This young athletic boy was born and raised in the town of Meerut. Enrolled in the St. Mary’s Academy known for its sports facilities, Sukhjeevan was perpetually on the ground. A short distance sprinter, he excelled in the 100m, 200m besides participating in Long Jump and High Jump. Later Sukhi took up Boxing, even winning a Silver Medal at the State Level. However it all came to a grinding halt when he got injured dislocating his jaw at the age of 21 😕.
Sukhi joined the Marketing Department in Paharpur Industries after completing his MBA in Ghaziabad. Needless to say, the constant travelling and tight work schedules resulted in a complete break from Sports.
Post marriage while working at Bericap India in Pune in May 2007 he developed health issues and was diagnosed with High BP. A full Body Analysis showed that despite his weight being in appropriate range, his muscle mass seemed to be completely enveloped by the fat percentage indicating his body age as 65 years 😨. Sukhi was prescribed a whole load of supplements to counter the same. This served as a Wake-up call and Sukhi decided to focus on his health and took up Gymning determined to get back in prime health over the next year 😊.
During this time, his Boss Christian invited Sukhi to join him for a Half Marathon (HM) at Mainz in Germany. Sukhi questioned him, “Do I have to run throughout?” On getting an affirmative reply he said that he couldn’t do it. Christian encouraged him to train by doing couple of weekly 10K runs. Sukhi started off with running 5K initially. After a month he graduated to 10K.
In 2009 landing in Mainz, Sukhi joined Christian running 12K two days prior to the event to get acclimatized. On the day of the marathon; Sukhi went all out, feeling exhausted at 15K and started walking. However when he saw an old guy running past, he was inspired to run again. The same was repeated when an older female runner passed by him at about the 18K mark. He pushed on successfully completing his first HM in 2:07 😃.
In 2010 Sukhjeevan and Aarti Bhimber moved to Mumbai with their 3-year-old son Angad. In 2011 Sukhi participated in the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon (ADHM) finishing in 1:59 as Aarti and Angad cheered him on.
The following year the couple participated together for the very first time 😃. That’s where Sukhi met Nita Khurana who mentioned about the monthly MRR (Mumbai Road Runner) run.
In January 2013 Aarti and Sukhi met MRR Stalwarts Ram Venkatraman, Giles Drego and Raj Vadgama amongst others during the monthly Bandra-NCPA run. In February they attended the MRR Awards and ever since have been regulars at the monthly runs.
In 2014 both Aarti and Sukhi were podium finishers at the Total Sports Run India Run Event and went on to win the Best Running Family Award at the MRR Awards in 2015 😎.
They have also been Brand Ambassadors and Race Ambassadors as well as Pacers at couple of Events.
This Runner Couple had to figure out how to go about their training schedules as they did not have support to take care of young Angad at the time. Aarti would go for her runs in the mornings while Sukhi would go for evening runs.
Every Saturday evening they would drive together and park at NCPA. Aarti would run from 9-11 PM when Sukhi would feed Angad and put him to sleep in the car. Then Sukhi would take off from 11-1 AM whilst Aarti waited eventually winding up with a super late dinner at Pizza By The Bay only returning home to crash at 3 AM 😌. They followed this schedule for 3+ years till they managed to get decent household help.
Since 2017 Sukhi started following structured training plans given by Coach Daniel Vaz after which he finished his HM in 1:38 following it up with a PB of 1:35 in 2018.
When a friend commented, “You are a Marathoner only when you finish a Full Marathon (FM),” Sukhi took his words to heart and decided to attempt his maiden FM at the IDBI Delhi Marathon in February 2018 finishing in an amazing 3:36 😎.
However the intense training took a toll on him. He says those 3 months prior to the Race were truly grueling when he neglected his family and both Angad and Aarti had to bear the brunt 😑. Sukhi experienced Burn Out and took a break from running for almost 5-6 months.
He went on to participate and finish the HM at the Tata Mumbai Marathon (TMM) 2019 in 1:53 following it up with 1:50 at the Navi Mumbai Half Marathon despite the running break. He credits his timing to his Cross Fit Regime.
Being a sportsman, Sukhi is a firm believer in Strength training. After about 7-8 years of gym workouts he has recently taken up Cross- Fit. He attends 1-hour Cross Fit sessions 6 days a week. His current training schedule involves running thrice weekly including 2 short runs of 8-10K after 1 hour cycling and Sunday long runs of 20-25K.
At the moment Sukhi wants to enjoy running shorter distances. He believes the 10K is the toughest distance to crack. He advises that one should ensure systematic training and not race too much. He suggests racing 3-4 Races including 2-3 HM’s and 1 FM in a year. He says one can participate in every 10K in your city but choose to race in selective good HMs and FM in other cities. He signs off saying, “Don’t shrug away from weight or strength training and always enjoy your Race or Run”
