Time Away at Cancun - Day 2 - XCaret

Having spent a leisurely time last night, all were looking forward to the eventful day, though we had a look at videos of rides before, nothing can match the true experience itself. We were all page planned for a 8:30 am start. With the planned time we were up to a decent breakfast and all set for timely start. Man.. It's a pain in the neck to explain the Spanish speaking folks anything in English, leave about explaining the ask for vegetarian food. That's a big lowlight of the dining experience

Start of an eventful day

Will all done breakfast sharp by 8:30, few minutes after we were out, came the so looking dog truck alike bus. All clipped with bands we boarded the bus and with bilingual explanation about the trip by the guide we reached the xcaret park

First of a water activity experience

With so many rides planned for day, got ourselves registered for one in world experience underwater tours and photographs  all along the route. We set om to the first ride, a underground river which goes all around the park, with all of us dressed up with life jacket and fins, we set out for the self-motored ☺ ride. Though everyone had inner fear, many of us tried to give it a try and few super hesitant to even step into the water, with a group picture after venturing into the water and there we started gliding through the flowing waters of the river solely powered by leg kicks.

With kids hanging on to the back or along the adults, we kept having the first such unique experience. After around a hour of wading through water we got to the exit returning back the swimming apparel and we were headed for yet another rarely available ride.

Sea trek it is.. Yeah baby

With kids with us, who aren't allowed for the next ride we split into two groups with different timings. One getting to finish lunch while the other group to have the unique under water experience.

The ride is called sea trek, here is how it happens, there is a 32kg weighing glass mask kind of apparatus that which is connected to oxygen supply through wires which goes on tip of your head resting on your neck with rest of the body free open to water. Slowly being taken to the world of awesome experience, you trek along a underwater iron lining, going up to 600 meters down gradually, with fishes, turtles, stingrays going around you as if they are your next door neighbour and you get to see a underwater museum along the route. Man i got to say that was one unique experience in a pristine clear water on a sunny day under water. A definite and no miss activity.

With the second group now going to the same ride, we get to manage the kids and have our share of lunch.

What next in the day?

While we were having our lunch and second group arriving after their share of unique experience, we quickly chat try decide the next activity and we head on to   spend some time off water to visit the Mayan architecture, special multilevel aviary, a unique of its kind, was merry spending time with unique of birds and water bodies along the bike within the aviary. Commendable effort put in by the real restate folks of the park to set up the unique aviary. Unique experience guaranteed, nature lovers make merry here.

Humid and back to some water activity

With the walk around the park being humid and sunny, we took some short 5 mins break and we huddled along to our next activity

Kids adventure and snorkeling

All of us being super tired, few decided to relax in the wooden chairs, kids venturing into the water instantly with their life Jacket on. After watching the kids women folklore in our group stepped in to the beach and had some fun time with their kids. With me and Sathish trying the rope walk across the beach, we were already ready for our next activity

Snorkeling and the paradise within

I am sure many of us have heard about snorkeling, but our first-hand experience at it was nothing short of awesome. Kids were super hesitant and ladies backing out of the activity, spent some time convincing Medha and trials with rethink, the remaining three of us had a beautiful view of coral reef and fishes snoozing past you, at a very arm distance. The breathing by mouth was an experience to be learnt. It was 6 pm already, time to turn in the snorkels and get ready for the magnanimous performance on local dances and skit of various Mexican cities

X caret experience in the huge amphitheater

After a daylong water extravaganza, we quickly had shower and in batches had some rest time on a shamrock for some time and headed to so called dance, but what we experienced in person was stupendous. The skits dance and oral singing was in a huge stadium that could easily accommodate a 6000 fellows. Fully light up, super awesome sound quality, the experience of the local theatre and art fellas was astonishing. There were performance from every city in that 2 hour time period which had a 10 min interval as well. We sneak out at around 8:45 , a clear 15 minutes ahead of finish time and headed slowly to our bus, we got dropped by the bus at 10:45 pm . Man a tiring day indeed!

Time Away at Cancun Day 1 - Marina El Cid

Start of the Mega Vacation

With all due credits to sathish who put in 99% of the efforts to look up for a place, consult people, draft out a plan, reserve tickets, and all till the execution, have to truly appreciate the commitment in there and the interest

Here we go , all 7 of us as one family were all set on to a long vacation out of the country for the first time, yes, its yoyo mexico ;)

Early…. Start for all the night owls and 8 hour sleep owls

With flight at 5 AM and parking at a private parking, had planned for a 2:45 AM start, which ended starting at 2:57 and in 33 minutes we were at the private parking stall near the Seatac.

With sleepy yet happy faces, right from kids to the night owls, all were set on looking forward to the great trip.

With the shuttle taking time, sathish start to get worried for not making it in time for check in, but soon the shuttle arrives, speedsters in the group, smallest and second oldest rush to the check in counter and have us seamlessly checked in and we are ready for security check at 4:15 AM.

Take of..

Take off… here we go!

Its beginning to lighten up in the pacific northwest as our we take off sharp at 5 AM, I am set up for a long 2 hour siesta, the only thing that I could hear in between was the notorious sounds of Rithwin and the grand mas.. Rithvi and Medha, they had so much to talk that they did not have a blink of eye to sleep in spite of a short sleep, in 2.5 hour time we land in Phoenix, we had to be super patient with we being at the tail end of the plane, finally we gust out to only feel as if we were tamed in that small coach for 2 hours…

Second leg…

By the time we get out to switch gates, the only feel that came to my mind first was the density of folks in the airport, just literally reminded me of rythu bazaar :), it was so crowded that suitcases had to be manoeuvred with so much of precision :). All were super hungry, again the hunt for something to eat for a vegetarian with no meat or egg, was still a bigger task… leave alone the options to eat, finally managed to get some bagel and cheese and latte, we were already strolling to get into another 4.5 hour long flight to Cancun..

There we come, yo yo, Magnanimity of options tour options

With a 2 hour time zone change, we land in the land of cancun, with a super long queue for immigration, with that long a queue in Seattle I would have expected at least 2 hours of time spent in Immigration, there were thoughts at the back of my mind as to what to expect in terms of visa, since we all went in with the word of mouth that mexican visa is not required.. Finally we got through the immigration seamlessly and got out after getting one of the checked in baggage

Oh my goodness, the airport was flooded with tons of tour operators and placards and for a major bunch it was tour operators waiting to lure in folks to their package, with more than half hour of discussion with one of the tour operators, realized that there was offers for more than 50% down of what he had heard over the phone, but leave it to your folks imagination as to how much is true.

We got to the island marked for our tour operator, we got our own shared vehicle, shared by one and only two families :), we were ridden to our looked forward spa center and hotel.

Resort…Spa..Hotel…

After a hour ride through roads which seemed to feel as in India, streets being super small, shrubs grown along the road giving a feel of a typical country side ride, with the mexican driver trying to communicate and our famous mex orator sathish trying to not let the driver ride and bombard with questions with neither probably got half of it.

We were quickly checked in and appraised of facilities available at the Spa, with the co-coordinator refusing to accept for the fact that I was married :) had to convince hard to prove it ;) had quick sugar doses of desserts and we walk to our sea view rooms, along the way we saw a super big water activity area, which we decided to get back in few minutes

Quick Munch and dip and big munch :)

With every single of us not having eaten much solid for a period of over 12 hours, we were desperate to much at least a bit before we set out to get to walk, leave alone to get into water and get to some activity. Got the very super limited veggies options ordered to the room, quickly had a the tasteless bland food, quickly, dressed up into our swim attire, here we go, speeding to the water activities.

With over 2 hours spent at the pool side, with every single folk having a great time at the pool, with me going cross across the 120 yard pool with my garmin or rithvi, rithwin and medha sliding into the waters from a slide climbed upside down to tamil of bala getting to the pool with so much hesitation and finally enjoying every bit of it, we were in the waters even after an hour past dusk and all were tired enough to get out to munch again

With a quick shower, we all set to the only restaurant available without reservation to get to a mexican buffet dinner, again super limited options for vegggies , grazed on too many things to remember, loaded with desserts, we set off to a so full dinner and awesome sleep, looking forward to the surprises and feasts for the next day the real activity to being…

Month one with #fastandUpIndia and MenonFitness and MAF

After over 7 years of a similar training, and based on last 3 successive failures to meet the target, i strongly felt that i should be doing something different to move out of the plateau.

More in lines with the famous title "What got you here won't get you there", i strongly felt that i should be changing the way i train to get much more optimal results.

Also i remember hearing during one of the candid conversation during longs runs way back in Seattle, for reaching that ultimate time, you might have to end up training greatly different from what you have been doing unless it has been the best one for you.

Post Surf City Marathon

While i took off totally from running for over 2.5 weeks after surf city marathon which was on Feb 7, was contemplating on many a things.

With the running season in India almost over, was not having anything in plan. one fine weekend by end of feb, went for the gandipet long run and was taking it easy to start with a long run, while i bumped into our desi super man. As usual he says lets run your pace today :) which eventually turns out into a near race pace for me , but a zone 2 run for him. While we exchanged quite a bit about training, what went well with the race, what did not and at the end of the long run, was convinced to take up training under his guidance, which is in a way quite different from what i have been training with for 7 years now

Month 1 of MAF

While the primary base of all workouts were dependent on MAF heart zones, i was up for trying out something different to change the way i was almost plateauing with my timings. While the biggest thing i never tried till date was using a HRM in any form for my running, it was always run by how i felt. That is a radical change with the new training, all runs/spin based on HRM and though it was annoying, slowly getting used to it. 

The annoying HRM band adjustment along the run, the non ending stare at my HR on my watch and running more than 2 to 3 minutes slower/mile than my usual run time, put together is teaching me some patience.... quite a bit ... :)

On the contrary, i started to enjoy my runs so because it is slow and i can look around, feel comfortable all along from start to end.

Run/Bike/Yoga/Strength training and perfect blend throughout the week, keeps me more enthusiastic

#FastAndUpIndia

While i was starting to experiment with a new kindaa training, wanted to try out the products from FastAndUp even before being part of the #fastandupindia team, i had products ordered, tried out some during my race in Feb.

With long days at work, which means no early morning runs and all runs started at 8:30 on wards, at times ending at 11:30 AM @ 44 C, what better timing to try out hydration product.

Initially i started with using Refuel during my runs, just as a complement to my plain water, which i feel at least helps me keep up with my hydration through my run.

I was never thinking to use recover for some time, since i was anyways having my Whey protein post my run, but on days where i do not have protein, post short runs, i tried out recover, it was feeling good to have a good gulp of water along with the amino acids...

One observation may be its just me being cynical, but whenever i have had Activate, i was in better control over my HR through my run, it could also be to do with a slow start along those days,but just my observation on 3 different occasions.

Patience.... and on.....
With the HR based run, obviously my mileage has come down significantly, worry about what pace i am running has gone out of my mind, its just do whatever it takes to stick to the zones... With the sustained training plan, decent sticking to the plan, looking forward to a nice adaptation in months to come...

Surf City Marathon - Yet another futile attempt for BQ - Learnings...

day i wanted to jot down about the journey, training, the race and learnings from this event for quite some time now, just managed to get some time squeezed in between to put in my experience.

Repeated attempts to qualify...

While the original attempt to get qualified for boston started in Mumbai marathon 2015, i was definitely not prepared then, yet attempted. then had a whole year of high mileage training. the whole of 2015 had logged 1268 miles (2029 Kms), highest of all, i felt i was training enough.

Bengaluru Marathon
While my original plan was to use bengaluru as a fitness check race or B race to see how i am in the process, i happened to speak with Ramesh Kanjilimadhom at bangalore, who encouraged to register for spice coast marathon, being that officially certified by Boston association, i dared to register for the same, which was in 3 weeks from bengaluru.
Bengaluru full i took it conservative, never tried to push so much, stayed in my own zone, managed to finish in 3:16, finishing 2nd in 30-35 age group

Spice Coast Marathon
i did train for the hot and humid conditions to be expected at kochi, being along the sea, but was also equally into my brother's wedding. Tired enough reached for spice coast, where i met Vijay from FastnUp, discussing about my plans to get my BQ, not knowing he had the same agenda :) i started fast, was with the lead vehicle for almost 3 miles then to fade out slowly. My first race ever where i felt i would want to give up at 8k Mark, from then on, not sure how i prolonged it to a finish, it suffered all along, finishing in 3:24, finishing 3rd place overall, alas i realized that i was literally tired to even start with. Lesson learnt, never club a race with any personal event which would not have any rest assured during it
Mumbai Marathon 2016
I had registered for a full marathon at mumbai, while in the process i had a potential travel to seattle for techready event, hence registered for a race in the least amount of travel time, found the Surf City Marathon to be aligned to my travel dates, registered for it without second thought. @ Mumbai i downgraded to Half marathon to finish a comfortable Half in 1:29

TechReady & Surf City Marathon
While it was almost end of January 2016 i headed to seattle for techready event, which had a jam packed agenda from 7 AM till 6 PM for 5 consecutive days, end of the week was my race at Orange County which was 2 hours flight from seattle. After a super hectic week at Seattle i flew to Orange county on Saturday Feb 5th morning, collected my bib, it was nice and sunny with near indian climate, but much comfortable and ideal running climate. Had good rest on saturday slept for more than 4 hours in the noon, woke up at around 6 PM ran for half hour along the beach, and hit for dinner. With obvious Carb loading at an italian place, i hit bed early.

Race Day - Feb 7th
had an early rise, took a cab to the start point, in singlet and racing shorts, i was literally shivering :) finding spots along the heat blowers i kept myself warm. while i used to use Gaitorade Pre Race tangy drink 3 years back, thought of trying out a indian substitute, which i was anyways trying out various products of FastandUp. I did have a dose of FastandUp Activate and ready for the race start, with a tangy flavour, was feeling good with loads of confidence and minerals :)


Race Plan and till Mile 18

Plan was to stick with the 3:05 Pacer all along, come what may. With full load of FastandUp Activate and fresh legs, i was all set for a solid start and went great until 14 miles. Casually chatting with the pacers, exchanging Pace placard often times, was fun time. at mile 8 we had a small climb to make, which by no means is any way near any climbs in hyderabad :), slowly climbed up and mentally had the obstacle out of the way and rest of the route was to be a flat course.

At mile 10 we turned into a huge highway which was easily 6 lanes wide, all along the beach, we started to feel good head winds and sun opening up for the day!

Slowly i began drafting behind the pacer and happily cruised past the half point mark still on target for a 3:04 finish, had gels every 45 minutes along the way, never missed a water station, and electrolyte, so no worries with hydration nor the cardio.

Mile 18 on to Finish

At a little metres past the mile 17, my shoe lace knot had come off, so i stopped to quickly get it right and in the meantime my pace group went ahead by at least by 1.5 minutes, i was already running at my best pace of 7:04/mile, this was even more a mammoth task to be going faster than that to catch up my pacing group.

i decided to stick to my 7:04 pace, went on till mile 20 at around the same pace, then i hit the WALL, my cardio was perfect, hydration was on target, but my legs couldn't take it any more to keep up to the pace. i tried for half more mile and i knew it would be a DNF if i even tried to keep up the pace. I started to slow down gradually from then on, while we hit the long stretch of road along the beach, 100 mts away from water, it was a nice breezy sunny day, surfers were there in big numbers, what a beautiful sight it was, but i was struggling with my form :( and pace, just kept running at a pace of 8:05s... eventually hitting 8:30s per mile at the end.

i was at least having minor hopes of not allowing the 3:10 pacing group ahead of me, to at least get a official BQ, but that hopes were dashed at mile 21 :(, then on, it was just counting the number of people i could overtake that kept me going. My mile splits was making me go crazy... with the decline in my pace.

Finally the only motivation for me to keep pushing was to atleast get a Personal record,which managed to get and finished at 3:14. I was at least happy for that.

Thanks to all the fellow runners back in hyderabad who were tracking me, that kept me feeling that i should never give up. Change in pre race nutrition with FastandUp Activate was another trial, need to see how it goes with combination of others in the product line.

Statistics

Graphs

Splits

Activity 
    https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1043274522

Lessons learnt

1. how much ever mileage you have put in, DO NOT mix up your race with any hectic schedule, happened to me twice
2. though your nutrition and cardio is fine, without lower body strengthening, we are nowhere to get significant improvement
3. Plan just one A race, or two races but split over time, otherwise it would lead to excessive mental and physical pressure

Fingers crossed and different training plan in place and different nutrition off course and on course with high hopes of cracking it in the next attempt.

Ladakh Marathon Trip - Day 11 - Final Day - SriNagar to Hyderabad

• The last day of our trip had finally dawned, we had the plan of leaving the hotel at 11 AM, for our 3:40 PM flight.
• Since we didn't have much to look around that day, we had the plan, but we realized at the end of the day, it was quite right to board the flight, the experience continues
• Had our breakfast ordered and delivered to the lodge , nothing other than Aloo parantha, by then majority of us were already tired of aloo parantha, but quickly munched some and had some packed as well, and head out to airport on an Innova.
• We left the hotel at around 11:30 AM, couple of vans, headed to the airport, as we hear from our driver that there are some security checks which would take some time, hence it was good to start early.

 

STAGE 1

• Along our way, our driver stops at a check post, which is potentially the start of the security check, which literally means, we will have to unload our baggage, put it into a scanner, get ourselves through the security frisk and again load baggage back to our vehicle.
• We wait at the check post for the second van to arrive, spent close to half hour out there waiting, then we put our baggage onto security check and get out with our baggage and board the car again to be driven another close to a KM, we unload our baggage, and head to the entrance of the airport.
• The story begins here, with many of us having done enough international travels and enough domestic travels, didn't know what we are going to experience in there, were patiently waiting in a line to get inside the airport.

STAGE 2

• The queue for indigo was long, suddenly there were 3 branches, one of the cop comes makes it to 3 more queues, merging into 1, then you can imagine what to expect at that point.
• Enough quarrelling,  non comfy scenes, few NRI's visiting were really pissed off and speaking about rules and being diplomatic and what not, super chaos, we managed to get to the mood, into the quarrel mode and after 45 minutes of time, we get to the entrance gate, with some frisking we get in.

STAGE 3

• Now we get onto the yet another entry level Security check within the airport, that is as usual, normal, we get through and wait for our baggage on the other side
• The security guy would stamp security seal on some bags and not on some, we were arguing him to get the security seal done, but he wouldn’t.
• Gupta who was really challenged with 30 folks storming into the queue, he was way behind, we were there waiting for him to come, while the cops ask us to move on
• With gupta in, we head to the counters, to get our boarding passes,

STAGE 4

• We head to the Indigo counter and requesting for a group check in, managed to get all 9 of ours, with some confusion we get our boarding passes.
• Being confused some amarnath yatrees who had set his id cards into the check in baggage, our ticket issue was delayed, finally we get all our bags checked in and with our boarding passes we get in.
• While we walk along, one of the indigo folks stop us and say that we have to check in the baggage which are really our cabin baggage. Since it was sealed in the first security check, we again get there to check in those baggage again.
• We were really pissed off by then, I remember consistently doing a international transit at Heathrow airport in london with the whole family in 17 minutes, here it took 1.5 hours to get from outside of the airport to getting the boarding passes. Story is not over there

STAGE 5

• Now comes the real Security check which we typically have at the airports, we get through that, security guy demanding Security seal for water bottle which was in my cabin baggage, first time ever I hear such a weird rule.
• I was directed to the verification counter, I uncover the contents of my laptop bag, get the security seal done and again step into the airport, soon enough to be directed to a place where we have to identify our baggage again(So really ILLOGICAL), we did that stupid thing again, showing our baggage stickers and got it verified.
• That was another half hour job, totally for us to reach near to our gate of boarding it took 2 hours from outside the airport, the WORST every airport entry experience I have ever had.
• We were really tired and glad that all that stupid procedures are over, got something to drink for ourselves and set in for some group photos
• There was a cat running around and few birds chiping inside the airport near our seats :) people fighting for seats where there would come the so called air from the ducts, man… enough with that airport, NEVER AGAIN THERE.
• We were all wearing the Ladakh marathon t-shirt, to add fuel to our already tired souls, somebody asks which group of amarnath yatra you folks are…? , bad about the organizers to not even mention anything about the run, leave about mentioning half or full marathon.
• We board the flight, happy enough while our pilot announces that we are waiting to get the army clearance to take off, and that was another 25 minutes of wait on the runway.

 

• With our last leg of nonstop nonsense, we were mocking chatting, sharing experience in the airport and before we could realize we reach new delhi.
• Due to the delay, we were really close to get the next flight, we also wanted something to eat since most of were hungry, quickly grabbed some pizza and boarded our flights.
• After an hour and half we safely landed at hyderabad, collecting our bags, we step out of the airport, to our surprise, we had a grand welcome with a huge posted unfolded welcoming us back, all set up by Madhuri's sister and JB, sweet of you folks to welcome us with such an act.
• Waving bye to few of the folks we set on to our home, happy enough, contended about the trip.

 

• Truly a Memorable one! With the awesome Company of Hyderabad runners family, obviously with the co-operation and sacrifice from the respective families to let us out for 11 days!

Ladakh Marathon Trip - Day 10 - Kargil to SriNagar

• We set out early on, close to 6:15 AM, we have our tea and we start, with a plan to attempt at River Rafting, which our driver promised to get a rafting trip along our route to SriNagar
• Early on we had a pit stop, with some great solo snaps and scenic early morning sunrise pics, we cruise on again. With our principle of not taking too many stops, it worked out really well, not feeling the hardships that we had earlier in our trip.

 

• All were really drained I suppose, all were in their own slumber mode, had fun capturing the various poses of people in sleep mode :)
• We were sighting the burnt tents down in the valley where people were stationed for the amarnath yatra, that was signs of us nearing Sonomar, where the chopper ride and normal trek route starts for the Holy Amar
• We stopped at Sonomar for breakfast, this time we headed to the JK tourism hotel and had our large order done and waiting.

 

• While Gupta and Sridhar go to the enquiry desk there and started to enquire about chopper ride to amarnath, happy enough they came back with the news that there was chopper rides to amarnath in an hour's time and with a tentative plan to reach back sonomar by 3PM, with some initial hesitation, everybody agreed to take up the chopper ride except uday.
• We had our breakfast, dump all the luggage into a room at the JK center, with uday waiting to rest for some time and we head to the place where the chopper tickets were sold and would take off, which was close to 3 kms away.
• Within no time everybody reaches out to parents and get approvals and what not, all were really excited to the potential ride to Amarnath, but only after reaching there and enquiry did we know that there is no chance of getting a ticket immediately, and the return trip was not guaranteed to be on time.
• With all of us having the flights the next day, and with the certain plan of staying at the amarnath site over night, no body was ready, we all headed back to the room and loaded our luggages back to our van and we set out to our last option of a River rafting, Uday had a sudden change in plan, he had a flight at 4:30 PM that day, hence had to skip the rafting trip and took a ride on his own to the srinagar airport directly.
• Our driver Fareed rides for quite a while, to the extent that we ended up reminding him that he has to stop for a river rafting trip.
• In some time we reach a spot where we saw quite a few rafts being lined up, and close to 8 folks who have never done the ride before headed out for the rafting ride which was a 3 k sail, which potentially looked like a Rapid 2 ride

 

• We snap and record video of all our folks along the route of the sail, we stop at the end point, had enough snaps, all first timers enjoying it, get their clothes changed, and all were immediately set for lunch
• We again capture a hotel nearby and had a list of orders until everybody was really full, had a heavy lunch and there we go, close to 80k left to Srinagar.
• While many were into their slumber mode again, I started to collate all the photographs from every person, so that it would be easier to share to folks.

 

• As I finish my write up for the pending days, we sighted Dal lake again, a different view of dal lake on a sunny afternoon. We head to the same hotel where we went on our onward journey.
• Everybody freshens up  in an hour's time we head out to the srinagar town, to get some shopping done, we walked towards the zero point bridge, take a bus to Lal chowk, started our stroll along the streets
• For all obvious reasons, locals could sense the tourists, there are enough people by your side along while you walk, asking if we need shawls, dry fruits, and other authentic local produce
• We stop at the dry fruits shop, enquire for quite a bit, and start our purchase spree of black current, almonds, dry garlic and almost every one item in the store :)
• We walked a bit more, looking out for sweet shop, our second group arrived and were clearing out the dry fruit shop.
• We head into JK handicrafts only to realize that all the items are marked up 100 to 200% as opposing to the local shops, quickly we enquire and head towards the sweet shop to taste the so called Rasagolla which few of our group members were bragging about.
• We had a sudden change in plan head out to an exhibition near dal lake, we head there in an auto, purchased few local made handicrafts and stuffs and we went in search of a nice hotel to dine at.
• Soon we settle in a hotel, which seemed to be best around, we were on our last stretch of eating spree, we ate so much for close to a bill of 6k for 11 folks, we ate so much and still had something left over to pack enough.
• Not a single soul was ready to walk back to the hotel, we hitch on auto and all set back to our hotel rooms, only enough energy left to change clothes and hit our beds

Ladakh Marathon Trip - Day 9 - Trip Back to Kargil

• This was the day which many were really not wanting to come, for couple of reasons, the awesome time at ladakh was getting over and travel back by road via kargil again to Srinagar.
• Man… the onward journey was so tedious, that we longed for the drive to end at times, but the return road trip was not bad as expected
• With all bags loaded up, we graduated from Xylo to Tempo traveller :) all piled up and here we go, declaring the start of another window seat fighting saga :)

 

• We stopped at the Magnetic Hill, the name given to that section on the road where there is Zero Gravitational force, with Gear in neutral, our Van with 13 people in it, started to roll UP Hill, that was an unique experience.
• We briefly stop for breakfast, with almost everybody limping or being tired, most of them were asleep, I was busy documenting the day's happenings all along the route.
• Our saga of emptying the shops along the way continues, we stopped for lunch at a place, where we ran out of Maggi packets, people wouldn't stop, rajma chaval, Bread Jam left over from previous day, were all emptied and everyone of us were really loaded with food :)

 

• With the way we were cruising along the route, except for 2 stops, we were set for a early reach at Kargil, we again go to the Army Workshop, where we had our accommodation set.
• We had high tea, with some snacks prepared by the cook at the army canteen, and dinner preferences being given, we thought of getting out for a while, roam around.
• We went to the army CSD canteen, to get some army patterned tshirts and some other supplies, then we went on to the Plateau Baba Temple

 

• Unique name! Isn't it, brief story about the temple was , When there were firings exchanged at Kargil during Operation Vijay, a noble soul, who was called Baba, kind of emphasized to build a temple there with shrines of Shiva, stating that it would safeguard the whole place
• As said, they set up a temple and not a single bomb landed in that particular plateau, following which folks started to believe in this guy and post his time the Army has taken over and full time Army havildar is acting as a poojari, performing daily Pooja.

 

• We were offered some dry fruits and each a cup of tea, that a good gesture from that poojari, from my experience with this guy and the folks at the Line of Control where we went, they were really longing…. To meet and exchange their views and talk with more people.
• Truly salute those souls stationed out there, and the pain they go through by their Solitude and also the risk and the extreme weather those folks go through.
• We went out to our dramatic Kabab venturing into the town of Kargil, only to realize that there were enough varities of non vegetarian kababs. With multiple order and cancellation, we finally settle with one small pack of kabab. With few requests from folks on the van to walk around the streets of kargil, it was all dramatic, finally we sneak away from the spot in some time.

 

• While we went back to the army camp, we saw Captain Manish playing Volley Ball, with his whole team.
• With our experience of playing volleyball during our onward journey, we were more interested to play again, that too with the army folks.
• Quickly we change our attire, we headed to the volleyball court. I was immediately offered a spot in the team of manish.  The guy whom I played with earlier, knowing about me playing, graciously offered a spot :)
• Manish was so furious already, demanding his team to play proper passes , but unfortunately he was kicking the ball more so often.
• While I moved to the front line, manish sighted me and was briefly enquiring me about the race. The irony being he advised the whole HR team to not run and would face serious problems if we tried to push ourselves and run a 42k.
• I so badly wanted to go tell him that we all finished and that too in great times, which I literally blurted out to him on face, saying "Opposing to your views, we all finished strong with great times". He was kind of in his amused mood to just take my comment.
• Playing 5 games, the only thing that stood in my mind was the way Leaders behave in Army Vs Corporates, The way the captain was commanding his team and he behaving his own way, was something that I couldn't just not avoid commenting on.
• We played till we could see the ball until around 7 or so, then had a quick shower in that damn cold water, with a stick in hand to woo away the dogs… :)
• Had a great planned dinner, the fortunate Non-Vegetarians had their feast while veggies had to be contended with some carrot and beans :(
• With the intervention of our teacher taking disciplinary action on the whole team we were forced to hit our bed early :), with an ambitious plan of starting early by 5:30 AM. Again swooshing the dogs, many we realized there were easily around 30 dogs around the place where we had our rooms, so scary…