ECR Run # 3 - A Report

Our third ECR Run was good. We had 33 runners and 6 volunteers crazy enough to get up very early in the morning to do a 27km run. Personally, I am not happy with my performance today, I stopped in too many places and just couldn't gather enough strength to keep running when the body is aching.

We car pooled from Dimensions and started our run from the ECR toll booth. We had two parking options near the toll booth. One was at Ragas Dental College and other was on the side before the toll booth. We parked at both places.

We had a heavy downpour last night and I was a bit worried about the running conditions this morning. But, there wasn't any problem. The roads were decent for the run and we even got a respite from the rain during the course of our run.

We started the run as planned at 5:00 AM. The first 30 minutes was little uncomfortable, as we had to basically run in darkness till the sun god decided to show up. After that, it was slightly overcast and sun god deciding to go easy on us.

Our end point was Hotel Mamalla, a little before Mahapallipuram. Our end point location couldn't have been better. We got ample space to stretch and relax. In fact, few was went took a dip in the sea and that did wonders to the aching body. I sat in the water for about 15 minutes and it was the best part of the run for me. I strongly recommend it to every one..


Volunteers made our run a little easier. Two sets of volunteers helped us at multiple points with the water.


Rajesh from HYD near a water point. He flew in just for the run. Thanks Rajesh.. we enjoyed your company.


KK, one of the organizers, at a water point..


Mahesh.. joined us after a break.. Looking forward to seeing more of you..Mahesh


Ramesh P. near a water point. Ramesh also assisted with volunteers, car & reflective stickers.


Aparna near a water point. She is amazing.. though started running only recently, she ran / walked the entire 27km stretch.


Hotel Mamalla - We had ample place to stretch and relax..


Breakfast at Hotel Mamalla. Had a sumptuous spread and everything tasted decent for the starving runners.

More pictures in flickr (Thanks to volunteer Ravikrishnan for helping out with the pictures.)

Some Lessons:
What worked: Car pooling, parking, volunteers, water points, starting on time etc.,
Needs Improvement: Some folks missed the end point and ran further in to the city, one runner couldn't locate us at all. We need to do a better job of describing the end point and accounting for all runners.

Over all, the run was great. There was great camaraderie amongst runners which really really helped make the run a pleasant experience. We are shooting our next ECR run for Nov 4, before the big one at Singapore.