09 Jun Capital to Country Ultra Marathon: Dharmesh’s dream – How one man went from overweight and unfit to a life of ultra running
Dharmesh Mistry took a sharp intake of breath as he reached the top of another gruelling climb.
His heart was beating quickly, not only from physical effort but due to the stunning vista before him.
Dharmesh’s eyes took in lush green hillsides, a river snaking its way through the valley below and, far in the distance looking down on everything, a set of snow-peaked giants.
It isn’t every run that allows you to gaze out at the majesty of the Himalayas.
But, Dharmesh said, the five-day, 123-mile Capital to Country Ultra, which winds its way through Nepal, isn’t just any race: “It is like a dream, something to give you kudos and to tell your grandkids.”
As an experienced ultra runner who has completed a host of 100-mile races and even the famed Marathon des Sables (MDS), Dharmesh is no stranger to the spectacular.
His journey from making a pub bet to enter a 50-mile race to multi-day event finisher has seen him push himself to the limit and gain a wealth of running knowledge that means he is well placed to judge the quality of a race.
Describing Capital to Country, he said: “I thought this was like UTMB (Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc) meets MDS. A five-day, self-sufficient race with long climbs and huge distances. Who wouldn’t want to do that?
“The scenery is brilliant. The people are so friendly and the course lived up to all the challenges we thought it would bring.”
Our inaugural Capital to Country Multi-Day Ultra took place in late November and early December. Starting in the sprawling Nepalese capital of Kathmandu, the course takes in jaw-dropping temples, holy sites and remote villages.
It is a race that doesn’t mess around when it comes to either distance or elevation, with constant ups and downs testing runners’ quads, thighs and hamstrings.
Dharmesh said the climbs found at Capital to Country were something he had not encountered previously in other extreme races: “MDS is a similar distance and in stifling heat, but the terrain isn’t like in Nepal, which is far more varied.
“I know people talk about the heat at MDS, but Nepal for me was a harder event. There is no chance for your clothes to dry [at MDS], and putting on damp clothes in the morning is unwelcome to say the least.
“It was great to run with a limited number of people (Capital to Country 2023 featured just seven runners) and in a race that was being run for the first time.
“We would run through these tiny villages, and what was interesting is that they are a couple of thousand metres up in the mountains but you would suddenly see someone carrying a massive bit of plywood and you’d find yourself asking, ‘how did he get that up here!’”
Dharmesh’s running journey started at the age of 40 when he was forced to confront a growing waistline and the spectre of his father having died at 53.
“I was overweight, not exercising and eating poorly,” he said. “The doctor told me I needed to do something, and I thought about how my dad hadn’t been at the weight I was at, and how I didn’t want what had happened to us as a family for my kids.
“I’m one of those people who don’t know how to stop. I started running round the block and my brother entered me for a 5k. I got up to running a marathon, but entering ultras was accidental.”
That ‘accident’ involved a conversation with fellow runner Tarne Westcott, where they part-dared, part-tricked each other to enter the London to Birmingham 50-mile ultra.
“I had just done London Marathon and was so proud, even though it had taken me five hours,” he said. “But he had done it two years earlier and faster.
“I’d read about London to Birmingham, so for a joke I said I was going to run it. Three days later he text me to say he had entered – so I had to!”
Dharmesh managed to drag himself round that 50 miles and, even though he “couldn’t get out of bed for two days,” he quickly found himself signing up for more and more races, more often than not with Tarne at his side – including at Capital to Country, where his friend would win the event.
“The goal for me was slightly different,” he said. “It was to get it done. Just finishing it felt like a massive achievement.
“In camp the joke was that while I wasn’t the fastest in the group, so I came up with a category just for me and I was the fastest in my category for sure.
“I never win anything but I won that category – it was the Ugandan over-55’s category!
“One of the things I have learnt from MDS and some of the other races I’ve done is wherever you finish, you end up with a few friends for life and you can dine out on the stories forever.”
Whatever category of runner you are, why not take part in the race of a lifetime? Our Capital to Country Multi-Day Ultra will return to Nepal between November 25 and December 1, 2024 – you can sign-up to create your own stories.