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

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 climb up to the start point from the parking lot. So be ready to walk up your drop bag if any and stop complaining about the rain because you signed up for it 🫣. The parking can be tricky as its first come first serve basis but this will not be a headache if you have chosen to book the travel bus fro and to Pune before and after race. You need to be an early riser for sure to make it to the pickup point. The slush can get you soon enough at the parking lot before you start your climb to the top towards the start line. There are banners that help you direct you in the direction of the start point aka venue.

I made it just in time and was left with 10 minutes to start the race. It was important to pack some dry clothes in the bag and have it handed over at the finish point. This knowing its a trail race and its raining and you cannot wait up being greasy, drenched and sweaty till you either head back to the parking lot where you parked your vehicle or to head back to pune with a scheduled wait time. It's always good to feel fresh post runs and eases down some stress and makes you feel lighter.

Quite a bunch of people that I ran into and have been always eager to see the new familiar faces that are taking challenges head-on in their graduation journey of trail running. The customary briefing just before the race was well taken care of and to specifically point out on having fun on the route, being mindful of this being a self supported run and peculiarly avoid headphones just to be wary of the surroundings. Adding a few annotations here since the community of trail running is gradually growing and a good amount of education is always helpful to make all understand the efforts one needs to put in to building the strength to go up and down the mountains on well laid and technical trails. Self dependent has been the key for me so far and has been a outcome of experiences so far and yes, its very much true to say that you will be a lone survivor on those mountains and help will take time to reach you. Make all those mistakes in your training runs so that you are at a liberty to stop the run. You could experiment the endurance over days instead of a single day burnout. This also adds value to the fatigue trainings and help you judge your recovery schedule before you hop on from one event to another. You also need to race all your runs, instead categorise them in to training runs and race runs. This, provided you have set goals that makes a disciplined path to success and point is, failure is just another stepping stone towards success.

The run of-course starts with a gradual climb and there is every opportunity for you to adore for it on your fresh set of legs. A speed hike or a brisk walk or gentle walk would do and all this only knowing the strategy you have on using your endurance to cover the half marathon distance.

You will often find yourself running on the ridge and not to forget the slippery grass covered patches on the trail which you want to avoid and stick to the most used path way. This is a generous tip 😝 to consider yourself build the friction on the shoes and help you hold the ground. Mind you, you have to keep lifting your foot and avoid knocking your toes against the small boulder that surface every now and then from the tiniest bushes. That reminds me to ensure you buy a shoe that is atleast 0.5 cms more than your size. This gives your toe a good amount of room to manoeuvre on downhills and cushion against the bumps. Lets just say, they need the breathing space every now and then.

The rolling hills allows you to push and recover and have stretches that are really steep and the only recipe to success is to slow is down if needed and take those shorter breaks to breath, hydrate and munch to let yourself out of the challenging situation. You continue with this till your the 12km mark approximately before your hit the road and now all thats left is the road that you had taken on the way back to Sinhagad Epic trails start point and only to find a aid station thar allows you to refill adequately. The U turn exists before the Sinhagad fort and you shall soon realise all that is now left is a road down to the finish line and when I say down, it is all the way down to Patanjali Wellness Center.

The road does play a role to make you feel better as you are no longer dodging the trails unevenness and escaping those cuts and bruises which are no less an achievements in itself. But yes, got to be careful from the vehicular traffic on the twists and turns and the blindspots till you make it to the end. And with some premium strava account, I shall let the stats do some taking here:

https://strava.app.link/wRVmpf8bUVb

whats lined up next was the first edition of The Hell Race Goa Ultra 60km category.

And some more stats at
👉 https://itra.run/Races/RaceResults/K2S.MONSOON.ADVENTURE.RACE.2.0/2025/103047# 

and this being my first at K2S, I would give it up for all the efforts put it for yet another trail event in the western ghats a must do event. You will love it for the rains and the winds and the mix of road and trails if you are a beginner.