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Uttara Kannada is known as the land of rivers. Religious places, National Park, waterfalls, beaches and backwaters; there are many tourist attractions in this district in Karnataka.

Deepa was born in an agrarian family living in Siddapur, a village in this district. She studied in a government school. Any kind of sport didn’t ignite her interest. Being chubby, she often faced friendly banter from her classmates. After completing 10th grade, she moved to Sirsi to pursue intermediate studies.

In 2006, she came to Bangalore to study electrical engineering. But her financial constraints didn’t allow her to pursue any hobbies as she had to solely focus on studies to rise above the water.

The year 2010 brought a change in fortune as she secured a job at Tavant Technologies. She got a decent salary and the money brought freedom.

For the very first time in life, she thought of doing something apart from studies and work. She went for morning jogs to enjoy the beautiful weather of Bangalore. As she continued running, someone suggested that she should consider participating in an upcoming event.

She made her very first appearance in any running event during the 2011 edition of TCS 10K. She was elated after completing the run in 64 min.

Soon after this event, she joined aerobics and running took a backseat.

For the next 3 years, she made occasional appearances in events like TCS 10K, Kaveri Trail Marathon 10K and Ajmera Thump.

In 2014, she joined Wipro Running Club and went to Lalbagh over weekends for training.

Owing to her preparation, she secured first position in Spirit of Wipro Run 2014. Receiving the medal in front of thousands of people made her feel special. First time in life, she witnessed so many people celebrating her success and cheering for her. This particular moment proved to be transformational as it was about to shape the course of her life.

After three years of running 10K distance, she set her eye on the next milestone. That year she ran her first half marathon in the Bangalore Marathon 2014.

In 2015, she joined Reebok Running Squad and trained with coach Neera Katwal. She went to Kanteerava Stadium for four days a week. That’s where she got to learn the nuances of coaching. Couple of years later, she worked at Cult Fitness as a trainer and further fine tuned her coaching skills.

In the Bangalore Marathon held in Oct 2017, she secured 3rd position in the half marathon category. Having spent the last three years honing her coaching skills and improving her strength for running half marathons, she was now ready for the next big challenge of running a full marathon.

Exactly a year later, she was elated after covering the total distance of 42.2 KM. Officially she was now a Marathoner.

The year 2019 brought change in fortunes and set the tone for the next phase of her life.

On 19th Jan 2019, Suresh from Reebok Running Squad introduced her to Shreyas Karnad while having dinner in Mumbai. Shreyas is the founder of running group Runners 360. The very next day, thousands of runners participated in the iconic Tata Mumbai Marathon (TMM). Post completion of the run, Deepa was looking for her friends from the Reebok squad but they were nowhere in sight. Shreyas had already finished his run and was waiting for his friends. Upon seeing Deepa, he offered her water and helped her to find members of her running group. They never met after that event.

In Nov 2019, Deepa started planning for next year’s Full Marathon. She prepared a plan, but wanted to get it reviewed from someone experienced. She remembered about Shreyas with whom she had interacted way back in January. She felt a bit awkward to approach him after such a long time. Nevertheless she didn’t know anyone else who could support her during that time. Finally when she mustered some courage to speak to Shreyas, he immediately helped to fine tune the plan. Soon after she started going to Kanteerava stadium regularly to run with Shreyas.

She performed superbly and clocked her personal best timing to finish TMM 2020 in 3:29:59. A month later, she finished the Delhi Marathon in 3:28:00.

On the onset of COVID in Mar 2020, the world came to a stand still. As people were struggling to find a way to keep the things on track, Shreyas started online ZOOM sessions to train runners of Runners360 club. Deepa joined as a strength and conditioning coach and started taking online sessions. She enjoyed her journey thoroughly.

Leaving a well paying corporate job to pursue your passion requires courage and immense self belief. Being a running coach demands plenty of physical and mental energy on a sustained basis. So it was going to be a tough decision to leave the job and move completely into coaching.

Her husband Ankit has been a great pillar of support since they got married in 2017. He helped Deepa in making that important career move.

Shreyas also gave her a lot of support to keep negativity at bay and choose a career that fills life with purpose.

So in June 2022, she took a leap of faith to leave job at Akamai and pursue her passion for coaching and running.

She continues to work as Strength and Conditioning Coach in Runners360 Running Club and ASICS Running Club. She trains more than 150 people ongoingly. Till date she has trained more than 250 people.

This year she participated in 3 world majors: Berlin Marathon, Boston Marathon and London Marathon. Running a full marathon takes a lot of physical and mental energy. Deepa ran the Boston and London Marathons on consecutive weeks that shows her ability to push the limits.

She is the brand ambassador for various running events across India.

She also has a keen interest in mountaineering. This year she ran in the Ladakh Marathon, the highest marathon in the world, held at a height of 11,500 feet. Right after completing the Ladakh Marathon, she went on a 10 day expedition climbing Kang Yatse 1 mountain at 21,000 ft. Upon reaching the peak, she did 10 push ups to commemorate the moment. Who in the world can think of celebrating this way?

Apart from her love for running and coaching, she is an animal lover. Cookie, the dog and Laila, the cat bring much joy to her life. Cookie’s sister Brownie died under unfortunate circumstances a few years ago. In the memory of Brownie, Deepa donates her prize money to dog shelters and dog feeders.

When she is gone, Deepa wants people to remember her as a friend, coach and cynophile.

The Gold Dust
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1. Importance of building a foundation?
Deepa ran 10K for 3 years and 21K for another 3 years to build a solid foundation before attempting her first marathon. This has helped her to sustain peak performance over the years. She didn’t fade away like early morning dew with the onset of sunrise.

2. Magic of Focus and Consistency
It’s hard to believe that someone who didn’t have any inclination towards sports for most part of her life is now training more than 150 people simultaneously.

While the whole world may look at her through her achievements, the secret lies in the focus and consistency that she brings to the work every day.

3. Follow your heart
She donates all her prize money for a cause that’s very close to her heart.

My house is burning.
Can I douse the fire by putting just a bucket of water?
Or should I try to put all my effort into mitigating the catastrophe?

An engineer by profession, Raghuveer worked with Wipro Technologies from Oct 2007 to Oct 2012. He had a deep desire to pursue a career in movie direction and production. So he left his well paying job to pursue his passion.

But something else was in store for him.

He was in pain to see the monopoly of few individuals as they controlled the supply of native paddy seeds in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. When power gets accumulated in the hands of a select few, the weaker section of society suffers.

For the next 3 years he traveled all corners of the country to collect different seeds.

He went to Rayagada in Odisha to meet eminent ecologist Dr Debal Deb. At his conservation farm named Basudha, Dr Deb has conserved 1,480 traditional rice varieties and shared those for free with over 7,600 farmers.

While staying at Basudha, Raghuveer learnt the urgency to save our indigenous rice varieties. He returned to his hometown Vijayawada after staying there for 1 month.

He has spent the last 6-7 years doing research in this field and 4 years in actual farming.

He has received “Best Farmer Award” from Sri Singireddy Niranjan Reddy, Honourable Agriculture minister of Telangana.

He also featured in a book named “Prakruthi Sainyam” featuring “100 Inspirational Farmers”.

This year he received the “Plant Genome Saviour Farmer Award” from none other than Honorable President of India Smt Droupadi Murmu.

Raghuveer believes his activism aims at empowering local farmers of our country.

He continues to follow his passion for independent movie making for which he had left his well paying job in 2012. He travels to different film festivals in India to learn more about the art of movie making. One day he dreams of taking his debut movie to international film festivals and making a mark at the world stage.

The following quote sums up his life’s philosophy and drives anything that he aims to do in future.

“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”

About his journey, he shared these nuggets of wisdom before signing off.

“Started with just one seed
Many laughed
Some questioned
A few criticized
But a handful encouraged
And I took everything in my stride and moved on…”

Hema Vinod, a mother of two has played different roles during her long career spanning over three decades.

She started her career as a teacher in India. Her commitment to the cause of education led her to work extensively with children in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Somalia and Iraq.

As International Education Specialist she was associated for 2 years with UNHCR and 15 years with UNICEF, closely working with refugees, internally displaced and disenfranchised communities.

On the onset of COVID-19, Hema returned to India in Mar 2020. She developed a liking for writing to find some solace when the world was reeling under the pandemic. As a first-time writer, she soon realized that her interest lies in writing about adolescents. This thought guided her writing and was enhanced by her rich experience in the education and coaching field.

“I feel lucky to have worked with children all through my career,” she says with a smile.

The year and half long journey of writing culminated with the release of her first book “Parenteening Made Simple” in Dec 2021 which went on to become an Amazon Best Seller. It is a well-researched book that outlines the principles of parenting teenagers.

Although her first book did very well, she did not think of resting on laurels and immediately started working on her second book. She kept thinking of the girls she had interacted with and the challenges they faced. Her second book, ‘Girl, Empower Yourself’ took a year to complete and was released in Nov 2022. This book is a compilation of 7 questions that act as a guide for any girl seeking to get a practical approach to lead a happy and purpose-driven life.

Her third book “ABC of Parenting” has just been released. This book discusses the critical aspects of the emotional and mental health of children. It also outlines the parenting pillars which guide parents to be reflective and assist them in their daily parenting including teaching life skills and values.

Hema believes that parenting adolescents needs us to invest our efforts earlier when the children are younger. The book is therefore a guide not just for parents of adolescents but parents of preadolescents in preparation for the adolescent years.

Hema’s passion for supporting children is the reason behind her writing. Her interest in promoting happy and healthy adolescents has helped her to focus on writing every day. “It doesn’t feel like work at all,” she adds.

She has garnered more than 10,000 followers on various social media platforms in just two years. As a parenting coach, she wishes to spread her message to thousands of people through her books and blogs.

This reminded me of a quote by Mark Twain. “The secret of success is making your vocation your vacation.”

You can find more such inspiring stories on my social media pages.

https://facebook.com/buildyourrange
https://instagram.com/buildyourrange

During the last decade, Arun travelled to different parts of the world for his work. Globe-trotting wasn’t easy with his daughter. He decided to come back to India in 2018.

During his stay Bangalore he came across a few runners in his apartment. He found it difficult to run even a km without huffing and puffing. Up until that time he was only familiar with puffing as he used to smoke.

Despite the difficulty, he continued to run. 6 months later those runners organized an event for the apartment residents. Arun ran first 10 KM run of his life. It was back in Feb 2019.

During the same time, he started learning Python. For three months, he couldn’t understand much, but he persisted.

He also started to enjoy running but continued to struggle to give up smoking. The more he ran, he felt better and better. It felt more than anything else he had ever done before. That feeling of adrenaline rush was much better than smoking. For the first time in life, he thought of giving up smoking completely.

In early 2020, he travelled to London for a short official assignment where he managed to complete his first half marathon. He was on cloud nine. This moment proved to be a turning point of his life.

Even during COVID lockdown, he continued to train. In 2021, he attempted to run a solo full marathon. As he completed 35 KM, his body and mind almost gave up. He was asking himself why one should even run such a long distance. Why should one even run a marathon giving mind and body so much stress?

As these questions started to take a toll, he heard a deep voice from his back.

“Are you running a marathon?”

Yes, Arun replied without even looking back.

A few moments later, when he glanced back, he saw a middle-aged man smiling at him. The stranger gave him company and that’s how he completed his first Full Marathon. The person who helped him that day was Kailash.

Both became great friends and formed a small running group called HRA. Over the last 2 years, the group has grown to over 60 enthusiastic runners.

Last year, Arun completed the Hyderabad Marathon in little above 4 hours. This marathon is considered one of the toughest races in India.

This year he participated in the 12-hour stadium run and clocked 96 KM distance during the event.

In August 2023, he organized a running event in his apartment where more than 650 people participated. Many big brands gave sponsorships to make the event even more successful.

His persistence nature has also paid great dividends at the workplace. He gained a lot of expertise in Python and his company has trusted him to lead teams to deliver products for esteemed customers.

In his running journey of last 5 years, he has changed his own life as well as many people around him. His humility and ability to connect with people is inspirational.

He has proved that WILLPOWER is far more powerful than WILLS Power.

​Y​esterday was a very special day.

For the last 5 years, some of ​the volunteers of my community have been working tirelessly for rejuvenation of Choodasandra lake in Bangalore.

​Y​esterday was decided as the day for lake inauguration. It was supposed to be a momentum occasion for which we have worked for so many years.

The Bangalore Ultra running event was scheduled to happen​yesterday morning and I had registered for a 25 KM run a month ago.

With both the events coinciding on the same day, maybe it was an Omen from Almighty.

Leaving home at 3.45am on a cold Bangalore morning never felt so exciting. Upon reaching the venue, I met many running mates that helped to calm my nerves. I was slightly struggling with my left knee earlier this week that had built up some anxiety in mind.

Nevertheless, I tried to keep that aside and was glad to meet so many runners early in the morning. Run started at 5.30am and the first few kilometers took us through a dense tree cover that elevated the running experience.

Felt happy meeting the runners from the R2R running group.

A peacock made a sound from a far place that reminded me that I was running in a very natural and pristine environment and it’s such a joy to experience it while running. From then onwards, all my concerns about my knee disappeared.

I felt really happy to meet Mr Janardan who is still going strong at the age of 92.

Spoke to Dr Sriniavas who is a radiologist and a passionate runner and thanked him and the medical fraternity for their selfless service during COVID19.

Seeing many runners from HRA running club helped me to keep my motivation level high.

In the last 5 kilometers, I pushed through whenever my body and mind gave signals of tiredness. I tried encouraging fellow runners to keep pushing and finish the run strong. When some people who had slowed down started running again, that helped me to get some more energy to propel me forward.

Felt happy to cross the 25 KM finish line with little over 2 hr and 42 mins of fun and joy.

At the finish line, met my coaches from Runners360 who have redefined the meaning of Consistency at a whole new level. A separate blog on the same later this week.

2 hours later, I was in the presence of my volunteering team overseeing the inauguration of the lake.

​Y​esterday’s run is dedicated towards the Choodasandra Lake which I believe will be a model lake of Bangalore in times to come.

Start with Why.

It’s a brilliant book by Simon Sinek. But it’s not easy to find Why behind everything that we do in life.

I came to Bangalore in 2012. The weather of Bangalore is a pride for every Bangalorian. Hence catching early morning sleep was the best thing to do to make optimum use of what the city had to offer.

Back in 2013, a friend asked me to start running. Those days I used to wake up by 9 am. Exercise didn’t exist in my dictionary back then.

“Why should I run?” I told my friend when he suggested that I start running.

“You will experience Runner’s High.” He replied.

I started with 100 metres and gradually moved to 400 metres, 1 KM and 2 KM. It took me almost 6 months to run 2 KM without huffing and puffing. But there was no sign of Runners High.

“Hey, where is that Runner’s High? It has been 6 months and still I didn’t get it.” I asked my friend.

He suggested that I run for a bit longer.

All this didn’t make any sense to me. But I had started to enjoy running a bit more. I complained less and made peace with whatever I learnt on the way.

It has been 10 years since I started running. This beautiful sport has given me things which I had never imagined in my wildest dreams.

From a complete non-runner to completing 50 KM Ultra Marathon;
Being someone who didn’t have any interest in reading to writing a book on Running;
Coming from a non-english medium education to writing a 312 page book in English;
And the biggest transformation from being an introvert to meeting new people every week and writing about their lives.

It has been a wonderful journey so far. Every week when I meet new people, I witness a completely new world and a whole new perspective to lead life.

Many times we may not be clear why we should do something.
We may have no clue what the future beholds for us.
We may not know when we will achieve success.

You may not have all the answers to your questions.
During such times, have patience, don’t give up and keep moving.

Leaving you with a quote from Legendary Entrepreneur Steve Jobs.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”