Comrades Ultramarathon: City-based runners test their fitness, mental strength at marathon in South Africa

The 2023 Comrades Ultra Marathon had 403 registrations from India and at least 25-30 participants were from Pune. With a final cut-off time of 12 hours, several were finishers of this historic race.

Atul Godbole (third from left) with team Motiv8

Three weeks prior to her first major ultra marathon, this 40-year-old chartered accountant with a Pune-based IT strategy and consulting firm had to deal with a calf and ankle strain. There were some nervous moments but timely interventions, such as physiotherapy and strengthening exercises, apart from a structured running programme that Sailee Gangakhedkar has been following for the last few years made her complete the extremely challenging Comrades Ultramarathon- the annual long-distance race held every year from Durban to Pietermaritzburg in South Africa – a distance of approximately 88-90 km in 10 hours, nine minutes and 18 seconds.

The 2023 Comrades Ultra Marathon had 403 registrations from India and at least 25-30 participants were from Pune. With a final cut-off time of 12 hours, several were finishers of this historic race.

Gangakhedkar, who has been a state-level swimmer, took to running, completing her first marathon at the Tata Mumbai Marathon in January 2020. She went on to complete a half IronMan and is happy with her personal growth on the fitness front. This mother of an 11-year-old son decided to take on the Comrades Ultramarathon. “Training with Atul Godbole and being a part of the Motiv8 team has helped me a lot,” she says.

Kaustubh Radkar (third from left, standing) with team at RadStrong Coaching

Godbole, who is the founder and coach at Motiv8 coaching and trains athletes for various running and triathlon endurance events, is a five-time Comrades finisher and has run the Boston Marathon twice.

“This year, seven runners from Team Motiv8 participated and together, we underwent four months of rigorous training, which included four long runs of 50km, 55km, 60km and 65km at the Mutha ghat. For the long runs, we started at midnight so that we finished the entire distance before it became too hot,” said Godbole.

Kaustubh Radkar, who has undertaken the Ironman Triathlon 33 times , ran his second Comrades and paced with seven athletes from his RadStrong Coaching academy for a successful finish.

“Comrades is one of the most historic ultra-marathons in the world. The race is known for its elevation and gruelling distance. The challenge during the training period was the heat and humidity in Pune, which all of us experienced from March to May. But all the seven athletes did well, considering it was their first time at the Comrades,” Radkar recalls.

Shajan Samuel

Software engineer Ashish Puntambekar (54) started running 10 years ago as he was overweight. This was his first Comrades that he completed in 10 hours, 31 minutes and 12 seconds. “I have been training with Kaustubh Radkar for the last four years and for the practice sessions, we did three long runs including a mixture of hill and road running. Since I participated in the fastest (Boston marathon) run, I also wanted to complete the challenge of the longest run and hence the Comrades,” said Ashish.

“When I run Ultra, it feels like a weird epiphany, it’s like I did it. At a certain point in the race, my body can’t take it anymore and sends signals to stop but the mind is so powerful that it overrules the body,” says 47-year-old Shajan Samuel, a senior management professional in Pune who recalls that nine years ago, he weighed 92kg. “That was the time when I said enough and let’s run,” recalls Samuel who trained with Satish Gujaran, a running coach from Mumbai and went on to complete the race in 11 hours and 17 minutes.