Malnad Ultra: India's premier trail event keeps growing

For the second year in a row, Malnad Ultra in Karnataka, the State with Bengaluru as capital city, connects the blossoming Indian trail running scene with the Asia Trail Master Championship series as one of the exciting late-season events. Already in its 7th edition, Malnad has again sold out with a thousand runners spread across three race distance categories, of which the 100km and 50km offer ATM points. Trail running in its purest form, in a beautiful remote location, often without even any mobile coverage. The course is laid out in the heartland of Indian coffee at an elevation ranging from 950 to 1050m above sea level, which implies rather cooler temperatures for the participants as well.

The event has changed start and finish venue for this year’s edition to adapt to the growth of the event. This means the race courses have been altered as well, although the characteristics have remained the same. The longest distance has a cut-off time of 21 hours and 3738 hm elevation gain. The 50km is 9,5 hours and 1856 hm gain. The start is in the morning around sunrise.

The 100k was won by ATM Grandmaster Shashwat Rao last year, and he will be back at the starting line this weekend. The 50k last year saw a great run and competition with another well-known Indian runner Sannat Sachdev taking the win. Anuradha Bhat and Lipi Kalita were the winning women a year ago.

The Malnad Ultra is organised by GIREM, short for Global Initiative for Restructuring Environment and Management. It is volunteer-driven and not-for-profit, aiming to bring people to the outdoors and promote the sport of trail running.

Thanks to Trisha Yuen for images of the RPC today

The Malnad course traverses a huge coffee plantation area

Grandmaster Shashwat Rao won the 100km last year