Ultra High
“IT ISN’T REALLY POSSIBLE TO TRAIN FOR 555KM.”
It was 57 hours into the race and the mind games had started within Australian, Jason Reardon. During an ungodly hour of the night, he was descending Tanglang La – a high altitude pass at 5328m on the Manali-Leh highway in the far northern reaches of India.
The fatigue of enduring hundreds of kilometres was taking its toll and hallucinations had set in. In the distance, Reardon now saw the flickering lights of a shopping centre. A few moments later, a lady conjured out of thin air, hurling crosses at him, while Oriental warriors jumped out of the barren side of the mountain. The white lines on the road had transformed into slithering snakes that blocked his path, while cats and dogs were part of a melee a little ahead. When he mentioned the apparitions to his crew, they simply shrugged their shoulders, all too aware of the state of mind he was in.
Reardon decided to take a breather and looked up to find himself under a blanket of stars. In that fleeting moment, he set aside the fact that he was running the La Ultra. For moments like these was the reason he had signed up for a race that ran a mammoth 555km, while climbing to an altitude of 5300m on five occasions in the semi-arid desert of Ladakh.
Resuming his run, his thoughts revolving around all that he had endured until then – during the race and in life. A smile broke out on his chiselled face. It wasn’t the first time his mental fortitude had been tested and he knew that he had it in him to push on. And the reward came five days and
