An unconventional idea of success

Rajpaul Pannu is breaking the mold for the next generation of South Asian athletes

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

It’s a question launched at everyone at some point in their childhood, and there are many ways to think about it. The most straightforward is to think about a profession. Maybe you want to be a doctor, a fireman, or a YouTube star. The next level is thinking about what you personally want, like fame or money.

A third way to think about what you want to be is your state of mind. Maybe you want to be happy, or somewhat linked to that, maybe you want to be successful.

That’s what Rajpaul Pannu’s mother wanted for him when he was growing up. It’s what mine wanted for me. Both sets of our parents are first-generation immigrants from South Asia. They moved for a better life for themselves and for their family, and success and the pursuit of happiness are key to that enormous effort.

You might remember Rajpaul from winning and then being disqualified from the 2025 USATF 100-Mile Championships in February due to him wearing a shoe that exceeded the 40mm shoe sole height limit. He went into the race as the reigning 100-mile U.S. Champion, and beat the second-placed runner by 94 minutes. It’s unlikely that the shoe – 30% heavier than his regular racing shoe – played that big a part in his win that day, but rules are rules, and his status as the American 100-Mile Champion was removed. Regardless, Rajpaul has tasted success before, and he’ll likely experience it again.

Born in Lancaster, just north of Los Angeles, Rajapul moved to the Bay Area aged three after his father died prematurely from a heart attack. It was there, living with his mother, that he learned to run. He ran well enough in high school to get onto and then flourish in a college program. In the final months, however, his college coach explained to him and his team how unlikely it was for them to continue as professional athletes. Rajpaul took that advice to make the most of the university’s facilities for the final 15 months.

“I really poured my heart and soul into running during college with the assumption that I was just going to easily transition away from it into a career in whatever I was to pursue.”

“What I did not anticipate was how attached I was going to get with the identity of being a runner.”

The first job after college was grassroots organizing in politics, but it was a high-stress job with long hours. The intensity with which he engaged with running during his final year of college, however, meant that he kept running even though he “thought [his] running career was done.” He tells me he still had a “tangible goal of qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for the marathon” at the time, but he had also been injured for three years.

There was a moment where he burned out from that job in politics, and was also too injured to succeed at the sport that he’d built an identity around. At that moment he was sitting on his mom’s couch, crying.

“I felt lost. I was 25 and felt physically broken.”

That was just nine years ago. Rajpaul was self-coached then, as he is now, but reminisces unfondly of a time when old school coaches “believed that if you strength train, you’re going to gain muscle, and gaining weight is bad for running.” During those three injury-filled years, he ran, he stretched, and he foam rolled, but there was no physical therapy to heal himself.

His next career move was into education. A new life as a substitute teacher gave him the time he needed to build his body back up properly for the first time in his life. From that moment on his mom’s couch to becoming strong enough to run his first marathon was a 17-month process, and he debuted with a 2:17:05 time at the age of 26.

He was still in with a shot of qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. There was also significant buzz about him representing India, but that never sat quite right with Rajpaul.

“I gave it considerable thought, but I looked into [the Indian] athletes and they worked for the Indian army. They were from a lower caste, meaning they didn’t have the resources – the army was their only way to train and have the necessities to pursue their running aspirations.”

“Although I’m Indian, I was born in America, and I identify from a cultural standpoint as an American. I grew up eating processed foods, and watching TV, but also having the resources of a running program at high school, and the opportunity to train hard and make it on a college team.”

“I felt like it would not be right because I would essentially be taking somebody else’s opportunity away. Like, now I decide to represent India after being an American all this time?”

His mother’s reaction was calm, but she pointed out the opportunity to potentially be an Olympic athlete.