Comrades Marathon sees spike in Indian registrations: 124 to run for glory in ultimate race in South Africa

While the cricket season is heating up, with India considered favourites to win the Champions Trophy, a little record of sorts is being made by ever-growing running community in the country. The 92nd edition of Comrades Marathon — the world’s oldest celebrated ultra marathon, to be held on 4 June in South Africa — has a record 100 plus registrations from India —124, to be precise.

From just one runner in 2009, India made a leap last year with 76 participants making it to Comrades and 65 completing the run. Crossing the 100 mark in the very next year is a significant step for the marathon community as the 86.73 kilometre marathon is touted as the ultimate human race.

Also, for the first time, India may actually have a serious shot for a silver medal at Comrades 2017, thanks to the presence of two runners from Gujarat.

Mann Patel, a 20-year-old student from Bardoli, who clocked 3.11 hours at Chandigarh marathon last month, and Sandeep Kumar from Surat, a mechanical engineer from L&T, who clocked 3.03 hours at Delhi marathon, are serious medal prospects thanks to their excellent fitness levels and grueling training schedule.

Symbolising camaraderie, perseverance and ‘Ubunttu’ (human kindness), the tough Comrades Ultra is a run in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa between the cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg. With six-seven cut offs, runners have to complete the marathon under 12 hours. Only those runners who are able to complete an officially recognised marathon (42.2 kilometres) in less than five hours can register for Comrades. No wonder, the race is touted as the best of the best and has participants from over 60 countries running for the glory.

Besides Mumbai and Delhi, entries are pouring in from Gujarat, especially from the textile town of Surat. Out of the 16 runners getting ready for South Africa, 14 are from Surat and 11 of them belong to a running group titled ‘Surti Runners Group’ – which has around 2,800 members.

Surat-based 51-year-old businessman Rajiv Seth, a marathon veteran since 2011, completed his Comrades Marathon last year and is geared up for 4 June. “I finished Comrades last year and immediately went for the Nilgiris Ultra. At an elevation of 10,300 feet, it was a mind blowing experience. On the other hand, Comrades is about glory and glamour, with thousands of people cheering you till the end. I have been training hard, running 300 kilometres a month,” informs Sheth, a top member of the Surti Runners Group.

Sheth is also instrumental in encouraging Patel to run Comrades this year. Patel, whose trip is sponsored by the Gujarat government, is now under the wings of Sheth, who is helping him in every possible way.

All eyes are also on super runner Satish Gujaran (54), a seven-time Comrades finisher, who is aiming to finish the race for the eighth time. A business development manager with a Mumbai-based firm, Gujaran is a long-distance ‘king’ – running across cities with ease, covering a distance between 80-90 kilometres without much trouble. According to him, 100 plus entries for Comrades is a milestone, but the best is yet to come.

Gujaran is working on Mission 2020, by which he would have completed 10 Comrade Runs and would join the ‘elite’ group of runners with his own permanent ‘green’ bib. “By 2020, India will have 200 plus runners for Comrades. I want to travel across India, share my experience with all training groups and maybe take them all on a chartered flight for the run! There is lot of support for us from South Africa for this. It is a dream,” Gujaran told Firstpost.

Repeating their attempt this year will be Mumbai-based close friends Kashyap Mody — a CA with Reliance Industries — and 57-year-old Chinmay Sengupta, COO, ICICI Foundation. Both have followed a disciplined schedule despite busy work lives — getting up at unusual hours, running longer runs for four months to build stamina and a challenging dietary regime.

Running the ultimate human race for the third time, Mody has given all he has for the past four months. “Long hours on road, less hours in bed, diet, injuries and anxieties. But after all the pain and sweat, I wait for the glory,” he said.

“The Comrades training was a saga of unlearning and learning many new things as a prospective ultra marathoner — a shift from speed to endurance was the biggest learning. That resulted in establishing regimes in training, nutrition and recovery from injuries. Other than euphoria, by now I had realised that running connected me to myself like nothing else. Like last year, my mind is preoccupied with only one thought – Gonna do it folks!” sums up an emotional Sengupta.

Smita Deshmukh is a senior journalist and communications expert based in Mumbai. You can follow her on twitter @smitadeshmukh