Two women among five Maha youths to try Everesting Running Challenge

A group of five amateur athletes, including two women, will attempt the gruelling Everesting Running Challenge record at the tiny Matheran hill-station in Raigad starting Friday evening and ending Sunday morning, an organiser said.

The full ERC which has been successfully completed by only three Indians so far will be attempted for the first time by two women, Queenie Silveira and Mahejabin Ajmanwala besides three males, Prashant Rane, Narendra Ranawat and the group coach, Manish Jaiswal.

Organised by Snails2Bolt, a fitness group in Mira Road town, ERC involves a tough trial in which the participants run non-stop to achieve an elevation of 8,849 metres (8.85 kms) -- or equivalent to the height of Mt. Everest. However, as Ajmanwala said, "There cannot be a break in the running, and we run non-stop for nearly 30-40 hrs," or till all participants complete the elevation.

Silveiria said since no breaks are allowed, they will keep running for the entire two nights in the schedule but when they are hungry, they can eat while continuing the sprint upwards. The selected spot for the ERC is a 700-metre hill in Matheran which the runners would run up, return down and repeat the regimen at least 13-15 times till they attain the height of Mt. Everest, but the descent part will not be counted for the challenge. With a buzz on social media, S2B members are thrilled as this could probably be the first when at least one Indian woman, or both the female participants, may complete the ERC.

Coach Jaiswal said all the participants have trained rigorously for nearly eight months for Friday's final mega-challenge of a 'virtual climb' of the tallest peak on the planet, Mt. Everest. An accomplished swimmer, Rane said that recently, all the five completed hill repeats non-stop for eight hours, covering a distance of ov er 40 kms each to prepare themselves for the grand event. Ranawat added that all the five runners have to their credit full and half marathons, some have participated in Himalayan, national and international athletic events, and now hope to complete the ERC successfully. As per the S2B schedules, the ERC will begin on Friday, Jan 8 at 5 p.m. and end by 10 a.m. on Sunday, January 10.Till date, the ERC has been completed by 526 runners from all over the world, including three from India.