Vadodara woman completes half marathon on frozen lake in Ladakh

Vadodara: Running is becoming a popular fitness routine that many follow. But imagine running a half marathon on a frozen lake at a height of 13,862 feet with warm clothes instead of sportswear to create a world record.
A young woman from Vadodara achieved just that by participating in the country’s first frozen lake marathon christened ‘Pangong Frozen Lake Marathon’ held at the Pangong Tso in Ladakh. The event also made it to the Guinness World Record for the World’s Highest Frozen Lake Half Marathon.
Stuti Bakshi (30) was the only woman from Gujarat in the event in which 100 persons participated. Only nine women participated in the event, including four from Ladakh and the remaining from other parts of the country, Bakshi said. Bakshi had participated in four half marathons earlier, but this was the first time she participated in such an event at a high altitude. And she ended up being successful in her most challenging run so far completing the distance of 21.9km in four hours.
Running on the frozen lake at high altitude in windy conditions threw up unexpected challenges. “We had to run against headwinds and also with strong tailwinds pushing us from behind. While running with the wind against you is an effort, the strong tailwinds are like someone pushing you from behind when you are running on ice,” Bakshi said.
Bakshi pointed out that the surface of the lake was not actually flat but uneven. “Balancing on hard uneven ice is very difficult. One has to wear shoes to suit the conditions instead of the normal running shoes,” she said.
The participants had to undergo two medical tests before entering the event. They were acclimatized to the high altitude and low temperatures over a period of time before they actually ran at Pangong Tso. “We did a trial run on Sunday before the event on Monday,” Bakshi said.
The participants were chosen for the event based on their experience in running and high-altitude activities earlier, she said.
“I had run half marathons earlier and had also participated in hiking and trekking in the Himalayas. I am also a yoga trainer and participated in some adventure activities. All this was in favour of me being given a chance to participate in the event,” she said. The event was organized by the Adventure Sports Foundation of Ladakh in collaboration with the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council and other government departments. The Indian Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police executed the action plan for the event.