In the event you lookup the identify Sufiya Sufi, you’ll discover she calls herself a “humanity first” ultrarunner. You’ll additionally uncover that she’s set 5 operating Guinness World Data in 5 years’ time — with no prior expertise as a runner. After 10 years of working in aviation, she made the daring transfer to chase her operating goals and see the world on the identical time.
Based mostly out of Manali, India, a Himalayan resort city in India’s northern Himachal Pradesh state, the 38-year-old athlete focuses on chasing among the longest world data in operating, starting from 200 kilometers throughout Qatar to her latest challenge, a 40,075-kilometer or longer route circumnavigating the world. With a small help crew, that typically consists solely of her fiancé, she has tackled among the longest routes in India and isn’t even near operating out of concepts on what to do subsequent.
Sufiya Sufi coaching in Ladakh, India, at 17,000 toes. All images courtesy of Sufiya Sufi.
Childhood Years
Sufi grew up in Ajmer within the northern Indian state of Rajasthan as a center little one with two brothers. The household misplaced their father when Sufi was a youngster, and the three kids have been raised by their mom.
Whereas Sufi didn’t take part in sports activities throughout her childhood, she grew to become a classical dancer and stage performer throughout her school years, incomes a Bachelor of Arts at Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati College, Ajmer in Rajasthan. After school, she moved to Delhi, India’s capital territory and an enormous metropolitan space within the northern portion of the nation, to finish a diploma course in aviation earlier than coming into the aviation trade for 10 years.
A Disturbing Aviation Profession
Sufi began operating for health in 2017 whereas working on the airport, the place she did floor operations, check-ins, and boarding. In describing that interval of her life, Sufi says, “That was a time once I was feeling annoyed with my job and bored. As a result of I labored the night time shift for nearly 10 years, I had well being points.” She knew she needed to make a change. “I believed, I ought to do one thing for my well being. I began operating within the park to deal with myself.”
She first went out on a three-kilometer path in a close-by park. It was the primary time in her whole life that she’d gone on a run. Not lengthy after, she ran the 2017 Delhi Half Marathon. It wasn’t lengthy till she elevated her distance once more. “After that race, I believed, I ought to begin doing marathons, as a result of I felt good after doing the half marathon.”
She was intrigued to see what she might do together with her operating. “Once I speak about pushing limits, it was a great way to examine my limits, and I pushed myself.” She ran the Noida Grand Marathon in Delhi and, afterward, a 50-kilometer occasion in 2018.
In the identical time frame, her accomplice Vikas Saroha began biking for health as a strategy to cope after he misplaced his father. They’d met in 2016 once they have been each staff on the airport. Lower than two years after that first run, at age 33, Sufi left her job in aviation. On the time, she’d been promoted to a place because the Obligation Officer in Aviation on the airport’s departure zone, however the job didn’t accommodate her growing curiosity in long-distance operating.
“I left the job as a result of I used to be considering of longer expeditions. I wanted lengthy leaves, and my boss was not prepared to present me lengthy leaves, so I needed to go away the job,” she explains.
Earlier than there was operating, there was work within the aviation trade. Sufiya Sufi within the heart.
Her First Expedition
In 2018, Sufi began planning her first expedition: a 702-kilometer highway run on a route known as the Golden Triangle that connects the Indian cities of Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra.
There have been many causes Sufi determined to start out happening expeditions, together with desirous to do extra together with her life than work on the airport. “There was frustration in me once I was working in an workplace. I believed operating can be the easiest way to examine my limits or unfold a trigger or message.”
She didn’t have a template or position mannequin to base her journeys on. “There have been many issues entering into my thoughts, saying I ought to do an expedition, which is new in India. I began and wished to experiment with expeditions — it appeared adventurous and like mountaineering. I mentioned, ‘I ought to do that.’”
She set an Indian nationwide report on the route, turning into the quickest finisher on foot in 16 days, one hour, 17 minutes.
Vikas Saroha: Fiancé and Workforce Chief
Saroha, Sufi’s accomplice, has been her largest supporter from the beginning. He impressed her to run the Golden Triangle after he’d cycled the route earlier. Saroha additionally takes care of all the logistical particulars of the expeditions. “He does all the route creation and planning for my expeditions. He does the identical routes on a motorcycle,” Sufi explains of the partnership.
With comparable motivations as Sufi, Saroha additionally give up his aviation job in 2019. Now, he’s Sufi’s crew chief for her expeditions and does all the organizing, and he offers her with a vitamin and hydration plan. Saroha additionally studied to turn out to be a coach and took over Sufi’s coaching as properly.
Sufi says, “Vikas comes up with concepts. I simply run. I take a look at the plan, and he tells me the following problem. He’s an enormous help for me.”
Her coaching plan incorporates power coaching, yoga, and pranayama breath work, which helps together with her psychological focus. Sometimes, she does one long term on Saturday or Sunday. Her weight coaching focuses on knee and glute reinforcement, and she or he additionally does body weight exercises and takes a relaxation day each Monday.
The pair stay with a road canine named Tiger.
5 Again-to-Again Guinness World Data
The yr following the Golden Triangle run, Sufi set a report for the quickest time accomplished by a feminine runner touring from the Kashmir area to the town of Kanyakumari. The route goes from the northern tip to the southern finish of India.
This 2019 record-setting run was additionally Sufi’s first Guinness World File achievement. She lined almost 4,000 kilometers in 87 days, two hours, and 17 minutes.
Sufi was solely getting began. Subsequent, she set a second Guinness World File on the Indian Golden Quadrilateral highway community. The 6,002-kilometer community of nationwide highways hyperlinks the Indian cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. Then 35 years previous, she accomplished the feat in April 2021 in 110 days, 23 hours, and 24 minutes.
For her subsequent run in 2021, she headed to the mountains. “I used to be doing solely highway operating at the moment. Then I believed I ought to do one thing more difficult,” she says.
Her third Guinness World File was what she named the Himalayan Extremely Run Expedition. She lined 485 kilometers between the high-altitude cities of Manali and Leh, India, turning into the primary feminine athlete to finish the route. The mountainous terrain offered a better problem for her — which was the purpose — by reaching an altitude of 17,480 toes and gaining a cumulative 26,902 toes of elevation. She completed on October 1, 2021, in 156 hours.
In January 2023, Sufi ran throughout the nation of Qatar from south to north in a distance of 200 kilometers. She completed the hassle in 30 hours and 31 minutes and set a fourth Guinness World File.
Later that yr, Sufi set her fifth Guinness World File by resetting the report for operating from Manali to Leh in India. This time, she accomplished the route in 98 hours. She determined to return as a result of she “wished to go beneath 100 hours.” She says, “Once I did that report in 2021, I didn’t assume my preparation was good, and I believed I might do higher. That was my greatest expertise.”
Sufiya Sufi finishes operating 200 kilometers throughout Qatar.
Motivations
Earlier than 2017, Sufi didn’t have a sports activities background and hardly took on challenges, mentally or bodily. When she began setting operating targets, she says, “Nobody was believing in me.” However she believed in herself. “I feel the optimistic mindset retains you going and pushes you to take extra challenges.”
Sufi believes that mindset is a really robust software. “Being a optimistic thinker is necessary. Your physique and thoughts get into it, and also you wish to problem your self extra, and that’s what I’m doing.”
She’s most intrigued by creating her personal expeditions and routes. “I’m believing my very own race — I don’t imagine in competitors. That is the easiest way for me to examine my limits.” The expedition runs additionally present a great way to see new locations. “I really like touring, and it’s the easiest way to journey the world. I lined all of India on foot. It’s my ardour. When you do one expedition and one other, you get power and confidence to do different challenges.”
The assertion “know no limits” couldn’t be more true for Sufi.
For 2024, she’s planning an expedition throughout the United Arab Emirates. She goals to finish the 700-kilometer distance in seven days, checking off 100 kilometers day by day. Her plan is to finish the run in November or December.
She’s additionally going to do an Worldwide Affiliation of Ultrarunners (IAU) 24-hour stadium run competitors in Bengaluru, India, to attempt to qualify for the 2025 IAU 24-Hour World Championships in France.
In December, she’ll return to run Qatar once more. Her earlier report was damaged by six minutes, and she or he’d prefer to get the title again.
Within the Pipeline: Working Across the World
Beginning in 2025, Sufi is planning to run around the globe with the purpose of protecting 40,075 kilometers, which is the circumference of the earth. She’ll begin and end in India, and the route sews collectively about 20 nations together with Australia, a number of throughout Europe, america, India, Myanmar, Thailand, and Canada. She goals to set one other Guinness World File for this effort.
“India is the most important distance I’ve lined, and I’ve lined an entire nation. I did the entire thing on foot. I believed, I ought to go in another country and go to different nations. The concept is to discover.”
“Nobody has completed that route, however I wish to do that. Vikas shall be with me,” she says. “Once I’m operating expeditions, he helps me in a automobile. More often than not, he does it alone. He’s not doing anything, as a result of he’s supporting and managing me, so he’s busy, so he’s not doing any endurance targets for his biking,” she explains.
They’ll want particular visas to enter and keep in every nation for the time it takes to run throughout it, along with finding out all the different logistics. The planning will occupy all of 2024.
Sufiya Sufi throughout a coaching run in Ladakh, India.
The Future
“Ultrarunning is a brand new sport in India and doesn’t have recognition,” mentioned Sufi. Consequently, she struggles to search out sponsorship help. Typically she does crowdfunding to help her expeditions. She is at present working to discover a vitamin sponsor to assist her together with her runs.
She feels that even after she does her around-the-world run, she’ll be nowhere close to near tapping out of her thought pool, both.
“Initially, I didn’t assume I might run that far. After finishing six expeditions, I nonetheless assume it’s just the start, and I wish to proceed,” she says.
For now, there’s a marriage ceremony on the horizon for her and Saroha after she runs throughout Qatar a second time. However different life targets? Proper now, she’s principally enthusiastic about that huge run around the globe.
Name for Feedback
- Have you ever adopted Sufiya Sufi’s record-setting operating?
- Do you employ operating as a strategy to see the world?
- If there was one nation on the earth you might run throughout, which wouldn’t it be?
