It is 6.30am and already there is a crowd of blue shirts gathered under the Benjamin Sheares Bridge at Marina East.
The group members are chirpy and energetic, exchanging pleasantries and cracking jokes.
They are the Thaarumaaru Runners, a running group from the Indian community, that began in 2017.
Mr Ramesh Selvaraj, 46, co-founder of Thaarumaaru Runners, explained the meaning behind the group’s name.
“Thaarumaaru is a Tamil word with two meanings. The first is ‘anyhow’. It was appropriate as all of us were coming together without any training background and just running anyhow. The word also has another meaning – ‘brilliant’ or ‘excellent’, just like what we exemplify.”
Among the 165 people at the Dec 28 event was 45-year-old Senthil Kumar, who several years ago, had been diagnosed with prediabetes – elevated blood sugar levels that could lead to diabetes.
He then turned to running, and today, is completely free of prediabetes.
Running became his passion and he even completed the New York Marathon this October and the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM) last month.
Senthil and his son ran the 21km team relay while his wife and daughter took part in Thaarumaaru’s inaugural 5km year-end fun walk.
In total, there were 95 relay runners and 70 walkers. Around 50 were new faces.
Senthil’s wife Suguna Thanagasundram, 48, a senior lecturer at Temasek Polytechnic, said a significant part of her husband’s achievements was due to the bonding among the Thaarumaaru Runners.
“They have a great support system, giving my husband a lot of exercise tips,” she said. “They also keep changing the routes to make it interesting. One day you could be at Bedok Reservoir, and the next time at Labrador Park.”
One of the runners, Subashini Nagarajan, a senior project engineer at Fortis Construction, said she lost 8kg in seven months through exercise.
“Due to my sedentary lifestyle, my weight increased to the point where I even struggled to walk up the stairs. That was a wakeup call,” said the 44-year-old.
“My colleague Guru Sangarathas encouraged me to join his Gym Buddies programme at Fortis. Through that, I started hitting the gym twice a week. As he is in charge of both the midweek run and strength training at Thaarumaaru, I dived into running too.”
From facing difficulty running even 200 metres, her progress has been remarkable. She ran 10km at SCSM 2024.
For the Thaarumaaru run, she was accompanied by her Fortis colleagues Guru, Julius Caesar (Filipino), Liquan, (Chinese) and Syah (Malay).
Other runners included 62-year-old twins Raman Karuppiah and Letchuman Karuppiah who ran side by side and parents pushing their kids in a pram.
The route took participants to the Marina Barrage, where they made a turn and returned to the starting point when they were received gold-coloured medals.
There were also other fitness challenges, such as the longest plank, most number of push-ups and most juggles of a football.
Saran Prema, 46, planked for 4min and 23sec and finished top among the women. She said: “Since young I have been sporty. I do zumba, yoga and taekwondo.”
Sri Haran, 29, a navy regular planked for 5min and 7sec.
As Thaarumaaru Runners end their remarkable 2024 run on a high, they have set their sights on at least one overseas hike and a run at Ha Long Bay (Vietnam), Angkor Wat (Cambodia) or Goa (India) in 2025.
Women are also encouraged to try at least one full marathon, with the 2026 London marathon as their target.
