Keshav Maniktahla is challenging the status quo of a small town athlete. He has recently made India proud by winning '100 Days of Running', an ultra marathon challenge, wherein over 20,000 runners from over 40 countries participated in the event. The list of his achievements is unending. A 24-hour stadium run at a stretch to clocking 13000 lifetime kms, Maniktahla has covered 3 countries, 18 states and 23 cities thus far. He has ran over 300 half marathons, 30 ultra marathons and made a red-blooded attempt to run from Leh to Khardungla Pass at over 18000 feet with oxygen levels depleting to 40%. Having multiple jaw dropping successes in his name, Maniktahla is a self taught ultra marathoner. In his upcoming projects, he will be running 250 km from Delhi to Chandigarh and 1500 kms from Chandigarh to Indore. He aspires to run a marathon in all the countries of the world.?
Maniktahla hails from Yamunanagar in Haryana, and is least interested in attending to his inherited rich family business. On the contrary he is giving his sweat and blood to running several kilometers everyday and inspiring others in the town to run. Interestingly, he often takes a run to Chandigarh from his town which is more than 100 km away.?
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Unfortunately Maniktahla is a self supported athlete, implying that he bears the expenses of the marathon events he participates in and hasn’t had any major sponsor so far.?
“I have spent considerable amount of time in Chandigarh for my studies, but I hail from a small town. It’s easy for big-city marathoners to get sponsorships but sadly it’s hard to get through from small cities. Our social eco system needs major improvements. We need to learn from the western countries where marathoners are extremely dignified” he said.? ? ??
So far, he has built an army of nearly 100 marathoners in his town, who could initially only dream about running, let alone long distances. He motivated and trained them to run for several kilometers. In addition, he spends his own money to arrange local running competitions for them to participate and grow. Today, it is seen that many such runners of his town owe their motivation to Maniktahla.? ?
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“I have inspired nearly 500 people globally to get out of their comfort zone and run the grounds. These to-be athletes hail from Delhi, Mumbai, England, USA and many other places. I have a reasonably good following on STRAVA, an application which is like the FB of runners and athletes. However I am not hungry for limelight. Recently after my father’s demise, I deleted my FB account and wanted to spend time with myself and my marathons.”
In addition to running, Maniktahla has been deeply involved with adventures related to car driving, biking and hiking. He has driven non-stop for staggering 55 hours from Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh to Yamunanagar, Haryana. He said he has forwarded the proofs of this amazingly long car drive to Limca Book of Records and awaits their response.
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“It is unfortunate that an athlete can’t expect of earning a living by doing marathons in this country, unlike the western countries. Many of our Olympics’ winners still haven’t received their due share of support from the respective governments. In our country, athletes have to slog for nearly 25 years and fund themselves through parental incomes until they reach something like Olympics. The government really needs to be proactive towards marathon athletes” he added.? ? ? ??
In merely 3 months of running when he started his career at 26, he decided to run for 100 km, which he says was a fanatical decision to make. It took him 18 hours to run that distance at almost a stretch.?
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“All my marathons are recorded in STRAVA. With the help of this app, I have also forwarded another great achievement of mine to Limca Book of Records of running 5300 km in 100 days. Hope I achieve an official record soon. I have also participated in STRAVA’s monthly challenges and have scored first rank against the finest of athletes in two of the challenges.”
He draws his inspiration from Fauja Singh, a 107-year-old marathoner from United Kingdom. Fondly known as ‘Turban Tornado’, Singh is known to be the oldest marathon runner of the world.
“If Fauja Singh can do it at such an age, why can’t I and why can’t everybody else. Age is just a number. It’s all about your mind,” says Maniktahla.