BACKGROUND
CapitalTrails was conceived when Kshitish Purohit and I decided to connect Delhi and Gurgaon (now Gurugram) via trails. This grew into a bigger TrailConnect project - to connect different forest areas of Delhi NCR. We created a 35 km loop connecting the forests of Delhi closer to the city - The Nilgai City Trail. During this time, it took us 2 (maybe 3) years to finally complete the 90+ km loop - The Nilgai Forest Trail. While we had covered all the trails in sections, the full loop had not been attempted.
THE RUN
3 of us - Kshitish, Neetu and I - started at 4:44 AM. Sang, one of the best sports photographers I know, also came to the start to capture the moments. His passion is amazing and he has been a big supported of our projects. The 3 of us set-off on a "pleasant" spring morning!
The first hour was with a headlamp. It was nice to run through Sanjay Van and see the city from the Lalkot wall at night, something I always wanted to do! Asola Wildlife Section was beautiful, with the Palash blooming. Neetu started to struggle, so I walked with her till the next aid station. By the time we got to Pali, we were 45-60 mins. behind schedule.
Kshitish and I carried on. A 10-min pit stop at The Crashpad Mangar to use the restroom was super helpful! On the way to Panikot, Kshitish started to cramp. We enjoyed our time at Panikot and moved up the hill. I was on a sugar high and feeling great at the half way mark. It was a long walk with Kshitish to Damdama, where he called quits (probably a wise choice knowing the heat stroke risk this time of the year - these trails heat up!).
Damdama to the Dome was fairly smooth. Navigation - making sure I take the exact trail per .gpx file - slowed me down (as the splits show), but I was feeling strong. It was only the road section from Dome that sapped the energy out of me -- The traffic and the noise from it was not fun. Most likely, it was the heat that restricted fueling and overheated the body despite my best efforts. Meeting Divya and Arjun helped rescue the situation as they brought much needed food and cold water to replenish my body and soul.
Wazirabad-Chakarpur Bandh was a struggle, mostly because the body tightened up after the 20-25 minute pit-stop. The road section to Aravalli Biodiversity Park (ABD), Gurgaon was mentally hard. After a long watermelon feast at the entrance of ABD Gurgaon, energy was restored as we were back in the quiet and on trails. The sun was also going down, which made it easier and visually beautiful.
At this moment, I could've pushed here for a sub 14 hour time, but this run was never about time. I was enjoying the trails too much and just wanted to relish the experience. Meeting the crew / CapitalTrails community members at different moments of the last 10 kms (6 mi) was fun. The final road section, especially around JNU was not nice but I persevered through.
Kshitish, Ashwin, Sang and Narendran had gathered around the finish and it was nice to have a mini-celebration with them.
Details videos of key sections can be found here.
Hope this helps inspire more people in India to create and attempt unsupported / self-supported / supported FKTs. It is only by these efforts that we can help diversify the beautiful gifts of our sport, beyond races, on road or even better, on trail!
ROUTE UPDATES
We made minor changes to the original 90 km route, primarily to bypass the tourist centre at Asola Wildlife area. This has added about 4-5 km to the route. The same has been updated FKT website.
Route is good for the most part except for the below mentioned possible blockage issues:
- Exit gate out of Sanjay Van (Qutub Minar side) maybe locked if one starts too early.
- Had to jump a fence / gate at the start of the Tilpath area. Other gates at Tipath were latched, but not locked; hence, a non-issue.
- Entry to Asola Wildlife Area can be an issue, though wasn't the case on our effort.
- Aravalli Biodiversity Park, Gurgaon gate towards the trail section was locked. Fortunately, a guard was stationed there, who kindly opened the gate for us. We had contacted the authorities managing the park prior and those attempting this FKT should do so as well.
- One has to enter the gate of Aravalli Biodiversity Park, Delhi before closing hours.
THE BEST RUN
Most of my running projects / FKTs / ultra marathons have been solo or a 2/3 person effort, all with the intention on being self-reliant, as much as possible. CapitalTrails Community members volunteered to support us despite the short notice. Credit to Kshitish for coordinating with everyone as I'm not used to asking for help. There were so many acts of kindness on this effort!
- Vivek, who we never bet before, set-up an incredible aid station at Pali. He later met me on Sunset Boulevard and helped me fuel with watermelons, which were the saviour of my day!
- Arjun and Divya met me at the start of Chakarpur Bandh, when I was overheating. They got me litres of cold water, fed me home made khichdi and sent me off with positive reinforcements.
- Ashwin, Sang and Kshitish joined me in different sections of the last 10 kms, which was super nice!
Most importantly, it was so lovely to see everyone invested and committed to the common goal. Their energy and enthusiasm was deeply felt and it was certainly a boost in getting to the finish. Touching the gate to close the loop was celebrated by all of us. This was a deeply moving as I consider these pursuits as a "self-absorbing" endeavours to reinforce our egos. Hence, I'm not one of big celebrations and glamorizing "achievements" that are "meaningless" to the overall good in the World. So, it was nice to have others who felt otherwise and enjoy the moment.
This is a Community FKT. I was simply the lucky person who got to share it with everyone, not only the ones who supported us, but with the entire CapitalTrails and All In Running Community.
May this inspire others to have this experience!