BigFoot Backyard Ultra — Pune

Where it began. On 21 September 2024, twenty-six runners toed the line in Pune for the first BigFoot Backyard Ultra — one 6.706 km loop, on the hour, every hour, until one was left.

Ankit Sharma was that one. He answered the bell 25 times; Ankamma Rao Pola matched him loop for loop to 24 and then could not make the 25th corral — the assist, the runner whose fight forces the winner out for one last solo lap. That is the whole sport in one line: the winner is always exactly one yard clear of the last to fall.

Pune is also where the series’ first tale of the road begins — because Ankit Sharma would show up again months later on the Mumbai start line, this time as the one chasing.