My experience — Ladakh Full Marathon
September 10th, 2023 was a milestone day for me as I successfully completed 42.2km Ladakh Marathon in 5:36 hours. Never had I run at such an altitude before.
Day before the run, I had my doubts of whether I would be able to complete well and that’s why the earlier blog https://medium.com/@sunilpisharody/final-countdown-one-day-to-ladakh-marathon-b56eb80f4b06 !!
While I had spent 8 days in Ladakh at / above the altitude, I was not sure the impact of low oxygen on my health vitals. On top of it, I started having cold, blocked nose, slight headaches 2 days prior to the run resulting in less sleep. Further there have been negative news about fatalities in ace runners due to cardiac arrest and ultra-runners not being complete 122km Silk Route Ultra / 72km KhardungLa challenge.
These internal and external factors made me quite apprehensive going into the event morning.
I got up at 4 am on Sunday morning, had cup of hot tea, apple & banana before embarking on the 3km taxi ride to start point at 5 am. The flag-off was at 6 am with the weather at 9-10°. We were about 600 runners going for the full marathon.
The first 5-6 km were descent which helps in a good start and then the terrain starts changing with several ups & downs. The first 10 km took me 74 mins. I had made a mental plan of sticking to a heart rate at 145. So I started walking whenever the HR touched 150 and restart running at HR of 140. This helped me in not exerting as well as giving an opportunity to click some photos/ videos while I was walking. Also made it a point to keep updating my family who were anxious back home about the run. In a way, I took my whole family on the run for most of the route !!
The sun came up at around the 11th km, increasing the temperature by few degrees. From the 15th km, the sun was out there through till the end and the headgear helped in reducing the impact.
The route is very scenic with sandy mountains and blue skies in the background. We cross the Indus river twice through bridges filled with fluttering prayer flags around the 6/7th km and then at midway 21st km. There are a couple of monasteries and several chortens en route, which ensure that we have some beautiful / peaceful thoughts instead of stressing on the run.
Being a Mumbaikar and running SCMM/ TMM since 2009, I have been pampered with loads of crowd support during the entire runs. That was definitely a miss in this high-altitude run as there were several road stretches where all had for company was the beautiful landscape and sound of your feet & breath.
There were ofcourse the support crew every 3 kms and cheerleaders dressed up in local attire and singing/ playing local music.
With all the above, I crossed 37th km in 4:45 hours. Then came the last leg where we had to complete the loop on Leh-Manali highway i.e the same 5 km descent at the start now became the ascent at the end. I was made aware of this and was prepared mentally to walk this leg instead of trying to run/ jog. I chugged along at pace of ~9:30/km for the balance route.
With the finish line in sight, I took a deep breath and made a dash to loud cheers from my friends who were waiting after completing their half marathons.
That was my first marathon in the Himalayas and while it was almost 70 mins slower than my fastest Full marathon, I was ecstatic to having completed it and it has definitely inspired me to run longer and faster. It has opened up my mind towards attempting something more challenging, will definitely work towards that !!
I would like to end here with a quote attributed to Edmund Hillary - "You don’t have to be a hero to accomplish great things - to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals. It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves ".
Until next time & next adventure !!
Cheers
Sunil