The Furan (Photo: courtesy Psynyde Bikes)

It’s the hour of the Furan, a game changer for Psynyde Bikes.

Wikipedia describes Furan as a heterocyclic organic compound; one that is a colourless, flammable, highly volatile liquid with a boiling point close to room temperature. At Psynyde, Furan is a hardtail mountain bike (MTB). It represents the first time, Psynyde Bikes – a small enterprise funded by “ friends and family’’ – is making a departure from custom-built bicycles and launching a product for the larger market. Doing so, they have to move through all the regular motions of a bicycle manufacturer from finding the best way to make the bicycle, selling it and supporting it in the market.

The story is longer still, if one sees Pune based-Psynyde as a response by riders to the shortcomings of the Indian bicycle market, dominated for decades by a clutch of manufacturers churning out large volumes in protected economy. Thanks in large part to one man – Shiv Inder Singh, one of the founders of Firefox Bikes (subsequently bought by Hero Cycles) – a market for premium bicycles opened up in India. Away from the main market, cyclists like Praveen Prabhakaran and Vinay Menon, tapped into their personal learning to start initiatives such as Psynyde (for more on the origin of Psynyde, please try this link: https://shyamgopan.wordpress.com/2014/02/06/the-story-of-psynyde/).

Making custom-built bikes, Psynyde catered to a small niche of customers for whom, premium didn’t necessarily mean perfect. At that level of search, the bicycle world entailed materials science, computer aided design, frame geometry, welding technology and the like; basically the quest to make a perfectly fitting bicycle that also addressed the application in mind. There is much learning here but as Praveen said, it can also be a bit difficult sometimes coping with unrealistic deadlines and customer expectations. It was from this backdrop that the Furan, Psynyde’s first hardtail MTB to be made in large numbers, took wing. Two aspects qualify the Psynyde approach. First there is the obvious – they see their products as designed, tested and made by riders. Second, both Praveen and Vinay are clear: they wish to be in the performance segment, which at present is a niche within the premium category of bicycles. “ We want to address serious cyclists,’’ Praveen said.

A bicycle component – a stem; the part connecting the handlebar to the fork – made by Psynyde Bikes (Photo: courtesy Psynyde Bikes)

The premium category can be broadly divided into three types of bicycles – road bikes, hybrids and MTBs. Road bikes are popularly called “racing cycle’’ in India. The MTB segment, born for uneven terrain and previously little known, became popular once the market opened up. The hybrid, as the term denotes, straddles the lightness of a road bike and the off-roading capability of a MTB without being pronounced in either. It is a flexible, overlapping segment gaining much popularity of late. Psynyde’s need to be identified with performance meant the hybrid was automatically ruled out for want of sharp definition. While Psynyde has custom-built road bikes, they did it using steel, a material that has advanced much in terms of metallurgy and machining. A discerning client will comprehend a light road bike made of special steel. But the market revered carbon fibre as ultimate in light weight road bikes. Psynyde is yet to acquire familiarity with carbon fibre. On the other hand, although there are good performance grade aluminum road bikes internationally, in India for some reason they are perceived as `entry level.’ Further, the posture adopted on a road bike isn’t exactly the market’s sweet spot. It is radical; an effort to sustain and to that extent, defining a road biker rigidly to the expense of other cycling styles. Looking for a product to debut with in the market, Psynyde’s focus therefore shifted to the MTB segment. MTBs attracted for a variety of reasons. To begin with, both Praveen and Vinay had a background in mountain biking with Vinay ending up among the best freeriders in India. When the Indian bicycle market opened up, the MTB was what everyone rushed to buy. Many people subsequently upgraded to hybrids and road bikes. But the entry was through MTBs, pointing to a fascination for the model. For its first mass produced bike, Psynyde decided to go with a MTB.

Next step was to decide which particular segment of MTB, seemed best to make a mark in. The MTB category can be roughly divided into three: cross country, trail bike and all-mountain. The cross country bicycle is designed to spend long hours off-road. It is usually strong at tackling uphill. What it occasionally misses is good control at aggressive levels of riding. According to Vinay, many of the MTBs currently sold in India are closer to this technical set up in lineage. All-mountain on the other hand, showcases control including in aggressive riding that pushes the limits. It typically has a wider handle bar and shorter stem. It tends to be tad heavier but is capable of greater control at higher speeds.  In the middle, sort of like a hybrid within the MTB segment, is the trail bike. Its geometry too is amenable to decent control when pushing the limits. A fourth segment – fat bike, featuring fat tyres – has started showing up in India, but for now, it is a novelty. The Furan was imagined as a performance MTB that could also be used on roads. Psynyde decided that a versatile trail bike is what the Furan must aspire to be.

The Furan (Photo: courtesy Psynyde Bikes)

Having resolved to build a trail bike focused on performance, the question next was: how do you define the performance package in a machine that is a composite of frame and outsourced components made to different quality levels and performance parametres? “ Our story is a lot similar to brands like Marin, GT and Specialized – all of who began as frame builders,’’ Vinay said. Like its wing is to an airplane, in a bicycle, the most important part is the frame. Every bicycle manufacturer worth its salt, stakes its reputation on the frame; its geometry and build quality. For Psynyde’s Furan too, its DNA would reside in the frame. That’s the calling card. Other components can vary to provide affordability. The Furan frame was thus matched to different combinations of components. Across the three finishes of Furan offered on the same frame, one critical component stayed the same – a fork with 120mm travel; it was in line with the performance segment the bike wished to be in. Very importantly and in a step unique for the Indian market, it was also decided to sell the Furan frame separately allowing dedicated cyclists in the market to build a cycle with components of their choice.

Next was firming up wheel size. By early 2016, when the idea of Furan was assuming shape, the global MTB market had split into three main wheel sizes: 26 inches, 27.5 and 29 – all having strong reasons for being what each is. The standard used to be 26. Altering wheel size shakes up the market. Existing frames, forks and suspensions become redundant when wheel size changes. It makes existing customers insecure. It puts new ones at the mercy of what companies dish out as logic for the shifts. The core reason for moving into dimensions bigger than 26 inch-diametre – the erstwhile standard – is roll over ability. As the term denotes, a bigger wheel rolls over obstacles easier; it also covers more distance. To complicate matters, even as they suddenly lost fancy for 26, big bicycle manufacturers who committed investments towards their chosen new standard, polarized in their preference for 27.5 and 29. This created the impression that money power and not users will decide trends. As if that is not enough, the manufacturers too appear to be undecided which way the wind will blow for some of their bicycle frames are capable of hosting more than one wheel size. In markets like India, where cycles are bought and retained for long due to less money with customers, such tricky shifts worry. What should Psynyde do? “ We grew up on 26, we are all 26 fans. If I am doing jumps with my bicycle, I still prefer 26,’’ Vinay said. At the same time, you have to accommodate the future and provide for versatile use, which includes covering distance on roads. One thing mattered – as a performance bicycle, expected to be put to punishing use, the Furan couldn’t risk flex in the rim. It seemed wise to embrace the future conservatively. The 27.5 was closer to 26 than 29. It was decided that the Furan should have 27.5 inch wheels.

Praveen Prabhakaran (left) and Vinay Menon (Photo: Shyam G Menon)

All through Psynyde’s journey, Praveen had been the brain behind design and manufacture. He was the one custom-building bikes and who in the process acquired knowledge of materials and welding techniques. While Praveen worked on the Furan’s design, the team searched for a factory that would build the frame from 6061 aluminum alloy. India is a price sensitive market dabbling still in steel for much of its bicycle manufacture. It does not yet support the economics of manufacturing 6061 frames to affordable cost nor does it have the required finesse in aluminum welding techniques. The place to look for was China. Praveen emphasized a point here. China is the global powerhouse in bicycle manufacturing. Many of the world’s leading brands of bicycles are made at factories in Taiwain, China, Vietnam and elsewhere in South East Asia. Investing in scale, the Chinese have a reputation for being low cost. It is also fashionable to associate the Chinese with poor quality. “ What is closer to reality is that they will make a product as you wish it to be. If you ask for a low quality bicycle, you will get a low quality bicycle. What we forget is that we blame the source based on what product we chose to sell in the market, ignoring who decided product specifications in the first place,’’ he said.

Sudeep Mane (Photo: courtesy Psynyde Bikes)

Sudeep Mane is a statistician. He grew up in Pune. His first job after completing studies was with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. Finding himself interested in archery, he trained in the sport at Army Sports Institute (ASI) for about a year. Later he took up trekking. By then he had moved to his second job, at SAS Research & Development. His engagement with the outdoors growing, he decided to do his Basic Mountaineering Course from the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) in Darjeeling. Upon finding it hard to obtain leave for a month – the duration of the basic course – he quit his job and proceeded to do the mountaineering course. His third job – this time with the US headquartered-IT company CNSI – found him based in Chennai. For a person liking outdoors and Pune’s hills, this was different terrain. So Sudeep focused his attention on training for the triathlon. As part of this, he bought an entry level Schwinn MTB. He also learnt swimming. A year and a half later, Sudeep took part in the triathlon organized by Chennai Trekking Club. He realized the sport wasn’t his forte; his swimming was not up to the mark. But he had made a discovery: he liked cycling. He had found something he wished to pursue. His inquiries revealed that the best bike would be a custom built one. On the Internet, he stumbled upon Praveen’s blog about building cycles. The blog appeared an on-off affair without systematic updates. Sudeep mailed Praveen. “ I mailed him exactly five words: do you still do this?’’ Sudeep said.

The Furan being tested in Spiti. Rider: Ajay Padval (Photo: courtesy Psynyde Bikes)

Praveen built a bicycle for Sudeep; a road bike named Psynyde Projectile. Meanwhile Chennai was working on Sudeep. The city had a fairly big community of cyclists. “ Early mornings I would probably find two to three times more cyclists in Chennai than in Pune,’’ Sudeep said. Slowly the idea of a good quality bicycle in an Indian market progressively getting ready for it, took shape. In May 2015, Sudeep got in touch with Praveen and Vinay and pitched the idea of a partnership in making bicycles. Committing himself to the move wasn’t exactly easy for Sudeep. Having no previous experience as entrepreneur, he wondered whether he should do a MBA. Two things helped. A professor he knew at Mumbai’s Wellingkar Institute guided him; officials at the company he worked for – CNSI, were supportive. Today Praveen, Vinay and Sudeep are the core equity investors at Psynyde Bikes. Sudeep coming aboard had immediate impact. The enterprise acquired structure and a sense of urgency. In January 2016, Psynyde Bikes moved to official address on 1000 square feet space at a MIDC-industrial estate in Pune. “ Praveen was building cycles. Neither he nor I was thinking of how to sell it. I knew how to test a bicycle. Sudeep gave the idea concrete shape. That was needed. Otherwise, we would have still been chilling, taking it easy,’’ Vinay said. Sudeep oversees the finance function at Psynyde. He handled Psynyde’s dealings in China.

According to Praveen, the typical Chinese manufacturer keeps a catalogue of already designed products. Many brands order bicycles from the catalogue. What is bought is then badged to sport a given brand’s name. “ We were approaching a Chinese manufacturer with a bicycle frame we designed. We knew what kind of frame we wanted; we merely wished to get it built and produced in numbers. We were also uncompromising on specs,’’ Praveen said. By April 2016, two Furan frames and their associated components had arrived in Pune. Two bikes were assembled. Vinay headed to Spiti in Himachal Pradesh to test the MTB. With him was Ajay Padval, an upcoming mountain biker, currently part of a Psynyde sponsored-team of cyclists. They tested the Furan for a month in the mountains. They also participated in some mountain bike races. The Furan had a couple of finishes in the top ten-category, Vinay said.

The Furan in Spiti (Photo: courtesy Psynyde Bikes)

In early November when we met for this article, the Furan was in the stage of crowd funded-sales. About 120 bikes or so were totally on offer in the initial phase. Orders placed – as visible on the crowdfunding site in early November – were very few. Less than 10 days remained for campaign’s close. Neither the demand for Furan nor the level of funds raised by then (a little over one tenth of what they stated as goal) bothered Praveen and Vinay. They said there had been healthy enquiries for the bike from riders and dealers long known to them. While around 70 dealers who are into performance bikes, showed interest, about 25-30 of them have agreed to stock the Furan to gauge market response. “ The crowd funding campaign provides us visibility because news of the Furan gets dispersed thanks to the very nature of crowd funding. Being a small outfit, our budget for marketing is otherwise very low,’’ Vinay said. Sudeep provided insight into the start-up company’s finances. Broadly speaking, the money for investment has come from people who empathize with cycling, understand the product and have noticed the Indian bicycle market or believe in the promoters, their background in cycling and their commitment to it. He approached several banks for funding but nothing worked. Their procedures wouldn’t allow them to take a position on a new bicycle venture like this. So investors other than the promoters have put in their funds as loans. It is currently debt but should the company hit revenues forecast, it can be converted into equity. Otherwise it is money to be repaid. Interestingly these investors include some senior corporate officials, who have invested in their personal capacity.

The Furan being tested (Photo: courtesy Psynyde Bikes)

Deliveries of the Furan were slated to commence by mid-December. “ As regards where the Furan is in the Indian bicycling scenario, it is in a good spot right now. There are a small number of people who understand performance bikes. They will identify with our journey. We are also in no hurry to grow,’’ Vinay said. According to him, the Furan has the required quality certification to sell in the Indian market. Rider friends from overseas have shown interest. While they can pick it up in India, supplying the Furan to dealers overseas, even in limited numbers, will take time, for due certifications have to be obtained.

According to Praveen, the foray into manufacturing the Furan had another reason too; a secondary one. Psynyde had machined bicycle components in the past. These components were periodically disclosed on the outfit’s Facebook page. The components were meant for discerning riders. Fact is – you can’t have a market of discerning riders seeking high end components, unless the market has an idea of a good ride. For that, you need good bicycles. If the Furan can pull it off in its chosen segment, then Psynyde’s capacity to design and machine high performance components, also stands to gain. Vinay assigned five years for Psynyde’s Furan phase to play out. When that draws to a close – maybe earlier, maybe tad later – he expected to see others like him, Praveen and Sudeep enter the performance category with bicycles they designed. That would spell competition. But it is also the spirit of Psynyde, vindicated.

(The author, Shyam G Menon, is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai.)                    

Kavitha Kanaparthi (Photo: Shyam G Menon)

Talking to Kavitha Kanaparthi, whose company Globeracers manages a diverse portfolio of ultramarathons in India.

In August 2005, Kavitha Kanaparthi was in Bengaluru to settle a pending legal matter.

An American citizen, she had five weeks for the purpose. Her plan was to finish the work in Bengaluru and get back to the US, where a job in government awaited her. She had been selected for it and training was due to begin. But the legal issue needed urgent attention; it demanded closure. She had requested her employers for time and secured those five weeks. What unfolded in Bengaluru was completely unexpected. A Pandora’s Box opened up. Legalities extended correspondingly. The five weeks grew to a wait of three years. By the time closure was reached, she had long lost the job she was selected for. She was upset, at a difficult juncture in life and yet again with running as sole companion to escape world and its ways.

Kavitha is no stranger to both – difficult situations and running. There is a video on the Internet, of one of her lectures, wherein she mentions an old road accident. It happened in 1988. She was on a cycle and was hit by a bus, the impact sending her flying some 25 feet into the air before crashing back to the ground. “ I pretty much broke all the bones in my body,’’ she says in the talk. Further, her face was damaged. The Kavitha of today is a “ pretty good patch work’’ done by her father, who is a doctor. “ This is not the original me,’’ she tells her audience. In the immediate aftermath of the accident she suffered from amnesia, unable to recognize anyone including her parents. She had to cope with a long path to recovery and even now its legacy is felt occasionally. In fact, she came for our chat in a Bengaluru suburb, wearing an orthopedic prop to support a wrist, a case of old accident’s aftermath periodically acting up. Her education too appears to have been fraught with penalties from society, incurred periodically for being true to her instinct. Through all this, sport remained part of her life. “ I was already competing as a runner when I was 8-9 years old,’’ she said. There were gaps – accident being one – but running was something she always got back to.

In 2008, while stuck in Bengaluru, she spoke to a friend about attempting ` The Amazing Race.’ It is an American reality competition show in which typically, eleven teams of two race around the world. The process of application required submission of a video. To shoot that, in May 2009, they went to run in the Sandakphu area on the West Bengal-Nepal border. Her friend had run there before. In all there were six persons of which, three were runners; they did the run from Mane Bhanjang to Sandakphu and back in four days. Till the time of my meeting her in mid-2016, Kavitha had not run a formal marathon at an organized event, save an exception at the request of her friend Nagaraj Adiga, when she ran the 2014 Bengaluru Marathon.  City marathons are not her cup of tea. “ I love mountains. I love trails and I like being out there on my own,’’ she said. Kavitha was brought up at her village in Andhra Pradesh and then, in Vijayawada. After finishing her school education in the city, she had moved to the US and attended Washington University in St Louis. She found much happiness running and cycling in the forests there. Her love for trail and respect for solitude likely comes from this phase. As for professional qualification, she holds a degree in electrical engineering, something she has described in her talks as “ by default’’ given what she subsequently did in life had little to do with the degree she obtained. A sliver of what lay ahead surfaced in the Sandakphu run. It was the electrical engineer with a fondness for running who put the entire run together. Her friends were impressed by how she organized it. That’s how the suggestion that she organize races, took shape. “ I was very excited about it,’’ she said. She wrote about her new experiences on a blog and called it – Globeracers.

A race briefing (Photo: courtesy Globeracers)

Immediately after that Sandakphu run, she chanced to go to Jodhpur and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. The regular tourist circuit bored her. Somebody said: why don’t you visit Pokhran? Kavitha shifted to Pokhran and stayed there for a couple of days. One day, seeing sand dunes in the distance, she spontaneously embarked on a run, “ much to the consternation of my hosts.’’ She thoroughly enjoyed the run. Her hosts having understood her interest in running shared her enthusiasm to organize a race in the region. “ Over the next three days, we planned out the whole race,’’ Kavitha said. In Bengaluru, she got down to the job of rechecking the distances involved. Then she changed her blog into a website and created a home for the event she had in mind. She also posted information about the event on the Runner’s World website. “ I expected nothing out of it,’’ she said. Nevertheless, organizing the event in Rajasthan excited as idea. “ I thought I will organize races for a living. Each recce takes me to a new place, I have to run to locate trails and get a feel of how things are. Organizing a race seemed the thing to do in life. It really comes down to my need to be in wild landscapes. These locations aren’t the type where one goes to spend an hour or two. They are best experienced over days. Ultras allow me to spend that time outdoors. I don’t feel the need to organize shorter distances. There are one too many offering it already,’’ she said. Finally there was also that bonus: when you organize an ultramarathon, you meet other ultra-runners. As a breed, ultra-runners aren’t as many as the marathon lot. It is a smaller community.

To get the event up and going, Kavitha spoke to Santhosh Padmanabhan of Runners’ High. Through him, she got in touch with Arun Bhardwaj, who has been a pioneer among Indian ultramarathon runners and who by then was participating in events overseas and faring well in many of them. However the first person to register for the race in Rajasthan was a German citizen working with Mercedes Benz in India. Two days later, a runner from Canada enrolled. Then two runners from Singapore signed up. The Pokhran run was planned for December 2009. She had six months to prepare. During that time, Kavitha did the recce twice. She didn’t want the race to be on the road. It had to be trail. The markers for the GPS were picked up during the recce. Her route started in Pokhran and ended in Jodhpur, 210 km away. It was a good enough distance for a multi stage ultramarathon. Arun wanted to do this at one go. The interest all around was encouraging. But there were challenges. Kavitha didn’t have the required capital to invest. On the other hand, high race fee, which is usually the norm when races happen in remote locations (cost of organizing, overheads etc), cannot be shouldered by all. For instance, according to Kavitha, when Arun signed up for the run in Pokhran, he wasn’t in a position to pay the fee decided by race economics. You have to take talent along. A race being organized for the first time, struggles.

From one of the editions of Bhatti Lakes Ultra. Arun Bhardwaj (third from left), in blue T-shirt (Photo: courtesy Globeracers)

Given Pokhran as location, Rajasthan Tourism helped. Approvals from the local administration took some time to materialize. In 2009, India’s biggest marathon – the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon (SCMM) – was itself only five years old. Although growing, the running culture was an urban phenomenon; that too most seen in big cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi. Ultramarathons were known mainly to distance runners and within that, to a limited lot. Most people had no clue what the discipline held or why anyone would be so mad as to run extremely long distances. Add to it, the spectre of going off road and into an arid desert. Initially officials at ground level couldn’t understand what the organizers were up to. When they grasped the idea of ultramarathon, they tried to steer the race on to the road, something Kavitha didn’t want. She preferred off road and trail. Eventually permissions had, about half a dozen participants ran the first edition of the Thar Desert Run. Arun’s blog entry on the race mentions that he ran it at one go because that suited his style; besides, he didn’t have that many days to spare. He finished the whole 210 km in 31 hours, 20 minutes. It was with the Thar Desert Run that Globeracers firmly left the world of being blog and became race organizer. The event was run again in 2012 with seven runners.

The best known race from Globeracers’ portfolio is Bhatti Lakes Ultra. According to Kavitha, that race was the fallout of a need felt by Arun Bhardwaj. He hadn’t run the iconic Badwater Ultramarathon, staged every year in California’s Death Valley. Until then, no Indian living in India had completed Badwater. In 2010, Chris Kostman, the Race Director of Badwater Ultramarathon, visited India at Kavitha’s invitation. It was part of a quest to get Arun to Badwater. Participation in the race is by invitation. While the visit provided the Race Director an opportunity to meet Arun and gauge his interest, Arun needed a 100 mile-race, an officially accepted Badwater qualifier. Kavitha was staying in Gurgaon at this time.  A friend, Prem Bedi, spoke of a place to run near Delhi, essentially a trail-run in a region hosting five lakes. They went to the said area and tried the trail. The local people said they will help organize the race. On race day, 19 people turned up to run the inaugural Bhatti Lakes Ultra, most of them for the shorter distances. Arun ran the entire 100 miles. The 19 participants were despite no marketing. “ There was no thought in me that I should market the race. For me, it was all goodwill. There were embassy officials; there was a race organizer from Nepal. My learning from organizing races is – logistics. I feel insulted if I have to market a race. I am not looking for a large number of participants. I would like to know my runners by name, know what they want, what they eat, what makes them run,’’ Kavitha said. The Bhatti Lakes Ultra has since been organized every year. According to her, the runners who come to Bhatti Lakes are serious runners.  “ I believe they have a sense of accomplishment at my races. That is among the reasons that make us special,’’ Kavitha said of Globeracers and its races. The 2016 race was the seventh edition of Bhatti Lakes. As for Arun, after that first edition, he went on to successfully complete the Badwater Ultramarathon in 2011, the first Indian from India, to do so.

From one of the editions of Ultra BOB (Photo: Globeracers)

Besides being a distance runner, Kavitha is a keen cyclist. When in Bengaluru, she used to cycle from the city to Ootacamund (Ooty).  Those trips became the bedrock for her next ultramarathon event – a run in the Nilgiris. The first edition of this race in 2012 December had just two runners; they had been to Globeracers’ Bhatti Lakes Ultra before. The Nilgiris Ultra has been happening every year since. However participation grew at snail’s pace. In the second edition, the number of runners was again low – three. It was in the fourth edition that the number of participants moved up marginally. Kavitha is clear she is not looking for a large number of participants. She however acknowledged that it is hard economics to tackle when numbers are low. In fact, as a whole, the paradigm of organizing ultramarathons in India makes for difficult economics, given the sport is still in familiarization phase. The difficulty is arguably more when the event entails genuine distance and challenges, isn’t cast as loops in a city stadium or loops over a contained course in a city or its outskirts. Running in remote locations or point to point on a road away from main cities, entails cost. Sponsors shy away from such events because brand visibility is little. Participation is low, at best modest, because it is a niche sport. The same economics characterized her next event – an ultramarathon in Uttarkashi. Kavitha had once run the Har Ki Dun trail. But a race on it never materialized; it exists still as an idea in the mind. Instead, in the ensuing years, she recced the road route from Rishikesh to Uttarkashi with Gaurav Madan and decided to go ahead with a race on it – a 220 km single stage ultramarathon. For the first race in August 2012, she had two runners. Next year the event wasn’t held owing to floods in Uttarakhand. But it has been held annually thereafter. Participation was always in the range of two, three or four runners.

Kavitha used the description“ stabilized’’ only for the Bhatti Lakes Ultra. The rest are an annual challenge, she said. Race location away from media filled cities, tough economics of organization and low to modest participation levels make her races among the more expensive ultramarathons in India. An apt sponsor to share the cost is hard to find. What makes this a tough deal to strike is that she finds relevance in cash sponsorship to meet expenses related to organizing and logistics. Such sponsors are hard to find; product sponsors are comparatively easy. In the absence of cash sponsorship for working capital, ultramarathon events are an endurance test for organizer too. “ Visibility and sponsorship haven’t been my focus. I prefer to focus on runners’ needs and not sponsors’ demands. Finances are tough and we hope our planning and execution will be honed well enough to keep wastage to a minimum while not compromising on quality,’’ she said. Likely echoing the same rationale is her reply to another observation a few runners (this blog contacted) had about her races – you rarely find any big names from overseas participating. “ That is not correct. We have had good participants from overseas. However, one thing about us is – big or small, we treat everyone the same,” she said.

Himalayan Crossing (Photo: courtesy Globeracers)

Except for two or three events organized at irregular intervals, Kavitha has so far kept most Globeracers events happening every year despite participation levels. There is also something else you notice – she appears to add events even when already commenced ones are yet to stabilize. Some may question this approach. But the flip side would theoretically be – it gives her a portfolio of races, not one or two. While it is hard to see benefits of scale in a multi-location activity with much location specific nuances, portfolio means richer variety of experience, bigger geographical footprint and more people reached. In her business model, Kavitha funds the parent organization – Globeracers – herself. An exception is what she receives in the form of race fee. Unless she finds a genuinely compatible sponsor she would rather not open up the parent outfit for funding. “ It may change the path and the vision. That is not a welcome change,’’ she said. What she prefers instead is treating each race as an independent entity with relevant sponsors coming aboard at that level as required. She also said that although a couple of events evaded the discipline, she admires having continuity in her races. “ Continuity is important to us,’’ she said. Yet continuity can also be “ every other year’’ and she plans to introduce a few races so, to allow runners to enjoy variety in geography and race format. The direction, it would seem – is creating and retaining a community that boards a bandwagon and gets to race in different places.

Several Indian ultramarathon runners have been through the races organized by Globeracers. Some counted on these races to qualify for bigger events overseas. The 335 km-Himalayan Crossing, staged in July 2014 with start in Spiti and going over the Kunzum La and the Rohtang La, had only one participant – Mumbai’s Breeze Sharma. In 2016, Breeze became the second Indian from India (after Arun Bhardwaj) to successfully complete the Badwater Ultramarathon. At the time this blog wrote about him in April 2016, he had run four races from the Globeracers portfolio. Further, of the three 100 milers he needed to qualify for Badwater, two were from the Globeracers fold. “ Kavitha has definitely contributed to growing the ultramarathon scene in India,’’ Arun Bhardwaj said.

Running in the Rann of Kutch (Photo: courtesy Rashmi B N / Globeracers)

While Bhatti Lakes is possibly the flagship ultramarathon for Globeracers, what has been fetching it buzz of late is an ultramarathon in the Rann of Kutch. The Rann is a vast expanse of salt marshes located in the Thar Desert bio-geographic area in the Indian state of Gujarat with some portions in the adjacent Sindh province of Pakistan. According to Wikipedia, its total area is around 10,000 square miles. For knowing more about this location and the trails it held for running, Kavitha enlisted the help of a friend, Vijay Bariwal from Ahmedabad, who had run the Bhatti Lakes Ultra earlier. Together, they reached Bhuj in Gujarat’s Kutch district and proceeded to meet officials of the Border Security Force (BSF), the organization entrusted with guarding the India-Pakistan border in these parts. The BSF took some time warming up to the idea but once they did, they dispatched a team of runners to accompany Kavitha and her friend during the recce. For the 100 km-recce, she ran with the soldiers from one border post to the next. They completed the recce in two days. The course was finalized – it stretched from Lakhpat to Dhorodo. “ The response to this race has been amazing. One thing is, you get to see these parts of the country only if you sign up for the race.’’ Being a border area, for the organizers, it is also a race entailing considerable documentation and paper work. “ There is a lot of process that goes into it but the procedure once followed is efficient. The BSF has been a great support,’’ Kavitha said. The first edition featured 20 civilians and 100 BSF runners. The event has been repeated every year since. To keep logistics manageable and efficient, Kavitha said she had requested the BSF to cap their participation at 60 personnel. “ On the average, around 20 civilians have turned up for the event every year,’’ she said.

Mid 2016, Kavitha was back in Bengaluru and gearing up for a fresh season in India with Globeracers, when she spared time to talk to this blog. “ There are many facts about Globeracers that are little known,’’ she said. For instance, it was the first to organize UTMB-qualifying races in India with the Bhatti Lakes Ultra. Similarly, Globeracers was the first to hold RAAM (Race Across America) qualifying cycle races in India; the Ultra BOB held every year since 2012. There have also been personal challenges Kavitha faced in the race environment. Most people come to a race wanting to achieve something. In that mode, runners can be touchy folks. Lapses in organization won’t be easily forgiven. At the same time, when a race is viewed from an organizer’s perspective, there are rules to be observed and concerns to be addressed. Disqualification and DNF (Did Not Finish) are hard to handle. They can occasionally become nasty episodes. Being an insider – a part of the larger environment – helps.

Himalayan Crossing (Photo: courtesy Vishwesh Siva Prasad / Globeracers)

Kavitha said she has frequently experienced being an outsider to the Indian environment, something that doesn’t work to her advantage when tackling difficult issues. In a mail subsequent to the meet-up in Bengaluru, she said, “ I find myself looking in from the outside quite often than not. It also reflects in how Globeracers has been thus far received. They don’t understand me, much less know me. I am not from anywhere here, do not have a base of friends I can lean on (though that has changed considerably over the years on the personal front), and no peers who will spread the word for me and sign up for races. The camaraderie is missing and I find myself at times missing it. There are misconceptions that have led to personal confrontations, which is a completely undesired flip side of being an outsider though I refuse to attribute it to I being a woman at the helm and making decisions that some may not be able to live with or comprehend. Cases of disqualification have been that much harder on me as a person than it would have been on a male race director.’’ She wishes that athletes understood her side of things better. “ Emotions run high in India when it comes to race day preparations. Runners refuse to read through information and it taxes an organizer to keep answering simple questions via email and messages when the same can be found on the event website and mails already sent. Athletes need to follow rules and guidelines. That is one major difference I find between racers in the US and here,’’ she said.

Asked what plans she has for the future, she mentioned a Rain Ultra in Assam, hopefully by July 2017. She wanted to design an event around the backwaters of Kerala and hinted at the first overseas foray for Globeracers – an ultramarathon in Costa Rica. Post 1997, soon after graduation, Kavitha had started a company called Design Net in the New Jersey / New York area. It did well, but in 2000, she shut it down “ for personal reasons.’’ In 2002, she set up an IPO for Kafin Consulting in India. Everything went well till the company’s listing was delayed by a controversy then gripping the stock exchange in Mumbai. “ We incurred severe losses due to time lags,’’ Kavitha said. The next phase was the potential government job in US. But that lengthy phase of litigation in Bengaluru which prolonged her stay in India denied her that job. “ Building Globeracers has been my salvation,’’ Kavitha said.

(The author, Shyam G Menon, is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai.)    

Illustration: Shyam G Menon

In March 2003, at a hotel in Pune, a senior company executive checked his weight.

He had spent years in sales and marketing. That was his forte. It was life chasing targets; there was travel, quick decisions, coordination of teams and much socializing to keep the sales numbers growing. The job shaped you. At his feet, the weighing scale’s needle hovered wildly for a while, then narrowed its range and settled on the correct number – 88 kilos.

Sunil Shetty decided he must do something about it.

Born 1962 in Mumbai, Sunil grew up in the city, attending Fatima High School and then, Ruparel College, from where he graduated in statistics. Although good at mathematics, this wasn’t exactly the career progression he wanted, for this grandson of a gentleman who once ran a restaurant in Mangalore desired to be in catering. But his bid to be accepted at catering college, failed. So he went into statistics, commenced a career in sales and marketing, complemented his college education with an Executive MBA from IIM Calutta and somewhere along the way even met the late Thangam Phillip, who headed the catering college he couldn’t get into. She was guest at a function, the company he worked for organized. Sunil worked 20 years with Nestle India, then some more at Johnson & Johnson (J&J), all in sales and marketing, a line of work that brought on those two unwanted bedfellows – 36 inch-waist and 88 kilos on his feet.

The youngest of four children and raised in middle class values emphasising studies over sports, Sunil had grown up with an interest in football and cricket but no great presence on the playing field. In life ahead too, he embraced the popularly accepted practice of well settled life. It was so till the accrued weight of such existence settled atop that weighing machine in Pune. Sunil decided to take up running. Normally that is a major stretch for somebody at 88 kilos. But in Sunil’s case, he discovered he could run. “ I managed 2-3km comfortably on the first day itself,’’ he said.

Sunil Shetty; 2015 Total Sports 10k run in Mumbai (Photo: courtesy Sunil Shetty / photographer: Gaurav Choudhari)

Back in Mumbai, after a few days spent getting the feel of jogging, he bought a pair of Power running shoes from a Bata showroom. He ran roughly four days a week. When he was around 15 runs old on his new shoes, a gym opened in the housing complex he stayed in. He shifted to the gym’s treadmill doing 6-8km every day. Alongside, he started to eat and drink in moderation. “ I haven’t stopped anything. I still eat well and drink but the idea of moderation set in,’’ Sunil explained. Within days of him taking up running at the gym, his wife Sangeeta joined him. After 18 months of running on the treadmill – 6-8km every day, four days a week – he found that his waist size was down to 32 inches and his body weight, 64 kilos. Life however was work-home-family-work. Running on a treadmill in a gym in one of the world’s biggest and most populated cities, he still knew none in running. Those days Mumbai’s running scene was a shadow of the movement it is now. In January 2004, the month and year the city hosted the first edition of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon – it would change the local running scene forever – Sunil left Nestle India and joined J&J.

J&J supported the NGO `Nanhi Kali,’ founded by industrialist Anand Mahindra in 1996. Thanks to this association, every year in time for SCMM, the company used to get 100 bibs, the availability of which was informed to employees over mail. Sunil would see this mail and let it pass for he had never thought of himself as a distance runner, who could tackle a marathon. However at the gym, he had this friend, five years senior to him, who walked 12km on the treadmill. That caught Sunil’s attention. He tried and found that he could run 12km. An amiable competition kicked up between the two, one walking, the other running; the distance rising alongside to 18km. Then, another friend suggested: why not try the half marathon at SCMM? In October 2008, Sunil looked up the Internet for training tips, enrolled for the event and ran his first half marathon at the SCMM in January 2009.

Sangeeta who had been as regular as Sunil in training at the gym, recalled that day. Sunil had asked her to wait at the finishing point (in 2009, the half marathon was from Azad Maidan to Mela Restaurant on Worli Sea Face and back) and expect him there about two and a half hours after commencement of the run. Sangeeta did as told. She witnessed some of the strong runners in the discipline finish in style. Then the better runners from the remaining lot strode in. Then the regular lot poured in. Then some of the senior citizens arrived. There was no sign of Sunil and it was past three hours. At 3:03 Sunil slowly walked in. “ He looked exhausted,’’ Sangeeta said. Sunil had found the run difficult. He cramped at around 12-13km and could only walk after that. He told Sangeeta, “ this is the first and last time I am running this distance.’’

That 3:03 hit Sunil really hard. Following the 2009 SCMM, Sunil went back to his daily treadmill run. But unconsciously and without any deliberate design, his regular 6-8km run occasionally extended to 10km; the distance was increasing. In October 2009, the annual mail about bibs from Nanhi Kali landed once again. It began tempting Sunil. Should he? Should he not? He spoke to Sangeeta. It was decided – they would both run; Sangeeta would do the half marathon, Sunil, the full. “ I promised myself I will train,’’ Sunil said. Like many others, he downloaded Hal Higdon’s training regimen and used it as a reference point. Training started late, only by October. As part of it, his four days a week on the treadmill was mixed with two days running on the road. Running the SCMM full marathon in January 2010, Sunil cramped at 26km and walked the remaining portion. He covered the 42km-distance with a timing of 6:03. “ I was not as dejected as I had been the previous year running the half marathon. So I decided that I will continue running the full,’’ Sunil said. Sangeeta, out on her first formal half marathon, finished it comfortably and in decent timing. Born 1967, she used to be into sports in her school days. “ I liked running after I got into it. It keeps me fit and makes me a more peaceful person,’’ she said.

Sangeeta Shetty; 2012 Kaveri Trail Marathon (Photo: courtesy Sangeeta Shetty)

Soon after the 2010 edition of SCMM – it was the first time they participated together in a running event; a format they have repeated since at many races – Sunil and Sangeeta embraced the discipline of regular running with SCMM for annual outing. By the January 2011 SCMM, Sunil’s timing for the full marathon had improved to 5:40. He was now cramping at much later stages in the race. In June 2011, he quit J&J. From September 2012 onward, he became officially self-employed. “ I now had more time with me,’’ he said. One of its side effects was greater trawling of the Internet for ways to improve his running. Gathering information is easy; running efficiently is tough. For the January 2012 SCMM, he trained targeting sub-five hour timing in the full marathon. It eluded him.

Striders is one of Mumbai’s running clubs. According to the Internet, it was started in 2006 by Praful Uchil and Deepak Londhe. Unknown to Sunil, his next door neighbour was Praful’s brother. When Praful visited, he introduced himself to Sunil and Sangeeta and realized that the two of them were runners. He mentioned of the upcoming Kaveri Trail Marathon (KTM), organized by Runners for Life (RFL). Sunil had heard of RFL. When he researched for more on KTM, the Bangalore Ultra popped up. A plan took shape – do the full marathon at KTM and follow it up with the 75km-run at the Bangalore Ultra. The first was in September; the second, in November. They began training systematically. Sunil ran his first KTM in 4:57. Sangeeta came first in the veterans’ category, her first podium finish. Later, in November that year, both Sunil and Sangeeta took part in the Bangalore Ultra. It was a loop of 25km in a forest composed mostly of Japanese Bamboo. The year Sunil ran it for the first time there were about 20 people in his age bracket, running the 75km-distance. Sunil finished in 10:23, earning first place in his category. Sangeeta finished first in her category in the 75km-run. A couple finishing so was reportedly a first for Indian running.

The Bangalore Ultra marked a shift for Sunil and Sangeeta. Not only did they feel ready for a 100km-race, they felt their appetite reducing for the shorter distances. “ One thing about us is that we rarely keep doing the same distance again and again. We wish to attempt the bigger challenge,’’ Sunil said. However, it is a qualified challenge and not to be mistaken with simply increasing the distance or making a race rougher and tougher. Sunil, for instance, does not fancy such challenges like running between cities that are far apart or engaging in self-supported, multi stage expedition type races. He firmly favoured well supported runs, well organized events with proper support facilities. “ I don’t want to torture myself,’’ he said. Talking of cut-off stages, both Sunil and Sangeeta said that they prefer a single stage with reasonable cut-off time. “ Multi stage and unreasonable cut-off times make you tense. You don’t enjoy the run. I try consciously not to run fast. I will not pay for a race that puts me under pressure. The moment the pressure comes, I may not perform well,’’ Sangeeta said. This is one reason the couple like ultra marathons. Unless the multi stage, competitive paradigm intervenes as spoiler, an ultra is an escape from the shorter distances loved by evangelists of competition.

Sunil Shetty; from a December 2015 practice run (Photo: courtesy Sunil Shetty / photographer: Tashi Ongya)

For the 2013 Bangalore Ultra, Sunil and Sangeeta registered for the 100km distance-category. Sangeeta finished first in her segment; Sunil placed second. As a well known couple from Mumbai into running, Sunil and Sangeeta are often invited to run the shorter distances. But their heart is with the longer runs. In 2014, Sunil and Sangeeta attempted the 24 hour-run category in the Bangalore Ultra. The run started at 5AM on November 8^th that year and ended next morning, 5AM. Sunil covered 138km to finish first in his category. Sangeeta covered 120km to place second in her category. Ram Venkatraman is a longstanding runner and one of the founding members of Mumbai Road Runners (MRR). “ Sunil and Sangeeta are the most respected running family in Mumbai, nay India today. Apart from being highly disciplined and dedicated to their craft, which results in Sunil Shetty getting a personal best in practically every race that he runs, they are also the most warm, loving couple that you could find. Sunil’s knowledge on endurance sports especially running is vast and he therefore lends a helping ear to any budding runner. Sunil was rightly awarded the Most Inspirational Runner at the MRR Awards 2014,’’ Ram said.

Sunil and Sangeeta have a daughter. The family stays in a leafy part of Powai in suburban Mumbai. Their apartment is in a housing complex, which is in turn part of a much bigger complex. On the perimeter of this large complex of many residential blocks is a sort of-circular road, which thanks to the unevenness of the underlying geography has ascents and descents. A full loop on this road is approximately 1.5km long.  This is daily training track for Sunil and Sangeeta, the laboratory for all those personal bests. It works in two ways. First, by running more and more loops you directly gain distance. Second, running loops toughens the mind to stomaching events like stadium based-endurance runs, where the biggest challenge can be monotony. Another aspect you notice when talking to Sunil and Sangeeta is that the mix of training and event-running – the proportion assigned for each – matters.  YouTube has an engaging documentary on the great American athlete Edwin Moses, wherein the champion hurdler points out that compared to the days of training he did in a year, the actual time he spent competing was very small. When you reflect on that observation, you sense the truth you miss on popular television, which focuses on victory. We remember Edwin Moses for the several times he was the best in a discipline concluding on track in under 50 seconds of top notch hurdling. Add it all up and Moses hurdling competitively can be counted in the minutes in a year. What we don’t see is the hours, days and weeks of training away from the glamour of high profile sporting events and the glare of media.

The road around the housing complex at Powai, which Sunil and Sangeeta use for training (Photo: Shyam G Menon)

You find something of this in Sunil and Sangeeta. They are advocates of the requirement to train, they train regularly and even today, the number of events they participate in is modest compared to what many regular runners do. Further all the stretching of human potential, all the testing for enduring stress is done in the training phase. “ Both of us give our 100 per cent to training. I still don’t run more than four days a week and I do strength training for two days,’’ Sunil said. During off season the said strength training increases to three days – a wonderful pointer to how off season in the running calendar needn’t mean off season for runner. Once in three weeks, the couple try and do a 50km plus-run. To illustrate how he has prepared himself, Sunil said, “ at short notice, I can do 70-80km.’’ In an article in the Times of India following the 2014 Bangalore Ultra’s 24 hour-run, V. Anand pointed out that in the run up to the event, Sunil and Sangeeta had covered 1900km over five months, in training.

This kind of dedicated training yields two benefits. First, given all that goes into the training, the actual event becomes a mentally relaxed, enjoyable affair – as mentally relaxed and enjoyable as you can make it, that is. For, every discipline as it happens still has its own challenges. Second, the systematic build-up with care for building a solid foundation, promises less injury and potentially longer life in running. There are other details too. Sunil does not advocate the sprint finish; that finish with a flourish, you see many people do. According to him, his last two kilometres in a race are typically the slowest as this helps the recovery process. Finally, the couple don’t obsess with timing. “ One of the reasons we have been injury-free is that we are not obsessed with timing. This is the thirteenth year of our running, we are content with what we have,’’ Sunil said when we met him and Sangeeta over two sittings in Powai (it was November-December 2015). Neither of them was ashamed of Did Not Finish (DNF).  If the body says stop, they will. “ My body is more important,’’ Sangeeta said. Probe further – it is an outline of detachment and contentment that exceeds running and timing. “ I don’t believe that we need to provide for two generations after us,’’ Sunil quipped at one point in the conversation, a quip that is insightful of life in more ways than just making money. Including one in which, you find the time to run.

Sangeeta and Sunil Shetty (Photo: Shyam G Menon)

January every year, Sunil and Sangeeta sit together, check the year’s running calendar and shortlist the events they would like to participate in. Typically what they choose to participate in (they are invited for more) don’t exceed 4-5 races. “ Perhaps an ultra, two full marathons and a half,’’ Sunil said. By way of suggestion for young people, he said that if you are running two full marathons and two halves in a year make sure that one of each variety is run well. And if you want to get into an ultra, make sure that you run at least 4-5 full marathons before attempting an ultra – it should be a gradual build up to such distances, not a jump and a jolt. Unfortunately the popular trend is something else. Thanks to competition and the need to prove, contemporary life’s dominant flavour is impatience. “ I find people wanting to reach where we reached in 13 years, in two to three years time,’’ Sunil said.

So what is the future in running, the couple dream of? They do have running abroad in their list of things to do. But it is not a Boston or New York Marathon kind of aspiration. “ Something like – maybe a 100 miler?’’ Sunil said. He also has his rounds giving motivational talks wherein he encourages people to get into running, tells them that to get into fitness you just need to jog every day and not straight away tackle a formidable marathon. He advises them to look inside their own houses for company to run. “ I also tell them that if they manage to motivate one person a month to begin running, then it will start a chain reaction,’’ Sunil said. Now seasoned runners, both Sunil and Sangeeta are backed by Puma. Uniquely, despite such affiliation, one of the runs Sunil has been associated with (he is one of the founders) is an annual 10km-run called United V Run as 1 in which no prominence, no mileage by advertising is offered to sponsors. It would seem a counterweight of cleansing for all that happens as commercial running. “ Sunil and Sangeeta are a great inspiration for many Mumbai runners; individuals as well as couples. People consider them as role models. They are very down to earth, punctual and dedicated. I consider them very talented runners, friendly and always happy to share their knowledge,’’ Satish Gujaran, city based-ultra runner, said.

Sunil now weighs between 56-58 kilos.

Somewhere in Pune is a weighing scale that started it all.

Sangeeta Shetty / select races and timing:

Year          Event       Distance       Time              Remarks

2010           SCMM           HM              2:59               First timed race

2012           SCMM           FM               5:41               First FM

2012            KTM             FM               5:46               1st in veteran

2012              BU              75k               12:07             1st in veteran

2013              BU              100k             16:48             1st in veteran

2014              BU              120k             24hrs             2nd in veteran

2015    Spirit of Wipro    10k             60:08             1st position

2015    Spice Coast           HM               2:23             1st in veteran

Sunil Shetty / select races and timing:

2009           SCMM            HM              3:03                First timed race

2010           SCMM            FM               6:10                First FM

2012              KTM            FM               4:57                First sub-five hours

2012               BU               75k              10:23              1st in veteran

2013               BU              100k             13:38              2nd in veteran

2014               BU              138k             24hrs              1st in veteran

2015          SCMM             FM                3:53               First sub-four hours

2015              ILFS             10k      44:45(minutes)    1st in veteran

2015       Spice Coast         HM             1:39                1st in veteran

HM: half marathon, FM: full marathon, k: kilometre, SCMM: Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, KTM: Kaveri Trail Marathon, BU: Bangalore Ultra

(The authors, Latha Venkatraman and Shyam G Menon, are independent journalists based in Mumbai.)