‘It’s not about winning’

Sunday, January 8, 2012

A FULL marathon may be a runner’s Mt. Everest, and if that is the case, Mohanadas Kandiah has scaled it 148 times.

People running the marathon, especially the first-timers, cross the finish line with expressions of relief and pain. But not Kandiah, who smiled his way to the finish line, as if he didn’t just run a full 42-kilometer race because for him, it was just a regular Sunday race.

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It was, after all, his 148th marathon.

Unlike the several runners who are motivated by their desire to improve records, Kandiah runs for a totally different reason.

“I don’t run against the Kenyans. Let the Kenyans win. I just love and enjoy the fellowship and friendship I establish with the other runners,” said Kandiah, who admitted to stopping along the way to talk to other runners who were resting.
Kandiah said it was never about setting personal records for him.

“I took up running because I failed my medical examinations. I had no choice. I used to smoke two packs a day and drink a lot. When I started running, everything about me changed. I feel a lot healthier now,” said Kandiah, who works as a stock broker in Singapore.

Kandiah added he also loved motivating fellow runners.

“I always carry a whistle around my neck so I can help motivate people along the way.

I used to carry a horn but it gets heavy in my hands so I switched to a whistle,” said Kandiah.

He never expected to join this many marathons and said all he wanted was to run 100 marathons by the time he turned 50.

And by the time he turned 50 in October of 2010, he already ran 108 marathons.

“So I just stopped making goals as to the number of races,” said Kandiah, who added his new motto is to just “run as long as I can.”

And this new motto has taken him to the different parts of the world—Europe, all of Southeast Asia, Australia and the US, where he ran the New York Marathon twice and the Disney Marathon twice.

Last year, Kandiah finished 32 marathons and even ran the 100K Sundown Ultra Marathon in Singapore. This year, he plans to run 25 marathons.

“This is my first marathon for the year,” he said.

His only problem now is how to allocate his vacation leaves so he can skip work to run. “I arrived last Saturday and will be flying back to Singapore tonight (Sunday night) so that I could work on Monday,” he said.

But after running for about six hours, Kandiah showed no signs of fatigue. With still enough time to kill before his flight, Kandiah went back to the route and started helping direct traffic and cheered on the stragglers, still with a huge grin on his face and blowing on his whistle to motivate the runners.