The 10 Deadly Shins
The 10 Deadly Shins pose with their hard-earned Road Warrior trophies.These are the group members: (standing) Neha Gupta, Janet Dam, Pinky Pagoria, Anjali Raichura Divya Sharma and Manisha Rustogi; (kneeling in front): Sanchali Nair, Poonam Kuhar, Snehashree Mahasuar (the author) and Tanu Sareen. By Snehashree Mahasuar A journey started with the MRTC Road Race Series 2020. It was a journey of 10 girls who had individual reasons to register for RRS2020 but with a goal of 10 races ahead to be finished. They were individuals (some of them knew each other some way or would have crossed paths) but one of the 10 Deadly Shins created a WhatsApp group. Seeing a group to walk/run with and a plan sounded easy, exciting and felt much better than the time they registered (especially to the first-timers and nonrunners) thinking, “How am I going to make it to 10 miles? Forget about Half-Marathon.” The group is a combination of ladies from age group 35-65 and a range varying from no walkers to marathon runners. Wow!! How are they going to train together, race together and complete this journey? Sounds Impossible – or let’s be generous in using the word: sounds Difficult, right? That one person put a lot of thought into this group. She was the true leader who went beyond to
10
make sure everyone was safe, everyone was taken care of, everyone was meeting their goals, no one is injured, everyone takes proper nutrition, everyone does their warm-ups, cool-downs and stretches, checks the weather, dresses accordingly, get some hot tea and snacks to refuel the souls, and last but not least, everyone gets started with their walk/run and complete the journey without much difficulty. I know she will not agree to this as she is too modest, but she has been the heart and brain to keep the group together at all times. We all accepted her as our group leader, our mentor, our teacher and our everything when it comes to running. Without Janet, it was impossible, and to complete this journey without her by our sides was unthinkable. So big thanks to Janet Dam from the entire group of 10 Deadly Shins for everything she did for us and to keep us motivated. We started running in the evenings initially as it was summer vacation and a little easier for everyone after work, with kids and long summer evenings definitely