How Indian Athletes Endured White Sands Ultra

Held in Gujarat in March, athletes tell us what kept them going through this grueling race to cross the finish line

- Shail Desai

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 at that 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.

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.