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K2S Katraj to Sinhagad Run - The Monsoon Adventure for real.

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Shifting base closer to the western ghats has definitely made trails more accessible and the plans to venture out need no much of a thinking. It could be a Friday evening affair to head towards the mountains for a good night sleep and the mornings could wake us up for yet another trail event. As I have moved my preference to shorter distance runs now, the longer ones have been knocking my door since then. Could it be the feeling of missing out or its just not a good feeling anymore having done the longer format races in the past and the longevity demands for a whole new perspective of ultra distance running. Mixed trail could be your favourite too, if you plan to explore the trails but also want to taste the tar at the same time. K2S is one such race that can cater to this requirement but the elevation can still pose a challenge considering the mountain terrain both on and off road. A familiar route if you have done jumping gorilla editions but the tweak here was a kilometre or two cli...
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Varsha Marathon 21k - Still very much part of the road rage I guess.

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Talked about a photo finish a day before and guess thats what we bagged incidentally. While Subham was at it since 2:30am in 50km category, my plight began at 6am and much relieved with less or no rain during the entire run of 21kms at Lonavala Varsha Marathon. This was the first for me at Lonavala and was pretty overwhelmed with the number of people not just turning up for the event but the usual tourist made their presence felt with the long queues of vehicles right in the heart of this hill escapade. If you plan to be in Lonavala, its advised to cross the bhushi dam before 10:30am else the travel time bound to increase by 1-2hours especially on the weekend. Having rested the legs from the Ultra runs, the shorter category was chosen to keep the momentum going and keep the strings attached to the events that help me try something new. So far, I have been in a hurry to finish the shorter runs, but eventually I am also getting to know how demanding it gets when you try to be competitive...
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Sinhagad Epic Trail 11km - Hello Sir, Aap kahan train karte ho?

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Firstup, its so good to see the trail running community growing and meeting familiar faces is a motivation in itself. That assures we are doing something that everybody vibes sure. Having raced the Great Mawla Ghati Trail short category run, this was yet another stint but pretty technical in the shorter format as the climb itself is a trek that needed all the effort upwards and downwards quite equally. Also, having done the 30 km category in previous edition, the route was known to me to an extent and I knew the initial climb takes a lot of toll on you as the elevation changes quite drastically and this time the navigating through the crowd on these narrow trails was certainly a challenge. Requesting people to give way and being apologetic for close brushes was all a part of the effort at this stint. The fellow runners were kind enough to let us pass through and cheer us here and there as pushed harder in the treacherous trail. This a regular trekking path, however it does get technica...
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Mawla Ghaati Ultra - Wait, What? Whyyyy? From 100k to 10k? You must be joking!

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No, this wasn't me trying to steal someone's thunder. This was just me trying to be versatile in the sport of running and given the flexibility of choosing whats best for you at a certain stage was a calming experience and yes, it did help rest the horses and a very much needed one. Having done 100ks on trails in past, the quest for 10k was a no brainer and to be very frank, no thoughts were put in to cover a 10k distance on this terrain. The only challenge arises from the stress that also gets developed when you choose to race it instead of running it. I did traverse the route a bit to get a hang of the ground beneath our foot on the mountains and gave me an understanding of the grip one gets on the soil that had faced the brunt from the recent rains. The trail junkies A low key bib collection event with very much enthusiasm being pumped in from the briefing session by Adi and Govind. They are trying to build the future trail events with international standards. The immense ef...
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