Love on the track: How running marathons together helped this couple find happy matrimony

Here’s how running marathons together has taught this young couple the value of patience, on the track and in their relationship.

When your spouse is on a mid-career education break, how do you take on the role of the cheerleader during those early morning study hours? Sheran Mehra, ED - group strategic marketing communication at DBS Bank has an interesting answer. Take up running.

Also read: Running helps break one's goals into smaller milestones: Sheran Mehra, Group Strategic Marketing & Communications Head, DBS Bank India


Around the same time when Sheran’s husband, Chandramohan (CMO, Bajaj Allianz Life and General Insurance) was on a study break almost 10 years ago, she got into running. “I used to wake up in the mornings to study and she would get up to go for a run,” Chandramohan told ETPanache. During his convocation at the Singapore campus of his B-school, Sheran registered for her full marathon and sparked an interest in her husband for the sport as well.

From then to now, the couple has managed to cover four of the six world major— New York, Chicago, Berlin and London. They aim to run the Boston one this April and the Tokyo one next year in February, completing the six majors loop. When the two ran the Chicago marathon last year, they broke into the sub-four category (finishing the full marathon in less than four hours) together. “It’s a good milestone for amateur runners,” Pune-based Chandramohan says.

Their different personalities result in different training styles. While Sheran loves to train with people, her husband prefers to be on his own. “Our we time is when we drive to the starting point of the run. That’s the only time we meet on a run,” Sheran says.

Strengthening the bond
Do things ever get competitive is a natural question. But Sheran is quick to respond in the negative. “We are both very temperamental. We are both very different. Both of us want to do better. CM (Chandramohan) is a bit more competitive than I am. But in general, it is a difficult sport to compete with someone else,” she says.

There have been learnings though about one another. “I have realised about Sheran that if you let her be on her own, she does fantastically well. She doesn’t like following set patterns,” CM says.

He speaks of how marathoners are asked to rest up the day before the race. But Sheran likes to step out, even go shopping. “We discover more and more about each other’s personality with each run,” he feels.

It’s also helped them strengthen their relationship as they bring back to it the patience learnt running those several kilometres on the track. “Running the marathon trains your mind to be patient. It’s about continuing the journey. It’s not about the short sprint. As marathoners, you get trained to think so. It helps our relationship in that perspective. There are much lesser arguments than there were at a younger age,” she says. Of course, credit could be due as much to maturity earned through age as to all the running.

My top moment
Chandramohan: “My first sub-4 in Berlin. I finished in exactly three hours and 59 minutes. I went through several injuries during that time too. I survived that training phase only because I kept on running. I wasn’t sure of how I’d perform. I was so pleasantly surprised when I saw 3:59 on the clock. It transformed me as a person. So just keep steady with your efforts and things will turn around.”

Sheran: “My sub-4 in Chicago. I had least expected it. Every five kilometres my coach would think, ‘Now she’ll tank.’ I was just running, not even looking at the watch. There was a point when I’d crossed 3 hours and 45 minutes and I thought I may be in the run to finish it. I hadn’t trained as hard as I should have. But I had been training a long time, so all those past miles paid off.