Sunday, April 9, 2017

Lord of Ring Road - SPRR Ultra - Dont Miss it.

It Was some time in the beginning of March there was an event posted in the Facebook about the SPRR 2017 and one my friend JaiHaithi (Ahemedabad) has shown interest on the same.As i checked for the details across it ended up in knowing about the route which was 76 Kms for and have to be done in the full ring road which means you will be running on the SP Ring Road.

 I wanted to give a try and immediately signed up for it was  mentioned that this will be a self supported Ultra run with no medals and any fancy stuffs across. So just to check on the endurance i registered myself. The whats app group formed after that was used to discuss and post about many things. The event which was to be a self support started to land with many support from many individuals in the due course and before the race day  there were many things that landed for the runners which includes there were multiple cars and volunteers en route  to help you.

As my recent second city is Ahmadabad i am now unofficially running with the ADR PNG group which has many "Running Souls"  who help all the beginner, amateurs, professionals to scale up . I did few runs with this group and have few familiar faces now.

April 8th Evening 6.00 PM and all the runners assembled in the decathlon for collecting the BIB and pre race updates.and post that the event was flagged of by the SPRR team.

As this was a long race i just planned to go by some distance and the circles which we will be crossing every time. The first 10 KMS was good and managed to complete in 1 Hour 15 Mins and later the  20th  Km came at 2.45 Mins. I was able to sense that my pace was coming down and the main reason i think is the improper hydration or excess intake of fluids that were going inside my body. When i reached the 30 KM mark i saw that i have consumed more than 5 hours for this. At the 30th KM we were served with some carbo (Idly) which was actually good and i felt that i had some of my energy back and i was able to push the 42km at 7 Hours this included my Run / Walk Strategy.
The last 6 KM become terrible as the weather was becoming cold and as the biological clock was pushing me for the sleep. I was reminding of some one telling me that always the 'The race starts after you covered your 3/4 distance". And finally managed to reach the 50the KM mark @ around 9 Hours, which was against my original plan of 8 Hours.
Even though i wanted to complete the 76 Kms considering the response my body was giving i felt to end at that point.
And Mr.Ameet who is known to all as Dadda gave me a good stretch and accommodated me in his car to switch my role as volunteer  for the remaining runners who were already ahead and were enroute towards the finish line. This helped me come across few of the determined souls across age groups pushing their body limits, challenging the mental barriers and carrying them towards the finish line. With tons of memories i say that i will conquer this Lord Of the Ring Roads if not this year surely in 2018 edition.




Lessons Learnt:
1) Proper Hydration  / Food intake during the Run.
2) Constant Pace to be maintained.
3) More Endurance practice/ Cross training