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Sunday, December 14, 2008

Run for India, Half Marathon, Gurgoan, India

0 comments Posted by Rahul Verma at 9:56 AM

Finish Time: 2hrs.06 mins. Dec. 7th, 2008

Within a few hours of my arrival in India I found myself at the starting line up for a Half Marathon organized by Running and Living Group. The run was at Leisure Valley Park, in Sector 29 Gurgoan which is on the out-skirts of New Delhi, quite near to the international Airport. I guess around 600 runners showed up for the run. It was still quite dark when some volunteers handed me the running bib. We all wore white ribbons commemorating the recent events in Mumbai. I also got to meet Rahul Verghese who has been the main driving force organizing this meet. Entry fees was 200 rupees ( approx.4 US Dollars). There were no running chips, an electronic clock was used for timing. The course was 6 loops of the Leisure Valley Park. Lap times were recorded for each completed loop. After a brief explanation of the course the run started at sharp 6.30 am, amongst the runners Dr. Roy a 76 year old Marathoner. I admit being nervous whether I'll be able to pull off this run having disembarked from a 16 hour non stop flight from US a few hours earlier. Also not to forget the Jet lag. I tried to gather inspiration from Dean Karnazes the Ultra Marathoner, I have recently finished reading one of his books. No heroics were planned the goal was to just finish. Most of the course is well paved except for one segment. The water station was near 1 km marker and was stocked with Gatorade, however there was no water available. Fortunately I found some at another station set up by a water bottling company Bisleri. I shared a conversation with a runner Sanjiv Saxena, a computer engineer who had spent some years in US working for Microsoft before returning back to India. He was attempting to finish his First half marathon run. At the finish medals and certificates were handed out. Rest of the day was spent sleeping....

 

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Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Weekend Challenge : Running in New Delhi

2 comments Posted by Rahul Verma at 7:18 PM

Later this week I will be traveling to India to attend a wedding. Within a few hours of my arrival, will attempt to participate in the 1st half-marathon hosted by Running and Living, an organization which has been trying to promote Fitness by Running in India. This run is being held in Gurgoan which is at the outskirts of New Delhi. If I feel strong enough, I'll attempt to finish 16 miles that day. It should give me a break from running under different layers of clothing as the weather is likely to be much better in India.
Running in India is still infancy. It is very hard to find any joggers on the run. On my last visit in March I was able to run in Nehru Park near the diplomatic enclave, the park is small but I was still able to do around 8-9 mile runs there. I was well protected from the traffic and stray dogs, which can be an issue in India. Long term I would like to do at least 3 runs in India, of course, the top race is the Mumbai Marathon, most likely in January 2010 as the last leg of my 7 continent journey. Hopefully Mumbai will be much safer and quieter then it has been the last few days. Recently held Delhi Half-Marathon also seems very appealing. If I ever get to be crazy enough to do ultra marthon I will definitely consider Bangalore Ultra .

 

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