Race Report
Malnad Ultra: notes from the back half
Somewhere after the third climb, an ultra stops being about the legs and starts being about what you decided to carry.
The first forty kilometres of the Malnad Ultra are an argument you are winning. The back forty are an argument you are managing. Coffee estates give way to forest, the climbs stack up, and the aid stations thin out to almost nothing.
This is the stretch the vest was designed for. Not the photogenic ridge line at sunrise — the unglamorous middle of the night when you are rationing a flask and the next refill is a vague promise on a paper map.
The first forty kilometres are an argument you are winning. The back forty are an argument you are managing.
I finished third. I also finished without once thinking about my gear, which, on a day that long, is the only review that matters.
Written by
Aishwarya Rao
STRX runner · Bengaluru
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