Bengaluru, 16 September (HS): Long back in the early 1970s, or more than 52 years ago, a teenage student was studying at the Basel Mission High School in Dharwad, Karnataka. He was a smart boy, diligent both in studies and sports activities, like most of his close friends and classmates.
No sports were untouched! Apart from being studious & naughty, he was equally, if not more, involved in a variety of sports activities. If his classmates were found playing cricket during the lunch break, he would definitely be found around them. Likewise, the case was similar to that of football and hockey. Apart from the games on the fields, he was also seen keenly playing racquet games, Table Tennis, Badminton and also indoor games, Carom, and Chess. Perhaps, there was no indoor or outdoor game then, which he was not into. But the interesting part was not that, as he wasn’t playful just for the heck of it. He was thoroughly immersed in whatever he did, and it was a delight to watch him completely committed to the game he played. He did so in a typical, adorable style of his own, enjoying it to the hilt. Nothing struck him in between other than enjoying the game wholly, as he used to be totally involved!
Conundrum of pursuing studies/career vs sports: Although he enjoyed playing whatever he could during the school days, it wasn’t the same later. He had to choose between a sports career and pursuing studies or follow a traditional career. Much to his own dismay, he had to choose the latter. Having chosen science at the undergraduate level in Karnatak Science College, Dharwad and Chemical engineering at the degree course in the Karnataka Regional Engineering College, Surathkal near Mangaluru, he had less time to participate in sports activities like he could indulge earlier. Being career-focused, it took him to multiple locations in different companies and countries. And with increasing responsibilities, his favourite sports time only kept dwindling.
Midlife crisis: Like they keep saying, for everything, the right time should come, and it was so for him as well, which happened in 2004 when he was 43! He was overburdened with challenging office responsibilities. Besides, he had family responsibilities, being a doting father for his darling kids, Rishabh, who was eight years old, and Nayanika, three years old. He just didn’t have any time for playing any of his favorite racquet games, which he wanted to at least 2-3 times a week, but this remained a mere aspiration. With literally zero sporting activity, he soon developed a beautiful paunch! This indeed was his midlife crisis! It was at this juncture, he registered for the Delhi Half Marathon along with one of his colleagues despite never having run even five kilometres!
Bitten by the running bug! For having registered, he had no option other than gearing himself up for the event. As he himself jovially admits to habitually and always being a last-minute preparation guy, he woke up 15 days before the Half Marathon. Thanks to the registration already done, it was a matter of pride, compelling him to pull himself up and train hard for two weeks, thus enabling him somehow manage to run/walk/run and complete his first ever half marathon.. No doubt it was rather painful, but at the end of the day, it gave him a real kick! The performer of this astonishing feat happens to be Deepak Gunavante.
Half Marathon became an annual ritual: For Deepak, this Delhi Half Marathon became an annual ritual. Running became a good vent for all the sporting activities he was missing. He started enjoying running and soon it became his default sporting activity, for it was not dependent on the availability of a partner or court, as in racquet games. And he just had to pack a pair of shoes for his extensive work-related travels.
Registration for the much-coveted London Marathon in 2011: It so happened that over the years, Deepak Gunavante became more ambitious and wanted to run a full marathon of 42 kms as a bucket-list item. So he pulled strings and managed to secure a slot for among the most prestigious London marathon in 2011. However, he didn’t know anyone in his circle who had done a 42-kilometre marathon to seek guidance from. He also didn’t have a coach or a trainer to guide him. So he got hold of a book ‘How to run a marathon’ by Hal Higdon, and that became his guide to hit the trail. However, life seemed to have different plans.
Tempted to give up: Incidentally, Deepak Gunavante, was promoted to head the GSK R&D global Family Nutrition category, entrusted with the maximum responsibility in his career and of his prior experience. He was even tempted to bid adieu to the marathon innings. Yet, he hung on as he thought that this would be one to tick off his bucket list item, and this urge made him create time out of nowhere to train, mostly during the weekends and while travelling.
An ankle injury on the eve of the marathon! After toiling for four months of intensive training, Lo and behold, he reached London for the marathon. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, he suffered a major setback with an ankle injury on the eve of the marathon! He was barely able to walk without pain, leave aside plan to run 42kms the following day! He was almost in tears but did everything to mitigate the injury via ice pack, pain killer, slept with his foot up and prayer. The next morning, although the niggling ankle injury was still there, he showed up at the start line wanting to run at least a few kilometers. And he did, trying to run slowly despite the niggling pain. The atmosphere of his first London marathon was simply overwhelming.
London Marathon medal on his chest, with tears streaming down! He soon realised, around 9km mark, the pain had disappeared! To his own surprise, it took a few seconds for him to even recall which leg he had the injury on! Deepak Gunavante felt blessed that his prayers were heeded, and ran the full distance at a comfortable pace, thoroughly enjoying the run and ambience of the London Marathon. Crossing the finishing line in 5hrs 22 mins made Deepak Gunavante simply ecstatic! Overwhelmed with the accomplishment, he called home, wearing the London Marathon medal on his chest, with tears streaming down. At the end of the day, his bucket list for completing a full marathon was done, or so he thought! Little did he realize that the marathon bug had already bitten him!! As expected, the London marathon gave him such a thrill in life, making it totally difficult to express in words.
Dream of all six world major marathons! The lovely experience of the London Marathon proved like a new elixir of life to Deepak Gunavante. All the training had made him feel very fit, young, and full of energy. This was when he got the epiphany as to why he should never give up this feeling. Such a thought paved the way for his next bucket list of garnering all the world major marathon medals. There are six major world marathons, viz, London, Chicago, New York, Boston, Berlin and Tokyo.
Goal to run marathons never fades: Deepak Gunavante’s jobs changed, and so did the workload, increasing exponentially along with the family commitments as well. But, no doubt, running kept him fit and energetic to cope with all the emerging demands. It didn’t mean that it was a smooth ride all along, as the journey was also entangled with bouts of running injuries, which helped him to improve his medical vocabulary vastly! He tried everything under the sun to circumvent running injuries – help from sports physiotherapists, acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, acupressure amongst other things. His quest to keep running the marathons never faded. All said and done, his wife, Chandrika, played a vital role in supporting him immensely through all the ups and downs.
London, once again in 2013: Deepak Gunavante did one more London Marathon in 2013 when he was still based in Gurugram. He moved to Singapore later that year with family, taking on a global role. He was fortunate enough to get a lottery slot for the Chicago Marathon, which he ran in 2016. Some thought he’s gone nuts to be travelling all the way from Singapore to Chicago just to run 42km!! For New York marathon, it was third time lucky, as he got the lottery slot when he applied third time and he completed in 2018. He also did two Singapore Marathons in 2014 and 2019.
A proud recipient of the coveted Boston Marathon Medal: Deepak Gunavante shifted from Singapore lock, stock and barrel to South Korea in November 2020 with family in the midst of Covid, taking on a challenging senior executive level role. However, all these events didn’t dampen his spirits, and he continued to run unabated. He ran the Boston Marathon in 2021 virtually from South Korea as travel was banned due to the COVID-19 travel restrictions. A virtual marathon meant that he had to run 42 kilometers in Korea on a designated day using an authorized Boston Marathon App, which tracked and recorded his run through a GPS and he became a proud recipient of the coveted Boston Marathon Medal.
Medals from all the major world marathons: After being abroad for 10 years, Deepak Gunavante and his family returned to India in 2022 and settled down in Bengaluru. Sadly, within a few months, he accidentally suffered a killer blow of a medial meniscus tear of his left knee, which really threatened his running career. He still had the Berlin and Tokyo major marathons to complete but he couldn’t even run 1 km with this medial meniscus injury. He was advised surgery and and he didn’t want to go under the knife. Fortunately, he got a good sports physiotherapist who helped him with strengthening his knee area with tailored training, and he was able to run and complete the Berlin marathon in 2023 without having to undergo any surgery and went on to clock his personal best timing of 5 hours and 04 minutes. He followed up with his last of the marathon major medals-Tokyo in 2024. And the icing on the cake at the Tokyo marathon was that he ended up getting his personal best timing of 5 hours and 04 minutes. At last, and after nearly a decade and a half, it was a dream come true for him with medals from all the major world marathons. His most prized asset without a doubt.
Both are enjoying a semi-retired life in Bengaluru: Deepak’s two darling children are now settled in Vancouver, Canada. His son, Rishabh is in his final year of post graduation in Law and has already secured job in a top tier Law form in Vancouver. His daughter Nayanika has completed her bachelors in BioSciences and is working for StemCell Technologies, also in Vancouver, Canada. Deepak and his wife Chandrika are both enjoying a semi-retired life in Bengaluru, with lots of travel thrown in. Chandrika accompanies Deepak for all his running adventures, like she did for his Berlin and Tokyo marathons.
Everest base camp successfully, covering 130kms of trek in 10 days: Deepak says there was another fringe benefit he got from his running! Last year, one of his neighbours registered for Everest base camp, and was imploring Deepak to join. As Everest base camp was on Deepak’s bucket-list too and that he had just completed the Tokyo marathon in March 2024. Although Deepak had never gone on a single overnight trek, he capitalised on his marathon training to scale Everest base camp successfully, covering 130kms of trek in 10 days.
His mantra for life is: Take care of your health and live life to the fullest.
Hindusthan Samachar / Manohar Yadavatti
