Preet Nair

Age: 48
Occupation: Global IT Leader at Eaton  
Residence: Niskayuna
Family: Son, Arnav and Mom, Alka 
Sport: Running 

By Joanne E. McFadden

You never know where in the world Preet Nair might be donning her running shoes. Between her love of distance running and her job’s international travel schedule, Preet has covered quite a bit of the globe. So far, she has done marathons in the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and Brazil and half marathons in 11 different countries with more scheduled for this year. 

“I’ve always wanted to run,” said Preet. Raised in India, she attended an international school where she was required to take classes in eight different sports, including track and field. However, it wasn’t until after she completed her master’s degree at Marist College, launched her professional life with a position at GE and started a family that she immersed herself in the sport full-on. 

The event that launched her running journey was in 2010 when she attended the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon to cheer on some friends. “I was so inspired,” she said. “I think the energy was so contagious.” Motivated by that experience and her determination to shed her pregnancy weight and get in great shape, she decided on the spot that the next year she would run the half marathon. “When I say I’m going to do something, then I do it,” she said. She signed up with a friend and completed her first half the following year. 

Since then, she has completed 57 additional half marathons across the world and in 22 states. She set the goal of doing a half marathon in all 50 states with an intermediate goal of 25 by the end of this year. She has scheduled Detroit, Oklahoma, and Mississippi for later this year. 

In 2019, she decided to tackle a full marathon, the Wineglass Marathon in Corning. “I think I said I was one and done,” she said, admitting that she hadn’t been sleeping enough or eating right during her training. 

She might have thought that she was done with marathons, but those 26.2-mile races were far from done with her. In 2019, she completed the New York City Marathon alone. “It was the most empowering experience for me,” she said. “That’s when I got the bug about doing the world majors.” The World Marathon Majors are a series of seven highly regarded races in Boston, Tokyo, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York City, and Sydney. 

In 2020, she finished the virtual Boston Marathon. By this time, she had been working with Brian Borden, a running coach she met at Fleet Feet, for three years. In 2021, she returned to Boston for the race. In the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, there were only 16,000 runners, roughly half of the usual number. At one point, Preet was running with only two others alongside her. The race route was void of the large crowds cheering on runners as in previous years, yet Preet said, “It was amazing because it was my fastest. I trained really hard. It was the experience of a lifetime.” 

A warm community – For Preet, in addition to staying fit and healthy, running has been about friendship and community. She has made dozens of friends through running who support each other in the sport and in life in general. In 2014, she joined the local Fleet Feet Running Club, where she has experienced not only encouragement and instruction in running, but the warm community that comes with it. “Fleet Feet spawned some of the best friendships,” she said. “Running has given me friends that I don’t think I would have ever met otherwise. 

Not long after joining Fleet Feet’s club, Preet met Sherry Ringwood of Mechanicville during a run when the two were equally paced. “We just clicked, and we’ve been friends ever since,” Sherry said. 

Some friends have become traveling companions. Preet and Sherry decided to team up for some of the other majors and half marathons that would fulfill their running goals. This month, they’ll travel to South Africa for the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, part of their goal of running a marathon on all seven continents. In 2023, the pair cheered each other on at the Tokyo Marathon. 

Albany resident Diane Macri’s friendship with Preet has taken her to places she never thought she would go. “It makes it so much more fun having a friend who’s just as motivated as you,” Diane said, noting that traveling and running with Preet inspired her to make goals she hadn’t before considered. “She helps motivate me,” she said. Now Macri is working towards the majors.

Traveling with a fellow runner also makes things easier. “Preet’s great to travel with because nothing bothers her,” Sherry said. “She just rolls with it. It’s a great way to see the world, and I’m blessed to have her as a traveling companion,” she said. 

For Preet, running races is a way to see the world as well as to stay healthy. She said she didn’t think she would be seeing all 50 of the United States without “this crazy running goal.” The goal to complete the “SuperHalfs,” a series of six races across Europe, have taken her to Lisbon, Prague, Berlin and Cardiff so far. Copenhagen and Valencia are scheduled for September and October. Other half marathons provided travel experiences in Norway, Hungary, India, Canada, and Iceland. 

After finishing the last of her majors at the London Marathon in 2023, Preet had another “never again” moment. That changed two years later when she lost a bet. “I said if I lose the bet, I will run a marathon,” Preet said. Lose she did, which spurred her on to make seven continents a running goal. 

Lessons and Sacrifices – Preet admits that her passion for running is not without sacrifice. “My son gave up a lot so that I can complete my running goals,” she said, noting the time commitment and travel it takes for training and racing. Her son, Arnav Akula, remembers being at his mom’s first marathon. When he was a kid, going to his mom’s races was an adventure. Preet remembers finishing a race and having her son tell her, “Mommy, don’t worry, you’re not last!” 

Seeing how much his mother enjoys running inspires Arnav’s whole-hearted support for her running. He said that he didn’t want to be the person who wouldn’t let her run wherever she wanted to go. “She did the absolute best to be at everything that was important to me,” he said. “The biggest thing is that I always tried to support her, and even now, she supports me. Preet encouraged him to get into weightlifting to get into shape. “We try to equal out the support in ways we can.” Preet’s mother, Alka, is also a big supporter. 

Preet’s employers have also encouraged her, despite her busy schedule. “I’ve been able to manage my work with my running,” she said, noting that she has a busy work travel schedule. “My managers have been very supportive of these crazy goals, and that helps keep me going. I think it’s important.” 

Brian Borden provided a great deal of support in the six years she worked with him until her schedule made it difficult to maintain regular coaching times. “He was there to help me to get to my goal and gave me a lot of ways to get to my goal,” she said, noting that he ran the Boston Marathon with her. He also understood how busy her lifestyle was with travel and work and always encouraged her. Preet said that she never got injured during her training with him. “He knew how much to push and when not to push,” she said. 

Along with sacrifices came life lessons. Running has taught her patience, Preet said. “It has made me a better mom and a better professional,” she said. 

She has also learned to give herself grace. “I think I was very hard on myself early on in my running,” she said. Now she knows that with her travel schedule, she might not be able to run as often as she likes, but she makes sure not to go more than two or three days without a run. “I would love to have the perfect schedule, but that’s not real life.” She prioritizes her training, however, as she knows that signing up for a race is a time commitment. 

In April 2020, she decided to run a 5K every day, but she discovered that running every day is too much for her. Instead, she does HIIT workouts at Orangetheory Fitness and uses a Peloton treadmill at home to supplement her training. 

Speed is not Preet’s aim. “It doesn’t matter if you go a 6-, 10- or 15-minute mile,” she said. “It’s that you’re out there doing it and focused on completing it. It’s about showing up.”

Goal setting fuels Preet’s running success. “A goal is a dream with an end date” is the philosophy she’s adopted. “I want to run all the continents, and I know I’m going to do it because I’ve put an end date to it, she said.” “I wanted to finish the continents before I turn 50,” Preet said. “It’s another crazy goal I have.” The last two are scheduled for next year in Antarctica and Sydney.

Joanne McFadden (mcfaddenfreelance@gmail.com) is a distance walker who has completed five marathons and seven half marathons. She’s inspired to plan where in the world races can take her and her running fanatic husband next.