He hit the wall at his first Mumbai Marathon in 2013. Walked the last 10 kilometers. Finished in 4:02. And came home thinking — I can do better.

Thirteen years later, Vijayraghavan Venugopal — known as ViRa — has run sub-3 thirteen times, completed all six World Marathon Majors, and clocked a personal best of 2:47:17 at Cape Town in 2026.

In Episode 257 of Run with Fitpage, Vikas sits down with ViRa for a detailed conversation about what it actually takes to go from a 4:02 first-timer to one of India's most consistent sub-3 marathon runners over 13 years of learning, failing, and coming back stronger.

In this episode we covered:

➝ Growing up in Kerala in the golden era of Indian athletics — and why cricket became his sport when football and athletics felt out of reach

➝ His first marathon at Mumbai 2013 — the wall at Haji Ali, the walk home, and the one decision that changed everything

➝ How he went from 4:02 to 3:31 in five months using a single book — Run Less Run Faster

➝ The only marathon he ever won — Spice Coast 2015 — and why a police escort to the finish line changed what he believed was possible

➝ Paris 2016 — how he broke sub-3 for the first time without even planning to

➝ New York 2019 — buying a Vaporfly three days before the race to compensate for a lack of confidence — and what happened next

➝ The L4-L5 disc extrusion that almost ended his running — and the six-month rebuild that followed

➝ What 20 days in Kenya in 2023 taught him about running that 10 years of training could not

➝ How he restructured everything after 2022 — strength training, easy runs, mileage, sleep, nutrition — and why the results finally showed up in 2024 and 2025

➝ Four marathons in 14 months at 50 — London, New York, Mumbai, Cape Town — and what comes next

About Vikas Singh:
Vikas Singh, an MBA from Chicago Booth, worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, APGlobale, and Reliance before coming up with the idea of democratizing fitness knowledge and helping beginners get on a fitness journey. Vikas is an avid long-distance runner, building fitpage to help people learn, train, and move better.
For more information on Vikas, or to leave any feedback and requests, you can reach out to him via the channels below:
Instagram: @vikas_singhh
LinkedIn: Vikas Singh
Twitter: @vikashsingh101

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A free office registration for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon in 2017. A 2:45 finish. Cramps at every kilometre. Medical assistance on the route. And absolutely no intention of ever running again.

That was Megha Kishore's introduction to running.

In Episode of Run with Fitpage, Vikas Singh sits down with Megha — certified marathon coach, ASICS Delhi Coach, Hyrox Delhi gold medalist, and one of India's most competitive age category runners — for a conversation about what it actually takes to go from a reluctant first-timer to a serial podium finisher while managing a full-time career, a family, and everything else life throws at you.

In this episode we covered:

• How a COVID lockdown in the UK turned a gym-goer into a runner — and why she never looked back
• Traveling 3 hours every day just to train for 1 hour — and what that kind of obsession actually costs
• What changed when she stopped trying to be perfect at everything — and how that shift unlocked her best performances
• How she trained for Hyrox Delhi in the scorching June heat — doing burpees and lunges on outdoor grass in direct sun — and finished in 1:24:45
• Why most people get Hyrox completely wrong — the one mistake that sends everyone crashing in the final stations
• Running by feel versus running by heart rate — and why she has never once looked at her watch during a race
• What she would tell every Indian woman who thinks she does not have enough time, enough energy, or the right age to start

About Vikas Singh:
Vikas Singh, an MBA from Chicago Booth, worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, APGlobale, and Reliance before coming up with the idea of democratizing fitness knowledge and helping beginners get on a fitness journey. Vikas is an avid long-distance runner, building fitpage to help people learn, train, and move better.
For more information on Vikas, or to leave any feedback and requests, you can reach out to him via the channels below:
Instagram: @vikas_singhh
LinkedIn: Vikas Singh
Twitter: @vikashsingh101

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India swept gold, silver, and bronze at the IAU 24-Hour Asia Oceania Championship in Japan in 2026 — beating Japan on their home soil with a team total that no Asian country had ever achieved in IAU history.

In Episode 256 of Run with Fitpage, Vikas Singh sits down with Santhosh Padmanabhan — Founder of Runner's High and Head Coach & Team Manager of the Indian team at the 2026 IAU 24-Hour Asia Oceania Championships — for a conversation about what it actually takes to build a team that can beat the best in Asia, what the science of 24-hour running looks like in practice, and why everything he learned coaching underprivileged school children in Bengaluru eventually found its way into India's championship-winning ultra running programme.

In this episode we covered:

• How a $100,000 fundraiser for underprivileged children in 2004 turned a VLSI chip engineer into one of India's most respected running coaches
• Why Santhosh believes PT class is the most undervalued hour in any Indian school — and how he built a programme that teaches VO2 Max to tribal children using a bucket, a tube, and balloons
• How India went from never winning a championship outside home soil to sweeping gold, silver, and bronze at the IAU 24-Hour Asia Oceania Championship in Japan in 2026
• Why training for a 24-hour race is fundamentally different from marathon training — and the one mistake almost every Indian ultra runner makes
• How Santhosh structures 12-hour day runs, 12-hour night runs, and intervals inside long runs to simulate race-day fatigue without breaking his athletes down
• Why he does not believe in sleep breaks during a 24-hour race — and the science behind running through the night
• The team culture he built that made Amar Singh Devanda — now among only 11 people in history to ever cover his distance in 24 hours — run even better
• What India needs to do to stop being Asia's best and start competing for a world championship medal
• Padmanabhan — Founder of Runner's High, USATF Level 2 Coach, and the man behind India's national ultra running programme — for a conversation about what it actually takes to coach athletes for 24 hours of continuous running.

About Vikas Singh:
Vikas Singh, an MBA from Chicago Booth, worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, APGlobale, and Reliance before coming up with the idea of democratizing fitness knowledge and helping beginners get on a fitness journey. Vikas is an avid long-distance runner, building fitpage to help people learn, train, and move better.
For more information on Vikas, or to leave any feedback and requests, you can reach out to him via the channels below:
Instagram: @vikas_singhh
LinkedIn: Vikas Singh
Twitter: @vikashsingh101

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Eighteen years of strength training. No running. And then — a 10K, a half marathon, a full marathon, a 50K, and a 100K — all in under two years.

Joel Eric Pinto is not a runner who discovered fitness. He is a fitness person who discovered running. And that distinction matters more than most people realise.

In Episode 254 of Run with Fitpage, Vikas Singh sits down with Joel — Co-Founder of Knox Studio and Nack, certified personal trainer, certified nutritionist, Hyrox Worlds Qualifier, and ultramarathoner — for a conversation about what happens when eighteen years of strength training meets running, what longevity-focused fitness actually looks like in practice, and why building a community around fitness might matter more than any race result.

In this episode we covered:

• How a family history of bone degenerative disease sent an inactive engineering student to a gym inside a hospital
• Why Joel spent eighteen years training without ever running — and what that base gave him when he finally did
• How he went from struggling to complete two kilometers to finishing a 100K ultramarathon
• What his approach to VO2 Max, Zone 2, and sleep science looked like long before these became mainstream topics
• How a stress fracture and a weak left glute taught him more about running than any training plan
• Why he believes strength training and sleep matter more than mileage for most recreational runners
• What building Knox Run Club taught him about what keeps people consistent long after the initial motivation runs out

About Vikas Singh:
Vikas Singh, an MBA from Chicago Booth, worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, APGlobale, and Reliance before coming up with the idea of democratizing fitness knowledge and helping beginners get on a fitness journey. Vikas is an avid long-distance runner, building fitpage to help people learn, train, and move better.
For more information on Vikas, or to leave any feedback and requests, you can reach out to him via the channels below:
Instagram: @vikas_singhh
LinkedIn: Vikas Singh
Twitter: @vikashsingh101

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Vaibhav is a runner next door whose story will make you relate with you and inspire you to get out of the door and start running yourself. He was an absolute beginner up until 2021, struggled with Bronchitis and had never run before. Since then, he has come a long way and he is only getting started.

Vaibhav spent time in being consistent, stayed disciplined and relentlessly prioritized his fitness.

He then debuted in a marathon at Rome in 2025 and got to the finish line in an impressive time of 3:03.  He improvised it in Paris a month later to xxxx. He stayed patient, trained further and clocked an even more impressive finish time of 2:48:50 in 2026 London Marathon. Did you know he cramped at around 29 kms and so he had to cut back on his paces in the remaining 13 kms. If he stays on track, he may very well be running a much faster time in the months and years to come.

In this episode we cover:

• How setbacks from UPSC results and bronchitis did not deter him from getting fitter, and eventually faster
• Why two years of 10 kilometres a day with no watch and no plan built a large aerobic base
• How Vaibhav went from 3:03 at Rome to 2:48 at London in under a year
• The 26-week training block that took him from 60 kilometres a week to 100 to 110 kilometres a week
• How interval sessions with his run club, Clapham Chasers, brought his 5K time from 18:30 to 17:16
• What went wrong at London — cramping at 28km due to a complete lack of electrolytes — and what he would do differently
• How a corporate lawyer in London manages to train twice a day while working long hours
• Why discipline, not talent, is the only thing that separates people who achieve from people who do not

About Vikas Singh:
Vikas Singh, an MBA from Chicago Booth, worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, APGlobale, and Reliance before coming up with the idea of democratizing fitness knowledge and helping beginners get on a fitness journey. Vikas is an avid long-distance runner, building fitpage to help people learn, train, and move better.
For more information on Vikas, or to leave any feedback and requests, you can reach out to him via the channels below:
Instagram: @vikas_singhh
LinkedIn: Vikas Singh
Twitter: @vikashsingh101

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Most runners spend years chasing a Boston Qualifier. Aditi Pandya spent six years not even thinking about it — and then ran 3:22:35 at the 2026 Boston Marathon.

In Episode 252 of Run with Fitpage, Vikas Singh sits down with Aditi Pandya — endurance runner and co-founder of Geeks on Feet, to discuss her journey to the Boston Marathon.

Aditi started as a hobby jogger in Mumbai who did not know the difference between a half marathon and a full marathon. Her first marathon in 2019 took her 4 hours and 37 minutes. She trained with friends, had no coach, and piled up injuries. Six years, multiple setbacks, a pelvic injury that forced eight months of rehabilitation, and a piriformis niggle that stayed through her Boston preparation — and yet on April 20, 2026, she crossed the Copley Square finish line.

Know more about Geeks on Feet - Geeks on Feet

In this episode:

• How roller skating and field hockey led to a running career she never planned
• Why it took six years from running casually to even considering a Boston Qualifier
• The 13-week training block that built her Boston performance — hills, tempos, strength training, and gut training
• Why she trained on normal daily trainers and avoided carbon plate shoes in preparation
•  Managing a piriformis injury through Boston training — what she did and what she refused to skip
• Race day at Boston — the cold, the hills, Heartbreak Hill, and running 42.76km instead of 42.195
• In-race fueling — every 30 minutes, gel strategy, electrolytes, and the carb numbers behind a 3:22
• Why food and sleep are not soft habits — they are training variables
• What she would tell every runner who is dreaming of Boston right now

About Vikas Singh:
Vikas Singh, an MBA from Chicago Booth, worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, APGlobale, and Reliance before coming up with the idea of democratizing fitness knowledge and helping beginners get on a fitness journey. Vikas is an avid long-distance runner, building fitpage to help people learn, train, and move better.
For more information on Vikas, or to leave any feedback and requests, you can reach out to him via the channels below:
Instagram: @vikas_singhh
LinkedIn: Vikas Singh
Twitter: @vikashsingh101

Subscribe To Our Newsletter For Weekly Nuggets of Knowledge!

According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) 2024 data, India has 89.8 million adults living with diabetes. More than any other country in the world. Yet most people still do not understand what diabetes actually is, how it develops, or what they can do to prevent or manage it.

This week on Run with Fitpage, Vikas sits down with one of India's foremost authorities on the subject.Dr. Anoop Misra is the Chairman of Fortis C-DOC Centre of Excellence for Diabetes, Metabolic Diseases and Endocrinology in New Delhi, and a former Honorary Physician to the Prime Minister of India. A Padma Shri awardee and recipient of the Dr. B.C. Roy Award — India's highest medical honour — he has spent over 45 years studying what diabetes does to the Indian body and why Indians are uniquely vulnerable to it at lower body weights than the rest of the world.

In this episode, the conversation starts from the very beginning — what blood sugar actually is, how insulin works, and why the body moves from healthy to pre-diabetic to diabetic over years without sending obvious signals. Dr. Misra explains why Indians develop diabetes at a BMI of 23 to 25 when Western guidelines only flag risk at 30, and why being slim does not mean being safe.

Read more from his research here: Google Scholar

Dr. Anoop Misra's Books:

• Diabetes with Delight (English): Amazon
• Diabetes Ke Saath Bhi Khushaal Jeevan (Hindi): Amazon

In this episode we covered :

→ What blood sugar actually is and why the body needs it

→ How insulin works — and what goes wrong when it stops working

→ The difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, and why insulin is not the enemy

→ Why weight is the thick tree and blood sugar is just one of its branches

→ The real cost of ignoring diabetes — from vision loss to kidney failure

→ Why grip strength is as important as blood pressure and should be treated as a vital sign

→ How to start managing diabetes or pre-diabetes from today — diet, exercise, and discipline

About Vikas Singh:
Vikas Singh, an MBA from Chicago Booth, worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, APGlobale, and Reliance before coming up with the idea of democratizing fitness knowledge and helping beginners get on a fitness journey. Vikas is an avid long-distance runner, building fitpage to help people learn, train, and move better.
For more information on Vikas, or to leave any feedback and requests, you can reach out to him via the channels below:
Instagram: @vikas_singhh
LinkedIn: Vikas Singh
Twitter: @vikashsingh101

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In this special milestone episode of Run with Fitpage, we celebrate our 250th episode with an in-depth conversation on one of the most misunderstood aspects of running — fatigue.

Joining us is Prof Philipp Baumert, an expert in exercise physiology and injury prevention.  He breaks down the science behind why runners feel tired, why performance drops, and what actually happens inside the body during long runs particularly marathons.

From central fatigue (brain-driven) to peripheral fatigue (muscle-level), this episode explores how your body regulates effort, why some runners recover faster than others, and what leads to that dreaded moment of hitting the wall.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• What fatigue really is (beyond just “feeling tired”)
• Difference between central, peripheral & mental fatigue
• Why runners hit the wall after 30–35 km
• How fueling strategy impacts performance
• The importance of strength training for runners
• How long fatigue actually lasts in the body
• Smart ways to recover after a marathon

Read more from his research here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PjIJ2ZcAAAAJ&hl=en

About Vikas Singh:
Vikas Singh, an MBA from Chicago Booth, worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, APGlobale, and Reliance before coming up with the idea of democratizing fitness knowledge and helping beginners get on a fitness journey. Vikas is an avid long-distance runner, building fitpage to help people learn, train, and move better.
For more information on Vikas, or to leave any feedback and requests, you can reach out to him via the channels below:
Instagram: @vikas_singhh
LinkedIn: Vikas Singh
Twitter: @vikashsingh101

Subscribe To Our Newsletter For Weekly Nuggets of Knowledge!

Sarthak Malani is not the runner next door who chases PBs.  Rather, he changes how running is viewed—he runs barefoot and backward. He is much liked by runners in the community and he inspired many others to take up running (backwards). 

In this episode, Vikas sits down with Sarthak to discuss what inspired Sarthak to take up running backwards:

In this episode, they cover:

• How Sarthak transitioned from shoes to barefoot running over 6 to 8 months
• Why backward running works, how it gave relief to his runner’s knee, and how he got back to running from 100 metres to over 60 km
• Training without a coach, doing back to back long runs, and what actually helped him achieve a 1:29 half marathon
• Running in Kenya and what Kenyan athletes taught him about truly slow running
• His advice to beginners, fall in love first, ignore social media, and stop comparing and
• A moment in Kolkata that reminded him why being able to run at all is the biggest privilege

This one will make you want to take your shoes off and just run.

About Vikas Singh:
Vikas Singh, an MBA from Chicago Booth, worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, APGlobale, and Reliance before coming up with the idea of democratizing fitness knowledge and helping beginners get on a fitness journey. Vikas is an avid long-distance runner, building fitpage to help people learn, train, and move better.
For more information on Vikas, or to leave any feedback and requests, you can reach out to him via the channels below:
Instagram: @vikas_singhh
LinkedIn: Vikas Singh
Twitter: @vikashsingh101

Subscribe To Our Newsletter For Weekly Nuggets of Knowledge!

Welcome back to Run with Fitpage!

As the 130th Boston Marathon approaches on April 20, 2026, we are bringing back one of our most cherished conversations — our episode with Jack Fultz, the 1976 Boston Marathon champion.

This year marks the Golden Jubilee of Jack Fultz's legendary victory — 50 years since one of the most iconic and grueling races in marathon history. On that day, temperatures had already crossed 100 degrees an hour before the noon start. Spectators lined the course with garden hoses to cool down the runners, earning the race its legendary name, "The Run for the Hoses." With fewer than 40 percent of the 1,898 starters managing to finish, Jack held his composure, took the lead with six miles to go, and never looked back, finishing in 2:20:19 to become only the 5th American to win Boston since World War II.

In this episode, Jack takes us deep into his race strategy, his mindset, and the lessons he learned from running one of the most brutal marathons in history. He shares the fascinating insight that viewing other runners as allies rather than opponents was one of the key reasons behind his victory. Post his running career, Jack has coached the Dana Farber Institute Boston Marathon team and spent nearly 30 years teaching sports psychology at Tufts University, making him one of the most thoughtful voices on what it truly takes to run and win

If you are an Indian runner heading to Boston this April, or a runner anywhere in the world gearing up for your biggest race yet, this conversation is one you cannot afford to miss. From race strategy and pacing to the mental side of running 26.2 miles, Jack covers it all — and every word of it is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago.

Whether you are toeing the start line in Hopkinton this April, chasing a personal best, or simply a lover of the sport, this episode is a masterclass in racing smart, staying mentally strong, and finding meaning in every mile.

About Vikas Singh:
Vikas Singh, an MBA from Chicago Booth, worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, APGlobale, and Reliance before coming up with the idea of democratizing fitness knowledge and helping beginners get on a fitness journey. Vikas is an avid long-distance runner, building fitpage to help people learn, train, and move better.
For more information on Vikas, or to leave any feedback and requests, you can reach out to him via the channels below:
Instagram: @vikas_singhh
LinkedIn: Vikas Singh
Twitter: @vikashsingh101

Subscribe To Our Newsletter For Weekly Nuggets of Knowledge!