Fitness is not about being better than someone else, it’s about being better than you used to be. This Bengaluru based club ‘Run Addicts’ proves just that and is an inspiration to everyone and anyone who wants to lead a healthier lifestyle.
The club was started not too long ago, just a year back in April by Mohan Devegowda, a managing director at a firm who started running with his wife initially, and later encouraged many others to join the club. Now, they have about 600-plus members in their group, which includes children, women and many kinds of different professionals from techies to doctors to businessmen. You name it and the club has them all!
Mohan elaborates, “Running is not just about being fit, but once you get into it, you will start getting into a meditative mode. Our club doesn’t push people to go an extra mile if they can’t. We just encourage them to run how many ever miles they can cover and slowly they go from 1k to 10k runs in just a few months.”
We have all heard doctors giving tips to start exercising for good health but seeing doctor’s not just talk the talk but walk the walk can be inspiring to a whole community. Dr Madhusudhan G who is a cosmetic surgeon at BGS Global Hospital shares his experience, “Last year, I was going through some medical issues of my own and I decided to start exercising and found out about a club nearby. At that time, there were only 10-15 members at the club. As I come from a medical background, I encouraged many other doctors at the hospital to come on this journey with me. We have about 50 doctors in our hospital who regularly run every day together near the hospital. The biggest achievement was that one of them who was suffering from asthma was cured, and many others lost a lot of weight during their journey.”
The women runners at the club are called the ‘Pink Brigade’. One of the Pink Brigade, Asitha Devangi, a 45-year-old woman who would earlier even hesitate to walk a mile now runs 10k every month. “Run addicts is a very warm group of fitness enthusiasts with the one-point agenda of encouraging fitness in our local community. I see exceptional inclusivity, where everyone has a place and scope to improve, receiving the same respect and attention. The most astonishing part when I joined was that the ace runners were so humble which is rare to find these days. There is a genuine concern for each other in times of need, be it a run injury or any medical issues of runners’ family members,” she says.
Many even found some of their closest friends joining this club. “I got to meet many people with similar interests and found some of my dear friends here. The best part about it is that it is a large community full of positive people who want to help one another,” says Anil Prabhakar, a mechanical engineer who is also an avid cyclist.
