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A run from the heart

Right step Some of the participants of the Great Tibetan Marathon about to set off from Leh

His search for a non-contact sport made him interested in running races. The search began because after playing football, he “would come to work with bruises, and it was not a very nice feeling.”

Well, this is Ashok Nath for you, a Delhiite now posted at the Bangalore chapter of Genesis Burson-Marsteller, whose continued interest in running races has now added a new meaning – that of doing it for charity. Nath, who started with the Rath Marathon years ago in Delhi, has recently finished fifth in The Great Tibetan Marathon in Ladakh, touted to be amongst the world’s most extreme marathons. “Its other contenders are the Great Wall Marathon, the Polar Circle Marathon and the Big Five African Marathon.”

But ranking fifth in the 42 km long marathon at an average altitude of 3600 metres is not the only achievement of Nath. In the run-up to the annual event, which took place in Leh on July 19, he spearheaded a drive to raise funds for four children needing urgent life-saving treatment.

“It all started when I expressed my willingness to run for the cause of children to Genesis Foundation head Prema Sagar. She loved the idea,” relates Nath.

Then followed the real work. The online registration for the marathon, which cost him Rs.7,700, plus everyday training in the gym and going up the Nilgiris to practice running in a high altitude situation. “The marathon starts at 3800 m above sea level and the finish is just 400 m less so the entire race is at a fairly high altitude.”

To raise funds for the needy children, he says, “Besides other ways of spreading the message, we also reached out to friends, relatives and colleagues by forming a group on Facebook.” It worked very well, adds Nath, so much so that “though our target was Rs.5 lakhs, we ended up having seven and a quarter lakh in our kitty.”

Therefore, adds, Prema Sagar, “We added two more children to the project. The earlier aim was to raise money for the treatment of just two kids.” Each of these children, living in and around Delhi, belong to parents who earn less than Rs.5000 a month, and need critical medical attention in the areas of cancer, heart, organ transplant/malfunction and severe deformities that involves surgery and/or treatment.

Sagar says the beneficiaries of the latest drive are Abila, a four-year-old orphan suffering from twisted spine, Vrundha who requires a liver transplant, Gaurav and Neethu who have a hole in their heart. Sagar explains how they spot such kids: “Since we work with a couple of non-governmental organisations working for kids, and also doctors in various hospitals across the city, we usually find such children through them. Depending on the urgency of the case, we raise funds for the treatment.”

Happy that he “could contribute to a good cause”, Nath is now training to take part in the next marathon. He has not made up his mind though as to which would be his next. “I have a lot of choice. The Hyderabad marathon is taking place on August 16, then there is the Kaveri trail in Karnataka in October, the ultra marathon is to happen in Bangalore in November and then the Mumbai marathon in January next year. I surely want to do the Kaveri trail but am yet to decide on the other ones,” he says. And a cause would surely be his company in this “sport cut out for a loner.”

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