A Seven Continent Journey

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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