A retired army commando from the city has claimed that he covered a distance of 100 km by running up and down on the terrace of his house in BHEL locality on Sunday as a gesture of giving thanks to corona warriors.
AK Tiwari, who likes to call himself Ashok Hindustani, told Free Press that it took him 15 hours to clock a distance of 100 km.
He chose the day to coincide with Indian armed forces expressing gratitude to frontline workers with IAF choppers showering petals on hospitals, army bands playing outside treatment facilities, fighter jets flying past landmarks in different cities and warships being lit up.
Tiwari had registered himself for the indoor run, organised by Humans of Indore.
“Once a soldier, always a soldier,” he said when asked why he joined the thanksgiving exercise by the armed forces when he was no longer a part of the army.
He said that he began running at 3 am to avoid harsh sun and by 5 pm, he had covered 100 km. He tied a pedometer to one of his feet to measure the distance covered. “My average speed was around 8 km per hour and I consumed 10 litres of water in 15 hours,” he said. It was an exhausting effort but worth it, he said.
Tiwari said that he was a Swachh Bharat volunteer too. “I used to cycle everyday for about 20 kms, carrying spade and other tools to remove garbage. I would also tend trees and plants growing on the road sides. After the coronavirus crisis erupted, I used to carry tea and poha every morning for the needy in the area around my house. I couldn’t afford supplying lunch or dinner to them. So, I delivered food packets provided by BMC,” he added.
About 100 city residents joined ‘Indoor walk, jog and run’ organised by Humans of Indore Group on Sunday. Praveen Sapkal, who represents the Group in the city, said over 1,000 people joined the run in the country. He said that registration amount collected from participants would be used for arranging PPE kits for doctors, nurses and paramedics treating corona patients.
