Opendro's World

[Update from 2021-edition]: 2020 edition was cancelled due to covid-19 pandemic. I went for the 2021 edition where they kept only two distances 50k and 80k. I ran the 80k and won the race which saw less competition, again due to the pandemic situation around the world. I had been longing for a mountain trail ultra marathon for a long time. There aren't any in India, specially in the south, except for the CTC events such as Javadhu hills and Yercaud (Severoy hills). I couldn't participate in Javadhu hills due to lack of time. When I had time, they stopped all sport events due to the unfortunate event of Kurangini forest fire. That accident has left deep scars in our hearts. The same year, Malnad ultra started. I heard of Malnad as a beautiful place from Sv (wife) as she had done GMC (Great Malnad Challenge) twice. Ashok Thiruvengadam, a cyclist and runner enthusiast, with a good soul and poetic heart, enchanted me about Malnad Ultra. Deepak Mhasavade, my cycling team-mate, ha

Just jotting down for the lack of time to write a nice blog :-) Finished a crazy race yesterday. 12 hours Bengaluru Endurance Race 2019 ( https://www.facebook.com/events/589577574846300/ ) After the hypes around the beauty of Malnad Ultra, I wanted to experience it. So, I registered. But they put a qualifying criteria. I had to do either two marathons or an ultra no less than 75 km. I didn't have even a single marathon in the one year period they expected. I didn't have the enthusiasm to run two marathons just to qualify. So, I looked out for any ultra race. I didn't find any. So, I registered for Bengaluru Endurance Run 2019. Later, I discovered that Malnad Ultra would accept even if I logged my own run in garmin or strava and shared the link. I decided to run the Bengaluru Endurance Run anyway. I had to decide on a hard 6 hours run or easier 12 hours run. 75 km in 6 hours would be too risky considering that I hadn't been running at all. The only ultra I ran was