Women on the Move: Iron Lady

Pervin Batliwala, 69

Marathon Runner

At 50, when a lot of people tend to step away from active sports, Mumbai-based Pervin Batliwala shifted gears and started running. Today, at 69, Batliwala has completed all the six major marathons across the world, has several podium finishes to her name, and completed the Ironman 70.3 Goa swim–bike–run challenge—touted to be one of the toughest one-day sporting events in the world—with her triathlon partners Zarir Baliwalla and Ariez Kharas.

For someone who couldn’t fathom why her husband Kushru Batliwala would wake up in the wee hours of the morning and go for a run, Batliwala has become a runner for life. The transformation was not one that was planned but it just happened. As an executive with Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Batliwala would join other employees for a run at the Maidan with coach Savio D’Souza, as part of the company’s initiative to improve employee well being. On one such run D’Souza asked her to join him to run on the road. “That day I started running on the road and I’ve never looked back since,” she says.

In 2006, Batliwala completed the half marathon of the Tata Mumbai Marathon, but it was a struggle and one that opened her eyes to what she had to work on. “I had started too fast and wasn’t hydrating properly. I was also excited and overconfident. Although I finished the race I had learnt my lesson,” she recalls.

With several marathons under her belt since that first race, Batliwala mixes running with swimming and training to build strength and stamina. Before big events like the 88-km Comrades Marathon in South Africa and 72-km Khardung La Challenge in Ladakh, she also monitors her diet. What’s remained constant through it all is her never say die attitude. “However tired I am, I talk to myself and push myself to get to the finish line,” she says. She’s a vivacious personality who’s always talking, joking and making noise while running, and other people, who may be a decade or two younger than her enjoy running with her.

Over the years Batliwala has marked an increase in the number of women in her age group who have started running. “There was a time when I always used to end up on the podium, but now I have a lot of competition. I like that as it makes me work harder,” she says.

An inspiration to both young and old, she’s a firm believer that age is just a number and doesn’t have to dictate what one can do. A quote that she lives by goes: ‘We do not stop exercising because we grow old, we grow old because we stop exercising’.