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Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Great Tibetan marathon finish & start line pictures


I ran the entire marathon with the hat. It would have been impossible to run without it (caps are just not good enough, you need total protection, plus ofcourse a good pair of sun glasses). The sun was very harsh, thanks to the high altitude and clear sky (there is zero atmospheric dust).


We were given Medals immediately after we crossed the finishline, which made things really special. My whole body was aching thanks to the hammering from the terrain & the mid-day sun.



Detailed Leh map (not to scale)


The start line at Hemis monastery



The finish line at stok monastery. Me along with Jiten (from organising team), Sandeep & Nagarajan



4 comments:

ipmallya said...

Hey cool pics.Such lovely ambience. Seems a lovely place to be in.
I wonder what material was ur t and ze shorts made of?
Was there a problem in breathing ..what precautions did u take to breathe ,to run(during) the marathon.
does one consume anything but water during the run?
did u sprint in the beginning or midway or at the end?
Duh..sorry so many questions!ipm

@GirishMallya said...

My pleasure. I was wearing typical dri-fit great, one that absorbs sweat & then quickly lets it evaporate, keeping things dry.

During the marathon I did not face any breathing problems as such, though uphills were a big effort. Just did a few practice runs, for three days before the marathon (but these were 3-5km runs, nothing much). Did face a loss of appetite on certain days, mind fever on a couple of days & mild headache on the third day in Leh.

One needs a lot more than water during any marathon, esp. something like this. I had Powergel, carbo gel, one for every hour of the run, it was very useful. I had gatorade & some energy drink arranged by the organisers, in addition to water.

I did sprint towards the end, did not dare to do it anytime before that, too risky (42km is a really long distance).

ipmallya said...

Hey thanks for the prcise details! I do admire ur clarity.My it seems it is not as easy as it sounds to run a marathon! Needs so much of preparation and monitoring and self discilpine.But i guess as u go along it becomes a habit and no more a chore.
Once again i appriciate ur lifestyle.ALL THE BEST FOR THE FUTURE. IPM.

Anonymous said...

Lovely pics! So colorful - just like Gujarat/Rajasthan. Thanks for sharing. You looked quite relaxed for all the beating you took thanks to the high altitude/sun -cool!
-GM