Ladakh: Preparation, Endurance, and Kick out of a Bucket List
--
If you listen to buddy promises or colleagues making plans, one thing will appear at top of that bucket list- A trip to GOA or LADAKH. I too had Ladakh on my bucket list item since a long time.
But what makes it desirable makes it difficult too.
Topographically, Ladakh is 11,000 ft above sea level. The oxygen is 60% of what it is at sea level. People native to Ladakh are accustomed to nature, whereas people in the military have 6 days acclimatization schedule. The govt advisory states that once you land in Ladakh rest for two days and then proceed towards your trip.
We were a bunch of folks around 25 of us who literally went from sea level to 11,000 ft above sea level… Keep on Thinking you are standing on the ground at Marine Drive in Mumbai (sea level) with an average human being of height 5 ft, a stack of 2,200 humans standing one above the other, that’s the height when we land in Leh.
For running the Ladakh Marathon, it is advised to reach at least 8 days in advance to get accustomed. Look for the signs in your body & in case you are not feeling well, take oxygen and if needed visit doctors.
How this adventure started
It was the first week of Feb 2020, one such conversation was going on in our running class, A friend in the group said, “Vineet, let’s go to Ladakh this year for the Marathon”.
That was the only push needed to say Yes!By signing up for the Ladakh Marathon, I thought I would be able to visit this beautiful majestic place on my bucket list. People expected me to do a full marathon but as a bucket list, a half marathon was good.
As all the challenges come to push you away from the bucket list this time it was the global pandemic that played its spoilsport & what we signed up for in 2020 was seeing the day of light in 2022.
We were 40 of us on a WhatsApp group from different running groups but from the same location and 25 of us from Ace Runners’ ran the marathon.
