03/03/2020
Never Give Up Backyard Ultra, Ahmedabad Race report-29/02/2020
The event was set up in a hurry as the summers were setting on & the weather turns really hot from mid March. The date was fixed as 29th February being the Saturday & considering the race would last long till Sunday, 1st March 2020.
The participants were reluctant as it was never heard before race format! Even the Ultra marathon runners couldn’t gather the courage to register. Everybody wanted to watch from the sidelines how the event is shaping up.
The preparations started well in advance with LS Sports setting up the venue on Friday & Race Director Lihas Trivedi getting goose bumps as the event time approached.
The race briefing was done by Lihas Trivedi & Amit Bhattacharjee giving confidence to first time runners in this format. The guidelines were explained so that they do not make any mistake.
We had 11 brave hearts including the winner of the first ever Backyard Ultra in the country-Last Man Stands, Gurgaon, India. The weather on the day of the race was cloudy, which was a good sign for runners but after a while it started to vanish & Sun came out in full blow.
The corral was ready for the first ever bell to go for it. The race started at 9 am IST & all the 11 runners could finish the first loop strong. We started losing runners from loop 3 with 2 runners-Ankit Gandhi & Arun Choudhry stopping.
It followed by another runner Khyati Patel female runner going out. The heat was getting worst & runners were losing their speed & sweating much.
We lost 2 more after loop 5, Nitin Varshaney & Dr. Dipti Desai. The female participants of the first edition were both out by this time. Nish*t Hirpara was next casualty after the 6th loop.
The remaining 5 looked strong to pull in more & put their best effort. Kartik Joshi was going strong as a wall. Sanjay Sharma the guy from Himachal Pradesh was the next to pull out after 8 loops.
The remaining 4 showed some good mental strength & continued till loop 11. After loop 11 we had Vishnu Kamaliya stopping. He said it is enough! He had been to an ultra about 2 weeks before this event running 80km in the hills.
Ghanshyam Sudani who was strong goes down due to abdominal pain & fatigue after loop 13. He does not get up to start new one.
Now it was upto Kartik & Dharmendra to go on , Dharmendra completed loop 16 & conceded. Now the man in form Kartik had to just finish a loop & he was our Never Give Up Man!!!
Lihas & Sangeeta Trivedi would like to thank all our partners, Kensville Golf & Country Club, Savvy Constructions, Amogham Rehab Centre, Sterling Hospitals & Shreenathji Infra Space LLP for prize money & T10 for lovely jackets.
Special thanks to Co Race Director-Amit Bhattacharjee, dear friend Dr. Ashish Kapadiya & Sushma Kapadiya & Lokendra Malik (Loki) for being with us for this event & helping set up the place & helping throughout the event.
