Run, Sunmaya, run

Ranked 8th in the world in the 100km race, Nepal’s Sunmaya Budha is taking long strides in the international trail running circuit.

In March, the 24-year old from Jumla was at the Wenling 70km in China, a trail race on paper but with a route that was about 70% road. On her first time, she set a record for the course, beating the number two ranked female trail runner in the world.

It was a 70km road race all on a road surface, something Budha is less used to, since almost all of her training is on trails. Budha hit a roadblock at 30km, when her leg started cramping up, but she fought through it.

Soon after winning Wenling, she traveled with her manager to Spain to race a 75k at the Transvulcania La Palma Island 2024.

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Budha was apprehensive about her chances, because she was coming back from an injury and the field was strong. In a pre-race interview, she thought she could not even finish in the top ten. She ended up third. Now, she is eying the world trail running championship in France in September.

 Sunmaya started running while in Grade 7 in Jumla, and did well at school tournaments. She came to Kathmandu to take part in 3 and 5Ks.

“My very first race was 1,600m, and I came in second only because I had no clue that the finish line was a little further than where we had started from,” she recalls, laughing. The next year, she won the race.

“There was no tv, no internet in my village. The only way to get any kind of news or information was the radio,” remembers Budha of her childhood. Her parents (pictured below) were not educated and initially did not understand this passion for running, insisting instead on an arranged marriage for her.

“They weren’t too persistent about marriage, but were a little concerned with how thin I was getting from all the training,” she says, “they let me know that they could not support me financially.”

She moved to Khalanga and started training at the Karnali Sports Club under Hari Bahadur Rokaya who was Nepal’s Olympic marathoner in 1988 and 1992, and the fastest in the Everest Marathaon. Throughout it all, her parents thought she was in school. Budha benefited from Rokaya’s mentorship as she could train for free and he took her to races.

“My parents only figured out I was running when they heard that I came third in a national-level race in Dharan,” recalls Budha. She won a cash prize of Rs15,000.

Budha kept improving and was invited to her first trail race, a 12km course organised by British trail runner Richard Bull, who co-founded trailrunningnepal.org. In July 2021, Sunmaya was signed to Asian Pacific Athlete’s The North Face Adventure Team and she had professional management, coaching, financial support, and equipment. 

Budha’s first win came in December 2021, when she won the Doi Inthanon UTMB  in Thailand, finishing ahead of other renowned Nepali female trail runner Mira Rai.

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Sunmaya has since left the team and signed with Kailas, a Chinese company that produces climbing and trail running gear. “Sponsorship is vital because it is enough for me to live, eat and train. And I can get all the equipment, shoes, clothes that I need from them, as long as I only wear their clothes during races” says Budha.

In Hong Kong, Budha heard about Andy DuBois, an Australian trail running coach that she wanted to work with. She messaged him on Facebook, and after DuBois grilled her meticulously about her previous training, nutrition, and coaching, took her on.

DuBois is still Budha’s coach, and meets with her once a week online to check in and give weekly training plans for times and distances to run. 

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“Three days a week I do speed work and two days I run uphills. On Wednesdays I do a long run, and one day a week I’m at the track doing many sets of 200s, 400s, 800s,” details Budha. “Full body strength training is very important for athletes too, I hit the weights about four times a week.”

Sunmaya currently lives a nomadic running lifestyle, living and training wherever the next race is, although she is often in Kathmandu or Hong Kong. She stresses the importance of being flexible and mobile, as trail running can lead to a stiff, locked up, injured athlete very easily because of the amount of stress on the body, especially on a downhill.

“Every trail runner is a serial ankle sprainer,” says Budha, who loves yoga and follows the Olympics avidly. She keeps her diet organic, avoiding ‘bazar’ foods.

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The International Trail Running Association (ITRA) recently released a statement with a commitment to making trail running a part of the Brisbane Olympics and Paralympics in 2032. There is a chance that Budha will get to participate in future Olympics. 

What Budha likes most about trail running is that it puts her in nature, where the focus is always on how the route will change next, allowing her to remain completely in the present. She likes Europe the best.

“The landscape there seems like it was built for trail running,” she says. 

Budha was also impressed by the development of the sport when she raced in China. She contrasts that with Nepal where she says the few races we have are not promoted well. 

“Nepalis just don’t want to pay to run in a race,” she adds.

Budha is not very optimistic, nor does she expect support from her government. She says, “Of course it would be nice to have them care, but at the end of the day what can I tell them? You have to take control of your own life.”