Nathaniel Keshan Rajah might sound like a hopeless romantic, a little cliche it may be, but he believes in having “love and passion for running. After that, everything will fall into place”.

Popularly known as Keshan, the lad can be spotted pacing and training with runners around Kuala Lumpur. We also love that he also turns up to support the women’s running sessions by chaperoning and ensuring their safety while they focus on their runs.

Despite coming from an active background of football, badminton and some short distance running since school days, he only started his journey to running half marathons and marathons this year.

The 28-year old scored a personal achievement by finishing in 8th place at the 21km race of the Score Marathon last April. Keshan’s golden streak did not stop there as he targeted to finish the Kuching Marathon in sub 3:30 but surpassed it by 2 minutes to finish in 3:28. The running journey of this young padawan has only begun, as he sets his next goals to run a sub 1:30 half marathon and a full marathon in under 3:15.

Keshan has also been honing his running skills and improving his knowledge with different training methods, training efficiency, and the importance of rest and diet. Most importantly, he has been learning the ways of Jedi Master Yoda, by trying to change the mindset of newer runners with positivity which empowers them to improve their runs.

At the recent ‘The Night Mile” challenge, he remembered that surreal feeling as he witnessed the collaborative spirit and passion of hundreds of runners regardless of age, experience and background, pushing themselves to the limit within the 1.6km distance.

Taking after wise words from the first ever human to run a sub 2-hour full marathon, Eliud Kipchoge said that the world would be a better place if everyone started running. Therefore, he plans to do his part by influencing more people to take up running and and become more active physically.

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