Snow ultramarathon in Manali – snow clad mountains, spine chilling cold, elevation keeps changing throughout the course; Shimla ultra run – the trail takes you to the dense woods, elevation gain ranging from 1250m to 4950m; Beach ultra running in Goa – the route is full of cool breeze, sand, sun, waves & shacks; Island ultramarathon in Andaman – the run starts at 2am, extremely humid, running on the roads that touch the sea contours; Desert run in Jaisalmer – testing your endurance on sand pile trail in Thar desert, bone chilling cold at night to burning hot sunny in day; Duathlon in Ladakh – cycling and running at high altitude cold desert, as the altitude increases, the amount of oxygen in the air falls: The rough terrains, added with harsh climatic conditions makes ‘Tuffman’ – The runner’s prized possession.

“When I formed the endurance sports company ‘Get Set Run’ and later ‘Tuffman’, my target was to add all the possible terrains available for running in India. So, I started hunting for places where I could organize an ultra run with a different terrain. Eventually, I ended up adding tourist destinations in our calendar,” recalls Sanjay Mangla, a founder of Tuffman and himself an ultra runner. “In 2017, we organized seven ultramarathons in India, giving the runners exposure of conquering forest, hill, road, sand, beach and desert.”

Till date, Mangla and his team had organized over 50 ultra runs.

“Running ultramarathons in rough terrains under harsh climatic conditions makes a runner eligible for ‘Tuffman’ title. Till date, over 450 runners have earned the prized possession and every running season adds more Tuffman,” says Mangla.

In 2018, Mangla included marathon, half-marathon and shorter distances in Tuffman’s annual calendar.

“Short runs help in the progression of a runner into a marathoner and further into an ultra runner. Keeping in mind the aspiring Tuffman, we included shorter distances,” says Mangla. “We can proudly say that we are among the pioneers of introducing a vacation run in India. The ultra runners can plan a vacation along with their families and the family members can run short distances. Later on, they too can eye the long runs.”