing. The route being through forests was a little tough for me and I could not maintain a constant pace. This was because you had to be extra careful while negotiating your course else you would end up twisting your ankle or knee. In spite of that I tripped on a root of a tree around the 8 Km mark and went crashing to the ground. Thankfully nothing much happened but I ended up tearing my BIB from my shirt.
My goal was to complete the run in 2:06:00 hrs but this being my first trail run i completed it in 2:25:40 hrs. I was quite happy about the run and the friendly atmosphere at Auroville but a little disappointed with my timing. The Auroville run was superbly organized, hats off to all the members of the organizing committee. Each and every detail was taken care of with utmost care by the organizing team and it was really an enriching experience.
We had our breakfast after the run and got our t' shirts as compliments. Shameek finished with a timing of 2:07:31. I felt sorry for him. This chap was going to complete the run under 2hrs but just 300mts before the finish line he got cramps and went crashing to the ground. Saravanan was running with him and so kind of him that he helped Shameek back to his feet without thinking about his own timing. It is this attitude that sets apart runners from the rest of the crowd. We care for fellow runners without giving any second thoughts.
Puro and Bharani completed their full marathon in 4:21 and 4:29 hrs respectively. Kudos to these guys for a stupendous performance on their first maiden full marathon.
There were cyclists (mostly foreigners) keeping track of the runners, helping them out and encouraging them during the course of the run. The best part of Auroville run is that you get a nice massage after the run by wondeful ladies and this kind of soothes the pain out of your legs. I didn't go for it because I didn't experience any sort of pain in my legs and also I was feeling a bit awkward for a foreigner to massage my feet and legs. But damn I missed it. Anyways Auroville 2010 was a wonderful experience.
