Poonam Bhatia

Comrades Marathon is an ultra-marathon of 90.184 km which is the world’s oldest ultra-marathon. The race was run for the first time on May 24, 1921 (Empire Day), and with the exception of a break during World War II, it has been run every year since then. This year it marked its 93rd edition. To date, over 300,000 runners have completed the race.

The direction of Comrades Marathon alternates each year between the ‘up’ run (87 km) starting from Durban and the ‘down’ run (90.184 km) starting from Pietermaritzburg. Athletes in the race have 12 hours to complete the course. There are 6 cut-off points along the route which the runners must reach by a prescribed time or be forced to retire from the race. It is a complete hilly route with continuous ups and downs, some steep and some not so.

Comrades Marathon was the idea of World War I veteran Vic Clapham, to commemorate the South African soldiers killed during the war. Clapham, who had endured a 2,700-kilometre route march through sweltering German East Africa, wanted the memorial to be a unique test of the physical endurance of the entrants. The constitution of the race states that one of its primary aims is to ‘celebrate mankind’s spirit over adversity’.

Apsom Technologies is proud of its Director Poonam Bhatia who had been training relentlessly and participated in the Comrades Marathon 2018 for the second time. She participated in 2017 as well and completed the run successfully. From India, there were about 160 participants this year of which 11 were females. Around 21,000 runners from all over the world participated in Comrades Marathon 2018.

What it started as a fitness mantra soon became the goal for Poonam. Sometime back in 2012 she started training and participating in various marathons held across India, including the popular StanChart Mumbai Marathon, Vasai Virar Marathon, Hyderabad Marathon, Ladakh Marathon, Run The Rann and several others. To prepare for such enduring races she had to sacrifice a lot in terms of social life—and definitely without the support of family and friends this was not possible. Commenting on her sheer grit, Vikram Bhatia, MD, Apsom Technologies, said, “What she has achieved today is through her true hard work, strong will power and untiring efforts. Fitness is necessary to be a successful entrepreneur and a successful human being too.”

It’s a pride to share this glorious moment with everyone when Poonam completed her second Comrades Marathon this year in 11.33.02 (hr:min:sec), improving her performance by14 minutes as compared to last year in spite of the increase of 3km in the race route.