The Alps stands defiantly outside of time as we know it. Stretching across the spine of Europe, this sky-soaring mountain range has dared warriors Hannibal, Napoleon and Hitler to set foot on its flanks. Its gentler slopes have invited the Romantics, naturalists and alpinists to roam beautiful paths and celebrate a heritage of cheese and watch-making. But to conquer its massifs such as Mont Blanc and Matterhorn, you need to be a giant, one whose strides can summit its peaks with as much ease as its valleys, when running one of the world’s toughest mountain races, the Tor des Geants. Chennai-based lawyer, 26-year-old Ashok Daniel recently became the first Indian to run across Italy’s Aosta Valley, named after the imperial Augustus, to successfully complete the race.
Daniel, who was schooled and educated in Chennai and Nottingham, is now senior counsel with a law firm that specialises in Intellectual Property rights. An ultra-runner for five years now, he grew up an overweight kid who shammed at the gym and tried many ways to lose weight till he discovered running. When he walks in for the interview, Daniel is as fit and tight as a coiled spring, his obese past well behind him.
“I lost eight kilograms over a week,” laughs Daniel. “The race spans a distance of nearly 330 kilometres and an altitude of 28,000 metres across 25 passes. You need to finish in 150 hours with intermediate cut-offs at checkpoints which means you average 50-60 kilometres and heights of 4,000-5,000 metres a day. You are lucky if you can run on level ground for at least 10 kilometres. That happened only around the 275th kilometre; by then my legs felt nothing.”
Every year, the Tor des Geants is run in September, beginning and ending in Courmayeur, an Italian town that is home to Europe’s highest botanical garden. Running through the day and night at such altitudes puts runners at risk of hypothermia, disorientation and the possibility of gently expiring within view of the Matterhorn. Trail running also means changing your stride every now and then, bounding past obstacles and scrambling through scree and obtuse rock faces.
“On Day 4 and 5, the nights were down to 10 degrees Centigrades, the streams were frozen and my lips were bleeding. Trail races are not just about putting one foot in front of another; one moment you are on the valley floor, the next you are close to the sky. Tor des Geants has a trail only up to tree cover; its alpine zone is completely rocky and verglassed and there are ropes and ladders to help you. But, it can be frustrating at night even with crampons and hiking poles. You can’t switch off and when you see someone being rescued by helicopter you stop hallucinating and drag your mind back to the present,” says Daniel, who slept for one to two hours a day. “That’s what you train for, else you don’t finish. There are days you don’t want to get out because it’s so cold. But, the views are spectacular and you can see the seasons change from summer to fall to early winter.”
For this race that saw 880 people begin and only 53 % finish, Daniel has been preparing over the past year. In 2016, he was the youngest Indian to complete the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) that covers three countries and 10 alpine summits. Earlier, he had done the North Face Lavaredo Ultra Trail that runs through the Italian Dolomites. And, in June, he ran the Old Dominion in the Shenandoah Mountains, US. After the Tor des Geants, Daniel went on to complete the Malnad Ultra and another at Reunion Islands.
The runner, who turned vegetarian two years ago, and acclimatised in Manali, Spiti and Chamonix before he set off, says ultra running is both about kit preparation and an understanding of your own capabilities. “Training in Chennai’s humidity helps build endurance. However, when you scramble past suspended hunks of ice it calls for both physical and psychological strength. Tor des Geants is very professionally organised. At 650 Euros, everything from mountain rescue to cubicles and food is taken care of,” says Daniel, hoping ultra racing will grow in India that has the world’s highest mountains.
Daniel is now training to run the Petite Trotte a Leon. A team race within the framework of the UTMB, this one has no trails and calls for finding your route with GPS trackers and maps. When it’s time to leave, he says he’d like another go at the Tor des Geants. But why, I ask incredulously. “The race ends in the heart of the town to the peal of bells. People are giving out beer and ice cream and yelling your name. You run through old Roman roads, historic towns and spectacular scenery. When they see the name of the country on your bib, it gets you many cheers. And, when you finish the race wearing the gilet, the Tricolour around you and hit that high note of positivity, you know you are home.”
