It isn’t surprising to wake up to hundreds of posts of women posting about their mehendi on Karva Chauth morning. But today morning, we woke up to something unexpected and incredibly inspiring. Scrolling through our feeds, we saw a post shared by Gunjan Kar that had 12 women, dressed in running attire with draped chunnis, some in sarees took to the streets of Gurgaon to run!
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The women are all part of a fitness community called Gurgaon Road Runners (GRR). It is Gurgaon’s largest community of fitness enthusiasts. The GRR aims to motivate people of all age groups to improve their health by running. It trains people of all age groups for long-distance running (marathons) and cyclothons and has been instrumental in revolutionising the concept of running in Gurgaon. The club was founded by Siddarth Choudhary in 2013 and is now inspiring over 10,000 people in Gurgaon to lead a healthier lifestyle.
Today, on Karva Chauth morning, these 12 lovely ladies. decided that no matter what, they would not skip their morning workout. Siddarth, the founder is fondly referred to as Chief, was the inspiration behind the Karva Chauth run. He said, “At GRR, we change lives. And it’s not always about choosing between one or the other. If we want something desperately, we will find a way without having to sacrifice either.”
Gunjan Kar
And that’s exactly what these women did. They didn’t compromise on their religious sentiments. Instead, they decided to marry the two rituals, fitness and religion. They woke up in the wee hours of the morning and decided to go for a run. They wore cycling shorts with t-shirts and draped themselves in a dupatta and ran five kilometres. They managed to cover a distance of 5K and break their fast–all before the sun was up. They started running at 4.15 am and managed to complete a 5K marathon by 5 am. By the way, did we mention that these women work, have children and are between the age groups of 23-56 years old? Inspiring, right?
Gunjan Kar
In her post, Gunjan says, “Being soft and strong is a combination very few have ☺ and It’s all in the attitude…..So it was a complete transformation for me when I chose something which I never did and was not confident of doing it. #running. But post joining GRR and under proper training from Siddarth Choudhary, running not only changed my life but it gave me a whole new outlook and a NEW ME. 😍 So this Karvachauth, we decided to do something different and what we are passionate about. Yes, we ran today and completed it before sunrise, had Sargi together with my running tribe and observed fast as per the belief. We started our day in our running gear and will now end it in our beautiful traditional attire.”
Gunjan Kar on Facebook
What a refreshing, inspiring story.
Images: Gunjan Kar
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