Running isn’t a lonely sport for this marathoner boss – GQ India

When he began running at age 40, Nikhil Arora simply wanted to lose the extra weight he’d gained and bring his blood pressure to normal levels. Nearly ten years later, the VP and MD of GoDaddy India is its most passionate advocate. “Amateur running is India’s fastest growing sport,” he points out. “The first edition of the Mumbai Marathon had some 10,000 participants. This year’s edition had more than 55,000!” Arora was among those. Over the last ten years, Arora has run ‘somewhere to the north of 30 triathlons, marathons and half marathons.’ He’s also participated in two Iron Man Challenges and has about him the demeanour of a long-distance runner – he’s composed, in no hurry and speaks in thought-through sentences. When Arora speaks of running, he’s almost Murakami-esque; he inspires you to dust off your shoes and hit the road. It’s probably the kind of quality that made the folks over at the Delhi Marathon appoint him as their official pacer. Even though he isn’t officially pacing at the Mumbai Marathon, Arora finds wisdom in not competing and being a pacer instead.

A pacer is someone who helps others around him keep pace. “When you’re running a marathon, it helps to follow someone who’ll lead you to the finish line. A pacer is someone who’ll help you do that,” Arora says. What this means is at the marathon, Arora runs with a flag sticking out of his backpack (not unlike a tour guide) and a group of runners follow his lead. If that sounds too simple enough, try running 21 (or indeed 42) km with a flagpole constantly hitting the back of your head. Now try talking as you run. “Throughout the run, I am talking with my fellow-runners, ensuring they’re doing alright and motivating them,” Arora says. That’s just one of the jobs of a pacer. But let’s back up a little.

After they select official pacers, the marathon organisers put up their details and timings on their social media. What this means is if you, as an amateur runner, want to complete your run and do so in a particular timeframe, you can reach out to these pacers. “Each pacer has a ‘bus’ and a timing. A bus refers to the group of people that will follow me. I usually lead the 2.10 or 2.20 bus. Which means I commit to the organisers that my ‘bus’ will complete the half marathon in two hours and ten minutes or twenty minutes with a maximum window of 30 seconds (slower/faster),” he says.

Most people who follow pacers are first-time runners. “So, the job often begins several weeks before the actual run. You start by declaring your strategy and per km timings and people start getting in touch with you. Since several of these runners are likely doing this for the first or second time, they look up to you for advice before and during the run. So you start coaching them – at first with their workouts and physical training and, closer to the date of the run, mentally. Finally on the day itself, you keep motivating the group to keep pace and complete the run.”

For Arora, the experience of being a pacer isn’t very different from being a corporate leader. He says: “The group is your team and the finish line is your goal. You train your team to achieve the goal and try to take as many people with you as you can past the finish line. There will be those who’re slow so you work with them a little more and try to bring them up to speed with the rest of the team. But you also must recognise that you’ve committed to the objective and while you can help your team members raise their game, the onus of pulling their weight lies on them.”

Arora’s pacing plan on Marathon Day is also indicative of his leadership skills at work. When he’s running the half marathon, Arora prefers to complete the first 10 km faster so his team and he can take it easier in the second half of the run. “Conditions can vary on any given day. It can get warmer or colder. The pollution may go up suddenly or it could get more humid. All these changes can affect how you run. So if you’re running faster in the first half, it gives you the freedom to experiment in the second half. You’re also under lesser stress which means you’re free to work on your form or have the freedom to just walk to the finish line. That knowledge makes the remainder of the run a lot easier,” he says. It’s also a strategy he follows at work. “When you’ve completed 60-70 per cent of your assignment, you can experiment for the rest of the time, find innovative solutions and deliver a better product. Several people say they work better under stress but I’ve never found that to be the case. When you have the time, you’re in a better position to reflect, review and deliver better results.”

And those have been positive. Under Arora, GoDaddy’s India business has nearly doubled in the last three years and has been turning profit. The company’s brand awareness has shot up more than 100 per cent and the number of customer care agents have gone up from 40 to nearly 900. Today, GoDaddy serves customers in five languages, reaches out to them in seven and the company ended 2019 with more than one million customers from India.

Arora says that the key — whether at work or while pacing — is to be confident of your strategy. “When you’re running, you will always find people around you – your teammates or other runners – come up to you and point out what they think are flaws in your strategy. During marathons, for instance, people will tell me my bus is going too fast, not knowing that it’s my strategy. So I have to assure them that I know what I’m doing and that they should just follow my lead. Similarly, at work, you will find your colleagues and peers offering you advice. You take in the best of their suggestions and keep moving. As a leader you ought to be confident of your strategy,” he says.

Running has shaped Arora’s personal and work philosophy. What started as an attempt to get back into shape ten years ago has today become a large part of his life. It’s made him a more well-rounded person, he says. The people he’s met, the experiences he’s had have all contributed to this. It’s also opened doors for him. “Running always makes for interesting stories. It also reveals something about one’s personality. People (and potential business partners) are more willing to engage with you because of my passion for the sport and the self-imposed discipline,” he says. Running has also enabled Arora to find common ground with entrepreneurs and customers from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. “There’s a direct connect between running and entrepreneurship. Both need hustle, rigour and discipline to succeed,” he says.

It’s also a passion Arora is passing down to his colleagues at GoDaddy. Maintaining good health and physical fitness is one of GoDaddy’s pillars and overall successful business strategy. “We have a designated Fit Hour during which we invite all our employees to join us for a fitness class – it could be Zumba, Masala Bhangra or any activity that gets everyone on their feet,” Arora says adding that over the last few years he’s witnessed a sea change in his colleagues’ approach to food and health. “There are more healthy snacks going around now,” he says, “And the conversation around staying fit, step counts etc has increased a great deal.” The idea behind organising these activities, Arora says, is to build team spirit, sure, but also to demonstrate to his colleagues of what they’re capable of achieving, personally and professionally.

On the day of the Mumbai Marathon, a group of amateur runners gathered around Arora at the starting point, some of them unsure of whether they’d make it to the end. For the next two hours, they followed the bobbing flag, their only constant in the sea of runners. If they were having a good day, Arora encouraged them to race past him and the bus. It’s what a good pacer does. It’s also what a good leader does.

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