As an engineer from IIT Bombay, it’s a dream to drive the steady state error to 0, of any system that I work on. Pacing a race is one such system, where there is no margin for error, and a lot of variables need to be kept in check. I enjoy being a pacer and take pride in getting the bus on time. Professionally, I am a technical lead at MathWorks, developing mathematical computing software for scientists and engineers around the globe.

My fitness journey started way back when I was a kid, thanks to my dad, who put me into swimming to improve my asthma condition. Fortunately, I outgrew the condition by adulthood. I got into playing volleyball for the school and college teams. When I started my professional career, suddenly I had no outlet for physical exertion. A colleague of mine suggested I take up running, and there was no looking back since then. Procam’s TCS 10k run in 2014 at Bengaluru was my first race and I still have fond memories of that. I have run many races in 10k, Half Marathon, and Marathon categories in different countries and also dabbled in triathlon for a brief time. Along with running, I have a keen interest in strength training as well and I must say I enjoy both of them equally.

I am very fortunate to share this hobby and interest in fitness with my better half. My wife, Kritika Shahu, has picked up running recently and has already served as a pacer for Procam TCS 10k this year, as part of a woman pacer squad. We both love going on running vacations, discussing training runs, planning race strategy together, and everything around it.

A pacer, needless to say, requires good control over the pace, attention to detail, and to have energy throughout the run to motivate everyone. Though I have served as a pacer in multiple events before, this is my first time as a pacer at the TMM. I understand the time and effort that people would have put into training for a specific target time, and would love to be of help to them in achieving their goal. The satisfaction of helping fellow runners achieve their targets and cheering them to the finish line motivates me to be a pacer.