Since I am writing this post before
1) Uploading the photos on Facebook,
2) Muscle soreness is over
3) My race apres beer is yet to leave the system
The following can be fresh of either hallucinations or wonderful memories..
It was my first trail race in India. Well I can’t ever compare this to the “Bridger Ridge Run” which was the true race which made me even consider running. Anyways, I love trails, I love nature, I love mud, I love green and that is why I call myself “Green Monster”. So I was pretty excited about the Chennai trail marathon, around Cholavaram lake. The photographs the organizing team had posted were very inviting.
After the Bib collection on the eve of the race, we decided to camp at the Gojan College right next to the starting point of the race, turns out it was a great decision, since the access road was horrible and it would have been idiotic to try to reach there in the morning for the 5:30 am start for the half marathon.
Turns out, weather gods have other plans..!!!
So, we had our food at a nearby small town which had a stage setup for political meeting with dances as “attractions”, though after the dance got over, the crowd watching the tamasha just started to drop down.. It was like, the people neatly dissected bone from meat.
After our dinner, we went to the College and checked out the starting lines and got ready to settle and sleep on the floor of a half-constructed building. It was hot. It was humid, there was not a sign of a breeze. We had gotten mosquito coils and laid it and tried to sleep, after a while we did doze off… And then, AND THEN (the second “AND THEN” to add effect).. it started pouring. It was true to the idiom of “cats and dogs”. ~~~long story short~~ we moved from the floor of that building (it was true to being a continuous verb) and slept in an open classroom on the tables in a nearby building.
The sleep was decent enough for all of us. We woke and was ready for the start and then heard about the one hour delay. I was excited for the challenge of even more mud and slush that waited me. But, the volunteers were working hither and thither as all the markers and pointers were lost in the rain and they had to re-route certain areas apparently. There was also the trouble of pools of water were the marshals on bicycle will find it hard to keep up with lead runners.
In the end, it was an enjoyable race after all, lemme point out the positives and negatives..and then get back to the post..
Positives first,
1) Great organizing of the event despite tough conditions.
2) Great adaptability at the weather challenge of last-minute.
3) The photo was taken for everyone during medal presentation.
4) The t-shirt was nice..
5) volunteers were very friendly at aid stations, they were wholehearted at what they were doing..
3) I didn’t personally like the BiB on flex material. Though it looks good on photographs, I still prefer the feel of paper.
