How I, a regular person, could finish three of the world’s toughest 100 milers!!

“Enjoy the journey and goal will materialize. Even if you don’t get it you are rewarded with happiness”

“Visualize what success and end goal looks like and use that as motivation”

I consider myself a middle of the pack ultra runner but a few years back I set out to attempt some of the world's toughest 100 mile races in the world. One of the most popular among them is UTMB? Group in Chamonix. This organization, recently taken over by The IRONMAN Group , organizes multiple 100 milers in the world and the one in Chamonix is known as the Olympics of trail running. I’ve been there a few times to run a shorter 100k distance and to just be there during the race week where the atmosphere is electric and for ultra runners a dream come true. Ultimate goal for many ultra trail runners is to run the 100 mile race in Chamonix.

It’s tough to get into the 100 miler in Chamonix also known as UTMB World series finals. Luckily In 2021 they announced that everyone who finished world series major in ValDaran/Spain gets automatic entry to the race in 2022. So that’s how it started.

Race 1: July 1-7 Vielha, Spain 2021

“Don’t quit until you can’t do it any more + You can always do it => Don’t Quit”

Specs: 107m, 34,000 ft, 48hr cutoff

Finish time: 47hr 48min?

Finish percentage: 40%

In July 21, after being couped up at home with all races canceled, I jumped on the opportunity to travel to Vielha, Spain through Barcelona. I knew very little about the location and this was first running of the race. Made the first international trip in almost 18m and spent a day in Barcelona and got to the Vielha high up in the Pyrenees on the French border few days before the race. I took the time to explore the village which apparently is one of the most popular ski resorts in spain and acclimatize myself.

I trained reasonably well with reasonable mileage and elevration but not a lot of strength training. Race had an evening start at 5pm and I was doing ok staying ahead of the cutoffs. If you are not familiar with these races they’ve aid stations every 6-10 miles and some of them have a time limit and if not reached by that you are eliminated from the race and get what’s known as “DidNotFinish” DNF. My goal going into any race is not to DNF and to keep going unless I’m injured.

With the work pressure and lack of strength training I typically am always chasing these cutoffs and hence don’t get to rest at all in the whole duration of race. Until 3rd day morning I was 30mins to 1hr ahead of every cutoff but my lack of sleep caught up during long climb and when I reached one of the last big climbs I was told to give up as they typically allocate 5hrs from there to next AS and I only had 3.5hrs. Little did they know I don’t quit and will persist so long as I can and managed to reach the AS 5 mins before the cutoff and barely got time to grab food. On the way, I fell into a big pit with dirty cattle water up to waist and scaled near vertical peaks but had only objective in mind - “Get to the next AS within the cutoff”. I was stinking bad with all the cow poop on my clothes and body and managed to wash myself in stream and lie down for few mins first time in 40ish hours.

By that time I had blisters over my feet and although it still showed that I’d finish after the 48hr cutoff at the finish I managed to finish 12 mins ahead of final cutoff and was amongst the last 3 finishers and the only American to finish that race.

If only I had listened to the volunteers who were being logical at the top of mountain I’d have never finished and smelled that sweet taste of finish line. One thing that kept me going was the visual of finish I always plaster in my mind before I start and that’s a huge motivation through out the race.

Took a few days after race to recover and got back home a happy man excited that I’d get automatic entry into UTMB in Chamonix.

Race 2: Aug 24-30 Chamonix, France, 2022

“Stay on your feet when things go well and don’t get into self-created quicksand when they don’t go your way”

Specs: 107m, 33000 ft, 46.5hr cutoff

Finish time: 46hr

Finish percentage: 55%

The thought of going back to Chamonix to do the race considered Olympics of ultra running was a dream come true. Between last years race and this year I ended up getting a coach to bring consistency and strength training into my training plan. Jenny Quilty was awesome to work with and she knew my work and travel constraints and allowed the flexibility I needed to continue to focus on tough stuff at work.

I was probably in best shape of my life with a pretty good training block and few other 100 mile/100k races in between that went well. My niece got married 4 weeks before the race and if you know Indian weddings given all the food and sleepless nights I was worried that all my training would go waste. Luckily between her engagement and wedding I got to be in Europe for a week. On a whim I decided to recce the course and made some last minute plans to be in Chamonix in peak training week and had an amazing time exploring almost 70m of the course over 4 day period. It gave me a lot of confidence going into race few weeks later and familiarity with course helped me get out of eventual lows in such a long race.

I had Pradeep Pise and Karthik Iyer for company and we hung out together getting there a few days before race and was so awesome to have friends along for the journey. Once the race started we were on our own although we’d cross each other few times. This is again a 6pm late start and after a tough day with all the jitters had a great first 50k of the race hitting all my time targets. Then the blister problem came back and although I hit the midpoint of 50m in almost 19hr target the next 50m took me 27 hr. I started to get closer to the cutoffs which is never good and the closest I came was leaving 5 min before the cutoff. At this point I had slowed down uphills but as soon as I got a chance to hit the downhill I’d pick up the pace and this continued on.

“Persistence and forward motion will get you the finish”

I knew if I just kept moving and not give up I’d get to the finish and could solve the problems as I hit them and these races throw a lot. Calories was an issue as I couldn’t eat the bread and soup initially but then sucked it up and found a way to get it down and that started bringing calories in the body reasonably up. Almost 55-60hrs lack of sleep started impacting both mentally and physically but I knew if I could get through that lows my last 20m energy will get me through to the finish.

Once I reached the last segment of Vallorcine to Finish, I started easing up and got into my natural instinct of chatting up with all the hikers and realized I was again getting close to last cutoff. I probably ran the toughest 3k of my race and managed to reach that last AS 5 mins before cutoff. Once I got there it was an easy finish and was glad to have Pradeep and Karthik give me company to the finish. I’d always visualized that finish in Chamonix having been there few times and probably one of the best feelings in life.

Race 3: Dec 1-7 Doi Inthanon, Thailand 2022

“Pivot but don’t give up”

Specs: 107m, 34000 ft, 48hr cutoff

Finish time: 47hr 35 min,

Finish percentage: 60%

Once I finished UTMB Chamonix I told myself no more big races for the year but then I’m a sucker for first running of 100 milers and UTMB organization announced Doi Inthanon as the world series major for Asia.

There was a lot of stuff happening professionally changing jobs, etc. but figured would be a great way to end the year and explore part of world that I’d never been running. It so happened that Jenny had also signed up and was going for the win at the race. I was so excited to meet her personally after more than year of coaching.

After a long 36hr journey through Singapore/Bangkok got to ChiangMai which I highly recommend if you are into nature. This race is in Doi Inthanon national park, highest part of Thailand and highly technical terrain that is rooty, rocky and heat/humidity was a killer. I hadn’t prepped for that part although I’ve done few courses that are similar.

One good thing about this race is a 10am start which I prefer but then we got into heat of day immediately and had to slow down from the beginning. It became obvious that I wasn’t going to get to my goal of? 42-44 hr finish and changed to making sure I finish the race. There were some incredible 6mile 5k ft and 9mile 7k feet downhill in the first 50k and that pretty much screwed up the goal. During first part of race I fell down a small cliff and luckily could use my poles to stop the fall but broke one of them. I started panicking as it was going to be tough to finish the race without poles and have seen runners stop the race in such a situation. I improvised and picked up technique with one pole which surprisingly worked well and may use for next race. I was trying new gels and calorie mix and went low on caffeine and first time had to take a few 3-5 min naps on the trail after sleep-walking through some sections.

With constant forward motion, I was able to stay comfortably ahead of cutoffs until the end and had a reasonable finish although I was again in the bottom 4. Jenny ended up winning the womens race and that was a great outcome for her and gets automatic entry in to both UTMB Chamonix and Western States.