Run in Rains - Igatpuri Mountain Challenge

The city of Igatpuri is famous as the fog city

Also it has waterfalls allover in its vicinity

My first trip happened searching a race route in daylight 

Three of us driving through highway looking some good sight

An unexpected right turn took us to this road we now run

A dam, lot of mountain ranges, waterfalls en-route were real fun

Our day was made as we got the route for conducting the race

Majority of the work related to race got rolling for many days

The first of the many works included conducting route recce on a Sunday

This helps to get the actual feel experienced by runners on the race day

Our event being decided in October, made us plan our recce in rainy season

We were mesmerised by the scenery around and were in awe beyond imagination

Nature had blessed the entire region with greenery and waterfall

The tourist visited the place on weekend to enjoy the same in rainfall

The inaugural edition of the Igatpuri moutain challenge was a huge hit

The runners who ran in Winter faced the wrath of Sun with great grit

The race caught the imagination of the runners in a positive way

IMC was declared the Best race of the Maharashtra in MRR survey

Naturally, the second edition had the registrations four times the first year

Ultra distance included, shifting to rainy season added gas to the fire

Preparations for the event started early as we expected more participation

A week before the race, we visited the city for procurement and estimation

As expected, the rain was in full vigor pouring severely all around

We were happy to see the dam filling upto the brim and greenery on ground

The arrangements were all set and all race necessities arrived in pleanty

The night before the race, the rains were lashing all over, giving us anxiety

The dawn opened up with dryness around, to our astonishment

Being there for few days, we expected this would change any moment

The sun rose with very few clouds around and chill of the morning started fading

The runners started feeling the pinch of the heat but they continued the uphill running

Morning slowly shifted to noon but there was no sign of clouds, no sign of rain

At least a few hundred people were praying for the same, running in all kinds of pain

The runners who had registered for Ultra distance suffered the most,

Sun on their head and uphill on their sight, made us feel sorry too, being the host

The man-management for everything required to conduct a race was in place

Every such arrangement can become a mockery within no time without God's grace

A big management lesson learnt by each one of us to remember

You can do only what is in your hands, beyond which there is a Supreme Power

He has His control throughout over all natural resources - wind, water and Rains

We human beings must not destroy or harm the Nature for personal gains 

To assume we are the Masters of the Universe is a wrong notion

The Supreme Power is something very Still when in great Motion