Final Countdown — one day to Ladakh Marathon
Tomorrow I am running the Ladakh Full Marathon. It is not the first time I would be running the 42.2km version and I have trained well too with ~500km mileage over 10 preceding weeks and multiple strengthening, mobility, flexibility sessions with coach Pravin Upadhyay.
But the last 8-day leg of this event preparation has been an altogether different experience, starting from 2nd Sept when I landed at Leh airport.
For starters, the marathon would be held at an altitude of 11100 feet (a completely new terrain for me) and the 42km run would have an elevation gain of 1800+ feet. The oxygen levels in the air would be lower and the lungs would need extra work to extract maximum oxygen needed for the efforts.
Till I reached Leh, there was a mental calculation on how to finish the run with pace-markers, but soon the whole plan got chucked out as breaths became harder! The SPO2 levels were below 80 causing headaches. I spent the entire Day 1 inside the resort, most of it lying on the bed. It was only after 3 days, the numbers started improving to 85-92 levels.
As a part of acclimatisation, we embarked on a 3-day holiday into the majestic Himalayan villages. We travelled through 2 of the largest motorable passes - Khardungla Pass (17892 ft) and ChangLa Pass (17600 ft). We spent one night in a tent next to beautiful Pangong Lake (14500 ft), a night which didn’t seem to end and the suffering with low oxygen, shivering chilly air made me wonder whether I should have registered for the event too !! The Nubra Valley sand dunes was a God-sent blessing to the battered mind with mighty mountains, desert, flowing water & green vegetation all in one picture frame. We also visited the last Indian villages (Turtuk/ Thang) on the Indo-Pak border. I plan to write on the holiday separately sometime.
The mesmerising Ladakhi landscape of massive Himalayan mountain ranges, rivers and white sand dunes helps in refreshing the mind & soul. (and also gives opportunities to click lots of photos 😜) Check out my Insta handle https://instagram.com/sunilpisharody?utm_source=qr&igshid=MzNlNGNkZWQ4Mg== for some photos/ videos.
The roads carved out of massive mountain ranges show how little speck we are in this vast world !! A big salute to the Indian defence forces and Border Roads Organization (BRO) for their immense contribution in making the far-off villages connected to India.
Now for the training part - I had 3 walks of 5-6 km, and 3 runs of 6km, 8km and 15km in the 8 day leading up to today.. while the initial days were tough, slowly I could feel more confident for tomorrow. But each day is different and this 42 km tomorrow would be the farthest I would have attempted in this terrain, so I have no idea how tomorrow will end !!
Hope to capture my thoughts on the run later - either be the outcome - finish or do not !
Thanks a lot to wonderful wishes and prayers from loved ones, families, friends, colleagues for keeping up motivated. Equal or more thanks to my parents, my in-laws and well-wishers for ensuring (or trying to ensure) that I don’t push myself beyond what my body can endure for now. Special thanks to my coach Pravin whose sessions helped in preparing me for the event.
Thanks to the amazing gang for the amazing Ladakh holiday and best wishes to Ajit, Karun Nair and Pramod for your half marathons tomorrow!
Now the loudest shoutout is reserved for the one person who bore the maximum of my training plan - my better-half (in all aspects) who has been the pillar of support day-in day-out.. my nutritionist, motivational coach, para-medic, critic, listening board etc a complete package plus being an amazing mother to Arnav and Anika !! A big thanks and love you Roshni for being there !!
So that's it for now, will look forward for an awesome day tomorrow and would love to write about my experience later.
Cheers
Sunil