Who: Mira Rai
Age: 28
Nationality: Nepali
Claim to fame: Ultramarathon trail runner (a long-distance running race that is longer than a marathon, over mountainous terrain)
First run: 50km at The Himalayan Outdoor Festival 2014, hosted by Trail Running Nepal
Longest ultramarathon: 110km, Salomon Ultra Pirineu, Spain
Other sporting interests: Karate (black belt), biking, kabaddi, swimming
The last time we met Mira Rai, the trail runner from Nepal, she was on her way to the 3 Peaks Race in the UK. A year later, she’s back in Calcutta, nursing an injury or two but more ambitious than ever.
Her right leg is sore from running and she’s now recovering from a knee surgery she had in Italy to control the damage done to her knees in her formative years of traipsing up and down the mountains with sacks of rice, during her pre-trail-running days in Nepal. “I fell during the last 5km of the 3 Peaks Race. It was raining and snowing and I was running downhill, trying to balance myself, and I fell on my right ankle. But I got up and finished the race,” she says, matter-of-factly. She finished second.
She’s already raring for the Marathon du Mont-Blanc in France on June 23. She says she only does some light exercises now that she’s recovering from an injury… like running for only an hour!
In January she was named the 2017 National Geographic People’s Choice Adventurer of the Year. “It was a dream come true… actually I never even dreamt of it, so I could not believe it when I heard,” laughed Mira. “And then we did a photoshoot and I put on a dress and make-up.” She continues to laugh, as though she hasn’t quite gotten over the whole experience of dressing up for a fashion shoot of sorts.
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She’s been back in Nepal these last seven months, living with her old karate teacher Dhurba Bikram Malla, the chief coach at Balaju Karate-Do Academy in Nepal. She only goes home to her parents when they need something, since it’s a two-day bus journey away. “They’re still working very hard, even though I’m paying for my sisters. And I bought a very small plot of land where my brothers have a chicken farm.”
Mira never got to finish studying, so she wants her sisters to finish what she didn’t. With one studying to be a Junior Technical Assistant (JTA ) in agriculture and the other studying veterinary science, Mira is pleased with how things are progressing. “It’s important to study. I’m still working on my English. Now the children in Kathmandu want to run like me, so I’m trying to help them.”
She’s working with Richard Bull of Trail Running Nepal to organise races for anyone who’s interested. “I try to guide them from the experience I’ve gained. And Trail Running Nepal recently gave out 90 pairs of shoes. I know I am lucky because Salomon (the sports gear company) has been kind enough to sponsor me... it is difficult otherwise, very difficult,” she admits.
