'Someone had to do it': Pooja Krishnamurthy makes history at Brazil 135 Ultramarathon

It’s always the downhill that decides everything. In ultra-running, downhill is not relief. It’s reckoning. The legs are battered, the mind is frayed, and the smallest lapse can cost you hours. It is where fatigue speaks the loudest. For Pooja Krishnamurthy, that reckoning came and went, and she kept moving. She completed the Brazil 135 Ultramarathon in 48 hours, finishing a commanding 12 hours before the official cut-off time. With that, she became the first Indian woman to officially qualify and finish one of the world’s most grueling endurance races.

“It feels good to hear,” she says of the historic tag. “But someone had to do it. It just happened that it’s me.” The Brazil 135, often regarded as the sister race to Badwater 135, is 135 miles of punishing terrain, elevation shifts, heat and isolation. It strips runners down to instinct and willpower. Pooja’s relationship with the race started not as a participant, but as a crew member at Badwater. During that trip, she ended up pacing her coach for over 80 kilometres. That was the turning point.

“I was like, okay, this ultra run is for me. I love it.” From that moment, Brazil 135 became a target. But for her, the attraction was never about records. It was about the internal battle. “After a point, it just becomes mental,” she explains. “It’s telling yourself to do it.” Training for ultras, she admits, can get lonely. “Sometimes it just gets very lonely,” she says. Long distances mean fewer training partners, longer hours in silence. But over time, solitude transformed into strength.

“I’ve learned to deal with the solitude and accept being by myself… I’ve begun to love it.”

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That mental recalibration proved decisive during the race. In events that stretch beyond 24 hours, doubt doesn’t arrive dramatically. It whispers. “A lot of times something happens and the thought comes in—should I continue, not continue?” she says candidly. “But it amazes me every time how the body and the mind support me and push me forward.” And they did.

Crossing the finish line at 48 hours, well inside the deadline, wasn’t just a physical milestone. It was proof of preparation, discipline and evolution. Particularly in nutrition, where her approach has matured significantly. “Initially, I took it very lightly,” she admits. “I was just a random runner.” But as ultras became serious, so did her fueling strategy. Structured protein intake and recovery planning, supported by her partnership with Wellbeing Nutrition—became central to sustaining long hours of training.

“I literally feel like I learned it the hard way,” she says of earlier days when she would train for hours and feel exhausted through the day. “Now, I don’t feel that anymore.” She believes nutrition, especially in women’s amateur sport, remains under-discussed. “We all know we need protein. But structured knowledge is important.” Yet even with the milestone now etched beside her name—first Indian woman to finish Brazil 135, Pooja resists dramatizing it. Well being Nutrition is the official nutrition sponsor of Pooja Krishnamurthy

“I didn’t think of it so much as being the first woman,” she says. “The only thing I hope is that more women will take races like this on and not be scared.” Because for her, the race was never about proving that women belong at the start line. It was about stepping onto the downhill, knowing it would hurt, and running anyway. And 48 hours later, she had done exactly that.