New Delhi: David Bredo, 21, who hails from Denmark and is an economics student at the Copenhagen Business School has a unique story to tell. While most at his age from his part of the world aim at making it big into soccer, David’s footballing fantasy has now transformed into a life on the run.
The runner from Denmark, who began his athletic career playing football is this month due to take part in The Great Indian Run – India’s first ever multi-city Marathon which flags off from New Delhi on 17th July and culminates on 6th August 2016 at Mumbai. The 1480 kms long run that has been conceptualized by ProSportify in association with MobieFit will pass through Ghaziabad, Gurugram, Jaipur and Ahmedabad. The run also has celebrity runner Milind Soman running a special stretch of 570 kms from Ahmedabad to Mumbai via Silvassa.
Hailing from Copenhagen, Bredo is unique as a runner. With 56 marathons under his belt this year, he refers to it as a quiet year.
“I ran 154 marathons last year, and was one of the youngest runners in the world to run more than a 100 marathons in a year. This year has been quiet, and I’ve only run 56 marathons this year because I’m focusing a lot on University.”
Still 21, Bredo started off his running career in order to aid his dream of playing football professionally. Soon, after, however he realized that its not the football pitch but the track which is his calling. His love for the beautiful game, however, hasn’t abandoned him completely.
“Its not that I am not in touch with football, whenever I return home, I do coach youth players in my town. My ambition now, is however, only to run. Training for the two are quite different as well. The only thing common is core strength, but not much more.”
Quizzed on what he does to keep fit, and free of injury, he simply answered that in order to run, he just runs even more.
“I train for a marathon by simply running more marathons. It sounds strange, but when you run two or three marathons a week on a regular basis, you get used to it.”
A student of Economics at the Copenhagen Business School, he uses his entrepreneurial instincts in the field of running as well, having organized the Humor Marathon in his native Denmark.
David, who is running in India for the first time, states that he is looking to run alongside renowned Ultramarathoners. His aim is now to be known as one of the best ultramarathoners in the world. He adds, “I’m looking forward to meeting and learning from Arun Bharadwaj, who is a really famous Indian ultra-runner. I’m really excited for the run as well as exploring the landscapes and beautiful culture that India is known for.”
The Great India Run which aims to boost running as a sport in the country will feature 15 of the best ultra marathoners from India and abroad passing through six states in the country. Pre selected pit stops of the run will consist of a 5K fun run as well as a 21 Km half marathon. The registrations for both the ‘Fun Run’ (Ghaziabad, New Delhi, Gurugram, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Silvassa, Mumbai) and the ‘Half-Marathon’ (New Delhi, Silvassa) across venues can be done through bookmyshow.com for minimal fees of INR 350 & INR 690 respectively.
The inaugural edition of ‘The Great India Run’ will see athletes Arun Bhardwaj, Siddharth Choudhary, David Bredo, Yuri Esperson, Meenal Kotak, Ranjana Deopa, Sreekanth Reddi, Melanie Delainey, Dinesh Heda, Joginder Chandna, Pia Hansson, Sunil Sharma, Shweta Sharma, Kaushal Chauhan and Dhanee Kumar going the distance.
ProSportify & MobieFit plan to make ‘The Great India Run’ an annual event. As the tagline ‘Jeet Har Kadam Par’ suggests the objective of this event is to build many more athletes for the future with the attitude and determination to win. -The revenue generated the inaugural edition of TGIR will be contributed to ‘Go Sports Foundation’ an organization that works towards development of deserving Olympians in the country.
