Chembur man finishes 135-mile ultramarathon under 53C in US

MUMBAI: When 29-year-old Adil Mirza reached the Death Valley in California, he realized that running the 135-mile-long Badwater Ultramarathon ,which is described as the "worlds toughest foot race", involving 8,000 feet of climbing under 53 degree Celsius would be a different ball game altogether.
Mirza, a Chembur resident who trains other runners for a living, is among the three Indians to finish the gruelling race this year.He achieved the feat in 41.18 hours. He is probably the second from Mumbai to finish the race after Breeze Sharma who completed it a few years ago.
"When I finally saw the finish line, I broke down. Some 200 metres from the finish line, my team held up the Indian flag to motivate me. Somehow my inability to join the Army made me so emotional that I cried my heart out," said Mirza who had failed to get into the Indian Army 12 years ago due to his height; it was a centimetre short.
Mirza, who had been training for the ultramarathon since March, said, "The moment you reach Death Valley, you realise you cannot train for it," said Mirza. "The heat was bone dry and even if the temperature drops at night, it remains fairly high at 40 degree-plus. It was like a sauna in full blast, day and night."
He set out from India with the target of finishing in 35 hours having trained hard enough for his family to question his sanity, sleeping with the heater on in 40+ degree heat of Bareilly.
But in Death Valley, as the race progressed, he kept relaxing the target. "From finishing in 35 hours, it came down to finishing the race, and then surviving the race," said Mirza. Though the runners start from below sea level to run over 8,000 feet in elevation, there are three hills that break the spirit of many runners-at 15km, 29km and the final one at 200km when the mind and body is on the verge of breaking point, he said.
"The fatigue combined with lack of sleep and the heat is just too much. There were runners pulling out of the race every few hours. The thought of quitting never came to my mind because so many people had invested money, time emotion on my journey. I kept the wishes of everyone in mind and said to myself, 'come what may, I will finish the race'," said Mirza, who is originally from Bareilly where his father and two siblings live.
Over the course of 217km, Mirza consumed 41 litres of cold water which would often become steaming hot in about 20 minutes, tonnes of bananas, energy drinks and sandwiches. He only stopped for toilet breaks. His crew of four kept up the constant supply of cold water and bananas.
"But even that counts for nothing when you reach the final 21km when the climb is so tough that your spirit is broken," Mirza said. "It was almost like lifting each leg with my hands and putting it in front of the other leg," said Mirza. It took him nearly five hours to complete the last 13 miles. Mirza's family followed his progress minute by minute.