Pune’s Ashish Kasodekar lives with this motto ‘die to live’ and feels that his life all of 50 years is for doing something hardcore and finishing it with a smile.
Kasodekar recently on 26 January finished the 61st marathon in 60 days, making it to the Guinness World Records of most consecutive days to run a full marathon in the ultra-dynamo category. “It has been a festival of run and every run is a learning process,” said this long-distance running and cycling enthusiast, travel entrepreneur Kasodekar. He began his attempt on November 28, 2021, and scheduled it aptly to end on January 26, 2022.
It was his unique way to celebrate his 50th birthday. “The idea was to do something different, the record is 59 marathons for 59 days and hence I decided to attempt 60 marathons consecutively for 60 days,” said Kasodekar.
His record will replace Italy’s Enzo Capororaso in the listings. The Italian had set the record in 2019 when he ran daily full marathons from September 14 to November 11.
A sportsperson who throughout his life, be it in Vimlabai Garware school or Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce (BMCC) gets his adrenaline rush by being involved in sports, first it was basketball, and then running long distances.
“I think of celebrating each day in my life as an event, trying to push myself to the most rigorous task I can find. My first run was the Pune Marathon in 2013, running the 15 km, followed by the Mumbai Marathon of 21 km which led me to run 42 km in Mumbai again in 2016. I realized that when you are running, the cheering and running along with others adds to that extra energy and it is fantastic,” said Kasodekar.
Kasodekar believes in celebrating life and his way is of doing something energetic and pushing his limits for 11/ 11/11 he cycled from Pune to Goa, on 12/12/12 he completed a 100 km walk from Pune –Panchgani – Goa and for 11/12/13, he rode his Harley Davidson bike for 2400 km in 36 hours in a race called Bum Burner. For 20/ 02/2020, he attempted ‘Everesting’ gaining the height of Mount Everest by climbing the Sinhagad Fort 16 times non-stop.
When Kasodekar heard about the La Ultra which is held every year in Ladakh, he wanted to push his limits and first ran 72 km. “I was hooked to running in the Himalayas, it taught me a lot of things in the process that I kept on going back, running longer distances. I have run the 111 Kms finishing in 20 hours, then 333 km in 72 hours and finishing the 555 Kms the most difficult race in 132 hours.”
These races teach a lot for according to Kasodekar there is extreme difficulty in each of these races, where you deal with oxygen level, temperature variations of 10 to 42 degrees, the elevation of the route and the most important is meeting the cutoffs timings.
The La Ultra is known as the cruellest Marathons in the world, where they test the limits of an individual and each of his Marathon runs has a story, there is drama, there is emotion and a lot of learning, like how much to eat, understand quality sleep and relax those nerves.
“I believe in the journey and enjoy the process of being part of a marathon without training, be mentally fit and come out of my comfort zone. For practice, Kasodekar would run up the Sinhagad Fort in the afternoon or even run Pune to Panchgani to get the idea of long-distance terrain.
Kasodekar’s dream is to participate in the Bad Water Marathon in the USA, where marathoners run in 50 degrees temperature, for which, Kasodekar had to first qualify by participating in Brazil 135, a race which is tough but he finished the race in 44 hours and became the first and the only Indian to finish this gruesome race.
His mantra when he is participating in these Ultra races is, “When you are in such situations, to choose between love and fear, choose love and life becomes beautiful. Whatever you do, do it with all of your love and maintain a discipline to do it, so that it helps you achieve your goals, long or short.”
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