Sapna Desai, Head, Marketing & Communications, Cigna TTK Health Insurance talks about her passion for running and how it has taught her different life lessons
BY SAPNA DESAI
Head, Marketing & Communications, Cigna TTK Health Insurance
I wake up early each day. I look at the watch, tempted to ‘snooze’ the alarm but instead ask myself, “What time is it?” My mind simply says: “It’s time to run.” I ventured into this new world of running four years ago. Inspired by a friend, I first took to running as an experiment. I was new and this very experiment changed my perspective and approach to good health. I started running a few km, it was a struggle but something kept me going. Gradually, I increased my distance, pacing slowly and steadily and running soon became a part of me. Now as I look back and pen down my thoughts, I feel running has given me the much-needed endurance that comes with patience. This is one life lesson that has immensely made a difference to my personal and professional life. Most importantly, I feel content while I run.
Marathons, a new chapter: Once runs became a part of my health routine, I started clocking in more distance and investing much more time in running. I soon graduated to marathons and this opened a new chapter in my life.
Marathons are goal-driven and so my runs too are driven by my own benchmarks. I now run to be better than my previous day’s run. I now structure my runs and this has helped me in a big way. There are days we do speed runs on the beaches; these are truly tough but worth it. As we focus on speeds, my mind often marvels at the serenity of the sea, the soft sand beneath my feet and I feel a deeper connect with nature. During long distance runs, we manoeuvre different roads, and my mind starts observing people. This helps me get insights on people, and I can add more value while designing my marketing campaigns. I am lucky to be heading marketing for Cigna TTK, which sponsors four prominent marathons, i.e., Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata. At Cigna TTK, we truly believe ‘Health hai to life hai’. My favourite marathon route so far has been Delhi, given the greenery. Broad roads give my runs a new high. Being a Mumbaikar myself, the iconic Standard Chartered Marathon in Mumbai has a different energy that is truly unmatched. In fact, I now plan to run in a few countries around the world such as the Paris Marathon which flows across magnificent scenic paths such as the Eiffel Tower, the Notre Dame cathedral and so on. One even gets to taste wine and cheese along the way!
Management lessons: My marathon goals cannot be achieved merely by running. I do a few days of strength training at the gym. This helps me to run strong and most importantly I run injury free. I learnt along the way, that planning plays a very important role if a goal has to be achieved. Planning gives clarity and this gives me focus which helps me achieve my targets. Every marathon well planned gives me that sense of victory that is only for me to savour and re-create yet another benchmark better than the previous one.
As I conclude, I feel blessed that I can go through my journey of life with contentment and I owe it to my runs. Keep running and running …
@ FEEDBACK
sapna.desai@cignattk.in
