It began at midnight. Indian independence day. There was rain in the air. It's always raining here. My tap 2 tap odyssey would start any moment. 3 minutes late. I need my GPS device to catch good signal strength. It goes green and beep and off I go.
Prelude:
The hardrock means so much to me. Considered to be one of the most picturesque runs in the world. After countless YouTube videos and online resources, it's etched in my CPU. Entries are reserved for a select few. 2020 - The year of the pandemic. So, with this year's edition cancelled, they come out with a 100 mile virtual race. If you can't go to Silverton, bring the Hardrock experience home.
Hmm, interesting.
100 miles+10000m elevation gain. A similar analogy would be scoring a century and taking 5 wickets in the same cricket match. I have a simple policy in life (not the take-it-easy policy). "I can do it. Therefore I will do it." The "do" is important. How? I aimed to find out.
My ideal pre-race day would involve sleeping at least 12 hours. Not this time though. Had to go buy chocolates and Parle G biscuits ( yes vegans, I understand that there are traces of milk solids. These cost less than a dollar for a kilo - so, staple food for a mountain pauper it is). Then I was waiting for the online registration to happen at the nth moment. Worsening things were the wet socks. I had not a single pair dry. Such is my plight in the mountains.
00.03 am. Tap 1 - 9143ft above sea level. Perhaps, the highest point in this valley where there is a a tap with flowing water. I set off without much thought. It's gonna be a long day, I imagined. Headlight on, pitter-patter rain all around, I start off conservatively. Water is flowing and the terrain is slippery. The initial few hours pass by with me trying to get into a nice, steady rhythm. Most of it on steps and a bit on trail. Tried to stick to my Hell ultra strategy. Less than 15 minutes per mile i.e. 4 miles per hour. I was happy with my progress. Slowly, darkness gave way to grey skies. I hear tweets (not of the online kind). The rain subsided around 08:00 a.m. and I shed some bodyweight (you know from where).
I craved for hot food. I had to make do with last evening's roti and Parle G (453k calories per 100g)
No stopping. Just reach the top. Downwards, my heart rate stabilizes but the quads are getting trashed with the hard impact. Podcasts can be a welcome respite from the monotony and I tuned into some of my favourites - The Rich Roll podcast, The Joe Rogan's experience and also played the occasional 108x Gayatri mantra on loop. Thats one of my coping mechanisms.
12 hours into the run, I hadn't reached even 6000m of climbing. Tired, I used poles to balance my efforts on the body. Tourists were trickling in.
15th August is Indian Independence Day. It is also the sawan (monsoon) month so it is an auspicious day in the Hindu calendar. People flock to holy places such as the place I live.(Solang)
The frequent hello, namaste, where are you from? Why are you running? It makes me stop because it's not in my nature to be rude. It irritates me though, much to my chagrin. I'm losing time. Not to mention, those quizzical looks I got all along - this dude in shorts is drenched yet running up and down in the cold rain.
The third half of the run was plagued with self-doubt. I felt like an automobile. The core of my body being the engine and my legs being the wheels. By then I was totally sapped of energy. I could feel the power (apparent lack thereof) to my legs. Why should I continue, I wondered. Dispelling these negative thoughts, I started planning ahead. With the weather deteriorating, I decided to head to lower altitudes. My mind is a terrible mess.
On the way, I met my good friend Nupur Singh. She offered me a vegan laddu (very tasty) and the much-awaited Unived gel. Ever so kind and supportive, a champion runner herself, I am greatful to her. (So that makes this a supported attempt. With so much talk about FKTs this year, it's is on every competitive runner's mind. Ha ha!). My canine companion, Goldie the mongrel trots along as I head down the road with renewed gusto.
It's dusk and I picked up the pace as I climb above Vashist. I decide to do the "temple run". A circuit of the three popular temples in this region. Vashist, Hadimba and Manu temple. I could use some divine assistance now, I thought, bowing to the almighty.
I still had to do about 2000m of climbing. Stray dogs barked at me. A cop on night duty warned me sternly to go home. In the darkness, the pace was excruciatingly slow. Blisters inside were deteriorating. I ran out of calories.I chucked my plan of running all downhill and instead decided to return home. Up all night, Not a light in sight (pardon the alliteration/rhyme)
The sleep-deprived zombiness (is there such a word?) wasn't as commonplace as before. Hell ultra (https://www.thehellrace.com/hell-ultra/), Tor des geants etc. fall under a different league. 'vera level' : as they say in South India.
The last hour was all out sprinting. At least by my standards. Frequently grunting and heavy breathing, I gave it all I got. Like that annoying gym show-off. The gel did its job. The tank was empty. The watch showed 100 miles. Done. Collapsed and kissed a rock.
This Hardrock was not so hard, after all.
Epilogue:
A virtual challenge of these sorts has a raw purity to them. You are alone, you know the stats, you get it done. Many thanks to Veronica and everyone in the Asia Trail Girls club ( https://www.asiatrailgirls.com). This concept of the vertical challenge is amazing. A big shout out to Vishwas Bhai who is always helpful. Also, the good folks at pwrlab ( https://pwrlab.com/leaderboards/2020-hardrock100/) and members of the Hardrock hundred community who have been showering kind words.
The body may be hurting, but the mind is already on my next challenge.
To wrap things up, let me steal something off the internet.
Strava
