What's happening at La Ultra?

When is the next La Ultra? Will you have 222, 333 and 555 categories? Will you still keep the shorter versions like 11, 22, 33 and 55? What about 111? What next?

These are the questions that I get bombarded with, and I must admit that it’s very flattering that people follow up even though I conveniently go into my shell and am not communicative.

Illustration by Mark Chilcott, inspired by Bill Watterson

It was in 2009 that I, along with a friend of mine (Melvin), had thought of The High and organised the first edition in 2010. Soon after I decided to call it La Ultra - The High. And for 2022 edition I dropped The High, and called it just La Ultra. In total we’ve put together eleven editions of La Ultra.

Calvin & Hobbes illustration by Bill Watterson

No matter what you call it, but it’s a lot more than just about running, butt running is that very crucial vehicle to understand life and beyond. So don’t be scared to get your knees green.

I was very clear from the inception of La Ultra that I wanted to create Le Tour de France of Running in India. And we did. ‘We’ refers to loads of us, from all over the world and from all walks of life. We created an event out of thin air, literally, that held its own against the world’s best ultra marathons.

I was told by experts of all kinds that I was a dreamer, it was impossible, I would kill someone and I definitely would go bankrupt. I politely listened to all of them and then decided to do whatever I felt like. And hence was born La Ultra.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s been a bunch of folks from all over who helped make La Ultra - The High whatever it has become. We made people realise that either they don’t get started thinking it’s impossible, or if they do get started, they call it quits way before they are capable of.

“You really have created the world’s finest masterpiece of ultra-running, a canvas of 72 hours long by 333 kms wide in the Indian Himalayas.
Upon this canvas are the runners, the artists who paint their art as they make their way over the most beautiful of majestic mountains. Art is meant to be perfect and anything less just isn’t art. It is a mess.”

— Dr. Mark Woolley (U.K. / Spain), has run 1,316 km over 5 La Ultra editions

As much we were getting people to run longer and longer (55, 111, 222, 333 & 555 km), Covid personally taught me that getting off from the bed and stumbling 5 metres towards the loo was La Ultra enough.

Covid made me realise that getting started was a lot more difficult than increasing insane distance by a few more hundred kilometres. We needed to focus on getting people off their backsides and give them achievable goals. Hence I had 11, 22, 33, 55 and 111 categories at 2022 edition.

To me everyone at La Ultra, whether it be participants or crew, are our guests. By the end of it we become a family. I can call anyone of them in the 27 countries and all over India, and most of them will be there for me at any given time.

I was comfortable having democracy at La Ultra as long as I was the dictator. My team could disagree with me as much they wanted, but it had to be my way.

Of course, I have made mistakes. Loads of them. At times I have failed to deliver on my promises, even though unintentionally. But being a quacking doc I never compromised on safety, not that it’s any guarantee that nothing will go wrong, no matter what you do. In any case, Ladakh can be both beautiful and dangerous at the same time.

But we got extremely lucky too. Over the 11 editions of La Ultra, at each edition there has been at least one instance where, in spite of all the preparations and over-preparations, things could have easily gone south. I have kept lot of checks in place and spent most of the money on safety of all the participants and crew members. Luckily we’ve not had even one casualty. It simply wasn’t an option and In was not going to take any short-cuts. Had anything gone wrong, I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself.

Overcoming La Ultra

I repeat, even with best of our preparations, things could have easily go wrong. And it unfortunately did at a very popular and well organised race that a dear friend of mine has been putting together.

“He wasn’t supposed to die. He was a table tennis champion who had done a full marathon too. He was only 32.”

— The founder of the marathon where things went awfully wrong

About a week after the event, a participant from this year’s La Ultra, who had also run the above mentioned event had this to say on social media…

“Okay so no pics from the April’s La Ultra Ladakh run, but here are some from beautiful ... run.”

It made me realise that no matter how hard you try, what all you do and how well you treat people, there always will be some who’ll not appreciate anything. But then again…

Without giving too much credit to such folks for any decisions I make, La Ultra will no longer be happening in the format that everyone has come to love, i.e. up in Ladakh, because there is so much more to be done. We will now be everywhere.

If you were looking forward to running at La Ultra next year, do reach out to me, we’ll think about something.

As I mentioned earlier, Covid changed my perspective to La Ultra. I now want to focus on the mAsses and get them off their backsides (GOYA = Get Off Your Arse).

Last Calvin & Hobbes illustration by Bill Watterson

When I get questioned about my decision, which I have been toying with for about 7 years, I always think of this scene from Forrest Gump.

So, what is the first project that I am really excited about?

#RunToFly

Girls and women are the nucleus of the society. If we want to change the society, empower the girls and women, and you’ll see the magic happen all around.

For that reason we are partnering with SwaTaleem, a non-profit organization, which works towards providing better life opportunities for the historically under-represented lower socio-economically background rural adolescent girls. To begin with we’ll get 900 girls (soon 4500) studying at 6 (soon 31) Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs-central government-run secondary residential schools) in Haryana.

This will help them build self-confidence for life, and in the long run has the potential to become a career based program for the Girls not only limited to running or fitness, but overall health. They could become the agents of change at the grass-root level pan-India. More on this is coming soon.

If you are keen to help with this initiative, and we’ll need a lot of help, please leave me a message below.

Now I’ll get on with what I do best, not caring about what others think of me.

Keep miling and smiling.

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