I took 3 days leave from office to run from Vashi to Satara a distance of 260 Km for a cause !


Vashi to Satara. 
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I took 3 days leave from office to run from Vashi to Satara a distance of 260 Km for a cause 


13th September 2017 – Vashi to Lonavala – Total distance covered  75 Km

I woke up at 3 am with heavy thunder, lighting and it was raining cats and dogs. Like every time , before the race day I keep my running things ready. Thanks to running, this habit of being prepared has become a practise for me in my day to day life also. While I was brushing suddenly the lights went off and the sky got lit up with streaks of lightning, with great difficulty I managed to shave and got ready. It was still pouring outside. I booked an Ola to drop myself to a place where Captain Swaminathan my co runner and our Physio Dr. Madhuram were supposed to meet me. I joined them and we proceeded towards Vashi , New Mumbai where we were supposed to start our run .  As we reached the spot our runner friends from New Mumbai Srivatsan , Ashwin Kini, Jeevan Shendre, Milind Pharande, Sundaresan, Anoop Ghoshal were already waiting for us. Isha meditators were also with them. Suddenly I realised I left my phone in the Ola. Imagine, we were about to start the run and all my running plans till Satara , people I need to contact on the way to Satara and many more details were all in the phone. That showed me how dependent I was on an electronic gadget. 



I was in such a shock, my mind was not working. Frist thing I did was try calling my number, when after the first ring nobody answered I double checked to see if the phone was in my bag. I rang my number one more time and then I heard a voice saying hello , it was the OLA driver , the minute I heard his voice I felt like i was crossing the comrades finish line.  He said he was just dropping a client at the International airport and agreed to come to Vashi to return my phone. Srivatsan then suggested that we start our run and somebody would wait back to collect the phone from the driver.  After we clicked some photographs and shot a video for the cause we were supporting the “Rally For Rivers” we started with our run. 


As we started the run I was worried about RK Nair who had come all the way from Silvasa, a day prior to join us for the run, he had only my cell number and would definitely try to contact me but I had briefed him about the route so I was convinced that if he couldn’t reach me he could find me on the road..We took the palm beach road and started running towards  Navi Mumbai Mahanagar Palika building where we shot our first FB live video and bid good bye to Navi Mumbai runner friends. Thankfully by that time , Dr.Madhuram arrived in the support car and brought along with her my life line which is my phone J


 We then  proceeded towards Uran road to our next stop Panvel where we supposed to stop for breakfast . By this time I was very happy to see KNair and his team who joined us.




As I was running, I was reminiscing about all the support I received from Srivatsan , Ashwin Kini and NMR runners with respect to helping to prepare the Google link for our Vashi Satara route and lending us a Big Cooler box for our journey. I was also thankful to my comrades buddy Sundaresan who is running his 50 marathons in 50 different location every week for a cause “ Run With A Soldier Run For A Soldier” for running the first 10 km with us .  It was indeed overwhelming that in spite of heavy down pour my well wishers turned up to support me. I am really thankful to them.


 
Now we were on the Uran road moving  towards Mumbai – Pune old highway. There was heavy traffic on this poorly maintained road, which was full of potholes filled with rain water. . We reached Panvel and stopped for breakfast at one of the roadside hotels. After a quick stretching session we had our breakfast and resumed running  


As we did not have any dead line to reach lonavala our first night halt, we took it easy.  This gave us a good start to get used to the harsh running conditions over the next 3 days. We had to run on the old highway because running on the expressway is not allowed.





After the heavy thunder storm and down pour in the morning, the weather  took a 360 degree turn , it became very hot and humid and the temperature went up to almost 40 degrees.

The distance we had to cover on the first day was almost 73 km.  We had a plan to keep a buffer time since the last leg of our first day run was almost 10km up the  Khandala Ghat  With very few breaks we  proceeded towards Kapoli where we stopped for lunch .



 After placing order for lunch , we proceeded to do  a quick stretching session. We managed to rest a bit on the hotel benches before they served us lunch . After  lunch we continued  towards lonavala.
  




We were now nearing the Khandala Ghat . The distance from here to Lonavala was about 15km including the 10km Ghat. We were exhausted ,so we walked all the way to the top. The weather was  nice and pleasant on the top.  So we relaxed for some time, took few pics and proceeded towards Lonavala.  









When we reached lonavala we had covered 75km and we were very tired .  It was almost 7.30 pm and we were very hungry, so we had a omelette pav from the road side stall.  




KK Nair who was running with us stopped after 25km which was his personal best . So he along with  Prince Kurien and Jithen Cherian went ahead to make arrangements for our night stay.  It had been a hard but satisfying day for us and we went to sleep after planning our strategy for the next day.





14th September - Lonavala to Pune – Distance covered  53 km  

Woke with a alarm at 4 am and it  felt as if we slept for a few minutes. We got ready and started our second day’s run at 5.30 am towards Pune. We were thankful to Satish Bhalgat, Captain’s friend, for providing us the bungalow. 

Usually it takes me a few Km’s of run / walk to get rid of the stiffness in my body , but Captain did not seem to have this issue.   PNB Metlife had informed us that there was to be a interaction with the media and staff in pune at 2 pm.  So we planned our run accordingly and we decided to cover maximum distance before sunrise. We knew that we had to keep a constant pace with very few water stops. It started drizzling when we started to run and there was slight incline at Kamshet. However the next leg was nice and flat and we covered good distance. In order to save more time we sent our support vehicle ahead to order for our breakfast.










We stopped around 8.30 am for a quick breakfast and stretching.  Now the weather had become very hot.
I realised that with good  support for hydration if you have a strong will power, the weather will never be an obstacle for you .. 









As per the plan  we had covered 53 km by now and reached the road  parallel  to Mhatre Bridge on NH 48 to Satara.  

RK Nair was close to completing his first ever 42km and so we ran extra distance to help him to accomplish this milestone . 










As we finished our run, we were briefed by  PNB Metalife’s Sakina and Sharan who were following us  about our interaction with the press. We were told to reach their office by  3 pm. We had lunch at one of the restaurants , had a quick wash, changed into clean clothes and headed towards the PNB Metlife office which was situated near Deccan Gymkhana Pune.    



At the start of the programe, I had the honour of lighting the lamp. We were then  felicitated by PNB Metlife and  we shared our running experience with them. Representatives from The Times of India ,  few local newspaper reporters as well as  a blogger was also present And I had the opportunity to interact with them and answer their questions.  





















After meeting the press I had  joined my team at Camp, in Sainik Aram Ghar. This place was organised by Captain and we spend the night there . 

After hitting the showers , we still had some time for dinner so we sat down and planned out the next days run .  The dinner at the Army canteen was an excellent experience and hit the bed soon after ..




15th September – Pune to Surur  - Distance covered  76 km

Day three  we started our run at 5.45 am with no pressure of target time to finish for the day. But at the same time one has to keep in mind that when you are running multi days,  a buffer time and a backup plan has to be ready. 


There was little drizzle  when we reached  Mhatre Bridge. I could see my dear friends Amod Bhate an Elite runner and a coach, Ashish Kasodekar a well known Ultra Marathoner , Kishor Dhankude  who summited Everest twice in 2016 & 2017 May and the following month  in June he ran the Comrades , Sameer Vasant Wagle  Comrade ultra-marathon runner , Sagar Vaidya, Pratima Vidya both  my very old friends and a few of our runner friends  from  Pune all ready and waiting for us. I was very happy to see my comrade buddies. 


We started our run with another FB Live broadcast.





Since it was a week day , one by one the runners left us wishing us good luck . Amod , Ashish and Sameer accompanied us till NH48 but Kishore followed us with his cycle till Katraj tunnel . It was so nice of them to join us in spite of rain and it being a week day. We had a great running with them and they gave us a lot of positive energy.  They also gave us valuable information about the upcoming tunnels, and terrain on the route.




 As we reached near the Katraj tunnel we were received by a few Toll officials sent by our dear friend Rajeev Singh.  We clicked  few pics with them and Kishore . We then thanked Kishoer and bid him good bye .  There is a lot to learn about humbleness from Kishore , a great personality .  The toll officers told us they would be waiting for us at the toll at the other side of the tunnel. 







It was a great and different experience running inside Katraj tunnel. . It is fully lit up  1.5 km Tunnel with a broad three way road. Our support vehicles stayed behind us to give us cover and safety as we ran in the front. .  The tunnel is an engineering marvel but it was very hot and suffocating inside. As soon as we came out the light and fresh air hit us with a blast .




  




After few Kms we could see the toll officials waiting to welcome us at the toll. . It was pleasant surprise when they  felicitated me with a Shawl and Coconut. They gave a bouquet to each one of us along with a crate of water, Banana and plenty of fruit juices.  We spoke to them about our run and Captain briefed them about Rally for Rivers. We were told  that all of their 500 employees would give a missed call in support of Rally For Rivers. They had made arrangements for  breakfast so they requested us to stop around 2 km after the toll.  












We covered the distance to the hotel  quickly , since we were  very hungry. You could say that we had brunch instead of breakfast since it was already past 10 am.   We were joined by  Mr.Ranjan Bose who was the toll inchrge . 
We left with the feeling of gratefulness to  Mr. Ranjan Bose and  his staff  for treatingus like VVIP’s .














On the way we saw a few statues of animals which caught our eyes so we stopped and took a few  pics . 



RK Nair seemed to be in good rythem now and he was planning to cover back to back 42km today. He said this was possible  only because he was targeting us, not targeting Kms . Since we were running ahead of him, his goal was to always keep us in sight..







Because we had brunch , we were not very hungry and so we carried on running beyond 2 pm. We also had been eating  dry fruits, sweet potatoes, water melon, dates etc from our support car throughout.  

It was 3 pm when we reached close to Pandurng Pata for lunch.  We finish our lunch leisurely having no target time to  finish the day’s run. However the need to have a  a buffer time for the last leg of the uphill terrain was in our minds.  We decided to walk / run till Shirwad since  we had a heavy lunch. 


After Shirwad we had come very close to  Khambatki ghat .  Here we had two options , one was safer but longer and the other one was shorter through the tunnel but very dangerous . We decided to take  the harder and longer route, and in this process we ended up running almost 10 km extra . .  It was around 7 km uphill and 5 km downhill. We decided to walk / jog one bend to another bend. We walked wherever it was steep and ran / jogged easily on the rest of the road. This strategy worked for us so within no time we were on top of the hill.  We jogged all the way down the 5 km distance which took us to the outskirts of Surur and by now  it had started getting darker.  KK Nair was way behind us , I advised  him to run only  50 km maximum but instead he decided to do 73km which is again his another personal record. 












Running Up hill takes your breath away and after running the whole day, when you climb the hill on your tired legs and then run down the hill it is very painful If you don’t follow a proper running technic and strong running form .    I cautioned RK Nair to be very careful. But at the end of the day I could see he was not in the best of shape even though he was enjoying his runs. He is a man with strong will power and a fast learner.









 As we were reaching Surur town we had received a call from the hotel where we supposed to stay, after taking proper direction from them, we reached the hotel which was situated on the main highway itself.
As we reached the hotel gate, we were very pleased to see two of the officials were standing with garlands in their hand to welcome us  We forgot to take pics because we were very tired and wanted to have dinner and hit the bed.
The hotel was brand new and very spacious. After a quick shower we had our dinner. By then I received a call from Jitesh who is a friend of Dr. Kate, he wanted to know what time we were going to start our run the next day, so that he could join us in the morning by bicycle till Satara.  




16th September Surur to Satara –  43km .  Started our run at 5.15 am and supposed to reach the expo by 12 noon.

We woke up at 4 am. Since we were already in Satara district and Satara is around 43+ km. We all felt like  now we were almost reaching the finish point. Believe me, the thought of the nearing finish line gives so much of motivation and positive energy. One should learn how to get this positive energy all the time during the runs.
  




Road from Surur to Satara is one of the best roads and safe to run because of the service road almost till Satara.  As we started the run we could see Jitesh already joined us. He left very early morning from Satara to join us. He was a great company through out. I personally learned many things from him. Appreciate his commitment.                                              
After a few kms of our run, we were joined by Sudhir Pawar & Ravindra  Jankar,  Satara runners who were also official pacers at the Satara Half Marathon.  We were chit chatting and running with them for almost 10km. Before leaving us they welcomed us to Satara with flower bouquets. Such a great gesture from them.










Since we had a time limit to reach to Satara, instead of having breakfast at the restaurant, Nair and team went ahead and got us some breakfast which we had at a small hut near the highway.
Normally in these kind of runs, more time gets wasted, when one stop for water or stops to have breakfast / lunch. 

 As we were getting closer to Satara, our energy got doubled when we saw Sucheta Kadethankar and her friends joined us in our run  for few distance. Sucheta is the first Indian Woman to walk across the Gobi Desert, a distance of 1000 miles in Mongolia, Asia’s largest desert.  After she ran for some distance she and her friends said good bye to us . . It was so nice of her to run in that hot sun. 




The Expo was around 7 to 8 km away in the outskirts of Satara town.  As we were coming closer to the expo, we got super motivated as many runners stopped by and congratulated us and took our pictures.





The Frist lady pacer who was going to pace at Satara hill marathon joined us and ran almost one km  

Ekta Awachar and Vinit Vilas Patil also met us on our way to expo and welcomed us with garlands and Atul Sangamnekkar and his friends stopped by on their way to the expo to congratulate us.  

     
       Runners from Jolly Gymkhana, Gyanesh, Vandana,Mr & Mrs Pomesh, Vallabh Dyani, Jitubhai and others  also stopped by and cheered us.





At the back of our mind we knew that, we had to reach the expo by 12 noon. Accordingly we paced ourselves. Now we were few meters away from the Expo and it was almost 11.40 am or so. Many runners joined us as we approached the entrance of the expo.












 At the entrance we were all welcomed by the Satara Marathon Association officials who took us inside the expo.   After we finished our lunch, we were called on the stage to share our experience and we were felicitated by the PNB Metlife and Satara Marathon Association. 































17th September  - PNB Metlife Satara Half Hill Marathon – 21 km

Next day we woke up at 4 am the marathon was going to flag off at 6 am.  As we reached the starting point there was huge crowd of runners. Almost 6000 runners running this year’s event. So the starting point was jam packed. Runners were directed to their respective seeding. . On the gun shot the race started, race is gun to mat finish. Initially for few kilometres me, captain and KK Nair were running together after a few kilometres I lost them in the crowd. Because of constant stretching throughout our Vashi – Satara run and also as we took 4 days to finish the run there was not much stiffness in my legs. As I was running I met Kirti and I started chit chatting and running, we were joined by Ruchi. I carried on running with them and then decided to pace them till the top of the hill for 11 km or so.  As we were running we were joined by Dolly, Aditi and a few more runners. As I was pacing I was loudly giving the instructions so that other runners would also get motivated. I made them run / walk all the way to the 11 km mark, We took a few selfies in between, which was fun. I saw a Lot of familiar faces and exchanged high-fives and cheers , it was like a carnival . All the support stations were very well managed and also the crowd support throughout the route was amazing. That’s one of the reasons runners enjoy this run. As I took a turn I left Kirti and team and came sprinting all the way down. Later on me and my vashi – satara team were called on the stage to share our experiences.  Even though there was a  huge crowd but still the event was managed very well . Hats of to PNB Metlife, Marathon Association of Satara and most importantly the people of Satara and their enthusiasm. Congratulations to each and every one who participated in the run . That was a huge grand celebration of Running.  











We walked down to the flat which belong to KK Nair’s friend.  We are grateful to his friend to lend his flat to us.  We left for Mumbai as soon as we finished bathing and on our way we had lunch. RK Nair and team dropped me near Easter Express Highway Mulund east from where they left  for Silvasa .

Next day I went to office … Life as usual ….





Comments

  1. I would love to do an intercity run someday, it is tough but experiences are worth it.
    I also want to slowly graduate into ultra running in 2018,have run a couple of 42.2km,
    Thanks for sharing your experiences, Congratulations to all of you..... You inspire!

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  2. Awesome Satish Sir... HATS OFF 🙏🙏🙏

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  3. Sir #Huge Respect.# God of running Keep guiding us ..Kudos to your grand effort for social cause...Very comprehensive n detailed write up.👏👏🙏🙏

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your kind words Sandeep. Thank you for your support .

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  4. This was truly inspirational. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

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  5. Wow...terrific account of your awesome achievement but in your typical understated style :) . Thanks for inspiring us !!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for turning up inspite of rain on 13th Sept & giving us a perfect start . Enjoyed running with you .

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  6. Superrb Satish ...you are powerhouse of energy & grit . Godbless

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