Nike Outrun: Run Unleashed - The first all-girls college race

Excitement levels were high at the first all-girls college race, which was organised by Nike at Sophia College in Mumbai on Sunday, 8th September, 2013.

Interestingly, most runners in India get initiated into the sport around their mid-thirties, which means that we do not have the younger generation looking at running as a serious activity.

We all know how crazy youngsters are about cricket and football; we are also aware of just how important running is as part of training for these sports. But amazingly, the younger lot is unaware of the joy – and of course, the benefits – of running as a sport.

I was bought on board by Nike for the Zumba warm-up session as well as the lead pacer for the event. This was a hectic trip from the word go; but the crowd, the energy and the awesomeness of Mumbai more than made up for the time crunch I faced while in the city.

The afternoon before the event saw me meet the other pacers for the event, and it was really heartening to see four of the most enthusiastic girls I have met in a long time. Their effervescent personality made it really easy for me to fall a little bit in love with each one of them.

The girls were also part of the Zumba warm-up session and gave me real good company over the next two and a half hours of rehearsal, where we danced, bonded and generally had a great time together. After breaking for the day, we made plans to catch up early the next day and set the tone for an awesome event.

Sunday morning saw us all at the venue bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. The four of us sneaked into a classroom and got our rehearsal in and before we knew it, it was time for us to report back stage. As we were walking towards the stage, we saw Baichung Bhutia being led to the athlete’s room by Siddhant.

Sid called out to me and then went onto introduce me to Baichung. I said a quick hello and ran back to my girls. Now, I’m no big soccer fan, but I realised the enormity of Baichung’s fan following. When I walked to the girls, one of them said to me in typical collegiate fashion, “Oh my God! That’s Baichung Bhutia. You just said hello to him; if it was me – I would’ve just died.”

Soon, we saw the young girls trickling in, some alone, most in two’s and three’s. Within 20 minutes, the holding area was packed. There were a total of 800 girls who had registered for this event and on the morning, there were about 425 who turned up.

This was the first ever all-girls (college) race and this event had managed to get the girls out of bed early on a Sunday morning, and I consider this to be an extremely successful number of participants. Soon, the girls had bunched up in groups and from the sounds of the cheers; the groups were divided according to the college that they represented.

The session started with the emcee introducing a rap artist and a beat boxer, who got the crowd all excited and rocking to their beats. I was on next for the Zumba warm-up. As I interacted with the crowd, I could feel their energy levels seeping into me and creating an electric atmosphere. What a crowd; how they loved the warm-up and how they moved. After a quick warm-up, it was time for us to get into the run.

There was a mad energy at the start line. The plan was for the five of us to pace different groups. Two pacers were to start at the time of flag off, two were to start about three minutes later and this time, I would be the last to begin. And this was the first time that I had to keep my competitive nature in check, and it seemed like a fun prospect.

I bought up the rear and met so many girls who were walking, encouraged them to break into a run, ran along with them, chit-chatted, gave them tiny goals to achieve and generally had a complete blast.

Words simply cannot do the experience justice. It’s one thing to achieve a personal best in a race and then you have an experience like this one. It really is amazing when you run for someone else and your words and tiny actions motivate another to do something they did not think they were capable of to begin with. Both give you a sense of joy and satisfaction, but both of these feelings are completely incomparable.

It was a fantabulous experience. There were so many first timers and most of them were out of their comfort zone but making such an effort to complete this race. It made me proud. The top three finishers completed the run close to each other and in about 12 minutes flat, which is brilliant timing.

For me though, each girl there giving her all to complete that 3k distance was a winner. One girl had kidney stones but was running in spite of the pain, a few were overweight but were running with all that they had, and there were just so many of such heroic stories all around – filled with positivity and contentment – and I totally loved it.

In keeping with the latest Nike theme of “Pushing your limits”, the run was followed by a 1K Treadmill Challenge. The challenge saw a lot of the girls come up and participate in this attempt to push their limits.

All the while, there was a DJ spinning out some very hip and fun tunes as part of the uber-awesome after party. For those that can relate, it was quite like MTV Grind from back in the day with the only difference being that the participants were in running gear – some were on the treadmill, some dancing on the stage, some dancing in front of the stage, some cooling themselves off in front of the water misting fans, and everyone cheering on the participants that had undertaken the challenge.

The energy emanating from the crowd was just mindboggling. These girls are sold on running and I know this for a fact. A lot of them came and spoke to me and shared their experience of how wonderful they felt and how they wanted to keep going.

That is exactly what the intention of the event was. A great introduction to running for these newbies and I feel so blessed to have been a part of it. Thank you Nike and go girl power!