Khardung-la challenge - Highest Ultra Marathon in the World

Before I start, if you want to know what Khardung-la Challenge then here is a video https://vimeo.com/277758670

Moreover, about the 2018 edition which we ran, an abstract form the official Ladakh Marathon fb page says “With each edition we learn something new. The Khardung-la Challenge of 2018 was certainly a challenge for us and the runners, what with bad weather conditions including landslides, heavy snowfall, rain and temperatures plummeting to below minus 14 degrees Celsius . Over a course of 72 km, the runners experience nature in its most raw form, from strong and cold winds to the harsh sun beating down on them. Every year we are overwhelmed and inspired by the people who choose to face this ultimate Challenge and nothing makes us happier than watching them take in the cheers of the locals as they cross the finish line."

Let me start by saying that each and everyone who has ever stood (or going to stand in coming years) at the starting line of Khardung-La challenge, at 3 O'clock in the morning, at an altitude of 14,000 ft has a unique story of his own. An experience which neither will he/she be able to explain fully, nor can someone live through. That experience will never be completely understood.

First lets get this straight; Khardung La Challenge is not a day event. Its a journey of discipline, determination and grit. A journey where your self-concept is challenged to the core and at the end you become more self aware than you were ever earlier.

Whenever I discussed about our training for this event, many of my friends said ‘we have followed your training’ and ‘we understand you’.. I always silently answered so nice of you, thank you very much but you don’t exactly understand what that experience was.

You will find a number of blogs on Khardung La challenge but as I said, the experience of each and every individual is unique and that's the reason, I have decided to pen down my experience.

Well, it all started when I was in Manali, returning from Friendship peak expedition last year. I saw a post of Asif running in Manali on Facebook.
To give a little background on my situation then, I did my 10KM personal best in Bengaluru 10K challenge but soon after that I got injured when we started training for Bengaluru Marathon 2017. I had a successful Friendship peak expedition but I was in severe pain throughout because of the horrible Shin Splint(Metatarsal Tibial Stress Syndrome).
The very next day of landing in Bangalore, I ran Urban Stampede Corporate relay as part of my company's team ,"Tangoe Tigers". The podium finish came at a cost of worsening the injury.

I took 2 weeks off after Urban stampede. Meanwhile I consulted doctor who instructed me to downgrade to Half Marathon at Bengaluru Marathon 2017. Since I was not able to run fast, I thought it is better to do a slow full marathon rather than a slow half. 

I had a horrible Bengaluru Marathon, limping from 10th KM and many runners advising me to quit. But I finished the run in 4hrs 24mins. The persistence & grit which made me complete the event when everybody else was reminding me how worse it could be if I continued, was exactly what an event like Khardung La challenge expects.

Post Bengaluru Marathon, I took close to 3 weeks off from running and came back strongly with PB at Mumbai marathon(TMM) in January. 

Post TMM 2018, as a group, our focus was to concentrate on TCS world 10K. In February, we even started one hour run and hill repeats as a prep for TCS. But since Babu sir was injured he started running aerobic runs and even I thrashed the plan of TCS and resorted to aerobic runs and LSDs(Long Slow Distances). In March when registration for Khardung La challenge opened I gave it a serious thought. I called up Asif to get details and discussed in our running group. Very few responded but the plan to run Kardung-La was on!

We started increasing our milage slowly and in April we did our first ultra Marathon, running 50K at the Hennur Bamboo forest. Babu sir and myself finished together - a first hand in hand finish of many to come. In May we were able to increase the milage to 100K per week, the aim was to maintain that till August end. In June we did a ride to Yana and we ran 60K(self supported) there. It was one of the scenic run we have ever ran and the humid conditions of coastal place also made it a challenging run.

 

Hennur Ultra & Yana runs

The plan was all set, but in July, I had to change my job. My new position in a start-up involved high expectations and many new learnings & I had to put in extra efforts for that. With the training schedule we had, it was highly taxing on the body. Especially Tuesdays and Thursdays in the office, post 2 or 2.5 hour runs became hell. Many a times I thought, I should have just accepted my ex manager's offer to retain me(especially the one on last day).

But the decision was made and there was no looking back. In July we did an all night run starting at 9PM till 7 in the morning. This run was basically to make sure we can be on our feet for 10 hours and also that we can run at night. We were able to cover a good 84K in that run. The training continued till August and by the time we left Bangalore we had cover more than 2300K in 6 months since we started our preparation for the event.

10 hours run & the mileage from March to August

We were well prepared from the milage perspective, but KC poses a different challenge altogether: the altitude and thin air. Many of my friends who have been to Khardung-la on bike asking me “Many people feel difficulty while riding at Khardung La, how will you run?” should be enough for anyone to understand the issues posed by lack of oxygen.

Our plan was rather aggressive I would say, because we had planned to land in Leh just 3 nights before the race. However, since we were travelling by bus from Manali, the expectation was that, we will get acclimatised on the way at the 5 high altitude passes between Manali and Leh (Rohtang-la, Baralacha-la, Namkila , Lachalanga-la and Tanglang-La).

We reached Manali on 31st August. Next day we did a 10k practice run at Kanyal hills Manali. The altitude gain in the 5 Kms climb was close to 800 ft which put us off. Even while climbing down, our heart was pumping crazily at 190+ BPM despite our pace being 7.30 min/KM. 

Manali is at an altitude of 6000 ft. No way it qualifies as high altitude, but the way each one of us were huffing and puffing was a not so warm welcome to the mountains.

Manali Run

On 2nd September we boarded the HPTDC bus to Leh. First day journey was just 120 km to Keylong, crossing Rohtang La(13,000 ft) on the way. We were in Keylong by evening at the HPTDC guest house. Next morning we started at 5AM. The bus crawled through the rough roads of high passes and reached Leh by 6 in the evening. We met Aziz as we reached Leh. He was very happy to see us after spending whole day roaming around Leh.

Next day on 4th Sep, we planned to do an easy 8k in Leh. The run was pretty comfortable. We went to RIMO expeditions to collect the bibs post our run.

At the expo they check for pulse and Oxygen saturation levels. In the test my pulse showed as 240! All sort of gyan was given that we arrived late in Leh and all. I was asked to rest for sometime and the next time the reading showed 200 which was noted. Generally my BP & pulse will be higher than normal so that was not a worrying thing for me but when I remembered that they could disqualify me based on medical reasons, I was a bit worried. To be honest this was running in my mind till the moment I realised there was no medical check just before the race. Personally I had sacrificed a lot for this event and a lot was at stake for me here. 

On 5th evening we were taken to the 67th KM of the race which is just outside Leh city. There was a briefing session by Moutp, the Race Director of Ladakh Marathon. After the Q&A session we walked 5Km on the route which would be the final 5K of race.

Briefing before the start of journey to Khardung

On 6th Sep, after a quick roll call, we started our journey to Khardung village in the mini bus arranged by the organizers. This was exactly the route we were supposed to run the next day in opposite direction. Being a high altitude trekker, mountains are not new to me, but the thought of running in this stunning valley just gave me goosebumps. It literally took me some hours to soak in the fact that I am supposed to run here the next day.

We reached Khardung by lunch time, where the organizers had arranged stay for us in the houses of locals, 4 people in a house. Since we were 5, I agreed to stay in a different house. I was tagged along 2 gentlemen one an army colonel,  Col.Bisht and Subhash Sharma who is an ex serviceman. 2 people who I had utmost respect in the few minutes of my conversation.

But within 10mins Aziz came calling me saying he has spoken to the owner and we can adjust in the house allocated to them. 

We settled in the house and then had our lunch. Then there was a cultural program arranged by the locals. We enjoyed the performances of cute little kids.

At Khardung

Soon after the cultural event, there was medical test and the thought of it made me tense again. I knew my readings would be bad again. And my fear was right. Both my pulse and BP showed very high, so high that the doctor asked me did u dance and directly came for medical test?

There was a mark against my name again. I thought there would be another medical test in the morning before the run starts and again I was tensed thinking of the disqualification!

We had dinner arranged by the organizers and settled in our room. We tried our race day clothings. While everyone was taking pics wearing race day stuff, my mind was just pre-occupied with the fear of what would happen in the morning’s medical test. We stretched and went to bed early to catch some sleep since we had to wake up by 1.30. 

I tried distracting my self with some sleep, but one of my friends was hyperactive and was not letting us sleep. I was getting irritated with the non sense. I was literally cursing myself for not staying back in the house allocated to me. 

I was so disturbed that I tried everything possible to stay calm. I remembered, when I was in immense pain after the Skin Graft surgery to my foot, a nurse had told me to remember some beautiful moments of my life in order to distract my mind. So I started going through the memories of Tapovan Expedition, then the Goechala Expedition, then the Friendship peak expedition. After that I started remembering the Hennur Ultra, Yana run, the 10hours run and then I was there again, thinking about the pain I had gone through for this event and how important this was for me!

One thing was clear, my mind was just playing games with me and I had to somehow control it!

Luckily Aziz handled the situation and things got better.

We woke up in the morning got ready and were near the start line by 2.30. To my relief there was no medical test in the morning. To be honest, when I got to know that, I had completed Khardung La challenge in my mind. It was such a mental boost to me that, DNF was not a question anymore.

All set to run

Dot at 3AM the race was flagged off. Khardung village is at 14000ft altitude. We had discussed that initial few KMs we can run slowly and then till North Pullu we can do a walk-run-walk-run so I started running slowly. I joined Om Prakash Choubey from Indian Army (who finished in 18th place, just ahead of us) and we ran together for few KMs. Then I was joined by Air force Captain Omkar who was celebrating his birthday by running Khardung-la challenge(what a lucky guy). 

It started raining at around 8th KM. I was worried because I had no rain coat. I had no choice so I continued running in the rain. Because of wind the rain was hitting me on the right side and in the next 10-15 mins right side of my body was completely drenched. Since the compression I was wearing was not dry fit material, it was causing chilling feeling especially as we moved towards K-top with temperatures dropping towards sub 0 with every KM. But my resistance for cold practiced over years really helped. On a lighter note, the cold water bath in Keylong at 3AM was like a practice for this. Luckily the rain decreased in may be an hour. Since I had tagged along with Omkar, I had slowed myself, as the rain stopped, I met Babu sir. Initially I asked him to go ahead, but after few minutes I caught up with him.

As decided, we started run-walk sequence together. We crossed North Pullu and after around 18 KM we were not able to run and started walking steadily but surprisingly we were taking more time to cover a Km than our estimation. As we were gaining altitude I could feel the difference, clearly the thin air was affecting us. Close to 25th Km it started snowing. Since my woollen gloves were completely drenched in rain I was not wearing any gloves so I took out Babu sir’s phone and started recording a video. The snowing continued for half an hour. We reached K-top(18,000ft) in 5 hrs 15mins.

The route after the snow fall(taken from Ladakh Marathon FB page)

The temperature at the k-top was around -14°C(as per official report from organizers). As per what Asif had informed me, I was expecting to see few people at K-top greeting us. But as we went there we could see none. We spotted a guy with camera who was clearly affected by the cold. He asked us to pose for pic, but he had messed up the settings on his camera. He removed his gloves to fix it but his fingers froze and it took him 3-4 mins to adjust his camera and take our pic. This wasn't ideal for us as our body was cooling down rapidly, especially at a place where the temperature was -14°C. Warming up all over again was a big headache, so we said the cameraman to leave it, but he was adamant and did not leave us till he clicked us.

Then we saw a garage kind of where one army person was preparing soup, we had the so called “Magic soup” which felt nice. Babu sir said will start descending quickly but I was looking for the drop-off van to drop-off few stuffs like head lamp and reflector jacket. I checked with the photographer and he pointed me to a Innova. There was no indication that it was the drop off van and the 2 people in it were not ready to come out of the van because of the cold. I dropped off the stuff and started running to catch up with Babu sir, who has started running down. 

We were expecting to magically recover and increase our speed in the down hill. But to our surprise our feet were not at all moving fast. And it was in the downhill I was feeling dizzy. I was hit by AMS(Acute Mountaineering Sickness). Though I had experience of high altitude trekking and have gone upto 17,500 ft couple of times, I knew running was a different activity which needs more oxygen, so I was not taken by surprised. But I was expecting AMS to hit me before K-top not while loosing altitude. We were not able to run even 200 meters in the downhills. We started running 200 meters and walking 500 meters for next 5-6 KMs.

Since we were loosing altitude and were coming out of thin air, gradually we started feeling better. By now it was 9AM and we started enjoying the view. Our running distance started increasing. By the time we reached South Pullu, we were running 1K and walking 500 meters and had overtaken quite a few runners. At South Pullu we stripped off our Fleece and wind cheaters.

We were feeling light and we started our run-walk sequence. Now we were running upto 1.5K in a stretch then walking a bit. Soon after South Pullu we were able to see Shanti Stupa which is just 3KM from the finish line, but we still had 20K to go. We gradually moved towards Leh and in the process we were gaining speed as well. Around 60th KM we met Motup, who stopped his car and asked us what we need. He gave us ORSL and left.

As we enter Leh city, each runner would be assigned a cyclist who will guide us through the final 5K which is supposed to be run in the city. There were a few school boys of the cycle and one of them pointed us and said, 21st & 22nd.

We continued running behind the cyclist on a horrible under-construction road where Babu sir got severe leg pain. We walked for a bit and started running again. We crossed Shanti stupa and then entered the Leh market. Literally everyone was cheering for us. The fact that both of us were running together probably adding to it. 

We sprinted the final 500 meters and just like Hennur Ultra, we finished together, but unlike Hennur Ultra, I was conscious this time to let my mentor finish ahead of me.

It was a very emotional moment for me. Coming back from injury, the job change, the sacrifices which we made day in day out to make it to the training everything had made this event important for me and when you stand at the finish line all those things come in front of your eyes. But I had decided before hand that I will not let tears roll down this time. I just hugged Babu sir after finishing, which he later said that was a very tight hug!

After finishing we were treated like stars and a local TV channel even took our interview. Also they were surprised that we attempted KC without running Ladakh Marathon the previous year.

I would be very selfish if I leave it without speaking about Babu sir. He is the one who studies a lot and comes up with the training plan. We all have been extremely benefited by his insights and the training plan. I just leave it by saying Khardung-la challenge wouldn’t have been the same without you sir. Thank you for everything!

Also to our Khardung-la gang, Aziz, Navneeth and Shankar. We had great time together in this journey! And how can I not mention the support form our RunMachines group.

Last but not the least, my kid sister Suman. Though she doesn't agree, but she always gives me that unknown strength. Thanks a lot for always being there for me. This one is for you and you know why 😊

Strava link : https://www.strava.com/activities/1825188869

Relieve:

PS : Special thanks to Nithin for receiving us at airport when we returned

Update from May 17, 2019

It was a Friday and as-usual I was busy with some meetings in office.

Also I wanted to finish off all the major things because I was gearing up for a much awaited event, TCS world 10K Challenge on Sunday, the 19th of March.

Around 4PM I received a picture from Asif on wattsapp. Since I was in a call I did not immediately notice it. Later when I saw it, I was pleasantly surprised seeing this pic.

 

 

Apparently, Ladakh Marathon team, who has set up a stall at TCS world 10K expo had decided to put my pic running along with Babu sir as their main display image.

 

Even though Babu sir was not running the event, he came with me to take pic with me to relive the lifetime achievement which was honored by the Ladakh Marathon team.

 

 

 

It turned out to be a satisfying weekend for me as I was able to run the TCS world 10K in my personal best time of 40 mins and 28 seconds and finish over all 114th out of over 12000 participants.