BITS Pilani Alumnus Bhasker Sharma completes 25 Marathons with Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon

Bhasker’s goals include running the original historical course at the Athens Marathon and qualify for Boston Marathon by 2014 which requires for men in the age group of 55 -59, a qualifying time of just 3 hours and 45 minutes.

The marathon, 26.2 miles, is not necessarily the easiest sport. In fact, most people think marathon runners are downright nuts. Marathon running is about mental preparation more than a lot of other factors. One needs strength, stamina, endurance and a super strong mental attitude which brings the determination to keep running no matter how tired one is. Nothing beats the exhilaration of marathon running. It doesn't matter whether one come first or last as it is a race against oneself.

To quote Fred Lebow, New York City Marathon co-founder, "The marathon is a charismatic event. It has everything. It has drama. It has competition. It has camaraderie. It has heroism. Every jogger can't dream of being an Olympic champion, but he can dream of finishing a marathon."

Many students who graduate from Birla Institute of Technology and Science – popularly known as BITS Pilani take up marathon running as a mission with passion to ensure that there are no dreams too large, no innovation unimaginable and no frontiers beyond reach. Some Proud to be BITSians like Bhasker Sharma are in fact marathon maniacs. Bhasker was a student at BITS during 1974-1979 and obtained his B.E. (Hons) Electrical and Electronics Engineering degree.

This Techie presently is an IT professional from Bangalore who is very passionate about evangelizing running. He has been running for over 25 years now and took to running beyond 10 Kms in 2002 and got addicted to distance running after completing his first Full Marathon in January 2003 at Chennai. He has been playing a stellar role in Runners For Life - RFL a movement to popularize distance running in Bangalore.

In year 2005 he participated in NJ Marathon (Long Branch) which was his first outside the country. Year 2006, he took the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, NJ Marathon and Times of India Bangalore International Marathon. Year 2007 he went on to complete the Standard Chartered Mumbai, Flora London, Bangalore Midnight, SunTrust Richmond and the First Bangalore Ultra.

Starting year 2008 with the Mumbai marathon he went on to Hyderabad Half and Full Marathon, RFL Kanakpura Road Run, Kaveri Trail, Bangalore Ultra and RFL Ballandur Run.

Year 2009 he completed the Mumbai, Auroville, SunTrust National marathon Washington DC, RFL Hennur – EGL – Bellandur - Olde Run and the Bengaluru Ultra marathons.

With 1 marathon each in 2003 and 2005, 3 marathons in 2006, 5 marathons in 2007, 6 marathons in 2008 and 8 marathons in 2009, Bhasker had completed 24 marathons by December 2009.

His participation in Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon on January 17, 2010 became his 25th Marathon. With BIB number 513, veteran Bhasker completed the Mumbai marathon with overall ranking of 89, Finish Time of 4:01:15 and Chip Time of 4:00:56. Finish or Gross Time is the time from Gun Time to individual finish time. Chip time or net time is the individual start time to finish time. The overall ranking is based on Finish Time.

Apart from Mumbai marathon, Bhasker for the year 2010 has targeted the marathons at Auroville (Pondicherry), Hyderabad, Athens and Bangalore ultra. Bhasker who is indeed a dreamer, performer and achiever from BITS Pilani has a goal of completing 60 marathons by the age of 60 and the rate at which he is going, no one has any doubts about him achieving that.

Bhasker runs for a cause which is Dream A Dream founded in 1999 a registered charitable trust which seeks to empower children from vulnerable backgrounds by developing life skills and at the same time sensitizing the community through active volunteering leading to a non-discriminatory society where unique differences are appreciated. Currently, Dream A Dream reaches out to over 1500 children through an active network of over 1000 community volunteers. Bhasker has set a goal to raise Rs 3 Lakhs this year for Dream A Dream.

To contact Bhasker Email bhskr@yahoo.com For More details about Dream A Dream click http://www.dreamadream.org/

About BITS Pilani: The Birla Institute of Technology and Science - BITS Pilani is a Deemed to be University established vide Sec.3 of the UGC Act, 1956 under notification No. F.12-23/63.U-2 of June 18, 1964. NAAC - National Assessment and Accreditation Council reaccredited BITS with 3.71 CGPA out of 4 and awarded "A" grade "Very Good" status. It is indeed a matter of pride that for the year 2009, BITS Pilani has been ranked among the top ranking universities along with IITs in various Magazine surveys such as India Today, Outlook, LiveMint, DataQuest etc. BITS offers degrees in various disciplines presently at Pilani, Dubai, Goa and Hyderabad campuses. Admissions to BITS is based on the online examination BITSAT. BITS Pilani has done pioneering work in industry university collaborations in terms of Practice School and Work Integrated Learning Programmes. Alumni of the Institute who are Proud to be BITSians and ambassadors for Brand BITS Pilani are spread across all continents from Australia to America.

Dr BR Natarajan
Professor & Vice President BITS Alumni Association
BITS Pilani rajasthan 333031 India
Phone 91-1596-242210
Fax 91-1596-244183
Email brnt(at)bits-pilani.ac.in
Website http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in

This release was published on openPR.