When you’ve survived a serious accident and then cancer, odds are no physical challenge, thereafter, is likely to faze you.
For Prakash Agarwal, road-running became a self-driven tool to test his will to live after the accident seven years ago.
Then came the second shock, a diagnosis of cancer in 2015. He came back both times helped by encouragement from wife Pooja, a fellow Chartered Accountant, recovering first from broken bones, and later chemotherapy to discover the therapeutic benefits of running
Now, the 41-year-old from Durgapur in Bengal who works with a credit rating firm in Mumbai, is set to run his first ultramarathon — as one of the many participants at The Mumbai Ultra 12 hour run on August 15.
Mr. Agarwal, who started with half-marathons before graduating to a full marathon, is excited about the Ultra challenge. Competitors cover a designated course on the road for 12 hours; mileage differs from individual to individual and every finisher is a winner.
With the money raised at the event set to be used for treatment and follow-up for cancer-affected children, the endurance event is named ‘ Run Over Cancer ’.
Stretching the limits
Shifting the goalpost has become Mr. Agarwal’s motivation. In other words, stretching the physical limits prods him forward to try the Ultra (a distance exceeding the 42.195 km distance of a marathon). “My next goal is to do a marathon next year in less than four hours,” quipped the Director, India Ratings & Research, and Head (Financial Institutions) with the Fitch Group.
The amateur runner was a patient on a hospital bed after falling from the 14th floor of his residential building. Recounts Mr. Agarwal: “I was walking on a duct when a lower part gave way, resulting in the accident. Luckily, my fall was broken by an air-conditioner extension on the eighth floor. I was conscious and shouted for help. Realising that if I didn’t help myself — it would take a long time for people to reach me — I got up on one leg and dragged my body to a window before I was pulled out.”
Survival became a priority after a doctor in a hospital in Ghatkopar suggested that he may be affected for life. “I lay swathed in bandages, aware of broken bones and joints getting stiff. A doctor told me about mentally accepting that it may be difficult to walk properly again. From there, gradual recovery started. At that point, I never thought I would run a marathon; the idea was to become normal... as my physical condition started improving, I began to shift the goalpost, from getting normal then becoming fitter and then probably about doing long-distance running,” he said.
The accident survivor-turned-road runner ran numerous half-marathons after the November 2012 accident, starting with the Mumbai Marathon in January 2014. He said, “I completed the run in one hour, 52 minutes and being my first attempt, there is an emotional attachment. After many half-marathons till the first half of 2015, I was diagnosed with lymphoma in July 2015 and treatment got over by February 2016. My body had become weak after chemotherapy and radiation. [But] I was sure about returning to running.”
‘The biggest strength’
Mr. Agarwal said, “My wife was the biggest strength for me, along with my friends. Without her and them, I would not have come this far. She never made me feel I was going through a major illness. She convinced me it was a temporary phase and asked me to get up and assume responsibility, instead of waiting for sympathy. There were fears in her mind, she hid it from me. Doctors at one place told her I may not survive, so we went to Tata Memorial Hospital. Within eight months, I was out of treatment and inside a year was running a marathon again.”
The full marathon happened in 2018, and now Agarwal is focussed on going beyond the distance. “The body becomes weak, the mind doesn’t. If you have decided something, you can achieve it, just that you must want to do it,” said the accidental endurance runner, when invited to address a gathering as a motivational speaker at the Mumbai Ultra launch.
“I ran for myself all along, not for the benefit of anyone. Talking about myself was awkward at one stage. Then I realised that if I can motivate others to come out of a crisis, it should be told,” said Mr. Agarwal, who will shed his business suit to slip into running gear on Independence Day, celebrating freedom from pain.
