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Gearing up...
A beautiful misty morning would have not been more enthusiastic without this marathon. Presence of 30,000 odd delhites and athletes from all over the world made it look like a mini-carnival. But carnival it was, fancy costumes, drums beats, thumping music, laughter and zest were all there. It went successful beyond the imagination of even the planners of the event, people were jostling for space, but nobody was in a hurry. People had come with lots of plan, prepared well in advance for the event.
The Airtel Half-Marathon attracted around 30,000 runners (refer) who competed in one of the four races: the half marathon, the 7 km Great Delhi Run, a 4.3 km run for senior citizens, and a 3.5 km wheelchair race.
I along with my collegues participated the Great Delhi Run which started and finished at Nehru park covering the satya marg, african avenue and vinay marg. we collected at the holding area after parking our vehicles at Race course. The holding area was a huge ground where thousands of people collected and it was difficult to search for someone. A helicopter was hovering above to capture the event. All Appluads to Delhi Police and organizers of the race for such a successful event, yes indeed we delhites showed so much restraint in presenting ourselves as a great sport (in the right manner). It was an international event with people from many different countries running along side.
Check-out the Great Delhi Run Route
Not only did delhites turn up forgoing precious weekend sleep but also there were many famous personalities (like from our film fraternity Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Bose ..), delhi CM Shiela Dikshit, MTV Anchor Nikhil Chinnappa to name a few
The Great Delhi run was a 2 hour affair with race beginning at 9.30 AM and ending at 11.30 AM, but what 2 hours it had been. Great fanfare, enthusiasm and fun. It was no less than a mini-carnival. We had joined with a theme of celebrating Common Wealth Games 2010 hosted by Delhi and pitching for Olympics 2020 for which Delhi is a contender.
Finally at around 12 noon we left the race ground with a great feeling and needless to say headed for the first restraunt in-sight. Although there were many suggestions but we zeroed in on Andhra Bhavan and had a delightful lunch.
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Some more pics from the event
