How Dubai’s 23-year-old built a 2000-day running streak through pain, heat, and cold

Gen Z is doing just fine, folks. You hear the usual jaded refrain — ‘They’re so entitled, no motivation, always demanding something’— and then one of them builds a company at 25.

 Crickets.

 And that’s a similar story for Dubai’s Mridul Manoj, a 23-year-old runner who has kept up a running streak for the past 6 years, everyday without skipping even a day.

We have a pleasant conversation: He doesn’t delve into excessive metaphors on life and grand ideas of goals and ambitions. Neither is he here to lecture anyone on fitness. Simply put, he just knows that he has a story worth telling and that confidence ripples through. And he knows, it is a story that can inspire others too.

Narrating his story that goes back to 2019, Manoj explains first, that he has always been a professional cricketer. “I actually feared running,” he says, ironically. He disliked it, but obviously, given being a sportsman he couldn’t avoid the warm-ups that had to be done before playing the game. Perhaps it was just idea of being alone with his thoughts, constantly.

 Before heading to the UK in 2019 to study at Loughborough University, Manoj’s passion for cricket had begun to fade.  “I was playing it for the wrong reasons,” he says. And so, he became a tad restless without any physical activity. Unwilling to just ‘sit inside’ his room, he needed a new purpose.

Then one day, scrolling through YouTube, he stumbled upon a video of American streak runner Hellah Sidibe completing 365 days of daily runs. That lit a spark — if discomfort was his enemy, maybe it was time to make it his challenge.

 A purpose grew, and so did motivation. “The first day, I did over 5km,” he says. Since that day on November 20, 2019, he hasn’t stopped, despite ankle injuries and tough weather, both between UK and UAE.

Relating the story of a swollen ankle, he says, “It happened when I was playing basketball. I just landed on my ankle and bam, it was swollen.” Even that didn’t stop him: He continued running, as he notes, gingerly and carefully without excessive strenuous effort for his ankle. Each run is meticulously tracked on Samsung Health, and his log now has more than 2,000 consecutive entries.

The weather hasn’t been entirely merciful either: From cold, freezing temperatures of the UK in December, to scorching Dubai heat. But Manoj doesn’t give up. He looks for his own routines and timings; perhaps an evening run is what the doctor ordered.

 The most refreshing part about Manoj is that he doesn’t wax eloquent about running.  He still doesn’t like it despite six years of it.

But he does it.

 “It’s quite boring,” he says. But, for him, it’s a matter of consistency, endurance and persistence. It's the drive to keep a record streak going with no plans of stopping anytime soon.

Since he was already a sportsman, the physical benefits were familiar — but mentally, it gave him a deeper belief in perseverance. “I think it’s a good story to tell people. I want to inspire them,” he says cheerfully, all set to plan for a Guiness World Record.

 You almost feel like lacing up your shoes and going for that run you’ve been putting off for months — not because you suddenly love running, but because you realise it’s never about love. It’s about showing up.