'Do something amazing' - How running can bring adventure and free your mind
Dharmesh Mistry has completed multi-day events in the Sahara and the foothills of Nepal
“If there's anyone that's borderline thinking about doing something amazing, just go and do it. You'll feel fantastic afterwards.”
When ultra runner Dharmesh Mistry gives this advice, you know he means it.
After all, he’s completed multi-day ultra marathons in the Sahara and the foothills of Nepal.
But while Dharmesh loves the adventure running has brought him, the sport has also had a far more practical and everyday impact on his life.
As part of a career working in technology for financial services, mainly with banks, he has set up and sold three technology startups, become the host of a FinTech podcast and written for a journal on the subject, and acted as a consultant to Boards on FinTech. Dharmesh is used to success.
But as he reached 40, his health was not mirroring his business achievements. Weighing in at almost 15 stone (95kg) at five foot eight inches tall (1.7m), he was forced to confront medical issues similar to those which had seen his own father die at just 53.
A conversation with his doctor led to him taking up running, with the sport encouraging him to quit smoking, eat healthier and manage his mental health better.
Dharmesh said running not only had immediate physical benefits but boosted his mental function as well.
“I felt good after running,” he said. “When I got into longer distances, the benefits became much bigger and wider.
“I found, without intending to, that my mental health was really good. I was able to juggle things day to day.
“You have loads of things that go on in life. You’ve got your work, you’ve got your family, the house, chores, everything that needs to be juggled.
“And I was doing that in my head and quite often I'd get quite stressed. It was probably one of the reasons why I had been drinking a bit too much.
“But I found it was like a lot better for me to ease off when I started running. And I found also, quite surprisingly, that the time to myself to think allowed me to unravel the mess that was in my head.”
Dharmesh called the change a “multiplying effect of goodness”.
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Since then, running has become an integral part of his life, to the stage where he has completed half-a-dozen 100-mile events including the Marathon des Sables (MDS) and the five-day, self-sufficient Capital to Country Ultra in Nepal.
He even also holds a Guinness World Record in the sport after taking part in the largest virtual marathon.
It is completing MDS which Dharmesh sees as his greatest running adventure and achievement.
Dubbed the ‘toughest footrace in the world,’ the Marathon des Sables takes place over seven days over around 160 miles (257km) of the Sahara Desert in southern Morocco.
“I have to give credit to a good friend of mine, Jason Watkins, who's been a total inspiration to me,” Dharmesh told the Running Tales Podcast.
“He rang me up one day and said, ‘Dharm, I've just run six marathons in six days in the desert. And I survived on cashews.
“I didn't believe him. I had to look it up on the Internet and was like, ‘wow, he's actually done it’.
“And that was the trigger for me.”
Dharmesh said the whole experience of MDS was “amazing,” from belting out the traditional morning song to tackling 45°C heat.
“You just can't believe that you're there. It was a bit like being in a dream with some of the sites, the dunes, the empty villages you run through, dried up riverbeds, and mountains.
“On the double day I thought we were almost home, it looked like we had about half-an-hour to go but because of the dunes you just can’t judge the distance, and you're just going up and down and up and down.
“The light doesn't seem to get any nearer. We were running for two hours. It was just crazy.”
He said the “wonderful experiences” he encountered each day were matched by the incredible friends he made - something he says is “true of all ultras”.
Another event which Dharmesh highlights is the less famous, but equally exotic Capital to Country Multi-Day Ultra, a 123-mile race through the foothills of Nepal, which he took on last November.
He said: “The reason I loved that was because it was the first time it had ever been done. Nobody really knew what it was going to be like.
“It was a completely virgin event. And to me, that was the icing on the cake. This was something that nobody else had ever done - and that's why it was great.”
‘My body is capable of things I never imagined’:
Dharmesh said he takes part in races for the joy of adventure and to complete epic events, rather than to clock up times.
“Whatever race I'm running, I'm running for myself. Even if I trained really hard and I won the Reading Half, it would still only be the Reading Half. It wouldn’t be the UK or world record.
“Some guy somewhere is always going to be running faster than you, so it's a never-ending goal to be trying to win or be on the podium.
“For me, it's always about the experience. I set myself some little goals to create the challenge. With the shorter distances, like with the London Marathon, I might have a target. There, I wanted to do sub-four, then 3.30.
“But when I’d done that, I didn't want to do more than that. I knew my limit and how hard I wanted to chase a particular goal because there's so much more to do.
“You can't be doing competitive marathons and ultras at the same time. I think the training is too much and too hard.”
While his lust for adventure continues, Dharmesh also remains focused on the mental resilience running has brought him.
“What I have learned through the runs is that my body is capable of things that I just never imagined,” he said.
“I never imagined I could do 50 miles, I never imagined I could do 100. I never imagined I could do the MDS.
“But also, running gives you so much clarity. It gives you time to yourself and time to think, really unravel stuff.
“For me personally, what I realised is I was juggling too much - my work, my hobbies and my family life and my friends and so many other things.
“Running was almost like a break. Running 25 miles at the weekend and then doing another 15 afterwards was just time to myself, to clear my head and make me feel good.
“I'd wake up on a Monday thinking, ‘I've just done 40 miles this weekend - you know what, I feel great’.”
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