Pune: The Peshwa city has its own marathon — the Pune International Marathon in December — and many Punekars also zip down to the coast for the Mumbai Marathon in January, So, on any winter morning, the few open spaces left in the city (or, increasingly, the hills that surround the city, where the air is cleaner) are filled with serious runners building stamina and rhythm.
One such group doesn’t wait for the cool months: they’re at it all year, usually at the University campus or the Law College hill, or on the slopes of Bavdhan. Atul Godbole, the coach monitoring the progress isn’t some grizzled veteran; he’s in his mid-thirties and an endurance runner himself.
Mr. Godbole got the running bug almost a decade and a half ago, while he was studying for his Master’s at Ohio State University, and continued to run after returning to India and setting up his firm. Five years ago, he decided to be a serious amateur runner, someone who took pains over training and technique.
Since then, he has made time from his day job — he runs a software firm — to run in races around the world. He has done nine marathons (personal best: 3’15”, Bangalore Marathon, 2015) and over 30 half-marathons (PB: 1’28”, Delhi Half-Marathon, 2015). He’s also done triathlons, ultras and other endurance races, among them the Auburn Triathlon, California, the Goa Triathlon (sixth place in the open category, February 2016), the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town (a 56-km ultra, over tough terrain), the Comrades Marathon (an 89-km ultra), and is the only Indian to have completed the Mont-Blanc Vertical KM (while it’s just 3.8 km, it is a 1000-metre climb) in the French Alps.
In October 2016, at the Ironman 70.3 in Turkey, he qualified for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in the United States in September 2017. “I realised only after making it that I was the first Indian to make the cut.”
He is also a professional coach for runners who want to enjoy endurance sports while staying injury-free. He began because he saw many amateur runners breaking because they didn’t know how to run.
“It’s become fashionable in the corporate world to run or to swim or to even attempt triathlons. But I have seen lots of cases of someone giving it a go without any basic knowledge and, as a result, suffering a severe injury that he has to manage all his life.”
So he founded Team Motiv8, registered under the Ironman TriClub Program for participating and competing in Ironman races across the world. While he has no qualifications as a trainer, he says, “I do a lot of research on my own. I read a variety of books on various aspects of our field, ranging from injury-related stuff to sports psychology to nutritional aspects, and try and pass it on to the students.”
He spends at least four hours a day on running, half of that on his own regimen, the rest with his pupils. Rather than cookie-cutter drills, he creates individual programmes for each of his wards: “I follow the athlete rather than asking him to follow me with a rigid plan. Circumstances for every runner or endurance athlete change. Some do it for fitness, some to stretch their limits; first I have to understand their goals.” His current batch has some beginners, a few who want to complete a 10k race in three months, 20 training for the Mumbai Marathon, and another handful preparing for the Comrades Marathon.
Most of his protégés have seen improvement in their performance. Gaurav Phadtare, an IT professional, who has been training with Motiv8 for four months, says his half-marathon timing has improved by 30 minutes, “which is a big deal. I had been doing half marathons for more than three years, but only after I started working with Atul did I realise the importance of neck position and shoulder alignment. He has also made me aware about some of the basic things in running, like cadence.” Mr. Phadtare will attempt his first full marathon in Mumbai on Sunday.
Omkar Karve, another IT professional, who aspires to complete the Ironman triathlon soon, echoes with Phadtare.
“Over the last year that I have been training with Atul, I have become a disciplined and an injury-free athlete,” says Karve, who has completed eight half-marathons in the last couple of years and would be vying to complete his first full marathon on Sunday.
“He gives a thought to the minutest detail for every athlete. As a result, he ends up telling us stuff like how to keep hydrated ahead of a race or what to eat before a training session or a race. He also advises on the kid of shoes one should wear, depending on his or her posture. All this helps a lot.”
If he can manage to enhance the experience for his athletes, Mr. Godbole, says, it gives him as much pleasure as completing an ultra-marathon. Almost.
