The Spirit of Comrades honours
INTREPID Comrades runner Amit Sheth almost did not make the flight from his home city Mumbai that was to bring him to Durban to receive the coveted 2016 Old Mutual Spirit of Comrades Award on Saturday night.
IT issues at the SA Embassy in Mumbai delayed the issuing of his visa. He finally managed to get his visa only 10 minutes before the office was due to close on Friday.
“But with just 10 minutes to go for the office to shut, I wasn’t stressed.
“I thought of the eight years that I have been running the Comrades.
“In five of those years, I managed to finish the race with about just under a minute to go.
“So I think, 10 minutes was quite a luxury. One can live a lifetime in 10 minutes,” he said with a chuckle in Durban on Monday, shortly before returning to India.
The annual awards gala of the Comrades Marathon Association saw 49 individuals being honoured this year. Of these, three who pushed beyond boundaries for The Ultimate Human Race were presented with the Old Mutual Spirit of Comrades Award.
The Spirit of Comrades Award celebrates remarkable individuals every year for their very human attributes of selflessness, dedication, perseverance and ubuntu; combined with their love for the Ultimate Human Race.
The Spirit of Comrades recipients are presented with a one-ounce, 24 carat gold medallion, as well as due recognition of their remarkable qualities.
Sheth, who has successfully completed the Comrades five times, is the first Indian national to have run the Comrades Marathon.
That was in 2009, and that same year he was appointed the Comrades International Brand Ambassador for the Indian subcontinent, a role which he has fulfilled with enthusiasm and pride.
Over the years, he has inspired, mentored and encouraged hundreds of people to spread the word of the world’s greatest footrace.
His book, Dare to Run, published in 2010, became a best-seller in India and has helped motivate people from all walks of life to get into running, and more specifically, to come and take up the Comrades challenge.
To this end, nearly 100 runners from India had entered the 2016 Comrades Marathon, up from one runner in 2009.
Despite his everyday job as the CEO of a successful engineering company in India, Sheth makes the time to blog about his running experiences and share his running hints, tips and general motivation to runners all over the Indian subcontinent and across the world.
He is a motivational speaker of note and also an amazing benefactor when it comes to charity fund-raising.
Sheth said the first time he ran the Comrades, he did not finish the race.
“I finished it the second time I ran. And I finished only because I ran it with my wife, Neepa. She carried me through. And I love her for that.
“It is said that running the Comrades changes your life. It is true. Comrades has changed my life.
“I wrote a book about the Comrades which went on to become a best-seller. The book then led to speaking assignments about the Comrades all around India and Asia.
“I donated the proceeds of these talks – more than R2 million – for the treatment of underprivileged children suffering from cancer at the Tata Memorial Hospital.
“So when I thank the Comrades Marathon for changing my life, I also convey to the Comrades the gratitude of all those children and their families.”
In his acceptance speech, Sheth also thanked ninetimes Comrades winner Bruce Fordyce, who wrote to encourage him when he did not finish his first race.
The other two recipients of this year’s Spirit of Comrades Award are Dr Shoyab Wadee, who missed his third finish when he rendered emergency medical intervention and helped another runner; and Rupin Metha, who sacrificed his own medal to help two other runners.
He missed his fifth consecutive finish by just 21 seconds.