Ashish Singh
Featured Runner of the week: Ashish Singh
It was a state of ambivalence that Bessie Flyers felt when one of the young turks announced his relocation plans. We began pondering over this runner’s profile, and several interesting facts came out after a brief tete-a-tete with this otherwise simple guy.
Meet Ashish Singh, a young Bessie Flyer, who has been running with the group since August last year.
A job with a reputed IT company is what brought this man from the Vindhyas to the culture rich Chennai in 2011. For someone who had always contemplated serious running, it was a casual attempt to accompany a friend during her morning run-walks that actually brought out the running streak in him. Though his transformation into a disciplined runner seems to have stemmed from a deeper desire to run, and a sense of personal challenge.
Ever since his maiden half marathon in TWCM last December, he has actively been a part of most runs – big or small, up or down. Yes, his very first hill run for Nilgiris Ultra Marathon, where he ran 25K seems to have pumped his adrenaline the most so far. Flashing a casual smile, he recounts how uncertain he felt at the 19th Kilometer mark. “I suffered severe ITB strain on both legs, which made running very difficult on the hilly terrain. The sight of familiar runners just a km or two away kept me going, giving me the hope to pull through”, says the keen traveller, who sees running as an opportunity to get around to places that he’d probably not visit otherwise. Run timing doesn’t seem to be as much a concern to this fitness enthusiast, as his interest to sustain long distance runs and remain injury-free. A motivated runner, he has challenged himself to a full marathon in SCMM next year.
While it’s a natural assumption that his move to Pune in search of greener pastures would mean a long good-bye to the Bessies, this software runner has his “catch-up runs” planned twice before the year-end! Amidst an effervescent group that sometimes talks a language that’s French to him, if not Greek and Latin, the energy of the group is what binds him.
With the hope of meeting him often, “Bessie Flyers” wishes this triathlete and an aspiring full marathoner the best in all his endeavors.
What better way than a hi-fi would have been a befitting good-bye to this humorous yet pensive, casual yet sincere, and young yet mature “boy-next-door” kind of guy!
Come run with us tomorrow, and meet the other young runners, if not Ashish Singh…
— with Ashish Singh.