Running the Buddha Trails

The build-up:

It had been brewing for quite some time now. To be precise, it was when Stephen West published his episode on Kierkegaard’s ‘Lily of the field & Bird of the air’. I had already signed up for the 65K category at Buddha Trails, an event where I had done the 30K category last year, still not ready to commit completely. In usual fashion, during a holiday last year, I had twisted my unstable ankle twice in 2 days. This left me to believe that this will be just another failed project considering the injury while I am yet to start my training. That is when I heard the episode talking about the practice of ‘Silence, Obedience & Joy’ just the way a Lily in the field or a bird in the air would. Then started this long journey of training, rehab & strengthening. Silently & obediently committing to the process, while enjoying it.

My expectation from the race was simple, to be able to complete and complete strong with fuel in the tank, and without any injury. For four months of lead-up to the race, I relied on a training plan by Coach Moi at Vert.run, which held me accountable & engaged during my training, as I always looked forward to the next workout as I finished strong on the last one. The training plan also included specific strength drills ensuring I do not get carried away, as I usually did when training was going well. These four months also included me visiting my physio for ankle release & strength sessions, along with recovery massages thrown in every 3 weeks or 150K mileage. All thanks to the team at Peak Performance. Nandi hills became the home ground for training the elevation gains, and I ended up visiting about 6 times, becoming a perpetual local legend on Strava for the downhill & uphill segments on the stairs route. These sessions at Nandi used to be longer than usual long runs, allowing me to experiment with nutrition during runs. I figured combination of Fast&Up Reload Electrolytes; Unived Elite Drink mix & WholeTruth Energy bars work best for me. All this while, Geetanjali & I got into a great rhythm of consuming salads for dinner, which helped ensure occasional binges & parties did not take away the positive effects of training on the body.

While running is a solitary sport, the training for the same need not be. Geetanjali has been a constant support, always motivating & acting impressed with my discipline & dedication. Also, my home team – Domlur Dilrubas (Prasad, Satish, Aditi, Akshay & Ajay), trail training partner Rahul, usual run gang Sanchita & Abhilash were there for so many of training blocks. Apart from physical, mental training was also crucial for ultra-madness. Countless hours of visualizing myself crossing the finish line & crying out of emotion, firmed up my mind (Crying, nevertheless, did not happen since my mind did not know how to react as I crossed the finish line).

Calm before the storm:

For me, the main reason to run a trail ultra is simple, I love being in nature & enjoying the view on foot as a hike. Also, all this should not take days, but hours. What is better than an ultra-trail run that lets you get through a trek that generally takes 5 days in less than 15 hours? The other reason is of course the community that gets created around the race itself in the lead up to it. Unlike road races, ultras need you to get acclimatized with the race altitude & terrain. So, the runners who register for the runs end up traveling 3-4 days in advance to the race venue to soak up in the race atmosphere. This is where I have had some of the best times, and this time was no different.

I had booked to stay at the Maitri Retreat, quite a distance from the start line, but the one that promised a good evening’s sleep before the run. A bonus this time around was that Geetanjali would join me for her first trail run. Here we met up with Shaunak, Jaskaran & Sannat. It was good two days before the run with a leisure hike to small lake high up in the black forest trail, Jerayo Pokhri. This hike in itself & an errand run to the bazaar put in a 1000m elevation gain in the legs, as a warm up, two days before the race.

Day before the race had a warm morning, with a well brewed cup of coffee from Pahadee roasters and Sannat talking to us about his motivation for moving to the mountains & living an active life at Bir. A champ in the making. We took a cab to the town later in the day to collect our bibs & listen to race briefing, where the race director talked about the route, aid stations & what to expect on the trails. This was also a chance to meet other runners & socialize over cups of piping hot tea.

It was an early close to the day, with dinner at 7PM, followed by race strategy session for 30K runners by Sannat. Visualization is a very important part of any running event, and this session hoped to make it clear to Geetanjali & Shaunak on what to expect on their first trail runs. All done, it was lights out by 8PM for me, to start the next day at 2AM, to be ready for the race to start at 4.

The Race:

The day of the race I got a good 6-hour sleep and was up by 2:30 in the morning. Having travelled on a red eye flight two days prior, body was now used to saying ‘good morning’ at this hour, so I freshened up soon & had my overnight oatmeal with AeroPress coffee (Thanks again, Sannat!). I did ankle & glute mobilization exercises to prepare me for a long day on foot and got ready with my gear for a day of adventure. All this while praying to God that it not rain today, atleast at the start. Thankfully the heavy showers for two days prior to the race day ensured the start was dry & relatively warm.

From my conversations with Roshan & Rahul on how to approach the course, I had to look at it in three segments – Rimbick to Sandakphu (All Up’hell’), Sandakphu to Phalut (Roubaix got nothing on this), Phalut to Rimbick (Mostly Down’hell’). A 13 hour time target for the entire course was realistically possible as suggested in a breakdown by Roshan, and the niggle on the back of the neck that I had for past week was now gone & I felt fresh at the start.

The race started 10 minutes past 4, and off we went. Rahul & I decided to stick to each other & target the flattish road patch till Srikhola bridge in 40 minutes, which we achieved. Then started the unrelenting uphill climb of 2000 meters to Sandakphu over 12 kilometers. I had my trekking poles for aid & we were going strong. On the way we had 3 aid stations at Gurdum, Forest Hut & finally Sandakphu. I had an elite drink mix at Gurdum(9.5 kms) since I was feeling hungry. The climb from Gurdum to Forest hut is the steepest of entire course & we pushed hard on this to stay in top 30. At forest hut, Rahul was feeling stronger than me, so he made a move to forge ahead while I slowed down a bit. I was also cramping a bit on my hip flexors, so I loaded up on electrolytes & slowed down. The next bit from Forest hut to Sandakphu was memorable as I got first glimpses of the Kanchenjunga range. Those prayers for a sunny day had been blessed. This was an emotional moment as I was almost close to the highest point of the race at Sandakphu (3636 mtrs). So, after 4 hours 10 minutes, I was at Sandakphu, 20 minutes ahead of time. In retrospect, I had pushed my body & this point forward only a rush of adrenaline would make me run and that meant only at the finish stretch. At Sandakphu aid station, Vinay helped relax the muscles a bit by massaging them and suggested I drop trekking poles as the way forward would mostly be a rolling course or downhill.

The next part of the race is the ridge of 21 Kms connecting Sandakphu to Phalut with three aid stations on the way at Thakum, Sabargram & Phalut. Sabargram is the midway point of the race & also has my drop bag, along with lunch. Generally ridges are the best part of any trail run since you will have panoramic views with cool breeze & minimal elevation gain making it a pleasure to run. This ridge, however, is a different game altogether. The Singalila ridge, which forms the natural border between India & Nepal is laid with cobbled paths of large cobble stones to allow Jeeps to ply on rain-prone region. This makes it literally the worst path to run on. Even though the views resemble heaven with meadows, alpine lakes and horses thrown in to the scenery, you are not allowed to enjoy as you have to run head down ensuring you do not trip on a cobble stone. I got through the entire ridge walking, with not a single step of running. At Thakum, I consumed the next of the elite drink mix, before filling up from the drop bag. I forged ahead walking, reaching Sabargram. Here I picked the sachets of drink mix and had bit of dal-rice for lunch along with a piece of sandwich. Roshan had warned me against resting here since that would cool the body, which was a great call. I had a change of clothes in the drop bag, which I did not end up using. Then remained the final 7kms to Phalut. This is when the weather started getting cloudy & considerably windy. This was also the patch I constantly had people ahead & behind me. I reached Phalut 9 hours after the start of the race. Here I was behind the planned time by 20 minutes, almost losing 40 minutes on the ridge. Except for the issue with hip flexor, my nutrition, hydration, and pace were working, and I was feeling strong and positive about finishing the race in 13 hours.

The last part of the race from Phalut to Rimbick includes a long downhill from Phalut to Gorkey, a short uphill between Gorkhey to Rammam, a steep downhill from Rammam to Srikhola bridge and rolling road segment from Srikhola bridge to Rimbick. It is 26 kms long. The 10kms long sustained downhill from Phalut to Gorkhey was the most boring part of the entire trail. The path is laid for first 2kms with same cobbles, followed by water canals & animal traps to restrict wild life movement. As per plan, this should have taken 75 minutes, but I took 110 minutes to get to Gorkhey. Gorkhey & Samaden are probably the most beautiful spots of the trail & most beautiful villages in India. Rammam waterstream that runs along these villages form natural border between Indian states of West Bengal & Sikkim. After short stop to stretch at Gorkhey, I refueled with elite drink mix & started the 5km uphill to Rammam, this would be the last forest patch of the race. This was also the point clouds started growling, a sign of pending rain. At this point, I had company of Mahesh till we completed the uphill section to Rammam. After reaching Rammam, I notified the aid station and started my downhill trail to Srikhola bridge in the pouring rain. At Srikhola bridge, I took my phone out of airplane mode for the first time during the race to notify Geetanjali that I would reach Rimbick finish line by 6:15PM, 14 hours 5 mins after the start. Sannat, Shaunak & Geetanjali were at the forest check post Rimbick, the final 600m stretch which we ran together and finished strong after 14 hours 11 minutes. At this point, the adrenaline had stocked up in my head making me run into the finish line with wide arms.

Reflections:

I could do reflections related to the race itself, however, since the main goal was around completion rather than performance, it will have to be just a part of it. On the race front, training, nutrition & race are the dimensions to look at. Training & build up were very good, I would have added a bit of variability with speed workouts on the hills to make me faster on trails. Nutrition worked well, and ensured I finished strong. However, I cut it too close, and would have looked at having a few additional elite drinks to ensure I do not fall short. Also, effect of increase in pace on the race is something I will have to assess in the future ultras. For the race itself, I will need to improve on the pace and having trekking poles for the entire run would have been a good idea considering the shorter hill sections.

I must be super grateful to all around me who have been supportive & tolerant of my training schedule, starting with Geetanjali. Also, my physios Amit & Pritam ensured I was in shape for the training & recovered well.

I can easily say this is the hardest thing I have done in my life, not just by the amount of effort it took on the race day but also in the lead up to it. It was still the most beautiful day of my life, getting to see all seasons in a day, experiencing the rush of adrenaline as you crossed the finish line. If you are someone who is looking for a challenge, I would suggest you pick this one. You probably might think it is not possible, but by committing to the process, you do not know what is possible for your body & mind.

See you on the next one!