Pacing For Success

Sanjay Tripathy likes listening to birds chirp while he is on his 5 a.m. run every alternate morning. “I often see people listening to music when they are running and I fail to understand why,” he muses. The 49-year-old co-founder and CEO of Agilio Labs not only loves running but is also a nature lover, and for him, listening to music is a big no-no because it often becomes a distraction from enjoying what nature has to offer.

His passion for running started in 2003 when Tripathy met with a car accident while on a trip with his wife. They were both severely injured. However, he turned the incident into a life lesson. The weakness he felt in his body due to the mishap was what inspired him to get stronger and resilient. His wife was working with Tata Consultancy Services back then, which organises yearly marathons. It took him a year to recover and post that, he participated in the Mumbai Marathon in January 2004. “The story of my passion for running has inspired my daughter. Perhaps that’s why even she loves sports and likes to participate in such events.”

For the time when he is not prepping for a marathon, Tripathy likes to run four times in a week with his buddies. When it comes to weekends, Sundays are meant for long runs, which can span up to four hours. All of them like to go for a run in the morning at Dadar’s Shivaji Park or at Worli Sea Face. “One never tends to lose motivation when you have a bunch of friends who share the same passion,” laughs Tripathy. As fun as Tripathy sounds, he can be equally serious and motivated when marathons are round the corner and the number of kilometers keeps rising. “For the January marathon, I start practising from August — six months in advance,” he says. Being a passionate runner, he sets a target of completing 100-240 km in a month and follows it till January. After completing a rigorous run, Tripathy does some core workout too. When asked about how hard it is to sustain a balance between running a firm and following a strict workout every day, he said, “You need mental planning. Even if you are travelling, you can go out and run.” Tripathy reminisces his time in Leh and says that considering the fact he was on a vacation to a place of very low temperature, he still did not lose his enthusiasm and ran every morning. Out of the numerous marathons that he has been a part of, the January, 2017 full marathon continues to be close to his heart. “It was my first full marathon and I am looking forward to the next one now,” he adds.

Once the mind is at rest, one can chance upon life-changing insights while pursuing one’s passion and Tripathy is perhaps the perfect example of this. He was previously working as the CMO of HDFC Life and the decision of leaving that job and starting a new venture Agilio Labs occurred to him when he was out on his run one morning. “My jogging session is the time when I take most of my life’s pivotal decisions,” he says. His passion has taught him what discipline is. And from being a half-marathoner to now chasing full marathons, the CMO-turned-founder does not plan to quit running — not anytime soon for sure.