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Meet Santosh Karmacharya

Santosh at the finish line in Antarctica
Santosh at the finish line in Antarctica

Q: Seven marathons. Seven continents. Seven days. You not only did this amazing feat – you finished sixth! What inspired you to take this on, and how did you prepare for it? 

I have been dabbling in endurance sports for 11 years now. I’ve done over 25 marathons, a few ultra marathons, six 140.6 Ironman triathlons and more than ten 70.3 Ironmans. I heard about the 777 challenge when I met the race director at the Chicago marathon expo in 2022. He was confident in my ability to take the challenge and do very well. So that planted the seed.


When I returned home after completing a long course triathlon in Townsville Australia at the end of August, however I wasn’t quite happy with my result. I knew I was  physically fit to take the challenge and I wanted to end the year on a higher note. Once my wife gave her wishes for me to do the race I signed up in September to do the 777 race. 


That meant I had only six weeks to prepare for the race, so I started to build my mileage to 100 miles per week. I consulted with a coach who helped me to structure the plan to have a good outcome. I did the New York marathon ten days  prior to the seven marathon challenge and used that race to see how my body was with all the running. 


Q: The logistics – transport, housing, food, medical support – sound daunting. 

The race director himself is a medical doctor and there was one other medical doctor present as a staff. Taking responsibility for 60 runners is really hard since all of us were in different physical conditions. The youngest runner was 18 years old and the oldest was 81 years. Every runner tried their best to complete the race in 168 hours. 


It took me 24.5 hours to do seven marathons.That left around 143.5 hours for everything else. We spent 59-60 hours in flight, and around 6 hours in bed (3 hours in Cape Town, 3 hours in Turkey). The rest of the time – about 78 hours – were spent in transit – at the airport, on buses to take us to and from the race venues, in passport control, getting our luggage and such. Our races were in Wolf’s Fang (Antarctica), Cape Town (Africa), Perth (Australia), Istanbul (Asia). Istanbul again (Europe), Cartagena (South America), and Miami (North America).  

The hardest part of the race was not knowing what’s going to happen next. I was able to stay calm and I stayed positive throughout the race. Anytime I sensed the stress building I was able to meditate and remind myself it was my decision to do this. It wasn’t a punishment, no one forced me to do this. I was able to smile whenever I felt tired, exhausted, angry, upset, hungry etc.


Q: It sounds so intense physically and mentally. Can you give us a glimpse of what it was like for you personally, during the race? What was going on in your mind and body?

The crazy thing was I weighed 70kg (154 lbs) on the first day and when I weighed in, once I got in the hotel in Miami I weighed exactly the same. 


I didn’t see the whole thing as a race to beat someone or that I needed to finish to win. The whole time I was able to give high fives to everyone, encouraging every runner and thanking all the volunteers. I just stayed relaxed and comfortable. There were few times I wanted to test my ability to run faster or better but those thoughts vanished as fast as they came to me. 


I didn’t know anyone when I signed up for this race. Now I am close to many other athletes. Time and time again I see how as a human being we show up to help others in need. The race provided a great example to see humanity in live action. 

For me anytime I endure something physically I find warmth and healing to my inner child and my emotional and spiritual mind calms down dramatically. 

Physically I struggled really bad on the 6th marathon, in Cartagena, where the temperature was well above 95 degrees with 95 percent humidity and on top of that there was no shade over the entirety of the course. Out of all the marathons, this marathon took the longest time for me to finish to date. 


During the final marathon in Miami my knee pain was unbearable and I couldn’t stop shuffling because the pain to restart running was unimaginable. Ross (a guy affiliated with the race organizer) gave me ibuprofen and that was the first time I have ever taken any medicine in any races. The pain went away and I was able to finish the race comfortably. 


My competitive mind wants to do this race again and finish the race faster and smoother than I did, but I am consciously working on enjoying what I have achieved and using a mantra “just because I can doesn’t mean I should.”


Q: What got you into running in the first place?

The Boston Marathon bombing. I remember a few conversations after the bombing about many people being scared and hesitating to sign up for big races. Two of my friends and I decided to run the Boston marathon the year after. Both of my friends quit after a few runs but I kept up and here I am.


Q: Do you think you’ll keep running marathons? Or are there other challenges you're considering taking on next?

One of the proverbs endurance athletes use is: “you want to go fast but when you can’t then you want to go far.” I think I am nearing my plateau with my faster marathon time, so I will start going farther, which means I will head into ultra marathons or some stage races.


Q:  Santosh, you founded Om Namo, a holistic wellness center in Cushing Square. What is it like to create and run your own business?

I came to the United States when I was 23 years old. In Nepal, where I was born and raised, the culture is such that you have the role based on your caste, ethnicity, birth order, and class system, and so on. I played the role which I knew based on my surroundings and I did my part to keep the system going. 


When I came to America I had to learn everything from scratch and many of the lessons learned were done so by making mistakes. But over time the best reward has been I can be true to myself and I am able to allocate the responsibilities or work. Many times I simply reject it if it doesn’t align with my moral compass or ideals.


Q. What brought you here from Nepal? How did you find yourself settling in Watertown? 

It’s a long story and this can be a story of its own. In short, like many many of my friends, I was really curious about America because of the Hollywood movies. More importantly, my experience dealing with Americans as opposed to many other foreigners in Nepal was always very positive. The Europeans I knew at that time seemed very uptight and very strict about their traveling rules but Americans were relaxed and comfortable. I used to run an acupuncture clinic in Nepal and I dealt with many ex-pats. I loved the American accent, I enjoyed burgers anytime I had a chance to have them. I played basketball and Michael Jordan was my hero. 


My wife and I moved to Watertown from Jamaica Plain 21 years ago. Our landlords were a lovely Italian couple, they were really nice to us. The center I own used to be across from Intelligentsia, and many of my clients and students were from Watertown. When my wife would attend the UU church, before we had our kids, I used to go play basketball with many of the husbands of the church-going wives at the Watertown Boys and Girls club. 


We moved to Waltham when we bought our first home back in 2009. Then we came back to Watertown in 2017 when we had the opportunity to purchase a newly built more spacious home where we currently reside with our two children. I love the diverse community of Watertown and we have met many parents from our kids’ baseball, soccer and basketball games. Everyone is really friendly and very easy going, you cannot ask for anything more as an immigrant where people are so welcoming and kind hearted. 


I love Watertown.

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Nicole for Watertown l Watertown, Massachusetts

Paid for by the Committee to Elect Nicole Gardner l Copyright 2022

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