Aiming to be the first South Asian to complete the Triple Crown of 200-mile races, Aum Gandhi is running those incredible distances to find his tribe, but also for his own mental health
Nice post, thank you for spotlighting Aum. I looked at his UltraSignup to see what he's done in a relatively brief five years, and I'm impressed he's excelled at Across the Years 6-day (running repeat one-mile loops—he got to 300 miles at the last one) and also did a 200 previously. I hope he doesn't burn out prematurely due to the incredibly high volume. A lot of new ultrarunners jump into the sport and go to the max distance limits at a relatively young age, rather than gradually progressing at "just" 50Ks and 50Ms to 100M. Some fade away from injury or the stress of it. Others find themselves in the outer limits of the sport, in part because of the community around these events. I've run a 24-hour event with repeat one-mile loops twice, and it takes a certain kind of mindset and endurance to handle it mentally as well as physically. I'd love to hear about how he got to 300M over six days and what drove him and sustained him mentally, and how he balances these multi-day efforts with a life and job. He seems like a really interesting guy!
That's funny. When I wrote about music, my editors often used to ask me to talk more about the actual music. I think my own desires to never run for 6 days might have made me shy away from asking about that!
I had no idea the London vs LA / UK vs US data looked like that! Aum, and your reflection on it really got me thinking today-- inspiring piece. Thanks!
Nice post, thank you for spotlighting Aum. I looked at his UltraSignup to see what he's done in a relatively brief five years, and I'm impressed he's excelled at Across the Years 6-day (running repeat one-mile loops—he got to 300 miles at the last one) and also did a 200 previously. I hope he doesn't burn out prematurely due to the incredibly high volume. A lot of new ultrarunners jump into the sport and go to the max distance limits at a relatively young age, rather than gradually progressing at "just" 50Ks and 50Ms to 100M. Some fade away from injury or the stress of it. Others find themselves in the outer limits of the sport, in part because of the community around these events. I've run a 24-hour event with repeat one-mile loops twice, and it takes a certain kind of mindset and endurance to handle it mentally as well as physically. I'd love to hear about how he got to 300M over six days and what drove him and sustained him mentally, and how he balances these multi-day efforts with a life and job. He seems like a really interesting guy!
That's funny. When I wrote about music, my editors often used to ask me to talk more about the actual music. I think my own desires to never run for 6 days might have made me shy away from asking about that!
I had no idea the London vs LA / UK vs US data looked like that! Aum, and your reflection on it really got me thinking today-- inspiring piece. Thanks!
Time to focus on tacos again.
If tacos be the food of life, eat on.
Good story - I hope you will follow-up in the fall, tell us how the year went. I wish him good running.
You're giving me homework?! YOU should follow up in the fall haha