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| In full stride...up the ramp |
When life is hard on the people we love and admire, we stand back and take notice. What was till then not so important, can suddenly become extremely instrumental in the way we live our lives. This can change how we go from one day to the next then onwards. Something similar happened to Mr. P. Venkatraman in 1985, when at the age of 28yrs, he had to physically carry his father to hospital while his father was having a heart attack. The being in close quarters during those moments and experiencing seeing the gasping, profuse sweating and overall pain his father was in switched something in Mr. Venkatraman's psyche. He himself was always fit and on the sporty side but this incident reminded him how frail and weak we are when faced with a health crisis. Once stable, his father was operated on in a renowned hospital in London. They guaranteed him a good result and a successful bypass surgery. After the operation and rehabilitation process, their entire family was proficient in understanding states of diseases like Hypolipidermia, diabetes and cardiac related ailments. Since Mr. Venkatraman's grandfather had passed with heart failure when his father was a tiny child and now he saw his father very sick, things he knew had got to change. Mr. Venkatraman decided that henceforth he would consciously take care of his own and his family's health. What he didn't know then was that he would also play an instrumental role in community health. Today at 68 years of age, Mr Venkatraman is not only fit himself but guides thousands of people directly or indirectly down the path of good health. And all this began with the company 'YouTooCanRun' that Mr. Venkatraman started in 2014.
Mr. Venkatraman started out as a Chartered Accountant who ran his own practice for about 10 years. After that he worked in Merchant Banking and finally he opened a B.P.O in 1998 which he ran till 2014. His B.P.O employed over 3000 people in 10 offices in the country. Needless to say, his career choices had always been ones that required him to have energy, enthusiasm and good leadership skills. Along with his job, since he was always enthusiastic about his health and loved running, he started participating in the Mumbai Marathons when the event started in Mumbai in 2003. He did the Fun Run of 7kms in 2003 and the 21kms in 2004 till 2006. Then in 2007, Mr. Venkatraman had some cardiac pains and underwent a bypass surgery in 2007. He says that it was because he was running regularly, he saw the signs well in time and got himself checked for his chest pains. He maintains that being healthy saved his life. After his surgery he trained under medical supervision and went on to complete the half marathon of 21kms from 2008 onwards every year. Mr. Venkatraman has run 170 half marathons. His half marathon in 2008, got him covered by the media when they realised that this runner was someone who had had a bypass and that too just a year before. This achievement gave birth to bigger dreams. If he could do it, others could too and so Mr. Venkatraman started a group called the 'Zipper Club' that he put together with other bypass recovery patients at the Asian Heart hospital. He kept each of his members motivated towards a healthy lifestyle that included regular physical activity. Many of his group members have since then also done multiple half marathons. Weekly training is what gets everyone completing the big event each year. Consistency and regularity are key.
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| Mr. and Mrs. Venkatraman after finishing the Tata Mumbai Marathon of 2024 |
When Mr. Venkatraman finally sold his B.P.O in 2014, he was poised for big changes. He wanted to promote the sport that saved his life and had given him a second chance. He first had to decide on a name for his new venture. Every person who he consulted from amongst his group, his family or friends said the ideal name would be 'YouTooCanRun' as it had been his constant mantra. If someone ever offered him any kind of excuse as to why they couldn't work out or run , he would reply "if I can run after a bypass surgery, you too can run". Prevention of health issues through running became the company's motto. A corporate man, Mr. Venkatraman points out that 'in retail we cure and in wholesale we prevent'. Their vision was to create an ecosystem that people could leverage from and running as a sport could grow. To do this Mr. Venkatraman had to look at the bigger picture of running as a sport in overcrowded metros. Infrastructural issues would need to be overcome.
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| One of the several pacing assignments he has handled |
The company had the first online registration environment which keeps track of the number of members and their certified race counts, pan India. Mr.Venkatraman first certified to be a U.S Level 2 Certified running coach with the R.R.C.A (Road Running Club of America) and then started conducting classes to train people to become marathon coaches. In the midst of this, Mr. Venkatraman wrote a book called 'Sofa to 5k' which specialises in all things targeted specifically to the Indian physique and body. Things like a sweat rate study on how Indians sweat and our metabolic rates are covered in this book. The book sold 1500 copies and influenced several Indians to start to move. Mr. Venkatraman got his family to run first. While we spoke about this I suggested to Mr. Venkatraman that he should write a book about #runningwithfamily and proud #couplegoals. His wife, his sons, his friends and the society in which he lives are all a reflection of his strong convictions.
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| Mr. Venkatraman at the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in Washington DC |
Another dream is to create a franchise model for the 'Zipper Club'. To take what's happening in Mumbai to other parts of India. That way more people can get trained, the concept can grow and several people can benefit from it. On the 'YouTooCanRun' platform they have 1 million people who have registered till date. Over 3 lakh people have run in events that the company has organised. Many of these people come back and participate in multiple events. A huge achievement came On 6 August 2023, when the company managed the Kalaignar Centenary Marathon at Chennai, India which is officially recognized and approved by Guinness World Records as having 65,762 participants and is considered as the Largest Running Race Series held in the world.
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| One of the 170 Half Marathons run |
With all these interesting statistics, I really want to try and understand Mr. Venkatraman's motivation at a deeper level. While I try to figure out why a young Mr. Venkatraman was so focused on getting himself and others fit, I not only heard first the story of his father and the events that followed but also a very interesting analogy. According to Mr Venkatraman, two traits that rule humans are 'greed' and 'fear'. Greed can be seen as vanity or greed for fame, wealth and money. To break it down, we want to look good, so we eat well and do sports. We want to earn money and want lots of it to be comfortable in life.
Mr. Venkatraman says that Greed was joined by Fear the moment he got married. Now he was responsible for his own family. Fear of poor health and its consequences were very evident to him and so he lived the life he did, working hard but making a large investment in his health. Along the way, he got a lot of people on the path to preventing health scares with regular checkups. He talks about how at forty years of age, he collected 40 of his friends and went to the Hinduja hospital and got group medical check ups done. This was his idea of a group outing aimed at preventing issues instead of a group outing that went out to make merry.
Mr Venkatraman helped sow the seeds of a physically healthy community way back when there was not as much public awareness of good health and fitness as there is now. Twenty years ago cricket was perhaps the only pan India physical activity and walking or running were not as popular as they are today. This is no longer true and lots of people are taking their health seriously. There are innumerable health groups who walk, run, cycle or do yoga together. Thanks to people like this who carry a small spark of an idea within them and dare to put it in motion that the light has spread to so many people.
I hope Mr. Venkatraman's project reaches many more people because undoubtedly people are more motivated when they are working together towards a goal. Also many new runners need just that little push to get started on their health journey. Sometimes all it takes to get them started is for them to hear the words, "You too can run!"
#YouTooCanRun #zipperclub #healthandfitness
Read the story of two 'Zipper Club' members here
and
Or read about an extraordinary athlete in Belgium
