Ultra runners gear up for endurance test

The national ultra-running team has been training in Bengaluru to bond and better pacing strategy

- Shail Desai

n 2016, India joined the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU), the global body of ultra running. The following year, they made their first appearance at the IAU 24-hour World Championship in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Ullas Hosahalli Narayana was a part of the four-member team. Though he had the experience of running longer on trails, both in terms of time and duration, he knew little about this particular format. Or the monotony of running in loops on a flat track for an entire day. He was prepared for the effort, but he had little idea on how to fuel or pace his run. Mental fatigue caught up long before the 24-hour mark. After covering 182.462km, he simply stopped running. “It was good to just dive into the deep end to see what it was all about, though we had no idea what we were doing,” Narayana, 45, says.

Over the next few months, he put in specific training and arrived at a nutrition plan, executing a satisfying race in Quebec, Canada, where he ran 216km. Then, in December 2018, he raced at the IAU Asia-Oceania 24h Championship in Taipei, Taiwan, finishing with a bronze and a new national record of 250.371km. “Just self-coaching and doing some basic training based on the nature of the event. Running in Andaman’s heat and humidity, while on holiday just before the race, certainly helped. Until then, no one was really interested in this format,” he says.

A lot has changed since Narayana’s podium finish, as another 13-member Indian team lines up at the 24h World Championship in Albi, France, on 18 October. There's been a significant rise in the number of ultra running events across the country, from the high mountains of Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh to the lush terrain of the Western Ghats and the arid environs of Rajasthan.