Chennai man runs a marathon, at home

M T Saju | TNN | May 5, 2020, 10:00 IST

<p>V Seranthaiah<br></p>

It was after seeing a post on a social networking site about a couple abroad who completed a full marathon (42.2km) in their balcony that he decided to take it up, in his bedroom. City-based V Seranthaiah completed 42.2 km in five hours and 20 minutes and recorded it via a GPSbased Garmin tracker.
The 50-year-old is not new to marathon running, having participated in major events across the country and winning many accolades. Now, after his latest achievement, he is urging people to run indoors to get fit. “I have participated in many marathons, but running inside the room was new to me. I knew I was physically fit, but I had to convince myself I was up to the new format. I am glad that I could do it,” said the man who works in the office of the director general of commercial audit, Chennai.
When some of his friends first told Seranthaiah about the ‘Stay Home Stay Healthy Marathon’, organised by Satara Runners Foundation, and asked him to enroll, he was a bit hesitant initially. He, however, picked up the basics about the virtual indoor running event, a first of its kind in the world.
Choosing his bedroom as the track’, he woke up at 1.30am and set the stage - four boiled eggs, lemon juice, snacks and soaked groundnuts were placed on a table. At 2.15am, he switched on his music recorder and began. “I covered 29 km in three hours, running barefoot. I had taken lemon water and boiled eggs in between. There was a slight pain in an ankle, so I used my running shoes to cover the rest,” he said When he started, he could cover one kilometre in eight minutes, but in the second leg, he reduced it to seven minutes. “As the activity progressed, I became more active. When I completed 40km, I ran fast. I wanted to cover the last two km as fast as I could,” said the KK Nagar resident.
More than 3,700 runners had registered for the marathon and a majority completed it. Seranthaiah is the only one from Tamil Nadu to complete a full marathon in the indoor event. “It’s not easy to stay motivated in these challenging times, but we can make ourselves fit by running inside. Even though I ran a lot, this experience was new, and I really enjoyed it,” he said.