Photos: Indian ‘Forrest Gump’ on 10,000km run breaks down on home stretch
Updated On Aug 08, 2017 12:16 PM IST
Samir Singh, an Indian ultra marathoner undertook the task of running 10,000km in 100 days, traversing Mumbai city in a remarkable test of the human spirit and endurance. Falling 36km short of his goal he now plans a 40,000 run in the future.
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Indian ultra marathon runner Samir Singh undertook a herculean task of running 10,000km in a span of 100 days. Tormented by physical injuries, a lack of equipment and financial support, Singh managed to overcome restraints, finally succumbing to the pain and exhaustion his ambitious run wreaked on his body, ending just 36 kilometres short of his goal and covering 9,964kms in the nearly 3 month long run. (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP)
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Singh, dubbed ‘The Faith Runner’ and finding comparisons to Forrest Gump, the marathoner began his run on April 29, 2017 spending three months running, aided by donated clothes, a GPS watch and an emergency phone while living on just ₹200 ($3) a day. (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP)
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Samir Singh (C) is silhouetted by car’s headlights during an early morning sprint in Mumbai. Dressed in a blue sports vest, Singh started each day in the early hours from the northern Mumbai slums and headed to the business district in the city’s south. (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP)
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Runner Samir Singh (C) waves to other runners in Mumbai. Initially, friends mocked the man from Madhya Pradesh for taking on this challenge, but it became an attempt to show the endurance of human spirit that caught the public imagination. As word spread, fans joined Singh for several stretches of his run each day. (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP)
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Along the 100 day run, Samir Singh was tormented by blisters and fractures and had been running through the monsoon rains without skipping a day. This period of strenuous exertion saw Singh suffer from a swollen knee, gastro-intestinal infections and also a spell of viral fever that put him behind schedule but the determined runner persevered switching to a Vibram shoe to aid the swollen knee. (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP)
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Samir Singh stretches before the start of a day’s run in Mumbai. Singh was spotted on Day 47 by Mumbai documentary-makers Vandana and Vikram Bhatti, who christened him ‘The Faith Runner’ and had been running a Facebook campaign to raise awareness and generate funds for Samir, Vandana Bhatti told AFP. (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP)
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Samir Singh covers himself from a sudden downpour as he rests during his early morning run in Mumbai. Singh’s 10,000km was longer than the Great Wall of China (5,500km) and further than the distance from Mumbai to London (7,200km). (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP)
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Taking a break during a run, Singh winces in pain as a masseur stretches his feet. The 44-year-old, 5ft 7in (170cm) running coach needed to clock 150km on the final day of his run, after falling behind due to illness. He could only complete 114km, agonisingly short of his target -- the equivalent of almost a quarter of the Earth’s circumference. He lost 16 kilograms in the period, weighing just 40kgs by the end. (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP)
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