Anjala S. Krishen began running after having her two daughters, Axenya and Sheen Kachen, around 1999. She would run during lunch breaks at her employer at the time, American Electric Power, and often after work as well or early in the morning. She decided to involve her children in running when they were very young. She began amateur competitive running with 5K distances and trained her daughters to run them as well. In the early 2000’s, she began doing Tae Kwon Do with her two daughters at Abbott’s Tae Kwon Do America in Blacksburg, Virginia. Many years later, prior to moving to UNLV, she and her two daughters achieved black belts. Meanwhile, she was running 5K distances throughout the Virginia area, totaling more than 50 and usually winning her age group. In 2003, after running a few half marathons, she attempted her first marathon and since then has completed over 50 marathons and ultramarathons. She ran her first ultramarathon in 2011, a distance of 50 miles, and then ran the same ultra four more times. In 2015, she ran two 24 hour races (one in February and one in August) and ran 85.3 and 80.3 miles at those. In April of 2016, she ran her first 100 mile distance.