The Indian team that went for the 2024 Asian Marathon Championships (from left: Ashvini Jadhav, Jyoti Gawate, Man Singh and Belliappa A. B (this photo was downloaded from the Instagram account of Athletics Federation of India [AFI] and is being used here for representation purpose. No copyright infringement intended)
Belliappa finishes sixth among men, Ashvini eighth and Jyoti eleventh among women
India’s Man Singh secured the gold medal at the 2024 Asian Marathon Championships held in Hong Kong on Sunday, January 21, 2024.
He completed the 42.2-kilometre distance of the marathon in two hours, 14 minutes and 19 seconds, over a minute ahead of China’s Huang Yongzheng (2:15:24). In third position was Tiapken Ilia of Krygysthan (2:18:17).
His finish at Hong Kong was just short of his personal best of 2:14:13, which he secured at the 2023 edition of the New Delhi Marathon.
Last year at the Tata Mumbai Marathon (TMM), Man Singh had secured a silver medal among Indian elite runners with a finish in 2:16:58. Incidentally, the 2024 TMM was also held on Sunday (January 21), the same day as the event where Man Singh struck gold in Hong Kong. In 2017, Gopi Thonakkal who took the silver medal among Indian elite men in Mumbai on Sunday, had been the Asian Marathon Champion covering the distance in 2:15:48. At that time, the event was held in Dongguan, China.
India was represented by a four-member team at the Asian Marathon Championships 2024. The other three members apart from Man Singh were Jyoti Gawate, Ashvini Jadhav and Belliappa A.B.
Belliappa finished in sixth position with a timing of 2:20:19.
In the women’s race of the Asian Marathon Championships, Ashvini finished in eighth place, with a timing of 2:56:41 and Jyoti at eleventh, with a timing of 3:06:20.
The Asian Marathon Championships were held as part of the 2024 Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon.
(The author, Latha Venkatraman, is an independent journalist based in Mumbai)
Hayle Lemi on the home stretch (photo: Shyam G Menon)
On a rare race day of agreeable weather in the city, the 2024 Tata Mumbai Marathon (TMM) podium was swept by half a dozen Ethiopian runners, who between them, cornered the top three positions in the male and female gender categories.
Defending champion Hayle Lemi regained his crown in the men’s segment, covering the distance in two hours, seven minutes and 50 seconds (in 2023, he had clocked 2:07:32). He was followed to the finish line by compatriots Haymanot Alew (2:09:03) and Mitku Tafa (2:09:58). Among women, the first to grace the finish line was Aberash Minsewo, who clocked 2:26:06. In second and third position were fellow Ethiopians Muluhabt Tsega (2:26:51) and Medhin Bejene (2:27:34). Incidentally, Sunday’s race was Aberash’s debut in the marathon.
Aberash Minsewo (photo: Shyam G Menon)
In the Indian elite category, the men’s segment was topped by Srinu Bugatha (2:17:29). Last year’s winner, Gopi Thonakal (2:18:37), had to settle for second place while Sher Singh Tanwar (2:19:37) placed third. In the corresponding women’s segment, the winner was Thakor Nirmaben Bharatjee (2:47:11). Reshma Kevate (3:03:34) and Shyamali Sing (3:04:35) finished second and third respectively. In 2023, when Gopi had won the Indian men’s elite category in 2:16:41, Srinu had finished fifth among Indian men and fifteenth among male elites overall with timing of 2:23:05.
The top three podium finishers in the half marathon for men in 2024 were Sawan Barwal (1:05:07), Kiran Matre (1:06:23) and Mohan Saini (1:06:55). The same in women were Poonam Dinkar (1:19:18), Amrita Patel (1:19:18) and Kavita Yadav (1:20:44).
Srinu Bugatha (photo: Shyam G Menon)
This year’s TMM featured close to 56,000 participants across its various categories. A report by moneycontrol.com said 10,711 runners had registered for the marathon and 15, 218 for the half marathon. Additionally, there was an open 10K, a senior citizens’ run, a Champions with Disability segment and the Dream Run. The last-mentioned category at 20,590-strong, fetched a big portion of the event’s numbers.
Meanwhile a statement from TMM said that two runners – Suvradeep Banerjee (40) and Rajendra Bora (74) – died during the event. The event’s medical partner is Asian Heart Institute (AHI). Rajendra Bora “ was found in a collapsed condition at the petrol pump, near Pizza by the Bay, he was attended to by an AHI doctor, who performed CPR on him and immediately shifted him to the Bombay Hospital Casualty ward, via the ambulance standing nearby. In transit, they continued the resuscitation but, were unable to revive him.
Thakor Nirmaben Bharatjee (photo: Shyam G Menon)
“ Suvradeep Banerjee, a full marathoner was found collapsed by the police, near Haji Ali junction. The police informed the ambulance at Nair Hospital, which reached the site shortly. We are given to understand that the runner was unresponsive at the site and during transit. We await the statement from Nair Hospital authorities,’’ the press release said.
According to it, a total of 1820 runners needed medical assistance. The majority of the cases were muscle cramps, sprains, minor injuries, bruises, exhaustion and dehydration. There was a total of 22 hospitalizations and 19 runners have been discharged. “ In general, the majority of the cases were of muscle cramps, dehydration, hypoglycaemia and minor injuries. The number of casualties over the years is coming down. The races starting earlier at 5.00 am and the temperature being conducive (for the full and the half marathon) has helped the runners in a big way. The weather this year was cool and that has aided the runners in completing their run smoothly,” the statement quoted Dr Vijay D’silva as saying.
(The author, Shyam G Menon is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai)
Please find below more photos from the elite race / all photos taken by the author:
Taru Mateti; from the 100-miler at Border Ultra (photo: courtesy Taru)
This is an article by invitation. Taru Mateti started running in her 50th year in 2013. A senior IT professional, she quit her job as a Delivery Head (Department Head, eLearning and Documentation) in 2017 to pursue her passion for running and fitness. Her hobbies include dot mandala painting, learning Spanish and reading. Her fitness regime includes running, strength training, yoga, spinning and occasionally, Pilates. Her fitness mantra is “Age no Bar.’’ She has run a 100-miler, two 100k ultramarathons, three 12-hour stadium runs (85k, 90k and 95k), back-to-back Comrades Marathon (90.2k and 87.4k), two 80k ultras, one 60k ultra, eleven 50k ultramarathons and one 12-hour Mumbai Ultra. She has also run sixteen full marathons and more than 100 other races of shorter distances. She has secured over 75 podium finishes (including wins in her age category). Herein, she writes about her first 100-miler, completed in splendid fashion in December 2023.
My first ultra was in 2015; a 50 kilometre-run (50k) at Pune Ultramarathon. In 2017, I ran a 100k at the same event.
Four years later, in December 2021, I ran the 100k at Border Ultra in Rajasthan. It was a good experience and I was charmed by the route and its challenges including the change in weather conditions (over the duration of the race) and the aid stations set 10 kilometres apart. I also met some inspiring runners who were running the longer 100 mile-race. My conversations with them sowed the seeds of attempting the 100-miler exceptional for being a run from one point to another and not a loop. The run also had a link to history. It was a tribute to the 120 jawans of the 23rd Battalion Punjab Regiment who held their post successfully the entire night of December 4, 1971 (Battle of Longewala) till they were reinforced the next day. The Indian side had 120 soldiers and the support of four Hunter aircraft; the Pakistanis had 2000-3000 men and 30-40 tanks. To my mind, if we (my husband and I) were to attempt a 100-miler, it had to be this one.
Although I had run 100 kilometres at the same place, the route was set to change a lot in 2023. Besides, even as I had trained earlier for the 100K on my own, I had no clue how to train for a 100-miler. So, I consulted Subham Mishra from Hyderabad who had already done the 100-miler of Border Ultra three times. He was one of the persons who influenced me to try the event. I had a bad August with some downtime followed by a vacation in September. My training for the 2023 edition of the 100-miler at Border Ultra, therefore started only from September 15 and Subham sent me a training plan from October 1 leading up to the actual event on December 16.
Taru Mateti; from the 100-miler at Border Ultra (photo: courtesy Taru)
A few things changed from the training phase itself. I started running five days a week instead of four earlier. Also, the week day runs became longer. The mileage progressively peaked to about 130 kilometres in a week. I ran through all times of the day to get exposed to the sun and learn to cope with sleep deprivation. The longest run was a 12-hour stadium run at night, three weeks before the event. Yoga and strength training were also an important part of the preparations.
For nutrition, I followed what I generally do for long runs, dates and gels alternated at 5-6 kilometres, salt tabs every 12 kilometres or so besides water and electrolyte. I mostly run solo; so, relied on my hydration pack and roadside teashops for water. A couple of times, I also took bananas and potatoes to get used to them because I knew that a 100-miler is a totally different ballgame from a 100k, wherein I could survive on dates, gels, and oranges. For pre-run nutrition I experimented more with peanut butter and toast and not just banana / sweet potato (during the actual race, I even had a few spoons of rice, dal and potatoes at 50 kilometres and a few spoons of Maggi noodles at 130 kilometres as advised by Subham. It was something I had never done in any run before).
Mental preparation was a by-product of the excellent training plan. Strides after long runs mid-week were a new thing for me in my training plan and they helped not just physically but also mentally. I also read many blog posts by other runners. Subham kept encouraging me with his timely messages along with the weekly / biweekly training program. Pushing through the very long runs on weekends, especially the ultras that I ran as part of training helped considerably in mental preparation. Positive self-talk and affirmations in yoga classes as well as pranayam in each yoga class helped both physically and mentally.
I was nervous about running five days a week because I believed it would take me longer to recover. But it is amazing how the human body adapts. It wasn’t easy, but by rehashing my other activities, I could get started with the new agenda. Slowly, as the mileage increased, the fatigue also increased. To handle this, I became more regular with yoga and also got massages and physiotherapy for my hamstring every fortnight and did foam rolling every alternate day. Food and especially sleep are always a challenge for me. So, I consciously developed practices to have better control on them. I had to make a lot of sacrifices on the personal front, but that’s what it takes to achieve something like this.
Some days I just didn’t feel like getting out of bed. I would then pull myself up thinking I would do as much as possible and finally end up completing the run or any other session. Doing two of the longest training runs at organized events also helped. I followed the training plan 99 per cent and that is what gave me a lot of confidence.
Taru Mateti; at the finish line (photo: courtesy Taru)
On Saturday, December 16, the 100 mile-race started at noon in extreme heat, under a harsh sun. The course for the first 50 kilometres was more of a rolling one and with the route changed this year, there were headwinds too! I kept a steady pattern of running three kilometres and then walking 100 metres. For steep inclines, the mix was 80 metres of running followed by 20 steps walked. The Border Ultra 100-miler is an engaging package. You get photo-worthy beautiful sunsets, stretches on the road with sand blown over, a rolling route that is pronouncedly so towards the final phase, harsh sun, headwinds and extreme cold at night with total darkness and just one’s headlamp to show the way.
I had taped a corn on my toes. The first issue I faced was that the tape started blistering the adjoining toe. I had to stop by the roadside and remove the tape. I continued to run in a rhythmic run-walk pattern that changed as the distance progressed. The break at the 50 kilometre-aid station was a long one because it took time to change in the dark although just having a tent to change in was really helpful. I had got one blister by then despite my special shoes and it kept getting worse until the end! I thought positively at each step, remembering the training runs that I had done to tackle each problem that I was facing and that gave me strength. The mantra was – one step after the other and keep moving with focus on the markings on the road denoting route to take. At about 70 kilometres, my left hip flexor started becoming tight and gradually the pain increased. So off and on, while walking, I hit it with my fists to release the tightness a little. The pain however increased and until the end of the run, this was the only bothersome thing for me. I even took a pain killer at 100 kilometres, something I neither do normally nor advocate.
I continued to run conservatively because there are so many unknowns in such a long ultra. Fortunately, because of the rhythm that I set, the going felt easy. Singing songs, talking to myself, and most of all, counting steps helped. I looked at the watch when it buzzed at the end of each kilometre. The criterion after 110 kilometres was that each kilometre should be at a pace lesser than 10 minutes per kilometre, other than the aid station stops, of course. I was happy to see the bank of time that I was building with my pace being around 8:30. After 130 kilometres, I revised that to 12 minutes per kilometre but to my surprise, I could continue the same way as before.
Then suddenly after 141 kilometres my watch buzzed; it said: saving something, something…, and died. I took out my mobile phone but that was already dead. I continued running by feel. I had no clue about the total time I had taken to get where I was because I had last checked total time at 100 kilometres and mentally registered that it was my personal best so far, for the 100k. Also, I knew in advance that 140 kilometres was where one hit the extremely rolling section of the course, which continued till the end. I kept on running by feel, not having a clue about my pace or the anticipated time to finish. I wasn’t even sure I would do a sub-24-hours, which anyway wasn’t a target. In my mind, I just wanted to finish sub-26 after doing well until 100 kilometres. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had finished in 23:29:04, less than six minutes short of the course record! And I had done it by running conservatively and enjoying the ultra without the desire to give up or curse myself even once. Happy to have finished strong and injury-free. It was a dream come true in my sixtieth year on the planet and an outcome I hadn’t expected – an overall win in the women’s category at my first-ever 100-miler at The Hell Race Border Ultra!
Taru and Chandan Kumar Mateti (photo: courtesy Taru)
After the run, I waited at the finish line for my husband, Col Chandan Kumar Mateti (retd), to finish. I kept walking around and cheering other finishers as well as meeting those stationed at the finish line. I can’t eat much after a run but had a bit of rice, dal and paneer. Then I walked some more to see the Longewala memorial and Tanot temple. The following four days were spent running and climbing forts, doing touristy stuff and other short walks. Sleep was much needed, but despite one full missed night of sleep, I could sleep less than five hours the next three nights…I was probably still on a high. One thing I missed was bringing along my protein supplement. But I made up for it by eating chicken and eggs, something I normally avoid. I also took my regular supplements and a boosted dose of Vitamin C and soaked my feet in Epsom salt once.
Two days after the run, I did a five kilometre-walk and did extensive stretches. The Friday after the ultra, I did a 7.5 kilometre-recovery run and found that all systems were okay. Recovery was thus basically a lot of movement, rest, and good food. Strength training and yoga from Monday and easy, short runs for another week and I was ready to slowly get back to my regular life.
Music is an integral part of this blog’s life. For those who love music, please find below a link to the work of Markus K (as posted by the artiste on YouTube). An amazingly talented busker, Markus stands out for his sense of rhythm, groove, bluesy guitar and a relaxed, laidback style. Not to mention – that touch of simplicity. This particular performance is a tribute to the late guitar great, Jeff Beck, who passed away in January 2023. The song Rollin and Tumblin also referred to as Roll and Tumble Blues was first recorded in 1929 by Hambone Willie Newborne. A classic, it has been subsequently reinterpreted by several artistes with the version by the late Muddy Waters becoming the basis for most covers done by rock musicians. Markus, one must say, has given it an altogether different, delightful twist.
This is an article by invitation. In June 2023, Delhi-based ultrarunner, Shikha Pahwa, participated in the year’s edition of UTMB Mozart 100. She was the lone participant from India and completed the race in 19 hours, 56 minutes and 39 seconds. Herein is Shikha’s account of the run; in her words:
The UTMB Mozart 100 was not on my radar.
It happened by chance.
My plan was to go to Italy and I was looking for a race in or around Italy on very specific dates. The only one I found was Mozart 100 in Salzburg, Austria.
Seen on the race website it looked like an extremely scenic run (this was where The Sound of Music was shot after all). City roads, mountains, river, vast green fields, it had it all; enough to tempt me. Plus, the date was perfect. Looking at the distance options, as usual, I scrolled down to the longest one; 105k it said. Doable I thought. The cut-off was 22 hours which should have made me curious as it seemed liberal compared to some other races but I took it at face value. I knew this was a race with some crazy elevation but what I ignored or rather didn’t understand was the extent of trail and the grade of trail involved. I signed up. It appeared a done deal.
I started training around three months before the race with focus more on mileage. Since Delhi is flat, training for elevation is a challenge. My trainer Krishan Tiwari trained me like he had for the Ladakh runs of the past. There was a lot of resistance training to give the climbing feel, some walking-running with a weighted jacket, in addition to strength training and consecutive long runs. All this in the Delhi summer was completely draining and combined with my regular work, it exhausted me 100 percent. But that’s how ultrarunning (and training) is – never-ending runs irrespective of time, weather and terrain.
Fast forward to race day. I reached the start point at 4:30AM (5AM start). With 700 participants arrived, the place looked like a festival! None of my earlier ultra runs had witnessed such a big crowd and they all looked like experienced trail runners. I was very intimidated and what got me really worried was the one common thing all of them had – trekking poles (the ones used for trail running are light and collapse to really small dimension for ease of carrying).
Photo: courtesy Shikha Pahwa
That was when it hit me that I may have got myself into something I wasn’t ready for. Forget getting poles, I had never used them! I was a 100 per cent road runner, so poles had never been needed. The one trail run I did attempt had featured a technical trail and it had ended up with me injured and a DNF to my credit. I therefore had no fond memories of trail. But now, I was at the start line of my first international race and there was no turning back. The race began and the first few kilometres were flat. It seemed to go well until I saw an arrow indicating a turn into the bushes. And there it began – not flat, not straight…just pure rocky trail.
It was a narrow path and the whole lot of us going up on it. So, we had to form a queue. Wherever there was the tiniest space on the sides, some runners would overtake. Gradually the fast runners disappeared from view. Still, more and more people kept overtaking. Their training showed in the way they moved; smooth steps, almost without much thought. Me on the other hand watched every step, holding on to branches to pull myself up where the step was too high. Around four or five kilometres into the trail I realised that I couldn’t keep using my hands for support. I needed to find my version of trekking poles. I picked a stick fallen on the ground. It took me a few attempts to find the right one; right height, weight and grip. It wasn’t perfect but helped. My free hand was still used for extra support of course.
Given 5000 meters elevation for the race, the climbs were intense. This was just the first one, there were eight or nine more. In my mind I assumed there were five in all. I don’t know how I got that but it threw me off when they just kept coming.
Climbing up was hard and although there were faster runners, there were many around me proceeding at a pace similar to mine. So, I wasn’t all that slow. Where I did really feel disadvantaged was in the downhill sections. Usually, downhill is where I make up for lost time (and that’s because I had done mostly road runs). But here it was much slower than the climbs. It was also terrifying as one wrong step could send me rolling down the rocks or into the rocks or worse. The other runners just ran down as I would on road. It showed how experienced they were. I took my time and went as slowly as I needed to go. Others overtaking me at this stage, didn’t matter at all. I was quite okay coming in last as long as I finished without injury. Besides, somehow, I was managing to catch up with the same people on the next climb. It showed, my training did work after all.
A slower pace in this race was not a concern, I just needed to be fast enough to reach the various cut-off points along the course within the set deadline. Failure to do so was an immediate disqualification from the race. So it had to be planned in advance and I had asked my everything-ultrarunning guide Dr. Rajat Chauhan (founder and race director of La Ultra The High) for help. Everything-ultrarunning because he had answers to all the questions, I had about long distance running in the past few years, especially when it came to the whole “ mental preparation’’ bit. He was kind enough to go through the route map in detail and advise on how to pace myself to make it to the finish line in time.
Photo: courtesy Shikha Pahwa
Going one step at a time and pushing myself mentally, I kept moving ahead. Because of the terrain my feet kept twisting to the side. Luckily no injuries there. I did trip three times along the way which gave me bruises on both knees and hands but no internal damage. The bigger problem came once it got dark. Finding my way with just the headlamp required a lot more focus but the fatigue and bruises weren’t allowing me to do so. The downhills looked even more dangerous in the dark. I was left alone after everyone ran down. To make it worse, my headlamp started acting up. It suddenly got dim and I had no backup. It looked like it could die at any point, so I quickened my steps and hoped for the best. Once I got down, there were some people around so I could see better.
The official race distance was 106 kilometres and according to my watch it wasn’t far. Then I spied a road ahead and an aid station; I could feel the finish coming up. Looking for signs of finish, I started to jog. The road turned into the trees again and up we went! Some more up and down and we returned to a road again. The GPS was off because 106 kilometres was already done for me. Now I could see some signs of finish and hear some people in the distance. Finally, I was closing in on the last stretch and some twists and turns in the road. I found a place to put my stick down. Then, I saw my sister cheering for me, then running behind me and I finally saw the finish line. My watch showed 109 kilometres. It wasn’t a distance I hadn’t done before but this terrain made it ten times harder. It was more of a mental race for me, especially since I wasn’t prepared for it. I was way out of my comfort zone, so a rank of 420 out of 700 and being the only Indian participant felt great.
(The author, Shikha Pahwa, is a Delhi-based entrepreneur and ultrarunner)
This is an article by invitation. Earlier this year, Jeevendra Singh completed the 2023 Spartathlon, a footrace traversing a mix of road, trail and mountain path for 246 kilometres. The race held in Greece follows in the footsteps of the Greek messenger Pheidippides, said to have run from Athens to Sparta to convey news of the Greek victory over the Persians, at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. The race is among the most famous ones around. It is also a challenging race. Jeevendra completed it in 32 hours, 49 minutes and 16 seconds. The following is his personal account:
I grew up in a village near Agra. My father worked with Indian Railways and he was posted at Tundla. Growing up in a village meant living an outdoorsy life. I was into sports during my schooling years. I did my engineering degree from Lucknow and through campus placement found myself at the Pune office of UBS. From there I moved to Singapore, Poland and finally to UK, in 2015. Initially, I lived in London. I was following an unhealthy lifestyle. My health deteriorated mainly because of the stress that accompanies work at an investment bank. I piled on a lot of weight.
I decided to take charge of my life and took to running. The solitude of running helped me heal and gave me much-needed ` me time.’ My running was largely recreational. I started participating in running events with the aim to raise funds for causes such as cancer research and the fight against domestic violence, among others. I did a few marathons including the Athens Classic Marathon, marathons in Marrakesh, Peru and San Francisco. I even ran a marathon wearing full cricket gear to raise funds. My aim was to run a marathon in every continent but I gave up that idea when I became aware of climate change and realised that flying just to run a marathon, was not the correct thing to do.
I then embarked on trail running, starting with a half marathon in the south of England. I moved to ultra distances in trail running, attempting a few trail races in the mountains of Lake District. I love trail running and since 2018 I have done only trail running. Living in London and running around on roads and pavements takes a toll on you. Don’t get me wrong, London is one of the beautiful cities in the world with lot of green areas. Yet the city running was becoming monotonous for me. So, when I stumbled on to trail running and did my first trail race, which was the Beachy Head half marathon in the beautiful Seven Sisters Cliffs near Eastbourne, I was hooked to it. Purely because being in nature triggered the genetic memory, we all have in us. Being in nature, moving on your foot for hours in these beautiful landscapes gives our body and mind that experience which our ancestors naturally had thousands of years ago. Also, for me being in the country side triggered the happy childhood memories I had with my grandparents and uncles in my village back home in India. Slowly I wanted more and more of this. Moreover, I believe in continuous progression. Therefore, I wanted to see if I can run longer than a marathon in these landscapes. That’s when I decided to do my first ultramarathon, the Grand Tour of Skidaw, which happens in Lake District, UK. It was a 70km-long race in challenging terrain but the views and scenery were breath-taking. I never looked back after that. From there i moved to 50milers (I did three of those) and then to my first 100 miler in 2021.
In 2020, the world came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Once the lockdown was lifted, I did a run from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle, a distance of over 50 km. In 2021, I did the South Downs Way 100, a 100 miler. There were many elite athletes at the start line and that was quite inspiring. I wanted to do well. I ended up in the top 20, covering the distance in 19:10:39 hours. In August of the same year, my mother passed away. I hit a low and lost my motivation to run. Slowly I resumed running and realised that it was helping me heal. I wanted to take on something challenging. I decided to do Spartathlon. To my mind it was a journey that would help me go inward and deal with my grief. I had the South Downs Way 100 as a qualifying race. The qualifying time required to enrol for Spartathlon was a 100-miler race done in 21 hours. For Spartathlon, I did much of my training on the pavements, roads and parks of London. For exposure to trails, I travelled to Lake District where I ran in the lower mountain ranges. But the days leading to Spartathlon were extremely stressful. My wife’s father was ill and I nearly contemplated missing the race. But my wife asked me to go to Greece while she flew to India to be with her parent. Radhika, my wife, is a lifestyle and nutrition consultant. She helps with my nutrition plan for day to day living and also for races. She is a qualified yoga teacher and mental health coach. Except my running, she coaches me for everything else.
I flew to Greece. The race day started well after Radhika called me to say that her father had improved and was likely to be discharged from the hospital. At the start line of Spartathlon, I was the only Indian runner. It felt good to be around super-fit elite athletes. I did have a few minutes of doubts but quickly brushed them aside. Over its first few miles, the race leaves Athens, traversing through the city’s suburbs and stretch of factories. After 13 miles, we hit the coastline. There are 75 check points along the route. Every check point has a cut-off time. We were expected to hit the 50-mile mark in nine and a half hours. The start of the run was tough as temperatures were quite high and I got dehydrated leading to stomach issues. I reached the 50-mile mark with just 15 minutes to spare and that was not good. I felt stressed and doubts began to creep in. I kept saying the words: stay calm and cool. I was doing this race solo without any crew. I reached the 100-mile mark. I desperately needed a reset. At that point I ran into Graeme Boxall, an accomplished ultra runner and one of the nicest fans of the sport in the UK. He is ever present at track ultras volunteering or crewing for runners. He has given so much of his time and energy to the sport. I had met Graeme at a few track ultras earlier and got to know him. When he met me around the 110 km-point in the Spartathlon race, I was in a pretty bad shape. His encouragement was just what I needed to come out of that bad patch. He was crewing for another runner. Graeme gave me a recovery drink and helped me reset. I changed my clothes and set out.
Jeevendra Singh (photo: courtesy Jeevendra)
As I progressed into the race, my stomach situation improved. Also, the temperature started to lower. Further, the buffer between my arrival time and the cut-off time, started to increase. The night was clear and running through the vineyards and olive farms laden with silhouettes, was like a dream. For nutrition and hydration, I switched to soup and Coke. Then came the uphill mountainous stretch. It was quite tough but at the top I felt a connection with my late mother. The descent was tougher than the ascent. The path downhill was laden with loose rocks and scree. I decided to walk down instead of running it. As I started to descent, I began to feel better. For the next 20 miles my pace was quite good. I crossed many runners along the route. At dawn I was running through vineyards in Tegea. The route was headed to Sparta. It started to get warm. This time, I was careful with my hydration. The last stretch was mostly downhill. At Sparta, people were very passionate about the race. As I kept running, I heard them shout: Bravo. The city was packed with supporters cheering for each and every runner. There were children and youngsters running or cycling with us. I met a woman who had been volunteering for the race for the past 41 years. Just before the finish line, I stopped before the statue of King Leonidis and then, finally hit the finish line. In my mind, the 246 km race was split into three phases. The first phase was Be Calm, the second phase was Curious (it was mostly through the night) and the third phase was Confident and Belief.
The Swedish team was very helpful and friendly with me. They kept a seat for me at dinner, among many other friendly gestures. I am right now in the process of recovering both physically and emotionally. The race was quite demanding. I want to continue doing trail and mountain runs. More importantly, I want to be a much better athlete.
(The author, Jeevendra Singh is a runner who works with an investment bank in the UK)
The winners of the 2023 Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation Marathon (photo: courtesy, the event organizers)
Tirtha Pun wins 2023 Vasai Virar Municipal Marathon
Tirtha Pun of the army’s Gorkha Regiment took top honours at the Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation Marathon held on Sunday, December 10, 2023.
He won the marathon, covering the distance in two hours, 21 minutes and 48 seconds. Defending champion Mohit Rathor (2:26:43) had to settle for the second position after he suffered cramps at around the 30th kilometre. Tadakhe Sikandar Chindhu from Uttarakhand finished third with timing of 2:28:36.
Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation Marathon was organised by the Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation and the Vasai Taluka Kala Krida Vikas Mandal.
M D Nurhasan was the winner of the men’s half marathon. He covered the distance in 1:04:45, eight seconds outside the course record of 1:04:37 set by Anish Thapa in 2022. Puneet Yadav finished second with timing of 1:04:49 and Arun Rathod finished third in 1:04:53.
In the women’s half marathon race, Prajakta Godbole was the winner with timing of 1:18:12. In second place was Tamsi Singh (1:20:09) and in third place, Phoolan Pal (1:20:28).
In the open category, Manoj Kumar Yadav was the winner of the men’s race with timing of 2:27:25; Ashvini Jadhav (3:06:38) won the women’s race.
(The author, Latha Venkatraman, is an independent journalist based in Mumbai)
Miho Nakata (This picture was downloaded from the website of International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) and is being used here for representation purpose. No copyright infringement intended.
Lithuania’s Aleksandr Sorokin triumphs in the men’s segment
Poland wins women’s team gold, Lithuania in men’s
Indian men’s team finishes ninth, women fifteenth
Japan’s Miho Nakata set a new world record for the 24-hour run at the 2023 IAU 24-Hour World Championships held at Taipei, Taiwan over December 1 and 2.
She covered a distance of 270.363 kilometers during the stipulated 24 hours, breaking the previous record of 270.116 km (provisional) set by Camille Herron in 2019.
Aleksandr Sorokin of Lithuania defended his world champion title winning in the men’s category with a distance of 301.790 km covered. Europe dominated the podium in both team and individual segments.
In team ranking, Poland won the gold in the women’s race with a combined distance of 726.552 km covered. Japan earned silver with a total distance of 702.911 km while Czech Republic took the bronze with an aggregate distance of 697.275 km covered by its best performing three runners during the 24 hour-period.
In the men’s race, Lithuania won the gold with a combined distance of 813.368 km followed by Poland (787.964 km) and Great Britain and Northern Ireland with a distance of 771.794 km.
In the women’s individual category, Olena Shevchenko of Ukraine (254.463 km) finished second to win silver and Partycja Bereznowska (249.541 km) of Poland, the bronze.
Aleksandr Sorokin (this photo was downloaded from the website of IAU and is being used here for representation purpose. No copyright infringement intended)
In the men’s individual category, Fotios Zisimopoulos of Greece (292.254 km) took the silver and Andrii Tkachuk (284.540 km), the bronze.
The Indian men’s team finished in ninth position with a combined distance of 691.849 km. The women’s team finished fifteenth with a total distance of 540.964.
Amar Singh Devanda was topped among Indian runners covering a distance of 236.800 km in the assigned 24 hours. Saurav Ranjan was second with a distance of 228 km and Ullas Narayana, third with a distance of 226 km.
Among Indian women, Anju Saini topped with 186.252 km covered in 24 hours. Anju holds the national record for the 24-hour segment. She had set that record of 204.314 km at the IAU 24 Hour Asia & Oceania Championships, 2022, held at Bengaluru. Shashi Mehta was second among Indian women with a distance of 182.632 km. Priyanka Bhatt was third with a distance of 172.080 km.
“ My race usually starts in the last six hours of the 24 hours. But here in Taipei, the weather took a turn for the worse. At the start of the race, it was windy. The sun was hidden behind a thick layer of clouds. After a few hours it started drizzling but humidity stayed high,” Anju told this blog.
By the evening of December 1, the rains turned heavy and were accompanied by strong winds. “ I started to get fever and body ache. It was very tough for most runners. Many runners gave up the race,” she said.
Anju herself considered quitting many times but was convinced by the team manager to keep going. “ I also had blisters on my feet as my shoes were wet. I changed my shoes twice but to no avail,” she said.
“ We had trained for a completely different weather scenario in Taiwan,” she said.
The Indian team (photo: courtesy Santhosh Padmanabhan)
According to the Indian team manager Santhosh Padmanabhan, the weather conditions were tougher than expected. “ It was cold and windy with rain while we came prepared for heat and humidity,” he said.
The Indian team’s performance – both men’s and women’s – was historic as the men’s team broke into the top 10 and the women into the top 15 at a world championship, he said.
“ The best part of the Indian team’s performance was that none of the runners gave up despite difficult conditions,” Anju said.
“ This is a big learning experience for us. We will take the learnings from this race and come back stronger,” Santhosh said.
(The author, Latha Venkatraman, is an independent journalist based in Mumbai. All distances given are provisional)
For Ashish Kasodekar, this was the case with a project he undertook in late 2021.
Starting November 28 that year, he had run 61 marathons over 61 consecutive days. The venue was Pune University. A route had been fleshed out on its campus and eight loops of it was equal to a marathon. Few would have doubted Ashish’s capacity to complete the project; he is among the best-known ultrarunners from India. What amazed Ashish and fuelled his motivation for those two months was the support provided by others who turned up to run and keep him company. In November 2021, the pandemic was still a recent phenomenon and restrictions hadn’t been relaxed fully. Yet people arrived. Their presence gave Ashish, who was running the same five kilometre-loop for two months, something to look forward to, every day. He recalls that in that period, never once did he require a morning alarm to wake up and go to the venue. The motivation level was that good. “ It was the most beautiful thing in my life,’’ he said of the project, which showed him what a supportive human community meant. For the purpose of Guinness Records, the number of days and marathons was kept as 60 (the previous record at that time was 59). The additional one day of running was a case of testing himself after the 60 day-period.
From the impression this project left in Ashish’s mind, was born another – a quest to link a low point in geography to a high point. Initially, he imagined the run on a grand – maybe even, audacious – scale. He could try running from the Dead Sea in West Asia (it is bordered by Jordan, Israel and Palestine’s West Bank) to the Himalaya in South Asia. At over 1400 feet below sea level, the shores of the Dead Sea represent the lowest elevation on land on the planet while the Himalaya hosts its highest peaks. He also saw in the play of words framing the project, a segway to addressing the issue of mental depression, a condition spoken of as perhaps the most widespread problem of our troubled times. “ I wasn’t expecting anyone to be cured and feeling high at the end of such a long run. I was hoping, I could convince people to enjoy the running and enjoy the passage from a low point to a high,’’ Ashish said. Physical activity like running is known to release endorphins that contribute to an improved sense of well-being. As Ashish’s project encountered reality, the angle around mental wellbeing, survived. The one attempting to connect Dead Sea and the Himalaya, stayed still born. There was a reason for it.
Ashish progressively realized that the route spanning half a continent, was a political minefield. He would be running through countries that had experienced conflict or were still trapped in conflict and by the time he reached Pakistan, there would be the frosty, unpredictable ties between India and Pakistan to negotiate. True, a project of this sort may help set a new tone for politics and understanding between people but the variables over such a long and volatile route were too many. For instance, at the time he thought of the project, Ashish didn’t have reason to worry excessively about the Levant. By October 2023, there was full scale confrontation between Israel’s armed forces and Hamas.
Ashish’s project didn’t die. Instead, after his run at the 2022 Badwater Ultramarathon in the US, Low2High (as the project came to be called) got underway in a different format. To begin with, there appeared to be no problem accessing the Himalaya in India or Nepal. So, the aspect of “ high’’ was trouble-free. “ Low’’ demanded reimagination. For the lowest point in geography, Ashish decided to search within India. West Asia’s Dead Sea was thus replaced with Kerala’s Kuttanad, which is officially the region with least elevation in India. Located in central Kerala and long famed for its paddy cultivation, Kuttanad is among the few places in the world where farming happens four to ten feet below sea level. It was decided to run from Kuttanad to Umling La in Ladakh, which at 19,024 feet is currently the highest motorable pass in the world. It was also decided to cover the distance in 76 days, so that the finish coincided with India’s 76th Independence Day on August 15, 2023. Alongside, an app was designed whereby in a repeat of the community support Ashish had enjoyed in his project of 61 marathons in 61 days, a host of people who downloaded the app were visualized aggregating 76 lakh kilometres in their daily exercise sessions. The ambitious figure of 76 lakh kilometres didn’t have to come via running alone. It could be from walking, jogging or cycling – the idea being to create a mutually engaged, supportive ecosystem for the duration of the project. The punchline was: be together, achieve together and celebrate together, all of it couched in the larger paradigm of a nation being fit if each one is physically fit.
Ashish’s own target of 76 days to project-completion required him to cover 55 kilometres every day and repeat it daily without a break. Given his background in ultrarunning, both seemed doable. Prior to this project, Ashish had – among major events – run the 333km and 555km races of La Ultra The High, Brazil 135, Badwater 135 and the 61×61 event at Pune University. Ashish commenced Low2High from Kainakary in Kuttanad, on June 1, 2023. Traditionally, that is the day when the south west monsoon hits India, the southern tip of Kerala being where it manifests first. In 2023, the onset of the annual rains (Kerala has two seasons of it every year) was tad delayed. But the pre-monsoon build-up was palpable and the early days of the run were wrapped in heat and humidity (pre-monsoon-Kerala can be quite humid). As Ashish ran northward, the monsoon slowly caught up from behind. The first rain he experienced on the run, struck in Karnataka on June 11; it poured. He did 50-55 kilometres in that weather. Ashish’s daily schedule was simple. He would start running by about 6AM; after 10 kilometres he would take a tea-break, after 21 kilometres there would be breakfast. Lunch was at around 1.30PM. He would conclude his run by 4PM. It was a mix of running and walking. By 10PM, he would go to sleep. For the first 25-30 days, he covered roughly 60 kilometres every day. Twenty three days after starting from Kainakary in Kuttanad, Ashish reached Pune, his home town.
At Umling La (photo: courtesy Ashish Kasodekar)
Each place he passed through, left an impression. Kerala was generally clean with good local roads to run on but irritated in the early stages of the journey with its heavy traffic. In Maharashtra, traffic made the Thane-Ghodbunder stretch tough. “ Haryana was action packed. Everyone wanted to know what I was trying to do,’’ Ashish said. There were minor physical problems. After 40-45 days of running, one evening, there was pain in his leg. It was tackled. For three days, in the wake of that leg pain, he opted to walk 50 kilometres. He had an ice bath every day. The support team traveling alongside in a vehicle found a place to stay and secured the ice. His support team included his younger brother Amit, Rishikesh Gaikwad and Harikrishnan Damalpati. Every 15 days, Ashish did a medical test. Electrolyte levels and kidney functioning were checked. Along the way, there were social engagements too. Ashish and his team distributed 35 fitness kits (each contained items like footballs and skipping ropes) to various schools; they also gave talks. By the time Ashish reached Punjab, the heavy rains that caused havoc in Himachal Pradesh in 2023, had happened. His route had to be reconfigured here and there depending on road condition and which roads stayed open. He reached Umling La on schedule, on August 15, having covered 4003 kilometres in 76 days. Notes kept by the team show that almost half the distance covered was on NH48. Second was NH3 with roughly 450 kilometres. The notes also reveal the team’s frustration with traffic at various points.
Project Low2High lived up to expectations. Except perhaps in one department – the app found roughly 8000 subscribers and their cumulative mileage was quite short of the 76 lakh kilometres originally envisaged. However, the real take away from Low2High is the template and ideation (for example, within Kerala itself, runners could imagine linking Kuttanad to the highlands of Idukki). As Ashish pointed out, his interactions with people during the journey told him that when it came to fitness, everyone from an IT professional to a truck driver, faced the same challenge of not having the time for exercise or lacking motivation for the same. With an engaging journey for central theme and the model of a community motivated enough to keep him company, he believes he can contribute his bit to get people moving.
It was early October, 2023. “ So, what’s next?’’ I asked as we reached the end of our chat, at his house in Pune.
“ I would like to try the Barkley Marathon,’’ Ashish said referring to the race in Tennessee, rated as a difficult ultramarathon with a history of few finishers.
(The author, Shyam G Menon, is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai)
It is not always that one finds a cycling story behind a simple recommendation on food.
I did and it was more than cycling that I found; it was the story of an interesting existence.
Early September 2023, a bid to contain one’s cost of living in Leh, saw freelance journalist search for Ladakhi food. I knew from past experience that it may prove futile for as has happened in many tourist-destinations, in Leh too, the culinary preference of outsiders overshadows what is locally consumed. One finds stylish cafes and restaurants catering to the taste buds of moneyed visitors who expect what they like everywhere they go and are willing to pay for it. It’s one of the call signs of new India; life resembles an airport – hunger is addressed not by eating affordable food but by demonstrating that one has the capacity to afford no matter what the cost.
Still, given my need had been whittled down to just the local bread or something similarly basic, I was hopeful of defiant culinary islands holding out against market forces. My search for Ladakhi food brought me to a kitchen at one end of Leh’s market and a conversation with the owners who highlighted the nutritional and economic sense in local food but admitted they too had succumbed to the new trend. “ It is affordable and it is nutritious,” the lady in the kitchen said before throwing her hands up to signal larger forces at play. There wasn’t a market big enough to support an eatery focused on Ladakhi food. On the bright side, the conversation was good. It’s the usual case, when two parties equally disappointed with contemporary drifts, meet. The kitchen had one customer. He sat there eating, quietly. At the end of my chat with the owner of the enterprise, the customer recommended that I try a kitchen elsewhere in town, which continued to offer local cuisine. That’s how I met Nilanjan. I was contemplating what to do, at the junction where Zangsti Road met Changspa Road and Sankar Road, when he emerged from the eatery. In season of Ladakh Marathon, his physicality hinted of cyclist. A short Q&A proved it right. A few days later, we conversed over lunch at a dhaba nearby.
An only child, Nilanjan Guha Majumder grew up in Uttarpara, Kolkata. His father worked with Customs & Central Excise; his mother was a housewife and entrepreneur. He did his schooling at Amarenda Vidyapith. He took to swimming when he was eight years old. Cycling was an early entrant to his life; it was his mode of transport in Uttarpara, famous for hosting Hindustan Motors, manufacturers of the Ambassador car, an icon of the India before economic liberalization. During his school days, Nilanjan loved playing cricket and featured in competitions up to the district level. College changed all that. Life became focused on academics (he still found time for volleyball and athletics). He graduated in computer studies from an institution in Bengaluru and then followed that up with a masters from Kolkata. Then, he joined Tech Mahindra in Pune. He also took a transfer back to Kolkata.
From Nilanjan’s rides in Ladakh / en route to Mahe, returning from Hanle (photo: Nilanjan Guha Majumder)
In 2007, he married his long-time girlfriend, who he knew from his schooldays. He shifted employment to Cognizant. Then, a while later, tragedy struck. Over five years spanning 2010 to 2015, both his parents and his grandmother, passed away. That was three people close to him, gone. “ I realized that nothing is permanent,’’ he said. In 2018-2019, Nilanjan and his wife decided to separate (the divorce came through in 2020). They remain good friends. In 2019, he shifted back to Bengaluru and acquired a new partner but the relationship broke up within a year.
Around the same time, he also resigned from Cognizant. It happened gradually, like something progressed towards. Prior to leaving the company, COVID-19 had struck humanity. The pandemic reauthored office operations and work styles worldwide. Just when office as surrogate home became fashionable, the virus dispatched everyone back home and made an office of it. For those not part of any herd, it must have been a time of engaging options around how to design one’s life. Nilanjan decided to travel and work remotely. He worked as a volunteer at a farm in Mysore. The farm house was beautiful and life there was calm and peaceful. The volunteering gave him time to think and make up his mind on what to do – among them, find the resolve to resign his job. The urge to quit had been building up over the preceding months. Volunteering helped him see things in perspective and find the courage to actually put in his papers. Now, educated, experienced and between jobs, he volunteered full time at the farm. He also taught children at the local village.
The owner of the farm was a dropout from the corporate world, who wished to start a school with a difference. Thanks to COVID, the situation was so bad that such plans had to be put on hold. Nilanjan had to move. He did so; to Guhagar on Maharashtra’s Konkan coast and another farm, where he volunteered. Amidst the new stint at volunteering, he also operated as a guide for tourists arrived to indulge in adventure sports. But a disagreement between the business partners concerned, saw the enterprise he worked at, shut down. Courtesy social media, he found another opportunity to volunteer in Himachal Pradesh. The location was near Banjar. According to Nilanjan, he was supposed to run a café in partnership with the owner of the facility; the larger enterprise was to be a travel company with focus on outings in the Tirthan Valley. Around July 2022, he packed his bags and left Guhagar for Himachal Pradesh. Set to follow him, was a parcel.
From Nilanjan’s rides in Ladakh / camping in a meadow the day before crossing Wari La (photo: Nilanjan Guha Majumder)
Six years earlier, in 2016, Nilanjan had taken to cycling in a manner more committed than the commuting of his childhood. With a LA Sovereign MTB for steed, he had joined a cycling club in Kolkata. The Sovereign soon gave way to a Montra MTB. As his interest picked up and he met serious cyclists, he acquired a Java Velos 2 road bike. He took the Java with him, when he shifted to Bengaluru, a city known for its regular bicycle races and activities around cycling. During one of his rides in the city, he met Anand (Andy) and joined the latter’s cycling group. He also started going for trail runs at Avalahalli. After much use, the Java was sold to a person in Chennai. Nilanjan contacted Venkatesh Shivarama (Venky) of WheelSports in Bengaluru to buy a Polygon Bend R2, a gravel bike (it is capable of both tarmac and offroad and can be used for bikepacking trips). The new bicycle was delivered to Nilanjan in Pune. He rode it all the way to Guhagar. And when he shifted to Himachal Pradesh, the Polygon followed; it was parceled to him by Sunil Kumar Sahu, who Nilanjan trusts with transporting his bicycle. On the map, Nilanjan was now parked in Himachal Pradesh, south of Ladakh, a region loved by cyclists, climbers, hikers, runners – indeed anyone who likes freedom and exploration.
In some ways, the whole thing wasn’t accidental. Ladakh had been on Nilanjan’s mind from two to three years before his shift to Tirthan Valley. He had this vague idea of a plan – cycle from Himachal to Ladakh to Kashmir, Gujarat and South India before linking back to Kolkata. “ I had no idea what to expect. I am not a goal-oriented guy. I am a curious person, someone who keeps learning and possibly therefore, develops skills,’’ he said. Meanwhile, life in Tirthan wasn’t playing out as he would have wished it to. It seemed time to move again and explore. His former wife, who had stayed a good friend, pitched in to help. On July 28, 2022, Nilanjan set off for Ladakh on his Polygon. He proceeded to Manali and onward through the new Atal Tunnel to Sisu. There he met two friends from Kolkata and cycled with them to Sirchu. From thereon, he cycled alone. He rode via Tso Kar, Puga and Hanle to Leh, reaching there around August 20. After a brief halt, he cycled via Wari La to Nubra and returned to Leh via Khardung La. “ By now, I was in love with Ladakh,’’ he said.
The quest now was to figure out a means to hang on. Nilanjan likes photography. He approached a studio in Leh to see if the pictures he had taken, would sell. During the ensuing interaction with Rigzin and his uncle, Lobsang Visudha, Nilanjan came to know of the possibility of teaching computer applications to school children. He volunteered at Mahabodhi Residential School at Choglamsar in Leh. He taught computer studies for two and a half months. Over time, that volunteer work evolved into a proper job. From March 2023, he has been teaching there as a regular employee. Nilanjan is now a school teacher in Leh. According to him, his salary is considerably lower than what the IT industry used to pay him. But he has peace. In comparison, it was difficult to find peace in a corporate environment. During his days of volunteering at the school, he made friends with the local people. They helped him find an affordable place to stay in Leh. “ This phase has given me a strong sense of purpose. I like guiding students,’’ he said adding that he now has a feeling of having found what he was looking for.
From Nilanjan’s rides in Ladakh / on the approach to Tso Kar (photo: Nilanjan Guha Majumder)
When I met him in September 2023, Nilanjan led an active lifestyle mixing regular workouts, running and cycling with his newfound role of school teacher. On weekends, he went for long bicycle rides (we met at the dhaba after he had finished a trip up and down, Khardung La). The Polygon has held up well, he said. He made one modification to the bicycle – he replaced the rear chainrings, originally of a 11-32 configuration, with a 11-34. It helped him get a better gear ratio for climbs. Else, the bike is pretty much unaltered. Being a gravel bike designed to do bikepacking trips as well, its gearing doesn’t have the wide range of the classic tourer’s. But Nilanjan says, he hasn’t had reason to complain despite life in Ladakh. On long trips, he rides with loaded panier bags. So far, the bicycle has tackled all the uphill, downhill and flat terrain thrown at it.
A couple of days after this chat, a friend and I had Ladakhi food at the kitchen Nilanjan recommended. It was good. But above all, finding Ladakhi food amidst the predictable trends of the market, was a pleasure.
(The author, Shyam G Menon, is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai)
Outrigger 