Running Through Hell: Meet the runners who conquered India’s toughest desert ultramarathon
Summary
In the searing heat of the Kutch desert, Indian ultrarunners battled hallucinations, exhaustion, and brutal terrain over 217 kilometres to conquer the unforgiving White Sand Ultra
Towards the end of her run, Sujata Sahu realised she was in trouble. She had finished 211km of the 135-mile (217km) category of the White Sand Ultramarathon in Kutch, Gujarat. The effort had required her to be on her feet for over 35 hours in testing conditions, with little time to rest to meet the race cutoffs. A light in the distance marked the finish. Just that at this point, Sahu could see three lights instead of one.
“The hallucinations had set in due to sleep deprivation and fatigue. The pain in my left foot was unbearable. It was probably the only time I considered quitting. And then I remembered how no other female had dared to sign up for this race," she says.
It was enough motivation to get her across the line. She was among 22 runners who started the ultramarathon in Dholavira on 22 March; 12 made the finish within the time limit of 38 hours.
“If you can manage the body and get to the finish, that is victory in ultra running," she says.
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The White Sand Ultra endurance race is the latest offering by The Hell Race, which organises marathons and trail runs across India, and features three other categories (50km,100km, 100 miles) besides the 135-miler. Of the 150 runners in all, 100 finished their respective races.
“This race is expected to put India on the global circuit of road ultras. Over 10 years, we have been nurturing the ultra running community by gradually increasing the challenge quotient. One of the main reasons to host these races is to showcase India’s geography, while driving economic activity in these regions," says race director, Vishwas Sindhu.
The distance needed some serious mile crunching to make the time cutoffs in extreme temperature and harsh weather, a consistent effort that unfolded most times in the solitude of the desert.
“Though you start after 4pm, the temperature is really high. And it climbs to around 45 degrees Celsius in the day. Anyone who starts fast will suffer later on, a lot of drop-outs after the 50km mark," says Rakesh Kashyap, 54, who took second spot in a time of 29 hours, 42 minutes.
Most athletes that signed up were aware of how demanding these races can get. Kashyap had run 150 miles in Brazil in January; Sahu ran a 100-miler in December. The race winner, Shailesh Kumar, smashed the 135-mile course record at the Hennur Bamboo Ultra in Bengaluru in October last year, bettering the previous mark by almost six hours. However, early on in the run, he realised this was going to be very different.
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“I did well on the first 28km stretch, then suffered cramps in the glutes and hamstrings. It was only after consuming black salt that my body recovered to a certain extent," says Kumar, 30, who clocked 28 hours, 44 minutes.
In order to prepare for the race, Kumar logged a weekly mileage of about 90km since January, and hit a peak of 130km as part of a 10-week programme that also included strength sessions every evening. Kashyap focused solely on endurance as part of his training, which also included seven uphill runs from his home in Chandigarh to Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh.
For her longest race, the 135-miler, Sahu decided to pace the run based on how her body adapted to the conditions. To gear up for the arid weather, Sahu ran in the October heat of Mumbai’s afternoons, besides 10 consecutive half marathons at different times of the day in late February.
“I don’t think anything can prepare you for how hot the day gets. It felt like my soles were on fire. The photos looked heavenly when I signed up for the race, but running there was pure hell. You need to have a big heart to sustain the effort all the way to the finish line," Sahu, 43, says.
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During the scorching day, Sahu encountered locals who offered her a ride to get away from the heat. Nighttime brought its own set of challenges on desolate roads, as runners navigated in the darkness with their headlamps. It’s what Kashyap enjoyed most under a canopy of stars on a moonless night.
“You are all alone and cannot see anything around you. It’s a spiritual experience, almost like meditating on the run and connecting with the divine," he says.
Kashyap broke down the mammoth distance into segments and set a time for each sector. He had a speedy first hundred miles as he took the lead early on.
“There were constant calculations running in my head as I tried to meet my targets. If I was slower on certain stretches, I got busy figuring out how much faster I needed to be on the next one to make time. This kept me engaged on the run," he says.
“Whenever you encounter challenges and get slow, the idea is to keep moving at a comfortable pace. It’s often a matter of time before your body finds its rhythm again," he says.
Kumar kept even shorter targets of 7km between the hydration points on the course. Beyond the 100km mark, he struggled on a narrow 18km section with constant truck traffic that forced him off the road at regular intervals.
“The shoulder was uneven, a lot of stones that made running impossible. So each time a vehicle came along, I had to simply step aside and let it pass. It broke my rhythm and in turn, I lost a lot of time on this stretch," Kumar says.
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While Kumar ran most of the race on his own, he spotted Kashyap a short distance ahead around the 175km mark. They decided to run together, but by the 190km mark, Kumar had taken the lead and held on until the finish. The race was good preparation for them for international races later this year—Kashyap has signed up for the Badwater Ultramarathon in the US while Kumar wants to attempt Spartathlon in Greece.
“At one point, you ask yourself why you are doing this, that you won’t sign up for such a long run again. But whether you finish first or last, every runner experiences the same emotion at the finish line. And soon, you are looking for the next big run," Kashyap says.
Sahu would agree. Over two years, she has graduated from running 5km to these mighty efforts of endurance. Even as she recovers from her latest race, she’s started looking for bigger challenges.
“I like to see how far I can go and how my mind can support me in these endeavours. These races make you resilient and give you the strength to tackle anything that life throws at you," she says.
Shail Desai is a Mumbai-based freelance writer.
