CHENNAI: For an extreme athlete like Aravind Selvam, who spends three weeks of four every month hanging off a rock somewhere in the great outdoors, the lockdown presented him with his toughest challenge — having to sit indoors. "I was literally climbing the walls in boredom," says the 27-year-old. But then, a couple of months in, he managed to install a climbing wall in his living room. The whole family got involved in his training. His grandfather would set him climbing routes, his grandmother would cheer him on.
Aravind says he is now ripped and ready to tackle every rock climb that comes his way. And boy, are they hurtling in! With the relaxing of the lockdown, outdoor competitions, trails and adventure challenges are opening up again, and teams from across the country are raring to go.
First up on the challenge calendar is the Nayar Valley Adventure Festival. Globe Racers founder Kavitha Kanaparthi, who is gearing up for a three-day adventure challenge coming up after Diwali, says it includes trail running, mountain biking, paragliding and angling. The event in Uttarakhand will have around 100 athletes.
On December 11 comes the Wild Warrior Himalayan Adventure Race, considered one of the most gruelling races. The Rishikesh event involves mountain biking, hiking and rafting sections all performed in a single day with race distances ranging from a 10km for novices to a difficult 65km for hardened adventurers. "We’ve had 50 teams of four sign up so far, including six from Chennai," says tennis player Somdev Devvarman, one of the founders. Chennai will see its own adventure challenge in February.
There are other ultra runs and extreme challenges opening up as well across the country. But Covid-19 has changed things. The Ultra Warrior trail run in Nainital on November 21, considered among the tougher ones because of the high altitude terrain, will open out to just 25 participants. Keeping safety protocols in mind, the Himalayan race, for instance, will be capped at 200 participants. "There will be staggered starts for teams to ensure no crowding at the start line and all the accommodation is in cottages and tents, distant from each other," says obstacle course racer Vikram Aditya Menon.
Kavitha says the Nayar Adventure Festival usually sees more than 150 participants in each category. "But this year, we are keeping the total race participants to 100," says Kavitha. "We are also encouraging local participation. Also, there will be Covid-19 checks and monitoring."
Once you get hooked to the rush that comes with extreme sports, it’s difficult to stop, says Shyam Sundar M, founder of Fit Rock Arena, an indoor rock climbing centre. "When we had to close during lockdown, we had to keep giving our regulars challenges that would keep their adrenaline racing." For a few, he built climbing walls in their homes; for some, he opened out the centre; for others, he pumped them with challenges that would keep their belaying skills intact. Among the challenges he sent their way was the waterbottle challenge, where climbers would have to balance bottles on their forehead, try to sit, lie down and stand again. "We have had athletes doing just about anything they could to keep training — hanging off window ledges, branches of trees, and scaling walls. You just got to keep going," says Shyam.
Among the Chennai participants in the Himalayan challenge is actor Regina Cassandra, who has teamed up with professional surfers Kutti Rajsekar, Sekar and Anand. She used the lockdown time to work on her endurance by rucking (walking up and down stairs with a weighted rucksack). "Sometimes I would do 10km like this," says Regina, winner of the Wild Warrior Duathlon in 2018. With the lockdown lifted, so is the spirit of adventure.