Govind Sharma
JAMMU, June 16: Kapil Arora, a corporate official belonging to Jammu, has brought laurels for the State by winning a medal in the most grueling and the oldest ultra marathon in the world (87 km of uphill run in South Africa) called “Comrades Marathon”.
“Comrades Marathon” dubbed as the Ultimate Human Race is an annual ultra marathon event between two towns of Durban and Pietermaritzburg in South Africa. Every year the route changes for the event and it is called the uphill and downhill denoting the route.
This year it was ‘uphill race’ which held on June 4. There were 5 major hills and more than 5000 feet of climb. During the course, there were 6 cut offs, which means one had to maintain a particular pace, as failing to meet any of these cut offs might lead to elimination.
However, Kapil successfully crossed all 6 cut offs after and crossed the finishing line after a crazy run of 11.31 hours, and finally won the completion medal. This was his 3rd consecutive “Comrades” ultra marathon, as he has already completed two in 2015 and 2016.
Kapil Arora, son of NK Arora belongs to Trikuta Nagar, Jammu. He started running around 9 years back when he met his coach and national level athlete, Brinston Miranda and started training along with his corporate life, which included a 12 years working with corporate like ICICI Bank and Reliance Mutual Fund.
Talking to Excelsior on his achievement, Kapil said that he started preparing for this race 4th months before the event and during the course, he ran more than 1000 km in and around Mumbai on Khandala Hills for practice runs.
“To counter the hot and humid Mumbai climate, I used to start running from 2 am at night to 8 am in the morning. Sleep deprivation, extreme exhaustion, running on hills all night for 50-52 km was a difficult task but nothing could stop me from preparing for my mission”, he said.
Kapil is a brand ambassador of leading sports brand “Puma” for last two years. Till date, he has completed 3 ultra marathons and 10 full marathons including an international one at Athens (Greece), best marathon time being 3.41 hours. Last year, he also successfully completed IRONMAN, a triathlon event held in Thailand, which included 1.8 km swim in sea, 90 km bike and 21 km run back to back.
There are 22 half marathons also in his name, best half marathon time being 1.38 hours in 2015. In Airtel Delhi Half Marathon 2016, he was nominated as being the fastest pace settler (1.45 hours). Besides, he also successfully completed PNB MetLife Satara Hill Half Marathon 2015, which set a new record for the Guinness World Records title for the “most people in a mountain run-single mountain. About 2600 athletes participated in the event, which was organized by Marathon Association, Satara, Maharashtra, in Satara.
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