Life in the fast lane

Marathoner Kranti Salvi who holds the Guinness World Record title for running the fastest marathon in a traditional sari will be the brand ambassador for the Rotary Rain Run 2019 to be held in Goa today. NT BUZZ gets more details

RAMANDEEP KAUR | NT BUZZ

It was in 2013 that Kranti Salvi ran her first marathon of 42.2 kilometres at the Mumbai Marathon.

A national level track and field athlete during her school years, Salvi reveals that she was first tempted to begin running when her six-year old son joined athletics. “The athletics track reminded me of my school sports days, when I won all the track events and I was tempted to join the athletics training. But when the coach asked me the purpose of joining, my answer was ‘marathon’ as the Mumbai Marathon was around the corner,” she says.

Post the Mumbai Marathon, Salvi has since been a podium finisher at the Tata Mumbai Marathon in her age category. In the last seven years, she has also completed over 50 (10K and half marathon) races of various distances. In India, she has run in states like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Delhi. And she is all set to add Goa to the list when on July 28, she will meet and greet the participants of the Rotary Rain Run 2019 and finish of the race.

Indeed, it is not just Salvi who is into marathons, her entire family is. She reveals that after she shared the news of the Mumbai Marathon registration with her husband, he also joined in as most of his friends at the Harvard Business School were marathoners. As a family, they have done the Mauritius Marathon, Manila Marathon in Philippines, and Australia’s Gold Coast Marathon. “My son used to participate at the kids races of the race weekend while husband and I ran in the marathons,” she says.

Apart from this, Salvi has run 12 full marathons, in different continents. She recorded sub-four timings in the three World Marathon Majors, Boston, New York and Berlin (timing of 3:51, 3:57, and 3:56 respectively) and will be running the Chicago Marathon in October this year. Her personal best timings in the half marathon is 1:45 hours at the Indian Navy Half Marathon in Mumbai and 3:47 hours for a full marathon in Australia’s Gold Coast Marathon. Before running any marathon, she spends around 12-18 weeks of consistent training.

Though every marathon is a unique experience for her, she achieved the Guinness World Record title when she ran the Berlin Marathon in a nauvari sari with a timing of 3:57:07 hours in September, 2018. Explaining how this came about, she states that her local running group ‘Girgaon Runners community’ in Maharashtra had organised a 10 kilometre race to celebrate Gudhi Padwa.

  Being in the organising team, Salvi had other responsibilities of the event. So she could not run in the event and most of the participants including she were dressed up in their traditional outfits. However, after she flagged off the race, instead of staying back; she joined the flow of celebration. “It was a little difficult to run in a sari with heavy traditional jewelry. But, I ended up doing a five kilometre run. A few friends later shared a link to the existing Guinness record and ignited the thought of beating it,” she says. Salvi thus decided to register her application on the Guinness World Records (GWR) website.”

Having already registered for the Berlin Marathon at that time, she decided to attempt the record there. “Fortunately, it was the BMW Berlin Marathon and GWR collaboration that made my attempt easier. So I decided to run in a nauvari as a challenge to myself,” adds Salvi.

Though she has a GWR title to her credit, Salvi now wants to achieve the World Marathon Majors Six Star Medal. “This medal is a big achievement but it is given only when one finishes all six World Marathon Majors. I have done three so far and now I wish to finish the remaining ones. My goal is to improve my timing. Let’s see where this passion leads me to,” she says.

An electronic engineer by training, an entrepreneur by profession, a homemaker and runner by passion, the 51-year-old thinks that age has several meanings in our society. “Chronological age and biological age need not be the same for everyone. One can be biologically younger and fitter irrespective of chronological age. Yet, there are challenges like every woman faces in this age bracket,” she says.

Having completed an ACSM (American College Of Sports Medicine) approved marathon coach certification in 2016, Salvi also designs her own training plans for marathons.

She is a Pinkathon ambassador in Mumbai and guides women all over Maharashtra and India through Pinkathon groups, promoting fitness and active lifestyle for all women members.

“Fitness begins with the woman of the house. Women should spend at least some of her time just for herself, be it any small activity that she enjoys the most. At Pinkathon we spread this message of empowering women, we offer free training sessions to women of all age groups regularly at various locations.”

(Organised by the Rotary Club of Porvorim, this is the fifth edition of Rotary Rain Run and it will be held at the SAG Stadium, Bambolim,  today.)