Report: Kaveri Trail Marathon (KTM) 2013 Half Marathon

I got to see all the killer full marathon runners in action – Rachel Carter, Siddharth Bahuja, Siddesha Hanumanthapa. I saw Nagaraj at a distance and he was running with tape on his knee. He had hurt himself on a pothole. I met Shreyas, he was the only one who asked me to take it easy, maybe because he is the one person who knows that if I could push, I would already be pushing.

Then I saw Dharma with his warm smile and super energy. On the sidelines there was Aishwarya and Mike cheering on the runners – the energy was superb!

Once I crossed the finish line, I went on to go and congratulate the winners and then headed towards the stretching area. All the runners congregated there and we had a great time. Energy was high, the endorphin was pumping. We waited for the prize distribution, and had a quick bite to eat.

As the food went in and the chemical composition of the body returned to normal, I suddenly felt very tired and sleepy. I missed Ankush the most at this run since he is the one person who can always put things in perspective for me. I requested Sri Ram to drop me back at the hotel. As soon as I reached there, I fell asleep and woke up a couple hours later to a burning temperature, which still continues.

It was really heartening to see some healthy participation in terms of sheer numbers at this event. The KTM is easily one of the most scenic routes around the country as well as one of the toughest. The weather gods were kind enough to bestow the runners with a cloudy and relatively relaxed day on the trail.

The bullock carts, and sugarcane bundles along the trail only added to the flavour of the rustic trail experience. The aid stations were adequately stocked with the required eletrolytes, water, salt, sugar, fruit reserves, Volini etc which would be required by the runners.

The medical tent was adequately stocked and there were doctors who were on the trail running amongst the participants which provided the participants with mental peace. RFL has been organising this event for the last 6 years. 15th September 2013, saw them organise the 7th edition of this race and they did it in style. Kudos to you RFL. Keep doing what you are doing and in the trademark style – love it and will keep coming back for more.

Some learning from this event – read the signs! As a runner and an athlete you must listen to your body. Ample rest is important and when the body demands downtime, it is important to provide it with the rest that it is asking you for. There is no point in pushing a badly serviced vehicle – you can drive it and it will even take you from point A to point B, but the performance will be affected. So now, the resting and recovering mode to be followed by hard training to bounce back stronger and faster.