Tata Ultra Marathon 50 Kms Challenge
The Human Endeavor of challenging The impossible!
It’s 1.30 am in the morning, you are somewhere in Lonavala, along with thousands, waiting at start line, warming-up the body, and, the timer starts! You start running, climb INS Shivaji slope and continue towards Tiger Hills! Continuously for 7 hours, you keep running, enjoy the downhills, respect the up-hills, feel that cool breeze, morning serendipity and much more! At the end, you have finished 50 Kms ultra run with 700 meters elevation gain, conquered the hills, broke that barriers and championed yourself in the Tata Ultra Marathon 2026!
It all started few months back, when I decided to register of Tata Ultra Marathon 50 Kms challenge. Yes, that’s 50 Kms, easy to speak, just few words, around an hour drive, but here I had to run that much along the hills of Lonavala!
“Breaking the barriers!”, that’s the slogan of this race, what barriers are we talking here, mental, physical, psychological, emotional and most importantly human nature barriers!
“THERE IS SOMETHING MAGICAL ABOUT RUNNING; AFTER A CERTAIN DISTANCE, IT TRANSCENDS THE BODY. THEN A BIT FURTHER, IT TRANSCENDS THE MIND. A BIT FURTHER YET, AND WHAT YOU HAVE BEFORE YOU, LAID BARE, IS THE SOUL.”
- KRISTIN ARMSTRONG
To put out in numbers, these are the statistics for the run: (From Smart-watch)
Total Distance: 51.31 Kms
Total Time: 6:55:52
Avg. Pace: 8’17” /km
Best Km: 6’23” /km
Avg. Heart Rate: 141 bpm
Elevation Gain: 705 m
Calories: 4871 kcal
Training Load: 566 TL (High)
Total Steps: ~64000
As always, let’s discuss considering few major points:
The Background:
I have been running since last 1.5-2 years. Until now, I had 18 races including 1 Ultra Marathon, 2 Full Marathons and 12 Half marathons! Detailed analysis added here. As I had already registered for TMM Full marathon this year, I went ahead for 50 Kms Ultra Run this year.
The Training:
This is the most important part of process where you train your body to endure, simulate the race day pain and collectively prepare for the race day!
This race has dual challenge of 50 Kms distance coupled with elevation gain of around 700 meters. Training for TMM Full Marathon scheduled on 18th January, did help in overall process but we only had 3 weeks to prepare for ultra distance and high gradient elevation! Though I have been running long distance for last 3 months, the main challenge here was keeping up with the efforts for few more weeks!
Sinhgad trail runs, hill runs, easy runs, strength training sessions along with brief stretching session efforts ramped up in these 2-3 weeks. Overall, I did 2 long hill runs at Sinhgad for around 21 Kms and 25 Kms. Interesting thing about these being Sinhgad offers 662 m elevation gain in these runs whereas main race has elevation gain of around 700 meters. So, this was enough for elevation training, but the distance was the key challenge now.
Anything above 35 Kms is the huge challenge as human energy and muscles usually drains within first 25-30 Kms, later it’s your mental strength, the hydration strategy coupled with nutrition plan, that take you forward!
You might face unknown challenges like lactate built-up, bristles, calf pain, muscle pain, cramps and much more! The hydration and nutrition strategy needs to be in place for the most part of the race. It definitely is not going to be followed for the whole race, but it helps to prevent injuries! You do need to modify and act as per the situation, but that’s the part of race!
The Race Week
Now, I only had a week left for the race and swollen mouth coupled with small injury to knees wasn’t ideal to start the tapering week. Mindset matters the most when it comes to challenges beyond general human capabilities!
One thinks it thoroughly, plans the moments, kms, hours, nutrition, hydration, and what mental image that need to be projected to push forward the tired body and rejuvenate that exhausted mind! All this starts in mind, you slowly start thinking about everything, run those scenarios and just think it through!
With all this preparation, I reached the expo for BIB collection, collected the BIB and reached the hotel for resting!
Race Day
The day started at 12.15 am in morning. Mere 2 hours sleep definitely wasn’t enough to sustain the day and I had a long run planned today! Woke up, picked up pre-filled bag and reached the venue at 1 am!
The environment was energetic, everyone was excited to run, warming up, storing those moments in the memory, just living those moments!
I exactly don’t remember, what I was thinking at that time, but it would be surely be something like this, “It’s time, let’s conquer the game. Conserve the energy, this matters a lot! You have to finish this race injury-free at any cost!”!
And, just like that the marathon began! Confetti flying in air, red carpet at start, photographers, capturing the hopes on the faces in the pixels in screen!
First 5 kms, it’s a little bit rolling, but mostly easy part. One just warm-ups the body during this time! Then comes the INS Shivaji climb of 2-2.5 Kms, where steep uphill is observed and it’s better to walk here! Now I was on the rolling planes of Tiger Hill, the specialty of this part being, the uneven terrain where one has to conserve energy while climbing and recover when coming down!
At 14 Kms, you take a detour and complete 6 Kms to join back to same straight road where we continued till 28-29 Kms! Meanwhile we had completed first half of 25 Kms in 3 Hours 5 Mins!
Now last 21 Kms were remaining, just a half marathon to go! This was difficult part as the legs were already stunned to move and thus I somehow had to conserve the energy that wasn’t there! That’s where run-walk strategy helped!
How you manage to cope up with the pressure long distance run, decides the way you finish it. Be it accepting the fact that body is tired now and you just have to keep moving until last mile, be it slow jog, brisk walk or slow walk!
Two pre-dominant emotions filled up the mind, one why was I doing this, do I really need to do this, what I will get and thoughts like this! Other being, why I wasn’t doing well, why I was this slow, what’s stopping me from going a bit faster?
The first one was continuously coming after 35 Kms and I had 15 Kms to complete. So, understanding why you are doing this, definitely matters the most. You are alone, you have to convince yourself to keep with the efforts and only you can do that, so better clear why you are doing this if there is slightest of doubt!
Second, I know I was doing something that less than 1% of population does and it is far more better to go injury-free than some injury! So, that frustration reduced over the span of few kms!
Now, last 8 Kms were remaining, out of which first 3 were steep downhill, comparatively easy to do, but mind you steps, a single twist and you are done! Then comes 5 Kms on relatively flat route! You have already ran 45 Kms, body is exhausted beyond limit and thus you simply keep the rhythm and reach that finish line! This last 5 Kms was difficult, yet the sights of finish line pushed in the last moments!
Then I saw it, “100 meters to go!”, that was it, I had completed 50 Kms run in around 7 Hours! All the route got flash backed in the eyes and I just went ahead towards finish line via the red carpet and pillars were saying, “Breaking Barriers!”
The Race Moments:
The Route Video:
The Key Learnings:
Initially the challenge of 50 Kms seems mammoth, it truly is, yet once you start doing it, the fear sets in, you just enjoy the scenic route and slowly the fear transforms into the confidence, which fully unveils itself on the finish line! You have broken that mental, emotional, physical, psycho-logical barrier to unlock your next best version!
Throughout the race you go through phases, first the challenge seems impossible, then you decide to break it in parts, decide to focus on first half, conquer the first half, the layers of impossibility, now start to loosen up, you push 5-10 Kms further ahead and then comes the hardest of all, overcoming your humble self and push it to the end! This whole cycle happens within those 6-7 hours!
Just like that life is a marathon, a very slow paced, yet sometimes you exhaust, get tired, loose that hope, then you get it, something is wrong with nutrition, hydration and mindset. One by one, you plan for all 3 and conquer this race. Find your rhythm, mindset; stick to it, what matters most is just keeping up with the efforts!
Once you cross that finish line, you become what you always wished to be, invincible! You are happy and glad that you were able to do this and are grateful for everyone involved in the process!
Nothing is perfect in life, you have to take efforts to shape the perfectness of that moment! In this vast world, it’s hard to find those tiny perfect things, I am glad I could collect many along the way!
What Next?
Now, the life’s marathon lies ahead, this was just small part of this grand schema! I just need to maintain the efforts, keep up the spirits, believe in the process and keep doing what matters the most!
That’s it! Thank you for reading! Do share your reviews, feedback, comments and much more!
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