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.