(Featured image courtesy Times Now)

At kilometre 130, Ashwini Ganapathi’s legs were shaking. She had been running for nearly 36 hours. No sleep, barely any real food, and still 43 km of steep, rocky mountain trail left.

She thought of quitting. Anyone would.

But then she remembered the nap room at the last checkpoint, where she tried to lie down for five minutes, hoping to rest. “I didn’t sleep for two nights. I tried resting for five minutes in a nap room but just couldn’t drift off,” she said.

So she stood up, adjusted her eight-kg backpack, and kept going. That moment, somewhere in the forests of Japan, would go on to define her life.

In June 2025, Ashwini — a 39-year-old endurance coach and former IT professional from Bengaluru — became the only non-Japanese runner to complete the Deep Japan Ultra 100, one of Asia’s hardest ultramarathon.

It wasn’t just a race. It was 173 kilometres of unforgiving mountain terrain, 9,000 metres of climbing, sharp weather swings, and isolation. She ran through the day. She ran through the night. Then ran........

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