Seven is heaven

As Dhananjay Yellurkar 59 crossed the finish line of the marathon in Santiago Chile South America called the Maratoacuten de Santiago on Sunday May 14 it was mission accomplishedhellip the 422 km distance demolished Yellurkar has become one of the extremely rare or perhaps the only person to have finished a marathon on all continents post heart attack and subsequent bypass surgery in 2009Chile hillyYellurkar said from Santiago ldquoWith this run I achieved my goal I completed the run in my target time of less than six hours The route was tough with inclines for the most part of the racerdquo Chile was well not quite so chilly after all Yellurkar a Bandra native added ldquoThe sun was blazing and there wasnrsquot much tree coverrdquoYellurkar said that he ldquoexpected the route to be flat as per most of the city marathons but the inclines for the better part of the race made it one of the most challenging city marathons It was tougher than I thought it would berdquo However the merciless Mumbai mercury which seems to be on a perpetual incline quite like the Santiago race route turned out to be a blessingYellurkar said with a laugh ldquoTraining in the hot and humid weather of Mumbai helpedrdquo The senior working professional who gives life to the axiom lsquoThe best way to realise your dream is to wake uprsquo said he religiously followed a 20week training program in Mumbai and controlled his diet ldquoI refrained from sugar and even lost 7 kg in weight during the periodrdquoAlso Read Vande Bharat train Mumbai to Goa in just 7 hoursRace faceThe YellurkarsmdashDhananjay his wife Reshma son Ishan and daughter Neetimdashreached Santiago just one day prior to the run Dhananjay said he was jet lagged but since he had followed a gruelling training schedule he was confident of completing the run and finishing strong ldquoI anyways had decided to just enjoy the moment and give my best The race had 10 km 21 km most popular choice and 42 km runs For the 42 km run there were around 3700 participants mostly from Chile I did not see any other Indian participants The race is not as big as the Mumbai Marathon and is still evolving The most challenging part was that all instructions were in Spanish and it was difficult to understand No one spoke English so that made the entire experience tougherrdquo he saidSome thoughtsThrough the race other thoughts went through Yellurkarrsquos head like with the completion of the run he would be creating a record of being a rare person who had run full marathons in all seven continents post a heart attack and bypass surgery ldquoThough it had taken me 14 years I was proud that this was a huge feat for a former nonathlete Also it had taken so long since I was straddling work building my nest egg and saving to fund taking part in these marathons I have never availed sponsorships or engaged in public relations So I was extremely happy with all blessings in my liferdquo said YellurkarThere is even more happiness beyond cracking the continents According to Yellurkar his son debuted with the 10 km run at the same event and his wife and daughter were there at the finish line carrying the Indian flag ldquoMy daughter got special tshirts made to commemorate my completion of the 7th continent marathon which we wore after the race and for the celebratory dinnerrdquo In the end Yellurkar wrapped up ldquoI had written a bookmemoir called FuelforMyJourney during COVID downtime It is time to add another chapter about the Santiago marathon and rerelease my memoirrdquoContinent ConquerorNORTH AMERICANYC Marathon 2010EUROPEBerlin Marathon and Paris Marathon 2011 and 2012ASIAMumbai Marathon 2012 13 14 15AFRICABig 5 Marathon 2014ANTARCTICAAntarctic Ice Marathon 2018AUSTRALIAGold Coast Marathon 2019SOUTH AMERICASantiago Marathon 2023ReplyReply to allForward