Gujarati Midday

Resident of Mr. Kaushik panchal of Borivali, went to Canada to attend one family function and he was surprised to see the awareness of health among the people of Canada. Kaushik says that he saw people running during their lunch time and as and when they get time. He felt that back in India people don’t think about their fitness much and were not in any kind of sports. When I was 32 years old and weighing 85 kilos I had many health related issues in my life at that time. I had back ache and severe acidity problem and I used to get tired soon and at that age used to think how will I be able to live more than 50 years. Both my daughters were small and I wanted to live for them. My undying wish and strong desire to live longer and have healthier life I turned towards sports activities. After coming back in India in 2003 I saw newspaper add regarding Mumbai Marathon so I straight away registered myself for the same.

It was the first year of Mumbai Marathon and not much people were aware about the event. There were NGOs which was requesting and encouraging people to run. In the first year there were very few people running Marathon. First time I ran for 7kms which was the dream run in the first year, after that for the next 7 years I ran for 21 kms, and since 6 years I’m running 42kms full Marathon. The reason is that it is too crowded in 21 kms now. However in 42 kms there is less crowd.

When i started running I did not have any structured training for running the Marathon. But as the years progressed I started taking professional structured training. If we practice more milage and take care of diet one can run longer distance. Surprisingly in first two years I lost 20 kgs and I was free of all my health issues. I started running with the aim of longevity of life but I ended up getting a good quality of life which is stress free and I feel that each and every person can live such a lifestyle provided they make a beginning at some point or the other. That’s the reason he has started a training institute called “Runners Academy” who now trains begeiners to take up running for fitness and lifestyle changing experience. Till date he has ran more than 65 Marathons of cities in India. As on today he runs approx 200 kms a month.
Best time for half marathon – 2 hours 4 mins and for full Marathon – 4 hours and 43 mins.