Brief Introduction
“You need to take your health seriously now, Bharat; your 103 Kgs weight is way high and you are already suffering with hypertension so need to change your lifestyle immediately “, Dr. Ajit Yadav MD said to me while going through my annual health checkup reports. That was alarming for me at age of 48 ! As I was working overseas, and due to frequent travels it was not easy to change life style all of sudden.
Before starting running
One good thing about me being a Scorpion is that once I decide something then I don’t look back. I took the challenge to lose weight so started walking, jogging and gradually running in addition to badminton, gym, and following a low carb diet. Within 3 years managed to loose 32 kgs and was feeling proud to be at 72kgs.In those years, I ran 25 Half marathons and 3 full Marathons.
I registered for Comrade 2020 based on Adani Ahmedabad FM 4:32 Hrs timing. Now Dr.Ajit Yadav had discontinued my hypertension medications and appreciated my efforts towards good health. I was very much happy with overall fitness but wanted to improve running and subsequently start triathlon life. Hence I joined Team Motiv8 with coach Atul Godbole from March 2021 as one of my friends Bhagwan Patil was training with him already.
Training With Team Motiv8
Since the beginning I was very much impressed with structured workouts as results were evident with great PBs in 5K, 10K and 21K time trials. Training was going really well with few friends Bhagwan, Amol, Sagar and Adarsh. Within 7 months of training, I ran the Team Motiv8-organized FM in a Sub-4 time! That was a real motivation booster for me.
As my Comrades registration was already there and once race was announced for 2022 after a long pandemic, I decided to participate for in the race to be held in August 2022. I ran Pune International Marathon 2022 for qualification timing purposes. Unfortunately I missed Sub 4 by 2 minutes and satisfied with Comrade line up seeding “F”.
Comrades Training
The Comrades training block started from end of April 2022 . I ran Tata Ultra 50K as my first long run. It was not a great finish but managed to complete in 6:20 hrs. Our next long run was 55K at Pirangut, Mutha Ghat repeats. I remember I crossed with Coach at Mutha Ghat top at 32K, he noticed I was struggling and shouted at me saying…”Bharat how are you feeling ? Don’t give up , you have to complete the run.” It was really challenging and I struggled a lot but with the help of Manoj and Ashish completed the 55K run.
Until now I used carbon shoes for long runs and that was a disaster for such long distances! Severe right heel pain started and I was finding it very difficult to follow weekly training plans. Coach was regularly checking with us to highlight any niggles in time and not to ignore if any are present. I was very much worried about heel pain and discussed with Coach. Immediate action I took to replace carbon shoes with stability shoes ,started rolling right heel over plastic bottle( with ice). Slowly pain started subsiding and it was much easier to run than earlier.
Then I did the next 65K long run a bit conservatively and the last 55K long run was stronger. In between I ran the Sinhgad ghat road climb twice which was a good move as advised by Coach. After completing the Comrades training block with some tapering, I was ready to fly to Durban, South Africa on the 25th of August. Meanwhile visa, flights, hotel booking everything were sorted in advance.
Arrival in Durban Before Race
After arriving in Durban on 25th Aug by late evening my enthusiasm was at a peak! We were staying in a hotel right on the Durban waterfront. The next morning, I ran 6K with the team on the waterfront and met many runners. We then had a discussion with coach about race strategy and some final tips. In the afternoon we visited the Expo and got our race kit.
Team Motiv8 at the expo
I did a lot of shopping and bought Comrades apparel, belt, and coffee mug! I started dreaming how I am going to flaunt all this stuff post race. On 27th August, the pre-race day, we didn’t go outside of hotel and was trying to rest as much as possible. It was hard to get good sleep as anxiety of the race was starting to build up.
Race Day
On race morning, we got ready by 2 AM and caught the shuttle bus from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. After reaching at 4.15AM, in cold weather I was waiting in F seeding for the flag off. After South-African national anthem, final flag off done at 5.30 AM sharp ( Gun time). It took me 5 minutes to cross the start line and I started running conservatively as solid 90K I will have to run for whole day.
I slowly started picking up pace for a Sub 11 target. I was strong enough until 30K mark. Then the sun started rising up and due to heat I found it difficult to maintain the pace. My hamstrings and quads were not supporting me and I experienced severe pain. I just mentally collapsed and worried, how I’m going to complete race with remaining 60K . I lost my rhythm and negative thoughts were making it difficult to run further. I made up my mind to continue but my hamstrings and quads were crying in pain. I was carrying 3 salt tablets in case they were required though I had never used them in my training cycle other than gels. My past experience with Salt tablets was not encouraging. However in this situation there was no other option so I had one salt tablet and thank God it was working as there was some ease in cramps.
Enroute on race day
Then I started talking to myself in order to be mentally strong which I was told by Coach….”Im not going to quit…I train hard and came all the way so far .. I will keep going” … I started imagining the finish line … My pace was dropped and chances of Sub 11 were dim so decided to maintain the minimum pace required for completion within cut-offs.
Meanwhile both the 11:00 and 11.30 hour buses went ahead and again pressure start building up on me. But without disturbing much I kept steady and kept on moving and crossed the 45K half way mark. Luckily I got 3 more Salt tabs en-route from Bhushan Tarak which helped me until 75K.
By this time 12:00 hour bus also went ahead but I was not worried as my avg pace was around 7.52 which was enough to cross the finish line. Only thing I was worried about cramps which shouldn’t get worsen so was more cautions on efforts. Thank God, when weather became pleasant in evening and I started push harder in order to create some buffer.
Though all major hills and 6 cutoff points I crossed well within limit , still there were many inclines and flyovers in the last 15K. Now my moral was high enough to handle it. Finally when I saw Moses Mabhida stadium from last 2K, I realized that the goal is not too far away. Just before entering the stadium I threw away the water bottle and took our Indian national flag in hand, and was running with joy for the remaining 300 mtrs!
About to cross the finish line
I don’t have words to express my feeling after crossing finish line. Yes I did it as my dream was fulfilled after running 90K and finishing in 11.52 hrs ! I just forgot all the pain and was enjoying that moment. It’s really lifetime experience which once should certainly dare to dream!