Jawadhu Hills Ultra'2024

Jawadhu Hills Ultra.

This was my first ever, as I became part of CTC after 2018 mid, only after the last JHU being conducted by Aug 2017 *not aware of it then*.
Doing a comeback this year (2024) was a big deal for all, after having the foot outside the doors for almost 6 years now.
I have never been to Jawadhu before this; neither as runner nor as volunteer.

We were so busy with the preparations for Chennai Trail Ultra'2024, the second edition; which was held on Sept 1st 2024; while the recce team was doing some ground work for then upcoming JHU; that I didn't have any kind of whatsoever emotion with regards to JHU until the CTU was successfully completed, once again.
Once after mid-September arrived, the JHU feels started to kick in for me.

Having both the partners be part of the same community, such as Chennai Trail Club, it sometimes gets monotonous in the relationship and even stressful.

It was one such period for both of us, my husband, Nilesh and myself. There was hardly any time where we spoke and only spoke about the event most of the times, when we did.
Nilesh was so engrossed with planning and organizing the event that it sometimes seemed a bad idea of him taking up the responsibility at all.
But again, that was a phase and it indeed passed quite soon.

By now, even I was getting a hang of it and started to give my suggestions and inputs on the things I had experience in.
The preparatory phase was much informative.

I had some early thoughts of attempting 30kms in JHU myself, after my 25kms run in 2023 December.
And what better place to attempt than an event organized by Chennai Trail Club.
But all this was short-lived when I was schooled by Nilesh, about volunteering instead.
And as much I was reluctant to admit it then, it was a great bargain.
I happily settled to volunteer for JHU'2024.

As the event neared, I couldn't contain the thrill and excitement.
The preparations and calls to arrange things were on peak since a week before the event. The arrival of medals, goodie bags - for the runners, was just the beginning of one amazing weekend we were about to have.

We started from Chennai on 6th November 2024, Wednesday eve, and reached our venue at Jawadhu by late night.
And the prepping began right then.
From route marking material to be sort out to respective teams, to discussing the boards assignment for each team, to downloading satellite maps for better marking of the sections which might need to be revisited later or requiring extra route marshal on race day; we slept for only 3 to 4 hours that night, all excited for the next day.



Note: There were 4 teams comprising of 4 members each, assigned to do approx. 13-15kms section each, covering the total race distance of 60kms trail.

The next morning we got ready, prepped up our materials to mark the route, had breakfast and started for the day in our respective section, all pumped up.

Even though this being my first time doing route marking for a race, I immediately felt to have become one with the process.
I had kind of manifested last year to get on the team and experience this first-hand.
I had an amazing time doing the markings and it took us almost 10+ hrs to do the 13km section with accuracy which we expected to. It was some good vibe with these guys.
We had Nilesh and one another friend, kind of rescue us from the trail; when it got dark; as none of us knew the last couple of kms route.

We got back to our venue and had some relaxing dinner which our friends got for us as the town kind of shuts down max by 8pm.

Post de-briefing from each team about the entire course, to our very own, Race Director - Nilesh, the team had some discussion on the technicalities of the route and on the other hand, the other team was having discussion on the aid station placement and its related activities.
After the insightful discussions and some fun, we retired for the day. Even though it was late, I had good rest as I dozed off immediately once I got into my sleeping bag, all exhausted from the day.

The following day I had some time to chill and relax, which I thoroughly cherished, as by afternoon I had to sit for BIB distribution which in itself is laborious.



Amidst meeting multiple runners, verifying the mandatory items to be carried etc. we took some time to do the self-grooming; hair care/ hair styling to be precise.
One of our friend, Gayathri, was lovely enough to get the threads along with her and did braids for us. And by us, I mean a lot of us.

It was one fun side task which we enjoyed while doing the BIB distribution to the runners.

We were relieved from the said work around 10.30pm only to manage and prep things for the next day until 12.00pm.

We put a tarp on the same ground where we were working endlessly since the early afternoon and called it a night.
We hardly got some 3 hours of sleep (which was actually some heaven sent period as this wasn't possible during CTU) when we woke up around 3.00 am to begin the prep for the D day.

The race day was nothing short of all the festivals combined together at once, or all the adjectives one could find and put together ❤, it gave us or made us see all the emotions; from happy to sad, from smiles to tears(happy ones majorly), hard work being paid off to motivated for even more hard work, relief to pain; it was one festival of emotions at the finish line.

Meanwhile, it was so relaxing when the kids of fellow volunteers/friends, started taking the charge at the finish line, giving the medal to the runners.
Infact, the little ones even started to pace the runners and give them a very endearing hi-five during the home stretch.
To hear things from runners, like -

• The route/trail being marked so amazingly well that even if someone wants to get lost they could not.

• The aid stations being perfectly placed at locations and the oh so selfless volunteers aiding them in every possible way.

• The route itself being so scenic covering all kinds of terrain - from slushy to refreshing paddy fields to uphill to narrow trails to rocky sections to forest to open scenic route.

• The motivating yet hilarious quotes enroute, being cherry on-top.

made us all feel elated and all our efforts seemed to have started showing the sweet results which they, everyone who put their last couple of months into this race, rightfully deserved so.

The fellow volunteers, my dear friends, made this day even more eventful and memorable. Having them alongside gave the joy which is something to be reminisced about, later in future.

The event was successfully completed before it got dark and then began our celebration.

Each and everyone of us was so much into that moment, that I might be having some happy tears rolling down as I write this.

Amidst some biryani being cooked for all the volunteers by our volunteers, while some played cricket on the ground meanwhile some music being played by our multi talented volunteer on the other side, the entire ground gave some festival vibe being celebrated by a family.
This family had a name and it is called CHENNAI TRAIL CLUB.



We dwelled in the happiness and it took some time to get out of this emotion before we decided to full fledged jump into some other adrenaline outdoor activity to get our high 😀
Awaiting to catch up with this family, once again during the next festival of our own.

Until then, let each day be a celebration  🎉🎊