Marathoned!!!

Bangalore played host to yet another marathon, which is gaining increased popularity these days. There were some 600 participants this time around, in all age groups and sizes on this fine Sunday morning. Read all about it here
http://www.runnersweb.com/running/RunnersWeb_External_Links.html?http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=158936&cat=India
http://www.bangalorehalfmarathon.com/
I had to choose between this and a Kemmanugundi road trip, and the fitness freak in me won. Unlike the full marathon that I completed last time, when I was running all alone, I managed to motivate Satish and Parag to join in. I had a sizeable team from IBM who had chipped in too. These were senior consultants, sales executives all set to do the 21kms stretch. We were a team indeed, all wearing the IBM T-shirts and of course having a common goal this time – to reach the finish line.
For reasons of traffic management, this had to be changed to kanteerava – Hebbal flyover – kanteerava from what would have been a good route. This was not bad, but I had done this earlier during the full marathon, so was slightly boring.
A very enthusiastic crowd had gathered at the stadium. I saw a lot of familiar faces from the last time. There is a good communion now amongst the runners.
The race was flagged off at 7am. The weather was overcast, the sun not showing up till the race was over. It was nice running in such conditions. The traffic police did a good job keeping the barricades on, till the end of the race, in some places even helping the volunteers with the water bottles at the pit stops.
I made it to the finish line in 2:30 hours. The shutterbug had bit this time round and there are a few good snaps you can catch on http://www.flickr.com/photos/manojbhat/sets/1611488/show/
One other reason to click that link – check flickr out… its really cool.
Follow this link to download all the snaps and view the album ‘Bangalore half marathon’.