173km, 45 hours: Ashwini Ganapathi completes Deep Japan Ultra trial race

India's Ashwini Ganapathi, 39, completed the 2025 Deep Ultra Japan trial race – a 173km run. She was the only non-Japanese to complete the grueling run.

Ashwini took 45 hours and 42 minutes to complete the run. She did not sleep for two days with only aid stations available in between. The race had a cut-off time of 46 hours.

The race saw a total of 135 athletes start, but only 63 of them completed. A whopping 72 athletes dropped out midway, further highlighting the significance of Ashwini's achievement.

The course included a massive 9,000m elevation gain and included three major mountain climbs, including Mount Asakusa and Mount Sumo.

"My debut hundred miles on trail,a dream of over 5 years, finally came to fruition at the Deep Japan Ultra 100 , 173 kms of rugged Japanese mountains over 9000 mtrs of elevation and one hell of an event," Ashwini said in a social media post.

"Challenging intermediate cutoffs, technical terrain demanding mountaineering skills of rappelling & climbing using fixed ropes, leeches, and humidity made it that special and memorable," she added.

Ashwini, a IT professional turned full time running coach, was tenth woman to cross the finish line. She ran with a mandatory 6kg safety gear along with required food and water, bringing her bag pack weight to a total of 8kg.