Indian international student, Sukant Singh who recently ran the 100 km Surf Coast Century Ultra Marathon says running has proven to be the best medicine for his mental health.
“I was suffering from anxiety in April 2019. I spoke to people around me and realised one in four suffers from anxiety,” Mr Singh told SBS Hindi.
“For me, running has proven to be like medicine. For some it is reading, for some, it is travelling, for me, it is running.”
Sukant came to Australia as an international student to pursue higher education at Monash University.
Passionate about running, he has participated in several marathons in Australia too.
“I started running a decade ago. I got addicted to running. It was a medicine to recover from mental illness like anxiety, stress.
“I started running while I was living in Mumbai. I moved to Australia and have run marathons in Melbourne, Sydney and Gold Coast,” says Sukant.
Source: Supplied by Danyal Syed
'My dream to run the Surf Coast Century Ultra Marathon'
His last outing was the 100 km on the Victorian Coast on September 21, 2019.
The 100km course was split into 4 different legs; where Leg 1 started at Anglesea Main Beach and ended at Torquay Surf Beach and Leg 2 (21km – 49km) started from Torquay Surf Beach till Anglesea Green at the Great Ocean Road.
Leg 3 (49km – 77km) and Leg 4 went from Anglesea Lions Park, Great Ocean Road to Tallawalla Guide Camp at Moggs Creek and back.
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‘Running is the best medicine for anxiety’, says ultra marathon runner
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“It was an extreme marathon as the 100 km route goes through all kinds of terrains.
“I was training for it for six months. It is an extreme adventure but it was my dream to be able to do it.
“I had put up a poster of the finish line in my room. Every day, I use to meditate and visualise reaching that finish line. And I completed this tough marathon in 18 hours and 47 minutes.
“The winner was a person who finished it in 8 hours. I think he was phenomenal,” Singh says.
Mr Singh says he did tell his family in India that I was running this marathon.
Source: Supplied by Danyal Syed
“It was a tough one. If normal marathon has thousands of participants, this one had only 500. And one has to train for months,” he says.
Sukant, who is pursuing Master of International Relations, also writes a where he shares his marathon journey.
Disclaimer: We’d like to point out that the information contained in this segment is general and is not specific advice. If you would like accurate information relevant to your situation, you should ask a health professional.
