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Santhosh Padmanabhan traded his sleek engineering career for running and helping the underprivileged. “Runner’s High”, the community of runners founded by him, is all set to organise a 10k run on June 2 in Bangalore. In a recent chat with Sportskeeda, Santhosh spoke about this all-important event and also about his activities in general. Excerpts:
Tell us more about the 10k run event in Bangalore.
Aptly named Ananda Yana (Journey of Joy), this event is aimed at raising funds to support children from disadvantaged backgrounds. There will be three categories of runs – 4k, 6k and 10k.
Bringing the city alive on June 2nd, this is a first-of-its-kind non-profit run organised by city-based running communities. The three organisations the event supports are – Ananya Trust, a learning centre that works with children who have dropped out of mainstream schooling (primarily due to learning disabilities or behavioural disabilities), Sneha Care Home, a residential facility for HIV positive children and Thayi Mane, a home for children who are orphaned or are victims of abuse.
What is the main aim of organising such a run?
Along with supporting the organisations, the organisers aim at creating a community of runners with a spirit of giving. The running community has already grown many times more than what it was three years ago. This is the reason why it is possible to organise a completely volunteer-based event with no sponsorship or branding. Right from bands performing at the running track, photographers, Traffic Wardens Organisation supporting the event and people at parking and water stations – everything will be taken care of by the runners, (in an event) for the runners.
How important are these runs?
Everyone can easily relate to others through running as it is an integral part of keeping oneself fit. Also, it should be an important part of an extra co-curricular activity in schools. It is not commercially oriented unlike many other runs but has more of a social concept behind it. It will bring people together and is also quite affordable.
What kind of response have you been getting so far?
The response has been good so far. The word is still spreading about the event. Also in future, we aim to reach the thousand mark. However, for now, we are anticipating 400 people to participate at least.
Running is the best form of exercise, and yet youngsters are not keen on taking it up. Why do you think that is the case?
Fitness has been in trend since forever. In India, it’s yet to develop as a culture. With social networking and technology taking over today’s teen lives, it’s important for them to realise the importance of fitness. Cases of obesity are on rise and it’s high time when parents and schools educate their children about its benefits.
How important is running to you?
Running and passion for sports and fitness activities can be life changing. Especially, when we venture into the realms of endurance events, the idea of training and accomplishing a target can have an enormous effect on self belief and the personality. It, in effect, helps us learn more about ourselves and realise our true potential in every aspect of life. My journey with endurance sports started with my participation in events to raise funds for Team Asha. Now, the fundraising and running makes more sense than ever before! Our efforts through Runner’s High and Team Asha have been a learning experience! It has been challenging and also every bit worthwhile to be doing full time what I always wanted to.
Running for charity is very popular abroad, but not so much in India. Why do you think that is the case?
Yes, the running culture is big in places like US and UK. They organise jogs and amateur runs which is very popular among the crowd. They are more directed towards a healthy lifestyle and therefore take parts in different charity runs. In India, it’s picking up a little pace and in few years’ time, we will see people participating in very large numbers.
These days, there have been many incidents where children have been exploited by the NGOs. Your comment?
We have to realise that children are very vulnerable. Exploitation of children defeats the whole purpose of an NGO. Not all NGOs should be trusted. Only the ones which have transparency in their operations should be trusted.
Why did you sacrifice your engineering career for running?
After schooling and college, I was on a career path of a VLSI CAD engineer in one of the leading microprocessor companies. Slowly, I realised that chip design and CAD did not inspire me any more. I was passionate about running and interacting with children. Even as a kid, I loved to run and really wanted to do a few things, but somehow along the way, different plans were made. I don’t repent losing the opportunity and at the same time, didn’t consider it too late to go in search of it. With my involvement with various grassroot efforts and in particular, experiences with training children for running, I saw a confluence of both my passions.
Tell us about your organisation Runner’s High.
Runner’s High is a community of runners helmed by me that aims to share the joys and experience of running and giving to the broader community at large. Our mission at Runner’s High is: To strive to assist members of the community in their eternal quest to reach their true potential – physically, mentally and spiritually, in a holistic, sustainable and enjoyable manner.
It’s about getting the Runner’s High! Runner’s High – The name is a pun signifying the two important aspects of what the organisation strives to do –
- Bring running and fitness sports to everyone in the community, irrespective of their backgrounds and to help each individual reach their potential in the truest sense – this feeling of reaching one’s own potential through sports and enjoying the whole process is what we call a ‘Runner’s High’.
- In the current state of affairs, education for children is perceived in a narrow fashion as academics and specialised technical training that’s not hands-on. We hope to break out of this trend to open everyone’s mind to a different perspective – an alternative based on experiential learning. Running and sports are one of many experiences that open up a world of learning for the child – hence, the term ‘Runner’s High’ refers to a new learning space that breaks the notion of a restricted area, physically or mentally, where the child should learn.
