It’s 5 o’clock in the morning. The sky is dark as the sun is at least 30 minutes away to show up at the horizon from under the sea. There is a group of men and women exercising on the red tiled pavements in their track suits and sneakers. As soon as the daily workout session comes to an end, they hit the road for a regular 5-mile run.
Image courtesy: Dream Runners/facebook.com
Meet the Dream Runners who will sure give you a kick with their passion for jogging. Dream Runners is a close-knit neighbourhood group of fitness fanatics that has been there for the last six years.
Swaminathan, a prominent businessman running a reputed brand of furniture in the city, is the popular face of Dream Runners. This man in his mid-forties has a well toned body. He always wears a ready smile while supervising the warm-up sessions. After ten minutes of limbering up, the group disperses for the regular jogging.
Image courtesy: Dream Runners/facebook.com
“We started off as a small group and so we ran in a single cluster. Now there are 30 to 40 regulars and they form their own running cluster,” Swaminathan says. These daily 5-mile runs take about 45 minutes.
Dream Runners is an informal group consisting of residents of Besant Nagar, Thiruvanmiyur and Adyar which are located close to the Eliot’s Beach. Most of them are entrepreneurs or IT professionals who discovered a passion for jogging.
Image courtesy: Dream Runners/facebook.com
“I work for long hours and travel far and wide. I feel somewhere we were losing out on health and friendship. Dream Runners is a forum that has redefined the meaning of friendship ,” says Dinesh.
Rohit who has been part of the group for five years says, “These morning sessions give us quality time with friends and family. In fact it is a perfect way to prepare yourself to meet the day’s challenges.”
Swaminathan says, “Through running and diet control, my wife shed 25 kilos in a year. She is now fit and no longer requires blood pressure tablets. Besides, my sugar level is under control.”
He is so convinced of this daily jogs that he preaches with a gushing enthusiasm, “ If you look at the photo albums of the past five years and my recent snaps you’ll find that I have aged younger. This daily jogs work as a great anti-ageing dose.
Ajay is another regular who hopes, “It would be great to see Dream Runners inspire others to start their own groups.”
