Meet Pune marathon runner Ashish Kasodekar, the only Indian to finish 'cruelest race on earth'

“It’s a cruel race,” said Ashish Kasodekar describing the La Ultra The High Marathon that took place in Ladakh last month. “In fact, it is the cruelest race on earth,” Ashish, who finished third in most difficult category of the event, corrected himself. [caption id=“attachment_7281981” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] To finish the La Ultra The High Marathon, you need to cover 555 kms in 132 hours, which is about five and a half days. Image: Facebook[/caption] When you hear ‘difficult’ and ‘cruel’, you get an outside idea of how hard it would have been to take part in the race. But the ‘cruel’ part of the race begins to unravel itself and shows its face, only when Ashish divulges the details. He told Firstpost, “It is a cruel race because, it has five major challenges that makes it a very, very difficult race — lack of oxygen, temperature variations, cut-offs, the climbs, and the distance.” A marathon’s official distance is 42.195kms, anything that goes beyond 42.195, become an Ultra Marathon. La Ultra Marathon has been organised in different categories for last nine years. But in 2019, in its 10th year, it introduced one more category and the most gruelling one — the 555 category. There were just five runners who took part in this race where they had to cover 555 kms in Ladakh in 132 hours. Yes, you read it right. Jason Reardon of Australia was the first man in the world to cross the finish line with the timing of 120 hours 19 minutes with Matthew Maday from USA coming in at 123 hrs 35 minutes. Ashish came in third at 126 hrs 18 minutes, becoming the first and only Indian to finish the distance. Ashish explained that dealing with the five major challenges, as mentioned before, is extremely taxing on the body and mind. He said, “The oxygen level comes down. The temperature in day is around 40 degrees while during night time it drops to somewhere around minus 10 or 12. You have to adjust quickly. Also, there are five passages on mountains. You are running down through some of them and then running up the hill.” But the most challenging part is the distance and the cut-off time. To finish the race, you need to cover 555 kms in 132 hours, which is about five and a half days. Even if you are late by a second, you are out of the race. So how does one manage rest time? It totally depends on the runner how she or he manages to take rest. 132 hours is what you have and under this, 555 kms have to be covered. On top of that, this year, nature turned more hostile as incessant rain and snowfall made it tougher for the participants. Rain went on for 40 kms of the course, followed by 60 kms of snow. All of this took place at an altitude of 17,700 feet, making it difficult for the runners to manoeuvre the course. Ashish, who belongs to Pune and runs a travel agency, is the only Indian to finish the race among two participants. He has been taking part in La Ultra The High Marathon for last seven years in other categories. But this year he thought of challenging himself in the new category of 555. “I like to take challenges. To celebrate the date 11/11/11 in the year 2011, I set off for Goa on a bicycle. I reached there by 11 November 2011. Next year, to celebrate the date 12/12/12, I went to another destination which was 100 km away from Pune on foot.” Similarly, to make the date 11/12/13 in 2013 memorable, Ashish organised a a bike trip. It was the love for sport that made Ashish make his way to individual sport and the same love has now led him to successfully challenge the human limits, with his name featuring as only Indian to complete 555kms race.