Enough room for a marathon!

Rakesh Nair | TNN | Apr 5, 2020, 15:59 IST

Krishnan with the handcrafted medal, made and awarded to him by his daughter on finishing the marathon inside his house

Krishnan with the handcrafted medal, made and awarded to him by his daughter on finishing the marathon inside ...Read More

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A prolonged lockdown could drive anyone nuts and one may end up doing things they have never even imagined. For 47-year-old Krishnan Padmakumar, it was running a full marathon inside his house! Krishnan clocked an impressive 4 hours and 26 minutes to cover 42.2km, probably a first-of-its-kind feat in the country.
An engineer by profession and an avid runner, Krishnan is an active member of ITEN runners club, a group of city-based runners. The Thiruvananthapuram resident has in the past run many marathons with the latest being the Berlin Marathon. It was the idleness amid the nationwide lockdown that prompted him to attempt a marathon within the four walls of his house at Kowdiar.
“On a normal week, I run around 60-80km and also cycle in between. The shutdown made me stay away from my regular activity, that’s when I decided to do full marathon inside my house. It was also a way to overcome the boredom. A few of my friends staying abroad have also done similar run,” said Krishnan, who completed the marathon in his third attempt. He has also video recorded the ‘apartment marathon’ partly and logged the timings on a fitness app.
He started the marathon by 4:15am on March 31, and he looped the run through the corridor, living room and dining area of his house and after around 1,200 loops of 35 metre each, he managed to complete the marathon by 8:40am. “By the time I woke up around 5am, he was already running. He had told me the previous night that he would be finishing the run which he could not, in the previous attempts. I supported him by giving him water and cheered him,” said his wife Sreedevi Gopalakrishnan. Towards the end, Krishnan’s daughter and mother-inlaw too joined her.
While Krishnan was about to reach his target, Ambika, his 11-yearold daughter, quickly pulled out her art skills to make a handcrafted medal for him, with the slogan ‘Stay home, Stay safe’ on it. His son Aditya, who couldn’t witness the achievement, woke up with amusement knowing that his father had completed a full marathon inside the house.