Running, the New Religion.

'Run', is a new religion, and the list of devotees is increasing by the day, from the likes of Ambanis and Somans to the Aam admi, all have found the road to salvation….by running on it.

From being a religion to being a pill, the metaphors for running are endless. This Pill, at the Physical level not only add years to your life but on the psychological level also known to add life to your years, a drug that is known to give a ‘ Runners High’ & the list goes on.

Running community has moved far beyond running, They go on picnics and treks, have their Annual Runners Awards, Flash their logo’s on t-shirts, celebrate birthdays. Running has become a small microcosm.

It has spawned a big industry for the marathon organizers, to groups training for marathon run, individual trainers, energy drinks, shoes, online payment portals, website development, social media etc.

Running  is the most economical as well as the most expensive sport to indulge in.

The only equipment one requires is a good pair of shoes, but these days even one can bypass them as Barefoot running has become a fad. At the other end of the spectrum, runners are splurging huge amount of money in travelling places, national as well as international to gather unique running experiences. Indians in large numbers have started travelling to South Africa, Europe, America to participate in marathons.

A friend ended up spending close to 1.75 lakhs to run the ultimate human race, The Comrades in South Africa, that is a whopping Rs. 2000/- per km of run.

Running has gone way beyond the traditional 42.2 km Marathon, Ultra Marathon where the distances are in excess of 50km are regularly being organized. Runners participating in 80km, 100km,160km in destinations like the Rann of Kutch or Ladakh is increasing day by day. Recently a group from India completed the Brazil Ultra,135 miles. 

Thus Running & Tourism has given rise to TOU'RUN'ISM, a phenomeneon where people travel  large distances to RUN.

The best part about marathon running is that you compete with none other but yourself, therefore it fosters fantastic camaraderie amongst the runners as every one encourages each other to beat their own previous records to achive their PB’s, Personal Best.

Infact unlike other sports, your performance in running increases with age, one will find the veterans and super veterans leaving their young counterparts way behind in this endurance sport.

 Mumbai has emerged to be the Running capital of the country, thanks to the Mumbai marathon. If we refer to the Annual Running calendar, Mumbai Hosts maximum number of Running  events than any other city in the country.

Marathon is not new to our country or the state of Maharashtra. Pune International marathon has been successfully being organized since 1983. But the watershed event in the history of running happened in2004 with the start of Mumbai marathon. Since a decade of its existence, it has revolutaionised running in our country.  Running has become a religion to most avid runners and running in the Mumbai marathon is like going on a annual pilgrimage. New Temples of running have started emerging in the country in cities like Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi, Banglore, Satara, Surat etc & visiting them atleast once to pay obeisance to this fitness diety.Here you do not stand in a Q, but run  a distance, offering is not flowers, but your sweat & the blessings are not a pot of gold, but a smile of being a finisher and the ‘Prasad ‘proudly hangs on your neck, the Finishers Medal.

Matheran : My Story.

                   Matheran : My Story.

'As a mountain I am a million year old but as a Hill station around 160 yrs'. said the imposing figure.
Standing around 800 mt. tall and 7 sq.km wide at the top, I have always played a second fiddle to my elder brother, the big and powerful.....Mahabaleshwar.

'Born out of the womb of mother earth by the hot juices coming out from the core, we have been the most imposing and challenging relief feature on the planet' added the imposing figure
I was like any other mountain, unchartered, wild, rugged and a challenge to mankind till around 200 yrs ago, till the time i was discovered, tamed and ultimately named...Matheran Hill Station.

This is my story......

In 1850 Mr. Hugh Pointz Malet,a young British Civil servant was appointed as a Collector of Thane. When he and his team were camping around Chowk village, his eyes fell on this imposing mountain.
With the help of a local guide and a lot of efforts he reached the top from the point which is currently named as ' One Tree Hill'.
Malet returned a few months later and spent around a month in a self constructed hut.

On his third visit in 1851, he was accompanied by his friend Capt. Barr and it was during this visit he built the first Bunglow,which is currently housed in the Hotel Byke campus.

'But the true domestication process started when the main' Rope of development' was tied around me, the Road in 1855 and the Railway in 1907'he adds with a shrug.
The road was constructed at the cost of Rs. 10,000/- and the railway in 1907 at a cost of Rs. 16,00,000/-by the mony donated by Sir  Adamji Peerbhoy.
Since then Matheran has been serving mankind as a Honeymoon destination, Trekking route,Summer resort etc.



...To be continued.

Orogeny : The art of Mountain Building.

                Orogeny : The art of Mountain Building.

'Who build the Mountains', asked the small  kid to his father while building the one himself on the beach.
'Mother Earth' replied the father after some thought.
Everything that we see on the earth, mountains, plateaus, valleys etc are built by the forces that come from within the earth.
'let's go home and i will show you how mother earth built its mountains' said the father.
'Get me a thick table cloth' he said and put it on the table.
After placing the cloth nicely on the table, he placed his both the hands on the table at a little distance from each other.
Slowly he started to move his hands closer to each other, 'Dad, the cloth is getting folded between your two hands, exclaimed the kid.
That's how the earth has built the mountains, explained the father, the folds and the crumples that happened to the table cloth as both my hands came closer are the same forces responsible for building some of the highest and longest mountain chain's in the world.

Interior of Earth is very hot and no one really knows what is there inside, the expansion and contraction due to heat leads to some sudden movements, which we call as earthquakes and some slow movements, which takes million of years to show results.
Orogeny or orogenetic forces ( Oros in greek means the Mountain & genesis is the origin) are those slow moments which are horizontal  & convergent in nature and responsible for the great mountain ranges like the Mighty Himalayas, Rockies of North America, Andes of S. America.

The Interior of the earth is broadly into 3 parts, viz: the Crust, Mantle and the Core.

There exist a partially molten layer called as Asthenosphere in between the Crust and the Mantle. The large pieces of crust ,called as 'Plates' are belived to be floating on this partially molten asthenosphere.
In some places these Plates are moving away from each other and in some places they are converging & colliding against each other. The areas of collision are the areas of Mountain Building.

Great things are done when Men & Mountain Meet,

                               &

GREAT MOUNTAINS ARE BUILT WHEN TWO PLATES CONVERGE TO MEET.

'

The Story of, How the Man met the Mountain.

The concept of organizing a Mountain Meet has a unique origin.

We were contemplating of starting a Horse Riding Training Academy at this quaint and peaceful location of Matheran as one of our Ecofolks  member was trained in Riding at the National Defense Academy, Pune.
So we started our recce at Matheran ,talking to people, planning the logistics, creating a package for all the townies looking out for a adventure weekend.
In the mean time we got to know about a symposium that was being organised for the mountain fraternity at a suburban place of Mulund. So without invitation we landed at the place and were a meek witness ,as the event unfolded .
In one of the presentations the speaker made a passing reference to quote by the famous British Poet & writer Mr. William Blake, which said,' Great things are done when Men & Mountain Meet'.

Today when we look back, the passing reference of the quote is what triggered the process of Man & Mountain Meet. We had a name before the baby could be conceived, now the challenge was to build the baby around the name.
Then started the real challenge of building the event around the Flashy name ' Man & Mountain Meet'.
 We were looking out for a strong foundation to anchor this event when we figured out that United Nations has declared 11th Dec as International Mountains Day since 2003, and we all were happily oblivious of the fact.
The sudden 'Eureka' discovery gave us confidence that there is some substance in our thoughts...... Man & Mountain Meet is POSSIBLE.

The skeleton was ready, but we felt the spine was missing, something that will make us stand out of the crowd.
So again we put our heads togeather and allowed our thoughts to run wild.' Why cant we organise a marathon at Matheran? asked one of us, and we could call it  The MATHE-RUN, added another.

The idea sounded intresting as nobody had done such a thing before.' We can organise the toughest 10k race in the world, Neral to Matheran.

WE HAD FOUND OUR SPINE....

' Have any one of us run a Marathon before' I asked and I could see the blankness in everyones eyes.Then how would we know how difficult it would be running uphill on a treacherous course like the Neral - Matheran, where some of the hair-pin bends can give hair raising experience to the  most competent drivers, driving the best machines.
'Lets talk to the people who are into to Running, and try to identify someone who has run on this course'. added our friend.

The first telephone call was made to our dear friend Mr. Sham Lata, Sham was into running since a long time and was a SCMM vetran,having run all their races. ' I will RUN the Mathe RUN' he added and sounded very positive about the concept.

Our second lead was Mr. Kamal Kothari, an active, ecology conscious member of the Morning walkers group of SGNP. We knew Kamal since a year when we had met him at Enviro Inter School Drama Event, where he had come to see his daughter perform and we were there as organisers.

The second meeting was with Mr. Kaushik Panchal.
 Kaushik , a runner himself, had a chance meeting with us a years back at the office of the Director of Sanjay Gandhi National Park.We were waiting to meet Mr. Limaye, the Dynamic Director of SGNP, when Kaushik landed there .Kaushik was one of the organizers of the BNP ( Borivali National Park) Half Marathon and had come there to seek permission for the next edition of BNP Marathon.
Kaushik was more than eager to share with us his experience of organising a marathon, he shared a couple of numbers and landed us one important catch that we were searching for.

Dr. Oak,is the only runner who practices on the course regularly that we were planning to hold our Mathe-RUN,  The Neral - Matheran strech . To all the runners who we had spoken before, none had tried this section, therefore Dr. Oak's contact was like a god sent one.
A late evening phone call to his clinic in Dombivali, and Dr. Oak was on line. After exchange of pleasantries and hearing me out, he added ' I run Comrades and the only place where one can practise for such a grueling race is Matheran'. During our 15 min talk he made a passing reference to a women who he had once accompanied on that course and did 2 laps of the course.
This Super women, we were to meet on some other occasion sometimes later....

While surfing on FB,  we happened to open a page of one gentleman, The timeline photo showed a bald man with white handlebar mustache,standing tall than the other two with a Hyderabad Marathon bachdrop.

Giles Drego.....fortunately had posted his number on the page.The next moment there was a heavy voice at the other end of the line.We explained to him about our concept and sought his appointment.' Come tomorrow at 6pm at a coffee bar on the carter rd. and be there by 6 and dont give any excuses of being late like stuck in traffic etc'.We happily agreed.'You have to treat me for a coffee' he further added.
The next day at 5.50pm we called Giles ' Sir, we are extremely sorry, coz we will be late for the same reason that you warned us against, we are stuck in traffic at kalanagar junction since last 40 minutes, we can only make it by 6.30pm'.
We were leaving a bad first impression and were expecting a negative answer. 'OK' came a mellow voice from the other end,'But we can meet for only half an hour as you are late by 30 minutes'.
At 8.15pm when we finally shook hands we had concluded the marathon meeting session of 1hr 45min.and a promise to meet soon over a couple of beer's.

One morning a message on my phone from a unknown number saying that he has received my number from Kaushik Panchal and would like to meet, as he is also in the process of organising a RUN in Mumbai for the first time.
Mr. Sujit Jadhav, a Chartered Accountant & working with Bank of America had taken up a project as a part of Landmark foundation to start a community engaging activity. He was in the process of organising an event at Aarey Colony and felt that we were travelling in the same boat.
' Let's ore our boat togeather through this choppy water of event organisation, ultimately our destinations are the same and so is our experience...novices', he added
Sujit was more experienced than us as he was a Runner, unlike us, Dream Runners.
He was a regular at Nike Run Club and was active in runners community and more than eager to help us in our endeavour.
Sujit was meeting the founder of one of the running companies, with whom he was planning to tie up for the event and was keen that we should also join the meeting.He also insisted that we should meet the organisers of Nike Run club and get acquainted with the runners there.
Sujit also shared the number of two gentlemen who ultimately helped us in micro planning the Mathe RUN.

Ram Venkatraman & Raj Vadgama,
Somewhere in October 2012 on the recommendation of Sujit, we called up Ram. A meeting was fixed and we went to meet the duo of Ram-Raj at Inorbit mall. We managed to impress the duo with our concept of the Man & Mountain Meet & they immidately jumped into the bandwagon.
'Neral to Matheran is very challenging but would be difficult ' added Raj, a ultra marathonner who has done Delhi- Mumbai strech in a span of 30 days along with Milind Soman.
'No Long distance runner would risk a injury on this trecherous course 20 days before SCMM' added Ram.

Promising them to meet up soon, we bid adieu.We put our thinking caps to re-stretygise.

Time was flying fast & permissions/ meetings were getting delayed. We missed 2 important Eco Sensitive committee meetings in October & November.Our only hope was the next meeting scheduled on 1st Dec.
We were all prepared but as fate would have it on 30th Nov, when we called to confirm were told that it was postponed to 15th Dec.

It was the first time we were about to hang our boots and call it a QUITS. But the Rock Solid' Rocky Anthem' The EYE OF THE TIGER kept us going...The Man and his will to Survive....Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past, you must fight just to keep them alive'.

If permissions come on the 15th, then no way can the event happen on the 23rd Dec, Sunday. Only date left was 30th Dec 2012.
On 15th Dec we had a impressive 30 min presentation to a group of around 30 people comprising of the Chairman Mr.Ranganathan and representatives of district administration, police, forest officials, Muncipal Councillers et al. Everybody nodded in unison about our plan.

Thus a message was splashed to Mumbai about the approval for the waiting team members..... but no time for cheers...14 days for a event you are doing for the first time!!!!!!!!
By the time paper work was done, 'Who will take care of the expenses,' decided, it was 21st Dec. So for us the final nod was 21st Dec when we had every thing in BLACK & WHITE.
Mr. Ajay Sawant, President, Matheran Muncipal Council was very proactive in approving all our demands, he immidately issued instructions to all the staff about the various things that needs to be done, cleared the budget for the event, issued letters to us supporting the event. After a long time got to witness government machinery swung into action.

Matheran Biodiversity Exhibition was inaugurated on 25th Dec 2012 and Mathe RUN on 30th Dec 2012.Two events in 9 days flat.

Our Heart felt Thanks to all the people WHO MADE US RUN.....





......to be continued.

Great things are done when Men & Mountain Meet.