Runtarctica

Former junior national squash champ and Mumbai boy, Vinay Asthana is going to Antarctica to run a full marathon. As he runs 42-km in freezing temperatures, he is sure to come across scenery that would include seals and penguins, in a running experience of a lifetime

Mumbai's Vinay Asthana puts his heart and his sole (pun intended) into his passion. This former Mumbai-based junior national squash champion, he, along with his twin brother Vineet wasu00a0 prominent on the junior squash circuit in the country years ago, is now a man of 33 and based in London.
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Vinay runs in the United States

Vinay is part of 100 runners scheduled to participate in a full marathon (42 km) to be run of all places, in the Antarctica. Says Vinay in an interview from his London home, "The 12th Antarctica Marathon is scheduled for February 28, 2011. Due to the fragile ecosystem, Antarctica is considered a zero impact zone hence there is a limit of 100 runners each year."

Picturesque
Vinay''s race is to be held on King George Island, the largest of the South Shetland Islands just off the Antarctic Peninsula. One of the bonuses of a long-distance sport, whether it is cycling or running is that so many races take place in stunning surroundings. The Tour de France for instance, takes cyclists through the most picturesque parts of Europe, and the Antarctica of course, promises visuals that not even the most skilled photographer in the world and a hi-tech camera could do full justice to.u00a0u00a0u00a0

Ecosystem
Says Vinay about the course, "The course is marked gravel roads that connects the scientific research bases like the Bellingshausen Station (the Russian base), Artigas Base (Uruguayan), the Frei Base (Chilean) and the Great Wall Base (Chinese).u00a0 The start and finish is at the Russian base. Great care is taken to leave behind zero impact on the environment in this sensitive ecosystem. The course is entirely on dirt roads, which often can be muddy. The course changes each year based on base operations and road and weather conditions. All runners must be self-sufficient and cannot expect any access to indoor facilities."

Freeze
This is running in pristine splendour. Says Vinay, "There's no Gatorade, no volunteers smiling and handing you sports drinks and no rock bands! It is just you, and 99 other runners, the researchers at the base stations, the penguins and the skuas (large, dark brown birds that love diving for marathoners). There will be three points for water bottles on the racecourse, that one can access twice each. It is recommended to use hot water when filling the water bottles as normal water may tend to freeze."

Gratitude
Every marathoner prays the hardest to the weather Gods as race day nears. In hot places like Mumbai in particular, pre-race talk centres around the weather and runners literally fall to their knees in gratitude if in city parlance, "it gets a little cooler".

This year, 2011, the Mumbai marathon had one of the best marathon days in its eight-year history and runners thanked small mercies. Yet, there's nothing like Antarctica, where runners are told to expect, Vinay says, "Temperatures ranging from 0 to negative 10 degrees Celsius minus the wind chill which can lower it by another about 5 to 10 degrees Celsius.

Somebody has aptly put it - 'Racing The Antarctica Marathon is like a box of chocolates... you never know what you are going to get.' It can be extremely cold and windy, rainy, snowing or all of the above. The trick is to be ready for anything, including rain, sleet, snow, cold, mud and wind."
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Runners are even expected to come across speed breakers of a different kind, though these too, like other speed breakers are black 'n' white. In the Antarctica, the occasional penguin crossing the trail is simply par for the course. Vinay adds, "One has to expect winds up to 40mph and at times, snow up to the hips. The biggest danger to runners is hypothermia besides the fear of fatigue or dehydration."

Ozone
Vinay lapses into technical, marathon lingo when asked about the kind of running gear needed for conditions like these. It is marathon speak that binds marathoners all over the world. When marathoners meet, their conversations include terms like split timings, hydration, hills and interval training, alien terms to the layman but perfectly understandable to die-hard runners.

Vinay laughs as he says that he would be adequately togged out for those conditions and to top it all, he might have to wear lightweight ski goggles for his eyes since the ozone layer happens to be very thin.u00a0

Vinay, who is currently working in London as a Senior Audit Manager with Standard Chartered Bank says the weather conditions and very challenging course puts his timing aspirations in the 4.5 hours plus group. "The last marathon I ran was over three years back, so it has been an uphill task training this time around. That said it is a requirement that all marathoners must finish under 6.5 hours."

Charity
The former under 14 Indian national champion had gone on to play All American Varsity Squash and the US Nationals Men's Division, was bitten by the running bug some years ago.

Vinay says, "I was introduced to a charity called Asha for Education, a non-profit organisation that sponsors educational projects in India. Asha for Education's Marathon Program is one of the premier endurance sports training programs in the United States.

"Their marathon program is the largest fundraiser for Asha, in order to sponsor educational initiatives across India. This was good enough a reason for me to try something new.

u00a0"In 2006, I completed my first New York City (NYC) half marathon (August 2006), followed by back-to-back marathons in California (October 2006) and Hawaii (December 2006) and had raised over $5,000 (Rs 227,322) in charitable donations."

Birds on the trail are just a part of the mind blowing scenery expected on the course

Roadblock
Vinay, father of a five-month-old baby boy called Abhimanyu, who jokes, saying he threatens his wife with all his sporting ambitions for the little one, having finished running several races in North America then, "turned towards the Inca Trail to the Machu Pichu Ultra (42 km plus) marathon in Peru.

There, I finished in 8 hrs and 32 minutes," explains Vinay. Like all runners, Vinay too hit roadblocks in relation to fitness. One instance when his running plans took a hit, was when, "I was diagnosed with Morton's Neuroma, a nerve swelling in both my feet. I had to undergo a surgical procedure last year and had two nerves removed from each foot," he says.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0

Heroin
Look at these guys, they must be pretty crazy -- that's one typicalu00a0 comment one hears from several spectators dotting the course of the Mumbai marathon, watching as runners strain to reach the finish line. Yet, you need to be a little crazy to be willing to endure that pain. Running is like that -- it seeps into your blood, throbs in your veins and gives you a high that is so addictive, that only those who run it, feel it.
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Vinay concurs saying, "I have a small little clip/article that I cut from a paper and have it on my pin board. The heading reads: Runners high, 'is just like heroin''. Well, I've never taken any "drugs", however, I could only imagine the withdrawal symptoms that heroin addicts would experience when they try to stop.

What more evidence can I give, than my wife complaining less about me when I'm back to my running ways, as compared to the lull period I had the past couple of years? I like to believe it was the 'heroin' effect. I was suffering from withdrawal symptoms when I was off running. Also, I've tried explaining to my wife that running is an emotional experience.

For someone who is not an athlete herself, she would not get it earlier, but I think she has started to get it now.u00a0 She was against my running after my operation, however, she now supportsu00a0 (well, on most occasions at least)u00a0 my running adventures."

Terrain
The hardest part for city-based marathoners is finding the venue and like so many working professionals, the time to train. Vinay says he trains on weekdays, "on paved roads around the Thames in London and some of the Greater London parks over the weekends. Ideally one should be training on trails or hills.

However, being in the city I don't have access to such terrain, hence, I make the most of what I have got. That said, I do all my runs outdoors, be it rain, sunny or cold.

With the harsh winter this year, it's been a blessing in disguise to be able to run in the cold outside."u00a0 Vinay did some Antarctica-specific training, he laughs, as he says, "I don't think people at work at particularly pleased to see me happy when freezing cold outside.
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And to top it, I don't wear a proper winter coat, hence that's my idea of disciplining my body for the Antarctic 'summer'." Vinay trains five out of seven days a week and is running in the Antartica for a charity called, Seeing is Believing which is a global initiative to tackle avoidable blindness.u00a0u00a0u00a0

Hurt
Finding the time to train and juggling paternal duties is tougher than running the 42 km itself. Says Vinay, "I try to complete all my weekday runs at work between lunch hours, so, I'm available to perform my parental duties of nappy changing in the evening and leading up to early morning hours.

It's indeed tiring to juggle work, a small baby at home and getting in all the weekly runs, and there are days that it hurts but then it's the 'heroin' effect that keeps me going."

Every year, as the Mumbai marathon comes around, overseas visitors remark about how the running bug has bit Mumbai, you see a lot more people running on the roads than one did earlier.

Vinay says, when asked about what advice he would give people wanting to run a full (42k) marathon, "If one does embark on completing a marathon, it's key that people understand that it will not always be easy.

There will be days it would hurt ufffd hurt a lot in fact. They key is to differentiate and steer clear of injuries, yet mentally and physically push the human body one small step at a time."

Vistas of white are set to greet runners on the icy Continent

Indulge
Vinay adds to his advice for runners, "One can never forget the importance of nutrition. On a lighter note though, don't feel bad or guilty of eating things you are not supposed to, do not count the calories.u00a0 If you are true to your running goals, then, you will burn it all. So, there you go that's a good enough incentive to indulge -- run a marathon this lifetime," he adds cheekily.

Weather
For Vinay, this is the most adventurous thing he has done so far, but his hunger to run in different terrain would not be sated with Antartica, He says post-Antarctica; he is registered to run in the Polar Circle Marathon in Greenland in October 2011, which is dubbed as the coolest marathon on earth.
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He is registered to run in the Marathon Des Sables in the Sahara Desert (considered the toughest race on earth) in April 2012 while a marathon in Australasia beckons at the end of next year (destination yet to be decided).

Yet, it is to Mumbai, his "hometown" as he calls it, that London-based Vinay plans to return in 2013, where, he says, "I want to run the Mumbai Marathon."

Mumbai because, however beautiful the terrain elsewhere --icy fjords rising majestically, seals slithering on ice and penguins en route in their black 'n' white 'tuxedos'u00a0 Vinay knows there is no feeling like experiencing that the heroin effect in the place where you belong home.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0

Vinay's charity
Vinay is running for a charity called Seeing is Believing and exhorts people to support the cause.