Khadungla Challenge 2023 (Runner's Perspective)

This is one of the toughest race I have done till date . It is very very challenging, not only in terms of distance , but constant up Hill of 32 km and quad crushing 40 km downhill at an altitude where availability of oxygen is reduced. I have captured and narrated from my perspective. Hope you will like it. The race started on a cold morning at 3 AM when the temperature was 1°C. It was going to be dark till 6 o’clock so all of us had geared up 3 to 4 layers of clothes and head torch was mandatory. Initial 3 to 4 km were crowded, and the crowd started spreading thin after an hour. ◦ Route The race started at khardung village (3950 ASL) going Thru north pullu(17km, 4660 m ASL) , Khardungla top(32km, 5400m ASL) South Pullu(47 km, 4600m ASL), and then finish at Leh market - all the above have drop bag stations. ◦ Weather The start of the race had a temperature of 2°C. At north pullu, the temperature went down and started feeling very cold . A Ktop , The temperature may have been around 4°C . in the second half of the race the sun started shining bright and needed to cover fully to avoid sunburn. This weather (dry , cold/hot) causes severe dehydration. Hence drinking of ORS throughout is a must. ◦ Preparation & training This race requires lot of patience , requires lot of walking and the same has to be practised in the training as well. My training was planned accordingly. the peak training mileage reaching 80 km per week. However, due to work travel I could not cover mileage in the month of August and longest run I did in this entire season was 28 km. This race is the longest run . But mentally I was prepared because of back-to-back long runs on weekends. If you are planning to do this, please include lot of downhill training. Secondly acclimatisation is a major part of this race. Plan to reach at least 10 days before the race. I had reached 9 days prior and additionally traveled to higher altitudes. ( Hanley, Tso moriri etc) taking Diamox two days prior to arrival will help. Also, to beat the cold , 3 to 4 layers of clothing is essential at the beginning, the same has to be de-layered after South pullu . ◦ Route support- aid station There were 14 aid stations on the route. All of them had ample of water, banana and jaggery. Some of the aid stations had leap energy gels which were good. The aid stations were found at every 5 km. Also there were lot of support vehicles and ambulances on the route to assist runners. But make sure you have enough nutrition and hydration with yourself while leaving K- top. Nothing is guaranteed between km 32-72 ,if you are running late. ◦ What worked and what didn’t What worked for me was a strong mindset and correct pace calculation on the route. I didn’t push anywhere unnecessarily nor let it loose anywhere. I had the right exact amount of gels and ORS for the route. I didn’t spend more than 1 min in any drop bag stations or aid stations. I had committed to cross finish line even if it was beyond 14 hours. The required speed kept on reducing from Ktop (7 Km/hr) to South pullu (6.5 Km/hr) to mendak mod (6 km/hr) and HP petrol bunk (5 km/hr) it was slow and progressive. Patience is essential. What didn’t work: running down Ktop was very difficult due to Lack of oxygen. An average runner like me won’t be able to run until South pullu at 47km. I had developed sensitivity in my teeth after drinking the electrolyte drink at aid station- which made eating anything sweet/salt painful- but had to eat and drink nonetheless . De-layering at south pullu didn’t go as planned due to lot of runners entering the drop bag van. So removed hydration bag- tied it tightly with jacket and gloves and threw it inside the van. I couldn’t remove cargo trousers and had to run the entire race distance in it 😊 I am elated that I held myself together patiently throughout the race and crossed the finish line. I had the longest time on feet here also 😊 my starve profile :   / strava   #khardungla #khardunglachallenge #himalaya #ultrarunning #running #run #ultrarunner #runner #trailrunner #runningmotivation #trailrun #marathon #trail #runhappy #runners #training #ultratrail #mountainrunning #ultra #fitness #ultramarathon #marathontraining #ultrarunners #runnersworld #garmin #runnerscommunity #mountains #runningcommunity Timelines: 0:00 Start 1:08 The start of the race 5:40 Sunrise 6:54 21 Km 13:18 Reaching Khardungla Top 15:02 37th Km Aid station 20:25 Mendak Mór crossing 22:50 Entering Leh Credits: Cinematic Epic Emotional | EGLAIR by Alex-Productions | https://onsound.eu/ Legendary Epic Heroic | Heroic by Alex-Productions | https://onsound.eu/ Powerful Emotional Trailer by MaxKoMusic | https://maxkomusic.com/ Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Music by Sergii Pavkin from Pixabay