Pinkathon 2013: Motivation for well-being

Pinkathon 2013 – a run organized for fitness in general and to raise awareness about breast cancer, in particular, was held on 7th April across 3 categories: 3K, 5K & 10K.

As part of the promotion, there was a treadathon organized at Forum mall wherein teams from various organizations such as IBM, Goldman Sachs and Wipro ran on the treadmill for 12 hours, with each person running 10kms. Cheerleaders included Milind Soman and Timtim Sharma.

Not having practiced enough for the race, I was very nervous as the D-day approached. I reached the venue at 5.30 AM. The enthusiasm of the sizeable number of participants and the crowd energized me. The runners did some warm up stretching exercises. The organizers had arranged for Zumba – to help us get ready for the run. The Bangalore rugby team was our cheer leaders, and that was a pleasant surprise.

There were about 3000 runners. It was amazing to see so many men coming early morning to drop their friends/spouse and cheer them up. We had people cheering us throughout the run. Everything, right from the music to the compere, refreshments, route marking, cheer leaders, Zumba warm up – everything was so beautifully organized. And I successfully finished my 5km run. Can’t wait for Pinkathon to come back again!!!

My experience in such events is that the motivation to push oneself to complete the race is very high because of the sheer energy and enthusiasm of the participants and the cheering crowd. Having participated and completed a few 5 km runs, I am charged up and am pushing myself for the TCS 10km next month. Events like these are motivation enough to continually practice every day and ensuring our fitness and our physical and mental well being.