Monday, May 16, 2005

4:47:01

4 Hours 47 Minutes 01 Second

That’s the time I took to complete the Bangalore International Marathon yesterday. To put things in perspective, it is double the time taken by the first guy. But I am content with being able to complete the course which I couldn’t in Chennai.

I first started preparing Marathon only after seeing the announcement about Chennai Marathon. Did I say ‘prepare’.. well, I actually started ‘running’ after a long time not necessarily preparing by body for the Marathon abuse.

The event started right on-time at 6:00 AM. Compared to Chennai, the weather was pleasant and conducive for the long run. While I completed the first 10 KMS in less than 45 minutes, the next 11 KMS took an hour and 10 minutes and the remainder of 21+ KMS took the rest of the 4:47:01.

Overall the planning and logistics management for the Marathon was good. However, it kind of melted as the time passed by. Several full marathon runners like me were stranded near Kanteevara Stadium on our return. There was no one to guide us to back to finishing line. When we finally reached the Stadium, there was no one to record our timing. We kind of milled around and figured it out. It could be due to the fact that we took enormously ‘long’ time to complete. But then again, isn’t it all about participation? I hope and wish the organizers take folks like me (quite few like me..) in to consideration for planning.

Going in to the Bangalore Marathon, I was little bit skeptical about the planning and preparation, but I must say Bangalore Marathon was much BETTER organized than the Chennai Marathon.

More on this in my next log.

5 comments:

  1. hey;
    congrats man.4:47 is tremendous timing !
    but can't agree with u on the organizing aspect.if u did not know, there were quite a lot of two wheelers driving in the lanes marked for we marathoners.incidentally a two wheeler came across the lead runners of the full marathon.
    in chennai we were told clearly that u have 3+hrs atmost.here we were told we have full 6hrs.then why bring the traffic ? they could have told us that traffic arrangements will be done only for 3hrs right ?

    the only good thing here is that we got medals when we completed !

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shyam & Narayanan

    Thanks

    I liked a few things about the Bangalore Marathon overall planning execution..(as compared to Chennai Marathon)

    1) The runners were strictly segregated.. no over lapping.. no confusion

    2) The course was longer with ample water supply.

    3) Deployment of private security to 'man' the entire stretch

    It would have been nice, if they were able to block the traffic completetly for the duration.. that's the practice in other International Marathons.. but that is perhaps 'too much' to ask ???? considering the fact that 'this concept' NEW..

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  3. hi I am jacob. A couple of us started a BBS for runners from Chennai, so if you are interested in meeting up sometime for a run, please do.

    check out http://chennairunners.tamilita.com

    Jacob.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Jacob

    I will check this site and probably join you guys soon..

    ReplyDelete