Indian woman finishes fourth overall in Badwater Ultramarathon

MUMBAI: Sonia Ahuja is probably the Ann Trason of India, never getting tired even after she runs a marathon.
Trason set 50 world records in distance running and was one lady who loved to run and celebrated minor running achievements by running more.
Sonia, 47, finished fourth in the Badwater Ultramarathon in the first week of July, finishing second among women, 4 hours and 2 minutes behind Ashley Paulsen who clocked 21 hours, 44 minutes. Paulsen won the overall title too.
Sonia lives and works in California as a president of a financial firm. Her roots are from Gurgaon and she was being raised to be a teacher by her parents who were from the same profession. But she always "dreamt of sitting in a large board room and managing a multi national business, making strategic business decisions".
She moved to US in the 90s as a software engineer but soon left that behind and followed her dream of pursuing business.
Running came much later as a anxious Sonia took it up to relieve stress and when she did, she realised that she was not defeated by fatigue. "Instead I would feel good and felt I could run more," she said. She made progress in the corporate world, and also in the world of running.
Running a marathon for the first time, she clocked 3.49 in 2014. Coerced by fellow runners, she ran a 50 miler four years later, clocking about 8 hours. Eventually, she entered the world of 100mile races, helping her gain an entry into Badwater.
"I trained in all possible conditions to prepare for the Badwater, running with weights, running at night," she says. Sonia says she was always 30 minutes behind Ashley Paulsen but an injury from a fall in the last few miles forced her to walk.
Sonia says her running colleagues are surprised that she can survive with very little. "I tell them I grew up in Haryana, where there was, in those days, very little facilities for girls. Also, all my life I have managed people, managed my in-laws, managed my husband, my 15-year-old daughter," she says.
"Ideally, I do super long training runs with very little. I would have loved to run the Badwater alone too, but the organisers would not allow and also, for long stretches there hardly any natural source of water like a stream or river," she says.
Sonia says her perparation for the event ensured a virtual error-free race until she fell and was forced to walk. "Badwater competitors are supposed to have a crew and among the four persons, I hired the services of a trekker," says Sonia. Her logic was the trekker was a problem solver.