Arjun Kulung Rai stepped onto the course of the 2013 Everest Marathon with worn-out shoes and socks. Rai, then 18, had no professional training or prior experience on the race track. He was working as a full-time porter around the Everest Base Camp. Before the race, his first ever, he was a nobody for other racers at the marathon—just another face in the crowd.

But he raised eyebrows at the end of the 42-km Full Marathon after he finished sixth, a remarkable feat for an absolute beginner. He was a somebody now, a force to be reckoned with.

“It felt like I was one with the air when I had no weights on my back,” Rai, now 30, recalls that race, seated at the runner-themed 888 Cafe near Bauddha in Kathmandu.

“I decided to take part in the Everest Marathon after seeing people running without weights and getting rewarded more handsomely while I kept hauling 100 kilograms of daily load,” he says.

But Rai, coming from a humble family, returned to portering despite establishing himself as a naturally talented runner in his first attempt.

“It took me over five years to return to running,” Rai said. “Things do not go your way when you are just a porter.”

As he talked to the Post on March 16, he showed no signs that he had won the 100-miler at the 4th Manjushree Trail Race (MTR) two days ago, clocking 26 hours, 29 minutes and 25 seconds.

It was not a new win for Rai, now one of Nepal’s most successful trail runners, because it was the third time he won the MTR 100-miler. This was also beside his wins in several other extreme marathons.

“The race route takes runners along the Kathmandu Valley rim ridge line and across the seven hills that surround the Valley [Jamacho, Shivapuri, Nagarkot, Phulchoki, Champadevi, Bhasmasur and Chandragiri],” MTR describes the 100-miler on their website. “The Manjushree trail covers a total distance of 175.18 km, with an incline of 12,695 metres.”

Furthermore, he has been improving his timing with every win. He finished the race with a timing of 31:10:57 at first. When he returned after a gap in 2024, he bettered the timing to 26:52:56. This time, he was around 23 minutes faster, clocking 26:29:25.

“I didn’t hope to win this edition because I was not completely fit,” said Rai. “I had some problems with my ankle.” Yet, he was the first to cross the 100 miles in record time.

But Rai feels the proudest when he remembers winning the Everest Marathon for the first time. He participated in the 60km Extreme Ultra category of the 2022 Everest Marathon and crossed the finish 35 minutes earlier than his closest competitor.

Everest Marathon is termed as the greatest feat in the world by the Olympics.com. “For road races, the hardest of the Marathon Majors series is the hilly course of Boston, USA. But that doesn't compare to the Everest Marathon,” Olympics.com writes in its article titled ‘The toughest run? Here’s a look at some of the world’s most challenging marathon courses’ published in October last year.

“I resumed running in 2019. The next two years were marred by Covid-19,” Rai said. The year 2022 changed his life—through the Everest Marathon.

“I was wearing shoes worth Rs700 when I won a marathon, which happened to be the Everest Marathon, for the first time,” Rai said. “I now wear some of the best shoes.”

According to Rai, since his first win under the world’s highest peak in his home district of Solukhumbu, he has not looked back. And it was not Rai’s only win in 2022.

“The love I get from people when I tour the country or go to any other part of the world pushes me every time,” Rai said.

“I lived off the prize money I won in the marathons. They were never enough to cover my expenses—personal, family and professional,” Rai said.

But a lot has improved since 2023 when Rai was selected as one of the eight athletes in the team of Asia Pacific Adventure, a Hong Kong-based agency dedicated to helping and advising Asian athletes in adventure racing and trail running. Sunmaya Budha is the other Nepali in the team.

“For the team, Sunmaya and I are being trained by Andy DuBois, one of the world’s top coaches,” said Rai. “It has been two years now. He monitors our training and results from Hong Kong.”

As a result, he has been able to challenge the best in the world.

The world is his stage

Rai surprised the running world by finishing sixth in his debut in 2013. A decade later, Rai debuted in a race abroad: the 2nd World Mountain and Trail Running Championships (WMTRC) in Austria in June 2023.

In his first foreign race—and a world championship at that—Rai finished among the Top 50 men, and 53rd overall, in the 87.1km category. Participation in the championship was the reason Rai could not take part in the second edition of MTR in 2023.

“Thousands of elite runners had come to Austria to participate in different categories,” said Rai. “It found that competing with the best in the world was not going to be easy.”

And yet, his sixth and 17th place finishes in the Experiéncia d’Aran (32km) and Poilaner (33km)—the two categories of the Val d’Aran by the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) in Spain in 2023—respectively also cannot be overlooked.

Still, more success was in store for him.

Rai won a bronze in the Asian Skyrunning Champs 2023—Bupa Global Lantau 27k—in Hong Kong in December and ended the year on a high.

Similarly, in December 2024, he shocked the world with a second-place finish in The North Face 100 Ultra Trail Challenge in Hong Kong; he fell short of eight minutes to clinch the first international win. Rai was 14th out of 1,097 runners in the 103.3km Anta Hong Kong 100 Ultra in January 2024.

Rai believes Nepal can be a dominant force in trail running and other adventure sports. “It is not easy to keep my titles safe in Nepal because more and more trail runners are coming out from the Hills and Himalayas,” Rai said with a smile. “Such competition will help keep me on my toes.”

Rai will now spend the upcoming months training harder than before as he wants to create another history in Spain this September.

Spain and the Pyrenees, Europe’s second-most important mountain range, are hosting the third edition of the WMTRC from September 25 to 28.

“I am resting for a few days after running for 100 miles in MTR. I will soon return to training on the hills above Sundarijal and Gokarna,” a confident Rai told the Post.

Pulling off jaw-dropping results when he was completely untrained and constantly improving his records with the start of proper training, Rai, now a professional, will be a major contender for the world title.

‘Run Nepalis run’

It was rare to see a ‘serious’ Arjun Kulung Rai in over an hour-long talk; his smile faded only when he remembered his harsh life as a porter and the struggles as a runner.

He also happily talked about the ways to be an elite runner, the recipes for his success, and the importance of running.

“One of trail running’s best parts is to be with nature,” Rai said. “Nature has healing properties and supports the physical, mental and spiritual development of an individual.”

Thus, when he participated in the Pokhara Trail Race Series this month, his mother accompanied him.

“I wanted my mother to visit different places in Pokhara, but the city’s air was polluted. Thus I had my mother participate in the 6-km run-for-fun as the route passed through the hills, far from pollution,” Rai said. “Fresh air is always beneficial for the human body. Nepalis should run because we are born tough.”

Alongside air pollution, Rai also feels sorry for nature when he runs along some of the most beautiful routes in the world. “I was born in Mahakulung Rural Municipality in Solukhumbu. I saw snow-capped mountains in my childhood, and even when I participated in the Everest Marathon for the first time,” Rai shared.

Now, there is not much snow. “I feel disheartened at how snow-capped mountains are turning into bare rocks,” Rai lamented.

Nonetheless, the porter-turned-ace runner looks forward to becoming someone who can inspire a positive change.

“I had to face many struggles, so I want to help aspiring runners like me. I want to start a training facility for runners,” Rai shared. “But I need to be someone important and capable [first].”

Winning the world championship could open that door.