Friday, November 11, 2011

#19. 13th edition MARG Chennai Runners 10K & Half Marathon 2011 @ IIT Madras Campus

 

This was my 19th Marathon event.  I was happy participate to this event.

       When the announcement for the event was made, I started my plans to run this marathon and prepared myself both mentally and physically.

       I was glad to invite all my friends and relatives by phone calls, sms, emails, message through Facebook and Dailymile website.

       The speciality of the event is the 10 x 10 run.  I started to do a 10 x 10 and completed my runs for four days.  Unfortunately I could not complete the 10 x 10 due to personal commitments (my joining a new office and travel to home town for diwali).  So, I missed the medal for the 10 x 10.  I will definitely not miss it next year.

       During the week end runs, I discussed about the event with my co-runners.

       Ram gave me a lovely event poster and I shared this with my friends and office colleagues.



       On Friday, I cycled to Bala’s office in the rains to collect the BIB.  I met his family and Avinash.  I was very happy to meet them at the time of BIB collection.



On November 6, 2011, Sunday, we woke up at 4 am and were ready for the event.  Me and my friend cycled to IIT campus and we reached IIT Open Air Theater (Starting point) at 5:30 am.

       I met all our Chennai Runners friends, warmed-up for a few minutes. My friend Anand joined to volunteer and he encouraged all runners.

       As the Digital clock showed 06:00 am, SLMP whistled to start the event.  All runners started running.

        I started with Sundar and followed him till the 4 kms mark. We ran at 12~13 km speed.

       After I took a water break, I missed him.   I continued to run at 11~12 km speed.

       Mid-way I met Venkatesh. He was riding and encouraging all runners.  He also gave me some running tips. It was very useful for me.  I like to thank Venkatesh.  

       Our Co-Chennai runners were at the aid section.  They all encouraged me and were cheering me “Come on Anand… Come on Anand…”. This made me to restore the energy in my body.  I successfully completed this event in 1 hour 51 minutes.


       A child gave me a medal and I was very happy.


       I collected T-shirt of this Marathon event and I took snaps with my friends and Co-Chennai Runners.

       It was such a wonderful event and I enjoyed every moment of it.  The post run music, food and the silambattam performance by the group was awesome.

       Afterwards, I went to the finishing point and gave medals to many finishers.

       The running Course at IIT Madras Campus was very amazing, with lot of trees on both the sides.

       I also saw deer and it was like a forest.  I loved to run in this route.

       The weather was very nice and my Special thanks to the rain Gods.

       I also thank the Organizers and volunteers for organizing this wonderful event.


You can see my running details in