The Ladakh Marathon Khardungla challenge Sept 13, 2015

The Flawed Flagship race of Ladakh

The Race Day Sept 13th 2015 came and went, but not before taking a huge part of my sweat, muscle and perseverance and in return, handing me something irreplaceable, an achievement to cherish in every sense of the word!

When i tried to research this race 6 months back, i found sketchy/incomplete information from runners who did it, almost like it was a CIA top secret and some superfluous info from the site itself. Nevertheless we planned, trained and executed our plans on our own and emerged largely unscathed and victorious!

So here I am, lapping up memories of that day and trying to present them to any prospective runner who wishes to go through the grind literally in the innards of the hostile mountains!

The Stok Kangri trek (20,000ft+, long route 8 days, via Shang Phu, Gangpoche, Matho La, Mankarmo) preceded the run. I can easily say that it was the wisest thing ever to do in preparation. Cause as expected, we had acclimated so beautifully and learnt how to use our lungs and deep breathing techniques to beat headaches. AMS and headaches stayed miles away during the run!

I had ambitiously planned to take videos with a GoPro 4 to document but gladly didn't do so. While on the run, there was nothing to distract me from my rhythm which meant that i was performing at great efficiency! In fact, i didn't even feel like taking my iPhone out of my running belt to take photos or videos, lest it broke my rhythm!

72kms is a HUGE distance and any break of established rhythm could mean that you could stare at THE WALL which, in reality, could mean NOT finishing the race leave alone staying within the CutOff time of 14hrs!

On Sept 12th, Mr Motup Rimo and the race director, Mr Hakim handed the runners a briefing at the Rimo Expeditions office in Leh at 12 noon.

All was good and they laid special emphasis on not taking shortcuts. Apparently many Ladakhi runners did take shortcuts in the previous edition especially at locations like this, that could save a couple of kms. Believe me, you wouldn't want to risk a scratch at that altitude that can potentially end your run, forget risking fracturing your limbs on chances like these.

They also told us of hydration points at every 4 kms, medical facilities, an extended 8 hr (7hr previously) cut-off for runners who failed to make it to KhardungLa top and a sweep-up vehicle to pick them up and transport them back to Leh. The runners were going to be manually timed. Sounded great, but eventually each of these protocols were disastrously and extremely disappointingly NOT followed.

An hour later, our bus filled with Mumbai runners departed for Khardung village. It was a laugh-riot party including super Mumbai runners, Kavin, Sandip, Sunil and us second rung runners Sameer, Aditya, Ashish, Prince, me amongst others.

Thanks to a traffic stop at KhardungLa top due to a road blasting, what was to take 2.5 hrs to reach took 4 hrs

We stopped at S Pullu, K Top and N Pullu. What struck us as we took leaks was the intense cold that made us scurry back into the bus
We reached Khardung village(13500ft) to a sight of mushrooming comfortable tents for the runners to spend the hours before the 3 am race start

Lot of time was spent in chatting with fellow runners, clicking pictures, planning strategies and we even managed a pic with the winner of last year. One thing was certain, the severe COLD and the pain!!!!

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With the winner of last year!

Night came and it was dinner time. There was a lovely spread of vegetarian and non vegetarian fare

We thereafter settled into our tents by 8 pm and believe it or not the sleeping bags were soooo good i got the best sleep ever. For the record, i have never slept so well even before a Mumbai Marathon!!!

We woke up at 1:30 am. The first thing i did was hydrate myself and have a glass of Sattu, a chick pea powder that helps me! I finished off 5-6 seedless dates, prepared my Enerzal fix for my hydration belt and put on my bib and checked my head torch. As I came out, i saw a lot of runners at the breakfast spread. I have never eaten breakfast before any kind of a distance run and chose not to here too! There were some bananas but they were the rawest ever and didn't pass down my mouth beyond the bite. 

Now here was the plan given by the organizers. There would be 3 vehicles one each at N Pullu(17 kms), K Top (32kms) and S Pullu (46kms), the license plate numbers of which were given to us. We could keep items that we would need subsequently in those cars. I decided to keep in cloth bags my glares, sunscreen and my fixes of Sattu powder, Dates and Enerzal for K Top and some sattu, enerzal and dates for the other 2 places. I gave my designated cloth bags to the organizers and took the token for the same. So far so good!

Th race began at Sharp 3 am with the Ladakhi runners just shooting off into the dark. That was the last we saw of them! I jogged at an ultra slow speed and walked whenever my breathing went heavy. I kept a tab of the milestone markers and figured that even with walking i was managing a consistent 10 min per km (6kmph). The cold was numbing!!! The head torches looked insanely pretty like fireflies in the dark of the night. As we started gaining altitude, the walking effort was getting that much more difficult. I reached N Pullu and to the designated vehicle at 545 am. The driver gave me a cup of cool Enerzal. Felt awesome! I wanted to prepare my Sattu and squeeze a precut piece of lime. I figured my hands were so numb they weren't even closing into a fist, leave alone squeezing a lime. The driver helped me with it and all energized i shot off from N Pullu. Sameer was half a km ahead and eventually i caught up with him on walk. KhardungLa top was now visible at a distance but still a good 14 kms of horrible surfaced gravel top road separated us. The road was so bad, it was virtually impossible to run. Left me wondering how the Ladakhis tamed such a road!

The Ladakh marathon cars kept crossing us at times asking us for water, Enerzal biscuits and "raw" bananas!! As a strategy i always kept my waist belt bottle full with Enerzal water and always hydrated myself on these offerings. This habit proved to be immensely useful a bit later.

After lots of trials and tribulations negotiating one hill after the another, i finally managed to walk to KhardungLa top (18000ft) at 855 am (5.4 kmph). I had no headache, but just really heavy breathing that kept me going! En route, i went ahead of ace runner Sandip who suffered a severe headache at N Pullu due to fast running and had now settled into a slower walk!

K Top

Th prayer flags at K Top

KhardungLa top was pretty deserted devoid of tourists or bikers as vehicular traffic had been closed for the day till 11 am. I reached out to the designated bus, put on my glares, didn't care to change my socks, had my fixes of dates and Sattu and oops...i had forgotten to keep my cap in the bag!!! I saw an Indian army jawan standing with folded hands tucked into himself and watching my plight!!! i thought to myself, "my plight ends today, his goes on God knows till when!" I soldiered on spending not more than 3 minutes at K Top, lest it broke my rhythm. 

S Pullu was visible a couple of hundred meters down but again 14 kms of deceptively curved roads were needed to be negotiated. I now decided to run down wherever i found some clean stretches of road on the otherwise potholed and gravel top road. But with every step of running i could feel the hard ground slamming at my soles and making me stop and walk. No probs i thought, i was still doing 10min/km on the way down despite running a few sections!!! 

                        

NOT ONE hydration vehicle/med van crossed me from K Top till I reached S Pullu at 1130 am and that's where a drama erupted. 

The designated vehicle was there but was locked with no sign of the driver. A US youngster, Matthew who was marching ahead of me after overtaking me at K Top had kept his 'running' shoe and change of clothes in the bag which was in the car. He was furious and blew his top at the car being locked!! I too was depending on my fixes and to fill up Enerzal water in my half full bottle. i found an official in a car moving up and gave him a piece of my mind but that was not even a speck of what the US lad had to say!

From S Pullu, the road was a lovely resurfaced black top. I could see Sandip running down atleast a km behind me. I too decided to take advantage of the surface and started running more often than not. Lot of gravel had entered my shoe and were now causing enormous friction on my feet. I sat down on the road against my wishes and removed each shoe and cleaned them off.

It was now 12 noon and 21 kms remained to be done. I now thought to myself that there was a great possibility of breaking the 12 hr mark!!!! Cos it was all downhill and good road that even a slow jog should do it..

I now could see Sandip right behind me. He was effortlessly running at a steady pace and while he was just behind me, a cameraman grabbed some footage of me leading Sandip!!!!! A highpoint for me!!!! He overtook me egging me on to join him... but that was comparing apples and oranges.. i egged him on to break 12!! 

I reached Ganglas, 11 kms from Leh 0 mark with 1:35 min left for 12 hr mark. I needed to run at around a comfortable 8 min/km to break 12. I kept going, reaching the Shanti Stupa turn and then towards Leh city. The road now meandered through slums and i now reached Leh 0 mark at 2:55 pm, clocking 11:55 min. I was now expecting to find the Ladakh public school, the designated finish and a grand welcome full of love!! But that wasnt to be.

Unfortunately for an ultra marathon of this stature and extreme difficulty, where one would expect to find a countdown of markers leading to finish (2kms to go, 1 kms to go etc..) there was not even a single signpost leading to finish. I had to ask people on the road who were bewildered by expression. I even found some kids wearing Ladakh marathon tees and they said its still 1.5 kms away!!!!!! I was like, should i simply hail a cab and go to the finish!!! Disgruntled, i finally reached the finish line where the race director Mr Hakim sat on a chair manually feeding in our times. The medals were elsewhere inside a school...they could have easily kept it at the finish mark!!

Mr Motup later argued that the finish signposts were torn off by locals... It was hard to believe that flippant excuse for a race which blocks traffic on a military road for a mere 85 runners!!!! Anyways, i had finished what i had set out to and finished it well. Each runner who finished seemed to be mortally enraged by the same thing. One hapless runner (Sandip Dhuri who finished 3rd among Non ladakhis) had to wade through a market to find the finish!!!! I finished 6th among 46 Non Ladakhis in 12hr 13min.

Right after finish, flanked by Dharmendar from Bangalore, Laldev and the race director Mr Hakim

Along with Ashish who had to quit at 46 kms to a bad back and a broken toe nail and Atul who ran the half marathon earlier in the day, i waited for Sameer.. Sameer came in an hour and a half later, jubilant and complaining about the horrible finish!!!.. There was no medical facility at the end!!! Well, Mr Motup had a perfectly lousy excuse for everything!!!

With Sandip (bibbed), Deepak Londhe of Striders, Bala, and Matthew, the US lad

Ashish and Sameer, my partners in madness for the past 6 months

Overall, it was a great run, a huge achievement of sorts after the 13hr Stok Kangri summit day effort 5 days earlier. Not once during the race did even a feeble thought occur to me that i should quit. The 72 km KhardungLa challenge is easily the flagship run for Ladakh Marathon but clearly it needed to be managed better..lest it dies a natural death!!