The Satara Hill Half Marathon 2024-Truly Special

As I waited for someone to tend to my cramping legs in the recovery zone, I shut my eyes. And in those few moments, I relived my entire journey at the Satara Hill Half Marathon since 2017. Realising how long and beautiful the journey had been and that I had finally achieved something I dreamt of 7 years ago, overwhelmed me and set those tears flowing. "Tears of joy", they are called. They were more like tears of pride. 

Happy faces!!!

The race in 2023 would have been my last visit to Satara. At least that is what I had thought. In 2022, I had reached within 4 minutes of the goal I had set for myself, the elusive Hill Champion Medal which is awarded to whoever finishes within 2 hours of the race getting flagged off. Pretty much like major athletic events, the medal is yellow, indicating the GOLD associated with a win. My 3 visits prior had all resulted in the same Hill Conqueror, Silver medal. In 2022 it was close enough to believe that I was on the home stretch. But cut across to 2023, something did not seem right. My buddy and training partner from Borivali national park got the Gold but I languished, finishing 4 minutes slower than 2022. Another Silver! 

This Silver came with a sense of disappointment. What had gone wrong? I had trained well  and even had a good strategy on the brutally long uphill slopes. I was in pretty good shape. I could have definitely done better. In the next few months, I figured out that it was all residual negativity in my mind which was coming out in weird ways. Negativity owing to disappointment with my marathon finish in 2023. Such terrible negativity that I was barely able to pick up speed on the downhills. I was berating myself as I ran and all the negative thoughts bouncing around in my head amplified into some sort of a monster. But thankfully in the months after the race, I managed to discover my lost mojo. The fun of running which had kept me hooked to the sport was back! And the results showed. I ran a beautiful half marathon at the Tata Mumbai Marathon, setting my personal best on that route. That boosted my confidence and I paced the 2 hours bus at the Juhu Half Marathon in February. Wow!! Such an amazing journey it already had been. From dreaming to finish a half marathon in less than 2 hours, to being confident of helping others get that time was a huge achievement! Come April, it was time to register for the Satara Hill Half Marathon again and to get what I had been trying to get since I first set my sights on it back in 2017, the Hill Champion Gold!

The registration process was a little chaotic, but it showed the spirit of the race organizers. Their spirit of accountability, owning up to issues and looking for a solution was commendable! This year I booked a hotel room as soon as the pre-registration was done, to make amends for the mistake I had repeated every time I had visited Satara in the past. Come May, my visits to Mumbai's best place to run i.e. Borivali National Park got regular. The gradual ramp up of easy mileage, elevation, etc commenced. Cut to August 2024, I had put together a much better structure to my weekly mileage with good intense work on the hills to compliment the regular easy miles on varying terrain. I tapered well and during that phase I could see how much fitter and faster I was than the same time in 2023. 

We reached Satara on the Saturday before raceday, with a halt at my in-laws' place, with my nieces giving me a good deal of entertainment and laughter. The hotel rooms were nice and some simple food provided enough carbs which would fill up our glycogen reserves. Our group of 8 set about preparing our gear, fuel, etc on Saturday night. While most people were busy setting things up for a photo for social media, I felt a strange sort of calmness. No stressing about social media, no scrolling WhatsApp groups or other chats, just spending some time by myself. This year I was in Satara with my dearest friend (my sister) in my corner I had trained well for this race, better than ever before and I was in an amazing frame of mind. This was destined to be my best race at Satara!

The A-team at the expo

On race-day morning, everything was lovely. I woke up laughing at my room-mate's alarm. I fuelled myself well. And we had a comfortable ride to the holding area. Post warm-up, there was chaos leading up to the holding areas. The national anthem audiovisual had a glitch, which meant that we sang the national anthem, reminding me of those beautiful days in school. The clock ticked and the moment it hit 6:30am, it was time to run. Being in section A, close to the start line meant I crossed the start timing mat pretty quickly. Remembering all the little details of the route, I was cautious to take the first kilometre easy with its 40m of incline. I settled into a rhythm immediately and picked up the pace in the second and third kilometre which had gentle helpings of rolling hills very similar to my favourite route in Borivali National Park. The weather was cloudy meaning a good deal of humidity, but there was no sun beating down on us nor a drop of rain. The perspiration was on in full flow. 

On the way UP

The fourth kilometre was where the highlight of this race began. The long slope which never seems to get over had commenced. And the moment I set foot on the hill, I felt different. I felt I was gliding up the slope. I was not expending too much energy and still managing to keep a reasonable pace on the hill. I was ahead of the 2 hours pacers but I knew that I could follow the strategy they had shared for the slope. With a few short and deliberate walk breaks, I kept myself fresh and reached the famous waterfall point. I met a couple of photographer friends at that point who had come down from Mumbai to shoot the race. And within a few more minutes, the big hill was over. I was as fresh as a daisy. I munched my fuel and set off on the next third of the race which had rolling hills and the most enthusiastic crowds I have ever experienced. The live music stations were belting some of my favourite high energy songs which I was able to sing along with them, all the while running at a pace which was a distant dream back in 2017. I reached the u-turn point in 1 hour and 4 minutes, giving me a little over 55 minutes to get to the finish line. I enjoyed the atmosphere, the breeze, the scenery. I was going quite rapidly, and I was also being kind to myself by taking a few steps of walks on the 2-3 moderately large uphills on the section. Then came my friend. Gravity!

The rolling third of the race

I had run the 11th kilometre with its down and up profile in just a tick over 5 minutes. I was confident that I would fly down the hill. And that is exactly what happened. I was effortlessly cruising down the hill, barely looking at my watch but when it buzzed, I was seeing the figures which had eluded me in 2023. At the 15k mark, I said something to myself about time remaining and how I could even crawl to the finish in that much time which boosted my confidence to go quicker. By the time I realised the calculation mistake, I had crossed another kilometre. I was feeling happy that my maths wasn't too good. I could feel the difference this year. The downhill had me rolling down, not pushing but flying down at the pace at which I had set my 5k PB earlier in the year. 17 down, 4.1km to go!!

Excited to fly down!!!!

Once the ghat was done, we re-entered the city and the locals were out in full force. The kids were dishing out high-fives, oldies were clapping to express their support and music stations meting out some energetic tunes on the rolling route. After 18km of efforts, I could feel my calf muscles cramping a little. I told them, "Great job so far my dear calf muscles, we just have a short distance to go after which you'll get a massage". They happily obliged. My hamstrings gave a little cramp-like feel and I told them the same thing. And Voila!! I was back at Powai Naka, less than a kilometre from the finish line, with a 40m decline leading up to the line. I met a person on the route with whom I had a common friend who skipped the race. He said that they were both hoping to get a sub-2 finish at Satara, but I was stepping in for the missing friend. I told him that we can get a great finish line shot together. Discussing this, we reached 100 metres to go board and entered the police parade ground. The finishing arch stood there with the time showing 8:27 and a few seconds. We went on and finished in 1:57 and some seconds, well within the cut-off for the Gold which had eluded me on my last 4 attempts. 

Same place, 2018 v/s 2024

I was thrilled! I was screaming my lungs out in excitement on crossing the line! I hugged whoever I met, just thrilled that I had finally done it on the fifth attempt, with a shiny new medal adorning my neck. In my excitement to get the 5-times finisher medal, I ran across to that point, took the medal, and post around half an hour in the recovery zone headed off to meet my cheerleader-in-chief to celebrate. I had finally done it! Now I can proudly say, that I was a Hill Champion, after having conquered the demons in my own mind!