Thirty kilometres daily for 30 days. That’s how much Purbachal resident Nilendu Mukherjee ran to raise funds for Covid relief. He completed his challenge on Monday and now has a corpus of Rs 15.5 lakh to show for it.
For reference, the shortest route from City Centre 1 to City Centre 2 is about 10km. Mukherjee ran triple that distance for a month from 4am to 8am. “The routes would be different every day — sometimes in and around the stadium, Central Park, the bheris behind Sector V or even up till ITC Sonar hotel on the EM Bypass on good days,” says the banker based in Mumbai who is now working from his Purbachal 4RA home.
To track the distance travelled, Mukherjee wore a Garmin Fenix 5 sport watch that uses GPS to measure details like distance, speed etc. But he would try to hover around Purbachal as, given the heat and humidity, he would need to return home twice to change out of his sweat-soaked clothes. “The best day of the run, ironically, was when cyclone Yaas made landfall! The wind and rain felt great.”
The 51-year-old has been running for the last 10 years, the last three under a Utah-based trainer Hayden Hawks. He specialises in trails like jungles and usually runs 100km a week. “I divide it into four days of running, two days of strength training and one day of rest,” says the man who has also turned vegan.
For the 30 day challenge, Mukherjee would start running on an empty stomach and have a banana, four dates and supplementary drinks on the way.
The idea of the challenge originated from a feeling of helplessness at watching near and dear ones succumbing to Covid. “I wanted to help but neither am I a doctor nor does frontline volunteering come to me naturally. The only thing I could do was run. So I spoke to other runners and my office — Rabobank — that encouraged me. As the days passed by, colleagues started donating from across the world and in some countries, the offices decided to match them dollar for dollar,” says Mukherjee, who is touched by the gesture.
Those wishing to donate were asked to do so directly to Tata Memorial Center, that has a Covid wing. “I guess my greatest achievement is that complete strangers have contributed,” he smiles. “And come to think of it, the charity will also go to strangers I will never meet.”
The run proved gruelling in the first few days, as Mukherjee’s body wasn’t used to the sudden demanding regime. “Even I began doubting if I could do it. But over time I came to enjoy the run. After the first few kilometres, it was like meditation. Thoughts would come to me but bounce off without my judging them,” he said, admitting that he would miss the runs now that the challenge had been completed. “I would have to taper down the runs to my previous routine gradually.”
For the last 15 days, many runners wanted to join him for a few kilometres as a show of solidarity. “So many wanted to come that I was asking them to do it in batches. All throughout I had been opting for roads that were deserted and I wanted to ensure distancing even with other runners,” he says.
His wife Nabonita Bose Mukherjee has been supporting him from backstage. “She’s a runner too but without domestic helps in the lockdown, she has been managing the home front by herself. I would need to eat dinner by 6.30pm, for instance, and be in bed by 8. It wouldn’t have been possible without her.”
