At 73, Age is Not a Bar For Retired Professor For Preparing for NDMC Marathon

HYDERABAD: Prof Rama Mathew did not want 4.45 am to become her waking time but it became so after she joined Hyderabad Runners at KBR Park a couple of years back, first through Couch to 5 km in 2022 and now through yoga, strength work and jog-walk sessions as she prepares for the 10 km at the NMDC Hyderabad Marathon. As the August 29-30 event nears, Mathew who is 73 years old, Prasad P. V. S, 58 and Jagadeeswari, 62 are all preparing through early alarms and group runs for what they call the plain joy of running. “It is contagious once you get into it. My waking time has become 4.45 in the morning, which I didn’t want,” said Prof Mathew, with a chuckle. “But in India, that’s the only time you can run or do any activity. Look at the traffic, or look at the sun.” She is a retired professor of education, who taught at Delhi University and earlier at EFL University.

Prasad on the other hand has been running for 13 years, but the first test of the day has not changed much for him either. “The only barrier I feel is waking up in the morning and getting on the road. That is the most important part of it.”

He runs three times a week, mostly at KBR Park, where Hyderabad Runners and others train as a group and the NMDC run stays on his calendar each year because it belongs to his city.

“I participate in the NMDC run every year because it is my city. I would like to be a part of the Hyderabad running festival in August every year,” Prasad said. “Then I ran in Bangalore. I go to Chennai because I have friends there who run. This year I ended up running in Delhi, Calcutta and Mumbai.”

Jagadeeswari began much later than Prasad. She started in 2021, after no regular fitness or running background apart from a little walking. Someone told her she could run. She tried, slowly. “I was not into running or fitness earlier. I started in 2021,” she said in Hindi. “I started little by little.”

Her preparation now follows a training plan. She said she has been taking such a plan for about two years. “Running feels good. I have become more active. Earlier, it was not like this,” she said.

Age comes up often in their conversations, but none of them treats it as the main story. Prasad said people in their sixties, seventies and even eighties run in Hyderabad. Some, he said, began after 60 or 70. “Any activity, the body has to be prepared for it. You need to strengthen your legs, you need to strengthen your body,” he said. “Don’t take running as a competitive sport. We are all leisure runners. We are doing it to maintain our fitness levels and good heart health. Anybody can start running and age doesn’t matter.”

Prof Mathew says something close to that, but her concern comes through her own body. “I have always put priority on endurance and strength, not speed,” she said. “I don’t want to injure myself because injury is something that you can easily have.” She has had plantar fasciitis and had to rest for two months. Her week now includes yoga on Saturdays, two days of strength training and one or two days of jog-walk sessions. Her longest distance has been around 10 km. “I don’t think I am very particular about having these lofty goals and trying to reach them,” Prof Mathew said. “Daily I do these things and I am happy.”

Prasad spoke along the same lines and said, “A person running a marathon in three hours and a person running a marathon in six hours, it does not matter. Everybody helps everyone else to improve their running, their speeds or their fitness levels. Nobody is competing with anyone. That is the best part of running.”

Prof Mathew concludes with one line that explains why the 4.45 am alarm has survived her bad shoes, travel breaks, and the traffic outside Road No. 2.

“It is almost like your soul is happy,” she said.

This year’s event also comes after a sustainability award for the earlier edition. The 2025 NMDC Hyderabad Marathon received the World Athletics for a Better World Silver Standard, and the 15th edition is therefore a matter of pride. The 2025 marathon scored 84 points and became the first marathon in India to receive the Silver Standard. According to organisers only six races in the world had received that recognition.