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In San Francisco, our marathon man does it

Kaushal Mehta recently competed in San Francisco marathon, one of the toughest in world, and covered the distance in five and a half hours.

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Advancing age and a busy career in information technology are no deterrents for Kaushal Mehta, the founder and CEO of Motif India InfoTech Pvt. Ltd., as he is a fitness freak and loves running long distances. He recently competed in San Francisco marathon, one of the toughest in world, and covered the distance in five and a half hours. He finished at 4,401, no mean achievement considering over 25,000 runners from all over the world had joined the marathon.

“San Francisco, being a hill city, has over 17 different slopes (some of them steep hills). It is a big task when you compare it with the Mumbai marathon where the runners have to negotiate two flyovers. It is a beautiful scenic route across the Pacific Ocean and through the historical Golden Gate bridge which is covered in the early morning fog/mist,” said Mehta.

“To prepare for the San Francisco marathon, I ran half marathons (21 km) in practice. I was on a 22-day tour across seven countries, but still managed to wake up at 4-5 am to practice in the gyms,” he said.

Mehta has completed several half marathons before (Mumbai, Houston and a few informal ones in Ahmedabad) besides a full marathon (the Mumbai Marathon in 2007).

The key to his achievement, he believes, is recognizing the importance of training. It takes a minimum of six-month rigorous training for the regular joggers, while for a beginner the period of preparation may extend to about a year.

“I have a group of friends with everyone jogging 9 to 10 km almost every Sunday for many years. We begin our jogging mostly pre-dawn and conclude it at the Law Garden. With our social commitments, specially the Saturday night dinners or get-togethers, this was a challenge in early days. But once you start enjoying it, you look forward to it all the time,” said Mehta.

“I want to urge the youth to make fitness training a part of their daily life. Given our busy, unpredictable and irregular lifestyles, some sort of an exercise regime will help us handle the demands of daily life much better,” is Mehta’s advice for the youth.
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