Running might not be that popular a sport, barring the aberration of Olympics every four years, it is surely the easiest one to participate in and attracts a large number of enthusiasts from all over the world. While the sport has its own share of celebrities in the likes of Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell, Yohan Blake, Mo Farah, Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce, famous personalities from other fields are running aficionados as well.
Plenty of marathons, charity runs and exhibition races take place every now and then, and they see the participation of actors, businessmen, musicians and other famous celebrities from around the world. While some of these famous personalities make appearances, a lot of them take the sport quite seriously and are big followers of running. Sportskeeda takes a look at celebrities and famous people who love running:
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#1 Raghuram Rajan – Economist
The former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is among the most accomplished economists around the world and is widely acclaimed for predicting the 2008 economic meltdown. However, not many know that Raghuram Rajan is a health conscious guy and does spend a lot of time running as well. He has been spotted in several marathons over the years and is known for his love of sports.Raghuram Rajan was seen at the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon a couple of years back and spoke about how happy he was to be associated with the event. The 54-year-old has made several contributions to improve the world economy and certainly does a lot to promote running in whatever capacity he can.
#2 Gul Panag – Actress
Actor, politician and a social worker, Gul Panag is a well known running aficionado and is spotted at a lot of events, including marathons, charity runs and exhibition races. Pretty active on the social media, Panag often Tweets about fitness, well being and adventure. She is considered as a running icon by many and is also the co-founder of Mobiefit – a mobile application created for running aficionados.
She has often spoken about how running a marathon makes her feel invincible and how the actress is thrilled about people wanting to know secrets of fitness. Speaking to IANS, in an interview, she said, “Wherever I go, people are eager to know how I remain so fit and want to know my fitness secrets. I tell each of them that I run, that's it. This habit was inculcated in me by my father at the age of 16, who urged me to run. At that age, I had the misconception that only overweight people run and since I was slim, I didn't need to.”
#3 Rahul Bose – Actor
Rahul Bose might be an actor by profession but he could well have been a full time sportsman, given the fact that he has represented India in ruby. The actor is a more than active runner and is seen participating at several marathons around the year. Bose is an active speaker as well and keeps promoting fitness during press conferences and events throughout the country.
In 2007, he was picked to become the Brand Ambassador of the Mumbai Marathon. He is often spotted running for many social initiatives and has been an active campaigner for ‘The Foundation’, a charity organisation which gets 90 percent of its funding through him. Not only does Bose run in marathons, he keeps giving advice to those who want to run in marathons as well.
#4 Milind Soman – Actor
Milind Soman can easily be called as India’s unofficial celebrity brand ambassador for running, given how much he does for the sport around the year. Following a successful career in modelling, Soman took to running and has been following the sport quite seriously. He is known for running barefoot in a lot of events and famously completed the Iron Man Triathlon, which included a 3.8-km swim, a 180.2-km cycle ride and 42.2-km run.
He is active on the social media and keeps posting a lot of his running photographs. In a column written in Huffpost India, Soman expressed his love for running and explained how, over the years, he has grown even crazier. “I was saved by the Mumbai Marathon. In 2004, the first Mumbai marathon was held. I always had this notion in my head that a man must run at least one marathon in his life. So I prepared for around 3 months and ran a half marathon that year, rather casually. I was not prepared for what happened that day. I got hooked to running. And after a three-year struggle, I was able to stop smoking,“ he wrote.
#5 Anil Ambani – Business
The younger brother of Mukesh Ambani might not be as rich as his elder brother but he certainly seems to be fitter. Anil Ambani is a well-known running aficionado and anyone who is a regular in the Mumbai runners’ circuit would have certainly spotted him on many occasions. participating in marathons. He has been into running for many years now and has spoken about how it keeps him up to the mark.
Quite interestingly, Anil Ambani does not keep his love for running to himself and has tried to engage some of his peers in the past. In 2016, he challenged Niranjan Hirnandani, the real estate tycoon, to complete a marathon. THough the bet did not complete its course, Hirnandani started working on his fitness quite a lot after that particular incident.
