Team Motiv8 athlete Kavitha Reddy created magic at Melbourne Marathon 2002, smashing through the finish line in a rip-snorting time of 3:07. In doing so, she garnered a PB for herself, and moved her stake further forward as the fastest female runner in the Indian amateur circuit.

Speaking about her training for this race, Kavitha said:

“Frequent travels during the training cycle affected my training momentum. Often times, I was only able to put in easy mileage during my travels. After training with coach, Krishna and Vishwas for the previous 3-4 training cycles, this time I had to train alone without any company and that was a bit hard.”

Though the race day finished like a dream, the lead-up to the race day was not without its challenges:

“I arrived in Australia 10 days before the race, and ever since I landed, I caught cough and cold, possibly due to change in weather – it was very cold and windy in Melbourne. So I was not having proper confidence to stand at the start line.”

Commenting about training, she said:

“I did not put myself under too much pressure despite not being able to hit target paces. Encouraging words from friends kept me going and last few weeks of training cycle boosted the confidence.”

After the finish, Kavitha had this to say:

“Anything is possible if you are focused and determined. Post 35-37K, I knew it would be a strong finish. I was visualizing my last few hundred meters to finish line and never felt happier as I crossed it so strongly.”