‘Feeling good and making friends for life’

My name is Raji Sundar, I was born in Mumbai, India.

Growing up my dad changed jobs a lot, I became used to different cultures and could speak 4 different languages by the age of 4. As a child I was quiet and reflective, my sister was the star of the family. Looking back I was afraid of failure and so never attempted anything. 

During the 90’s the I.T boom started, I had a keen interest and worked hard to get myself on the career ladder. I found employment at a company called TCS who wanted to send me to the UK.

The first year was tough, I lived in Kent and had to travel to London everyday.

I had a culture shock, the trains were packed full of people but nobody acknowledged one another or engaged in conversation, you could hear a pin drop.

But I was very career focused, I delivered a project that saved a company  57 million pounds. I then got recruited to the bank H Boss delivering successful project after successful project.It was great being part of a big corporate team but I always wondered whether there was more to live than my 9-5. 

In 2015 my friend told me she wanted to run a 10k for charity, I thought I could  support her by doing 5k. Neither of us knew anything  about running, but that race changed my life. I got the running bug. 

My friends would ask me how I made this change in my life and I thought it might help others if I shared my experience. I decided to start a blog  called midlife runners and coached people from all over the world to get them into running.

I was passionate about giving my students the right advice to women post menopause and so I qualified as an Great Britain athletics coach. Midlife runners  brought people together and it was amazing to be able to pass on my well-being to others. 

Midlife runners are for the  underdogs, we make running accessible. We are not about competition but about feeling good and making friends for life. 

This tale was written by Millie Davies based on the interview with tales to Inspire