Three course records were broken at The Border Ultra at its 2025 edition held on December 6 – 7, 2025 at Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.
The new course records were set in the woman’s 100-mile run, woman’s 100 kilometre run and the men’s 50 km run, said Vishwas Sindhu, Race Director and Founder of The Hell Race, the organiser of the event.
Ultrarunner Aparna Choudhary set a new course record for women in the 100-mile run finishing the distance in 18 hours, 52 minutes and five seconds. She broke her own course record of 19:47:31 hours, which she set during the 2024 edition of the race.
Aparna Choudhary – Photo courtesy The Hell Race
Sweta Rao set the new course record in 100 km finishing the distance in 11:32:31. She broke Komal Singh’s record of 12:16:00, also set in 2024.
In the 50 km men’s race Sugourav Goswami set the new course timing of 3:55:12, bettering the previous course record of 4:07:14 set by Jitendra Singh in 2024.
Kashinath Katare was the winner of the 100-mile men’s run finishing in 16:50:17.
Ajay Khandelwal won the 100 km men’s race with a timing of 9:31:50.
In the women’s race of 50 km, the winner was Sonia Rana with a timing of 5:15:08.
The total number of runners at The Border 2025 was 982, Vishwas said. About 100 runners missed the race because of the several flight cancellations ahead of the race days, he said.
IAU 50 km World Championships 2025 rescheduled to Mar 14, 2026
The IAU 50 km World Championships 2025 has been rescheduled to be held on March 14, 2026, a statement from IAU said.
The Championships were slated to be held on December 7, 2025 in New Delhi but postponed due to air quality issues and Indian government mandating suspension of sport activities in November and December.
IAU had previously announced that the Championships will be held on a 5 km loop course that will include the stadium loop of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
The Championships will now be held on March 14, 2026. The opening ceremony will be held on March 13, 2026.
(The author, Latha Venkatraman, is an independent journalist based in Mumbai)
A mere 23 seconds separated Indian elite marathon runner Gopi Thonakal from one of the longest standing national records at the Valencia Marathon 2025, held on December 7, 2025.
Thirty-seven-year-old Gopi finished the 42.2 kilometre marathon race in 2:12:23, just 23 seconds over the national record of 2:12 set by Shivnath Singh way back in 1978.
At Valencia, Gopi set a new personal record, a stupendous improvement from his previous best of 2:13:39, which he had achieved at Seoul Marathon 2019.
“My run at this year’s Valencia Marathon is my best performance in my marathon running career. I was able to achieve a PB (personal best),” he told this blog.
Gopi is among India’s leading marathon runners and the fastest in recent years. At the 2016 Mumbai Marathon, Gopi was assigned the role of a pacer for his colleagues from the Army. He ended up completing the marathon and securing a podium finish that year.
That run helped him to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics at Rio de Janeiro, where he finished in 25th position with a timing of 2:15:25.
In November 2017, Gopi became the first Indian to secure gold at the Asian Marathon Championships with a 2:15:48 finish. Gopi has secured many gold and other podium positions as an elite runner in many marathons in the country.
For the last six years, Gopi has been training in Bengaluru. This time around, he moved to Ooty for four months to train for Valencia Marathon. “I think the high altitude at Ooty helped my performance,” he said. Also, this time his training was tweaked with a greater focus on endurance. Therefore, his training mileage was higher.
“At Valencia, the competition was good. Also, the course and the weather were quite good. That’s why I was able to do well and improve my performance,” Gopi said. Support from Indian Army and Reliance Group also contributed to his improved performance, he said.
During the race, at around 36 km mark, he developed cramps in his calves and had to pause twice. “If not for cramps, I could have got an even better timing,” he said.
Valencia Marathon is a popular marathon race mainly because the route is flat with very little turns, therefore a fast course. Also, the weather in December in Valencia is ideal for long-distance running.
(The author, Latha Venkatraman, is an independent journalist based in Mumbai.)
(With inputs from Valencia Marathon website, Anand Venkatraman)
India’s Amar Singh Devanda broke the national record in 100 kilometre run at the IAU 100 km Asia & Oceania Championship held on November 22-23, 2025 at Bangkok, Thailand.
He also won the individual gold medal. He is the first Indian ultrarunner to finish a 100 km race in sub-seven hours.
Amar’s picture from another event
Amar finished the 100 km distance in a timing of six hours, 59 minutes and 37 seconds, smashing the existing national record of 7:04:52 set by Vipul Kumar at the IAU 100 km World Championships held at Bernau, Berlin in 2022.
Amar now holds three national records – 100 km, 12-hour run as well as 24-hour run. He had set the 24-hour national record of 272.537 km in April 2024.
Finishing in third position in the men’s individual race was Saurav Ranjan, who secured a bronze medal with a timing of 7:23:02. Geeno Antony finished in fourth position with a timing of 7:34:57.
India’s men as well as the women’s team won the team gold medal also.
At the IAU events, the team position is decided by the finishing performance of the first three runners of each country.
The combined timing of the first three Indian runners was 21:57:37 hours, the fastest finish in team performance. Australia won silver and Thailand won the bronze medal.
“Great performance, we did quite amazingly well. We went to Thailand with some worries about the weather. Therefore, our runners started conservatively,” said Santhosh Padmanabhan, Coach and Team Manager for the Indian team.
Four of the runners at the Championships had represented the country in the IAU 24 Hour World Championships held in Albi, France in October 2025. “For these athletes, I had reduced the mileage in training and focussed more on speed. They had not fully recovered and among them Geeno Antony particularly. So Geeno was not to push too much here in Thailand,” Santhosh said. At Albi, Geeno topped the mens’ team among Indian athletes and finished in top 10 overall.
“For the first couple of laps, we wanted to gauge how the runners were responding to the weather. Amar was able to push well and by the time he finished 60 km, he felt he could target a sub-seven-hour finish. He covered the last few kilometers in sub-4 pace,” said Santhosh.
In the women’s race, Mel Aitken of New Zealand won the gold with a timing of 9:04:14.
India’s Tenzin Dolma secured the silver with a timing of 9:18:49 and Aarti Zanwar the bronze with a timing of 10:15:27.
The current national record for women’s 100 km is held by Jyoti Gawate at 8:20:07. Jyoti, an elite marathon runner, had set this record at the 2022 IAU 100 km World Championships held in Berlin.
Amar said he did not have much time for a focussed training for the 100 km championships. He recently participated in the 24-hour World Championship held at Albi, France in October 2025.
“We had an extensive training for the 24-hour championship. That training helped me for this 100 km run,” he said. The weather was quite humid but Amar was able to brave it, he said.
Weather was a major challenge for Tenzin Dolma. “Overall, the run went well but the humidity was quite high,” she said. Her training for this race did not go as well as she would have liked it. She lost many training days due to incessant rains and subsequent flooding in Himachal Pradesh, where she resides. “My house was completely damaged in the floods. I had to struggle a lot to get my house back to some semblance of normalcy,” she said.
Tenzin Dolma
Nevertheless, her finish of 9:18:49 is a huge improvement of her previous personal record of 9:40.
The Indian women’s team won the team gold with a combined timing of 29:54:38 hours. Rajni Singh was the third Indian finisher with a timing of 10:20:20 hours.
No Financial Support
Financial support for ultrarunners has not been easy. This time around, the athletes representing India had to support themselves for travel as well as stay in Bangkok. A couple of runners had to seek financial loans to fund their travel, enquiries revealed.
A couple of runners had to drop out of the competition due to lack of funds.
(The author, Latha Venkatraman, is an independent journalist based in Mumbai)
At the recent IAU 24-Hour World Championships held in Albi, France, Indian women ultrarunners delivered a landmark performance, shattering the national record in the 24-hour ultrarunning format.
Also, for the first time in India’s ultrarunning history, three women crossed the 200-kilometre mark, with two of them surpassing the previous national record of 204 km.
Sunita Subba and Aparna Choudhary both broke the national record to finish first and second respectively among Indian women. Sunita now holds the new national mark of 217.327 km, eclipsing the earlier record of 204.314 km set by Anju Saini at the 2022 IAU 24-Hour Asia & Oceania Championships in Bengaluru.
Aparna Choudhary followed with 210.537 km, while Bindu Juneja secured third place with 202.164 km, completing a remarkable showing by the Indian women’s team.
In the men’s category, Geeno Antony led the Indian contingent, finishing among the top 10 male runners overall with a distance of 265.198 km. The 24-hour race began on October 18 at 10 a.m. and tested endurance and mental fortitude under shifting weather conditions.
In the same event, Sarah Webster of Great Britain and Northern Ireland set a new world record with a distance of 278.622 km, surpassing the previous record of 270.363 km held by Japan’s Miho Nakata.
The Indian team, coached and managed by Santhosh Padmanabhan, underwent an intense training program in the run-up to the event. Despite hopes for a team medal, a few setbacks affected the final mileage tally.
This time around, the training plan, devised by Santhosh, was one of the toughest and extensive that the current team of ultrarunners were asked to execute.
“We wanted to push the bar because we had put in a lot of hard work – the athletes, the support staff and all of us. Therefore, expectations were quite high for both the men’s as well as the women’s team,” Santhosh said.
In training, many runners were able to execute and achieve the goals. Some of them shifted their base temporarily to Bengaluru to be able to motivate each other during training and work as a team.
In terms of actual performance at Albi, the Indian team, especially the women’s broke out of their shackles with three of them crossing the 200 km mark, he said. The performance of both men’s and women’s was much better than previous championships but did not meet the goals set for this specific championship, Santhosh said.
“In the men’s team, though some key runners fell back, Geeno did very well not only at the championships but also in training. I could see him maturing as an ultrarunner, he was more knowledgeable about his own abilities and he was getting all his milestones. It shows that we were on track with our training,” Santhosh said.
One of the main challenges faced by the Indian team at Albi was the extreme temperature change. During the day, although temperatures were at 22 degrees Celsius the night time temperature decline by 12 to 15 degrees affected hydration and nutrition of the runners, he said.
“These drastic weather changes affect appetite. Also, fatigue hits really hard. The learning for us from this experience is that we need to know how to handle fatigue and also train in different geographical locations with varying weather conditions,” Santhosh said.
Sunita Subba
Sunita Subba ran her first race, a half marathon in Darjeeling, in 2016. She did not follow it up with any further running immediately. In 2019, she again ran a half marathon. Soon after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown brought all outdoor activities to a grinding halt. “At that time, I felt the need to do something. When the lockdown was eased, I signed up for a 10-day virtual run challenge. I could do it only for eight days but I covered a distance of about 330-350 km,” she said. Soon she found herself signing up for ultra races – 12-hour stadium run and the first edition of Ladakh Marathon’s Silk Route Ultra, in which she won the women’s race, 90 km at Kalimpong Ultra, Pune Ultra and a few stadium ultra runs.
In July 2024, Sunita won the women’s race in the 24-hour stadium run held in Bengaluru, covering a distance of 188 km, helping her to qualify for the world championships.
After she was chosen to represent the country at the IAU 24-Hour World Championships in Albi, France, Sunita set about doing her training in Darjeeling, where she resides. “I used to train alone, sometimes running for six hours, sometimes eight hours. I would keep my water and other supplements near the gate of Bhanu Bhawan on Mall Road,” she said. Sunita works in a low paying job and often she is forced to juggle her finances in order to participate in running events. She was worried about arranging finances for the Albi but after she was enlisted as an Enerjiva athlete, much of those tensions were taken off her plate. Enerjiva, a sports nutrition brand, sponsored many of the athletes for the Albi championships.
Sunita Subba
Sunita was then asked to shift to Bengaluru by the team coach and manager Santhosh Padmanabhan. Her training went off quite well under his guidance. “When much of my long runs were done in Bengaluru, I sought leave to go back home to Darjeeling towards end of September and continue my training there. I also wanted to be home for the Dusshera festival. But weather was playing havoc back there, with heavy rains and landslides. I ended up with fever,” she said.
By the time she was to leave for Albi, she had recovered but was exhausted and tired from the ailment. “I managed well for the first few hours. But my water consumption was quite low. I was having energy drink and some bit of rice and dal. I did get some muscle tightness on my left leg but overall, I was injury free,” she said. By the end of the 24-hour period, she had surpassed the national record by a huge margin, setting the new record at 217.327 km compared to the previous record of 204.314 km set by Anju Saini during the IAU 24 Hour Asia & Oceania Championships held in Bengaluru in 2022.
Her son Swayam Tamang and her sister Sabita are very supportive of her running activities.
Aparna Choudhary has been associated with ultrarunning for a long time, commencing her journey in this niche sport way back in 2010. Running itself is fairly a nascent sport in India and ultrarunning even more so.
But Aparna is not new to sport. She was a national level hockey player and then took to recreational running during her graduation and post-graduation days. A stint in the US exposed her to lot more running events.
In 2010, she signed up for her first ultramarathon, a 100 km race at Bangalore Ultra. Over the years, she has participated in a number of ultrarunning events of varying distances and quite often ended up on the podium.
Aparna Choudhary
Her training for the IAU Championships could have been better, she said. In between her training she took a break to go to Peru for a holiday. She was back on July 17 but she barely had a fortnight for the Goa Ultra in which Aparna had signed up for the 120 km. “I took it as a training run,” she said. Aparna finished first among women finishers in this race. But after the race she had to wait for a couple of weeks to resume her training for the championships as she fell ill.
“I was consistent with my training but did nothing extraordinary. I did a few long runs, one of them 75-km long. All my training runs were done in the evenings or nights,” she said. “I also did not let my mind be in the clouds about my training or my ability to perform on race day,’ she said.
On race day, the initial few hours went along well despite the sun being up. But after about 6-7 hours, she had an upset stomach. “By the 15th hour or so, I was throwing up and that was affecting my hydration,” she said. But she was able to keep at it without taking long breaks.
Runners were required to run a loop of 1.5 km which included road as well as track during the entire 24 hours.
“All my plans were out of reach for me. Nevertheless, I just decided to keep running. During the last hour, I stepped up my pace and I could feel it in my raised heart rate. I wanted to get past 210 km and also be able to get up and walk at the end of the race,” she said.
Aparna Choudhary
Aparna finished the race with a distance of 210.537 km, improving her personal record by a huge margin from her previous best of 192 km. But she was a tad disappointed about missing out on the automatic qualification mark of 212.5 km at Sparthathlon, a 246 km ultra distance foot race held in Greece every year.
Nevertheless, Albi was a satisfying race as many factors played out well, she said.
This time around Bindu Juneja had to do a completely different training program in the run-up to the world championships.
“There were a lot of very long runs. Normally, I would do about 40-50 km long runs. When I saw the workout charted by Santhosh, I was very worried about recovery. I work as a teacher in a school and I cannot miss work. This time around there were runs planned for 10 hours, 100 km runs and once I had to run for about 10 hours,” she said.
These long runs were interspersed with interval training and strength workouts. “I had told Santhosh that if I could do 80 percent of the workout, I could consider myself an ultrarunner,” she said.
Bindu Juneja
She was able to do 98 percent of the workout planned. “My weekly mileage touched 148 km, 158 km, the highest being 171 km. These ultra long training runs, initially daunting, started to get easier,” Bindu said.
Bindu started running in 2015 and in 2018 signed up for her first ultra running event, a 50 km race at the Bangalore Ultra, in which she was the winner among women. Subsequently, she has done many ultra races, including several hour-based stadium runs and Comrades Marathon in South Africa.
“As some of us were sponsored athletes of Enerjiva for the Albi Championships, we had access to free strengthening sessions. Even though I was not able to attend all of these, I was able to follow these workouts through videos sent to me,” Bindu said.
During the race, the first 10 hours went by quite smoothly. “But after that my gut gave up and I had to take washroom breaks. I stop consuming gels as well as solid food. For a few hours I ran without consuming any food,” she said.
Weather during the 24-hour period fluctuated between being warm in the day time and very cold in the evenings and night. “This time I was determined to cross the 200 km mark. The second half of the race could have been better if nutrition had worked. I think I consumed too many gels early in the race. I should have interspersed gels with some natural food. Also, I had my periods,” she said.
Bindu Juneja and Sunita Subba
Bindu often has a problem of her toe nails coming off. But this time she was able to continue running with the pain. “It was quite a well-organized event. There was a lot of support with many people cheering on the sidelines throughout,” she said.
She covered a distance of 202.164 km, improving her personal record by a huge margin of 17.2 km.
Bindu now plans to take a break for two months from serious running but will continue her daily routine runs and focus on strength training.
Geeno has been running for quite a while now and his transition to ultrarunning was instinctive. He has been part of the team of ultrarunners representing India in many international ultrarunning events.
Amar Singh Devanda and Geeno Antony
“I have never done a training as intense and grueling as the one we did in preparation for the Albi championships,” Geeno said. He also shifted to Bengaluru for the 12-week training schedule including tapering with many day and night running sessions. “We had to do one 12-hour and 14-hour each, two 8-hour, three or four 6-hour and finally Bengaluru Marathon,” he said.
At Albi, Geeno started the race as per plan and in the first 12 hours he covered a distance of 142 km. During the second half of the race many runners started to fall back in their pace due to myriad reasons. “I was mentally down after Amar (Amar Singh Devanda) and Saurav (Saurav Ranjan) started falling back. For the first 12 hours we ran together. Running together was quite motivating. In the second half my pace suffered, therefore. But in the last hour I managed to cover 11 km,” said Geeno. He finished the race with a mileage of 265.198 km, also ending among top 10 men.
“At the end of the race, I was quite fine. I had no cramps or excessive tiredness. I was able to walk and even run,” he said. Geeno believes the training designed by Santhosh helped him to finish strong. In hindsight, he feels he could have pushed more.
Geeno Antony
He has already commenced running and will resume training for the IAU 100 km Asia & Oceania Championships to be held in Thailand on November 23. “I am now in Trivandrum and will do some training here as Thailand will be very humid,” he said.
Sugourav Goswami, a Canara Bank employee, posted at Haldwani, was able to secure leave for 80 days to move to Bengaluru for training.
“It was one of the hardest, grueling, tiring and elaborate training plan that I have ever done so far,” he said.
Sugourav got into running as recent as 2020 right during the COVID-19 lockdown on the terrace of his residential building in Champawat, Uttarakhand. “I had a health scare. My key health parameters were alarmingly out of range and I had to resort to some cardio activity. I started running on the rooftop of my house. It was a small area. I would run for about two to three hours daily,” he said.
Sugourav Goswami with Santhosh Padmanabhan
Once the lockdown eased, he took to running more seriously and started signing up for running events. Soon he was also running ultra races.
“My first 24-hour run was the Bengaluru Stadium Run in March 2025, where I clocked a distance of 226 km,” he said.
At Albi, he was told by the team manager that he was to pace some of the key runners and also track their movements. “I enjoyed the race thoroughly. Ultras are tough. You can only get through them if you enjoy the race,” he said.
He ran moderately well for 21 hours. The last three hours were very tough. He finished second among Indian men covering a distance of 245.158 km.
His recovery following the race has been very good.
In hindsight, most runners this blog spoke to after the championships said they could have pushed for more mileage. Nevertheless, every ultrarunning event offers a new experience and many new challenges. The learning curve is never ending, they say.
(The author, Latha Venkatraman, is an independent journalist based in Mumbai)
Aparna Choudhary also crosses existing national record
Sarah Webster of Great Britain sets new 24-hr world record for women
Geeno Antony tops among Indian men
India’s ultrarunner Sunita Subba shattered the current national record at the 2025 IAU 24 Hour World Championships held in Albi, France on October 18-19.
Sunita covered a distance of 217.327 kilometers during the stipulated 24 hours, surpassing the national record by a huge margin. The existing national record was held by Anju Saini who had covered 204.314 km during the IAU 24 Hour Asia & Oceania Championships held in Bengaluru in 2022.
Aparna Choudhary also surpassed the existing national record notching up a distance of 210.537 km finishing second behind Sunita among Indian women. She improved her personal record by a huge margin. Her previous best was 192 km.
Photo by Ashok Daniel
Sarah Webster of Great Britain and Northern Ireland won the gold in the women’s race of the Championships with a new world record distance of 278.622 km, surpassing the existing record of 270.363 km set by Miho Nakata of Japan.
Sarah Webster – Photo downloaded from IAU’s Facebook page
Holly Ranson of Australia won the silver with a distance of 273.058 km and Miho Nakata ended with the bronze (271.557 km). All three women ran further than current World Record.
Among Indian women, finishing in third position was Bindu Juneja with a distance of 202.164 km. She improved her personal record by a huge margin of 17.2 km at this race.
“I was initially training alone in Darjeeling, where I stay. Then I was asked to shift to Bengaluru temporarily so that Santhosh Sir could monitor my training (Santhosh Padmanabhan is the manager of the Indian ultrarunning team). Many others lent support of various kinds to help me do this event,” she said. Sunita had recently secured the overall third position in the women’s race of Wipro Bengaluru Marathon 2025 and first in her age category of 18 to 35 years.
Sunita Subba
Indian men’s team was led by Geeno Antony, who covered a distance of 265.198 km, improving his own personal record by a staggering 26.5 km. In second position was Sugourav Goswami with a distance of 245.158 km and in third position was Ullas Narayana (229.779 km).
Amar Singh Devanda, the national record holder for 24-hours, fell back to fourth position with a distance of 225.048 km. He said he ran well for about 15 to 16 hours but could not keep up after that. However, his national record of 272.537 km set in April 2024 remains unbroken.
“My race went off very well. The effort that went into the training helped me immensely during the run,” Geeno said.
“My presence at the championship is not because of me alone. It’s the result of many sleepless nights, endless effort, and the silent teamwork behind me. Every step I took in the 24 Hours World Championship was powered by their support,” Geeno said.
Geeno Antony
At 245.158 km, Sugourav also bettered his personal record by a substantial margin. His previous best was 226 km set in March 2025 at the 24-hour Bengaluru Stadium Run. Nevertheless, he was not happy with his performance. “I could have done better but fatigue pulled down my performance. My conservative target was 150 km. I struggled a lot in the last three hours of the race,” he said.
A team of people including Nagaraj Adiga of Energiva and NEB Sports, Santhosh Padmanabhan, coach and team manager, Vivek Gopi (strength and conditioning), Samanivita (nutritionist), Abhishek Jagan (Sports Scientist), Hemant (race crew support for Geeno) among many others were responsible for the entire Indian team and made it possible for the runners to be there in Albi to represent the country, Geeno said.
In the men’s overall race, Andrii Tkachuk of Ukraine won the gold with a distance of 294.346 km. Silver was secured by Jo Inge Norum of Norway (285.513 km) and bronze by Matti Jonkka of Finland (283.699).
Indian team – Photo by Ashok Daniel
Team Standings
Among the women’s team, Great Britain and Northern Ireland won the gold (768.641 km), followed by Australia (744.601 km) and Japan (726.983).
The men’s team event was won by Finland (797.030 km. France secured silver (791.195) and Poland finished in bronze position (780.651 km).
Runners are required to run in a loop of 1,500 meters for a period of 24 hours starting October 18, 2025.
The author, Latha Venkatraman, is an independent journalist based in Mumbai.
Corina Van Dam, or Cocky, as she is popularly known in Mumbai, is a football coach and an endurance athlete involved in ultra and long-distance running, long distance swimming and triathlons. In September 2025, Cocky crossed the finish line of the 122 kilometre-long Silk Route Ultra in Ladakh, securing a third position among women finishers. This was her second attempt. In 2024, she had to DNF (did not finish). In a first-person account, Cocky writes about her experience at the event.
This was my second time at the Ladakh Marathon’s Silk Route Ultra and this time I finished…..!
In 2024, I DNF’ed (DNF = did not finish) when my body started leaning to the right during my descent to Leh. After South Pullu (19 kilometers before the finish) I decided to drop out after I realized that I was not able to observe my body was tilting. You can read more about that experience in the article that I wrote for Outrigger last year. With the experience and knowledge that I gained from many runners and coaches, I tried to prepare myself better this time around.
Initially, I was not even planning to participate in the 2025 edition of the Silk Route Ultra (SRU). I had qualified for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Marbella, Spain in November 2025 and I wanted to focus on that. But I just love ultra running and felt butterflies when the registration for SRU opened. So, after enjoying the Hell Race White Sand Ultra 100 km, I immediately signed up for SRU especially since I met the criteria for qualification. With Mr Motup (the organizer of the event) ‘threatening’ us every year that he will make qualification more difficult, I thought I should take my chance this year. It also helped that I was about to turn 60 and thought that soon I would be too slow to run a 100km within 14 hours.
From June onwards, I started to increase my running mileage, with a six-hour night run, a 50 km monsoon run and the 12-hour Mumbai Ultra as main training events while I also continued swimming and a bit of cycling. My plan was to spend a few days more on acclimatizing than in 2024 and therefore planned to take a bus to Manali and from there to Leh. However, the weeks before, rains lashed across Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand. Villages disappeared under mud; people lost their lives. Traveling by road became an uncertain and risky endeavor. Especially with the hard rule that participants have to be physically present during the bib collection in Leh to ensure the acclimatization before an ultra-run at high altitude. I made the decision early enough to secure a place on a plane and reached Ladakh in time. Others were not that lucky as flights got canceled. Runners got stuck and many missed the opportunity to participate despite the one-day relief granted by the organization for those with verified reasons for delay.
I had just arrived in Ladakh when I got the message that Shyam G. Menon had died. I had met him only a few times, but he has always been very interested in my stories. With Outrigger, he has given me a platform to share my first Ironman Goa experience, my race in the Ironman 70.3 world championships in 2023 and last year’s DNF in the Silk Route Ultra in my own words. I consider Latha a friend and could only imagine the pain that she felt. I’m writing this with gratitude to Shyam and hope that it will be what he expected it to be. May he rest in peace.
The days in Leh are always pleasant with a select group of ultra runners in the first week who do their morning runs, work a couple of hours and meet in the afternoon for coffee and banter. In the second week, there was an influx of running groups with many traveling for the first time to the Land of High Passes. I enjoyed the morning runs with friends and Ladakhi chai and flat bread with butter afterwards, and my afternoon walks, apricot pie, thukpa…! Two trips to Khardung La helped me to prepare for the race. The weather was not great on my first few days in Leh. It rained and it was cold. It snowed at K-top. I was mentally not prepared for ascending more than 50 kilometers in bad weather. My first assignment was to visualize walking a night in the snow and think about how I would face it. Being born and having grown up in the Netherlands its unpredictable weather probably helped me in the process and perhaps I’m better equipped than many other participants to deal with the cold. When I walked up the pass twice, I felt lightheaded and a sense of carelessness. This made me realize that when I cared about my tilting last year, this was actually a sign that I was psychologically aware. I was also confident that I would recognize this ‘state of carelessness’ during the race.
Finally, the day came and we traveled to Kyagar, the start line of the race. You would sign up for the race, just for this….! Mr Motup gives instructions, warns us and flags the busses off. Running friends came to see us for the journey and the race, akin to a school trip. I almost felt like crying. The journey was – of course – breathtaking – even when you have traveled it a few times. Some of the bends and inclines I remembered from previous years. Now I could see the mountains, the valley, the river. We settled into our hotel – comfortable rooms with a peaceful garden. Sufiya and I shared a room, again. We know each other’s habits and follow our own routines. That helped because increasingly we were becoming nervous! The cultural evening deflected our thoughts and kept us busy in between snacks and meals.
There was only one moment that I thought:’ I’m never going to do this again’ and that was when we were waiting for the mandatory blood pressure check. In 2024, it was a traumatic experience as I had to get tested three times, drink glasses of lukewarm water and eat raw garlic. This time I succeeded after two times and taking some wonder medicine on doctor’s advice that I refused last year.
The first part of the race goes through rolling hills and follows the river. It was pleasant, my legs were fresh, villagers cheered us on as if we were already close to finishing. Children gave us high fives and ran with us. There was some pressure to complete the first 27 kilometer in four hours but with last year’s experience, I knew I could do it. From Khalsar, the run becomes a walk. And to be honest, I love this part. I enjoyed walking alone in the night, the route lit by the moon and under a sky full of stars. I recognized the road, the route and knew that when I saw the lights of Khardung Village it would take a long time to get there….! Although I was walking mostly alone, I met ‘everyone’ at the SRU breakfast where we could fuel and get our warm jackets for the ascent to Khardung La. I left the village before the participants of Khardung La Challenge started their race. It was enjoyable to see the lights behind me meandering through the mountains. North Pullu (at17 kilometers) looked further this time but K-top (another 15 km) seemed closer. On my way to the top, I noticed another runner and I thought ‘he walks like a robot’. That was my sign to look closer at myself. I was still straight up.
I never spend much time at the top and didn’t even see the garlic soup stall…! I had tried to eat and drink at every 7km aid station and also use my own gels, Enerzal and snacks in between. But at some point, I was no longer thirsty and hungry. And how many dates and bananas can you eat? I was able to run a bit towards South Pullu where I was enthusiastically welcomed and told I was strong running in third position. Shortly after that I noticed that I now really started tilting again. Based on last year’s experience, I knew that this was because of low oxygen level, and probably dehydration due to which there are changes in the spinal cord fluid which cause the ‘leaning’. I don’t know if the leanings happen on the stronger or the weaker side of the body. I knew I had enough time in hand to complete the race walking. I didn’t care about finishing third or last. I thought: ‘This time I’m going to collect that finisher’s medal and jacket’. Confident, with optimism and songs in my head, I took off. Soon I could see Shanti Stupa, knowing that it was still far away but that it would come closer with every step I took. I made repeated calculations as the kilometer signs on the road were not in synch with the details that Garmin was giving me. The sun was relentless and where was this Mendak Mor, our last cut off point, a question in my mind. On the road behind me I saw many other runners. I was not the last. I reached Mendak Mor with an hour in hand.
Once you reach Leh, there is this extra loop through the city. I knew I was tilting, a lot. People told me to take it easy. I thought (and probably told them) ‘this is a race, isn’t it?’ and moved on. Someone gave me Coca Cola. I didn’t know him, I opened my mouth and he just poured it in. The garden walls along the road were very helpful to rest a bit. The hotel staff was sitting in front of Reeyork House, my home in Leh. They cheered me on and I tried to lean to the other side pretending that nothing was ‘wrong’ (when I reached the hotel later, they gave me coffee, made me noodles, so it was clear that my theatre act had failed…). When I reached Leh Market, I thought one moment: ‘I don’t want to finish like this’. I knew what it looked like. I told myself to ‘(wo)man up’ and finish ‘the bloody thing’. I don’t think I will be ever cheered on like this again. People shouted my name, applauded, smiled. I saw friends, a placard with my name, I high fived with those who had been standing there for hours. They were so happy and proud.
After the finish, I went straight to a stretcher for a powernap. Apparently, I had finished third. I couldn’t care less. Friends were peeping through the window of the recovery tent. I just waved at them, closed my eyes and only stood up for the award ceremony. The gifts were amazing: finishers shawl, medal and token and then a winners’ shawl, bronze medal and a trophy and prize money….! My main concern was, how to get this to the hotel with those four race bags. The Stride With Girish Bindra group – the loudest in Leh – helped me.
People ask me if I’m ‘okay’, even now, weeks later. I realize that some of them were happy, others proud, worried, inspired, intimidated, felt sorry for me, thought that it must have been painful (it was not). After a few hours of sleep my spine was straight again. The next morning at 7.00 am, I led the warming up for the Athlos shake out run and directly after, I went to the airport to catch my flight back to Mumbai.
A week later I swam Dusk to Dawn, Mumbai Sea Swimmers’ endurance swimming event, in which I completed 23,1 kilometer in its 12-hour race.
Abhishek Pal, Seema top finishers among Indian runners
Kenyan runners Alex Matata and Lilian Rengeruk won the men’s and women’s half marathon race at the Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon, held on October 12, 2025 in the capital city.
Alex Matata finished the race in 59.50 minutes to claim the men’s half marathon crown.
In the women’s race, Lilian Rengeruk, also of Kenya, completed the distance in 1:07:20 hours.
This was the second time in the 20 years of the race’s history that Kenyans were winning the men’s and women’s title. The previous double win by Kenyan runners came in 2006.
Finishing second behind Matata was Ethiopia’s Bayelign Teshager (1:00:22) and third was Kenya’s James Kipkogei (1:00:25).
In the women’s race finishing behind Rengeruk was Melal Biratu in second position (1:07:21) and Mulat Tekle (1:07:29) in third position, both from Ethiopia.
The Indian title was clinched by Abhishek Pal (1:04:17) in the men’s race and Seema (1:11:23) in the women’s race.
Abhishek Pal had previously won the Delhi Half Marathon in 2018 and 2023. In April 2025, he was the Indian winner of TCS World 10 K Bengaluru and finished overall seventh with a timing of 29:12 minutes.
“I was happy with my training and my race. But I could have done better if I had company during the race. Pacing with another runner always helps improve our timing,” Abhishek said.
Indian team for 100 k IAU Asia Oceania Championships 2025 chosen
The Ultra and Trail Running Selection Committee of AFI has chosen the team of ultrarunners to represent the country at the 100 k IAU Asia Oceania Championships to be held in Bangkok, Thailand on November 23, 2025.
Male ultrarunners include Vipul Kumar, Amar Singh Devanda, Saurav Kumar Ranjan, Binay Sah, Geeno Antony, Velu Perumal, Devarao Choudhari, Sanap Jagannath and Jayadrath Singh.
Women runners chosen to participate include Jayalakshmi Balakrishnan, Aarti Zanwar, Sindhu Umesh, Rajni Singh, Tenzin Dolma and Namgyal Lhamo.
(The author, Latha Venkatraman, is an independent journalist based in Mumbai)
The Ultra and Trail Running Selection Committee of Indian Athletics (formerly Athletics Federation of India) met on May 1 to decide on the team of ultra runners to represent India at the IAU 24 Hour World Championship scheduled to be held in Albi, France over October 18 and 19, 2025.
Twelve runners (six women and six men) will be representing the country. Two additional runners have also been chosen as stand-by for both the men’s team as well as the women’s.
The women’s team comprises Aparna Choudhary, Shashi Mehta, Sunita Subba, Bindu Juneja, Arti Agrawal and Sadiya Salim Savy. Sufiya Sufi will be the back-up runner.
The men’s team includes Amar Singh Devanda, Ullas Narayana, Saurav Kumar Ranjan, Geeno Antony, Velu Perumal and Sugourav Goswami. Badal Teotia will be the back-up runner.
(The author, Latha Venkatraman, is an independent journalist based in Mumbai)
Ashwini Ganapathi fell short of an overall win at the Bengaluru BigFoot Backyard Ultra but set a new national best for women.
She ran for 28 hours (covering 6.7 kilometres in each hour) notching up a total mileage of 187.6 km, a new national best by a woman in this format of ultra running. The previous record of 27 hours (180.9 km) was held by Aparna Choudhary, which she set in October 2024.
The overall winner of the Bengaluru BigFoot Backyard Ultra 2025 was Thoudam Opendro Singh. He ran for 29 hours. The event was held on May 10, 2025.
The backyard ultra, also known as the last runner standing, is a format of ultra running in which runners are required to run a loop of 6.7 km within an hour. Every new hour runners who have completed the 6.7 km in the previous hour continue their running until the last surviving runner is declared the winner. This winner is also the sole finisher of the race.
“ The Backyard Ultra is an interesting format of ultra running and I had wanted to attempt it for some time now,” Ashwini said.
The concept of backyard ultra was founded by Gary Cantrell of Tennessee (also known as Lazarus Lake). He is the founder and race director of Barkleys Marathon.
Ashwini Ganapathi
“ I paced my run in such a manner so as to get seven to eight minutes time in each hour to get rest and nutrition before the next hour started,” Ashwini said. She managed to finish well within the 60-minute cut-off for most of her 28 hours barring one when she had a close call. She had to help a runner get back to the finish line.
The rules of this format of ultra running mandate that runners not take any external help or aid from passers-by or friends while on the route. But at the end of each loop, they can be assisted by their support crew. Ashwini’s support crew consisted of her husband Sandeep and Anand Adkoli, race director of Malnad Ultra.
“ When we started at 6 am on May 10, 2025, we were 20 runners. As the hours went by, runners kept dropping out. At the 18th hour only four runners remained and by the 22nd hour only two of us were left – Opendro Singh and me. I continued till the 28th hour. I gave up as I had developed blisters on my feet. Opendro Singh continued for the 29th hour to win the race,” she said.
The national best for men in this format – 52 hours – is held by Sunil Sharma. He set this record in October 2024.
Ashwini also holds the national record for 12 hours with a mileage of 111.8 km.
(The author, Latha Venkatraman, is an independent journalist based in Mumbai)
Amar Singh Devanda sets a new national record in 12 hour run at Bengaluru Stadium Run 2025
Aparna Choudhary, Geeno Antony take top honours in 24-hour run
Ultra runner Amar Singh Devanda bettered his own national record in the 12-hour run at the 24-hour Stadium Run Bengaluru held on March 30 and 31, 2025.
Amar ran a distance of 151.6 kilometres during the stipulated 12 hours, smashing his own record of 145.2 km set previously. He also holds the current national record for 24-hours with a distance of 272.54 km covered.
Aparna Choudhary (photo: courtesy Aparna)
In the 24-hour run category, Aparna Choudhary and Geeno Antony won in the women’s and men’s categories respectively. They qualified for the IAU 24-Hour World Championship to be held in Albi, France later this year.
In the women’s race in the 12-hour category, Bengaluru-based Bindu Juneja finished with top honours covering a distance of 108.8 km.
Amar Devanda’s training for the 12-hour run was a coordinated effort of the NEB Performance Team, which included a nutritionist, a running coach and a strength and conditioning coach. “ The training was devised with a scientific approach,” he said. As Amar has already qualified for the World Championship, the focus was to step up his pace in the 12-hour run so as to attempt the same pace during a 24-hour run.
“ My run went as per the plan laid out by the coaches,” he said. Post event, his recovery has also been quite good. “ I should shortly commence my training for the World Championship,” he said.
Aparna Choudhary, winner of the women’s 24-hour run, said she was confident going into the race as her training went well. Aparna normally does her training runs in the afternoon, therefore the weather adversities did not trouble her during the race.
Sugourav Goswami and Arti Agrawal
On race day, weather was pleasant in the early hours at Bengaluru but got progressively tough with harsh sun and gradual rise in temperature.
“ I did suffer some gut issues, which really got bad. Lalita (race director of India Backyard Ultra), the person crewing for me, saved the day. I also ended up with hip flexor issues, a common problem that I have faced in many of my ultra runs,” Aparna said. In the 24-hour run, she covered a distance of 192 km.
In February 2025, Aparna had finished overall first in the 338 km run at Vineyard Ultra 2025 held in Nashik. She also won the women’s race of the Border 100-mile run held in December 2024. She has been running events for the past few months including marathons and ultra runs.
Arti Agrawal, who finished second in the women’s 24-hour race, had entered the event with very little training. “ I have a full-time job and a family to take care of,” she said. But she did a few ultra runs including the 100-mile race of Border Ultra 2024, Adani Ahmedabad Marathon 2024, Tata Mumbai Marathon 2025, Jaipur Marathon 2025 and Tata Ultra 2025. “ I took these races as my training runs for the 24-hour run,” she said. During the stipulated 24 hours, Arti covered a distance of 182.8 km.
Geeno Antony (photo: courtesy Geeno)
Geeno Antony, who secured the top position in the men’s 24-hour run also went through a vigorous 10-week training program before the event. “ This time around my training plan was designed by Santhosh Padmanabhan (also the manager of the Indian ultra runners’ team). Training included very long runs leading to a weekly mileage of 200-220 km sometimes,” he said.
As part of his training, Geeno did a 10-hour run, four night runs and four six-hour runs.
“ On race day, I started conservatively so as to stay consistent through the 24 hours. But I did lose the last 50 minutes due to an injury. It was a setback to lose that time but my coach asked to me to stop, a prudent decision in hindsight,” Geeno said. He covered a distance of 238.8 km, a new personal record of 300 meters.
Velu Perumal (photo: courtesy Velu)
Velu Perumal, who finished second in the 24-hour race, was targeting a distance of 245-250 km but finished with 233.2 km. Having done much of his training in the cool climate of Ooty, Velu did find the daytime heat at the Bengaluru stadium difficult. Velu, an army man, is now posted at the Military Hospital at Coonoor in Ooty. His training went off well with inputs from Santhosh Padmanabhan and support from Brigadier Muthana, Military Hospital Commandant.
Sugourav Goswami, who finished third behind Velu, had also stepped up his training ahead of going into the race. “ I had the longest training session with higher intensity, increased distance and time. I was running a distance of 150-170 km every week,” he said. Sugourav, who finishing third, covered a distance of 226 km, thereby qualifying for the World Championship. To qualify for the IAU 24-Hour World Championship, male runners have to cover a distance of 225 km and women runners 180 km during a 24 hour run, as per Indian Athletics guidelines.
“ My race went as per plan, near perfect. As I train around a lake in Bengaluru, I was used to running in a loop,” Sugourav said. But the long hours did prove challenging. The Bengaluru-based ultra-runner has participated in many ultra-running events. This run was his first ever stadium run. “ The longest time I had been on my feet in a running event was 18 hours. At the stadium run, I did find the last few hours tough. I struggled in the last three hours,” he said. He had devised his own training plan.
Bindu Juneja (photo: courtesy Bindu)
In the 12-hour women’s race Bindu Juneja was the winner covering a distance of 108.8 km. “ This was a personal best for me but I am tad disappointed that I could not break the national record of 111.8 km (currently held by Ashwini Ganapathi),” she said.
Her training was executed very well with guidance from Santhosh but on race day she did face some gut issues. Nevertheless, in the last one hour of the race, Bindu managed to cover 10.5 km to take her total mileage to 108.8 km.
The 100 km race was won by Jayadrath who finished in 7:59:33.
The NEB organized stadium run in Bengaluru was held to enable ultra-runners qualify for the upcoming IAU 24 Hour World Championship.
(The author, Latha Venkatraman, is an independent journalist based in Mumbai)
Outrigger 