Ambivalent forerunners

We were four runners and it all began with a plan to do a recce of the route for a future group run in Lonavala, on the road leading to Amby Valley - and that' the origin of the title:-). So we piled into my car on Sunday and set out at 6am with our kit-bag comprising a change of clothes, towel, umbrella, electrolyte and of course, I carried my hip-flask for good measure:-) We stopped for a snack on the way because Amit complained about rumbles in his stomach. The snack was an expensive one costing Rs 20/- per Idli!! Well, it is the most expensive pre-run carboloading any of us had ever done.

We reached Bushy Dam and pulled into a wayside restaurant that offered pay-n-park. A quick check on water, belt-bag and vaseline, and we set out at a canter. As it turned out, the first four kms were a steep and winding climb; something like what you see when you do the Ghats on the Bombay-Goa road. While Amit and Raj seemed to float up this tortuous path, Ashok and I could barely shuffle even as we heard each other' raspy exhalations. I wondered whether, after the two loops at Aarey yesterday, I was set to disappoint the group. After an eternity the road levelled out a bit and I felt my "groove" set in. We were now running in wispy clouds that seemed to kiss the road and the adjoining meadows. The air that seemed to be below its "Dew-point" shed its cool moisture on our damp bodies; pure bliss suffusing our being, allowing us to shift gears a notch upwards. It was heavenly in every sense of the word. I quickened pace to catch up with Amit and Raj. We were now cruising along and the wayside eateries had hordes of girls and guys watching us in awe. I'm sure they had never seen people come to Lonavala to "torture" themselves, cause that' what they surely felt from the expressions on their faces. Raj' skimpy shorts elicited hoots from the girls as well as the guys:-)

After about 50 mins we stopped to allow Ashok to catch up so that we could check on his Garmin for the distance we'd done. He announced that we were at 8.16K and that was the plan; to do a loop of 16K and then allow runners to do it twice, if required. But our ultramarathonman, Amit had other plans:-) He coolly suggested, "Lets keep going and do at least 10K" and in a lower whisper to me, "Chalo, Amby Valley tuck jayenge":-) I gave him a looney look because AV measured 17K from where we started and he was certainly not suggesting that we do 34K! I realized he meant it when spotted an ST bus coming towards us and suggested, "Why don't we go up to AV and return in an ST bus?".

We reached what we thought was 10.15K but there was a lot of confusion as to whether Ashok' Garmin was accurate. We turned around now and the going was a lot easier. Amit and I were now flying at close to 5:15 mins/km and he seemed to quicken pace everytime he got an uphill:-) At one point, he turned and said, "I don't feel a thing and I can keep going for hours!". I had to agree because despite doing a close to tempo pace, my RPE was just 5, after 15K of running with steep uphills. We managed to shave off quite a few minutes on the return leg and met up again in the car park feeling as Arthur Lydiard puts it, "comfortably exhausted". A quick change of clothes and we settled in the restaurant to eat a breakfast of egg omlette, Poha and mixed bhajias.

On the way back, Raj stopped and brought back some beers to share with Amit and an Apple juice for Ashok. I emptied my hip flask into my "Gatorade" bottle, added some dilution and settled in. Time flew by with inane banter to the accompaniment of songs from Bee Gees, Eagles and finally R D Burman, to which Amit seemed to feel that, "Jaam mein dub gayi hai yaaron mere, jeevan ki har shaam". It was time to say "See ya" and shake hands a tad too vigorously, as each runner got off. All in all, a memorable (nay trancendental) run. Cheers!