Any idiot can run, but it takes a special kind of idiot to run a marathon.
Today the Leh Ultra Marathon will take place, something of the worst you can imagine (but everything is relative, see the section after next).
The Leh Ultra Marathon
The start is in the Nubra Valley on the other side of the Khardung La Pass at just over 4500 meters, then it's up to the top of the pass at exactly 5370 meters and from there down into the valley on a mostly dirt road down to Leh, all in all just 72 kilometers.
The Ultra Marathons
However, I am told that there are other, much more extreme Ultra-Marathons. It confirms the old rule that something bad can always be surpassed by something even worse.
The longest of these marathons has a length of 333 kilometers. This means that the standard distance of 111 kilometers has to be run three times.
I don't know the starting point, probably somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I have no idea who the participants are; I imagine gaunt, small, tough guys, made of skin and bones, with an enormously big heart and lungs like an elephant. In any case, after the start, the participants have to run for no less than 333 kilometres through half of Ladakh, through valleys and mountains, over high and highest passes towards the final destination.
The best participant needs about 65 hours, interrupted by just 2 hours of sleep, so I am told.
[The following videos are taken from the blog La-Ultra - The High Thank you very much!]
Leh Marathon - Day 1
Well, it won't be that bad today.
The finish line is somewhere outside the centre of Leh. It takes time, too much time to find it, so when I finally arrive there, the first two runners have already hit home.
The loudspeaker declares that the winner has required 6 hours 53 minutes, the runner-up a few minutes more. Both are soldiers of the Indian army, probably with the best training conditions and perhaps supported by one or the other drug from the drug kitchen of the army doctor.
Nevertheless it is an almost inhuman achievement that cannot be valued highly enough. After all, it is not only the distance that would be an impossibility or a punishment from God for us normal people. It is the altitude that makes even normal walking and breathing the hardest work. The saying below says it all …
3th to 5th place
The waiting audience consists mainly of schoolchildren apparently having a lunch break.
Where is the next runner? But there it must be him, loud shouts of hello, clapping of hands, laughter and indeed, there are three runners approaching the finish line, not particularly hurried, as it seems, they are looking calmly and with dignity to the left and then to the right. And then they are at the finish line, frenetic applause. Third, fourth and fifth place goes to ... three cows amid much cheering.
Since no medal is on hand for them, they instead feast on the material used to draw the finish line. Apparently, the white powder consists of something organic, which seems to be to the liking of the three heroes.
The real runnerups
And then there are the real number three and four, albeit at a reasonable distance, they too are soldiers and in every respect according to the description above.
Unfortunately, together with a married couple from Alaska and two Indian boys, I am the only remaining audience, because the rest of the people has left (lunch break over). I think it's a bit sad, after all, everyone reaching the finish line has done an incredible effort. At least we clap our hands. After another half an hour I too leave, hoping to meet the next runners on the road. But maybe I took the wrong route (because after 500 meters there is no fence anymore and the runners have to fight their way through the traffic), in any case I don't meet anybody anymore. Where are the remaining 58 runners?
Lost, misguided? No one knows.
Maybe in a few years one will find a few gnawed off bones bleached by the sun, on the feet the remains of expensive branded running shoes ...
P.S. Matching Song: Bruce Springsteen - Born to run
And here the journey continues - over the Khardung La Pass into the Nubra Valley ...
