Every week throughout the year, rain or shine, 72-year-old Satnam Parhar and his friends gather in Alley Pond Park in Queens to train for the annual TCS New York City Marathon.<\/p>\n
And on Friday before sunset, Parhar,\u00a0of Cedarhurst, rallied the group for one last practice run before they head to the starting line at Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island on Sunday.<\/p>\n
For Parhar, the marathon is the best day of the year. In the 14 years he\u2019s participated, Parhar estimates he has hi-fived the hands of thousands of spectators\u00a0who gathered along the five-borough route.<\/p>\n
But at the core of the endeavor is representing his faith.<\/p>\n
“I want people to know we exist,” he said. This year, a group of 10 will be running in bright orange turbans and matching T-shirts that say “Sikhs in America.”<\/p>\n
From his tenure as president of the India Association of Long Island to a 2015 run for the New York City Council’s District 23 seat in northeastern Queens, Parhar has made it his mission to engage with the community so people could become more familiar with Sikhs and their values.<\/p>\n
He says running the marathon has increased awareness of his community.<\/p>\n
“When I first came to Massapequa with the turban … people didn\u2019t know who Sikhs were,” said Parhar, describing times he\u2019s been misidentified and called names. “Now, times have changed but some people still don\u2019t know who we are. … That\u2019s the main reason we try to run with the turbans.”<\/p>\n
Avtar Singh Tinna, 76, of Queens, shared similar sentiments. Over time, he said, spectators have begun to recognize him and other runners in the group on marathon day.<\/p>\n
Parhar credits Tinna as the reason he began running. When Parhar\u2019s son and Tinna\u2019s daughter married, the new in-laws went for a celebratory run instead of a drink.<\/p>\n
“The funny part was,\u00a0he said:\u00a0\u2018I will agree to the wedding if you start running.\u2019 So I had no choice,” Parhar joked.<\/p>\n
The pair said running has become a key aspect of the way they practice their Sikh faith, which revolves around three pillars: naam japna, or meditation; kirat karni, or honest work; and vand chhako, or sharing with others.<\/p>\n
While some in the group view running as a meditative activity, Parhar added that they’ve also spread the importance of maintaining good physical health, while also informing others about the values that guide them.<\/p>\n
Tinna believes running has kept him healthy over the years and wanted to instill that value in his loved ones. Over time, training for the marathon has become a bonding experience for the group.<\/p>\n
“The whole year we practice, we run, we sweat. But during the marathon, we don\u2019t look at the watch. We communicate with each other. It\u2019s fun,” said Tinna.<\/p>\n
For those who may not be ready for a 26-mile run, Parhar and Tinna organized the Vaisakhi 5K Run. That event has taken place annually in April since 2013 in honor of Fauja Singh, who was a British Indian man many say was the oldest marathon runner in the world.<\/p>\n
The pair said running has become a key aspect of the way they practice their Sikh faith.<\/p>\n
“There\u2019s a whole meditative spiritual aspect to running, and I think that\u2019s one thing Sikh runners resonate with,” said Harjinder Singh, 37, of Bellerose.<\/p>\n
From first-time marathon runners to veterans, Parhar hopes his peers keep health and togetherness top of mind. It\u2019s not about winning, he said, adding that he typically finishes within 7 hours and 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
Parhar, scheduled for the 10:55 a.m. time slot Sunday and wearing number 47556, looks forward to chatting with familiar faces in the crowd and showing new ones who they are.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re so proud to do this,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every week throughout the year, rain or shine, 72-year-old Satnam Parhar and his friends gather in Alley Pond…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2792,9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-389298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-marathon","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}