The 2021 edition of the famed SRT (Sinhagadh - Rajgadh - Torna) Trail Run took place near Pune, on December 11. Organized by the Western Ghats Running Foundation, the SRT Trail Run has 3 categories, each suited to different types of runners:
The 11km run (Sinhagadh Fort and return): The most popular category which attracts enthusiasts beginning their running journeys, serious runners competing for podium places, as well as people who just want to enjoy an early morning hike followed by a picnic with some loud music thrown in for good measure.
The 25km run (Sinhagadh Fort and onto Rajgadh): Ideal for runners with some experience and a few half-marathon distances under their belt, this race is a good introduction to trail running. Psychologically speaking, people who opt to run in this category are the ones whose idea of “Oh, this is a fun thing to do” has started deteriorating rapidly and worryingly.
The 53km run (Entire SRT circuit): The harsh truth is that the participants in this group are beyond our help. They willingly choose to spend a Saturday running up (and down) the Western Ghats for up to 12 hours in the scorching December heat. One can only hope that this fate does not befall anyone we know.
I had heard good things about the SRT Trail Run in the past, so my friends and I decided to sign up for it this year. I like participating in sporting events in other cities. You get to travel, stay in hotels (I love hotels), try the local cuisine and have experiences which are, well, unusual. Like getting lost in the mountains, for instance; but that’s a story for another day.
Sinhagadh Fort is steeped in history and Maratha lore. Believed to have withstood the vagaries of time for over two millennia, Sinhagadh Fort was at the heart of military and political manoeuvring between the mighty Mughal empire and the burgeoning Maratha kingdom under Shivaji, in the mid-17th century1. The Fort is most famous for its conquest, in 1670, by the Maratha general Tanhaji Malusare, who has been immortalized in cinema by the man-sized can of pan-masala, Ajjayy Devvggn.
Popular folklore tells the tale of how Tanhaji attacked the Fort by scaling the sheer, cliff-side walls with the help of a monitor lizard (locally known as Ghorpad), instead of using the traditional route to approach the Fort2. Apparently, he roped himself to the lizard and just walked up the vertical cliff face, much like Tom Cruise strolling on the Burj Khalifa. Having used the conventional path to reach the Fort during our run, I can whole-heartedly attest that hitching a ride with a gravity-defying animal is definitely the better approach3. The way up to Sinhagadh Fort is nearly 3.5km long and 700 meters steep - that’s comparable to climbing over 900 steps. That is not how I usually prefer spending my weekend mornings but as they say, when in Rome, etcetera etcetera. When you get to the top though, it is quite incredible. It is a unique feeling to run on stone-paved pathways inside a Fort. The weight of history reminds you that many others have preceded you on those trails but the fact that unlike them, nobody is chasing you with a sword makes it slightly more enjoyable.
The route soon leaves the Fort behind and brings you to the highlight of the race: the narrow, hill-top trail that winds away into the distance. With rolling hills covering the vista and valleys dropping down from either side of the ridge, it is a sight to behold. Unfortunately, the running equivalent of the human centipede (pictured below) mars the view somewhat.
Once you descend from the hills (around the 13km mark), the rest of the route is fairly unremarkable as it takes you to Rajgad Fort, where the 25km run concludes. I am a man of limited needs and I was quite happy with the course. I’m afraid the same cannot be said of the guy who won the 25km event. He was singularly unimpressed by the route and made no bones about it during his congratulatory interview4:
Interviewer: “Congratulations! How does it feel to win the race?”
Winner (nonchalantly): “Yeah… Its okay, I guess… NBD.”
Interviewer (a trifle perplexed): “Tell us about the route. You must have found it quite challenging?”
Winner: “Lol, no.”
Interviewer (with increasing confusion): “….What about the beautiful hilly trails? They were fantastic, no?”
Winner: “Hills? Hahaha. Main Uttarakhand se hoon (I am from Uttarakhand). These are not hills to me. Hahaha.”
Interviewer (clearly panicking): “Umm.. Any other thoughts about the race?”
Winner: “Aap ke trail run mein toh trails hi nahi the. (Your trail run did not have enough trails).”
And so it went on for a very painful 5 minutes as the interviewer made desperate attempts to extract at least one positive comment from the guy. Sadly, all her efforts came to nought and she had to eventually concede defeat and let him saunter away.
The post-race entertainment having ceased, we packed into a car provided by the organizers to take us back to the starting point at Sinhagadh. Unbeknownst to us, the driver was Mephistopheles (or as his Satanist friends call him, Mephisto) in disguise and we had just strapped in for a ride through hell. That drive was the most brutal and painful thing we were subjected to that day - a day, just to remind you, on which we had run 25kms. I realised then why so many people chose to run the 53km category instead of stopping at the 25km point. They just wanted to avoid Mephisto and his death-cab.
I cannot adequately describe all the horrors that occurred but I recall how, at one point, Mephisto suddenly swerved off the road and onto a dirt track, and started driving up a hill as if possessed by a Ghorpad. I had given up on life after an hour in the car but finally, we reached Sinhagadh alive and (more or less) unbroken. As Mephisto flashed a wolfish grin at us and waved his goodbyes, I couldn’t suppress a wry smile. Sure, he had tried to kill us but aren’t we the ones who are always chasing ‘unusual experiences’?
Unsurprisingly, the conflicts between the Marathas (particularly, Shivaji) and Aurangzeb are often sought to be positioned as an indigenous Hindu revolt against the Muslim outsiders. In reality, the opponents of the Marathas in most of these battles were the staunchly Hindu Rajputs, who fought on behalf of the Mughal empire!
The Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency (Vol 18, Part 3) (1885) makes no mention of the Ghorpad’s contribution to the military expedition at Sinhagadh and offers a significantly drabber version where a soldier scaled the cliff and then threw down rope ladders for his comrades. It does however refer to Shivaji having made the legendary quote ‘Gadh aala pan sinha gela’ (We got the Fort but lost the lion) upon being informed of the capture of Sinhagdah Fort at the cost of Tanhaji’s life. It is also believed that the Fort, which was previously called ‘Kondhana Fort’, was renamed ‘Sinhagadh’ in Tanhaji’s memory.
Though I would personally have opted for a non-reptilian assistant. A panda, for instance, if pandas were into wall-climbing.
This is not an exact transcript but I can assure the reader that the emotions have been captured faithfully.