Pune Chapter — last one standing

Umesh Kumar Shukla is the last one standing at the Pune Chapter. He came home from the final yard in 48 minutes 24 seconds, more than five minutes quicker than his 24th, with 11 minutes 36 seconds to spare. Twenty-five yards, 167.7 km, twenty-five bells. One winner from forty-three starters.

Soma Jagan Mohan Reddy, Bib 7, is the assist: twenty-four yards, and the last to fall. For twenty-four hours the two ran as one. Then Jagan said he had only packed socks for twenty-four hours, and Umesh went out alone.

He did not look like a man who had just run for a day. He looked hungry for more, and was seen joking that he had missed out on the cash prize because the assist gave up.

The mindset you bring to a last-one-standing race is what tells you what kind of ultra athlete you are. Not the pace, not the training, not the prize. There is no finish line here, and the winner is the one who keeps answering the question after everyone else has stopped: one more? Umesh walked out for the final yard alone, having asked his running partner to walk it with him, and came back with time to spare and a joke about the money. He came to the backyard to see where the limits go. Twenty-five yards later, he is still asking.