“I signed up for OOTYULTRA right after my run at Munnar last year. I wanted to experience another high altitude mountain road run – it might be the tea in all these places that makes me yearning for more. Hydration was the only thing that was a bit contentious for me, but I must say Kay had taken care of all that with aid stations fully stocked up & also set at the correct places. I do remember Kay driving personally to the participants and handing over Coke during those last few gruelling kilometres. One thing I truly love about the whole event is how OOTYULTRA was carefully planned and executed. Right from accommodation to the expo handling and the racecourse or even the registrations, almost everything has been researched and meticulously handled by his team.”
Meet 40-year-old Georgy Cherian who will be returning back to the blue mountains this year for the second edition of the OOTYULTRA. Georgy was the top male runner and the 2nd place finisher at the 60k run during the first edition, completing the course in 7:29:36. He currently holds the record for being the fastest men on the OOTYULTRA course thus truly engraving his name as a true #ultralaivasi
Georgy is based in Kochi and is currently partnering and running a sports management firm. He grew in the middle east, and Georgy reminisces that he was not mainly into sports or physical activity during his school days.
His running journey started in 2008 with some short distances while he was based in Malaysia. His running schedule remained somewhat sporadic over many years until he returned back to India. He ran his first 10K at the TCS 2013 event and shortly after this, he joined up with the famed Soles of Cochin running group which was then barely a week old. His first full marathon was at the Hyderabad the same year. With hardly any training, he opened his performance record with a superb 3:44 hrs time.
Georgy lived in New Zealand for some time and running on trails were almost a part of his daily routine. Georgy realises that the trail races are slowly picking up in India, and he loves to run them to get some points to run the UTMB in the coming years. For now, let he would like to concentrate on training and getting that elusive timing to qualify for Boston.
He has since run several full and Ultra marathons in India. His training schedule includes running and cross-training on the bike. Georgy has already completed a few BRMs, and he attributes to his overall development of fitness and endurance due to this. A cycling accident last year interrupted his training schedule, and Georgy is hopeful that the OOTYULTRA will mark his return back to endurance event running.
The entire OOTYULTRA team is excited and looking forward to hosting Georgy and all the other runners once again. We now have an added pressure to maintain the standards and the best runner experience that Georgy and all the #ultramalaivasi’s went through during the first edition and we hope our team will live-up and also beat those expectations.
