Pune: After the recently concluded Commonwealth Games made every Indian proud, yet another proud moment was witnessed when 43-year-old homemaker Kavita Reddy participated in the recently held Boston Marathon.
This year’s Boston Marathon became infamous for the worst weather conditions in recent history as runners encountered the coldest conditions in two decades and had to face rain, winds and snow, along with low visibility. It is said that when things get tough, the tough get going! And Kavitha certainly proved how tough she was by tackling the tricky course and adverse weather conditions. She finished the marathon in 3 hours and 34 minutes for the 42 kms long route and became the fastest overall runner among the 26 strong Indian contingents.
A well-known runner in the Indian running scene, having won many podiums and accolades in the Indian running circuit, Kavita said, “I aimed running just five years ago and before that, I just did the regular gym. Before the Boston Qualify (BQ), I had run two full marathons. By participating in such marathons, I made many foreign friends and then one of them suggested about BQ. At that time, I had no knowledge of any running terminology. I did not know what BQ was, so I searched it on the Internet but never thought seriously about it,” said Kavita.
She further added, “In 2015, I ran the Bengaluru marathon and clocked my first sub-4 time of 3 hours and 53 minutes. It was then that I took seriously the possibility of getting a BQ. I also realised that to further improve and achieve that target, I would need to train in a more structured and scientific way and get some personalised coaching. Then I raced in the Mumbai Marathon in January 2016 and completed it in 3 hours and 48 minutes, and then decided to do the Amsterdam Marathon in October 2016. It was at this race that I qualified for Boston Marathon.”
“The qualification time for my age group was 3 hours and 45 minutes and I finished it in 3 hours and 38 minutes. Usually, due to a large number of qualifiers from all over the world, the actual cut-off time to get an entry is 2-4 minutes below the qualification time, so this time it gave me more than enough margin to easily get an actual entry.”
According to Kavita, the familial support was the motivation. A mother of two sons, untill five years ago, Kavita was all engrossed with household chores. She said, “The footsteps towards reaching BQ was not simple. Even a week before the Amsterdam marathon, I fell and fractured my hand. I had no choice but to continue training for the marathon with my hand in a cast. It was during this time that my family’s support and love gave me the motivation to continue.”
She further added, “It’s just one step towards my dream, I am still left to run the majors.” (World Marathon Majors is a circuit of 6 iconic races from around the world i.e. New York, Chicago, Boston, London, Berlin and Tokyo.)
