#Bhumika #BhumikaRunner – Empowering VisuallyImpaired & Beyond

Indian Record :Highest number of visually challenged full marathon runners

Highest number of visually challenged full marathon runners was achieved by covering a distance of 42.2kms accompanied by Guide Runners India team, under the guidance of Head Coach Dr.Bhumika Patel at Bengaluru Marathon on October 21, 2018 .

The record has been submitted to Limca book of Records

A Big applaud for the Guide Runners India team to make the impossible possible as they put their heart and soul for continuous support to the visually impaired athletes throughout their journey to success.

For Full Marathon: Bhumika for full and Venkat for half, to be a strong support for Sunitha. Praveen Shetty to support Mala. Bhadresh for full and Sudha for second half, a strong support for Renuka. Nandeesh to guide Kavya, Rahul and Abhishek to support Nandeesh till the finish line. Sachin and Shekhar for support for Ajay.

Join Kindness Crew

(Note: If you have already have login Id for Guide website , you donot need to register again. 1 yr membership is Rs 200, waived off for vi and students, contributed to Kindness work)

Location Protocol trainings have started! Write to info@guiderunnersindia.in for clarifications on the registration and access.

Kindness Location trainings – Learning aids will help you with tools and techniques to do acts of kindness /Guide Running/Volunteering

Emergency Support Guide Certification Program

Course name: Virtual Emergency Support Guide to Visually Impaired

This is a part of a series of courses with certification in association with Mitra Jyothi institute for Blind and other leading institutes. This course will help you learn how to assist someone who is blind or visually impaired as phone buddy in emergency situation such as COVID19.

Three batches have been completed till September 2020. To learn about upcoming sessions, write to info@guiderunnersindia.in

Our Advisory Board includes illustrious volunteers and Institutions from India and Abroad.

OVERVIEW:

Guide/Buddy provide confidential, reliable support that helps individuals who are blind or visually impaired lead the complete, rich, joyful lives they want to live. Guides are matched one-to-one and assist with emergency support activities during COVID19 crisis such as keeping track of elderly visuallyimpaired who are stranded and alone. Guide/Buddy may also be matched as sighted guides for fitness or community activities, thereby opening new doors and opportunities.

Each guide/buddy is thoroughly interviewed, screened, undergoes a thorough background check, and is trained by our experienced GUIDES.

Examples of activities include:

Supporting the elderly VisuallyImpaired,Well Being Check, Serving as sighted guides for running, walking, and home workouts

More details will be provided by email on enrollment!

For recorded learning sessions, visit

Facebook Page: Click here

YouTube : Click here to view all sessions

Learning Session with Chaz Davis, VisuallyImpaired American record holder in FULL Marathon with PB of 2hr 15 mins for full marathon, Massachussets Association for the Blind, USA

Learning Session with Dr Eshwar Kapur, Elite Athlete, Sports Medicine Doctor on Wellbeing and Physical screening for Blind athlete

Visually impaired Training -Highlights

Since 2016 we started training as guide runners for visuallyimpaired.

These Girls and Boys are from underprivileged background and the challenges are immense.

Leading Ngo’s have nominated some of its best visually impaired athletes. These athletes have been selected after assessing their performances in previous races, Bangalore 10k was one of them. Since then, they have been undergoing rigorous trainings for around 6 days a week with my team.

Starting with their whole body physiotherapy assessments and blood tests, the athletes were given their nutrition support which included energy drink, pre run snack and nutritious breakfast post run.

They have also been provided running gear and shoes.

Their workout consist of 3 running days, two days of strength training, per week.

Also foam rolling, stretching sessions. Doctors and physiotherapists attend the sessions regularly to assess their health.

Apart from this there are few athletes from the Mitra Jyoti institute for Blind who join us regularly.

Pics from Pinkathon Bengaluru 2016

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I strongly believe that every human being has her set of rights to achieve what normal people do. It was in a Pinkathon event that I learned that there were hundreds of them willing to run and undergo training and the journey started since then. These visually impaired women & kids are from underprivileged background and the challenges are immense.

Event: Training session at JP Nagar & HSR Samarthanam, Meet and Greet with new members, 2016

Event: First Aid session for Visually Impaired by Alert India, Jagadish, 7 Sep 2017

Event: Self Defence Session for Visually Impaired, Ritika and team, Sep 2017

Event:

Event : Bengaluru 10k training at Stadium.June 1st 2018 , Footballer Sunil Chhetri’s dad joined us as Guide runner for the day !

Event : Visually impaired athletes running Bangalore Marathon
Schedule 1 : Body assessments of VI runners
Date : 25th August 2018
About 10 visually impaired runners of Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled who will be running the Bangalore Marathon on 21st October 2018 are heading speedily towards progress. Since they will be the first set of runners in India to run a full marathon, their schedule is under stringent surveillance by their coach Bhumika and her team.
They underwent body assessment today with physiotherapists. This body assessment is the first major step in their training process since their diets for the 2 months to come will be decided according to their test reports.

Thanks to Dr Sitaraman from PhysiobeFit for the assessments and advise.

Event : Strength Training sessions at the gym and Kanteerava stadium, Aug to Oct 2018

Event : Running workouts, three days a week at Kanteerava Stadium, HSR Layout, some sessions at Bannerghatta

Many thanks to the running community for their donations of running gear and accessories. Huge contribution from Runners 360 and Pacemakers

2021-22 snapshot

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Nature Lover Girls of Cubbon Park

Bengaluru trainings first started with Cubbon Park location! We achieved a major milestone onn Jan 26th 2018, as we celebrated 100 weeks of #PinkathonTrainings at Bengaluru #Cubbon Park !! Thank you Vasundhara for organic millet cake and thanks to Pinkathon Milind Soman for encouragement and support !

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Pinkathonday Celebrations continued at Cubbon Park on 27 Oct too! With medals and prize distribution.

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A big thank you Balasubramaniam, Vasanthi, Vandana, Vasundhara,Preeti and team for leading and supporting the various events at Cubbon Park.

Blog: Bhumika

Kavya lost her eyesight due to stone injury while playing as a child

Recently a group of visually impaired girls etched their names in Indian history by running their first time Full marathon! Kavya was one of the finishers at NammaBenngaluru Marathon on Oct 21st and it makes me very proud !

Accompanying her to finish line was my colleague from IBM, Nandish Kumar, who has dedicated several hours to support the trainings.

Dr Rajneet from ColumbiaAsia Hospitals, provided good support with picking up nutritious food for her and ensuring they visually impaired had access to it. He has also done a few training runs with Kavya. She was provided with new running tshirts, running tights and sports bra. We would either do breakfast or dinner together on most training days.

Kavya is a 19 yr old visually impaired girl whom I met at Samarthanam, HSR. She was recommended to me by her wall climbing instructor as a very strong athlete. Samarthanam also has a sports facility providing her with adequate wall climbing training. One fine day, she called me herself that she was keen to join running. I gladly agreed :- ) She has been very regular and consistent. Since she joined later part of training, we still have work to do with her.

During her childhood days, a kid threw a stone at her while playing, because of which she completely lost sight in one eye.

Her Interests include Wall climbing and running Marathons !

Due to her progress and achievements in sporting activities (wall climbing, long distance running), she is completely inclined towards sports and intends to pursue a career in this field.

She was placed 3rd at the national level for wall climbing for visually impaired.

She has been selected to participate in an upcoming international wall-climbing event in France.

Her father is into agriculture and her mom and younger brother lend him a helping hand.They are supporting her to pursue her dreams.

She completed her 10th in a normal school from her native place, Tumkur and joined Samarthanam institute 6 months back.

She has recently undergone a 3 months’ course in technical and sector based skill training at Samarthanam’s Livelihood Resource Centre for the disabled. Although she intends to pursue intermediate education (PUC/11th and 12th) in the future, currently, she is seeking employment.

She is ready to forego her education at this juncture, depending on her progress in sports and is extremely confident and determined to succeed.

Wishing her All the best for the upcoming race !

#VisuallyImpaired #MarathonTraining #PinkathonDayBengaluru #NammaBengaluru #PinkathonTraining #Live2Inspire

Blog credit: Rahul, Bhumika