Running Ninjas @ Malnad Ultra 2025 – A trail epic like no other

Prologue

There are trail runs, there are tough trail runs, there are super hard trail runs, and then there is Malnad Ultra. With 1800+ metres of elevation packed into a single 50K loop, peppered with several 20%+ gradient climbs, Malnad doesn’t just test you — it negotiates with your soul.

Add to that an 80% mud route, rocks and roots waiting to ambush your ankles, disappearing trails, bush-hacking adventures, and occasional stream-jumping. This isn’t a run; it’s a rite of passage.

Welcome to Malnad Ultra — the father of Indian trail running.

---

Maland Ninjas 2025

A bunch of bravehearts from Running Ninjas – let’s call them Malnad Ninjas, decided to give this trail a shot and even though they may not like to admit – they paid the price. 

Here is the squad:

100K Hustler

• Ganesh “Yeda” Gogi
  

50K Fighters

• Prasanna “Ultra” Nijalingappa
• Nikhil “Sarvagyani” Jain
• Rahul “Cool” Jain
• Daksh “Lost” Dilip
• RP “Duracell” Shrinivas
  

30K Chillers

• Deepak “Cheetah” Ramji
• Abhishey “Happy” Roy
• Shantanu “Featherlite” Malik
• Salil “Mastikhor” Bhatnagar
• Manas “SRK” Barpanda
• Vaibhav “Bhaiyyaji” Pathak
• Prachi “Pacey” Pathak
• Rajeev “Bhula” Jain
• Vaidy “Desi-Clooney” R
• Chandra “Baba” Singh
• Ankit “Drone” Goyal
• Aashutosh “Pradhanji” Chaudhari (yours truly)

Enough foreplay; let’s get into the details!   

---

Ganesh “Yeda” Gogi : 100K | DNF at 46K

It’s tough to read Gogi’s mind — especially when it conjures up dreams like running a 100K ultra on a treacherous trail. Everyone, including himself, knew it was a moonshot, a dream probably manifested in a moment of weakness aided by some powerful Goan “stuff.”

He then decided to do it with practically no training — not for lack of intent, but because of injuries, work commitments, his superpower of “not giving a flying f*#k about what others say,” and Simba-like (Simba is his dog) determination. 

By the way, these aren’t the reasons we call him “Yeda”. It’s because we love him; right Gogi!

He fell short this time but it was the right call. Why the right call? Well, all the good reasons notwithstanding, had he decided to continue, some of us would have had to wake up at 2am in the night to get him back from the finish line. Now, that’s why we love him!

Prasanna “Ultra” Nijalingappa : 50k | DNF at 38K

I have just too much respect and love for Anna so I will be measured here. Anna is known to sign-up for crazy distances – mercifully he restricted himself to 50K here. 

He had a plan in place – run some + walk some and then repeat. Super simple and yet effective. And, he had been training for it. He just had a bad day at Malnad. Kudos to his maturity that he listened to his body and decided to tap out at 38K. That’s what several years of experience brings in – wisdom. Live today, to fight another day. 

Fight again, Anna will. A solid 50K loading in 2026!

Nikhil “Sarvagyani” Jain : 50K – 7:10

Nikhil is one of the most committed runners in Ninjas – if the plan says 10K, he will do 10K, if the plan says sleep, he will sleep – never more, never less.

See how well prepared he was. Training was to the tee, but he did not even spare fringes. He made a magic anti-leech ghol (concoction) containing shampoo, vinegar, and some borderline insane elements like lizard’s tail, frog poison, and cat’s spit. As you would have guessed, we did not apply his “magic anti-leech ghol” and survived!

At the 37-38K mark, after climbing the endless incline called the Summit (30%+ gradient), Nikhil proclaimed that Malnad isn’t a run at all – it is a hike. This is the TRUTH – we all trust apna Sarvagyaani Baba on this. He lost interest thereafter and still managed to finish in the top 25! 

And, since the plan said 50K, our man ran 800m more after the finish line because his watch refused to count 50k distance despite his 7+ hours of run or shall we say “hike”. Now that is the epitome of commitment. 

By the way if you are curious whether he applied his own “magic anti-leech ghol”, then do yourself a favor and ask him directly. I am just a race report writer, not an investigator! 

Rahul “Cool” Jain : 50K – 7:40

Rahul was the training partner of Nikhil – except that he missed just a ‘few’ important workouts. You see, he is too “cool” to follow the norm. 

Our cool boy had a super training block for this race and I had no doubt that he would ace it. And, ace, he did. He went step to step with Nikhil until 25K and then he said “bhak saala”, this is too uncool. And, so he wandered his way through the next 25K doing the following : a) small talks with a few European women, b) eating his heart out at the aid stations, d) clicking pics with the village kids, and c) squeezing in a nap or two. 

He still finished super strong – isn’t he a cool boy. 

If you’re curious about the European women — yes, he has their numbers, conversations have begun, and he already has a guest invite to UTMB! No further masala now; I am just a race report writer, not an investigator!

Daksh “Lost” Dilip : 50K – 9:45

I have a confession to make. I am a fan of this 17 year old Ninja. 

At 17, most of us were busy plotting bicycle routes to “accidentally” pass our crush’s house. But Daksh signed up for a 50K ultra trail race in another state!

He was literally “lost” among us old uncles — tortured by ancient music and older gossip — but he remained focused. He cruised with a run–walk strategy and finished well within the cutoff. An Ultra buckle at 17 — legendary.

The old dawg in me said: “Young padawan; good skills you’ve got. Bright, your running future is.”

RP “Duracell” Shrinivas : 50K – 8:36

Dr Shrinivas is the human Duracell of Ninjas. He runs all the time — with shoes, without shoes, morning, evening, sun, rain.

Malnad 2025 was his revenge race for he had an unfortunate injury leading to a DNF a year before. He aced the race proving what was already known – that he can conquer the Malnad Ultra. 

Deepak “Cheetah” Ramji : 30K – 3:00

Before I forget, Ramji’s Ninjas membership renewal is due on 31 Dec 2025. Someone, please collect the fees in the form of a “Bhandara”. A 3-hour 30K for Ramji well and truly proves that he is a Cheetah masquerading as a man. It’s heart breaking that he missed the top 3 finish by mere 2 minutes. 

Vimal went to the Trump-land to run and make more money, but thankfully he replaced himself with Ramji. We need such folks to bring the Ninja marathon PB average to a respectable number. That reminds me that he requested a special discount on his Ninjas membership renewal fee. But, I am just a race report writer…

Abhishey “Happy” Roy : 30K – 3:28

You all want to know if Roy was happy during, and after the race. The short answer is – No! The long answer is 70% No and 30% Yes. Let me explain:

He nailed his 30K in 3:20s and was chilling in the tent as if he could run another 30K. I wondered why he wasn’t looking too happy. So, I asked why. 

Here is what I learnt: a) yeh bhi koi route hai, ekdum bekar with injury risk everywhere, b) bad choice of shoes, should have worn trail shoes instead of carbon plated deviate nitro 3, c) weekly mileage goal isn’t achieved yet despite running 3+ hours, and so on. 

But one thing I dare forget. We were blessed to see the happiest version of Roy in the car ride – enjoying the music, singing along with Kishore, Mukesh, Rafi, Sonu and so on. 

We’re committed to teaching him to smile more. Don’t blame me if he slows a bit. For, I’m just a race report writer.

Shantanu “Featherlite” Malik : 30K – 3:20

We should start a series of jokes:  “Shantanu is so light that…”

Here’s one:  Shantanu is so light that we were worried that Malnad breeze might blow him off the hilltops. Thankfully, he survived the winds and ran a fantastic race.

I don’t have more material to write about him, so I will end by saying that we would like to see Shantanu more social and active in the Ninjas group. I would recommend a ‘chai samosa party’ super soon to break the ice! I can only recommend it, because after all I am just a race report writer… 

Salil “Mastikhor” Bhatnagar : 30K – 4:25

What can we say about Ninjas’ best comic artist! Our “Mastikhor” was very clear about his agenda for the Malnad trip from the onset. Enjoy the trip, eat good food, play some gully cricket, and avoid leach bites – the 30K run was just an incidental activity. 

Proof? Just before the bed time on pre-race eve, Salil politely asked me how the run route was. Then we spent the next 5 minutes (or was it 3 minutes) looking at the elevation profile etc, and trying to make sense of that complex map. And that’s it, because what is the point of knowing the race route, kal dekh lenge on the fly!

Thereafter we spent the next 15 mins discussing more important things – like what to eat at the aid stations, and which sunglasses to wear, and who will drive the car.

Jokes apart, Salil ran a super strong race with a 4:25 finish. We actually crossed the finish line together arm raised together. Hoping that the picture comes out as good as we have imagined it to be. Because neither of us are as photogenic as the person I will be covering next….(you guessed it, right!)

Manas “SRK” Barpanda : 30K – 4:05

Our SRK only meets us during the races, because otherwise he is busy traveling across the country, sampling foods – from the top hotels to random dhabas. Just like Salil he was also clear about his priorities – have fun, eat food, sing songs! Unlike Salil, he didn’t care much about leaches, though. 

I saw Manas run his best races in the recent times at Malnad. All of us started slow and steady, and more importantly together. But after about the 12K mark, SRK told me that he was feeling awesome and off he went. He ran a few steep uphills, and ran most of the downhills too, thereby finishing super strong. True to his focus areas, he found time to belt some curd rice at one of the intermediate aid stations! 

The race photos haven’t come yet but I am sure this bugger will have the best race route photos as well. I might be just a race report writer, but he surely is a rock star! Jai ho SRK ki. 

Vaibhav “Bhaiyyaji” Pathak: 30K – 4:28 & Prachi “Pacey” Pathak: 30K – 3:50

As the only racing couple from Ninjas, it’s appropriate to cover them together. It’s a different thing that they did not run even a step together! 

Prachi is super fast. We knew she was a strong contender for the top 3 finish. She missed by just 50 odd seconds! We know the reasons too.

At around the 10K mark, she was seen running in the opposite direction! Wait, why? Because she dropped her airpod so she went back looking for it; this cost her a few precious minutes. Gosh, the margins at the top are so small!

Another one, at around 28K mark as per her watch, the lady who finished 3rd crossed her but our Pacey was chill – she knew she would chase her down in the next two. Turns out, there was only 1km left – GPS goes awry in most trail races. She ran out the route, else she would be chased not just the 3rd place but 2nd place finisher too. We are super proud of our Pacey girl; she is destined to win heaps of medals for Ninjas. 

Now onto our Bhaiyyaji. He was a part of the masti gang led by Salil so needless to say he spent a lot of time clicking photos and shooting videos. At least on two different occasions, I saw him going in the reverse direction and then running forward just so that “video achcha aana chahiye”. He was more keen to finish the race early and head back to the hotel to play some cricket – we call him the Gorakhpur Express!

Bhaiyyaji also ran a fab race and finished in just under 4:30hrs. I had promised him that we would finish the race together but I could not keep that promise. Sorry Bhaiyyaji, please do not shoot me, I am just a race report writer…

Rajeev “Bhula” Jain : 30K – 5:22

For once Rajeev did everything right for the race. He is known to forget many things – as per him trivial aam-junta things, but as per others super important.

For example, registering for the race. Our Bhula once forgot to register for VDHM – he is doing ProCam slam! Only a few weeks before that race he realized this, and then a few of us had to make some calls to get him a bib. Another time, he forgot that he had registered for a race, so he did not train for it.

But he did everything right at Malnad and finished strong. And just when we thought that Rajeev had forgotten his habit of forgetting things, he proved us wrong! 

About 60km on our way back home, he realized that he had left his watch at the home-stay. And again, a few of us had to make desperate calls to first find the watch (we found it) and then arrange the delivery. While all of us were worried, Raju Bhai was super chill and was already looking for the latest edition of the Apple watch! 

Vaidy “Desi-Clooney” R : 30K – 4:08

Going by the real accounts of a few women runners at Malnad, Desi Clooney was the hottest ‘thing’ on the otherwise treacherous route. If you think I am lying, let’s wait for the race photos and I bet you will see women runners buzzing like bees around this ‘flower’ of ours. 

Jokes aside, Vaidy was the Ninja Squad’s Man of Match on the trail. The hiker in him was the happiest to see steep inclines – he power-hiked the steep inclines which a few of us could barely walk on. And, then he power rolled down the steep descent where we were trying hard to not fall! Vaidy was at his best at Malnad and he got the result he truly deserved. 

I asked him if he will be coming back to Malnad next year. He said 50K next year! And then I heard a loud cheer behind us. Needless to say, those cheers were from a gang of women runners who had overheard us! Well, I made that up because after all I am just a race report writer…

Chandra “Baba” Singh : 30K – 4:40

Chandra is the Baba of Ninjas – full of bhakti and gyaan. For him, every run is a blessing, and the more Ks you run, the more blessings you get. Therefore, whenever Chandra registers for a race, he goes for the highest distance. So when he registered for 30K in Malnad, we were surprised. When we asked him if he was okay, he rolled a few more wisdom pearls which went something like – don’t count your blessings, you fools! 

Coming to the race, Chandra did exactly what he does in races. He aced his 30K with a strong finish, despite minimal training. For him, the correlation between the training and race performance does not exist; blessings do the job. That’s how Chandra Baba rolls….err…..runs. 

Ankit “Drone” Goyal : 30K – 5:06

The official drone of Ninjas set one record at Malnad which is going to be super tough to beat. Thanks to his almost 7 foot frame, he recorded the highest elevation amongst all the runners at Malnad!

He finished super strong. It was heartening to see his family come and cheer for all of us. His son Nivaan was so enamored by the folks who ran 100K, that he was almost dismissive about his dad’s 5 hour vigil. Kids these days…

Mr Goyal, it’s time to up the game! The big leagues of 50K and 100K are waiting in 2026. Good luck, mate!

Aashutosh “Pradhanji” Chaudhari : 30K – 4:25

And finally, it’s “me” time. I do not run a race without having a definite time goal in my mind. With no time target in mind, and the goal of enjoying the race, Malnad was a welcome change for me. Truth be told, even if I had pushed harder my finish time wouldn’t have been too different. But, politicians are allowed to lie, so lets keep this a secret!

Not too long ago (29 June), I was in the Aster Hospital ER after a bicycle crash, and thereafter barely able to walk for several weeks. Back then, if some Jyotish had told me I’d run Malnad 30K under 4:30 in November, I’d have shown him more than a middle finger.

But that’s how injuries are. They knock you down — you climb back up. Malnad 30K was a confidence booster, and finishing alongside Salil made it special. Seeing all Malnad Ninjas finish strong made the Pradhanji in me even happier.

Now the easy phase ends — back to running with time goals. Because apart from being a race report writer, I’m also a hardcore runner who leaves nothing to chance.

---

Epilogue

Malnad Ninjas weren’t just about fun and banter. This epic also brought priceless running wisdom: 

• Sometimes stepping back is strength. (Ask Anna.)
  
• Mind over matter works… until the matter revolts. (Ask Gogi.)
  
• Consistency beats everything. (Ask Nikhil.)
  
• Age is irrelevant when courage shows up. (Ask Daksh.)
  
• Top-tier competition is brutal. (Ask Ramji and Prachi.)
  
• Running is fun — but running together is magic. (Ask every Malnad Ninja.)

Cheers to the madness, the mountains, and the Malnad Ninjas.

See you at the next starting line.