With 30 half-marathons in 30 days Gurgaon runners highlight safety issues in millennium city | Gurgaon News – Times of India

Mihika Wahi Gupta and Gaurav Pant have just finished 30 half-marathons to highlight what the city lacks when it comes to citizens’ safety.
While rains lashed Gurgaon and the following waterlogging threw off the morning schedule of the entire city, including its several thousand runners, it failed to put a dent in the running plans of this pair.
City-based runners Mihika Wahi Gupta and Gaurav Pant completed as many as 30 half-marathon distance runs in 30 successive days over July and August. The purpose of this exercise, as per the two runners, was to raise awareness about the lack of safety for runners, and the general public, in the Millennium City. The two started the runs on July 6 and finished on August 4.
A runner and an influencer by profession, Mihika started running some six years ago and has participated in several long-distance runs across the NCR. She says she wanted to run for a cause close to her heart.
“A lot of people in this city run for a lot of great causes. I was clear that if I was to do something like this, it would have to be for a cause that is personal and relevant to me, something that the entire running community faces – the lack of safe running spaces in the city. In fact, the problem exists even for those going for walks or people simply out for any work in Gurgaon,” she says. Mihika decided to run the 30 half-marathons this summer and approached corporate executive and fellow runner Gaurav, who was also enthused by the idea.
A Sector 59 resident, Gaurav, tells us, “I have always wanted to do the 30-day 30-half marathon challenge but I wanted it to be for some cause and what could be better than the safety conditions in the city I call home. The city has a running culture and so many running groups but only a handful of safe tracks or spots for running. That’s not good.”

Mihika Wahi Gupta and Gaurav Pant
In fact, due to the safety and the visibility concerns, the runners were forced to run along the same route for all their runs so far – the Golf Course Road. “We started close to Sector 55-56 Metro Station and ran to CyberHub and then back. It was 21km in all. We started at 4am on weekdays and 5am on weekends. At that time, it is the only road in Gurgaon that is well-lit and safe,” explains Gaurav.
As soon as the news of their endeavour spread in NCR’s running community, they started receiving invites from Delhi’s running groups to run with them. “I told them they are welcome to run with us but since this run is for Gurgaon and its safety, it won’t make sense for us to run anywhere in Delhi. On some days, runners from Delhi came and joined us and we all ran together but on most days, it was just the two of us,” Mihika tells us.
At times, the two even experimented with splitting up briefly while running to gauge just how bad the safety situation was. Gaurav says, “We ran together but at times, I would speed up and stay about a hundred yards ahead of Mihika and each time, there would be cabbies or random cyclists who would stare at her. That tells you the story of Gurgaon. That is what we are hoping to highlight.”

The two runners say that they have now gained some insight in to the problems related to safety in Gurgaon. Mihika says, “I observed two things. The blame for making Gurgaon’s roads unsafe lies both with the administration and us, the citizens. On the administration’s part, there are simply no roads or tracks where one can run and the roads aren’t well-lit so they don’t seem safe. But then, we are at fault, too. I see so many people jumping red light, driving on the wrong side and even driving on the footpath. Both parties need to change.”
But running 30 back-to-back half-marathons requires over 600km of running in just under a month. Clearly, that must take a toll on the body. Mihika agrees, “It is demanding, which is why we ran at a slow pace, taking our time to finish each day. We were in no rush and not focussed on the timing.” Echoing the sentiment, Gaurav says that their bodies became used to the exertion. “By the seventh day, the body felt sore but after that, we got used to it. Ab toh aadat aisi ho gayi hai that the body clock has adjusted. I wake up at 2.30am every morning,” he says.

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