Sunfeast 10K - 60 minutes

So finally done with my Sunfeast Bangalore open 10K. I must say the organizing part was perfect. Collected my bib and goodie bag on Friday and by 7.30AM today morning Biswa and I were off to Kanteerva Stadium loaded with all the energy bars and Gatorade energy drinks. We guessed parking could be a problem, so we decided to take the bike instead of Biswa's car. The volunteers asked us to park at St Joseph's school which was another 2KM back and we finally squeezed our bike near the Hudson circle and left our if-you-want-steal clothes right in the bike. By 8.1) we were about to enter the stadium from gate g-11 and paused by to see the start of the women's world 10K which was teeming up with African runners.

Just as we moved into "non-time-chip" gallery we met Joseph. We had already met him in Auroville marathon and he was Biswa's running buddy for while there. After a quick chat I was just looking around for familiar faces and saw Shumit Vatsal as Biswa disappeared for a leak. Shumit and I had some quick chat and wanted to meet up later in the day only to realize that none of us had mobile phone. He was to come to Koramangla but just that I have his contact number in my office mailbox for which I do not have access from home. Sorry Shumit, next time we will catch up, especially tis time at your place with Chennai runners. Soon it was our time and by 9.02 we crossed by the start line and there were hoards of runners and especially from the defense with their flags. Many were running for charities and many for a cause or as a group. There were too many people and the first 2KM were very slow and Biswa stopped for a while and asked me to go ahead. I just continued and the heat at some stretches was terrible.

The good thing I noticed is people from all walks of life were out there and cheering apart from the arranged cheerleaders. When we were running near the Ulsoor lake, many senior citizens and residents cheered and encouraged many runners and water stops were also amply stationed. Some runners couldn't take heat and we had ambulances rushing and an Airforce helicopter was hovering all throughout. Also CNBC-TV18 was covering the event live and the fastest runner in the Mens event clocked around 27 minutes.

All in all I just finished the clock when it read 10.02AM with couple of seconds. So precisely I manged to finish the race in 60 minutes and 20 seconds. My target of under 60 minutes was always there. I guess I'll slowly prepare for a 50 minute 10K soon but then its time for preparing for long runs with a couple of marathons to compete later this year. Finally met up with Biswa at the certificate counter and then with Joseph. Thanks to Joseph's wife, our another ritualistic picture was taken and I'll put that across once he mails me up. Sunfeast folks seem to be giving away their biscuits about everywhere and this time it was at the refreshment counter. But I'll give thumbs up for their event management, good one Procam.

Until next time, catch us running.