Born to run

On the eve of Chennai’s first official open-to-all ultra marathon, Esther Elias meets a niche group of runners who stretch their minds and bodies beyond unimaginable boundaries.

September 05, 2014 07:44 pm | Updated 07:44 pm IST

Long strides: Ultra runners in the city gear up for the event. Photo : S.R.Raghunathan

Long strides: Ultra runners in the city gear up for the event. Photo : S.R.Raghunathan

At the stroke of midnight on a cold December day in 2013, Jayaraman Balasubramanian took off from a starting line in Lovedale Ooty, at the Globeracers Nilgiris Ultra Marathon. Through mountain paths soaked in mist, steep roads and sharp hairpin bends, past gaur bison and a supposed leopard, Bala ran as the sun rose, set its mark in the sky and slowly made its way down. At first in the company of 21 runners, and eventually alone, with no music in his ears but the sound of one foot after the other pounding the earth, Bala ran for 15 hours and 20 minutes, to finish his first 100 km race. For a man who bears the scars of an open-heart surgery in 1991, 49-year-old Bala’s lean, taut frame has since seen him through a 12-hour stadium run clocking 199 laps and 79.6 km, a 200 km run in 3.2 days, and numerous other ultra runs (any marathon over 42 km). As India’s running revolution strides into maturity, a niche group of ultra runners is leading the pack, stretching mind and body boundaries into distances once deemed insane. And in Chennai, Bala is not alone. On the eve of Chennai’s first official open-to-all ultra marathon, organised by Peter Van Giet’s Chennai Trekking Club (CTC), over 150 registered runners aspire to finish the 50 km trail run tomorrow.

But Chennai’s quiet tryst with ultra running traces its history several years back. In 2010, Shahid Kandrikar, managing director of Florind Shoes, was running the 30 kms to Fisherman’s Cove with a friend, when they realised Mahabalipuram was just another 20 kms run away. In December that year, they organised the first ‘Shahid Ultra’ run along this ECR route, inviting only a handful of those who had completed full marathons before. In its fourth year running, the Shahid Ultra remains invite-only, but has burgeoned to over 70 elite runners, setting off at 3 a.m., running through dawn and into Mahabalipuram about six hours later. In the years in between, though, a rash of ultra marathons have sprouted across India, and Chennai’s runners have made their mark in many.

It was at the annual November Bangalore Ultra through trails in Hessarghatta over 50 km that software engineer Manivannan V.S. made his maiden ultra run. A serious runner from 2007, and a regular at the Kentucky Derby Festival half and full marathons in the U.S., Manivannan says his leap from being “king of the halves” to a full marathoner was first a matter of pushing the “wall” — a mythical mental distance beyond which your body refuses to budge. As a half marathoner, Manivannan met his wall at 32 km. “The last 10 km in the full marathon were initially, sheer willpower.” Time and experience have since broken the wall, and in 2012 Manivannan peaked his running life with four full marathons and his first ultra. The progression into ultra running was only natural, he says — “your body craves for more” — but the transition came gradually, through a running programme taken from Bill Pierce’s Run Less, Run Faster book that scheduled into Manivannan’s week three morning running weekdays with weekend long runs, and core and strength training every other day.

For IBM employee and triathlete Ramesh Palani, it’s the cross training through cycling and swimming that made him an ultra runner. His first ultra was on India’s 67th Independance Day when he ran through Chennai’s roads for 67 km over 12 hours, alone, with a flag in hand and passersby around chanting ‘Vande Mataram’. A month later, he completed his first 100 km at Singapore’s Sundown Marathon. At 75 km, in deep pain and convinced he should give up, Ramesh found strength in the strangers on the road who that egged him to the finish. “Regardless of how hard you train, the pain will always be there,” he says, “but then you somehow challenge yourself again, break that mental barrier and just push past your limits. That’s what makes endurance sport so addictive.” In the lead-up to CTC’s Chennai Trail Marathon, Peter and Ramesh have spent the last six weekends in the Palani, Yercaud and Javadi Hills with a handful of aspiring ultra runners, completing 50 km runs through the grasslands on back-to-back days, dining by campfires, and sleeping under the stars at night. “You cannot wake up one morning, run an ultra and not injure your body dangerously,” warns Peter, “Neither can you swing from event to event. Running has to be part of your everyday life.”

And what a life-changing experience running has been, aver these athletes. Besides the discipline of four-in-the-morning runs, and a strict vegan diet, Bala says, ultrarunning takes his mind to a meditative space of absolute blankness yet crystal clarity. “After 70 km, it’s just bliss.” The experience has also made him a steely man. At the recent 12-hour Bangalore stadium run for elite runners nationwide, to which Bala was invited, he says of the 400-meter loop that he traversed nearly 200 times: “The exit was right under my nose. I wondered often why I didn’t just run out. But that’s when your mind takes over and you keep going. There’s little in real life that will daunt you once you become an ultrarunner.” For Manivannan, it’s the friends he’s made on the track that he values most. In the hours that you spend together conquering mile after mile, there’s an inexplicable connect that gently grows. “When you share physical pain, you tend to share deeper pains as well.”

Across the board, most of Chennai’s ultrarunners have a bucket list of ultra runs worldover that they strive toward. From India’s annual Bhati Lakes 100 km ultra through abandoned mines in October, and the Rishikesh to Uttarkashi 135-mile run with its 34,000 feet ascent and descent, up to global challenges such as South Africa’s Comrades Marathon (89 km), The Chamonix Mont-Blanc ultra-trail mountain marathon and America’s 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon, their dreams are limitless. Globally, ultramarathons are now big business, with extravagant registrations fees and lottery selection of qualifying runners, rendering it a rich man’s sport. “It’s taken the passion out of running,” says Peter. In a bid to right this somehow, last year, Bala organised a 200 km ultra over three days covering all the Navagraha temples in Kumbakonam, running beside the Cauvery in full flow, hosted free for meals and rest by agraharam families nearby, with a darshan at each temple timed into the run. “For once, the focus shifted from our timings clocked, heart rate, stride and cadence numbers, money and glory, as the spirituality took over.” Bala hopes to organise similar budgeted runs from Chennai to Tirupathi, or Velankanni, and Rameshwaram to Kashi, thus opening up the arena, especially to rural runners.

It is in this spirit too that Peter capped CTC’s ultra registration fee at Rs. 500, making it one of the most affordable cheapest ultras in South India currently. Possible because of CTC’s 200-strong volunteer base that manages everything from refreshments to photography, the ultra also satisfies another of Peter’s desires — that Chennai’s runners move off the city’s roads and take to all-terrain running. Tomorrow’s ultra at Sholavaram loops above a dam, cashew fields, eucalyptus forests, man-made canyons, sand hills and river beds, over the grasslands around the lake and through small villages. “I want people to run inspired by the beauty around them.” If the numbers so far are anything to go by, it just may foretell that the tribe of Chennai’s ultrarunners is only set to increase.

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