What makes runners set new targets and test their limits? It has to be more than a medal or recognition from peers. Runners’ high? Maybe. Ask city-based runner Sunita Tummalapalli why she ran 112km at a stretch this January or why she clocked 2015km in 2015 and she nods. It’s the unfathomable runner’s high.
Sunita picked up a diary on January 1, 2015, and wondered what she’d write in it. It had to be something special and challenging. She decided she’d run 2015 km.
When she did the math, she figured out she’d have to run around 5.5 km per day. “I thought I would have covered that kind of distance when I participated in 13 marathons in 2013. But when I checked my log, I had done a little less than 1500. 2015km was going to be tough,” she recalls.
Sunita planned a mix of marathon and regular running to complete 2015km. On her list were the Antarctica Marathon, the Amazing Maasai Marathon in Africa and a marathon in South America. “The travel to Antarctica took a fortnight and I was on a ship. Obviously I couldn’t run. Whenever I travelled I had to keep track and make up for the lost miles,” she says. She bagged the Seven Continents Finisher’s medal in August.
To push herself, she signed up for Nilgiris Ultra 100k organised by Global Racers, scheduled for December. “To train for the 100k, I signed up for trails runs and ultra marathons,” she says.
The second half of 2015 was gruelling. “There were times I wondered why I brought all this on to myself. When I first attempted a full marathon, I would think I should have stayed happy with half marathons. But completing a full marathon gave me a high. Likewise, the Ultra challenges made me truly happy,” she says.
Sunita took the help of fellow runner Sunil Menon (he completed the Ironman challenge in South Africa in 2014) to prepare for the 100K. “My training involved swimming, running, cycling and strength training. Sunil suggested that I incorporate pranayama and meditation, since running long distance is a mind game.”
In December 2015, she crossed the 2015 mark. But as luck would have it, the Nilgiris 100k was cancelled after the Chennai floods. Then, Sunita approached her friend Ram Sethu, founder of The WindChasers. “Ram had earlier organised a 70 mile (112km) multi-day race in Himalayas and had planned to organise one in Nilgiris. He was planning a recce. I wanted to run this distance (112km) to mark my daughter Tanvi’s 12th birthday on January 9, 2016. I was glad he supported my crazy idea.”
The hilly terrain of Nilgiris wasn’t easy and she had to factor in the threat posed by wild animals.
“We started running at 4a.m. and continued running into the night. I was accompanied by Ram Sethu and his friend Adi Raghavan at different points. We had safety precautions in place. A vehicle closely followed me so that if an animal is sighted, I’d quickly be inside the vehicle. My husband ran with me from 83.5 km and I felt guilty to put him at risk to meet my running target. My children Suhas, Nikhil and Tanvi were also in Nilgiris, greeting me at different venues with food and water. That energised me.”
Exhausted and sore but elated, she completed the run. To recoup, she took up easy walks and cycling in the following days. “You recover better with low intensity workouts than doing nothing. I also increased my intake of proteins and fats and cut down or carbs and sugar,” she says.
She’s taking a breather for now, wanting to focus on interval training and monitor her speed.
On a parting note, she says, “A number of women tell me I’m lucky to have a supportive family. That’s true, but it’s also a fact that you need to start doing something with passion and seeing that, your family will support you.”
2015 running calendar |
