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Run For Healthy Life

Ajit Pathak, a Passionate Roadrunner started Pinkathon forever to train women of all age groups and to empower them to deal with all kind of circumstances. What started two years back with a small from Vile Parle about 25-30 runners and grew to over 3000 active runners. These women run daily and in a group on Saturday and once in a month at Juhu Beach with a larger group.

1.What prompted you to start PinkathonForever?

I have 3 beautiful Women in my Life, don’t get me wrong My Wife, Daughter and Mom they have been a single source of my strength and backbone, and it is the same for all of us. All Men work at office 8-10 hrs a day and Homemaker works 24hrs with no holidays no perks and no bonus. In entire lifecycle, the one most important aspect of life is their Personal health which often gets neglected.

Taking My First step towards Women Empowerment and joining the #HeforShe initiative, at #PinkathonForever we train Women of all age groups on how to Run Injury free, Run longer distances and Stay Fit. So anyone who thinks they can’t Run, we can train them – guide them – couch them – how to Run and We Run together and Inspire them. Our definition of First Time Runners, is Running for the first time after their School, and never attempted to run outside of their life’s.

Why Running, I personally believe Running is a best and cheapest form of high intensity Workout and a Good Stress buster which anyone can adopt easily. For me Running is a meditation the quite Movements of togetherness with your own self. Running sometimes becomes monotones, we have also created WhatsApp group about 50 odd that covers entire Mumbai from Marine Drive to Virar and from Kaylan to Colaba and also in Ahmedabad., Goa, NCR Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Dubai and New Jersey now. We are connected to over 3000 Women of varied background Working & Non-Working, all of them have come forward to achieve their fitness Goals. The WhatsApp group allows them to collaborate within the group and plan their daily Runs. On the group we address all the Running related questions like injuries, hydration, diet etc. We have successfully trained Women from all age groups from 7 to 72 years they all Run and Run Injury free, most of them have successfully Ran 0 to 10km and 0 to 21kms injury free. In true sense, it is the beginning of a movement carried forward by a growing community of Empowered Women, who share a belief that a healthy family, a healthy nation and a healthy world begins with empowered women. The first step in empowerment is taking control of your own health, respecting yourself and understanding and celebrating the value you bring to your family and society.

2. How was the response when you started?

Our Juhu runs are dedicated to all First time runners, we also throw various challenges throughout the year, last year we started with Run 100 kms with Pinkathon over 600 participated and over 100 actually run 100 kms with adds up to 2-3 kms a day, then was to Rediscovery Yourself with Pinkathon again a 30days challenge so some ran 100kms, 200kms and 300 kms in 30day. We ended 2016 with 100 days of Pinkathon, we had over 800 registrations and wherein the runner is expected to run minimum 2 kms a day and run 100 days daily with a prescribed a daily plan to Run 100 days. We received over the couple of dozens of Winning Notes which are testimonials from various Runners who shared their experiences on how these 100 days of running has helped them to Rediscover themselves the potential and strength they had, gaining self-confidences, kicking depression out of their life, losing extra kilos which were common among all. The final outcome was a Win over a Pain.

2017 years with a common goal is to Fit Fittest and We started on 26th January – Republic day se Independence day tak with PinkathonFOREVER, which is roughly 203 days of running daily, I quit Sugar challenge for 28 days, now 30 days Plank challenge every month we have some challenges.

3. Tell us something about the weekly and monthly runs that you organize?

We collaborate on our WhatsApp group and run daily in Mornings whatever time we get from our busy schedules 45 minutes to an hour, On Saturday (Weekend) We team up and runs. All our Runs are professionally managed, by creating an event on our FB page, we stick to the start and end time as always and Route is all planned well in advance considering en route water Supplies and medical assistance if required. All runners can plan their Saturday according. Once in a Month we meet @ Juhu Beach in a very large group abt 200 plus and We plan a power pack agenda from a high intense cardio warm up workout like Zumba, then we run for 30 mins, and then post run session like Yoga or Pilate, we also invite Doctors, Sr Professional Runners to come and talk on various topics all around Women fitness and Women Empowerment.

Over a period of time, we have also build a Core group team of 50 odd passionate members they represent their respective locations and as a team, we plan all our events together. They all share common values over Women Empowerment and Empathy toward the cause.

4. Who are the usual participants? Age group and how are they taking up running as exercise?

They all are Women from various backgrounds, Homemakers, Working Professions, retired from Work but Super active. Absolutely anyone can join us we have 72 years young Primala Hingorani in our group who keeps us inspiring, Surjit Kaur who completed her first 10 kms run @ 67, Sunita Munde completed her first 21 kms run @ 52. Much much more, we believe anyone can Run and Age is just a Number.

5. How does one benefit by attending?

We train whoever comes to us on Running, we impart all required knowledge Do’s and Don’ts of running from Diet to Potential Injuries and we intend to Run for next 30 – 40 years. All under one roof and this is all free.

6. Why do you think women love to run? There is a lot of awareness about running these days, women are taking marathons seriously like never before and even celebrities are adding value to it.

Running bring enormous Improvements to Your Health. Believe it or not, running is actually a great way to increase your overall level of health. … its Prevent Disease. Especially for women, running can actually help to lower your risk of breast cancer. … Lose Weight. … Boost Your Confidence. … Relieve Stress. … Eliminate Depression. … Reduce Anxiety. … Reduces Negative Energy and many more.

For us, every Women on our group is a celebrity as they do inspire and motivate 10s and 100s of Women around. We Run 365 days, it is a gift you give yourself, this reminds of a very famous quote: Your Body is like a temple because you live in it.

7. What do you want to achieve in coming days?

I am taking up 2 initiates this year.… extending Women Empowerment from Heath to Spreading message as Cancer is Curable as we are connected to various cancer survivors they bring in all the first-hand guidance and Connecting the Dots. Connecting the Dots is about connecting Minds. This is an interesting assignment and has tremendous potential, and I believe it would focus on the larger aspects Women Empowerment.

8. Talk about the next mega run that you are organizing and any highlights of events.

We are completing 2 years training injury free running and celebration is on 29th April at Juhu beach backside of Hotel Tulip. The Celebration starts with a Warm session by #SYYBOL (dance fitness) Bollywood dance and music, the workout becomes highly enjoyable and engaging. The workout has been designed by Ashraf Sayed #AshrafSayed (professionally trained dancer-choreographer as well as a #fitness coach), Short 30 mins Run, followed by Pilates session by Dr. Divya Sharma, #divyasharma (Sport therapist, Kinesiologist, Podiatrist.), Pilates session emphasizes the balanced development of the body through core strength, flexibility, and awareness in order to support efficient, graceful movement. Thereafter #TEDtalks by Dr. Sonal Kumta, Gynecologist, and Seema Mehta Roy, Certified NLP Practitioner, Yoga Guru, Marathon Runner and Life Coach will be taking on “Small Breakthroughs for a big change.” Plus loads of Fun, We are going to be having a Blast!!! Here is the link for more details –

https://www.facebook.com/events/714975405351346/

Here are some tips for First Time Runners

You can start your Run with mild stretching legs and lower body, get on road walk for minute to Warm up yourself measure the street light (pole) Walk One pole and run (slow jog) one pole continue this for a 30 to 45 mins for a week and then after Run 2 or 3 poles and then Walk a pole and then continue soon you will gear up for first 5kms then gradually run first 10kms and then 21kms and then sky is the limit. Do connect us on PinkathonForever FB page.

What do you think?

Written by TEAM WSL

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