Deepa Nayak is a Boston-qualified runner, ACE-certified strength and conditioning instructor, and running coach. She finished Boston Marathon at 03:22:40 and London Marathon at 03:23:21. Her debut marathon run was in Bangalore in 2018 which was completed at 04 hours 15 minutes.
Deepa shares her athletic journey and experience in a Podcast by Venky. She was running casually until 2014 and 2018 was her turning point to participate in a full marathon. Prior to that she never ran the full marathon and participated only in 5K, 10K, and a half marathon event. She believes one should be first physically and mentally comfortable with both 10K and half marathon and then they should focus on a full marathon.
Her recent experience at two world majors in London and Boston in a span of 6 days. In her school days, Deepa was not an active sportswoman, her activity was zero. In fact, she was fat and not agile making her eliminated from school kho-kho team selections.
In her college days, she realized that she might get obese and started jogging. Her main intention for jogging was to reduce weight.
Deepa completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering in Bangalore. She was staying away from her parents and couldn’t get a properly balanced diet. Throughout her Engineering, She started losing weight gradually.
In 2010 he started working in an IT company and thought to start physical activities with the intention to lose more weight and stay in shape. Gym, aerobics, and running were in her mind but she tend to choose running.
She started jogging in a park in Koramangala. From one round to two rounds to twenty rounds it kept on going and steadily improving. Friends and people were aware of her running routine and encouraged her to take up the running challenge.
One of her friends motivated her to participate in TCS 10K run. Deepa was a little worried hearing a 10 KM distance run because she never ran 10 km. The event was promoted everywhere featuring powerstar Puneet Rajkumar. After a few days, Deepa and her friend registered together.
The year was 2011, and Deepa registered and ran for the first time witnessing hundreds of runners. After the event, she stopped running and joined aerobics as one of her friends pulled her. She claims aerobics built a lot of stamina and endurance in her during that time.
She ran 10K each year in 2011, 2012, and 2013 with not much rigorous training. Aerobics had built a lot of endurance which helped her to run 10K with the least effort.
In 2014 she dedicated herself more to running, joined running clubs, and started training seriously and the running journey took pace.
Deepa pursued Electrical Engineering but landed in an IT company for a job as a database tester. As a fresher at the job, she was putting in a lot of effort and kept herself busy contributing more to the team. As a corporate employee, she participated 5KM relay in a corporate run.
In her previous company, there was a runner who wanted to build a corporate team for a 5K relay and one woman was needed for that. He had already spotted Deepa in the last 10K event and offered her to join the team. She agreed to represent the company in the 5K relay run. The team was into the team and started daily training by running from Sony Signal to the Domlur flyover.
Her team captain started taking the team to the Wipro running club for training. Mr. Haraibabu was the coach.
Here she met so many runners. The weekends were getting busier with Saturday workouts, drills, and running at Cubbon Park in groups on Sunday. The weekends got interesting and Deepa started to develop more interest in long-distance running.
After the corporate relay event, she trained for the ‘Spirit of a pro run’ event and got her first 10K podium. With a lot of appreciation, Deepa stayed and trained with the same group.
Deepa has been actively training since June 2014 and never took a gap. After her 10K run, she focused on a half marathon in the first edition of the Sriram Properties Bangalore marathon event in October 2014. Many of her co-runners were interested in the event.
Later she moved to Sarjapur Road for training with Wipro and continued till October 2015 and then joined the Reebok running squad for training.
Till 2018 she ran only 10K and a half marathons. After a podium finish in 2018 for a half marathon, started training for a full marathon with support from her coach Meera Katwal.
She trained for 3 months for her debut full marathon run at the Bengaluru marathon event and finished in 04 hours 17 minutes.
From there Deepa has been achieving the milestone at different places across India and the world.
Coming to her daily routine, she told UiTVConnect that she is very conscious about her own training along with her trainees. Being a full-time running coach she is more centered around classes.
If you’re an athlete, especially in the field of running and actively running in domestic and abroad marathons, you need to control your health also. Deepa is the ideal example. Every day she follows her diet plan with healthy foods, apart from this she is vegan and believes in a simple diet that includes fruits, nuts, seeds, vegetables, pulses, and whole grains. To maintain proper training she always tries to include all of these in different combinations which give a well-balanced nutrition.
She also reported on UiTVConnect that the inspiration she got from her goals through her athletic career. She said some days she doesn’t want to get out of bed but her passion for running motivates her to go every time.
She has shared a message through UiTVConnect for all the runners “Running can be as much a mental challenge as it is a physical test of strength and fitness. you need great fitness to be an athlete but also need the mental strength to push your limits.” In addition, she expressed her advise for everyone is to find your goals, be consistent, and enjoy the journey.
