Tale of the run by muscleontherun

An apportunity grabbed with both my hands and legs. Marathon distance has not struck me yet but very well up for it. Until then, excelling at shorter distance pace is also a well groomed agenda on my mind. Had all the pleasure and sweet pain of being Half Marathon Pacer at one of the most renowned runs in the country - The Tata Mumbai Marathon that had come to life after a long gap due to reasons known well to all - Covid. I have been running the shorter distance format at TMM and did attempt a full marathon too on my journey back in to running post the disc bulge recovery. But since then, it is just one thing on my mind i.e going that extra mile. Nevertheless, quite elated to be back in Mumbai and especially when you represent TMM as a official pacer, you tend to sign up to do all the heavy lifting to ensure your bus helps your fellow runners reach the finish line in the promised time and pictures below will exactly tell what it lead to - The Picture Purrfecct Gallery...

A short stint to begin the year 2023 and restrospect all the learnings from the runs done in 2022 especially when the goal is to make it to UTMB trails events across the globe in the coming years, a step back was necessary. To begin with, I can vouch for Jumping Gorilla trail run to be a apt platform to put your trainings to test and work on the imperfections. Hands down, the route calls out for abundance of strength and conditioning regimes. It's just not the climb but also the hot weather that tests your hydration profile and nutrition intake during the run.  And yet another reason for doing The Jumping Gorilla Run is that it's ITRA certified and a qualifier for Ultra Trail du Mont Hence the need to hit these trails gets equally important. With not much stress of doing a a shorter run this time, I tried to be much relaxed and the only fact that kept me on my toes is waking up in the wee hours to attend the 5:30am start on the hill. I was up for it rega...