Episode Four: Corporate to Comrades to Coaching with Coach Kay
In this episode, I am talking with Coach Kay, who is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer, race director, ultramarathon running coach, fitness consultant, motivational speaker, a blogger and of course a good Samaritan with a heart of gold. Over the years, he has completed over 50 marathons and couple dozen Ultra marathons, some at blazingly fast speeds. He also trains and mentors many athletes and continues to do so through multiple initiatives through his Kaysfit Academy. Bio: Kannan Sundararajan, also known as Coach Kay was born and grew up in the Ooty, Tamil Nadu in India. Since childhood, he was interested in athletics and as years had passed he had developed a passion for sports, staying active and energetic. He has a deep love for endurance running & coaching. With a Mechanical Engineering degree, Kay is also a certified project manager, agile scrum master and a Lean Six-Sigma black belt holder. He has played a wide range of leadership roles in several multinational companies including Parametric Technology Corporation and Siemens Industry Software. After working for 24 years, he left his corporate career (LinkedIn profile) and launched KaysFIT Academy in 2016 chasing his passion. Kay is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer, race director, ultramarathon running coach, fitness consultant, and motivational speaker. He started OOTYULTRA marathon in 2018 and the first edition of this event had attracted over 278 runners across 10 different Indian states and few international runners and the 2019 edition had 717 runners. OOTYULTRA offers 90k (only by invitation), 60k, 30k and 15k distance categories to runners with a varying level of running interests and capabilities. He also launched Bison Ultra , an exclusive trail run, in Yercaud. Kay is also the founding partner for BAMA (Badminton Masters) a premium badminton tournament conducted in Bangalore on Feb 2018, which brought many talented top veteran Indian and a few international badminton players. He has founded "Reconstruct the running foundation" which a carefully designed program for beginners to experienced marathon/ultramarathon runners. More information is available at Reconstruct the Running Foundation Key Running Highlights A regular runner since 2011 and completed over 50 marathons & 20+ ultramarathons Mostly enjoys running ultramarathons and also the fun elements of running a faster race Finisher, first-ever 42 marathons, 42 consecutive weekends in 42 places in India between Jul 2015 to Apr 2016, to spread awareness on road safety & the importance of first aid through Be Safe! Be there to Save campaign Back to back finisher of the Comrades Marathon (90 km ultramarathon in South Africa) 100-miler (160 km road race) at The Border 100 miler on the 22-23 Dec 2018 in under 27:59:00 hr The first-ever finisher of The Triangular Run Challenge, in May 2019, by completing 500 km in one month
