During the last years Kaveri Trail marathon I oft heard praises for the Aurocille marathon which got me curious. Luckily the next day when I checked my mails, there was an invitation to run in the Auroville Marathon ! I ofcourse registered immediately.
I arrived in Auroville on the 12th evening at the visitor centre to collect my bib. I drove in from Chennai which is approx 2hrs 30 mins away. It took me 5 hrs though as I had a business meeting at a place called Arkonam which has a huge MRF factory.
Met some known faces from my previous runs. The bib pickup was painless (except for the mosquitoes). They also had prepared a baggage tag for ease of drop of and pick up on race day morning. The there was the T shirt sale, which I think could have been better organised. Perhaps help taken from the various Auroville stores in a better setting up. It looked and felt like buying from a pavement setup except all were polite, spoke english and no bargaining. There was a Pasta dinner organised which I had to forgo as I had not confirmed for same. I headed to my hotel - Quiet healing Centre.
I reached around 7 PM, it is a a small distance away approx 8-10 K. The management leaves at 5 PM so only the gaurd remained, who had a key with my name on it. The room was quite simple and fulfilled all my basic needs. The batchroom however was a surprise. It was a cicular room and slits for windows all around and had a sky light. Of course tehse observations cam ethe next day with the sun shining. But that was nice. Dinner happened at 7 PM. a simple affair and not great.
I headed back to my room made preps for the run and fell asleep.
The next day I reached the venue around 5.30 AM. The weather was a bit cool, probably around 18 deg C. The marathoners were already off, leaving at 5.oo AM. Half started at 6.00 AM. People were in various states of warm up. A big banana branch with little babanas was propped for anyone to get their fix of carbs.
The race started on time, a bit crowded for the 1st half K. I got a easy pace on, approx 7 mins/km for upto 9 k. The track was a dirt track with loose gravel and changed to a trail and with stretches of sandy paths which made the running so difficult a sthe feet sink in and everytime you take a step you use more power on the back foot to lift which then shifts to the right foot sinking it deeper. Then i worked out a trick, there were some volunteer support in terms of cyclists and started following the tracks left by them, where ever the tracks seemed to be better defined, that was what i was going to follow as that indicated hard ground.
The surroundings were beautiful, with a lot of greenery, huge trees, narrow tracks, sometime enough for 1 person only which gave a feeling of being alone. The air was fresh and at many places the smells were awesome. There were volunteers every 2 k approx. with families, dishing out water, electrolyte, biscuits, lemons, oranges, bananas & motivation. There was one local percussion band, and sexy tempo, you just picked up your speed a few notches when you cross them.
At the finish there was a T shirt (no medals) breakfast, which i avoided because of my mental allergy to long lines and many vegetables.
Went back to my hotel looked at my colored feet, pics coming soon, and went to sleep for a couple of hours.
I recommend going to Auroville to just experience the international communal living, all the nationalities together, its an eyeopener. And ofcourse to use the opportunity to run the tracks.
I forgot - my timings. Which is fair. As at Auroville we were told it is not a race. there are no timing chips, no one is keeping any timings at all. I agree. It is about you. It is about enjoying your run. for when you are running long distances you are in tune with yourself and with nature. you are more aware of the pebbles in your path, the wind in your face, the smells, the twists and turn your body faces. You are in a meditative trance. You are in touch with you.
Ofcourse I cheated. I had my eye on my watch every ten minutes, but i also felt all the above.
My net finish time was 2 hrs 23 mins. I am happy as I dirt / trail marathons are tougher than road running. My last trail marathon timings of 2 hrs 58 mins at KTM were solidly broken. I was ache and pain free, happy & smiling, satisfied & sexy.
